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Red Dwarf Returns In a 3-Part Showing
Logrusweaver writes "It looks like Red Dwarf is finally returning! Red Dwarf: Back to Earth is airing in 3 parts in the UK starting this Friday. It seems to be a 3-parter followed by a 'Making Of' special. Not trying to give away any more of the plot than the title does, but it does involve the crew finally returning to Earth. (Just hope it's not a bombed out planet with 'space angels' running around...)"
Let's hope it's close to series 1-6 standards, but I doubt it very much.
There was an attempt at a Red Dwarf USA show on NBC, but the two pilots never went anywhere. They weren't too bad, but I don't think we were ready for such a thing. Since we have BBC America, I don't see a need for one anyway.
It's been a few years since I saw it, but I remember a pre-DS9 Terry Farrell playing Cat, and she had the killer line: "Maybe someday I'll find the right eight or nine guys, then I'll settle down." Classic!
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Probably as well as every other sci-fi-based comedy out there. Which is to say, it will bomb miserably.
So how about Red Dwarf? It has lots of fans, but if it were to be played on American network TV, how well would it fare?
Do you mean it has never been broadcast in the USA? It is pretty popular here in Australia.
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How can they make any more Red Dwarf episodes.
The USA version of Red Dwarf was DEFFINTIVE!
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I'm really not sure what you mean by "very limited". If you mean that it doesn't export as well as American programs then, no, but that's the same thing for the rest of the entire world, only Americans excel at exporting their culture.
Not sure what you mean by "compete" either, if you mean in quality, then do point me to an American show that competes with Blackadder or A Bit of Fry & Laurie. If you judge how good a show is by how many viewers it would get on American television then I'm afraid few foreign shows are as "good" as say Scrubs ;-).
Red Dwarf is pretty unique anyways, it's pure comedy but in a scifi setting, with scifi plots, but the comedy and characters really come first. Try watching it?
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I just can't be more excited. I think I'm going to take my wife this weekend to get some Vindaloo!
British TV usually knows when to give up the ghost and stop making shows.
You mean like Red Dwarf should have done after season 5?
I'm just saying, is all.
I notice that there is also A Weakest Link Dr Who Special - not sure about that, I can't stand Anne Robinson.
The DVD's out June 15th in the UK. Got mine ordered already.
Blazing Spiders
surely you mean after season 6, stopping before winning an emmy for gunmen would have just been silly. Stopping when Rob Grant left would have been sensible.
Blazing Spiders
It excells at exporting. Its nature series are famous around the world. Dutch and belgian tv can easily be used by those brits who have big enough atena's as re-run channels.
America however is a rather unique market. It doesn't need foreign imports the way smaller EU countries need it. It can afford to create all its own content.
But most important is that america is radically different from the EU.
Red Dwarf works in the EU because it is a bunch of losers losing out. American's don't like that and this can be clearly seen by their version of Red Dwarf, the red dwarf movie changes or for that matter the talks Terry Pratchett had about having his books turns into hollywood movies (loose death from Mort).
Other series are the same. Only Fools and Horses doesn't really translate either. Or for that matter Porridge. Both have had US versions and both times they were changed to suit the american taste which just doesn't seem to accept the underdog being the underdog and staying the underdog.
British humor I think is also different in another way. Just how many british comerdians went to Oxford vs how many US comedians to harvard?
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I read somewhere that they're gonna link it in with Coronation Street (a long running UK soap where the actor playing Lister has a part).
I'll watch it, but think it'll be awful. The last series commercialized it to a stupid point, and the storylines are little similar to those of the ones conceived by the original authors.
There have been some great episodes in every series, so I'm glad they didn't follow the 12 episode route.
Books are like 10x better than the shows though.
A lot of American shows would have benefited with the "6-8 strong episodes a season for 2 seasons" BBC model. But a lot would have probably suffered too. Look, for example, at Star Trek: The Next Generation (and why I'm actually spelling that out on /. and not just using ST:TNG is beyond me). That show was ABYSMAL in its first season, pretty bad in its second season, but then it started to really hit its stride in the 3rd and later seasons. Can you imagine a ST:TNG with half the entire series run featuring an unbearded Riker? I shudder at the thought.
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My local public broadcasting station used to carry British comedies on Saturday evenings; Black Adder, Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers, Are You being Served.
The weird thing was immediately after those shows...they'd run the Red Green Show.
-=Bang Bang=-
Sadly, the BBC decided not to get involved in these new episodes, so it's ended up on the "tiny" channel Dave and won't get the multi-million viewing figures it might have had on BBC 1 or 2.
Unfortunately, the digital multplexes where I am (yes, I have 2 aerials to pick up Wales and Midlands) both don't have Dave, plus although I have a Sky Digital dish, I don't subscribe to anything on it, so Dave isn't available there either (it's encrypted on Sky for absolutely no good reason, especially when it's in the clear on Freeview if your multiplexes carry it).
So the irony is that despite living in the UK, having access to two Freeview digital regions *and* having a Sky Digital dish, I still can't see these new episodes. So I guess it's off to "other" avenues begining with the letter "B" to find the episodes then...sigh....
The problem with getting Actual British Shows on U.S. television is the Broadcast Standards, or whatever it is called now. With the way most people in America have a stick up their ass about sexual things, I can not see how things like the sign reading "Fawlty Towers" getting changed to read "Flowery Twats", or Mrs. Slocombe saying things like, "...look through the keyhole, and if you can see my pussy..." would ever make it onto commercial broadcasting. Public Broadcasting has a much more relaxed set of rules.
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
And thank god for that.
When BBC produces a show, said show is unencumbered by Hollywood maggots screaming "sequal!", "product placement!", "it needs a Black guy!", "spin off!", "homogonize it until it couldn't offend ANYONE!", "put Roger Corman's name on it!", "put Britney Spears in it!", "it needs a giant mechanical steam-powered spider!".
No, when the BBC produces a show they make sure that the creators know that they're damned lucky to be given any money or air time and then the execs ignore it.
As a result, British TV, while containing as much mindless trash as any other TV, comes up with roughly one innovative, clever, watchable show per year. The only American TV shows that get the same treatment are animated; probably because the network executive slime think animated series aren't important or just for kids or something. Who knows.
Hopefully, British TV's limitations will remain in place for many years to come.
It's been shown on PBS channels and on BBC America on cable several times (though the latter showed the remastered version of the earlier seasons) though I think the last time it aired was 2001 or 2002, sometime during when they were putting a double UK-US flag on the screen post-9/11.
The entire series (before this new production) is also available on DVD in Region 1.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
And Scrapheap Challenge... sorry, Junkyard Wars. We Americans can't handle challenges; everything has to be a war! Or a mega-war!
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
While some Americans seem to have trouble with some "Britishisms"; I think there's a rather large and dedicated "Brit-com" fan base here who either have no problem with them or to whom a bit of cultural "went over my head" doesn't detract from their enjoyment too much.
I grew up watching plenty of British TV including: Dr. Who; The Tomorrow People; Are You Being Served; Monty Python's Flying Circus; The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy; Fresh Fields; May to December; The Prisoner; Benny Hill (didn't like that one so much); Yes Minister; The Young Ones; and more. Maybe I didn't get all the references in terms of cultural significance (who the hell WAS Reginald Maulding; and why were the Pythons so convinced that his naughty bits were particularly naughty?)
As I grew older, I never lost my love of British television. (I think that Spaced is possibly the second funniest TV series I've ever watched ... next to Red Dwarf.
At any rate, I am by far not the only American who enjoys British television and humor (though I may be a bit on the extreme end, owning a region free dvd player with PAL to NTSC conversion and ordering regularly from amazon.co.uk). While I do understand that some folks may not quite get it or like it, my point was not to underestimate the size and loyalty of potential fan base here.
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