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...)"

Comments

Philistines!

[Deus.1.01]

How can they make any more Red Dwarf episodes.

The USA version of Red Dwarf was DEFFINTIVE!

Re:British TV and the feign of class

[theeddie55]

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.

Eh? BBC can't export?

[SmallFurryCreature]

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?

Re:Eh? BBC can't export?

[meringuoid]

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).

This. I think Americans still believe in heroes. They tend to want a sympathetic protagonist who is a good person and who generally wins. This is not so much the case over here: we have a far more cynical outlook, whereby if presented with someone who fits the heroic archetype we start to wonder what his real agenda is because nobody is genuinely like that.

So when we do a character-driven comedy show, our protagonists aren't usually nice people. They don't live in a nice world. They don't generally win in the end. Basil Fawlty is burning up with frustrated ambition and bitter hate. David Brent is so utterly self-absorbed that he thinks he's a great guy, though he's one of the most dreadful people you'll ever meet. Edmund Blackadder is entirely selfish and unprincipled in all incarnations, whether he is a prince or nobleman scheming endlessly for advancement through deceits and lies, an unscrupulous butler manipulating his foolish master to his own ends, or a craven army officer with utter contempt for his superiors bent only on self-preservation. Steptoe and son are trapped in poverty with a business soon to be entirely forgotten, gnawing on each other for lack of anything else in sight to blame. James Hacker MP is well intentioned, but weak, and the show is stolen by Sir Humphrey Appleby who must have come straight from hell. Even the Trotter brothers, decent enough people on the whole, are petty criminals. Spreading the net a little wider we find the parish of Craggy Island served by a fraud, an idiot, and a violent drunk. And our topic here, Red Dwarf, is fundamentally about a few completely awful people trapped in each other's company and collectively making their own little nightmare world a little worse every day.

The nearest America gets to that is probably Homer Simpson. Yet despite the critics endlessly and lazily describing his family as 'dysfunctional', it isn't. He's a devoted family man who can be relied upon to do the right thing, if only after trying everything else first. Otherwise, well... remember Friends? Oh God it makes me want to puke.

British TV Is Limited

[BigBlueOx]

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.