A little while ago, we bemoaned the McG version of Spaced. That only made it to the pilot stage thankfully.
Of course, it wasn’t the first time the US has unsuccessfully tried to remake a British TV series. Back in the 90s, there were two attempts to remake Red Dwarf, with two completely different casts. The first was a full-length pilot, with only Robert Llewellyn returning to play Kryten. Oddly, they did get Jane Leeves (Daphne in Frasier) to play Holly.
When that didn’t go down well, a shorter “greatest hits” alternative with another cast (including Terry Farrell from Star Trek: DS9 as the Cat) got made. And that didn’t go down much better either, so it never went to series.
To see why, here they both are on YouTube. Enjoy. If you can.
I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
