THERE'S A STRANGE WORLD OUT THERE, AND IT'S CALLED AMERICA.

Many television programmes from the UK have had American adaptions, some of which became popular over the Atlantic and others which fell into obscurity.

It's interesting to watch and compare the American version of a programme with its British original, noting the differences in theme. Some of the programmes even used the same scripts, but simply adapted them to a format better for American comsumption, such as changing the city they're set in.

Another reason is that the US networks might be afraid of having too many British actors in a cast. Many series made over there have maybe one or two British characters, but the want the majority of the cast to be US based. To be fair, of course, many UK programmes don't have US actors. It's quite possibly more a case of making use of the talent within their own countries. Another possible reason for the useage of American actors instead of British ones is that the accent can be too strong for American viewers to follow, particuarly if the actor concerned is playing a very specific part that requires a certain UK regional accent or slang.

THE VARIOUS CHANNELS OF THE UK AND US.

Throughout these articles, various Channels and Networks will be mentioned, as well as the odd Hollywood studio or three. Here is a guide to these channels.

The 'Terrestial' Channels (non-satelite) in the UK are as follows: BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 (not all regions are quite able to pick up Channel 5 yet). The two BBC channels are owned by the Government, and funded through a Television Licence. They feature no 'product' commericals during the programmes themselves. The other three are commerical channels and, as with most US Networks, the narration of the programme is broken to allow for advert breaks, which fund them channels.

The Terrestial Channels (non-cable) in the United States are as follows: NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, FOX NETWORK, WB (Warner Brothers Network), UPN (United Paramount Network). The last three are owned by Hollywood studios. All channels feature 'Ad Breaks' except PBS, which is known to have broadcast programmes without ad breaks but which instead relies on contributions by viewers to fund them.

The above descriptions of the channels is based on my own perceptions and the little information I've been able to gather. I therefore assume it could be wrong and if anybody notices something wrong with the above descriptions I welcome your corrections.

THE ARTICLES

There are three catagories I would like to discuss in my following article.

PART ONE - COMEDY AND DRAMA PROGRAMMES.

These are programmes that are based on either Comedy or Drama formats. This section can be found here.

PART TWO - GAME SHOWS AND OTHER FORMATS.

As one might expect, same as the above. There have been more than a few Game Shows adapted for the American market, and other "Reality Programmes". These will be found here.

PART THREE - A COMPLETE LIST OF AMERICAN REMAKES

Although in the above catagories I have not included an in depth analysis of absolutely every programme that have been adapted, I include here as complete a list as best I can (with some including a short synopsis) of every remake that has not been disscussed in the above two articles. So if you see something that isn't there, you might find it here. (SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION, WILL BE ADDED SOON)

(My thanks to Researcher PSG and all the others for their many interesting links and other tidbits.)