Originally posted by JTH182
British shows have a weird "feel" to them... I watched this one night on BBC, but I wasn't too impressed... it had its funny moments, but the production value and comic timing is different in British shows. Doubt the original would get a big following in primetime US slots... it would seem out of place... but I can't see how a remake will fare any better (it won't).

Is the NBC version going to have the same scripts? I have a hard time believing that some of the dialogue could make it to American network television.

Originally posted by Doughboy
So far it looks like they will be remaking at least some of the episodes from the BBC series. But they'll have to cut out a lot of dialogue from the scripts, and I don't mean because of subject matter(although that's also a factor). The UK version runs 28-29 minutes per episode. NBC will have to keep the running time at 22 minutes due to commercials. Something tells me Jeff's constant ramblings will be the first thing to go.

Originally posted by Doughboy
Something tells me Jeff's constant ramblings will be the first thing to go.

Originally posted by bahist17
This show is completely screwed. The producers can't seem to make up their f'n minds on who should be in the cast or not. I don't know why NBC wants this to replace FRIENDS when they have SCRUBS, which is ten times better than FRIENDS will ever be.

Some of the best stuff on the show are Jeff's ramblings.

Originally posted by Iron Chef
I wonder how they're going to handle "The Woman With Two Breasts."?

Originally posted by Red Dog
Whenever I can fee the pain and torment of a character on tv, I know that it is a great show.

NBC hopes 'Coupling' will play in the USA
By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — When it comes to launching an American TV series, a hit British show has a lot going for it.
Unlike with a new idea, the concept is easy to picture. Development of characters and story lines is laid out over time. And the fact that viewers like it there might mean they'll like it here.

Of course if it were that easy, American networks would simply import the entire BBC lineup. And failed British transplants, including Men Behaving Badly and Cold Feet, show that is not the right strategy.

So why do executive producer Ben Silverman and NBC program chief Jeff Zucker see Coupling, a popular BBC comedy about singles, relationships and sex, as the right show to make the jump across the pond? They think it will travel better than most.

The American remake has been thought by some to be successor to Friends, which enters its honest-to-goodness last season this fall, while the British version has sometimes been called a sexed-up Friends. But Coupling's creator disputes the Friends comparison and NBC points to differences between the shows. The U.S. version also will feel the pressure of a high-expectation time slot after Will & Grace.

Silverman, 32, a former William Morris agent with a background in international programming, says Coupling will connect with U.S. viewers.

"It was more informed by American television than almost any other show I had seen coming out of the U.K.," he says.

Silverman, who started the Reveille production company last year, says Coupling is more grounded in the reality favored by most U.S. viewers than some British comedies, which lean toward farce.

Others involved with Coupling refer to its universality, that the relationship issues its six, thirtysomething singles face are similar whether you live in London or Chicago, where the U.S. version is set.

The show's look, along with the structure, has led to frequent comparisons with Friends, but producers note the differences. Coupling is based on the lives of its married creators, Steven Moffat and Sue Vertue. The central coupling involves Steve and Susan.

"The resemblance is photo-shoot deep. Coupling is the story of one couple (Steve and Susan) as seen by, and recounted to, their friends and exes," says Moffat, who writes the British scripts.

Two of the characters, Jeff and Jane, don't speak to each other until the 22nd British show, and there aren't many episodes in which all six share a scene, Moffat says.

Zucker says Coupling is "far more adult" in content. Cheers veteran Phoef Sutton, an executive producer and the head writer of the American series, says Coupling's characters are "a little bit less warm and cuddly" and not all are as friendly as Friends.

Nevertheless, the American producers don't protest when their show is compared to a top-rated comedy whose viewers might want to sample the newcomer.

The attempt to have it both ways comes up again with Coupling's heavy sex content, which focuses far more on talk than action.

Zucker has talked about pushing the content envelope, but last week talked about the show's focus on relationships. Producers acknowledge the sexual content, but say the show is about honest dialogue about adult relationships, including sex, presented from both a male and female perspective. However, if references in the pilot to oral sex, a bathroom-stall coupling and talk of "porn buddies," men who will hide each other's X-rated stash from parents in the event of death, create steamy buzz, that's OK, too.

Zucker, in need of a new comedy hit, says the adult comedy of manners (or lack thereof) fits the NBC sophisticated sitcom template of Frasier, Will & Grace and Friends.

Sue Vertue's mother, Beryl, a Coupling producer who helped bring across the show that became Sanford and Son, agrees that NBC is the right American fit. She partnered with Silverman's Reveille after working with him on other matters. It helped that Reveille, which produces NBC's The Restaurant, works with Universal Television, run by former British TV executive Michael Jackson.

With Coupling's universality in mind, Moffat's pilot was adapted without substantial change. Sutton frequently consults Moffat, who is writing the show's fourth season, by e-mail about changes to existing scripts and new story ideas.

Despite the feeling that Coupling was a good fit for American TV, the adaptation took time. A first pilot, produced last fall, wasn't satisfactory, Zucker says.

Casting also wasn't right, and that's integral to a show's success.

For the second version of the pilot, shot in March, the show used Coupling's first episode and recast three of the main roles. Producers and NBC were much happier with the result. (TV critics gathered in Los Angeles for the summer press tour, where NBC's presentation begins today, have been less enthusiastic, expressing mixed reviews.)

Coupling, as with most British series, produces only a handful of episodes per season; its three-season total is 22, the equivalent of one American TV season.

With fewer episodes, relationships develop faster. In the British Coupling, Steve and Susan celebrate their first anniversary together in the 12th episode, which comes in the second season. That won't happen that quickly in the American Coupling, which will mix in new scripts to go along with adapted Moffat originals.

Moffat's scripts will have to be trimmed substantially. Each British show runs 30 minutes on the commercial-free BBC, which is nearly nine minutes longer than the average American sitcom.

Some language differences must be translated, with a "loo break" becoming a visit to the bathroom. Other differences require cultural adjustment.

In the first British episode, Steve emerges from a bathroom-stall dalliance with Jane and bumps into Susan on his way to a condom machine, a staple of British restrooms. With such machines not as common here, Sutton's script has Steve call Jeff, waiting in the nearby bar, to ask him for a condom. Jeff then asks Patrick, a stranger, if he can borrow a condom, allowing for a comic first meeting of the pair.

"It gave us a chance to have Patrick and Jeff meet in an interesting way," says Sutton, who wanted to join the show after becoming a fan of the BBC America episodes. "A problem comes up (and it) solves another problem."

Best news is that Moffat is currently writing scripts for a S4 of UK Coupling.

I still have yet to see any of S3. I hope BBCA will be replaying them soon.

Originally posted by BadlyDrawnBoy
2 min clip up on zap2it
http://tv.zap2it.com/shows/video/nbc/coupling/

Originally posted by Trigger
I missed this and it looks like it's gone now... :/ Even though everyone says it sucks, I still wanna see it. In fact, people saying it sucks makes me wanna see it more. Anyone know a place I can see this?