...THE OFFICE...in two years, they've made only 12 episodes of the show, so the quality can remain high when you're only producing 6 shows a season.
You've probably hit upon the key reason why it is so difficult for an American version of a hit British show to succeed. With a full season of American shows running 22 episodes these days, as opposed to the British six, there's a lot of strain put on the writing staff to come up with original ideas that still work within the premise. For that matter, a British show will often have just one writer, or a team of two, while it's American counterpart will easily have a half-dozen, all with varying senses of humor and skill levels.
Still, we keep hoping to find another
All in the Family. But that, in turn, shows how the translation means making radical changes. The British Archie was caustic and unlovable, an unredeamable fellow. Six episodes per season were quite enough. But move him over to American television, and such a character would have become unpalatable all too soon. Thus the American Archie softened, changed with time; in effect, the man
learned. If there ended up being a problem with the American Archie, it was that he lasted too long, his rough edges worn away until he became a smooth pebble in a stream, with none of his original roughness to create a stir in the currents around him. We do this to our own characters, too; consider
Murphy Brown, who was originally caustic and sharp, and by the end of the series was just moments away from turning into Mary Poppins! Even
Becker, whose final episode is coming within the week, is ending with the man contemplating being happy.
I've read that Don Knotts, who left
The Andy Griffith Show after just five seasons, regrets having done so. I say he did the right thing; would we really want to see Barney Fife happily married and successful? In real life, perhaps, but it makes for lousy comedy. Barney Fife remains a comic gem because his edges are still rough and unpolished. Not as rough-edged as his British counterpart would have been, but a good balance between the two extremes.
