Wednesday, April 2, 2008

America the Unoriginal

American television, for at least the last decade, has been one of the most unoriginal, bland sources of entertainment available. Why? Well, look at a list of everything good we’ve ripped off from the British trying to make it our own shitty US version:

- Coupling became Friends
- Pop Idol became American Idol
- The Office became…well, The Office
- And now, we’re getting Top Gear…except it will be called “Ameircan Top Gear” or “Top Gear USA” or something idiotic like that.

Yes, NBC has picked up the rights to produce a US version of one of the biggest shows on the BBC – Top Gear. Usually, I’d be stoked but I know what this means: they’ll take an excellent program and try to throw a new spin on it by setting it in America. Wow, that’s clever, taking a concept that’s already been extensively covered by one country and milking it for all it’s worth for the US market. There are no flaws to this plan.

Oh, except the one gearhead TV personality that is the most logical choice to co-host the show, Jay Leno, thinks this is a terrible idea. Why? Because, like every show I listed above, Leno feels that recycling a similar idea that’s worked great doesn’t always translate to success. Top Gear is clever and enjoyable due to it’s dry, British…I’ll say that again BRITISH sense of humor and the three friends, Hammond, May & Clarkson, that host the show.

Leno knows that a US version of Top Gear will never do the original the justice it deserves for being a truly entertaining show for both car enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts…come on NBC, is it that hard to see this logic? Do you really think you can recreate the camaraderie and humor of a clip like this? I don’t think you can:



I wish I understood why some of the largest media companies in the US who have access to so many creative minds cannot produce a single original concept. This is also a direct explanation of why they’re now making an A-Team movie and we’ve been given the rehash of Knight Rider. America, F*#! Yeah!

1 comment:

William said...

Winslow, I gotta say, I loved that clip of Top Gear. I never really watched it before.

"We are, in fact, on the cutting edge of cocking about!"