ANOTHER "OFFICE" BRANCH

Yesterday I talked about how both versions of 'Life On Mars' can remain on Earth Prime-Time; that the American remake didn't have to be shipped off to the dimension of remakes where you'd find 'The New Addams Family', the remake of '87th Precinct', and probably the new 'Cupid'. (I haven't had time yet to investigate that one.) As for 'Battlestar Galactica', which recently wrapped up, I figured the dimension of 'The West Wing' would better suit that series.

But remakes sharing the same dimension with the original shows is not uncommon, especially when they hail from different countries. This is especially true with the sitcom interchange between Great Britain and the United States:

'Til Death Us Do Part' - 'All In The Family'
'Steptoe And Son' - 'Sanford And Son'
'Man About The House' - 'Three's Company'
'Fawlty Towers' - 'Amanda's' (There were at least two other attempts to remake that as well.)

Of course, significant changes were made in each case for the American audience.

Currently there are two series that are spreading across the globe with new versions. Central and South America had several versions of 'Ugly Betty' before the US version finally aired. There's even a cartoon about Betty as a little girl!

And then there's 'The Office' created by Ricky Gervais. The original was referenced in 'Lost', and has doppelgangers in Russian, Chile, Canada, France, and Germany, I believe. And of course, there's the American version as well.

Now Israel is getting into the act with their own version!

I wonder if the Jell-O mold with the stapler in it would still be considered kosher.....?

BCnU!
Toby O'B

[Regarding the image: gonna miss ya, Len Berman! Your "Spanning The World" sports segments were my favorite kind of "reali-TV".]