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View Full Version : So, there's going to be an American version of "Life on Mars"...



Shaun Ponsonby
08-28-2007, 03:35 PM
One of my favourite shows, the brilliant "Life on Mars", is going to America. And straight away, I thought "Oh, gawd, no".

"Life on Mars" is a BAFTA and International Emmy award-winning BBC comedy-drama series.

The format of the series mixes science fiction — specifically, time travel — with police drama. The central character is DCI Sam Tyler of Greater Manchester Police, who, after being hit by a car in 2006, finds himself in the year 1973. There, he works for Manchester and Salford Police CID as a DI under DCI Gene Hunt-the very un-PC character we need. Over the course of the series, Tyler faces various culture clashes. The series also features a strong ambiguity concerning Tyler's predicament: it is unclear whether he really has travelled back in time, is in a coma in 2006 and imagining his experiences, or if he is from 1973 but mentally unstable. The show was pretty much perfect....dramatic, as funny the best of sitcoms, and a great soundtrack, with David Bowie (quite obviously, given the title of the programme), The Sweet, Slade, Free, Frankie Miller, T. Rex, The Faces, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, The Who, Uriah Heep, Cream, Pink Floyd, Mott The Hoople...and just about every other great artist of the early 70s.

Why am I nervous about the remake? There's been some great shows come from the USA...some of my favourites...But, whenever American Television tries to remake a british TV show, it never works, and vice-versa. We can never make a British version of an American show successful. I'm pretty sure if we tried to do "24" it would end up looking like "Carry on Jack Bauer", and if America tried to make "Waking The Dead", it would be like "Cold Case" (which bores the living shits out of me).

Do you remember a show called "Cracker"? It was based on a UK show of the same name, about an overweight criminal psycologist with a gambling problem who drank too much and smoked too much. That was the character. He was a pig. He wasn't supposed to be completely likeable. When I saw the American version...there must have been issues on the censorship over there (I've heard it's much more strict over there) because Fitz didn't smoke, I only saw him holding drinks and I don't recall any gambling. It was terrible. And it proves that shows should not be remade.

British TV has it's stregnths, American TV has it's stregnths...we shouldn't try and remake each others shows...and I'm dreading the American version of "Life On Mars".