The 90s were a massive decade for Television. In 1990, ABC aired Twin Peaks, a show that took the world by storm and captivated audiences. This show was something different, something new. After Twin peaks, the 90s saw the rise of other shows such as Oz, the West Wing, The X-files and The Sopranos, which are considered to be the starting of point of what we now consider, Quality or Prestige Tv. For most of televisions history before the 90s, small screens were dominated by sit-coms and animated children’s shows. Drama’s were usually considered high risk, and what few dramas there was at the time, didn’t explore the complex and adult themes shows explore today. There was also a big emphasis on the line drawn between television and cinema. Today that line is blurred, and shows like Twin Peaks and The Sopranos helped blur it. These shows had a higher production and artistic direction, with qualities viewers hadn’t seen on television before. Cinematography/Lighting/framing that had purpose and intent, writers in control of narrative through lines and character development that crossed over seasons, more complex, serious, and adult themes and ideas that explored society, social, and the psychological. These shows were something viewers around the world just hadn’t seen before, and they helped paved a way for what we now consider quality television.
As the rise of quality television came, so did demand, and HBO being the undisputed king of quality TV saw to these demands, but so did others like ABC, Showcase, and AMC. With this rise also came a need for more content, and fast. So its obvious some of these companies would look to adapting pre existing material. Some key successful examples being The Office, House of Cards, and Shameless.
Although taking a good show and adapting it doesn’t mean the adaptation will be good. Adapting within the genre of comedy, especially from British Tv shows seems to be rife with disaster, with shows like Spaced, Skins, and Inbetweeners all getting US adaptions and all failing miserably. We even have the States trying their hand at their very own Kath and Kim (how dare they). Its easy to say that the comedy doesn’t translate well from the original to the remake, but then I look at a show like Utopia, A hugely underrated British sci-fi/mystery with incredible cinematography and production, and an intriguing plot, that was remade into an Amazon original and was an insult to the original series. So while comedy seem to be an Achilles heel for American adaptations, I think its a bit tougher to answer why so many adaptations go wrong than just ‘it was lost in translation’. Maybe audiences are tired of seeing adaptions of a pre existing show being remade into something worse. Maybe viewers are looking for something akin to what Twin Peaks did in the 90s, when the norm of tv was sitcoms.
References-
Sordi, N, 2010, ’10 Successful US TV Adaptations’ https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/10-successful-us-tv-adaptations/ [17 Aug 2023]
AV Film School, 2020, ‘What is a Quality TV Show?’ https://avfilmschool.com/what-is-a-quality-tv-show/ [17 Aug 2023]
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