America's New Trade: Television

While America may be on the outs with the rest of the world, American TV is experiencing a popularity surge across the world. If you can believe it, the last big television heyday was the 80s, when "Dallas", "Dynasty" and "The Dukes of Hazzard" were the big shows. Now, according to The New York Times story here, American TV is experiencing a new life with British television networks.

As much as our shows are racing over there, the number of those watching British television shows in America is growing as well. Starting with The Office, the hit sitcom done as a fake documentary that helped us see that squirm worthy/uncomfortable real life situational material could also be funny, gave us our start, spurring an Americanized replica that has just recently come into its own. Stations like BBC America and imported DVDs are introducing more and more people to shows like Little Britain and Life on Mars as well as the duplication of shows that were hits there, like Coupling and the yet unseen and slightly feared remake of Life on Mars.

This export is growing, with more British stations offering American television than ever before, some even adding additional nights of programming. For the last few years, some of the best comedies on American television has been from Britain. Most notably, I remember watching several hours of Brit-com on my local PBS station and Absolutely Fabulous marathons whenever I could catch them on Comedy Central. It is gratifying to see Americans aren't the only ones noticing how good the last couple of seasons of television have been.

Now, I'm all for importing British shows, but sometimes I think American television writers/producers see British shows that are funny and think that the concept is what makes it funny. Their shortsightedness has been what has traditionally led to failed remakes, like the aforementioned Coupling. This year is the first year where The Office, which has always been funny to me, has had writing that makes me compare it to the British version. The British version was brilliant, more than funny, a great commentary of the cubicle work environment which brought fascination out of the frustration. Originally, the writers of the Office duplicated episodes, hoping to find the funny in the repetition. Then, they came up with their own office antics, which, while funny, did not have the UK Office's brilliance. This year, they are uncomfortably funny and compelling as it picks at the scab of a work experience that we all hope to find humour in. For those who export the drama, Life on Mars, I hope you can look past the interesting premise and see what it really is that makes this show work.