Sweetie, dahling, I think it’s a horrible idea to try to remake Absolutely Fabulous as an American, ready-for-primetime TV show. Haven’t we tried this before, with middling results? (Yes we have, a couple of times, notes the Variety article announcing Fox’s plans to Americanize AbFab. The closest we came was Cybill. Or maybe Laura Kightlinger’s hilarious The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, but that was on cable, where no one saw it, unfortunately.) The problem is, no American broadcast network is likely to present us with the comic adventures of two drug-addled has-been fashionistas without trying to make them likable and sympathetic. Which will, in turn, ruin the comedy. The only hope here is that one of the producers here is Mitch Hurwitz, of Arrested Development fame. At least the guy behind Lucille Bluth knows a thing or two about how to make boozy aging harridans funny.
Can it actually be done? Could the Yank version of AbFab be another Office and not another Coupling? Vote in the attached poll, and share your feelings below. And then fetch Mummy her pills, won’t you, sweetie, dahling?
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Fox? Fox! F-’ey! Fox. NO. Nnnnnno. Bad! Bad network! You better behave or I’ll get out the vacuum.
This is the suckiest idea since suck came to sucktown.
Considering the 5th series of the original was a pale imitator of the originals, this promises be a disaster.
Unless, of course, the moon, sun, Gods and all that’s unholy align.
AB FAB is now a TV classic and every time America has attempted to replicate it, the project fails miserably. Face it, Saunders and Lumley were priceless and no one can touch their golden seal on comedy. It’s sad that American producers have run out of something vital to the art world: CREATIVITY. Instead of repeating themselves, why don’t they do something NEW and inventive…like other countries do. You don’t see them trying to replicate SEINFELD every year! The Entertainment Industry in America needs a resurgence of talent, not a plethora of pathetic reality show harridans and whores. You give Tyra Banks and Kimora television shows and all you can say is the compass is now set on a course for hell.
If Mitch Hurwitz is producing, and Jessica Walter is one of the stars, I’ll give it a “maybe”. TV has changed, though, since AbFab, and I don’t know if it’s a comedy style that would work here. It’s not AbFab if you change the style.
Now that nearly everyone with cable or a dish has access to BBC America, why do American producers still feel the need to copy British shows. We don’t need this classic or Life on Mars. We don’t need a State of Play remake either, watch the originals.
This one is going to be a tough sell, in part because Patsy and Eddie and the whole group are such British characters, and partly because the American version will presumably lack Jennifer Saunders’ brilliance. The Office on NBC is great, but for every one of those, there’s at least two British adaptations that don’t work (such as Coupling and Men Behaving Badly).
Are the original characters crossing the pond, or will there be new copycat characters? If it’s the latter, the show will most likely tank.
Bad, bad idea. The only way it could possibly work is to put it on HBO or Showtime (maaaaybe FX) where characters are allowed to be as unsympathetic as they need to be.
Jennifer Saunders is a genius and it was her scripts along with the amazing cast chemistry that made Ab Fab one of the best shows ever. She created, wrote AND starred in this show and it simply won’t be the same without her at the helm.
They had some horrible show on, I think ABC, with Jean Smart and Mary McDonnell a few years back which was supposed to be an American version – the drunk mom and pal did not go over well and it was canceled pretty quickly as I remember.
PS, for the Anglophiles/Little Britain lovers, Little Britain USA is awesome! It’s almost as good as the original, thanks to a lot of the older characters showing up in the US and some great new characters they’ve come up with. The first two episodes have ended with naked body suits, and I think that’s a trend that should continue. Hilarious!
NO!!!
According to the Variety article, Jennifer Saunders is involved with the project as an executive producer, so perhaps there is a possiblity that the remake could work?
I am American and I love British comedys. I hate to say it but most americans dont have the sense of humor or intelligence to get british humor. That’s why these shows don’t translate across the pond. And america’s The Office sucks.
We’ve been here before. This will never work on network tv.
The only way an Americanized version of Ab Fab would work is if it found it’s way to either HBO or Showtime. The beauty of the series was not only in the comic ability of it’s leads, but how far they pushed the boundaries.
It should, however, be pointed out that NBC did try an Americanized version of Ab Fab, starring Jean Smart and Mary McDonnell, “High Society,” back in 1995. It made it to 13 episodes, and then yanked. That should tell you something, even with an Emmy nomination for Jayne Meadows as Best Supporting Actress in 1996.
if they get megan mullally to star in it i might watch the first couple of episodes…
if they get megan mullally to star in it i might watch the first couple of episodes…
I clicked no to this remake, but that was before I realized Mitch Hurwitz was involved. I Have complete and utter faith in him.
Americans have a hard time watching “their own” women stagger around being completely hedonistic. I know a lot of American men have a hard time watching AbFab–kind of their worst nightmare. Our desire to make likeable, sympathetic TV characters works against us. Even on cable we want our women to have hidden hearts of gold. Eddy and Patsy have to be unapologetically their drug-addled, narcissistic selves. I don’t think we can pull it off.
Didn’t they sort of try this already with “High Society” (Which I thought was a riot) back in ‘97?
If it can’t be done with Jennifer Saunders & Joanna Lumley as Patsy & Eddie visiting L.A. – then don’t bother.
Even at their current ages, anything less would be a pale imitation.
Seriously, can no American TV writer come up with an original thought anymore? Obviously we’ve had several shows cross the pond as remakes over the years (Three’s Company, etc.), but it seems like the last season or two they’ve been taking every BBC show and Americanizing it. We’ve got Life on Mars, Top Gear and several others coming out this season alone, and now they want to revamp Ab Fab? Come up with something new already!
I would have loved to see Roseanne’s version of this, when it was floating around ten years ago. But I am not sure if even that would have worked. Patsy and Edina are such established characters that it is going to be an uphill battle to do them justice. Best of luck though, Mr. Hurwitz!
So, the fact that Jennifer Saunders is involved MAY make it at least not be Absolutely Suck-tastic.. but.. it’ll certainly never be Absolutely Fabulous by any stretch of the imagination.
We have all of the real housewife shows now to show us drunk people with too much money and too little taste. Those shows aren’t intentionally funny (no where near the wit of AbFab), but they are hilarious. Maybe recasting the comedy of AbFab in a real housewives world…wannabe real housewives, etc.
Saunders & Lumley ARE Eddie & Pats.
Why try to recreate something already perfect ?
Talk about running out of original ideas…
Isn’t The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency already the American version of AbFab?
This is going to suck so hard. It’s like AbFab producer John Plowman has said: an American version will have Eddie and Saffy hugging at the end of an episode and Patsy giving up drugs and booze. No, no, no, no one hundred times no!
It’s been done w/ High Society, Cybil, and Will and Grace with Jack and Karen. Besides It would not be funny without French and Saunders.