Okay, this is not as bad as Clone (what is?), but what it has in common is a staff writer from Friends approaching the BBC with a lame idea and delivering an essentially laugh free script.

It turns out that the reason US sitcoms have a higher laugh count than British ones is not because they are penned by comic genuises; it is because of the factory system that churns out the product.

Either way you cut it there is irony here; did the show fail because of production company interference? or did it fail because the writers were not good enough without production company interference? Once cannot help but think that both writers and producers have painted themselves into a corner with this one.

THis looked good on paper, but (I only watched half) the first episode was a massive dud!

Oh- so like, people go over to Hollywood and the Hollywood people kinda lie & are deceptive & change things & have their own agenda? Like- OMG!

Cor Blimey- I think I'm gonna shit my pants with shock!

Maybe this is a scene setting ep (let's hope) and there's better to come. But today's was an utter borefest with hoary old clichés being flung about with gay abandon...

Yes- 2 writers who'd made it through the British process (in which of course the prog makers would of course NEVER be deceptive/change things/have an agenda etc cos they're BRITISH doncha know?) , then go to American like a couple of shit for brains and expect them to fall over in awe at the sheer brilliance of the Brits and their comedy.

Anyone think the comedy show within a comedy show was shite incidentally?

This makes Extras look like a work of sheer genius! (I always preferred it to The Office anyway.)

Quote: Nil Putters @ January 10 2011, 10:49 PM GMT

Dirty Ian.

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Can't a man have a little bit of pleasure? (*joke*)

By the way, does anyone else think that starting the series with a car crash is somewhat prophetic?

If the theme music is supposed to tell us about the show, then thankfully I was warned in advance. And then the atrociously smug incidental music fitted perfectly with the crushingly unfunny opening.

Quote: Ian Wolf @ January 11 2011, 6:31 AM GMT

By the way, does anyone else think that starting the series with a car crash is somewhat prophetic?

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I wondered if they'd just tagged that start on at the last minute just to try and add a bit of urgency and excitement to the first episode.

Also, is it just me, or was the Richard Griffith audition in English and the Richard Griffith audition in "American" about as funny as each other? I certainly didn't understand why everybody was chuckling away at the first, and not the second.

I think that was the point. The Daisy Haggard character, who as head of comedy has no sense of humour, cannot understand why everyone is laughing at the first version, and why no-one is laughing at the second version; the yes men have realised that the boss does not want him so they sit stoney-faced, and Griffiths falls apart because of the lack of feedback.

Quote: Timbo @ January 11 2011, 10:29 AM GMT

I think that was the point. The Daisy Haggard character, who as head of comedy has no sense of humour, cannot understand why everyone is laughing at the first version, and why no-one is laughing at the second version; the yes men have realised that the boss does not want him so they sit stoney-faced, and Griffiths falls apart because of the lack of feedback.

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Maybe, but the writers who are too bland to have names in my mind, didn't look impressed with his American reading either.

Quote: chipolata @ January 11 2011, 10:05 AM GMT

I wondered if they'd just tagged that start on at the last minute just to try and add a bit of urgency and excitement to the first episode.

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More a way of getting the "star" into the first episode when he does not belong there.

Quote: chipolata @ January 11 2011, 10:31 AM GMT

Maybe, but the writers who are too bland to have names in my mind, didn't look impressed with his American reading either.

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It was a bit confusing; but I think the writers initially more concerned at the lack of feedback; and then Griffiths became shit because of that lack of feedback.

Quote: Timbo @ January 11 2011, 10:34 AM GMT

It was a bit confusing; but I think the writers initially more concerned at the lack of feedback; and then Griffiths became shit because of that lack of feedback.

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What you're saying makes sense, but if this is what they were going for they fudged it badly. In fact, there was plenty of scope for comedy in the American producers sabotaging Richard Griffith's audition. But the show just didn't do anything with it.

Quote: Timbo @ January 11 2011, 10:34 AM GMT

More a way of getting the "star" into the first episode when he does not belong there.

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Again, I agree. Which is why they should have had Le Blanc at the audition too, and juxtaposed old fat Griffith with young hot Le Blanc.

True; but then they didn't do much with any of it. They seemed to think the behaviour of American producers was so hilariously outrageous that they did not need any actual gags. Only of course to anyone who knows *anything* about television, possibly the most written about and discussed industry in the world, none of it came as anything new; and anyone who is not interested in television as an industry probably is not going to care much about any of it anyway.

Quote: Timbo @ January 11 2011, 10:45 AM GMT

True; but then they didn't do much with any of it. They seemed to think the behaviour of American producers was so hilariously outrageous that they did not need any actual gags.

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What they needed was a monstrous character like Entourage's Artie Shaw to energise the whole show. Alas, nobody came close to him.

Quote: chipolata @ January 11 2011, 10:39 AM GMT

Again, I agree. Which is why they should have had Le Blanc at the audition too, and juxtaposed old fat Griffith with young hot Le Blanc.

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Wouldn't have worked. The Matt Le Blanc on my screen didnt look that young or hot!

Quote: James Griffiths @ January 11 2011, 10:48 AM GMT

Wouldn't have worked. The Matt Le Blanc on my screen didnt look that young or hot!

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Compared to kackered old-wheezy Griffith he did!

Juxtaposed with Richard Griffiths even I look young and hot.

Quote: James Griffiths @ January 11 2011, 10:48 AM GMT

Wouldn't have worked. The Matt Le Blanc on my screen didnt look that young or hot!

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Matt LeBlanc is a silver fox.