Quote: AJGO @ February 7 2012, 10:44 PM GMTI know Shabbat begins Friday sundown, but still don't get what in the show was meant to be particularly Jewish
Were you looking for a bunch of Jewish cliches? 
It's from the writer's own experiences, so I suppose it's about as Jewish as his own experiences of being in a Jewish family are. They mentioned the Jewish thing a lot just because it's the tradition that the show's central conceit hinges on is all.
Quote: AJGO @ August 19 2011, 10:09 PM GMTI remember this as being widely advertised as featuring a Jewish family, but I really didn't get what was particularly Jewish about it. Kept waiting for some sort of insight or explanation but it never arrived..
Agreed. Can it really be based on a Jewish family when it so completely lacks the wit one associates with Jewish humour. Possibly the worst sitcom ever. I watched it to see just how awful it could get. I felt like a rubber-necker at a motorway pile-up.
What I want to know is this: Why would an American network presumably pay out a lot of money to make their version of this? I mean what exactly are they buying? With something like The Office I can see why they would need to pay up as that was a very distinctive and original sitcom, and if they hadn't they would've been sued. But FND is so non-descript. It's incredible to think Popper could be getting a fat cheque for the "idea" of a family who have dinner together once a week. Because believe me that, and the title, will be the only things that bear any resemblance to the British version. There is no way the US version will have as "comedic" devices characters repeating each other's lines for no apparent reason; people being misheard and saying "What?", or a man who walks around with his shirt off, again for no reason. It also won't have a running joke of putting salt in someone's drink. God, it's all coming back now, just how bad this was. It's clear the only reason it got commissioned is Popper has some friends at Channel 4 from his time working there. He was producer on two series of Peep Show - NB not involved in the writing process. I can just imagine Armstrong and Bain, of Peep Show fame, watching this and having to rehearse what they would say to him when they next met, given that it would be bad form to say: "That was f***ing shit!"
Quote: zico @ March 8 2012, 2:43 AM GMTIt's clear the only reason it got commissioned is Popper has some friends at Channel 4 from his time working there.
Or other people actually just liked it. It happens.
So this is back on tomorrow night. Very much looking forward to it, really enjoyed the first series.
