Mob office
Remember when we thought American TV was inferior to British TV. Well, perhaps, once upon a time, it was. But no longer. One of the Brits’ most beloved talents, Ricky Gervais, creator and star of The Office and Extras, slams British TV and says we do it better and he makes noises about making his own Sopranosesque drama.
“All the things we like at the moment are coming out of America,” he said. “There are things like The Sopranos, 24 and The Wire. These are things that [the British] just cannot do and do not do or anything close to it.“They are innovative, audacious and done brilliantly. Those TV shows are just breathtaking and shows like The Sopranos are very funny. They have comedy writers that work on the show. It’s the humour of real life.”
Gervais said he wanted a British drama to capture the “ambiguity of morality” seen in some US shows.
These days, the Brits export — and we copy — reality shows and we export — and they love — our dramas. I wonder why that is. HBO is also not beholden to advertisers — but then, neither should the BBC be (though it is beholden to politicians, eh?). Perhaps it’s just that we’ve had more choice over a longer period and choice, I’ve learned, usually yields quality.
Tags: Exploding_TV
September 5th, 2006 at 7:28 am
Could Ricky’s flattering comments about US TV be in any way connected with the fact that he’s desperately looking for US TV money?
September 5th, 2006 at 8:02 am
The problem with the BBC Jeff, is that it isn’t beholden to anybody, the people who fund it (on pain of imprisonment if you dare to own a TV and refuse to pay your BBC tax), the people who watch it or the people who regulate the media over here.
It isn’t exposed to any market pressure and its programs are commissioned, written, acted and distributed by a small group of trendy idoits who have a very set world view.
The system has in the past resulted in some excellent output (documentaries mostly) but today its just a parody of itself.
September 5th, 2006 at 10:04 am
Although the sci-fi geek in me loves “Doctor Who.” The modern incarnation of the show has been successful for the BBC and is being exported to the Sci-Fi Channel in the United States. Season 1 did fairly well and Season 2 kicks off on Sci-Fi in a couple of weeks.
September 5th, 2006 at 10:59 am
Life on Mars and the recent adaptation of Bleak House shown on Masterpiece Theater are both among the best TV shows I’ve seen lately.
Better than Dane Cook, anyway.
September 5th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
I would have to disagree with Gervais here. British television already has its version of The Wire and 24 in the much better Spooks (aka MI:6 on A&E). What exactly makes US television so great with five days a week of mostly legal and police procedural shows? Even those pale in comparison to the same types of shows that appear on British television. And don’t get me started on the lame American sitcoms. Yeah, British television has its trash: someone please stop making Footballers Wives! But the great thing about British television is that it’s willilng to take chances. If a series doesn’t do that well, it’ll still get a chance to achieve an audience for a year or two before its yanked off there air. In the US, if a good show doesn’t pull in stellar ratings, especially among the key demographic, it’s gone after two episodes. A show like Dr. Who could never survive on American broadcast networks because the number of people who would watch it — around 2 million on SciFi — could never sustatin the show. It would be gone before the next episode was to air. And maybe that’s OK, it is a business after all, but even with the commercial base UK networks ratings seems to come second, a close one, but second. Gervais himself would have a hard time getting a national network to air something like Extras considering it barely draws a million viewers on one of the most-subscribed to premium cable networks.
September 5th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Jeff, you still didn’t get the whole thing about the BBC being a public broadcaster, otherwise you wouldn’t write ignorant blather like “though it is beholden to politicians, eh?”. And after all you should know better since you’ve toured the company…
September 5th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
I guess this means Ricky hasn’t watched the bastardized/dumbed down US version of The Office.
September 5th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
Mike G–
I heartily endorse your endorsement of Life on Mars. Instead of producing a police procedural we are offered an existential drama about being trapped in a police procedural. Last night’s episode quoted Z Cars and The Prisoner at the same time (both shows that the cops in 1973 would have been familiar with).
September 5th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
But when it comes to TV, choice doesn’t always yield quality does it? Isn’t that part of the reason UK telly isn’t as good as it could be?
Twenty years ago millions of Britons would sit down to watch with their families on say a Saturday night.
What do we get today, when there is so much more ‘choice’? Love Island, a comedy set in a brothel (not the same thing!) and Animals do the funniest things.
There are still some amazing UK TV shows though - Shameless is the first to spring to mind and that’s quality drama.
As I also blog at http://www.corrieblog.tv I’d also dare to suggest that the long running soaps still have flashes of brilliance - though arguably not quite matching Samuel L Jackson being flummoxed by Ashley Jensen!
September 5th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
If we only had original programming (from any country) that did a Larry David/Jane Austen kinda hybrid…
September 5th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
Think of the BBC as more of a video Pravda, in a parallel universe only Brits could pull off. You could be talking to a 20 year old, neo-punker from Manchester who hates everything and he would defend the BBC. It’s a very impressive bit of indoctrination and control.
Try to get the lads to disapprove of the Corporation next time you are there. Brits are the world’s best whiners–bar none. And I don’t necessarily mean that as a negative because their ability for constructive criticism is also rather impressive. But mum is unquestionably the word when it comes to bashing the BBC, which is very fascinating.
“though it is beholden to politicians, eh?†You naive, silly man! For some reason that line of thinking is strictly prohibited, some would say blasphemy.
On this tour did you happen to see the training grounds for the snarling, female newsreaders? I always wondered what that would be like. Did you get a change to throw them a piece of meat? Sorry, a slab of tofu because of course, they are going to painfully predictable vegetarians.
September 6th, 2006 at 1:48 am
Spooks is good, but no way is it “much better” than The Wire.
September 6th, 2006 at 4:52 am
The BBC is in a bit of a no win situation, stuck between having to provide a public service while being populist enough to compete in the ratings. Its at it’s worst when it tries to do both at the same time.
WillS - i think what you get for the £120 BBC tax is pretty good value for money
Perhaps i’m just one of the lads who’s been indoctrinated by it, or a trendy idiot
September 6th, 2006 at 6:21 pm
Is the Wire even on in the UK?
September 7th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
Please people, don’t concentrate all your fire on the BBC. Ricky Gervais was talking about the OTHER British networks as well (ITV, Channel 4, Sky). And I agree with him. There’s nothing on the British networks to match, for example, CSI. I think it’s true that we Brits only see the very best of your programs, but the best American programs are very, very good.
What does disappoint me is that we very rarely now see good European programs (whether subtitled or dubbed) whereas we did 20 years ago, and I don’t see the reason for that. And the only Australian progs that we see are the soap operas.
BY THE WAY, I have a beef or query for you. At about 1am British time, the BBC replays the evening edition of the news broadcast “World News Tonight” (ABC? CBS? I forget) and there’s NEVER any World News in it. It’s an excellent program, but why don’t they change the name?