The promise of new Absolutely Fabulous episodes coming from the BBC filled fans with a mixture of both dread and elation. With the series nearing its 20th anniversary it has to be difficult to recapture the original magic, but from the first clip released by the BBC, it feels just like old times.
The original cast is back with Jennifer Saunders once again playing Edina as well as writing the promised three special episodes. Yes, perhaps the Kardashians are an easy target, but it fits in with what these characters would say and do.
Who cares, more un-pc humor from one of the best British comedies ever? I’ll take it.
The American version of Absolutely Fabulous has begun filming, and the first on-set photos are none too promising.
While Kathryn Hahn looks pretty spot-on (Edina isn’t too difficult to do correctly), Kristen Johnson as Patsy is a disaster. A good chunk of Patsy’s character was made up in her ever present beehive hairdo. Simply pulling up the character’s hair and securing it with clips doesn’t cut it. True, this is a behind-the-scenes type shot, but it doesn’t look like she’s been prepped for a wig.
I mean, it’s a totally different element, it’s a totally different show. We don’t smoke, we are hungover all the time, we chew Nicorette, we’re trying to be more PC, but I think it really works.
AbFab… PC… these two things should never coexist in even that same universe let alone the same paragraph. And, yes, I know smoking is about the most out of fashion thing in the universe these days, but if two characters ever needed to smoke, it’s these two. Even back in the early 1990′s, when the British version of the show aired, smoking was out of style, and it was one of the main props that always told you, without anyone having to say a word, just how out of touch with the rest of the world these women were. It wasn’t about the actual smoking so much as it was their total lack of consideration for everyone around them.
I’m sure I will check this out if this ever makes it on the air (right now it is still just a pilot), but I can easily see this being yet another casualty in the long line of failed British import series to American television.
My nightmare is officially coming true as the American version of Absolutely Fabulous is officially going to pilot at Fox.
As I mentioned back in October, Fox has been planning a remake of Absolutely Fabulous for some time. The news from Variety is that Fox has finally greenlighted the production of a pilot with Jennifer Saunders and Christine Zander as executive producers, along with Ian Moffitt, Mitch Hurwitz, Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum.
For those of you unfamiliar with how television shows get to be a series, let me explain.
A concept is brought to the networks, or rights are purchased for a remake, such as in this case.
If they survive the concept stage, they move on to development which is where more staff is brought in to flesh out the concept.
If the networks like the way things are developing, they will order a pilot episode which is a fully completed test episode. If they don’t like the development, the series dies here without a pilot ever being filmed.
The pilot is filmed and then shown to test audiences and executives. Sometimes the pilots will be used as the first aired episode of the series, sometimes they won’t air at all, so not all pilots are always seen by the larger broadcast audience. This is especially true if actors are changed out. If they do air, you will sometimes see set redesigns between the first and second episodes of a series.
If the pilot goes over well, and it is picked up as a series, typically 13 episodes are ordered, with an option for 9 more to be added on “the backend” of season.
Either a fall or mid-season time slot is chosen to launch the series.
Even with AbFab going to pilot, it doesn’t guarantee that it will ever make it to air, but due to the investment placed in this, and people like Mr. Hurwitz of Arrested Development fame being involved, I would say the likely hood is high.
I am still nervous, even with all of this great talent involved, of Americans screwing up one of my favorite British comedies. American television is littered with disastorous remakes of British shows like Coupling and Payne, but, to be fair, there have also been successful British transitions such as Three’s Company and All in the Family.
I think a lot of the problem stems from British “series” (their word for “season), tend to be only 6 episodes long. So, if a show is on for four series, then it is the equivialnt of just one of our seasons, which is 22 episodes long. Trying to come up with 22 concepts at once as opposed to just 6 at a time is where I think we fall down so often. They can take the time to craft their stories and work in much smaller bursts, where we are pumping out episodes like some sort of mass production factory line.
Whatever the case may be for so many failures, this one is heading to pilot for sure, and I wish them all the luck in the world, but it still makes me nervous. Remember, Roseanne Barr already abandoned this concept some years ago because she didn’t feel the humor would translate to American audiences, so you have to wonder what they think they can do differently this time.
It has once again become apparent that Hollywood has run out of ideas. According to Variety, the Fox network is planning to remake one of the most successful British comedies of all time, Absolutely Fabulous.
For those of you unfamiliar with the original show, AbFab (as it is known to its fans) is the story of two school friends, Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley), who have aged less than gracefully. No matter how out of touch they are with their own age, and what is truly cool, they have more money than brains, and cling desperately to trying to be “in” with people far younger than themselves. All of this is done with the disapproving eye of Edina’s very prudish daughter, Saffron (Julia Sawalha).
The series was born out of a single sketch on the French & Saunders show, and ended up running for five seasons in England for a total of 37 episodes spread over 13 years. When it was imported to America, it had an instant cult following for its crass and crude humor, and became a gigantic hit with the gay community. (there were several hints over the five seasons that Patsy may not have always been a woman, but it was always kept very vague)
At the height of its popularity, Roseanne Barr put the wheels into motion to do an American version, and even went so far as to have Edina and Patsy appear in one episode of her hit series. This import of the series was eventually killed off as Roseanne finally realized the humor was not going to import to a broader American audience all that easily.
Flash forward to 2008, and now Fox thinks they can pull it off. Normally I would immediately write this off as a sure fire disaster, but sadly it is being spearheaded by Mitch Hurwitz, the creator of Arrested Development. Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows that I think AD is one of the most brilliant American sitcoms ever crafted, and if anyone can do dysfunctional characters, it is Mr. Hurwitz. Then there is the second caveat keeping this from complete disaster, and that is the involvement of Edina herself, Jennifer Saunders, as one of the producers.
Even with those great talents behind the scenes, I have a hard time believing they will be able to bring this show to the USA and keep it’s charms intact. Take the characters chain smoking for instance. In the English version, several episodes revolved around the fact Patsy fell asleep in the kitchen with a lit cigarette, and the room was burned to a cinder, causing major renovations. There was another episode that focused heavily on the fact that Patsy tried to quit smoking and it seemed nicotine had seeped out of her into the multiple patches she was wearing. Certainly this will be dropped for the USA version, but that is unfortunate because their smoking is very much a part of who they are. These characters WOULD smoke, no matter what the atmosphere in society is towards it.
Their binge drinking may survive as Karen (Megan Mullally) on Will & Grace was a heavy drinker (and fairly obvious she was an amalgamation of the two women from AbFab). Their drug use will probably need to be toned down, as will some of Patsy’s sexual escapades.
In short, I think Roseanne had it right when she dropped the project all those years ago. This, like so much British humor, will be difficult to import to America. While Edina & Patsy are broadly drawn archetypes, they are played with loving subtlety by the actresses who inhabited them. No matter how vile they were, you couldn’t help but love them because you knew they did what they did out of stupidity. American actors have a tendency to not be able to convey this sort of situation without slamming through it in a ham fisted manner. Also, our writers don’t usually grasp such things like that either.
With Mr. Hurwitz and Ms. Saunders involved, I hold out some hope this won’t be as large a disaster as some other British imports have been, but I won’t hold my breath for it being good either. Once again I am left to wonder why we must import so many of our ideas and concepts for television and movies. The mind truly boggles.
The American version of Absolutely Fabulous has begun filming, and the first on-set photos are none too promising.
My nightmare is officially coming true as the American version of 
