yeah, never considered it, but you are correct.

I guess I'm thinking along the lines of Battlestar Galactica. I know some people hold the original in their hearts, but since first seeing re-runs of it when I was a kid I have always thought it was absolutely dire. The new one took those ideas that were cool from it and built a brand new show that has been massively more successful and in my opinion infinitely better. Obviously for those of you who feel differently this example won't work as wel...

I'd never heard of "The 11th Hour" before this, but with Sewell in the lead I'll keep my eyes open for it.

The dumbest thing about this, of all, is that Patrick Stewart is already a hugely famous face Stateside, so they may as well either 1. cast Patrick, or 2. just show the fucking British series.

Are you Yanks too stupid to understand English when it is spoken by the English? Will Rufus Sewell be required to put on a phony American accent?

So be a good chap old boy and eat my shit kind sir, whilst I drink tea and sip it through my 'bad teeth'. You laughable cunt.

I mention this as important background. People my age tend to be more internationalist because we were exposed to a slightly different point of view while caught up in all things British. While the R-tards were listening to Bon Jovi and Journey, my friends were listening to the Smiths, Peter Murphy, Depeche Mode, etc. sing about REAL things. We were the same weird kids who endlessly quoted Python and sampled some of the Brit shows on PBS. We kind of looked down on the kids who "didn't get it."

"What does this have to do with this thread?" they all screamed. I say this because i really don't believe the Brits and international vistors understand American culture. In general, most Americans don't give a damn about international politics OR entertainment. If it doesn't directly affect us, we don't care. I'm not saying this is good thing or that this is universal, only that it holds true for the majority of Americans. 90% of American television viewers have never watched a British television show! This does NOT include the shit-awful reality shows that have been restaged and redesigned for Americans with American hosts or the nature and history programs that are co-funded by the BBC with an American broadcaster and later re-dubbed with an American voice actor and the British "mis-spellings" removed. The only British television most Americans HAVE seen is DR. WHO, Monty Python, and the occasional period-piece or mystery on the never watched local PBS station. That's it! The limit of British broadcasting in the US. If you were to count out the people who've seen DR. WHO, Python or the newest retread of Jane Austen from the people who've watched other British shows, you'd have maybe a 1% (3 million people) audience in America for British telly. FYI, BBC America shows programs from Channel 4, ITV, and the BBC and isa not available in most markets. The few Brits over here who have seen BBC America say its a pale imitation.

America and Britain have very different cultures and tastes, our only commonality is the language we share. If we both spoke different languages this would be easier for both cultures to accept. To answer you Brits who asked if we could understand a simple difference in accent, the answer is no! Most Americans have never been exposed to the vast multitude of British accents and slang words, however, most can perfectly understand BBC Standard English without slang. To give you an idea of how little used to we are in understanding British regional dialects and slang, BBC America recommends we Yanks turn on closed captioning so that we will be able to follow the program! There is also a common slang dictionary on the main website. As far as the 2nd question of why do we remake British shows, the answer is that Americans never saw the original, no matter how good it was! Besides the cultural differences, most Americans won't watch British television because they don't want to invest time in a show that will have a total run of maybe 20 episodes spread over several years. For an American, it's like reading the 1st 2 chapters in a book, setting it down, coming back to read 2 more chapters in 6 months and continue at that rate until done. The continuity and sense of character is destroyed. This is a major cultural difference most brits don't comprehend. Imagine if the Arctic Monkeys cd had only 3 songs on it and they released new cds at the same pace as when their cds had 12-13 songs!

I don't think this will solve any lingering enmity or frustration, but I hope it does help to explain what the differences are.

Sorry - US TV takes great BBC programs, throws millions of dollars at them, and makes them better. Just ask Gordon Ramsay.