1) Quality : While it's not all Masterpiece Theater the overall quality of British telly is light years ahead of the product on American idiot boxes.
Compare the original UK versions of "One Foot in the Grave" and "Men Behaving Badly" . Both shows are sidesplittingly funny comedy classics. The US Network versions were ruined (by CBS and NBC respectively ) by needless tinkering and Americanization. Why the US networks insist on buying proven winners and then changing the very formula that made the show work is beyond me.
Men Behaving Badly could have been a hit in the States with the original scripts modified only slightly (translating UK slang and references to US slang and references), instead the show was wrecked. One Foot in the Grave features one of the greatest comic characters in television history in Victor Meldrew. On a list of 1,000 actors suited to play Meldrew Bill Cosby would have been 1,002. No wonder the British writers and producers of these series return home in disgust.
2) Acting : The actors used in much of British telly fare are well trained and accomplished artists. There is less anti-television snobbery among the acting fraternity and many of today's biggest stars got their start on TV and continue to work in it after they've become established.
Emma Thompson began her career as a comedienne and dancer, Kenneth Branagh appeared in the series Boy in the Bush, Robbie Coltrane was the voice of a trucker on Are You Being Served, while Jeremy Irons started out singing and dancing on children's programs. The list goes on and on. Many of these thespians return to the small screen in order to do some real acting after being so foolishly wasted in Hollywood. Great comics like Lenny Henry (True Identity ) and Rik Mayall (Drop Dead Fred) have stumbled in career potholes thanks to Hollywood and the likes of Gary Oldman (Air Force One) Alan Rickman (Robin Hood, Die Hard ), Hugh Laurie (101 Dalmatians ), Nigel Hawthorne ( Demolition Man), and David Suchet (Executive Decision ) have been reduced to playing comic book bad guys in American action flix. Compare these actors with the ones that populate American tv shows. Well you can't really can you?
3) Series Length : In the US a seasons worth of programs is usually in excess of 20 episodes. In the UK the average is much smaller, often
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