For quite some time now, Hollywood has developed a reputation for quietly, sometimes shamelessly, drawing inspiration from across the Atlantic to provide visual entertainment for its audiences. These remakes fall into two categories: those that crashed and burned for one reason or another, and those that developed a life of their own and became cultural behemoths that completely outshone their British ancestors. The American TV shows on this list are definitely remakes of British TV hits, and it’s fair to say that they firmly fall under the second category.
It’s also crucial to note that most fans of these remakes have no idea that these shows originated in Britain, and that’s not an accident. Most of them are similar to their British predecessors, including sharp writing and a strong central premise. Other elements changed significantly, enough that most viewers never thought to ask where the ideas came from in the first place. That’s not a knock on anyone; it’s just proof of how completely these shows made themselves at home in Hollywood.
1. The Office (US) — Adapted From The Office (UK, 2001)
@theoffice Aaannnd the final agenda item is… 🗂️ Season 9 Superfan Episodes are NOW streaming on Peacock! @peacock #TheOffice #TheOfficeUS #Season9 #Superfan #DeletedScenes
The most prominent instance of Hollywood transplanting ideas is The Office. The idea for the UK version came from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who cooked something up for BBC 2 way back in 2001. It had twelve episodes across two seasons, two Christmas specials, and a fictional paper company in Slough, England that somehow felt more real than actual workplaces on TV. That mockumentary style, the boss everyone wanted to escape, and the office crush that took forever to go anywhere – none of that came from NBC.
Interestingly, when the American version premiered in 2005, critics called it pointless. It’s possible that much of that negative reaction came from the fact that the U.S. pilot copied the UK pilot scene for scene. But after that, the show went its own way, helped by the fact that characters like Steve Carell’s Michael Scott proved that they weren’t just pale imitations of their British counterparts. Audiences fell in love with them. What followed was nine seasons and several awards, including an Emmy for Best Comedy in 2006.
2. All in the Family — Adapted From Till Death Us Do Part (BBC, 1965)
Anyone looking for proof that this “transplanting” tradition has been going on for a long while needs to look no further than CBS’ All in the Family. The show premiered in 1971, but the creators got their blueprint from a BBC sitcom titled Till Death Us Do Part. Created by Johnny Speight, the UK show premiered in 1965, revolving around a loud, bigoted patriarch whose deal was that viewers were supposed to laugh at him, not with him. Later, Norman Lear got his hands on the premise, moved the setting to Queens, New York, and upgraded it into one of the most daring things ever seen on TV.
Changing the political tone produced that upgrade. While the UK version was more about the grumblings of the working class, Lear made it a national argument. Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker became the character Americans used to fight about war, race, gender, and politics. All while people ate dinner on a Tuesday night. Unsurprisingly, the show was No. 1 on Nielsen ratings for five years straight, and even gave birth to other shows that lasted well into the 1980s.
3. Shameless (US) — Adapted From Shameless (Channel 4, UK, 2004)
Shameless is one of the more unique remakes largely because Showtime barely changed a thing when they moved the Gallaghers from a Manchester council estate to the South Side of Chicago. Much like the U.S. version, the UK version also ran for 11 seasons. However, the only real difference is that the US version had a bigger budget and went places the original never dreamed of.
Audiences couldn’t get enough of Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy) and his brood. Macy particularly committed to his role as a messed-up dad. Along with several other members of the cast, he delivered the kind of performance that earned them and the show multiple award nominations, several of which they bagged.
4. House of Cards (US) — Adapted From House of Cards (BBC, 1990)
Years before Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) started doing that stuff where he stares into the camera at the White House to chat with the audience, Francis Urquhart (Ian Richardson) had already written the book on how to pull it off in the British parliament. The BBC House of Cards aired in 1990, written by Andrew Davies from Michael Dobbs‘ novel. And anyone who has seen both versions will admit that Francis Urquhart was scarier. His favorite catchphrase, “You might very well think that; I couldn’t possibly comment,” will likely never leave the memory of anyone who’s watched the UK version.
Netflix’s 2013 remake moved the action to Washington D.C. and turned into the show that proved streaming could do big, serious drama. To say it worked would be massively understating facts. But the thing is most of the people who spent years watching Frank Underwood plot his way through Congress have never seen the original, which is genuinely worth tracking down, if only to understand where all of those tricks he mastered came from.
5. Veep — Adapted From The Thick of It (BBC, 2005)
This one has a twist in the sense that Armando Iannucci made both. His BBC political satire The Thick of It ran from 2005 to 2012, giving audiences Peter Capaldi‘s Malcolm Tucker, a government spin doctor whose vocabulary of creative profanity became the stuff of legend. When HBO came knocking for an American version, Iannucci didn’t just copy and paste. He made the critical decision to build Veep from scratch: new characters, a new setting, but the same basic idea that political power is mostly just embarrassing people trying not to look embarrassed.
Veep ran from 2012 to 2019 and won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series five years in a row. Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘ Selina Meyer became an accomplished character in her own right rather than a copy of anything from the original. The fact that the same person made both versions makes this the most interesting case on the list, less a straight remake and more an experiment in how much the setting changes the joke. Iannucci himself said the main difference is scale. British politics is smaller and nastier, while American politics is bigger and dumber. In any case, both worked a treat.
So yeah, the pipeline between the UK and the U.S. has been wide open for over 50 years. Next time you’re loving a sharp new American show, just quietly wonder: did a British person already figure this out first?
Follow Us
