Someone recently asked why so many British TV shows, like "Skins", have to be remade for a U.S. audience.
Here are some of the reasons:
- Accents – not all Brits sound like Colin Firth and some accents would be hard for a U.S. audience to discern. What Americans are used to hearing is called R.P. (Received Pronunciation). The accents you hear in "The King's Speech" are in "The Queen's English". Though most British actors are able to speak in this accent, not all TV characters use R.P. This means that some of the characters with thicker accents would require subtitles in the U.S. = ratings killer.
- UK Regional humor (or humour!) would be lost on many Americans.
- Vocabulary – we are divided by a common language…there are many words and phrases that are natural to a Brit which would be either jarring (e.g. “tits up”) or not understood (e.g. “Bob’s your uncle”) by Americans.
- Americans love looking at beautiful people on TV whereas Brits are happy to look at “regular” people.
Guess which photo is from the U.S. version of Skins:
