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15 July 2007 "YOUR LOGO HAS A LOT OF BLOOD IN IT" I thought some of you might find these of interest - the Premium Hollywood blog is running transcripts from the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in which various US television stations publicise their new shows to journalists via interview panels with the talent. BBC America's contingent consists of the creators and cast of Jekyll, Torchwood and Hotel Babylon and it's mainly the likes of Steven Moffat, James Nesbitt, Julie Gardener, John Barrowman and Tony Head answering left of field questions as graciously as possible. Moffat has caused something of a stir in the US for the following exchange probably because of his customary honesty which absolutely goes against the usual policy over there of ass-kissing the network heads: "Reporter: Steven, why was (the BBC) version of Coupling such a success and the NBC version - it tanked? Steven Moffat: I so enjoy answering that question. I've only been asked it 24 times today. All right. I can answer it with three letters, N-B-C. Very, very good writing team. Very, very good cast. The network fucked it up because they intervened endlessly. If you really want a job to work, don’t get Jeff Zucker's team to come help you with it ... because they're not funny. All right? There you go. I can say that because I don't care about working for NBC. But I think I'm entitled to say that because I think the way in which NBC slagged off the creative team on American Coupling after its failure was disgraceful and traitorous. So I enjoy slagging them off. That's the end of my career in LA. I'll be leaving shortly. James Nesbitt: Taxi for Moffat! All of which is probably correct but the first episode of UK Coupling wasn't as funny as some of the later classics and like many series it arguably took a few weeks, even the whole first run perhaps to bed in and take flight (and even then not everyone was a fan). US television rarely has that luxury unfortunately [via]. # posted by Stuart Ian Burns : 11:11 PM Comments: Was Coupling ever that funny here? Forgive me if my memory is hazy, but I remember it as very patchy; it could barely sustain two decent episodes in a row, so how would it put together 20+ episodes for a US-style series? # posted by  Anonymous : 1:01 AM   Well I loved it, particularly in the third and fourth series when the characters had been established and Moffat was using story structure to comic effect -- the episode in which we saw two different sides of the same conversation because of a language barrier was wonderful. # posted by  Stuart Ian Burns : 8:19 AM   It seems to be a marmite type programme - you either love it or hate it . I certainly enjoyed the first 3 series - the last one lagged a little because there was no Geoff and the new chap had a BIG void to fill , plus the other characters were a little bit more settled so it was a little more staid . # posted by  Iain Griffiths : 7:05 PM   I found Coupling to be a bit "overwritten", in the sense that many jokes were of that rambling, complex variety that NO human being actually ever tells. In a show dealing with a "reality" of relationships, that annoyed me. As did Friends, incidentally... However, there were occassional episode of absolute farcical brilliance (usually with Geoff) and Moffat had a lot of clever fun with structure once he grew confident with the characters. So, overall, I enjoyed Coupling. Bu it was never "a classic" or particularly deserving of a US remake. NBC were just after a Friends knockoff. # posted by  Dan : 9:28 AM   Post a Comment << Home	Archives December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 Site Feed Email OTT Blog