h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm an American, currently living in Canada, but imported shows from the UK are a great affection of mine. From The Prisoner to Fawlty Towers, British television has a history of funding the sort of innovative programming that the American networks usually overlook. It seems as if the objective of the main networks is to progressively lower the Lowest Common Denominator, which makes it even more difficult to find imported shows. Often, I have no choice but to buy them. Currently I'm eagerly awaiting my DVD of the Neverwhere miniseries, and I couldn't be happier.

yes, but, does the bbc still fund innovative programming? (beyond an occasional worthy documentary/nature programme)

We are seeing rather too much of Hyacinth as "Keeping Up Appearances" has a lot of airtime on BBC America as well as my upper midwest public television station. The only other show with a lot of local airtime would be "Are You Being Served?" Maybe the second or third time around, the viewer catches more of the humor, as I do by when I see "My Hero" on public TV and BBC America. But those amusement factor is somewhat dulled by that fourth or fifth time of seeing a particular episode.

One development that I found disappointing was when my local public TV station started broadcasting BBC World News at 10 PM on their UHF station. I was expecting the global coverage that I had seen in London and Yorkshire, but alas, the American broadcast must cater to American expectations, with much of the time focusing on domestic US news or US-related news around the world. My family says the American BBC news is more balanced and less hyped than American network news but I was hoping for something that was truer to the "world news" concept.

That's funny, My Hero has had much repeation in the UK, well apart from on UK gold!!!