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

Entry: American Television Reinventions - A87847393
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

Part of a Flea Market Rescue Project based on:
A1067339 - The world of American Television reinventions
A1149383 - American Television Reinventions - Part 1 (Comedy and Drama)
A1158095 - American Television Reinventions - Part 2 (Gameshows)

By U226013 - Ecnal Silyab

Assisted by U235886 - Florida Sailor

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Good to see this in Peer Review

This is a good summary of what the Project is about, but I did feel it perhaps needs a little bit more information in places...

"Interestingly, the cultural cut-off for what is acceptable to broadcast on television is different between the UK and the US." - I'm intrigued to know what a cultural cut-off is

"some of the programmes that have been adapted for American consumption will be discussed" - you might need to say something like "discussed in the other Entries in this Project" and then give the links again, as it does seem a bit of an abrupt ending at the moment.

Thanks for your comments there. I've added the words ' discussed in the other Entries in this Project' as that's a really good idea.

A cultural cut-off is what is not acceptable in a given culture. This is different to Censorship, which is usually applying state-controlled guidance, but instead can be considered what the culture as a whole chooses to consider unacceptable.
So for instance in television, when 'The Avengers' was first broadcast in America, the episode 'A Touch of Brimstone' was not shown as the American channel felt it was unacceptable to show Diana Rigg dressed as the Queen of Sin. Similarly, 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' episode 'The High Ground' was not broadcast on its original UK run as it dealt with terrorism.
When 'The New Avengers' was made, French television found the series disappointing as it was too tame and not as raunchy or violent as they'd hoped, while American television felt its strong content meant it was not something they could broadcast before 11pm. The programme was identical, but the cultures were different.
When the 'Doctor Who' TVM was broadcast in the UK back in 1996 it was a few seconds shorter than the version shown in the US to edit out some gun violence. And this shows how a fun thing with cultural cut offs is that they're full of contradictions. Both the Doctor and Steed in 'Doctor Who' and 'The Avengers' are pacifists who try not to carry guns but fight evil regardless, and I honestly believe that an American television programme like 'The A-Team' could not be made in the UK. Yet James Bond and British cinema are full of gun-carrying heroes and anti-heroes, so what is unacceptable for television might be acceptable for films.

Still, I added a brief footnote.

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Happy Birthday!
This entry, and the others in the series, has been in Peer Review exactly a year today! Hurray!

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I have read this again, and it is informative, but I think it could be tighter also.

I think you might be better off starting with something along the lines of the Other Reinventions paragraph, to explain that reinventions happen all the time, and then zoom in on the UK/US focus.

I like the Why Not Simply Broadcast the Original Series? section but you might like to start with something like the PBS paragraph before zooming in on the reasons why remakes happen too.

I'm not clear about the Reactions section - why do British audiences need to accept American reinventions?

The last paragraph in the Entry is excellent

I looked at moving the Other Reinventions to the start, and merging the paragraphs didn't really work, but I made a few tweaks to hopefully bring the point across.

I tried to see if the PBS section would fit in the start of 'Why Not Simply Broadcast the Original Series' but it seemed to be too much of a contradiction there, but instead I moved it up to just after that section where it fits in quite well.

I've also added a new paragraph on why the British reaction might be important.

Let me know what you think.

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Excellent tweaking indeed - you've tightened it up nicely, so it clearly includes all the information that is needed

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Well done Ecnal Silyab, and a big to Florida Sailor!

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