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

I've updated the entry now. It looks like 'Hot l Baltimore' and 'Fawlty Towers' both were made around the same time, so alas I can't claim it was a reinvention. But the other points are excellent and keep them coming.

You've not watched many Reality shows, have you? That's the area where I'm weakest.

<BB<

An excellent update. I can tell you have added a bit of your own research. That is great! Like in the Model Railway Entry we can share thoughts from both sides of the pond.


Although I run my TV most of the time, I seldom actually watch it these days, but my wife does.

As to Reality Shows I have watched the first several seasons of a few, after that it gets to be the same thing over and over again.

Big Brother US
A group of strangers are locked together in a house. they must each chose a bed in one of the dormitory room, divide the chores such as cooking and cleaning, decide on what food items are to be purchased and compete in contests that can win rewards for the house.
Every week each contestent was allowed to go into a soundproof room and make comments about the others.
At the end of the episode you could vote for your favourite, whoever got the fewest votes was expelled from the house before the next filming, which was shown after the introduction of the following episode. All the cameras were hidden in the walls.

The Antiques Roadshow

There is definitely an American version, a group of expert appraisers who travelled from city to city, rented a large hall and invited everyone to have their treasures and junk evaluated for free. While the occasional valuable item was discovered, most of the heirlooms were interesting, but basically worthless.
There is an urban myth that one man who had his great grandfather's Civil War musket appraised. When the expert told his it was not worth any where near what the man thought it should be pointed the gun, which he had loaded, and shot the expert dead. I do not know if this was true or not. Many participants were less than happy to find their items were almost worthless.

Another spin-off is 'Pawn Star' where people bring in items hoping to either sell them, or use them to secure a loan. The shop is located in the gambling Mecca of Los Vegas, Nevada - so many customers are sure the can win big with a few more dollars.

Trading Spaces US
Two families switch houses for a week to remodel a certain room on a limited budget.
When the families return home they are asked if they love or hate the changes.

This led to another reinvention 'Trading Spouses'
In this one of the parents, usually the wife would spend time living with the other's family. At the end each family was awarded a large sum of money, that the visiting spouse would allocate as she saw fit. Many times a child would be given a musical instrument or tuition for special classes. Sometimes the family might be given a vacation, swimming pool or a second car.

There are several others my wife enjoys;

We have US version of 'Top Model' that openly admits to it's British roots and has even filmed sessions in London.

One of the first, and most popular reality shows here is 'Survivor' where a group is stranded on a deserted island with little food or supplies, I don't know if there was a British source, or copy. I thought I might mention it just in case.

One thought you might mention in the introduction. Each Entry should have an intro, including a brief overview of the type of show, usual audience and reasons for choosing this format, either for producing or watching. For reality shows, even with millions in prizes they are still cheaper to produce than a traditional program with paid actors, writers, elaborate costumes and sets.

One of the biggest flurry of reality shows here lately are cooking shows with small restaurant, or even total amateurs competing to impress world renowned chefs

Enough for now

F S

I think that one thing that h2g2 can do really well is have people from all around the world working together. If you have the chance to look at something from perspectives all around the planet, then why not?

You're right about reality shows being very repetitive – it probably won't surprise you to learn that when I watch television, it's normally 'Doctor Who' and I prefer to watch DVDs instead. No-one makes television like 'The Avengers' any more...

The first I heard of their being an American 'Antiques Roadshow' was on an episode of 'Frasier'
There are definitely stories about the British series, as well as a popular prank show once famously made a replica of someone's beloved vase, substituted it for the real one and got a genuine expert on the series to say that the vase was worth a fortune seconds before dropping it on the floor and smashing it.

'Survivor' definitely sounds familiar, I think it is one of those programmes on Channel 4 I tend not to watch, although which came first I'd have to look into.

Still, thanks for all this. I'll start adding this information into the entry and you're right, the introductions do need to be much stronger so they interest any readers into looking at the rest of the entry. I've been trying to get the bones of the entries down, but that doesn't mean I should neglect the basics.

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Have you had any further thoughts on this?

Incidentally, have you looked over at: F74125?thread=8312753 ?

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Your Sailing Ship project is looking good – I was lucky enough to be in Southampton when they had the Tall Ships 2000 there, so I got to go onboard a few very fine vessels including Lord Nelson.

Anyway, getting back to the TV project – I was still trying to think of UK reality shows that have had a US remake and was wondering if you've seen the US version of Top Gear at all?

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I'm hoping to finish the TV one off soon, so can you have a read through, let me know your thoughts and if you haev anything further to add.

I do worry whether it comes across as a little negative. As I'm not generally a fan of remakes, does this come across too strongly?

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Hi <BB<

We have a few outstanding conversation, I though I would just post here.

I did a quick search for 'Top Gear' thinking I might get a few more US hits from here. The main result is that the series has been cancelled so I probably won't get a chance to watch

I will go over the TV Entries with a critical eye, but it will probably take a couple weeks. You talk about being negative, but you give yourself an out in the opening by saying many British viewers resent the re-makes. You got me thinking about how I would feel about a British remake of a classical American story. The most classic that came to mind was 'Gone with the Wind' - it made me think, what is someone wrote a story of a girl who rose to prominence after the English Civil War - then 'Forever Amber'. I love both stories, but never made the connection before.



A couple points / questions on my ship project;

I remember on our Model Railway Project you asked everyone to reply under the project page, as the Entries themselves would remain as part of the finished Project. It occurrences to me, with the new conversation moving tool this is no longer a problem?

Thank you for you information about the 'Jubilee Sailing trust', listing Accessible ships is certainly a priority. I intend to post a message in Ask in about a month, hoping to find more ships around the world. I will give credit to all who contribute.



What is the official stand on Sub-headers these days? I used to use them a lot to subdivide a section and here I would like to have a header 'Ships that can be visited' and sub-headers to split them by country or region. Then another header for ships that are sailing from port to port. Probably a few others. I read a few years ago that sub-headers were being discouraged.


While researching ships I even found a re-created Galeon that is due to sail down our east coast at the end of the year. That would be like going aboard a small cousin of the 'Mary Rose'. It might even be possible to wrangle a few days at sea! We shall see

F S

Thanks for the long reply.

I want to make sure I don't inadvertently come across as saying 'American television is rubbish, the British originals are all superior...' I personally think that about 90% of television is rubbish, regardless of country of origin, and when you have a remake and an original, most of the time the original is better while the remake is a pale shadow. Few of my favourite television programmes on the whole are remakes, whether of British or American shows, so it is difficult to have the same level of enthusiasm when writing about them. Yet they are still interesting.
I'm sure there must have been some Hollywood remakes of classic films that you've felt really did not work and weren't in the same league as the originals?

Ah yes – I do indeed have access to the conversation moving tool, but it isn't something I use very often. I've moved conversations out of the Peer Review Sin Bin 'cos it wasn't in use, and out of old University pages that aren't in use (and I told everyone what I was doing and why in ), but that's about it. I know that quite a few people get a bit miffed about conversations moving from where they began them, so as I don't want to annoy anyone I'll leave it to others. But potentially we could indeed move conversations around if no-one had any objections.


I'll have to see if I can find my old programme from the Tall Ships 2000 event when it sailed from Southampton and contribute a thing or two. That should be an impressive site to see – I've seen the Golden Hinde replica off Portsmouth, was it in London when you visited last year, and did you get a chance to see it? (So much to see, so little time...)

I've always used sub-headers a lot. There was talk several years ago, back in the pre-BBC days, that they wanted to get rid of sub-headers when they introduced Alabaster and got rid of Boxheaders, however they are still approved GuideML and I for one use them all the time. I can't see them being got rid of now, they're too useful. I'd strongly object to that, too. You're not going to encourage new writing if you get rid of the tools people have to write with. So go ahead and use subheaders to subdivide the sections.

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Great to see you scouting again!

<BB<

In fact, I've really missed your entries from Peer Review. Is there anything I can do to persuade you to do some writing again?

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Can I tempt you to maybe write just a short entry?

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Hope you're doing well despite the weather

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for not replying earlier, Real life has slowed me down, and I am not sure why. I did start an entry a couple months ago about maritime pilots and I will try to get that into PR in a week or two.

I recently 'upgraded' my computer and Openoffice seems to have lost all my dictionaries. I have the US one back, but it seems to refuse to reload the GB I use as default. Not an excuse - just something I'm fighting with.

As to the weather, we are on the 'safe' side of the State and the only damage I have seen is parking lots with a lot of lost twigs. The wind has been up all day, but we have had far less rain than usual.

I will try to get a few more picks in by the end of the week

F S

Ah yes – real life has a habit of getting in the way quite often – I'm very glad to hear that you're writing and will look forward to reading about maritime pilots. Don't worry about UK spelling too much, although it is annoying when computers upgrade and don't do what they used to. My work PC's not worked at all well since they 'upgraded' it.

I'm very glad to hear you've been safe from the weather, with nothing more to worry about than stray twigs and branches.

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I would to recommend A87847393 American Television Reinventions, however as I am listed as a co-author I don't think I am allowed to. It might be a good idea to ask a Sub-Editor to take this series on as a University Project and go that route. They have all been in Peer Review long enough to justify such a move.



F S

Ah - the subeditor in charge of University Projects is, erm, me, so I don't know if that'd work...

In the past we've had collaborative entries in which all the subeditors have been credited. In those cases it has been agreed that co-authors could recommend. If you wanted, if you recommend the entry and state that you are credited as a co-author, and we ask for two people to second the recommendation, I think that would work. I think it is worth a try, but of course it is up to you.

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Mind you, it looks like things are moving with the project at last

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While reading Dmitri's latest Entry in PR, I found this, A568190 I am very impressed with most of the style and I believe with the addition of a few minor points and changes this will be ready for PR.

As I understand it anything in the unedited guide is fair game as long as you list the original Researcher as a co-author and leave a message on their home page so they can object if they want to.

The original Researcher appears to have left a long time ago. Am I correct, or has this policy changed over the years?

F S

It's a bit of a grey area, but if it isn't marked 'Not for Review' and there's nothing anywhere obvious to make you believe the author didn't want it to enter the Guide, you can probably consider it fair game (although it is clearer that that is the original author's intentions if it has previously been submitted to Peer Review or another review forum).

As you say, leave a message on their homepage as the first step so you can say you tried to contact them before doing anything else, and don't forget the plagiarism check if it isn't a Researcher you know.

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