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

Britain has a far greater heritage of being clever in literature?
Mark Twain?
Dorothy Parker?
John Irving?
Tom Robbins?
Douglas Coupland?
I think if we stick to Britain (rather than including Ireland), we're not going to necessarily walk all over that list.

I'm not starting an "America is better" thing - just challenging anything which looks like a facile assumption.

However, I would echo the argument of the "Guinness Book of Classic British TV" when it claimed that the big reason the BBC had produced so many more classic sitcoms than ITV was that in the extra 4 or 5 minutes per half-hour without commercial breaks it's possible to add extra depth to plot and particularly to character, which is what makes a good sitcom great. American shows have the best quips in the world (thanks to the number of writers), but I'd claim that it takes longer for a show to establish the same level of character.

I take it that Quarrantine is an VIII episode. Haven't seen them all yet. Sounds intriguing.

Hmmm... I think you will find that your knowledge of the genesis of this, one of our Country's finest exports, is a little inadequate.

Quarantine is history, dear boy. If you missed it, I guess you'll just have to wait for the re-runs...

Quarantine was half-way through the fifth series and well worth seeing IMHO.

A bit of research has turned up the following:

Is there an American version of Red Dwarf?

No, not really. The NBC network expressed interest in an American version of the show and two pilots were made by Universal, but no series was ever produced.

The first pilot was written by Linwood Boomer and filmed on 22 January 1992 at Universal City Studios in Los Angeles. The cast included the following actors:

Dave Lister Craig Bierko
Arnold Rimmer Chris Eigeman
Holly Jane Leeves
The Cat Hinton Battle
Kryten Robert Llewellyn
Kristine Kochanski Elizabeth Morehead
First Officer Munson Michael Heintzman
Captain Tau Lorraine Toussaint

Much thanks to the official Red Dwarf FAQ for that.

Look, I know they're all indispensable, but Chris Barrie is Rimmer. It's no wonder they didn't bother with the American version.

And it's not a completely American cast. I've never heard of most of the cast (er, Robert Llewellyn of course—who could forget all those Ls?) but Jane Leeves is British... she's also an astoundingly annoying actress but she is British and that's what I started this godforsaken sentence to say and now that I've said it I'm going to put a period on it if it's all the same to you, and indeed even if it isn't.

Be careful when smoking that kipper.... remember, in space, no-one can hear you cha-cha-cha!

Don't remember what it's called but my personal fave is where Dave breaks Krytons programming and teaches him to call Rimmer a smeghead, or smeeeegheeeed, as Kryton says

Thank you. Shall go searching. Have no doubt seen it then and have forgotten the title.

Hi, Fate Amenable to Change (FATC). Another Ian M Banks fan, at last. The casts favourite episode appears to be "The Four Gunmen..." but I'm not sure why. Maybe they just had a ball with that Western set.
Anyone noticed that Rimmer is getting a little, shall we say, podgy, while Lister is looking fitter in series 8?

Might be something to do with the end of The Brittas Empire - no access to all those keep-fit machines for Mr. Barrie!

Yes they did do a american pilot, Jadzia Dax(Ds9) played cat . spoiling the concept of a female deprived crew.

There is no doubt that Quarantine is the best episode in the whole of the smal rouge one's history. By the way, It is "gunmen of the apocolipse" not the four gunmen, I feel that a few people nees to swat up a tad!!!. The Red Dwarf Quiz Book is a good start for those whose knowledge is waning and also for those with too much time on their hands!

I'm going to be having words with Vestboy about this Fatsy buisness......

I agree that we Brits sometimes produce crap comedy shows, but in the main, we do produce some of the best also!

Only Fools and Horses
Fawlty Towers
Absolutely Fabulous
Steptoe and Son
Porridge
and Red Dwarf (though it has shown signs of faltering)

My favourite American series include
M*A*S*H
Frasier
and the early Roseanne, before it became a parody of itself.

I'm not sure about swatting up on my Red Dwarf trivia. I mean, when does it stop being simply a healthy love of the show, and start becoming "Wally's Anonymous"? No offence meant to anyone named Wally out there.

Maybe the question to the answer '42' lies in the show RED DWARF!!!
if lister was frozen in Stasis (?) how did he get there (I'm just a recent RD recruit)?
please inform and feel free to yell....

I've seen this maaaaarvellous show, but I have never got what Smeg(head) is...can anyone help me ??

Lister was busted for smuggling a cat on board (hence where 'cat' evolved from), and his punishment was to be confined in stasis ...without pay I beleive?....

Smeg is a sebascious (spelling?) secretion of the genitals (according to a dictionary we found it in many years ago back at school), so Smeg-Head is just a general insult

THANX !! :0)