While spending some quiet time surfing Youtube, It occured to me that there is countless dramas, series and gameshows that have been copied from the UK and made into an American format. Although I might be a bit optimistic, let's think of everything and make a list of ALL the shows you can think of which are direct / indirect copies of UK ones.
I'll start with:
The Office,
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
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Off the top of my head I know they tried and failed with Coupling, One Foot In the Grave, red dwarf, fawlty towers (A serious travesty BTW!) and Dear John.
They did fairly well with Junkyard Wars, The Weakest Link, Deal or no deal (They stole the British format rather than the original dutch one) and as you've mentioned The Office, Millionaire and all the pop idol/x has got talent style shows.
Jury's still out on their versions of Peep show but lets face it they're going to do an absolutely rubbish job.
They did fairly well with Junkyard Wars, The Weakest Link, Deal or no deal (They stole the British format rather than the original dutch one) and as you've mentioned The Office, Millionaire and all the pop idol/x has got talent style shows.
Jury's still out on their versions of Peep show but lets face it they're going to do an absolutely rubbish job.
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It's not just the UK, in Germany there is a show called "Verliebt in Berlin"(translates to smittened\doting in Berlin) which is basically the story of a stereo-typically unattractive girl who ends up getting a job in a fashion company. And she's the ye old fashoned frizzy hair, glasses, short, etc. Now, in the US there's a show, called "Ugly Betty" which is basically a rip off.
"If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?"
-Steven Wright
-Steven Wright
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Ugly Betty is actually based off the Spanish version of the show so it sounds like the Germans ripped them off too. 