Eddy and Patsy are taking on Los Angeles! But in a trend that seems to be sweeping US studios, it’s not the Eddie and Patsy we know and love – they’re now American…Absolutely Fabulous - the hit five-season British comedy series starring Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders that made Chanel, Dior and Lagerfeld household names, had the world calling each other “sweetie darling” and got the Pet Shop Boys back on to the billboard charts - is crossing the Atlantic.
According to Variety.com, Fox is developing a redo of AbFab that will “retain the basic template of the original, revolving around the friendship of two boozy, over-40 best friends who are desperate to stay hip and youthful”.
While Saunders is joining the project as executive producer, we doubt an American duo of fading fashionistas is going to be nearly as funny as the alcohol-soaked, ex-model, beehived Patsy, and the guru-chasing, kaftan-wearing Edina. Isn’t LA full of those sorts anyway?
The US seem to be looking to their UK counterparts more and more for inspiration – or downright plagiarism - and are even reaching as far as Australia for ideas. The upcoming Fall TV schedules in the US include no fewer than three direct copies of shows from other territories: Britain’s The Eleventh Hour and Life on Mars, and Australia’s Kath & Kim are all making their debut – albeit Americanized.
In the past, remakes of this nature have fallen on both sides of the ratings fence, with Ricky Gervais’ The Office becoming an Award ceremony-hit, while Brit favourites Men Behaving Badly and Fawlty Towers (as “Payne” starring John Laroquette) barely made it out the stable.
It could be another case of “lost in translation” but only time – and ratings – will tell.
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