Red Dwarf USA

This British series crossed the Atlantic and came very close to joining NBC’s fall line-up in 1992. But the pilot — a close translation of the original British premiere — wasn’t up to snuff. A second “pilot” was put together, little more than a montage of clips from the British series with some additional footage from the American pilot and a few new scenes. And again, the network passed on the series, leaving fans of the cult series wondering what might have been.

First Pilot

In the United States there is a long history of broadcast television buying the rights to British series (mostly sitcoms, or Britcoms) and reworking them to fit an American audience. Many of the most popular sitcoms of the 1970s were in fact based on Britcoms, including Sanford and Son, All in the Family and Three’s Company. But not every Britcom translates into a successful American series.

In 1983 ABC broadcast Amanda’s, a sitcom starring Bea Arthur, based on the wildly popular Britcom Fawlty Towers, created and starring former Monty Python John Cleese. The series lasted for all of three months. More recently, NBC has tried several times to bring British television to the United States, meeting with failure more often than not.

In 2001, three episodes of First Years, based on the British series This Life, came and went with hardly anyone noticing. In 2003, an overhyped version of Coupling was a famous flop. It wasn’t until 2005 when NBC premiered an American version of The Office as a midseason replacement that the network finally found some success with a Britcom. And there have been plenty of unsold pilots based on British series.

Jane Leeves as Holly

But perhaps the most interesting failure in turning a British series into an American series is Red Dwarf, the long-running Britcom that began in 1988. In 1992, NBC decided to turn Red Dwarf into an American series and ordered a pilot from Universal Studios [1]. The creators of Red Dwarf crossed the pond, as did one of the series stars, and the pilot went into production at Universal Studios [2].

There had already been a series like Red Dwarf in the United States, also on NBC. In May of 1977 the network aired the pilot for a goofy sitcom called Quark, starring Richard Benjamin as Adam Quark, the title character. An additional seven episodes were aired from February to April 1978. Quark followed the zany misadventures of a an intergalactic garbage collector and predated Red Dwarf by about a decade. Still, while comparisons between the two programs are valid, they are certainly not the same show.

Red Dwarf focuses on a character named Dave Lister, the sole survivor of a radiation leak aboard his spaceship. After spending three million years in suspended animation as punishment for having a cat onboard, Lister awakes to find himself almost completely alone. His only companions are a holographic representation of one of his coworkers, an android, the ship’s computer, and his cat, which has evolved into an advanced lifeform named Cat.

Cat and Kryten

The NBC pilot was a retooled version of the British premiere, with one large difference. The character of Kryten, the android, was not introduced until 1989 in the British Red Dwarf. In the American pilot, however, Kryten was present from day one. Roughly half of the pilot takes place before Lister is placed in suspended animation, introducing Lister and his relationships with other crewmembers on the ship.

Robert Llewellyn, who played Kryten in the British version, joined the cast of the American pilot as well. The other characters were recast, with Craig Bierko taking over the role of Dave Lister, Chris Eigeman playing Arnold Rimmer (the hologram), Jane Leeves as Holly (the computer), and Hinton Battle as Cat.

As Red Dwarf undertook the transformation from Britcom to sitcom, production ran into several hurdles. First, thanks to the government funding of the BBC, Britcoms typically run for some 28 minutes. Commercial sitcoms on the networks run between 22 and 24 minutes. The pilot script had to be cut down to fit the shortened timeslot. Jokes were rewritten to appeal to American viewers, ruining the dynamic of the original British version. With the opening credits included, the American pilot clocks in at twenty-five and a half minutes, still shorter than the average Britcom.

Terry Farrell as Cat

The powers that be weren’t thrilled with the finished product but were unwilling to give up on the concept. Rather than shoot another pilot, the producers were asked to put together a short “promotional reel” that would attempt to sell Red Dwarf as a workable series. The most significant change? Cat was now female [3].

Chris Eigeman and Hinton Battle were replaced by Anthony Fuscle and Terry Farrell, playing Rimmer and Cat, respectively. Farrell’s cat was sexy and feisty and completely confused by humans. This second “pilot” runs close to fifteen minutes and includes footage from the British series, the first American pilot, and a few new scenes.

Nothing ever came of the American attempts at Red Dwarf. The promotional reel was unsuccessful in prompting sufficient interest in the series and NBC never picked up the series. Instead, Terry Farrell would soon join the cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Jane Leeves would go on to star as Daphne Moon in Frasier for eleven years.

Lister, Cat and Rimmer

Chris Eigeman had recurring roles on both Gilmore girls (2003-2004) and Malcolm in the Middle (2001-2005). Hinton Battle would play the dancing demon Sweet in the musical episode of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer in 2001. And Craig Berko would earn a Tony nomination for his role in “The Music Man” in 2000 before returning to television with roles in Boston Legal (2006-2007) and Unhitched (2008).

As for Red Dwarf, it continued on British television for another seven years. A total of fifty-two episodes have been produced and although it has not been on the air since 1999, the series is apparently still in production by the BBC and a movie version is in the works. All in all, the failure of Red Dwarf to translate to an American sitcom was probably for the best. The original British series has maintained a cult following in Britain and America.

Works Cited:

Back to Articles

Last Updated August 21st, 2008