America takes a Peep
C4 sitcom gets US pilot
Peep Show has become the latest British comedy to be snapped up by American TV.
The Fox network, home of The Simpsons, has given the go-ahead for a pilot based on the cult Channel 4 show, in which the audience hears the characters’ inner thoughts.
It will be produced by Carsey-Werner, whose hits include 3rd Rock From The Sun and Roseanne.
But the company has had mixed success with other British imports. It created a short-lived version of Men Behaving Badly for NBC – and more successfully adapted One Foot In The Grave as a Bill Cosby vehicle, though it bore only passing similarities to the original.
The Peep Show remake will be headed by Jeff and Jackie Filgo, the producers responsible for That 70s Show, Hollywood trade paper Variety reports.
Pitched as a modern-day Odd Couple, the show will be developed for possible broadcast late next year or early in 2006.
The original series, which recently won a Golden Rose for best European sitcom at theLucerne international TV festival, is currently being aired in the US on BBC America.
Its second series has just started on Channel 4, but despite critical acclaim Friday’s episode could only draw 1 million viewers, or just four per cent of the audience.Published: 30 Nov 2004
