Wilfred

2 comments on Hacker News

1. NeutralWorldMakerSep 22, 2022

   That kind of thinking still exists. The most recent example I can think of is Ghosts on CBS as the US version of the UK Ghosts. CBS' streaming service (Paramount+) will even recommend the UK original and you can compare them side-by-side.

   (Another somewhat recent example to mind was FX's Wilfred as the US version of the Australian Wilfred TV show. Hulu picked up the Australian show so that you could compare them side-by-side. For streamers this is easy content recommendations.)

   TV and Movie executives are always looking for "low risks" and "proven formula" will always be a way to lower risk. Shows and movies from the same originating country get "rebooted" all the time. Doing a fresh take across cultural boundaries is interestingly a higher risk as studios try to figure out if the original premise has legs in the new country. Some of what we see is survivorship bias: The US Office was huge so that gets mentioned a lot. But there were a lot of similar attempts that never made it past the pilot because the risks were too high or it just didn't seem to work or whatever.

   Off the top of my head, similar to this US IT Crowd pilot there are also "lost" pilots you can find for US Doctor Who and US Red Dwarf. The fascinating thing about both of those attempts occurred during different points of the height of the PBS/BBC partnership. Up until about the late 90s/early 00s PBS was the most common importer of BBC programming from the UK. (That shifted when the BBC decided it could be a stronger revenue stream, starting chasing bigger bids from US cable channels, and then eventually cofounded the BBC America cable channel.) At various points in time PBS' biggest audiences tuned into Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, and Blake's 7 (among others on the sci-fi side of their programming), so even in the "old" TV era these US attempts knew there was some pre-existing audience familiar with the original UK shows through PBS at the time. So streamers have exactly created that as a "new" idea or new thinking so much as shifted the economics of it. (PBS was public funded and not making a lot of money for how popular its showing of UK shows were. Streamers are all big for-profits that use multi-cultural content for moats around their subscription fees. Including BBC America's current home AMC+.)

2. NeutralCalRobertApr 14, 2017

   Bizarrely, about the nicest commute I ever had was to El Segundo. I lived in Santa Monica by the beach, and worked in El Segundo by the beach (crappy job but that's a different story).

   It was a 13 mile cycle down the beach, with the terrible exception of Marina Del Rey, where you had to go inland.

   I saw bonfires every Friday after work; an episode of Wilfred being filmed; and once even a pod of Dolphins swimming along and jumping out of the water as I cycled along this unusual formation: https://goo.gl/maps/WXaZm1Kb5Lu (long and narrow with water on either side). I saw numerous beautiful sunsets, drum circles in Venice beach, homeless encampments waking up for the day (I always liked the idea that the homeless at least got to sleep with a ten million dollar view), and the occasional tallbike. Of course, my own recumbent got a fair amount of attention.

   This all took about 50-55 minutes. The drive down 405 was 40-50 minutes by comparison.

   All the while I inhaled loads of particulates, no doubt, and my rib still hurts from the crack put there by an inattentive driver for the 1 mile stretch between my apartment and the beach. I got screamed at the few times I tried to cycle down Lincoln, and one guy got out of his car and threatened to punch me. I was buzzed too many times to count by gigantic brodozer SUV's and lifted pickups.

   Man, I usually say I hate LA but those 8 months of commuting were amazing. I really wish I'd gotten a helmet camera. Paradoxically every commute I've had since has been under 10 minutes and kind of dull. At the risk of being melodramatic I weep to think of the city it could've been.