Good that MacSimoin brought up 'Allo 'Allo...it actually aired on a COMMERCIAL TV station here in Chicago, not on a PBS station. WGN picked it up and I can only guess that it was because the local FOX affiliate was having success with Benny Hill at the time and they figured that another English import full of double entendres would fare as well as ol' Benny.

It's a well known fact that American producers have churned out American versions of Brit-coms...Steptoe/Sanford, All In The Family/Till Death, etc....with varying degrees of success. Are there any show concepts that went the other way and met with any acceptance? I'm aware of the Friends/Coupling/American-disaster-version-of-Coupling business...were there UK versions of The Dick Van Dyke Show or Mr. Ed? I wouldn't be suprised if these were shows that we didn't hear about. Just curious on this point.

I recently had to look up the title of the US sit-com that was about a young man who inherits an inn in New England and finds out that not only is he the heir of Victor Frankenstein but that the Monster is the handyman at the inn...anyone else remember this one? It was called Struck By Lightning and I remember it because Jack Elam, the great character actor, played the Frankenstein Monster...with little or no additional make-up, I might add. And, if I remember correctly, this was pre-Young Frankenstein. As we discuss UK TV series, this concept seems like it might have had more success had it been done "over there" rather than "over here"...it bombed but probably because it was too conservative in its approach...in other hands it might have become one of those classics that we're discussing....

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