"British telly has never excelled at this live comedy format, or maybe, depending on your view, nowhere has. Near the end of this month, Sky is launching a UK version of Saturday Night Live, that most revered of American staples and a holy grail for US comedy writers going back to the 1970s."
"The curious question for observers is whether there are things so rooted in their original context they can't be expected to travel. We've seen a lot of this going in the other direction, with disastrous US remakes of British TV shows, such as Skins (cancelled after one season), The Inbetweeners (ditto)."
"SNL is a broad format; if the UK version follows the American original, it'll be a Saturday night show written from scratch every week by a large team of writers plus the 11 comedians who play all the parts, and an opening monologue by a big-name celebrity."
British television has historically struggled with topical sketch comedy shows, while American Saturday Night Live remains a revered institution since the 1970s. Sky is launching a UK version of SNL, prompting skepticism from critics like John Oliver who view it as a poor import idea. However, the format offers potential for success in Britain. SNL operates as a broad format with weekly original writing by large writer teams and rotating comedians performing multiple roles, featuring celebrity opening monologues. Previous US remakes of British shows have largely failed, while British imports to America have been limited to gameshows and reality TV. SNL UK represents a unique experiment that could work if adapted appropriately to British comedy rather than simply replicated.
#saturday-night-live-uk #sketch-comedy #television-format-adaptation #british-comedy #international-tv-remakes
Read at www.theguardian.com
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