"You know when you said it went well? Well, when you said well, did you mean shite?" -- Tim, 'Spaced'

TV I was fairly agnostic about the proposed US remake of Spaced because these things are proposed all the time, many of them go to pilot, still fewer to series, and even fewer complete their first year. Like the proposed versions of Life on Mars in the US and Spain which take the original idea and some of the scripts and then transpose them into a different idiom, I just decided it would only work if someone creative was involved and the original creators.

Now, I'm positively incandescent because, get this, the original creators, Simon, Jess, Nira & Edgar are not involved. Apparently in the flow of getting the UK version on air a decade ago, they signed away the international rights. So despite press releases trading on their names and recent successes (well Mr Pegg and Mr Wright's anyway) the original creatives aren't involved. In fact, the whole thing's essentially been boiled down to the basic premise without all of the love and references which made it work.

Suitably annoyed by the whole thing, Simon Pegg has issued a statement, posted on Edgar Wright's MySpace blog which explains their end of the affair:

"You would perhaps hope though, out of basic professional respect and courtesy, we might have been consulted. It is this flagrant snub and effective vote of no confidence in the very people that created the show, that has caused such affront at our end. If they don't care about the integrity of the original, why call it Spaced?

Why attempt to find some validation by including mine and Edgar's names in the press release as if we were involved? Why not just lift the premise? Two strangers, pretend to be a couple in order to secure residence of a flat/apartment. It's hardly Ibsen. Jess and I specifically jumped off from a very mainstream sitcom premise in order to unravel it so completely. Take it, have it, call it Perfect Strangers and hope Balkie doesn't sue. Just don't call it Spaced."

Even though Simon and Jess are going to get some renumeration for their ideas (according to this version of the statement at fan site Spaced Out), I'm still reminded of the Clerks sitcom pilot which was in production and Kevin Smith knew nothing of until Brian O'Halloran mentioned to him on the phone that he'd been in to audition for Dante, the character he'd played in the film. The wikipedia summarises the affair.

Unlike dramas, the premise in a sitcom should never be the most interesting part. It should always be about the quality of the characters and the types of stories you're telling, as the dozens of sitcoms about three boys and three girls that slipstreamed in the wake of Friends demonstrated. Coupling was about the only which worked and that was mostly because (a) Steven Moffat began working on it before Friends came out and it wasn't reactomatic programming and (b) it was about his own friends and therefore an act of love, which all art, however commercial, should strive to be.