TVSquad

Variety has an excellent article up about Hugh Laurie's comedic roots in Britain, a genre Laurie excelled at long before he took the lead dramatic role of the dour doctor in House.

Being a fan of Britcoms (particularly those of the 80's), this is the Hugh Laurie I remember. He was even mocked in the Brit satire series Spitting Image in the early 90's for being typecast as a rich, stupid person (In his defense, only his two most famous comedy roles, Prince George of Blackadder The Third and Bertie Wooster of Jeeves and Wooster, were bumbling members of the upper class).

While medical dramas are not my cup of tea, House suffers from an even bigger handicap on my part because whenever I see him on the screen, I flash to Blackadder or A Bit of Fry and Laurie (or even his cameo in The New Statesman). With that in mind, I promise right now that if his old comedy partner Stephen Fry appears on House (as suggested in the article), it would be enough to make me watch the show.

Oh thank God. Paris Hilton is going to England to try and find a new best friend for her reality television show Paris Hilton's My New BFF. Now, rather than subject us to her vapid, debutante antics, she'll be doing the same thing across the Atlantic where they're more used to that sort of behavior.

You know, this is quite an honor for some lucky Brit. There is nobody more loyal, caring and understanding as a friend than Paris Hilton. Just ask Nicole Richie.

Last year, after multiple recommendations from my English friends, I got around to watching a few episodes of The IT Crowd. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to all the wild hype generated by my buddies, but something did stick in my mind... The crazy-haired, nasal Moss character, played by Richard Ayoade. There was something wonderfully weird about him and, since I was so intrigued by his strange voice, I decided to look him up. Well, as it turns out, his usual voice is really that weird and nasal, which just made him a million times more better in my mind. In fact, Ayoade's the only cast member who has been carried over from the original version of The IT Crowd to the American adaptation, reprising his role as Moss.

You may not know this, but every show on television right now is a remake of a British show.

Okay, that's not entirely true, but some of our biggest hits right now are recycled versions of shows which have already aired, grown tiresome, and been discarded by audiences in Great Britain. Shows like Dancing with the Stars and Hit Me Baby One More Time which are garnering huge ratings here only raise the ire of our pals across the pond who have grown sick of shows merging "reality" with celebrities. Nevertheless, that's exactly what American audiences seem to be craving, thus a weird kind of yin-yang relationship has formed between the British and American television industries whereas we love what they hate and they pretty much ignore us and make groundbreaking shows for us to steal. Seems fair enough, since we've already stolen All in the Family, Three's Company, Sanford and Son, Coupling, The Office, and American Idol, just to name a few. I'm pretty sure we stole the World Series from them, as well.