So, as you may have heard, the long-rumored U.S. adaptation of the legendary British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous is actually happening. From Dlisted comes the evidence at right, featuring Kristen Johnson (of Third Rock from the Sun) and Kathryn Hahn (of Crossing Jordan!) as AbFab‘s leading ladies Patsy and Edina. Also from Dlisted: Deep skepticism about the project’s potential for success:
They look like two PTA moms who are trying to dress as Patsy and Edina for Slutoween.
Ouch.
Fact: The original and brilliant AbFab was drenched in Jennifer Saunders, a brilliant writer/comic/actress who helped write brilliant scripts that she performed brilliantly. Such writing/performing combinations can result in a writer/performer’s complete and undeniable ownership of a role, and attempting to replicate such a role with someone other than its creator is always risky. (Who knows how much of AbFab‘s sturdy magic came from Saunders’ character as created by Saunders?)
One reason for hope: The evidence supplied by the mighty Joanna Lumley, an actress unaffiliated with the show’s writing that nevertheless took complete ownership of the French and Saunders-created Patsy. Again, who knows how much magic came from the chemistry of Lumley and Saunders and French, but at least we have proof that an actor can spin gold from French and Saunders’ scripts.
Another reason for hope: The executive producer of the American Absolutely Fabulous is Jennifer Saunders. So either she’ll help make the U.S. version hilarious, or we can look forward to the hilarious show she’ll eventually make about trying to make an American AbFab and failing.
In other psychotic-impersonation news, the trailer for HBO’s Grey Gardens—starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange as failed Bouviers/legendary documentary subjects Big and Little Edie—has been released. For now, the HBO production values and added plot components (historical reenactments of what broke Little Edie’s brain!) trump my misgivings about Ms. Barrymore’s ability to disappear into such a role. (That little lisp is hers and hers alone.) On Broadway, Christine Ebersole proved that playing Little Edie could be more than a conglomerated appropriation of affectations, and here’s hoping Drew Barrymore can achieve something similar. (I’m not worried about Jessica Lange; she always does everything right.)
(And check out this awesome promo for the original Grey Gardens.)
Unless they’re going to retroactively set this in the early 90’s, they’re going to have to do some tweaking of the original idea (Patsy and Edina were 60’s burnouts still living the I’m-with-the-band lifestyle; such people are now 60, not 40-something). But who knows, I’ll give the pilot a chance.
One reason to doubt: The final season of Ab Fab was dreadful. While the first three seasons were blisteringly brilliant, the 4th was only so-so, and the 5th, well, for me, is not really watchable. By the 4th season there were too many re-hashed jokes and catch phrases, and the characters seemed to transform from innerly insecure women with a hard veneer of fabulousness to outerly insecure women with only remnants of fabulousness. Perhaps that transformation was intended to come out as the characters aged, but I much preferred the sniping, nasty, fantastic Patsy and Eddy of early Ab Fab. A decade on, my bf and I still regularly watch those episodes.
Another reason to doubt: Much of the charm of Ab Fab was the Englishness – the humor, London location, and English/British cultural references. Maybe JS will translate that well into “American”, but I have my doubts.
There’s another problem with redoing AbFab: they’re too old. The characters are 60s (and early-70s) holdovers from the tail-end of the Ozzie Clark era of fashion in London and was set twenty years later, when the idea of fortyish Champagne-guzzling old slags hanging on to their last gruesome shreds of imaginary hipness.
But now, it’s almost twenty years after that, and the characters are pushing SIXTY. I don’t think anyone’s ready for that level of goulishness; it’s more “Sunset Blvd.” than the King’s Road. Ugh.
The only way they could make it work is to maybe push it forward to the disco era, but judging from the ridiculous (and laughably ahistorical) garments they’ve got on in the photo, they’re not going to get it right. And Jennifer Saunders, genius as she is, doesn’t I think get America.
Besides, wasn’t AbFab already remade here, under the name Sex in the City?
Matt beat me to it. Filobug is also correct. This doesn’t sound promising at all.
My favorite character was Bubbles, but that’s just because Jane Horrocks is my dream woman.
Kind of surprised at the doubting of Drew–she seems pretty dead-on to me.
Drew Barrymore is a much better actress than many people give her credit for. Grey Gardens looks promising. Almost makes me wish I still had cable, though I suppose I’ll be able to rent it eventually if it is any good.
I cannot wait for Grey Gardens. Now I just have to find a friend with HBO. . .
I’m just not convinced this won’t be another failure, even though I loved AbFab.
With the exception of The Office, few BritComs have been ported well to America, because they water them down for the plebes.
I’m right now eagerly awaiting the box set “Absolutely Everything” to arrive in the mail… Hopefully it will be there tonight when I get home… Loves me some AbFab…
And yes, this new “incarnation” will probably be Absolutely Dreadful… But at least Jennifer Saunders is making bank!
This worries me. I can only hope it will be on HBO so it has a fighting chance at being decent. If they put it on ABC or NBC it is really going to be terrible. Best of luck to Ms. Saunders though, I adore her.
@8: “All in the Family” and “Sanford and Son” were pretty successful.
I’ve never been much of a Drew Barrymore fan. I think her range is rather limited, but that promo looks pretty damn good.
@11 – I doubt most people commenting on here were alive when those were running, Fnarf.
We’re talking recent history.
No no no nooo!! No American AbFab!! Jesus Christ, the American Office is unbearably sweet and completely oblivious to the intention of the British version. I will not see AbFab debased like this! Why can’t the US media just keep their fucking hands off things that are perfect as they are?! Aaaaghhh!!! God. This must be how all those star wars nerds felt after the release of the new movies.
I’m worried about it succeeding based on the casting alone. Hopefully they get someone good for Saffy. I love me some Lauren Ambrose. Can’t think of too many other dry, cerebral, non-sexbot young actresses, actually…
The only reason the American version of The Office survived is because it is completely oblivious to the British original. Some network tried to do an American version of Coupling a few years ago. The pilot was almost a word-for-word duplicate of the original, and yet unbelievably terrible. The tragically dull and unfunny cast did not help.
If an American AbFab were to succeed, it would have to be completely different. Unfortunately, I think Fnarf is right and Saunders doesn’t know the U.S. well enough. It’s too bad. The show could go far with Patsy and Edina being washed out ’80s club kids or some such.
Actually, The Office fits this profile exactly. The brilliance of the British version is not just the over-the-top awkwardness (which is pure Brit com), but the fact that I’m pretty sure Ricky Gervais isn’t acting, much like I wasn’t really sure Jennifer Saunders was really acting. If the American version of the Office can catch on (even though I was sure it was inferior) than so can AbFab.
The American Office started off by doing some of the exact same scripts as the original. It was not a success. Only when they let the characters step out and be themselves did they start to take off.
Brit TV also has the advantage of only having to write a small number of episodes — the US version of The Office has already aired something like eight times as many episodes (hmm, 93 to 14; 36 total for AbFab, and only 18 of the good ones), something that I’m not sure a psychologically healthy person could bear to watch of the UK one.
How about a cross between Ab-Fab and Grey Gardens? A mother n’ dot duo piece where they live out delusional lives and find the line between the past and present blurring… It could be a comedy, full of ill-fitting clothing and squashed dreams.
Oh wait, they already did that in Australia – Kath and Kim and it’s exhaustingly weak US remake (slated for cancellation any day now)…
For me, the original AbFab died starting with season 3, which rapidly turned into an out-of-ideas send-up of itself. I’ve always thought that the brilliance of seasons 1 and 2 was a lucky fluke of chemistry due more to incredibly good casting and acting of the other characters, an extremely competent production crew, and particularly good direction by Bob Spiers. Guest-appearances by wonderful actors helped; for example the episode “Hospital” included Mandy Rice-Davies, Helena Bonham Carter, Richard E. Grant, Suzi Quatro, Germaine Greer, a Thunderbirds puppet, and the staff of Patsy’s magazine; just an insane abundance of riches that can’t be duplicated again.
Kristen Johnston has 2 beautiful pit bulls named Pinkie and Stella.
Kristen Johnson is wonderful but this AbFab sounds horrid…They’ve recast Bubble as a sensible, young black woman! uh, no…the only slightly sensible character should be Saffy, and she has a host of other demons to make her interesting…
And, this is NOT for cable, it’s regular tv and it sounds like you won’t be seeing too many drug references in this version…or booze…or sex…or smoking…