Editorial Staff
Looks like NBC’s latest attempt to bring Brit hit “The IT Crowd” to US lounge rooms is going to come off this time.
They’ve attempted a couple of times to American-ize the Channel 4 comedy but, it seems, without the right operating system. There’s a flicker of hope now, with original “IT Crowd” creator Graham Linehan onboard. Might the original shepherd be the key to getting it ‘right’? (again).
According to Variety, Linehan will write and executive produce the US version, with Patrick Daly and Jon Rolph, who runs FremantleMedia UK’s Retort producing. Like Linehan, Rolph and company were onboard the original so would seem to know which chord goes in what to get this working.
The Universal Television production will, like the original, fix on two computer geeks and their boss. The original starred Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson and Matt Berry and ran for four seasons. A fifth season was in the works but didn’t come off, but the show was concluded via a special one-off single episode.
NBC attempted a version in 2007 with Joel McHale, Jessica St.Clair and Ayoade that was infamously bad. Another version, produced by Warner, had “Scrubs” creator Bill Lawrence onboard.
NBC scored a critical and commercial success with the U.S incarnation of “The Office”, and largely because they incorporated much of the brass from the original Brit version, so fact they’ve gone the same route for their “IT Crowd” adaptation suggests they might be on the right path. And if not they’ll just wipe it, do a clean install and try again, right?
