ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News, this is NPR News. I'm Robert Siegel.
"American Idol" is the most popular show on television program in America, and it's an adaptation of a British show. It's not alone. Plenty of other hits came here from the U.K., including "The Office" and the cable drama "Queer As Folk."
Commentator Andrew Wallenstein has this warning, though, for Hollywood TV executives. Recycling another country's hit shows doesn't always end well.
ANDREW WALLENSTEIN: There's a rich history of shows that succeeded in the U.K. only to get lost in translation on our shores. You may not even remember titles like "Coupling," "Viva Laughlin," "Life On Mars," "Kath & Kim," "The Eleventh Hour." Stop me whenever you'd like.
But all that failure isn't discouraging anyone on this side of the Atlantic. The new CBS reality show "Live To Dance" was derived from the U.K., as was another new Showtime comedy, "Shameless." Next week come two more imports, "Being Human" on Sci-fi and "Skins" on MTV.
(Soundbite of television program, "Skins")
Unidentified Man #1 (Actor): (As character) I was at a party last weekend, and somebody offered me a marijuana cigarette.
WALLENSTEIN: It's a risque romp about troubled teens, and it was quite controversial in its home country.
(Soundbite of television program, "Skins")
Unidentified Woman #1 (Actor): (As character) Sid's going to be looking after you tonight.
Unidentified Woman #2 (Actor): (As character) Oh, yippee.
Unidentified Man #2 (Actor): (As character) And Sid has got a whole bag of drugs.
Unidentified Woman #2 (Actor): (As character) That's so nice.
WALLENSTEIN: The U.S. has been pulling shows out of London since the '70s, even some bona fide classics like "Sanford & Son," which was first known as "Steptoe & Son."
(Soundbite of television program, "Steptoe & Son")
Unidentified Man #3 (Actor): (As character) If you don't shut up, I shall ram this shuttlecock straight up your carver and set fire to the (unintelligible).
(Soundbite of laughter)
WALLENSTEIN: The reason the U.S. TV business has been looking overseas more in recent years is, as the number of channels multiply, it's harder to find truly fresh material. And as competition intensifies, executives get more risk averse. If a show does well overseas, it seems a safer bet for investing in reproducing it here.
(Soundbite of television program, "Episodes")
Unidentified Man #4 (Actor): (As character) My fantasy is I wake up tomorrow, and I've got your show on my network.
Unidentified Woman #3 (Actor): (As character) Wow, that is very flattering.
WALLENSTEIN: That's a scene from "Episodes," a timely new Showtime comedy about a fictional pair of British TV writers who see their British show adapted and then destroyed by the American TV business.
(Soundbite of television program, "Episodes")
Unidentified Man #5 (Actor): (As character) It could be like "The Office" meets our show?
Unidentified Man #6 (Actor): (As character) Yes.
Unidentified Man #5: (As character) But no farming this one out to some American writers I want what's in these amazing Britishy heads.
Unidentified Woman #4 (Actor): (As character) Us, come to LA?
WALLENSTEIN: Just think about how unconventional something like "The Office" is. Shot as a faux documentary without a laugh track, that's British TV for you. Lots of creative risk-taking. But as a show like "Episodes" satirizes, there's a thin line between risk and ruin.
SIEGEL: Andrew Wallenstein is the senior editor at Paid Content.