Spaced

One of my favorite television series of all time is a little British number called Spaced. You may not have scene it. There was a brief, lightly censored, run on late night BBC America. But otherwise it hasn't reached America except in the form of bootleg DVDs (a copy of which I acquired a couple years ago).

The stars would be familiar to you. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have garnered a lot of attention for their films, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Those movies, and the series, were co-created by the fantastic director Edgar Wright (see also: the brief comedy trailer, "Don't", during Grindhouse). The show's other noteworthy (and perhaps most significant) creator is Jessica Stevenson, who plays one of the main characters, Daisy Steiner. Daisy is my favorite female character in a series, ever.

The good news is that Spaced is finally getting an American DVD release this year. Hopefully it will contain all the extra bonus material, commentaries, etc., that are found on the British release.

The bad news (as I've just read on Ain't It Cool News) is that Fox is prepping the American remake of Spaced. I know some of you are huge fans of the American Office, so you may not see why this is such a big deal. Like The Office, Spaced is a near-perfect series that ran for two seasons. Any attempt to remake it would surely end in disaster. Unlike The Office, the original creators of Spaced (Pegg, Stevenson, Wright) have not been asked to participate in the remake's creation, in any way.
Perhaps the worst bit of news - the nail in the coffin - is that the remake is spearheaded by McG, a moderately talented director with absolutely no original vision. And perhaps worse than that, he is a grown man who chooses to go by the name McG.

Simon Pegg's thoughts on the remake:
"My main problem with the notion of a Spaced remake is the sheer lack of respect that Granada/ Wonderland/Warner Bros have displayed in respectively selling out and appropriating our ideas without even letting us know. A decision I can only presume was made as a way of avoiding having to give us any money, whilst at the same time using mine and Edgar's name in their press release, in order to trade on the success of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, even professing, as Peter Johnson did, to being a big fan of the show and it's creators."
Full statement.

And Jessica Stevenson's:
"It might make everyone feel better to know that I am planning a counter attack; A British re-make of 'Charlies Angels' called 'Charlies Angles' – about three female architects who love to design buildings make biscuits, and wear button up cardigans. That's gonna hurt you Mc.G huh?– a remake of one of YOUR films with no titties?? Huh??! HUH!!!"
Full statement.

AICN also linked to a review of the remake's pilot script.

Best case scenario: the show is crap, it tanks, and gets pulled off the air as quickly as possible.
Worst case scenario: American Spaced is a mediocre, mildly funny derivative, that manages to squeak out enough meager laughs to stay on the air for a full season, and perhaps subsequent seasons.

Also, I really wanted to be the one to remake Spaced. Being envious of McG is not something I'm comfortable with.

Here's a couple of my favorite sequences from season two of the original. Keep in mind these scenes don't actually play back to back during the episode. They've been edited together for YouTube.


The entire first episode can also be viewed here.