Lords of risky programming
London — Meet the Kumars. They're in the process of immigrating to the U.S., where they'll change their family name to Ortega.
Like so many immigrants before them, they carry a burning desire to fit in and strike it rich in America. They also want to bring along a little something from the home country: a hotly coveted crossover TV show concept.
Thus "The Kumars at No. 42," a bizarre British talk show in which real guests interact with fake hosts, will become "The Ortegas" when NBC restages it for American audiences.
When it comes to TV, Anglo-American trade is flourishing, with envelope-pushing British programmers dishing up ever more peculiar fare and their U.S. counterparts unabashedly snapping it up quicker than you can say "risk-averse."
The Brits, NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker freely admits, "are a great farm team."
Look what else they're cultivating here on the farm these days:
"The Office," which recently ended its run on BBC2, centers on a group of colleagues in a stationery company, going about their mundane workday, flirting and rejecting co-workers' advances as they break for tea, stealing Post-It notes, fighting vicious rounds of cubicle politics, and being trapped into baby-sitting a boss as he blows notes on a beer bottle while the rest of the staff has headed to the pub.
It looks like a documentary, has no laugh track and no obvious jokes. Rupert Gavin, chief executive of BBC Worldwide, the public broadcaster's commercial arm, frankly calls it weird. Yet it has won top awards recently as Britain's best sitcom. It's been so popular that the BBC sells a book of the scripts, side by side with cookbooks from its TV chefs. Americans will be able to decide for themselves in January, when it will air on cable's BBC America channel.
The upcoming drama "Grease Monkeys," as dark and as politically incorrect as "The Sopranos," portrays the world of a dishonest, drug-fueled South Asian car mechanic in Manchester. Mal Young, BBC's controller for drama series, calls it "racist, sexist, homophobic. It challenges every preconception." It's too early to say whether it will travel to the U.S.
The current much-hyped production is the BBC's "Fame Academy," a Friday-night talent contest with an element of "Big Brother." Aspiring stars have moved into London's biggest private mansion, Witanhurst House, which has been wired with cameras so viewers can spy on the drama and endless practicing leading up to each week's sing-off. Contestants are booted each week.
