Are you a UK TV Channel? Can you afford to adopt one of these US TV shows to bring to the love and attention of the UK TV watching public?
Here at GeekTown’s ‘TV Show Pound’, we’d like to introduce you some of the neglected and overlooked US tv shows that could do with good UK homes. Some are just new young pups, eager to please. Others are older, but well-trained. They’ve just been badly mistreated by their previous owners.
Parks and Recreation
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdxkdQ-gmaw]Parks and Recreation is a show that was originally conceived as a spin-off from The (American) Office, and does share some of its humor and documentary style. The show focuses around Leslie Knope (Saturday Night Live star Amy Poehler), as a mid-level bureaucrat working in the parks dept of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana. Despite being on its 4th season, and a swath of Emmy nominations, there’s never been a whiff of a UK broadcaster picking it up. I’ve no idea why. Maybe they don’t think it’ll play well to a UK audience. Maybe they don’t think a comedy set in the Parks and Recreation Dept of a town in Indiana will sell over here. I mean, it’d be as random as setting a comedy in a paper company in Slough… I mean, who’d watch that?.. ;)
Alphas
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iH9mJtB2iA]Alphas started airing in the US back in July. It’s the youngest show on the list, but like the other poor programmes here, currently doesn’t have a UK channel to call home. The premise is part Heroes, part X-Men. It follow a team of 5 people with extraordinary abilities, who work for the government to track down other ‘Alphas’ who have decided to take a rather more criminal route with their powers. Although the show is relatively new, I’m still rather surprised we haven’t had an announcement of a UK channel snapping it up. Alphas is a SyFy Original branded production, and in a recent episode Warehouse 13’s Dr. Calder popped up, establishing the show as being part of the Warehouse 13/Eureka universe. Bizarrely though, it appears that SyFy US doesn’t like to share it’s toys with its UK sibling, and forces it to bid on shows like everyone else.
Chuck
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Ye6dLzp4o]First Chuck has a nice home on VirginOne. Then the people at Sky bought all the Virgin channels, and closed most of them down. Not to worry though, the spread (some) of the programmes around the rest of their network, and Chuck popped up on SkyLiving. Not only that, we were treated to Season 4 airing within weeks of the US air date… That was until they decided to leave an agonising wait of almost 4 months before bringing it back from its mid-season break… Now, according to Sky, they haven’t even bought the 5th and final season of the show, leaving us all wondering what poor Chuck did to upset its new owners. If you’d like to air your feelings on this matter to SkyLiving, here’s a link to their Twitter and Facebook pages…
Breaking Bad
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LOzMtI6RCM]16 Emmy nominations, 6 Emmys won, and a load of other awards and nominations from too many places to mention, I just find it amazing ‘Breaking Bad’ no longer has a home in the UK! Breaking Bad is a show about a high school chemistry teacher who discovers he has cancer. Whilst on a ride-a-long with his DEA brother-in-law, he spots a former student of his fleeing the scene of a raid on a meth lab. He then hits on an idea on how he can pay for his cancer treatment and leave a nice little nest egg for his wife and disabled son when he’s gone. After all… Cooking meth is only chemistry right?..
The first season aired on FXUK, and seemed to do okay for them. They then lost (or gave away) the rights to Five, who decided it should be buried late on FIVEUSA, and run over the course of a week, over Christmas… That was back in 09. Then… nothing. The show is about to embark on its 5th and final season in the US, and there’s still not a hint of anyone in the UK coming to pick it up.
Keep up with the latest developments in UK TV here.
