Originally posted by TAYLORJNG: More slaps in the face towards Zucker:
“I can answer that with three letters: N-B-C. Really good cast, really good writing team, the network totally f***ed it up. You want a show to be funny? Get somebody other than Jeff Zucker and his team because they will f*** it up. There, that’s the end of my career in LA.”
-- Steven Moffat, a writer and producer on the successful BBC version—and demonized NBC version—of “Coupling.”
For a show that was f***ed up by the network, I still liked NBC's "Coupling" a lot. Thought it was one of the most underrated comedies of the past decade. Mother Zucker and team's interference was palpable (and one cast change -- Emily Rutherford to Sonya Walger -- was inexplicable), but if the remakes didn't turn out that good, the original episodes (most of which didn't air on NBC) were all very funny.
Moffat was right; the cast developed some great chemistry very quickly -- the kind of chemistry "The Office" has yet to develop after 2 years.
One reason the remakes didn't turn out very good was a last-minute decision from Zucker that the episodes couldn't run longer than 19 minutes (so he could give several minutes of the airtime over to "Will & Grace" and "ER"). 19 minutes. They had to cut the hell out of the early shows... and it showed.
Originally posted by Riff Rafferty: Moffat was right; the cast developed some great chemistry very quickly -- the kind of chemistry "The Office" has yet to develop after 2 years.
The whole fun of The Office is that they aren't supposed to have chemistry - just like a real office workplace. That's what makes the show so good.
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Posts: 5919 | Location: Chicago, IL | Registered: 20 September 2006
Originally posted by xwiseguyx: The whole fun of The Office is that they aren't supposed to have chemistry - just like a real office workplace. That's what makes the show so good.
Good point. And just like a real office workplace, the show has no laughs, either.
