Coupling (American TV series)
An American remake of the British sitcom Coupling.
Coupling is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC in 2003. It is a remake of the British show of the same title. The series ran from September 25 to October 23, 2003.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Sitcom
- Based on
- Coupling, Steven Moffat
- Developer
- Phoef Sutton
- Writer
- Steven Moffat
- Paul Corrigan
- Brad Walsh
- Phoef Sutton
- Danny Zuker
- J. J. Philbin
- Liz Astrof
- Director
- Andrew D. Weyman
- Starring
- Colin Ferguson
- Jay Harrington
- Christopher Moynihan
- Lindsay Price
- Rena Sofer
- Sonya Walger
- Theme music
- Osvaldo Farrés
- Opening theme
- "Perhaps
- Perhaps
- Perhaps"
Facts from the source article.
Production
NBC ordered an American version of Coupling, reportedly to fill the gap left by the end of Friends. Steven Moffat and original producers Sue and Beryl Vertue served as executive producers, joined by Phoef Sutton and Ben Silverman. The remake used Moffat’s original scripts, but Sutton adapted them and cut them down to fit NBC’s commercial breaks. Other writers, including Danny Zuker and Paul Corrigan, contributed to later episodes. The first unaired pilot featured Breckin Meyer, Melissa George, and Emily Rutherfurd. NBC then dismissed the writers and recast Meyer, George, and Rutherfurd with Christopher Moynihan, Rena Sofer, and Sonya Walger. George later said she “dodged a bullet” by being let go. Thirteen episodes were ordered, but after bad reviews, NBC canceled the show on October 31, with only four episodes broadcast. The final three planned episodes were never filmed, and six episodes went unaired.
Reception
The show received a dismal reaction from viewers and failed in the ratings, cancelled before the November sweeps with six episodes unaired despite heavy publicity. It was immediately panned as a poor imitation of the original UK series. BBC America ran commercials noting they would play the original British versions just after the American episodes aired, so viewers could see how superior the original was. Miscasting and stilted delivery of nearly identical scripts were believed reasons for the failure, though creator Moffat blamed NBC's intervention during creative and production processes. In 2007 he said: "The network fucked it up because they intervened endlessly." The adaptation came when NBC had success with remakes of BBC shows like The Weakest Link and Dog Eat Dog; NBC later found success in 2005 with a remake of The Office, which aired nine seasons. Two NBC affiliates refused to air the program due to indecent content: KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, owned by Bonneville International of the LDS Church, and WNDU-TV in South Bend, Indiana, owned by a University of Notre Dame subsidiary. In those markets, WB affiliate KUWB and a UPN digital subchannel of WSBT-TV aired the series after network primetime, while nearby affiliates KENV and WISE-TV aired it as per the rest of the network. Jeff Zucker, former NBCUniversal president and CEO, later said of Coupling that it "just sucked".
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