Is USA TV Far Superior To UK TV?
 

I now believe that the standard of tv in America is better than the tv shows in Britian, Americans have superb drama/cops/thriller shows like CSI/Miami/New York, Dexter, The Wire, The Shield, Dexter, NCIS, good comedy shows like Two & Half Men, King Of Queens, Scrubs etc, we have The Street(superb), New Tricks(ok), this is programmes on this week, sruggle to think of anything else,and we struggle to make any good new comedy shows, I might be wrong we still make good costume series Cranford etc, would be interested in your views.

They have their fair share of shit too, endless adverts peddling drugs with lightning fast alarming disclaimers and no BBC.

The U.S have the budgets to make big shows, look at shows like LOST, 24, Supernatural, Smallville, Mad Men, Walking Dead, Breaking Bad..etc. The U.K does not have those kind of budgets but we do have fantastic writers. If you look at some of the shows that CH4 have given us in the last few years, UTOPIA, BLACK MIRROR and Dead Set (the latter two from the same writer) and stuff from Sky like Hit & Miss, they are well written shows but do suffer from lower budgets. unfortunately the BBC and ITV still cater to the older generation with shows like the god awful New Tricks, Downton Abby and however many other cop shows/period drama's that they make. the average length for a single season of a network show is 23 episodes at 42 minutes per episode, the average length for a U.K show is 6-13 episodes and they average 60 minutes per episodes, when you look at the shows that try to emulate the style of U.S TV they tend to look cheap, Primeval and Doctor Who, which although they are quite popular, they are essentially kids shows, dinos and aliens. I would say that the U.S is superior in the amount of shows that they have but the U.K is superior in the writing.

Does this make sense?

When they get it right there are some excellent shows such as walking dead, game of thrones and prison break being some of my favorites, however you only have to compare our life on mars series with their so called remake of it to see that sometimes they can also get it very wrong.


That being said do the US viewers have to suffer as much cheap reality bs that we have to endure here?

From the bits I see on Charlie Brooker's shows, it's much, much worse :eek: . . .

Public tv in the States is close to the style of bbc, but the constant add breaks(one wit called American sports coverage "commercials interupted by small segments of sport") would drive me to radio, of wich we brits win hands down.

I also think US TV is better to a degree because it has more money thrown at it but t6he shows seem to be cancelled more then UK shows

No - for the most part, I actually don't think US tv is better. It's certainly different and the US can do certain genres better than the UK e.g action and Sc-fi due to budget. But I think that the US networks with their 24 episode per season structure and five + season arc always tend to spoil it. The story must serve the schedules when it should be the other way around. What may have been terrific in its first season is usually spent by the end - for instance, 24 was a pale shadow of itself by its last season and I don't know that many who thought Lost delivered on the promise it had when it began. The Wire and The Shield are exceptions but I find it hard to finish them and I still cannot; to be honest the one US show I found to be consistently good was Babylon 5.

I am grateful to HBO for Game of Thrones though - that's something the BBC and ITV could never accomplish with their budgets.

As to our shows, I think that we've got some gems - Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes (admittedly, it ended better than it started), Cracker (last couple of episodes are perhaps not the best), Morse and Lewis etc. Waking the Dead had some bumpy mid-seasons, but I thought it ended strongly. I'm also pro New Tricks - it had a terrific pilot and a very good first season.

I think the big question to ask though is why we're not as good as we used to be. There's tons of gems from the 60s and 70s that puts modern tv, both US and UK, to shame: The Prisoner, Sandbaggers, Thriller, Tales of the Unexpected, The Sweeney, Callan etc. Even the late 70s and 80s had productions that could not be rivalled - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and House of Cards.

An interesting subject this.

I think the UK's problem is the lack of money to make new shows. Itv are having troubles due to lack of advertising revenues so nearly always go for the cheap option, be it horrible talent(less) shows or Downton Abbey style shows where the sets are already built with our wonderful history.

The BBC seems to try more giving us Doctor Who, Merlin, Being Human, Atlantis, but are limited again by finance.

I was reading recently that The Mill who did the sfx for Doctor Who and other shows are shutting down their UK operations because of lack of projects in the near future. Unfortunately special effects cost money to look convincing, so again if you want drama then costume, detective shows etc are always cheaper.

As others have said we have great writers in this country and thats why Doctor Who always beats its US competition in the HUGO awards.

All I know is that German TV sucks. :coolblue:

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No..no a million times no. As a North American on this site, I have to say UK tv is much much better.

Or lets break it down a little more. When it comes to sci-fi, the UK rules it.

Comedy UK wins it..we got community but thats about it. Though in all fainess Community is freakin awesome

Drama..you guys wins again

Horror..We may actually have that one with shows like Walking Dead and the new Bates Motel

Straight way I'd say no. A lot of their big shows I find tiresome, Usually the ones that have been cancelled early on or not as big as others are much better. CSI, NCIS, all that is a bit pants really. I think a lot of their shows run too long and pull a plot thin. Two and a Half Men is terrible but I do like the mellow soap style quality about King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond. There are some fabulous shows though, Reno 911!, 30 Rock, The Middle, Arrested Development but then there is the Big Bang Theory which I find terribly boring it seems to suggest that it is a show for nerds but it's not that nerdy and it is more towards mocking nerds yet again, I do believe Arrested development: smart jokes about stupid people. Big Bang Theory: stupid jokes about smart people.

Yeah I don't really get The Big Bang Theory. There's only so much comedy mileage you can get from a character describing an everyday occurrence in deeply scientific terms before it starts to get a bit dull.

Agreed so much so much so much...

But the originakl question is unfair as the two countries are so different in size alone and the UK can be very proud of the vast amount of excellent comedies and stuff like Doctor Who and Being Human, where the US remake does not even reach the toes of the original...

I've watched some very interesting German TV before, mainly documentaries and soft porn :laugh:

I don't get a lot of American comedy - I'll take Coogan, Morris, Linehan et al anyday. I like Uk satire and sci-fi too - Black Mirror and Utopia were great. In terms of the drama greats though America rules. Anyone want to compete against The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Battlestar Galactica, Mad Men, Deadwood, Justified, The Shield, Deadwood, Carnivale and Game of Thrones? Thought not.

Actually your dramas are much better. The sopranos ended horribly, six feet under was depressing and quickly forgotten, battlestar galactic was another disappointment at the end(like Lost). Carnivals was incredibly but never ended.

North American dramas get greedy and go too long until there show gets tarnished.

You have State of Play, House of Cards, jewel in the crown, downton abbey. Etc etc etc...

Still on my no they aren't far superior stance but going back to what I think I said before. A lot of the great US shows are usually the shorter ones, well cancelled. I loved Freaks and Geeks but that only got one series. I think a lot of the big dramas are overrated. I never thought Friends was that great but it was massive, I mean it's okay but that's it. Both Parks and Recreation and Community seem good but we've only just got Parks and Recreation here, no sign of Community unless I've missed it. I wish there was an in-between, some UK series don't last long enough, a lot of US ones are way too long but it's also weird watching some shows because of the amount of advertising in the states there seems to be less content than you would imagine. I think 13 episodes a series would be enough.

Breaking Bad.
Twin Peaks.
Carnivale.
Deadwood.
Battlestar Galactica
Firefly..

I could go on. And I haven't even seen Game of Thrones, Mad Men, The Wire, Treme, and Boardwalk Empire yet.

There's no comparison.

Twin Peaks..6great episodes followed by a series that completely fell apart.
Carnivale...never ended.
Battlestar...extremely over-rated.


You could go on but american tv isn't as good. They spoon feed in the sitcoms and programming. It's just not as good nor as intelligent. The structure is what kills it. The longer seasons and the dumbed down scripts.

You realize it's only by doing the shorter seasons like those done in the UK that they have managed to structure some of these shows tighter.

A good show like Carnivale will be either watered down or cancelled. You mention Firefly, a series cancelled after the first season. And twin peaks a show that was so bungled by the channel that he literally killed off his cast.

American sitcoms are far better than the UK's in my opinion. Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Modern Family are far better than stuff we've produced. I know a lot of people won't agree with that but I'd take those shows over Fawlty Towers, The Office, Only Fools and Horses etc any day

Firefly may have been cancelled, but it doesn't take away the genius of the first season which many choose to revisit. Think replay value.. after all the question is if US TV is better. As for Twin Peaks - it may have gone all over the place in Season 2, but so what? It endures and has an unprecedented cult following and tons of replay value. And Battlestar may be overrated to you, but many people loved that show. My OH and I had a blast with it and flew through all the seasons.

And as for Breaking Bad and Deadwood which you neglect to comment on - astonishing TV.

I didn't mention them because overall I like Breaking Bad and though I own Deadwood I've yet to watch a complete series.

Those few shows do not outweight the idiocy of American television and its far from superior, I haven't seen tv worst than american.

Its a dumbed down ideology. If there is one place and one place only that I find the tv well done it The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

I think the reason we, as in from the UK, rate US tv highly is the same reason British shows gain a north American audience, and thats because we only see the cream of the crop in each case.

We had a show about dogging on TV last night, this argument is void :coolblue:

jerry Springer
Judge Judy
Morton Downey Jr Show
Geraldo
Pink Lady and Jeff
Marvin marvin
Cop Rock
Viva laughlin(yes they actually tried to do Blackpool)
Couplings(American version)
Liz and Dick(worst tv movie ever made)

Checkmate..and thats but a few.

Demdike had the truest post on this thread. We usually only see the best of each others programming.

I'm from canada and we grew up with a mixture of British and American TV and what little Canadian content we had when I was a kid. I never felt my intelligence insulted when watching british tv. The reason American shows that are written even remotely smart get such press is because there are so many very very mind numbingly bad programs.

The original British series is excellent. The best thing Stephen Moffat's ever done imo.

And he squeezed a Dalek into a few episodes. :lol:

One of my favorite..last series was a bit iffy though. Jeff was missed.

Does the US have Father Ted? I think not!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD-fPb87mVA

Just have a try at the pilot for the TV series version of Zombieland and try to honestly say that US TV is superior :pound:

Oh, and we have Quatermass. 70 years to late to the argument but it's good enough to out way ALL US TV OF THE TIME AND NOW on excellence alone. British TV could have been so different if it never existed.

I much prefer US tv, though only the bigger shows, The Strain, Walking Dead, Deadwood, Oz, Brotherhood, Breaking Bad, and so on. However I hate any CSI programme and often wonder why its ok to stand around wise-cracking over bodies that have been raped and butchered.....yet they seem to....like I said I hate them. British tv is still good in parts, Brasseye, Utopia and Jam (most Chris Morris stuff I guess).
If I am honest the BBC(the channel, no a bla...forget it) makes somewhat biased. The notion that in the modern age of tv, where channels can be scrambled, we HAVE to pay for something just turns me off. Make it pay per view if people use it!!! At least give the option.

Is it buggery. Remember that we get the creme de la creme :rolleyes:of US tv over here as well.....

Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian - US cable-TV shows are sped up to squeeze in more adverts

It's a subscription only site, but the article says:

"WHEN Stephen Cox was watching “The Wizard of Oz” on TBS last November, something didn’t sound quite right to him about the Munchkins, who are near and dear to his heart.

“Their voices were raised a notch,” said Mr. Cox, the author of several pop- culture books including one about the classic 1939 film. “It was astounding to me.”

He wasn’t imagining things. Time Warner Inc. ’s TBS used compression technology to speed up the movie. The purpose: stuffing in more TV commercials.

As they contend with steep ratings declines, many top cable networks are jamming more ads into programming to meet audience guarantees made to advertisers and prop up revenue despite falling ad prices.

Tinkering with shows to squeeze more advertising dollars out of them has been done before. Cable networks have long made room for ads by shortening the opening credits. Re-runs of “Law & Order” on TNT have a 24-second opening, in contrast to the original 1 minute, 45-second opening when it aired on NBC.

But speeding up the actual content is a more subtle tactic TV networks use to achieve a higher volume of ads. TBS also has sped up sitcom re-runs of “Seinfeld” and other shows, and sister network TNT has also employed the approach as well. Viacom Inc. ’s TV Land has done the same with “Friends” re-runs.

“It doesn’t look like ‘The Keystone Kops,’ but you can tell by the voices,” said Mr. Cox of the tampered shows.

Cable-TV networks use the more densely packed ads to counterbalance sinking viewership and a stagnant cable ad market. But the growing ad clutter is rubbing advertisers, content owners and Hollywood’s creative community the wrong way.

Marketers worry that an oversaturation of commercials will reduce the effectiveness of their spots and drive more viewers away from watching traditional TV to commercial-free streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon.

“It is important for us to consider the effect this is having on the viewer experience,” said Jackie Kulesza, executive vice president and director of video at Starcom USA. “We want to ensure our message is seen by receptive viewers.”

Commercial clutter increased for many cable channels in December, according to a Nielsen analysis of prime time. A&E Network, which is co-owned by Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Corp., averaged 18 minutes and 39 seconds of commercial time per-hour in prime time, up almost three minutes from December 2013. It sister channel History had 18 minutes and 42 seconds of ad time, up two minutes from the previous year.

Other networks that added commercial time include TBS and Discovery Communications Inc. ’s Discovery Channel and TLC. Many Viacom networks including MTV, TV Land and Spike all have over 20 minutes of non-programming content an hour.

Cable networks haven’t commented publicly on the increased ad volume in recent months. But executives at several companies privately acknowledged that rating declines were the cause.

“It is a way to keep the revenue from going down as much as the ratings,” said a top executive at one major cable programmer. “The only way we can do it is to double down and stretch the unit load a little more.”

Critics say the practice is misguided.

“They are trying to deal with a problem in a way that is making the problem bigger,” said Chris Geraci, president of national broadcast at media buyer Omnicom Media Group of the practice of increasing the commercial loads to make up for declining ratings.

Broadcast networks have boosted their average commercial time per-hour as well but the increases aren’t nearly as large. Broadcast networks and local TV stations also typically have less commercial clutter than cable.

Most of the ad clutter is in re-runs and movies that are a large part of a typical cable network’s schedule. The studios that sell the re-runs are concerned that the glut of commercials and the lower ratings that seem to follow will decrease the value of their shows down the road.

“It has gotten completely out of control,” said the distribution head of one major television studio. “I’m concerned when you look at the performance being diminished and hurt by their running the shows that way.”

Some studio executives say shortening TV shows through compression (speeding them up) could run afoul of contracts between networks and studios. “They are not allowed to do anything to the content. They have to run it in the way it is delivered,” the distribution chief said.

A senior executive at one major cable programmer said the speeding up of shows, which is done by removing repetitive video frames, is usually a last resort. However, the practice, which has gone on for decades, seems to have become more prevalent in the past few years.

“Friends” co-creator Marta Kauffman, already upset at how opening and closing credits are “squashed,” doesn’t like networks tinkering with the running time of shows to add more commercials and compares it to the colorization of black and white movies.

“It feels wrong,” she said. “It is not how it was shot, written or imagined. It wasn’t meant to be that way, so don’t make it that way.”"

ggggrrrrrr! i bloody hate TV adverts and the lack of over all quality in our broadcasting output/actors - I had to delete my original post because i think you get banned for more than 2 bad words in any post!

I would say that for the most part British TV was very much superior in the 80s, but US TV had something of a golden age in the 90s. I'm not terribly keen on either of them these days, though.

Kinda related to the subject topic!

We Asked Americans To Watch British TV Shows – And They Got So Confused | Buzzfeed

Read the wacky comments about:

• University Challenge ("This team can’t possibly be comprised of people named Gillow, Savory, Binnie, and Quinn, right? Oh, it’s their last names.")
• Hollyoaks ("Did that little girl say “chav”? What is a chav? Is that appropriate language for a child?")
• Countdown ("This is like Boggle! But harder. Oh my god. Much harder! WHY IS MATH HAPPENING?!")
• Geordie Shore ("I’ll be honest, I can understand maybe 70% of what these people are saying. Christ, they just played more blanket sex and I jumped.")
• Made In Chelsea ("I barely watched The Hills, but I remember it looking so fake, and this seems even more fake, so I’m not entirely sure this isn’t some utterly clever meta-satire of American reality TV in the 2000s.")
• Take Me Out ("This is like The Voice but it’s like The Date instead. Also, f*** that guy, he’s such a douche.")
• Points Of View ("Is this the most British thing I’ve ever seen? You made a talk show about your quibbles?")
• Grand Designs ("This is definitely the kind of show you watch on a Sunday afternoon while accidentally drinking an entire bottle of rosé. I’m very much into it.")
• Come Dine With Me ("This feels like a show that is trying too hard to be American and overblown. It was so obnoxious and uninteresting that I stopped watching before the 90-second mark.")

Grand Designs ("This is definitely the kind of show you watch on a Sunday afternoon while accidentally drinking an entire bottle of rosé. I’m very much into it.")

I approve of this person :lol:

As above:

We Asked Americans To Watch British Kids’ TV Shows – And They Were Utterly Baffled | Buzzfeed

Including

• The Animals Of Farthing Wood ("Holy s***! What the f***?! It’s been TWO MINUTES and a character is already dead")
• Chucklevision ("This episode of ChuckleVision seems like it will give small children unrealistic ideas of business ownership. How did these men get a storefront? In this episode, why would you open a pet store with no pets?")
• Get Your Own Back ("This is immediately more diverse than any American children’s competition show.")
• Bodger And Badger ("What does this guy think is going to happen when he willingly lives with a badger? THIS IS NONSENSE.")
• Rosie And Jim ("Well, I know what I’m having nightmares about tonight.")
• Knightmare ("Oh, whoa, this takes the time period VERY SERIOUSLY. This is like Dungeons and Dragons but for TV?! And it carries over from episode to episode? That is kind of fascinating. ")
• Byker Grove ("There should be subtitles on this.")
• Postman Pat ("Now this is exactly what I expect from a British children’s TV show: folksy charm, cheery talk of gardens, packages wrapped in brown paper, and adorably handcrafted stop-motion animation.")

Hey, I may loathe myself, but it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm Jewish.
 

Every time I watch Seinfeld or Curb you Enthusiasm I just think,well I do not really think we have made anything as good as this,I mean Im a fan of British comedy but is not much that can touch these two shows.