US Gavin & Stacey remake - first trailer released
New three-minute promo reveals Us & Them to be shot-for-shot remake of hit BBC3 sitcom
The first trailer is out for Us & Them, Fox's remake of the hit BBC comedy Gavin and Stacey – and it seems the Americans have followed the maxim, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
The three-minute promo teases an opening episode that seems to be a shot-for-shot remake of Ruth Jones and James Corden's British original, with New York pharmaceutical copywriter Gavin (Jason Ritter) explaining to his parents Pam (Jane Kaczmarek) and Michael (Kurt Fuller) that's he's been romancing a woman called Stacey (Alexis Bledel) online and is about to meet her for the first time.
It's all there: the meeting in a public square, with Gavin and Stacey accompanied by their brash friends, who then hook up; Stacey being handed a rape alarm by her uncle before she sees Gavin; and Gavin travelling across the country for a surprise second date. Even the names are almost all the same, with Ashlie Atkinson playing Nessa and Kerri Kenney as Gwyn – although Uncle Bryn becomes Uncle Brian (Michael Ian Black) and Smithy is now Archie (Dustin Ybarra).
One thing the US show can't replicate is the unique tone of a family from Essex and another from Wales, but they look like they form a fairly familiar city folk v country hicks contrast.
US & Them has been announced as part of Fox's fall line-up but will not debut until mid-season, which means it will actually be shown in early 2014. A BBC Worldwide co-production, it credits Jones and Corden as executive producers along with Steve Coogan and Henry Normal from original production company Baby Cow.
See the trailer below.
