Friday Night Dinner gets a second course in the US with new remake
Creator Robert Popper is to team up with CBS two years after a failed attempt at a remake by NBC
If at first you fail, then try, try again. Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner is to be given a US remake by CBS - two years after a remake by NBC was not picked up by the network.
The comedy, which stars Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal as sons who must suffer through dinner with their eccentric parents every Friday night, has been commissioned as a pilot. Creator Robert Popper will be writing the script as part of a two-script deal with Warner Bros TV.
According to a report from Deadline, the intention of CBS is to keep the single-camera nature of the series, "infused with comedy and heart in the vein of ABC’s Modern Family," though the pilot is still in early stages and a multi-camera format has not been totally ruled out.
In 2012, NBC remade the show with The Office developer Greg Daniels writing and executive producing a pilot starring Allison Janney and Tony Shalhoub. It didn't get picked up as a series, however.
Around that time, Popper said that any US remake would have to keep "the principles of what [the original series] is".
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"Hopefully it'll be good - the hard thing is you want to keep the comedic voice, so it's not so different that it doesn't feel like the show," he said.
Friday Night Dinner premiered its third series on Channel 4 in June.
