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Here's a transatlantic TV thing that amuses me:
'Dear John' was a really not-too-bad BBC sitcom in the 1980s, written by John 'Only Fools and Horses' Sullivan, about a newly divorced man, and the people he meets in a support group for divorcees.
It doesn't sound like a setup rife with comic potential, but it had its moments, some of them comic (one woman in the group, when sharing details of the problems in her marriage, suddenly blurts "My husband used to dress up as a gladiator and make me play hoopla with doughnuts", or words to that effect), and others oddly touching (for example, when a 'ladies man' from the group is revealed to live at home with his mother and be deeply unhappy).
Quite a good little show, I think there were two series, and then the star, Ralph Bates (who starred in the Hammer film 'Doctor Jekyl and Sister Hyde') died, so that was that.
The rights to re-make the show were then sold to the USA, where it was duly remade with Judd Hirsch in the lead role. Much of the sharpness of both the lines and the characters was removed, and it suffered as a result, and IIRC it lasted for perhaps one series (I'm open to correction on any of this).
And this is where it gets silly - the BBC then bought the rights to show the RE-MADE version, and broadcast it as 'Dear John: USA'.
You have to wonder why...
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ANITA PALLENBERG