Abstract/Summary

The chapter focuses on the comedy drama "Episodes" (2011-), created by the American writers Jeffrey Klarik and David Crane, and made by the British production company Hat Trick for the BBC (UK) and Showtime (USA). The programme's storyline is based the remaking of a British TV comedy in the USA, as well as having a hybrid identity as a transatlantic production. It can be read as a commentary on the similarities and differences between American and British television cultures. In other words, "Episodes" not only talks about transatlantic television, but self-consciously performs it. Rather than evaluating whether "Episodes" reflects real national differences and similarities, the chapter argues that it is a meta-commentary on deeply embedded myths about the TV of each nation.