Speaking at a “Visionaries” session at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival with the European bureau chief Scott Roxborough (via The Hollywood Reporter), Steven Moffat, known for his tenure as Doctor Who showrunner, Sherlock, and most recently, the ITV comedy-drama Douglas Is Cancelled, looked back at one of his earlier creative ventures, Coupling, and the issues associated with developing a British sitcom for American television.
Inspired by the early stages of his relationship with now-wife Sue Vertue, Coupling ran for four years, twenty-eight episodes, and was famously picked up by NBC for U.S broadcast. The adaptation, after launching in 2003, failed to find traction, and half the series was abandoned. Moffat was asked for his two cents on what went wrong, and this is what he had to say:
“When you’re comparing a massive, mainstream, brilliant NBC hit to a BBC Two sitcom from Britain, they are not the same thing,” he said. “If you try to remake Coupling on the assumption it’s exactly like Friends, you’re going to end up with the wrong show.”
When pitched the question of whether he’d be tempted to up sticks overseas, Moffat said he was content with living in the UK, and conceded the experience with Coupling left him feeling unenthusiastic. As the discussion steered onto the wider field of American television, the Joking Apart writer lauded the U.S. for creating “amazing, amazing television.”
However, Moffat and Vertue share one criticism of the American television production system. “One thing that frustrated Sue and I a little when we were involved in that was you talk about more money — we were gritting our teeth and saying, ‘Stop spending so much. You don’t need to’,” he said.
“The more money you spend making that show, the more likely you are to disappear. If you can be an economically viable, modest hit or modest success, you’ll survive. If you’re just throwing money saying, ‘Oh, never mind, we’ll fix it in post,’ well, it costs money to fix it in post, so sometimes being … able to make economic shows is not a bad skill.”
