Mediaboss Marketing

August 13, 2012 10:25

MTV remake will also contain storylines "tweaked" from the original British TV series

The US version of The Inbetweeners will feature "made up" swear words, the show's executive producers have revealed.

MTV's remake of the hit E4 sitcom - which relocates the action from Rudge Park Comprehensive to a typical American high school - premieres in the US on August 20. Last month (July), a trailer for the remake appeared on YouTube, prompting an angry response from fans of the original British TV show.

Commenting on YouTube, one fan predicted that the US remake will miss the distinctive British vocabulary from the original, writing: "It just doesn't translate....twat...knob....clunge....div....shag....bollocks...all staple phrases of English humour, almost completely absent from the American vocabulary, which, let's face it, made the characters who they were! Total shite!"

However, in an interview with Collider, executive producers Aaron Kaplan and Brad Copeland have insisted that the remake retains the show's trademark rudeness. Kaplan explained: "Well, America likes to be offended as well. Like anything else, it's a challenge.That's one of the things that Brad and I and MTV loved about the original.In spite of how offensive it could be, it was incredibly sweet.We made up a lot of original words that we can get past standards."

Copeland also revealed that the remake will feature a mix of completely new scripts and storylines based on the original British TV series. He explained: "With [our] first season, out of 12 episodes, six borrow skewed versions of their plots. We have plots that we really enjoyed from the series, that we wanted to put in, but we had to tweak them a little bit just to fit in with the American sensibility."

However, if the remake gets renewed for future seasons, Copeland predicted that it will become less reliant on the original. He added: "I think the six episodes that we did on our own this season worked really, really well. It definitely gave us a launchpad to now transition into our own story, and to take these universal themes and characters from the original British version and make it our own, somewhat like The Office did."

The original British version of The Inbetweeners, starring Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Joe Thomas, ran for three seasons as an E4 sitcom before spawning a spin-off film. In June, it was reported that the show's British creators are now producing an American teen film "inspired by" The Inbetweeners Movie.

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'The Inbetweeners' US remake to feature 'made up' swear words