Red Dwarf - US Pilot - Part 1

A pilot episode for an American version (known as Red Dwarf USA) was produced through Universal Studios with the intention of broadcasting on NBC in 1992.The show essentially followed the same story as first episode of the original series, using American actors for most of the main roles: Craig Bierko as Lister, Chris Eigeman as Rimmer, and Hinton Battle as Cat. Exceptions to this were Llewellyn, who reprised his role as Kryten, and the British actress Jane Leeves who played Holly. It was written by Linwood Boomer and directed by Jeffrey Melman with Grant and Naylor onboard as creators and executive producers.

During filming of the pilot the audience reaction was good and it was felt that the story had been well received.

The studio executives were not entirely happy with the pilot, especially the casting, but decided to give the project another chance with Grant and Naylor in charge. The intention was to shoot a 'promo video' for the show in a small studio described by the writers as 'a garage'.New cast members were hired for the roles of Cat (re-named Woo-fen) and Rimmer; Terry Farrell and Anthony Fuscle respectively. With a small budget and deadline, new scenes were quickly shot and mixed in with existing footage of the pilot and UK series V episodes. Despite the re-shoots and re-casting, the option on the pilot was not picked up. (Farrell was cast almost immediately afterwards for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.)

As a result, the US pilot exists and has been heavily bootlegged but it has never been broadcast on TV in any country.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Red Dwarf
• Red
• Dwarf
• USA
• Comedy

[keshihead85]

americans spoil everything

[emiingham]

Ha made me laugh so much!! Deffo prefer the English version :)

[Saskatchewan00]

@TheSnappySneezer It's always great talking to Americans who are into their English TV shows. Have you ever seen Black Books? But yeah, I wasn't having a pop at Americans - Americans are great. That's just my weird scouse humour shining through. Hahaha.

[nanotubules]

WTF where is the crew other than Criton???

[TheSnappySneezer]

@Saskatchewan00 I watched the original one and others did on PBS. Same goes with Life on Mars, Being Human, Office, etc... They still tried to remake them despite US popularity and exposure to the originals.

[Ellimation360]

Awful story, bad jokes, unnecissary dialouge, bad acting, horrible picture quality, bad continuity, In short; READ THE TOP COMMENT!/keshihead85's comment

[Saskatchewan00]

Why couldn't they just watch the proper Red Dwarf? Bastards.

[shinraninja]

picture quality sucks

[ivorbigonee]

awful

[BluEngi]

Joke recycling much?