Football Wives (Unaired 2007 US Pilot)

tommie

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Alexis

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Yep, with Xena
A while I go I watched a show called Salem and she popped up that in a recurring role as a vampy witch and she was great. She would have made a great soap bitch.
 

tommie

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A while I go I watched a show called Salem and she popped up that in a recurring role as a vampy witch and she was great. She would have made a great soap bitch.

Ooh, I watched that show when it originally aired. Yes, she was great as the villain in that one - from memory it's a good little show with three seasons and had a tied up ending.
 

Michael Torrance

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Well, now of course I have to watch this. At this point my "to watch" list needs two pandemics to be exhausted.
 

tommie

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Well, now of course I have to watch this. At this point my "to watch" list needs two pandemics to be exhausted.

It's one 40 minute episode, so this'll be quickly stricken off your list.

TBH, I can see why ABC passed on this. I think it's down to Americans don't getting camp and probably why this and Absolutely Fabulous can't be translated into US television.
 

Alexis

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It's one 40 minute episode, so this'll be quickly stricken off your list.

TBH, I can see why ABC passed on this. I think it's down to Americans don't getting camp and probably why this and Absolutely Fabulous can't be translated into US television.
Yes the British original is so over the top and camp. It couldn't translate to American TV. I haven't got around to watching the pilot yet hopefully this week.
while I go I watched a show called Salem and she popped up that in a recurring role as a vampy witch and she was great. She would have made a great soap bitch.
Yea, I binged the lot of it fairly quickly. And it was a really enjoyable little show even it was a bit silly. Lucy is great though she needs a good prime time role.
 

Michael Torrance

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Battlestar Galactica? I haven't seen it? My brother has told me it's great. Or do you mean something else?

Yeah. I loved it. While it suffered some problems toward the end, it is still a great series. She was in the last two seasons. Galactica also wrote the book on how you do a reboot in such a successful way that you eclipse the original. If only the peach Dynasty people had read the book.
 

Carrie Fairchild

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I remember being really excited when I heard this was being developed and then really disappointed when I finally saw it. It's just not a good show despite Lucy Lawless' obvious potential as a soap supervillain. When you look at the fact that it was up against Dirty Sexy Money for a "soap" slot on ABC's schedule that Fall, you can see why they opted for the superior DSM.
 

Alexis

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I remember being really excited when I heard this was being developed and then really disappointed when I finally saw it. It's just not a good show despite Lucy Lawless' obvious potential as a soap supervillain. When you look at the fact that it was up against Dirty Sexy Money for a "soap" slot on ABC's schedule that Fall, you can see why they opted for the superior DSM.
And then they tinkered with DSM so much and it became a mess.
 
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Carrie Fairchild

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And then they tinkered with DSM so much and it became a mess.

Completely agree. They ruined it. But when you look at the Football Wives pilot side by side with the DSM pilot, they're like night and day. I haven't watched it in a few years but I remember the FW pilot coming off as tacky. Part of the charm of the UK version was the tackiness as it fed into the campness. But in the US version, the show just felt cheap. ABC also had Cashmere Mafia as a mid-season show that season and while it wasn't great, it looked a lot better onscreen than FW did.
 

Willie Oleson

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Part of the charm of the UK version was the tackiness as it fed into the campness
Despite its bizarre plotlines, it also had a fair amount of grit that made it look a bit more approachable. Whereas the wives in the US pilot look 100% perfect like they do in every soap, the wives in the UK series are trying to look perfect, but you can almost smell the tanning beds when you watch the episodes.
And I think the essence of the Footballers Wives series is that tacky, wanna-be glamour because it was a new kind of glamour. There had been football celebrities before, but not in such pop culture kind of way.
Well...:rolleyes:

But now it could happen to any ordinary guy who played a good game, and their "snack bar" girlfriends had to keep up with these changes.
That's how the UK version feels to me.

In the US pilot it looks as if things are far more established, and maybe it was, considering how they treat their sports heroes. There's not the challenge of adjusting to their new fame and fortune.
 

tommie

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In the US pilot it looks as if things are far more established, and maybe it was, considering how they treat their sports heroes. There's not the challenge of adjusting to their new fame and fortune.

Add that the UK has that whole "WAG" (wife & girlfriend) culture thing going on in their tabloids and it's probably easier there in general for an ordinary girl to actually meet a football (or rather soccer) player at the pub. It just feels more accessible and possible for the "normies" to get into such a situation. Hell, it wasn't that long ago that one of the WAGs accused another WAG in a very public way of selling their private instagram pictures to the tabloids, so the drama almost writes itself.

I'm not sure why they decided to make Gabrielle Union's character a pop star in the pilot of the US version. If anything they should've had the classic tale of an ordinary girl being plucked from the street by a handsome football player and being launched into this world where Xena is the alpha bitch (and maybe they could've added a backstory of her being famous for being in a girl group) and dealing with the tabloids and public falling in love with that fairytale story while Xena and her husband is falling out of favour with the public.
 
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Carrie Fairchild

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I'm not sure why they decided to make Gabrielle Union's character a pop star in the pilot of the US version. If anything they should've had the classic tale of an ordinary girl being plucked from the street by a handsome football player and being launched into this world where Xena is the alpha bitch (and maybe they could've added a backstory of her being famous for being in a girl group) and dealing with the tabloids and public falling in love with that fairytale story while Xena and her husband is falling out of favour with the public.

They followed the UK template quite closely so Donna and Brian (the James Van Der Beek couple) were supposed to be the fish out of water couple in this scenario like Donna and Ian were initially in the UK version. They don't have Page 3 in the US so I'm guessing they made Chardonnay a popstar instead. Although they could've gone the Playboy bunny route. Unless she was supposed to be a hybrid of Chardonnay & Amber from the UK show.
 

thomaswak

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I love the UK version. I own all DVD sets but the last season, that was never released in France.

Over the top, campy to death (and many deaths there are lol) it was obviously to difficult to translate it for American telly.
 
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