The team behind the U.K. hit was upset with NBC’s quick cancellation of the U.S. version.
Beryl Vertue, one of the executive producers of both the British and American versions of “Coupling,” is taking NBC’s swift cancellation of the U.S. show in stride, but the veteran producer does object to what NBC entertainment chief Jeff Zucker said afterward.
“We were outraged,” she tells Zap2it.com.
In a Nov. 5 Hollywood Reporter article about Zucker’s appearance the previous day at an International Television Society breakfast panel at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria, the NBC chief is quoted as saying, “Some of our programs just sucked.” “I thought it was a dreadfully vulgar thing to say,” Vertue says, “unless I’m being too British by far.”
In particular reference to “Coupling,” which was yanked off NBC’s Thursday-night schedule before November sweeps, Zucker said, “We didn’t develop the characters well enough. If we had listened to the research, “Coupling’ would not have been on the air.”
These comments led to an angry retort from Steven Moffat, the writer of the British version (and Vertue’s son-in-law), in a Nov. 6 posting at the Web site of BBC America, which airs the U.K. “Coupling,” now going into its fourth season.
“I have no knowledge of the research,” Moffat wrote. “Truth is, I don’t have much knowledge of anything. I was barred, by NBC, from attending the taping of the second pilot, as was Sue (his wife, and “Coupling’ producer, Sue Vertue), and we were told, quite firmly, to take a creative “back seat’ thereafter.
“So! Four episodes in and canceled. Well done at the wheel, guys! See that thing on the horizon over there? That’ll be our fourth U.K. season. See ya!
“Been keeping my mouth shut about this for a while, professional decorum and all that. But with NBC’s shameful backstabbing of its own creative team – a creative team who were hobbled throughout by NBC’s own continual, flat-footed interference – clearly professional decorum hasn’t made it as far as L.A.
“Sometimes shows have to be cancelled. Of course, they do. You can’t argue with the backs of a departing audience. But for the head of a network to announce, in public, that the show “sucked’ – such educated language! – and pretend he’d never liked it … words fail me. But not as badly as they appear to fail him.”
In the Philadelphia Inquirer on Nov. 4, Zucker was also quoted as saying, “It just wasn’t working. It was time to move on. Shows come and go all the time. I can’t take any of it personally.”
In a posting the next day at bbcamerica.com, Moffatt wrote, “U.S. “Coupling’ was commissioned by NBC, promoted as the new “Friends’ by NBC (we asked them not to), promoted as the sexiest show on TV by NBC (we begged them not to), promoted as the “show you’re all talking about’ by NBC (no one had seen it, how could they be talking about it?), scheduled by NBC, noted to death by NBC, cancelled by NBC, and publicly blamed and disowned by NBC.
“Tell me – please, I want to know – at exactly what level of involvement would they take it personally?”
“What I thought was dreadful,” Vertue says, “and what made us so angry was that it completely disowned (the show) and, you might say, laid the blame entirely on the American team. That was very unfair. That’s what made us annoyed.
“I’m not sure how any series could succeed with that amount of publicity and then not appear as the Second Coming. The sex angle was sold to a ridiculous and actually erroneous degree. It’s a show about gender, it’s not a show about sex.”
Vertue, who received an Order of the British Empire for her television work, has a theory why “Coupling,” despite its success in the U.K. and other countries, didn’t translate.
“It’s now over 30 years since I pioneered the format deal in America,” she says, “before people like Jeff Zucker had left school. And those were two huge successes, “All in the Family’ and “Sanford and Son.’ That was because, not only were they terribly good ideas, also Norman Lear was really creative and talented and understood how to do it.
“And the third, most important thing is, he was allowed to do it. He would not accept any interference. That’s what I’ve noticed over the years, this increasing amount of interference in the creative process, to what is now, I think, quite alarming proportions.
“It’s like painting by numbers, everybody’s having a go of it. And “Coupling’ is my personal experience of how alarming and detrimental that interference has become, not just in our program, but in all of them.”
The British “Coupling” has just lost original cast member Richard Coyle, who played the idiosyncratic Jeff.
“He’ll kind of just not be there,” Vertue says of Jeff’s absence. “We’ll see what Steven does, because I haven’t seen it. He doesn’t fall under a train. It’s nothing drastic.”
In his place is actor Richard Mylan, as a new character, Oliver.
“He will probably eventually be one of the gang,” Vertue says. “He’s not sitting on the sofa in the first episode, let’s put it that way. He has to build himself into that group.”
Vertue is also working on transferring another U.K. show, a “quirky” family comedy called “The Savages” to an American network. Asked if it’s for NBC, Vertue says, “No.”
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AP-NY-11-14-03 0944EST
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