Coupling

[Curufea]

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[HeroGM]

Re: Coupling

 

The U.S. tried their own version of it (similar to what they did with Office) and it only lasted 5-6 episodes at most.

[Curufea]

Re: Coupling

 

Likewise Men Behaving Badly and Red Dwarf. It doesn't work if you recast.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Coupling

 

Watching the US version of Coupling -- wretched tho it was -- was highly educational about the difference between US and UK comedies. Most of the dialogue (at least in the pilot) was taken direct from the UK show, allowing for heavy censoring required for US TV. The British show is a smart comedy, where the characters don't know that the audience is laughing at them. But the US version was a sitcom, where the actors deliver their lines as if their characters are in on the joke and are expecting a laugh. Not to say that one is inherantly better than the other (`tho I prefer the former) but lines that are written for one format simply aren't funny in the other.

 

Even the theme music -- Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps -- is emblematic of the, shall we say, conversion problems. The UK show delivered the theme as a playful-yet-sultry torch song. The US version sped it up until it sounded like the Chipmunks.

 

 

But enough film theory and criticism, this is supposed to be a Pulp Hero forum.

 

Converting Coupling into a Pulp game is tricky, because the level of sexual openness that forms the show's core simply didn't exist back then. Even if you set it in the much-wilder Twenties, you'd have to tone that angle down so much that it wouldn't feel much like Coupling anymore.

 

The characters' jobs are tricky, too. With the exception of Jane and Sally, the other four are all office drones. (Oliver ran a sci-fi book store, BTW, but he's not one of the original six.) You could turn Jane into a normal reporter, but I'm not sure that's really her personality.

 

I dunno. Not saying it can't be done, but I don't see how to do it.

[DrVesuvius]

Re: Coupling

 

The characters' jobs are tricky, too. With the exception of Jane and Sally, the other four are all office drones.

 

Not quite. Steve's job is never mentioned. And on a couple of occasions he's out and about in the daytime when the others are at work. Add the fact that he's the viewpoint character, and that he and Susan share the same names as the show's writer and producer (who are a real-life couple) and it's not to far a stretch to say that Steve is a writer (I think Steven Moffat has said as much in an interview).

 

Or you could just make him a vampire hunter :-) In fact picking jobs based on other roles the actors/actresses have played makes a much pulpier mix, with a Defrocked Priest, Government Alien Hunter and a Professional Escort.

 

Oliver Morris unfortunately just fills a Jeff shaped hole left by the departure of Richard Coyle from the show. He's a comic-book store owner.

 

Dr Vesuvius

[Badger]

Re: Coupling

 

The one thing I hate about US comedies is the laugh track in the background of some of them. It either cuts on every 3 or 4 seconds or when something is totally unfunny. Either way you go "Huh? Was that supposed to be funny?"

 

Dont have too much experience with UK ones.

[Curufea]

Re: Coupling

 

Some do and some don't have laugh tracks.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Coupling

 

The one thing I hate about US comedies is the laugh track in the background of some of them. It either cuts on every 3 or 4 seconds or when something is totally unfunny. Either way you go "Huh? Was that supposed to be funny?"

Larry Gelbart made interesting use of the laugh track in his seminal comedy-drama M*A*S*H*. None of the series was filmed before an audience; it was mostly done on a studio backlot, much of it out of doors. They must have had some interesting technical problems recreating the claustrophobic atmosphere of The Swamp on a set large enough for 1970's camera and soudn equipment....

 

The laugh track was inserted afterwards, but much more judiciously than in other series of the era. Most notably Glebart had a policy of never using it during scenes in the operating room, despite the fact that a great many truly funny lines were delivered there.

 

All this allowed Gelbart to make his point -- that when you are caught in a mindless and pointless horror, the most heroic thing you can do is maintain a grip on your own humanity by whatever means neccesary while hoping at the same time to in some small way relieve the suffering around you. This put Gelbart and actor Alan Alda (who took on more and more production responsibilities as the series progressed) at odds with the author of the original novel on which it was based, as well as with the director of the film version, Robert Altman (whose film had come first, and who had absolutely nothing nice to say to anyone involved with the film version.)

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Coupling

 

Not quite. Steve's job is never mentioned. And on a couple of occasions he's out and about in the daytime when the others are at work. Add the fact that he's the viewpoint character' date=' and that he and Susan share the same names as the show's writer and producer (who are a real-life couple) and it's not to far a stretch to say that Steve is a writer (I think Steven Moffat has said as much in an interview).[/quote']

I knew about Steve & Susan being parallel's for the show's writer & producer, but I can't believe I'd never caught that about Steve's job before. Good catch!

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Coupling

 

And I'm wondering what, if anything, all of this has to do with Pulp HERO.

 

Shouldn't this be moved to NGD?

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Coupling

 

And I'm wondering what' date=' if anything, all of this has to do with Pulp HERO.[/quote']

Well, the thread sorta spun off from my Friends 1934 thread, about adapting the show Friends to a Pulp setting.* So I think the original intent was to talk about how to do Coupling in Pulp, rather than just to talk about the show itself. But since Six People Talking About Sex All The Time is tough to translate to a Pulp game...

 

 

* [edit: Which in turn spun off from the Pulparize It! thread...]

[lapsedgamer]

Re: Coupling

 

Well, the thread sorta spun off from my Friends 1934 thread, about adapting the show Friends to a Pulp setting.* So I think the original intent was to talk about how to do Coupling in Pulp, rather than just to talk about the show itself. But since Six People Talking About Sex All The Time is tough to translate to a Pulp game...

 

 

* [edit: Which in turn spun off from the Pulparize It! thread...]

Having seen the show, I wouldn't approach this one for a pulp angle, but I wish you luck with it.

 

Here is a suggestion: How about a pulp spin on LXG with sitcom characters and the personalities that play them taking the place of literary characters. You could include some of the most well known sitcoms, beef up the skills and play the comedy as you choose. You could call The Eccentric Gentleman's Society or something like that.

 

This probably belongs on the Pulparize it thread, but bear with me. Here are some examples:

 

Tim Taylor: Mad inventor. He has resources from his well-known fix-it radio shows sponsored by a major tool manufacturer, but he also likes to play around with weird science. He is not traditionally educated, so he's like an idiot savant Edison. Many of his inventions work, just not always in the way he intended. At other times he can create just the effect he needs, but he can't really explain how he did it. ) Decent INT, Variable Power pool (based on an Inventor skill), High Inventor skill with no conscious control.

 

Cosmo Kramer: Odball hipster/dilletante. Never seems to have a job, but never seems to need one (well-off). Seems to know everyone (lots of contacts). Jack of all trade/ decent INT, some combat ability (he did study esoteric martial arts, briefly). Also a good con man.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Coupling

 

Here is a suggestion: How about a pulp spin on LXG with sitcom characters and the personalities that play them taking the place of literary characters. You could include some of the most well known sitcoms' date=' beef up the skills and play the comedy as you choose. You could call The Eccentric Gentleman's Society or something like that.[/quote']

I like the idea. My only problem is that I watch so little TV I'd have a hard time recognizing -- let alone creating -- characters for it.

[Curufea]

Re: Coupling

 

Little Britain, Frasier, Absolutely Fabulous, Kath & Kim, That 70's Show, Happy Days, to name a few that would be interesting...

[lapsedgamer]

Re: Coupling

 

I like the idea. My only problem is that I watch so little TV I'd have a hard time recognizing -- let alone creating -- characters for it.

 

Yeah, I have a similar problem, but some of these characters are so ingrained in modern pop culture that everyone would recognize them, even if they don't watch a lot of TV. I've never watched an episode of Friends, but I could get what you were doing with those characters. I would probably stick with the obvious ones from shows that became major cultural icons in their time: Cosby Show, Seinfeld, The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, The Brady Bunch.

 

By the way, am I the only one who thinks that Alice form the Honeymooners would make a great DNPC.

 

Alice: Ralph, I'm sure that you're not supposed to cut that wire.

Ralph: Alice, who's defusing this bomb, here?

Alice: Because you know everything about defusing bombs.

Ralph: Alice, I'm telling you...one more time with the comments and Bang, Zoom, to the moon.

Alice: You cut that wire and we'll both be there.