British high-school comedy The Inbetweeners has become one of those rare crossover critical and cult hits; ergo, it’s been a target for an American remake almost since its inception, with ABC trying and failing to get a pilot off the ground two years ago. Now it’s MTV’s turn: Deadline reports that the network has hired Brad Copeland (Arrested Development, My Name Is Earl) to act as showrunner, with original series creators Iain Morris and Damon Beesley on board as executive producers.
MTV’s description of the series as “Superbad meets Freaks And Geeks” probably suggests what they have in mind here—either that, or they’re assuming that it’s the only way American audiences can relate to a storyline about four horny high-school boys who occupy the “inbetweener” social strata, neither cool nor irredeemably geeky—though we suppose it’s better than calling it “The Hard Times Of RJ Berger meets My Life As Liz.” And unfortunately, those recent forays into scripted television don’t exactly argue for the new Inbetweeners’ chances, nor does the rather ignoble history of UK to U.S. conversions (The Office notwithstanding). Also, American basic cable audiences tend to have problems with characters talking about jerking off to their friends’ mothers’ tits and calling each other “cunt.” But really, if the show is even half as funny as the original… actually, you should probably just go watch the original. It's not like it's that hard to find.