USA wanted to remake Please Like Me

When US youth cable and digital network Pivot launched in 2013 with Josh Thomas comedy Please Like Me, it was a huge win for the creator and star, producers Pigeon Fancier and the ABC.

But it very nearly was a much different version that was going to hit screens.

Executive Producer Kevin Whyte speaking recently at Screen Forever said, “It was going to be a remake initially, and they didn’t have the time. Basically, they wanted it to premiere as part of their launch. So we ended up with the help of some partners in America, pushing them towards, ‘Let’s just buy it.’

“We probably would have had Josh performing it…. but we would have been twisting ourselves in knots for a reason because the character is all of a sudden in America. You know, like he’s a college student or something.”

Executive Producer Todd Abbott recalls it was Thomas’ comic voice that appealed to the Americans.

“One of the things that consistently kept coming up was the way that Josh was writing that show, and some of the things that we did in that show were just things that were not happening on American television,” he said.

But amongst their odd notes was a request to lessen the bulge in the underpants of co-star Thomas Ward.

“The American network thought it was a bit too risque for them,” Abbott recalled. “That was probably the biggest difference we had. ”

Kevin Whyte agreed, “There were a lot of conversatios about bulges, and a lot of conversations about lube.”