A rather amusing video popped up on the Internet's neverending series of tubes earlier this week: one of Hugh Laurie's early acting gigs as a rather rude person.

Laurie plays the world's worst customer service clerk in this instructional video opposite Jennifer Saunders, star of Absolutely Fabulous and one-half of the comedy duo French & Saunders, called How to Lose Customers produced by John Cleese's Video Arts company. Laurie not only becomes the rudest clerk since the dark days of Service Merchandise, but Saunders becomes one of the few people to successfully put the overbearing House in his rightful place.



[via Fark]

Remember that American version of Absolutely Fabulous that Fox was so high on? Well, they are high no more. Fox has passed on AbFab after viewing the pilot. Now while I am not the kind of person to be happy about someone else's failure, this is an instance in which I'm thrilled that this show is going nowhere.

After seeing how some UK shows have been mangled in the American adaptation -- Life on Mars (although it had its fans), Worst Week, Coupling, Eleventh Hour -- I am glad that the only Ab/Fab I will ever have to savor will be the original.

As Brad reported earlier this week, Fox is greenlighting new pilots left and right, but it looks like they weren't done yet. We already knew that a remake of the Brit cult classic Absolutely Fabulous was in the works, but very little beyond that had been revealed. Now it looks like not only are Patsy and Edina boozing their way to Los Angeles in the Fox remake of AbFab, but original UK series creator (and star) Jennifer Saunders is on board this adaptation. That means we've a better chance of seeing an American The Office than Coupling.

She's executive producing with an American writer, Christine Zander, who's written and produced for Samantha Who?, Less Than Perfect, SNL and 3rd Rock from the Sun among others. The good news is that the core of the show is remaining intact. It follows the social exploits of fashion publicist Edina and editor Patsy, along with their constant bickering with the only sane member of the "family," Edina's daughter Saffron. As long as the girls are getting their drink on and acting ... well "fabulous," I don't see what can go wrong.

The brain behind Arrested Development is now developing an Absolutely Fabulous remake for Fox. For those unaware, the British series is about an immature, hippie-era mother, her best friend and her intelligent daughter (played respectively by creator Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha).

In the height of her popularity, Roseanne tried to remake the show and involved the creators and co-stars. Sadly, that didn't come to pass. Whatever you think of Roseanne, at least she was smart enough to involve the original creators, unlike McG. With the big push for Brit remakes thanks to the success of The Office, another attempted remake of this show is not that big a stretch.

While I very much enjoyed the original series, I do think the 2001 and 2003 continued episodes were a bit unnecessary. You know things have gone too far when Whoopi Goldberg guest-stars.

Given the talent behind it, this version could see the light of day. I just hope they actually involve the original creators.