kath and kim

This morning's Very Short List has a story about the Australian TV comedy Kath & Kim. The producers who oversaw the transformation of the UK Office into the stateside Dunder-Mifflin team are busy recreating Kath & Kim for American audiences.

The Aussie half-hour is a faux reality show about suburban mom Kath and her self-involved, lay-about adult daughter Kim. The show's been called "Absolutely Fabulous without the fabulous." The Sundance Channel will be playing a 90-minute Kath & Kim made-for-TV movie on December 24th and plans to air the Aussie version's third season. The American take is set to debut in 2007. If The Office's translation is any indication, this could be good news for comedy fans. Anyone other there familiar with the show? Personally, I'm happy to get behind any series that smacks of Ab Fab.

There's not much information yet, but NBC is close to securing three new comedies set to air sometime next season. The first, I'm with Stupid, which I mentioned last month, is a re-tooling of a British series about a man who befriends a boy in a wheelchair and lives in a home for the disabled. The project is being helmed by directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly, along with Ben Silverman, who helped develop both The Office and Ugly Betty for American audiences.

Kath and Kim is based on an Australian series about a divorced mother and her daughter. Nancy Pimental, a former writer for South Park and a former co-host on Win Ben Stein's Money, penned the adaptation and will serve as executive producer with Silverman. The series, along with I'm with Stupid, is being developed for the Farrelly brother's Reveille production company.