Coupling

The American Coupling is a remake of the British sitcom of the same name created by Steven Moffat, which was loosely based on the beginnings of Moffat's real-life relationship with Sue Vertue.

NBC reportedly commissioned the remake as a potential replacement for Friends, which was nearing the end of its run.

Unlike most format adaptations, the NBC version reused Moffat's original British scripts, adapted and shortened by Phoef Sutton to fit NBC's advertising breaks, since the original broadcaster BBC Two had none.

The original unaired pilot starred Breckin Meyer as Jeff, Melissa George as Susan, and Emily Rutherfurd as Sally, but NBC fired the writers and replaced them with Christopher Moynihan, Rena Sofer, and Sonya Walger.

Melissa George later said she 'dodged a bullet' by being replaced before the show ever aired.

Although thirteen episodes were commissioned, NBC canceled the show on October 31, 2003 after airing only four episodes, and the final three planned episodes were never even filmed.

BBC America ran commercials advertising that it would air the original British episodes immediately after NBC's American versions aired, inviting viewers to compare and see how much better the original was.

Two NBC affiliates, KSL-TV in Salt Lake City (owned by the LDS Church) and WNDU-TV in South Bend (owned by a University of Notre Dame subsidiary), refused to air the show due to its content, forcing it to air on other local stations instead.

Creator Steven Moffat blamed the show's failure on constant network interference, saying in 2007 that 'the network fucked it up because they intervened endlessly.'

Former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Zucker later bluntly summarized the show by saying it 'just sucked'.