THE US VERSION

These were the words of Jim Sadwith, the Executive Producer of 'Fitz' - the US version of Cracker:-

"Fitz has received many good reviews by loyal fans of the British episodes including the NY Times, NY Newsday, PhilaInquirer, Variety, People, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone and the Sunday NY Times Arts and Leisure section wrote an erroneous article comparing the American and British Cracker. Our Fitz is every bit the drinker, gambler, womanizer, tortured soul that Coltrane was. He was even written as a smoker, but lead actor Robert Pastorelli - having recently quit a raging nicotine habit, chose not to light up on the show. You will find the adaptation and original episodes just as challenging and controversial as the original. Perhaps there are no harsher critics than the creators of the British Cracker episodes: Jimmy McGovern and Paul Abbott - both of whom are enthusiastic fans of the American show. Indeed Paul Abbott who produced year two of Cracker in England and wrote several episodes in year three will be writing a two parter for the American Cracker. Try it. You'll like it."

When I first heard that there was to be a US version of Cracker, I have to admit I couldn't quite believe it. The idea that somebody was going to dare try and remake what was my all time favourite TV series absolutely horrified me! Who could possibly try and attempt to play Fitz after Robbie Coltrane? Why bother remaking something that was already perfect as far as great television drama goes? Why not just show the American audiences the original series? There were many reasons why 'Fitz' failed when screened in the US, and all but disappeared without a trace when screened briefly in the UK. I made every effort to see pretty much every episode of the US version, more out of curiosity than anything to see just what they had done differently. They changed quite a lot.

Robert Pastorelli's Fitz was changed beyond recognition to Coltrane's - even his name was changed from Edward to Gerry (which does make you question why anybody would have named their son Gerald Fitzgerald?!), and many of the other major characters were not even included in the US version, or if they were, were completely re-named and changed.  How can you have Cracker without Jimmy? Without Penhaligon? As much as the show is about Fitz, the rest of the characters are just as important. White Ghost was a prime example of this - one of the main reasons that didn't work was the loss of Penhaligon, Judith, Mark etc and taking the show away from it's primary setting of Manchester. Jim Sadwith described Pastorelli's Fitz as being "every bit the drinker, gambler, womaniser and tortured soul that Coltrane was". Coltrane's Fitz was never really portrayed as a womaniser though. He had one affair with Penhaligon, which clearly was more than just a casual fling to the both her and Fitz, and you get the impression that prior to that he enjoyed a lengthy and happy marriage to Judith - a marriage that for a long time he really didn't want to give up on. Not once in the original is there any mention of any other "womanising". But then, despite what Jim Sadwith said, in the US version I didn't really see Pastorelli's Fitz "womanising" either! The US version, for some strange reason, introduces us to Fitz after he has had an affair. 

Then there was Coltrane's Fitz's standard character trademarks - the fact he drinks, smokes and gambles is just, well, who he is.  Having Pastorelli just twiddling a cigarette in his hands during scenes wasn't quite the same thing and I don't think you saw him gambling quite as much as you saw Coltrane. There is also the fact that Coltrane's Fitz always wore the trademark suit! Another thing, that seemed to go astray from the US version. And finally, there was Pastorelli's Fitz freely driving himself about from crime scene to crime scene whereas Coltrane's Fitz never drove! These may seem like minor details, but they were always part of the character of Fitz and should have been left in when Pastorelli took on the role.

"Pastorelli is more accessible, he has more heart. He's Mediterranean, he's Italian and that comes through. Coltrane is more cerebral. He's colder, you know, ice-water in his veins. But Pastorelli, because of the emotion  he plays scenes where Coltrane would have just rattled his speeches off and his insults off and they would just like - verbiage - and he would stand outside and observe himself doing this - Pastorelli says these things with an edge. So in that aspect he's not unlike him. Because there's a lot more "f**k you" than Coltrane, who almost did it with a twinkle. "

The above is another comment by Jim Sadwith taken from an interview with him which you can read here. A strange comment, because if there is one thing about Coltrane's Fitz you can't say, it's that he is "cold". Even with some of the worst criminals that he meets he still shows some measure of sympathy, and you only have to witness how he handles the parents of Timothy Lang in One Day A Lemming Will Fly and some of the scenes he shared with Judith and Penhaligon to see that he's got a heart. In fact, after having read the whole interview in which this was taken from I began to wonder if Jim Sadwith had actually seen the original. You cannot dislike Coltrane's Fitz, despite his flaws, despite his problems, despite the fact he can be a complete git sometimes. Because he can also be funny, sensitive and caring. He's got his good side and his bad side. He isn't perfect, but then who is? Perhaps half the trouble lay in the fact that Robbie Coltrane just made Fitz his own. Seeing somebody else try to pull off the character just was not the same, and was never going to be nearly as good.

'Fitz' was also hugely puzzling in that they used True Romance as their pilot episode which as any fan of the original series knows was the conclusion of the third series. Half of True Romance is linked back to previous events of the series so watching the american pilot episode became very confusing - especially when they used lines from the original series relating to past events. With the UK version we watch what happens to Fitz personally from start to finish, it literally all does merge into one long story eventually, but with the US version starting with True Romance you immediately lose all of its appeal. And whatever Jim Sadwith may have said, I don't believe that the US version was nearly as "challenging" and "controversial" as the original. For a start, they never even attempted to remake Men Should Weep which is arguably the original series most controversial story but you can perhaps accept them not using To Be A Somebody due to the sensitive Hillsborough topic. Yet some of the editing down on the stories they did adapt was incredibly frustrating. By cutting down a three hour story such as To Say I Love You into an hour episode it meant you lost all of the stories impact and build up.

As for Jimmy McGovern and Paul Abbott's involvement in the US series I understand Abbott did actually write some episodes for 'Fitz'. McGovern's stories were just used for adaptation and I suppose he must have had a big say in whether they could use his series and characters for a US version in the first place. I also understand Gub Neal, the original show's producer, also had some input on 'Fitz'. This in itself makes things even MORE frustrating - having had such in depth working knowledge of what made the original so great, so special, why did 'Fitz' fail so miserably? I suppose it was never their intention to make a carbon copy of the original, but I just felt that it just didn't work at all. I do, however, appreciate there are probably fans of the US version who enjoyed the series during it's screening, but as someone who loves the original Cracker as much as I do I just felt that trying to remake the original in a US format which meant changing it so much and toning it down just should not have been allowed to happen. Cracker was unique - one of those times when everything came together perfectly - cast, writer and script. Was a remake even necessary? Probably not. It was, however, nice to see Robbie Coltrane himself pop up in the one of the episodes himself though! But I would be very interested to know why he did it! 

MAIN CAST

Gerry Fitzgerald (Played by ROBERT PASTORELLI)

Det.Hannah Tyler (Played by ANGELA FEATHERSTONE)

Judith Fitzgerald (Played by CAROLYN MCCORMICK)

Det.Danny Watlington (Played by ROBERT WISDOM)

Michael Fitzgerald (Played by JOSH HARTNETT)

Lieutenant Fry (Played by R LEE ERMEY)

For full episodes guides for "Fitz" click here

For more details on the US Cracker you can visit the Internet Movie Database page 

The Unofficial Guide To Cracker 1999-2005

(http://www.crackertv.co.uk)