🎥 NeMLA 2025 Presentation

In March 2025, I presented at the NeMLA panel on comedy remakes. I discussed Wiflred and the way the American remake foregrounds the mystery whereas the original show doesn't care about it at all. Below is the abstract:

     Wilfred, a 2007 Australian comedy features a man, named Adam (Adam Zwar), who for some reason sees the dog Wilfred (Jason Gaan) as a man in a dog costume. The original two-season series is a typical sitcom; the characters don't care about Wilfred's anthropomorphism, the status quo resets at the end of each episode, and by the end, there's a tragicomic finale in which everything resets. When in 2011 it was remade for American audiences, the show was serialized: now, there was an overarching story in which the lead, Ryan (Elijah Wood) tries to uncover why he is able to see Wilfred, played again by Gaan, as a man in a dog suit. As the show goes on, the story slowly evolves from a traditional sitcom into a mystery show, as the lore surrounding Wilfred and a cult takes over the plot. In this essay, I explore the way serialization and the addition of a mystery both elevates the show, and also confuses the original premise, all in the effort of engaging the American audience.