A pilot episode for an American version was produced for NBC in 1992, though never broadcast. The show followed essentially the same story as the original UK pilot, substituting American actors for the British; the one exception being Robert Llewellyn, who reprised his role as Kryten. The pilot was terribly unsuccesful since the American design was so bad.
However, the comparison between the English and American shows is both interesting and hilarious: the anti-hero, slobby atheist Lister was replaced with a muscular hunk when he is translated for American TV. When Lister learns that three million years have passed in the UK show, he says "What about that library book?" In the American version he says "My baseball cards must be worth a fortune!" That's a good example of changes occuring in the international translation process. It is also interesting to note that the multi-ethnic cast of the British original (John-Jules is black, Charles mixed-race, and Barrie and Llewelyn white) was replaced by an entirely caucasian one for the American pilot, leading John-Jules to dub it 'White Dwarf'.
