Hmmm, I dunno Spud, I don't think those effects were done for US audiences. You have to remember that it's never really been widely broadcast in the US, only occasionally on PBS, which certainly isn't a market that could rate some sort of reworking.
No, they were done purely for the US (in particular) and international audiences, since Red Dwarf series 7 got pushed and when the americanism really come into play. I have a quote somewhere, it might even be on the back of the vhs case confirming the reason for the butchering aka. cutting of jokes and adding of CGI. Its to make them more consistant with the visual style (etc.) of series 7 for international viewers (namely, USA)
Its an noticable observation, around series 3/4 the american cultrural references came into the view and you can pick up they are really attempting to crack the US market (infact this is also confirmed on the audio commentries and documentries). You will notice the jokes mention famous american celebriities since they attempted to get distrubtion, and the people mentioned in Series 1+2 aren't too well known stateside. Then they also attempted the american pilots @ the end of series 5. These failed, miserably. These were for another network, not PBS. However, PBS had started to speradically show episodes, so it was clear that an american version wouldn't work because a) the US pilots were dreadful b) people had started to see the proper version c) red dwarf is the english cast, it just wouldn't work without the same writing team (proven in series 7+8) and the same actors.
However, it was series 7 the updates were done for. Series seven got a huge push stateside, and internationally. You will notice the change in special effects, style, the lack of a studio audience (was taped and then shown to the audience) and most noticable total american storylines.... I mean take a look at the first episode of Series 7. The assination of JFK. This is confirmed, since it was always Doug Naylour who pushed for the American show, and it was series 7 when Rob Grant left the writing crew (and imo, when Red Dwarf perhaps, sadly, should have ended).
The official title for the episodes is the 'international version' to coincide with with the stateside release of Series 7 and the release of Red Dwarf on Video.
Doug Naylour was the one really pushing for the stateside release, they've attempted loads of times to crack the market. I mean there's an hour long documentry on Series 5 DVD about "Dwarfin' USA", which were the failed attempts to crack the US television deals.
I'm absolutely positive about all the above else I wouldn't have this avatar
kokleong, its the second batch, or if you scroll down you will see I post apologies about half way down, those ones (SFM + VF). Those are the UK versions, not the 'internation version' which you should avoid like the plague.
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