>I've heard that argument but if you look at the American and Brit versions of The Office ...
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>I'm sure Gervais could have gone on much longer than 16 episodes at the same quality and I don't think the American version - with over 100 in the can - has even come close to running out of gas.

He couldn't have continued it as a fly-on-the-wall docu spoof, as they never last that long. The US version is pure sit-com style, nicht wahr?

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>Just realized that the US Life on Mars (which I love) has been cancelled at the end of this first season but will still have more episodes than the 2 seasons of the Brit version.
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>>I think one of the reasons why the good Brit-Coms are so good is that when they run out of ideas for the show, they stop. It's a little crazy-making for those of us who were brought up that a 'full season' was 26 weeks (then cut to 13) to run into a 'full season' of a Brit-Com being 4 shows.

We tend to know when to stop flogging a dead horse. Frasier (and Cheers) went on from a great series till they were moribund.