They do have an answer to Micallef. Actually, they have more than one: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for starters, though it's harder to find a Denton equivalent.

The point is, we get a bit precious about our comedies, and never more so than when they're unbolted and shipped off for US remakes.

The latest booked in for the American treatment is the ABC's A Moody Christmas. The US networks, ever on the lookout for the next Modern Family, are swirling. You can see why. Moody is a funny, warm and bruising look at how we make it through Christmas. Surely Australians don't have a mortgage on the unspoken awfulness of Christmas Day.

The Moody rumours follow the news that the show's ABC stablemate Rake, the dark legal comedy recently renewed for a third domestic season, has been picked up by Sony Pictures for a US version.

Rake devotees are terrified they'll ruin it. It's too nuanced and too Sydney, they say, with some justification. Then again, the remake is going to star Greg Kinnear, an Oscar nominee. So why not give it a chance? If the remake bombs, how does that affect the quality of the original?