E4 showing 'How I Met Your Mother' from the beginning

I don't think it's a very BBC Two programme, in fact most US comedies don't work on mainstream channels over here. Two and a Half Men didn't do well on Five, neither did the American Office on the BBC and many others, it's only a few that capture the imagination that actually bring in decent ratings.

They're really best left to the digital channels.

Many US sitcoms seem to worked very well on Ch4, BBC always seem to treat them badly, like Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show, Malcom in the middle ( im sure that went out at 2pm on a saturday)

BBC two DID treat 3rd rock from the sun petty will, getting a good repeat aswell.

How far did Five get with two and half men?

I think they got to the end of the first series, by that point they weren't getting many more viewers than what new episodes get on Comedy Central these days.

I don't remember The Office (US) (or "The Office: An American Workplace" as they seem to insist on billing it) ever getting an airing on the BBC?

I seem to remember it on ITV2, but now obviously Comedy Central premier it. I occasionally see it listed for ITV4, but I'm not sure if they receive any new episodes or if they're just using up the rights obtained for ITV2.

It's confusing, but nothing like the situation Scrubs was in a few of years ago, where Paramount Comedy 1, Paramount Comedy 2, Sky One, Sky Two, abc1, Channel 4 and E4 were all showing various series of Scrubs regularly.

Watched last night's edition of HIMYM episode 1, some scenes felt cut, with weird dialogue or scenes that seemed too end too quickly.

Can't say for sure, but that sounds like typical Channel 4 cutting. 'The Simpsons' has terribly bad cuts in it, not to mention when they show other American shows like Scrubs.

They showed the first three seasons stripped across the week, before going weekly with season four.

Just a couple of weeks off now seeing Malcolm in the Middle all the way through (though 5* have annoyingly often dropped the 7.35pm showing so you've had to chase it round the schedules a bit!). It used to air 6.45/7.10pm before as you say getting moved to Saturdays - but not sure when they showed the final series as the episodes currently on 5* are all new to me - so whether the BBC showed it or whether I'd given up searching it out by then I don't know.

It was definitely on BBC Three and I am pretty sure it had a repeat on BBC Two around Christmas when they used to show sitcoms around midnight.

Well, this is weird. Since this has started it's gone

Episode 1 - No normal titles
Episode 2 - Normal titles without any letter/pillarboxing
Episode 3 - Normal titles with letter/pillarboxing
Episode 4 - Normal titles without any letter/pillarboxing
Episode 5 - Normal titles with letter/pillarboxing
Episode 6 - Normal titles without any letter/pillarboxing

What, couldn't they make their minds up or something? It's a bit inconsistent.

Also, these versions must be different for international audiences or something because the version of episode 2 I "obtained" from its original US broadcast has a slightly different variation on the zoom into Josh Radnor's face, it sort of swoops round instead of zooming in. The version E4 broadcast just has the normal zoom that is still used.

I should probably upload a clip later.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a19645/us-the-office-to-air-on-bbc-three.html

It looks like it started out on BBC Three, then moved to ITV2, and now ITV4 & Comedy Central.

Wikipedia for The Office US doesn't mention BBC Three at all though - only ITV2/ITV4/Comedy Central - but Wikipedia isn't very reliable as we all know.

I have the series 1 boxset, I did notice the differences in sizes of the titles (with or without pillarboxing), the ones without pillarboxing more or less cut out Marshall & Robin. I haven't noticed the zoom difference though, I'll have to dig it out to have a look.