red ones, with one green one (not including the Windsor Safari Park tour bus in Mutiny On The Buses). American adaptation The format of On the Buses was sold to America, where it was remade by NBC as Lotsa Luck, starring Dom DeLuise as Stanley Belmont with Kathleen Freeman as Iris Belmont, his mum, Wynn Irwin as Arthur Swann, Beverly Sanders as Olive Swann and Jack Knight as Bummy Pfitzer, his best friend. Episodes based on the original On The Buses scripts were adapted by such American writers as Carl Reiner, Bill Persky and Sam Denoff. Inspector Blake did not have a counterpart in the American version; and, in another significant change to the storyline, Stan worked at the lost property office at the bus depot rather than being a driver. After a pilot was made, the sitcom ran for one series of 22 episodes in 1973–74. It was not a success, and has never been screened in Britain. Planned sequel In 1990 there were plans to revive the series as Back on the Buses, and the original cast appeared on Wogan to promote the new series. Reg Varney also discussed plans for the pilot episode on This Morning. However, although the pilot script was written, it was not made. The premise was to be that Stan Butler, having run his own business for some years and made some money, was now starting his own bus company in the newly deregulated market, and hiring Jack to work with him. As they attempt to get the company off the ground, they discover a rival company has set up in the town, owned by Blakey. The comedy would have come from the conflict between the two businesses, as Stan and Jack attempt to battle Blakey's bigger and more professional company. In popular culture Look-in, a UK children's magazine, serialised On the Buses in comic strips between August 1971–May 1974. They were drawn by cartoonist Harry North and the TV series' often bawdy humour was diluted for a younger audience. A board game of On the Buses was released by Denys Fisher games in 1973. Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse did several sketches using the characters of On the Buses to lampoon the humour of the show. References Further reading External links Official On the Buses Fanclub Official On the Buses page on Facebook Official On the Buses account on Twitter 1969 British