Zap2it's Fall 2008 TV Preview Presents Know Your Remakes and Spinoffs

Life on Mars
ABC

Remake, spinoff or sequel? Remake

Source material: British series of the same title, which ran for two British-length seasons in 2006-07.

What's new: The open-ended nature of American TV will force a change in the mystery of how a cop (Jason O'Mara) who gets hit by a car winds up in 1973.

What's not: The show's producers are avowed fans of the original, so we can expect a lot of the fish-out-of-water and culture-clash aspects of the British show to remain intact.