Scrubs is coming to DVD!

[Nick M]

This is probably old news, but I just found out series 1 of Scrubs will be out in May/June. Very happy - over here, Arrested Development and Scrubs constituted the best hour of television for the week, in my opinion, until they were cancelled and replaced with some reality show set in an airport.

 

[esquire.]

Arrested Devolpment's numbers are low in America. It'll be on the bubble whether or not FOX renews it next season.

Although, maybe in this new world of entertainment economics, that won't matter if its DVD sales are high enough. FOX recently brought back the cartoon show Family Guy even though its ratings were disappointing when it first ran due for such reasons.

 

[Nick M]

Arrested Devolpment's numbers are low in America. It'll be on the bubble whether or not FOX renews it next season.

Although, maybe in this new world of entertainment economics, that won't matter if its DVD sales are high enough. FOX recently brought back the cartoon show Family Guy even though its ratings were disappointing when it first ran due for such reasons.

Yeah, I heard.

Picked up the AD season 1 boxed-set today, hoping my vote will count somehow...

 

[BjornH]

Yes, I love scrubs . But I probably won't buy the disk - it is beeing re-run endlessly here so my appetite is satisfied for now.

B

 

[Brian SD]

Arrested Development and Scrubs are on completely different days here. I like both of them, but only watch Scrubs on accident, usually.

 

[esquire.]

What American TV shows are popular overseas?

I would think dramas would work better because comedy might not survive the cultural gap. Although, I heard The Nanny is quite popular overseas. I've never understood its popularity, especially for overseas since it seems much of the humour is derived from her annonying voice.

 

[BjornH]

Hmm - too many IMO. With so many channels, everything of any value gets aired. This is what I've seen, both at home and here:

Scrubs, Friends, numerous shows about husbands that are still acting like boys but fortunately have good wifes (according to Jim et al.), Will and Grace to name a few comedies. Oh - almost forgot The Simpsons

West Wing, CSI * and numerous soaps (Jordan, Gilmore Girls, OC etc)

Reality shows come and go as well:
American Idol (at least at home) along with local versions. Same goes for Survivor (originally a Sweedish show), Extreme Makeover in various guises as well as all the less extreme ones (Queer Eye etc)

I think comedy actually translates better and the drama is more sensitive to cultural differences. Anyway, people are nowdays familiar with American values and seem to be able to enjoy the shows and adjust for the context .

Those that are aired here that are the least suitable for export are the talk shows, Letterman, Conan and Leno. They are shown for the celebrity interviews but the humour ranges from silly to xenophobic and is uncomfortable to watch.

Totally agree about the Nanny but it was still rerun here recently.

B

 

[Nick M]

Yeah, pretty much everything Bjorn said.

 

[BjornH]

What's embarrasing is that I knew the names of all the soaps from the top of my head. I'll also confess to a dirty little secret: When I was 20, or so, my then gf got me hooked on Santa Barbara. Nobody is immune, I guess.

B

 

[esquire.]

numerous shows about husbands that are still acting like boys but fortunately have good wifes (according to Jim et al.),

Reality shows come and go as well:
American Idol (at least at home) along with local versions. Same goes for Survivor (originally a Sweedish show), Extreme Makeover in various guises as well as all the less extreme ones (Queer Eye etc)

More like fat husbands with wives totally out of their league.

So, what is the percentage of homegrown vs. imported american shows? I know in america, we almost never show any imported tv shows. Instead, we adapt the original show with american actors, new writing, etc... I'm assuming other countries can't do this because of the size of their audience doesn't justify these costs. But, I was wondering, which would be more popular in a country other than England- the original english comedy or the americanized version.

With regards to reality shows, is the american version or the local version more popular? Was the original Swedish Survivor more popular than the American version. I'm assuming that the american shows have better production values. And, with most american reality shows, the contestants are really there to try to become famous. Does this also hold true for the local reality versions as well.

I watch waaay too much television. Its actually quite sad and pathetic. I think I've probably watched most of the shows Bjorn mentioned. After watching too much TV, I've taken on the personality of the wacky next door neighbor.

 

[BjornH]

I can't give an exhaustive answer but I'll throw in some comments. I'm not aware of, if shows I'm watching that have been duplicated in America, or are copies of British shows - can't comment on that. At home, the only reality show that has been localized (IRC) is the Idol. When I left each had been run once with the local version more popular but the American and world edidtion had been shown previously. Economies of scale are the fault - we are only 300k people speaking this language. Here, reality shows are all the rage. Regarding Idol, I'm not sure that any foreign version is shown, only the local one and it's not that popular. There are more successful singing contests that are more popular. Fear factor has been done here but not on a large scale - same with celibrity poker. Robinson (survivor) is far more popular than the American incarnation and there is also a show called "Paradise hotel" that would not surprise me if it were an import. The biggest show now is "Big brother" where a bunch of horny and confused 20 somethings are made to live under one roof for 90 days and cameras watch their every move, and I mean every move. Amazing stuff...I would not want to be their parents watching. B

 

[esquire.]

Arrested Devolpment's numbers are low in America. It'll be on the bubble whether or not FOX renews it next season.

Although, maybe in this new world of entertainment economics, that won't matter if its DVD sales are high enough. FOX recently brought back the cartoon show Family Guy even though its ratings were disappointing when it first ran due for such reasons.

I just read in the paper that DVD sales now account for 60% of a movie's profitability.

Just watched the finale, and it will be a damn shame if they end up cancelling Arrested Development despite its lackluster ratings. I love how they showed future developments in season three, even though they don't know if there's even going to be one.

Perhaps, a cable channel like TBS which is trying to brand itself as the funny network could pick it up for another season. Imagine what the show could do without the constrainst of network censorship- we might finally see the two cousins really go at it.

Bjorn-
Three's company and Archie Bunker were American adaptations of english hit comedies. I'm sure there were more. Recently, we've also tried to adapt The Office, Men Behaving Badly, and Coupling (which is kinda strange since Coupling was basically an english adaptation of Friends) with american actors, scripts, etc...

 

[Roy]

What American TV shows are popular overseas?

I would think dramas would work better because comedy might not survive the cultural gap. Although, I heard The Nanny is quite popular overseas. I've never understood its popularity, especially for overseas since it seems much of the humour is derived from her annonying voice.

I know at least in the Amsterdam region the Nanny is especially popular because the humor is very 'jiddisch'. Quite a lot of people in Amsterdam love this type of humour because it's very similar to their own.

Also, most people in Holland speak pretty good English. So most will ignore the subtitles and (often) poor translations. In Germany however the Nanny is very annoying because they dubbed it into a German version.

 

[BjornH]

I understand that the US Office failed miserably - they simply lacked the lead actor (Gervais IMS) who is incomparable.

Coupling is IMO much funnier than friends but it's not as easy (let alone desirable) to relate to the characters. Hence the popularity of friends, I guess.

I just saw a Swedish version of the Nanny airing yesterday. Didn't watch - I loathe the original and don't expect the copy to be any better. The original pretends to be a source of advice for parents, but it's really a show that is supposed to make you lean back in your sofa and think "Heh - look at those parents, Gee I must be a wonderful parent". Low.

 

[esquire.]

I know at least in the Amsterdam region the Nanny is especially popular because the humor is very 'jiddisch'. Quite a lot of people in Amsterdam love this type of humour because it's very similar to their own.

What does 'jiddisch' mean? I've never heard of this term. If we're talking jewish humour, I thought that the Nazis wiped out most of the Jews in Roy's area.

Bjorn:
You're lucky- you get the best of both worlds. Here in America, they refuse to show the original Office or Coupling, not even on any of the basic cable channels. If they do decide to bring it over, then they insist on retooling it for american audiences. It gets surreal when the scripts are the same word for word yet it's lacking the je ne sais quoi.

Still haven't seen the original Office and I only was able to watch the first few seasons of Coupling. I think one of the keys to Friends success was that the whole family could watch it.