Scrubs is coming to DVD!

[Roy]

Quote:

(Roy @ April 18 2005,03:10) 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.
Jiddisch does mean Jewish. Even though most Jews were wiped out in Holland, even more than in Germany itself, centuries of influence haven't been wiped out so easily. But it's true. I think less than 9% of the Dutch Jews survived. From the 75.000 jews in Amsterdam only about 2000 survived. But before that, Amsterdam was very much a 'jewish' city and even to this day their particular type of humour and attitudes remain.

 

[Bradford]

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.

Actually, I think the U.S. version of The Office is doing pretty well. It was the U.S. version of Coupling that tanked - a not funny cast with not-funny lines.

 

[esquire.]

The TV comdey Friends is the equivalent of my local radio staion, Star, which focuses on top 40 and all the hits. It lets the prepubesent kids listen to it, who think they're now cool cause they know the hits. And, it lets the older audience still think they're cool and hip by listeining to it. Meanwhile, anything interesting or authentic doesn't get played on Star until all the other radio stations have alreayd picked up the song. Only when you've gotten sick of that song will Star Radio pick it up.

I think that's what Friends does. If I were in marketing, I can't imagine a better formula. 6 different attractive characters, representing different archetypes we all wish to emulate in real life. But, the key was putting some drama of a soap opera in the storylines to hook the audience in. I'm surprised more comedies didn't do this before. No wonder its succesful outside America as well.

But, with regards to Coupling and Office, I think the initial script was exactly the same. Somehow, it didn't work. Its almost like you needed that british accent to make the material funny.