Americanizing Other Nation's Shows: BBC Being Human vs. SyFy Being Human?

[Linus]

Originally Posted by Waldo

I know next to nothing about what is broadcast on television in Canada. But you asked about the dynamics of this in the US. And I stand by my answer. Even your xenophobic comments reinforce exactly what I'm saying. I worked in the film distribution industry for years and while I've seen it get better in the decade+ since then, it holds true today.

Dr. Who certainly has a following, but to say that it's *popular* in the US would be vastly overstating it.

Here's a little something for you to chew on - each of these shows has been remade for the UK:

Married With Children
The Golden Girls
That 70s Show
Law & Order
Mad About You
Who's The Boss
Maude
Good Times

And I can't even count the number of "reality" series and game shows.


AND... here's a little gem that just floors me. The Nanny, with everyone's favorite nasal-affected actress, Fran Drescher, was shown in over 90 different countries, but TEN countries felt it worthwhile to make localized versions: Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, and Turkey.

Cool! I didn't know that about those shows (except for L&O) and it would be cool to see how other nations took those shows. I believe the L&O was a spin-off and only the first series (season) is expected to follow the traditional L&O model.

The SyFy remake of seems to be a word-for-word remake. So, while I appreciate and understand remaking it to address cultural differences, wouldn't a different script make sense?

As for Doctor Who, a viewership of 1-1.5 million in the US seems rather large given that it's on a specialty channel, no? (although it was originally on SciFi -- before it's rename -- and did well there; compared to the 3 mill or so that watch Eureka regularly, a unique SyFy show, it seems to do well).