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

[Linus]

Originally Posted by Waldo

The thing with any filmed (whether for TV or cinema) entertainment is that in order to connect with an audience the audience has to be able to connect themselves to it. That is what, at the end of the day, limits the appeal of foreign language film.

You may notice that on HGTV a fair number of the series are filmed in Canada. The cultural dynamics are similar enough that it's not an issue. Our accents, save a few words, are similar - as are our neighborhoods, etc. That's not the case with the UK or Australia. The accents create a sense of "other" that most folks can't overcome. And that's, of course, made worse when you introduce actual foreign languages.

So, while you might think that it would save money (and it would), it also wouldn't make money because the audience would be so much smaller.

If that (accents and other cultural dynamics) were true then Coronation Street wouldn't be so popular in Canada.

I think there is far more of an incidence of xenophobia in the US than in Canada. To me, it stems from both the desire to not expose Americans to different cultures *AND* Americans not wanting to be exposed to those cultures. It's interesting that the US is ok with bringing Canadian shows to the US because Canada is often viewed as the "51st State of the US".

UK and Australian cultures are different but it's not 100%. For example, Doctor Who has remained entirely UK and the US has never attempted to remake it even with the large following it has (although Torchwood, a spin-off of Doctor Who, will be a co-production with Channel 4 [??] and Starz, keeping many of the main original actors).

I suppose for me it's still a cultural adjustment and I admit to missing the multicultural view I get from daily, regular TV in Canada (not specialty channels but regular from the air channels).