A few months ago Harlequin was discussing the way television shows are borrowed, copied—or stolen, as some put it—from one country, so to speak, by another.
Harlequin wrote:Americans ruined every show they took from here. Do you remember Kath and Kim, from a few years ago? It was ours. Apparently, Australian jokes don't translate... Especially not muffin top jokes on a reasonably thin woman. It was quite irksome.
But the Brits get more Australian shows... Neighbours and Home and Away, I think... My great-nana watches Neighbours
Last year at
MentalFloss.com. in her blog,
Confessions of a TV-Holic Kara Kovalchik posted an entry entitled "
4 Great American TV Shows Stolen from the British†which is about some televisions show that are considered to be among America’s all-time favorite television viewing. The blog entry features example videos for comparison, and is responded to by several readers, who offer their opinons.
In 2005, David Dale wrote an article at
smh.com.au entitled, “
Why don’t we watch Australian TV shows?†in which he proposed an explanation to his own query.
A. Johnston of Maroubra, New South Wales begins the replies by commenting: This doesn't shock me at all. Australian TV shows are, by and large, crap. We clearly don't spend the same amount of money on production or, it seems, writing, that they do in the US. Instead of coming up with innovative shows, we rehash overseas formats (such as Queer Eye or Millionaire), often losing something in the translation.
Another person mentioning, as Harlequin did, the tendancy for programs to lose something along the way from one land to the viewers of another land, even though they all speak the same language.
By the way, Ms Kovalchik also posted a blog entry about another one of my personal favorite television programs,
Gilligan’s Island. Look here to read Ms Kovalchik’s blog entry about the show, called “
Sit Right Back: Tales of Gilligan’s Islandâ€.
Articles mentioned in this post were:
"4 Great American TV Shows Stolen From the British"
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/23334
"Why don't we watch Australian TV shows"
http://www.smh.com.au/news/The-Tribal-M ... 42642.html
"Sit Right Back: Tales of Gilligan's Island"
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/64371