Comments on: Married With Children, all over the world

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:24:00 +0000

In the same way that it’s funny that the US and the UK don’t just share television shows? You’ve never heard a Chilean accent, have you?

By: HerkyDerky

HerkyDerky — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:22:00 +0000

You took a perfectly snarky comment and buried it under the truth. What fun was that? Now I’m going to have to come up with another one.

Or, I guess I could have gone with this: If a country is capable of producing their own sitcoms, with their own accents and culturally accurate jokes and comments, it will probably do better than an import. It is very hard for me to watch and like a British sitcom (as an American). Dramas, too. The pacing is weird to me. The *lighting* is weird to me.

For some reason, this does not apply to movies as much.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:15:00 +0000

The horrible cheesy American 60′s couches in unnatural colors were at least a step up from the ghastly Stalinist furniture that Betty Page was usually posed on.

By: Cefeida

Cefeida — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:51:00 +0000

You’d be surprised how many times it’s been done. When a network owns stations in different countries and already owns the rights to a bunch of series (I’m looking at you, Endemol) it’s cheaper for them to redo a foreign series than pay to develop an original one. Thus, for example, we have a word-for-word Polish version of ‘The Nanny’, and, no, it doesn’t work. Especially not after everyone’s already seen the American original when it aired on tv years ago.

In general couch sitcoms don’t work in situ in post-communist countries, if only because the typical set layout (couch, audience where tv would be, upstairs bedrooms, open kitchen) is so drastically different from the living conditions here…I remember watching Roseanne in the 90s and wondering why they kept complaining about being poor. They had a HOUSE. And a car (or was it two?) and a big garage filled with powertools! ;)

Things have changed for the better, but the cosy sitcom setting the US has grown up with is still not part of our background, and never will be.But as I mentioned above, the Polish Married With Children mentioned in that thread is not actually a licensed or even bootleg copy- it’s an original show. Pretty low-budget, too. The one thing it has in common with MWC is that it shows a dysfunctional family, and I’d actually say it’s closer in humour to The Simpsons.

By: LogrusZed

LogrusZed — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:48:00 +0000

The thin I like best about these is that ugly couches are the same all over the world.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:26:00 +0000

It would also be all too easy to cast the wrong person in Christina Applegate’s role. The role of the dumbest person is usually played by the smartest member of the cast (often the writer or creator), so you just knew Kelly was wicked smart and talented in real life. She’s gone on to have a good career and award nominations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Applegate

MWC was low -brow, and the characters weren’t all that likable, but I enjoyed the show because Katey Sagal and Christina Applegate had serious talent and they were doing a hell of a job.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:14:00 +0000

I remember hearing about this and other shows and how most of the scripts were word-for-word translations. Can anyone confirm this? I know most jokes don’t translate well but I can’t imagine stuff from 90′s American midwest transition well to a 2010′s post communist country. And I wonder if they cherry-pick the best stuff, because there were some bad seasons there.

Also the best constant in all of them seems to be an ugly couch.

By: Dan Hibiki

Dan Hibiki — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:08:00 +0000

go for it. They could use a rebuilding and someone to fund their police force.

By: Cefeida

Cefeida — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:02:00 +0000

Inspired, maybe, but only in the sense that someone said ‘Heh, you know that show about a messed up American family? Let’s do one about a Polish one. Only, on crack.’

It’s not a Polish version of MWC, it’s an original show. It has a similar title, and that’s about it (in Poland MWC ran as The World According to the Bundys)

By: Moriarty

Moriarty — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Well, the U.S. could declare war on Belarus.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:59:00 +0000

Wouldn't exactly be the first time the Bundy name has been associated with homicidal maniacs.

By: Moriarty

Moriarty — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:59:00 +0000

They mostly watch American TV in Belize.

By: Dan Hibiki

Dan Hibiki — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:53:00 +0000

German version look like a bunch of homicidal maniacs.

By: Dan Hibiki

Dan Hibiki — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:51:00 +0000

i think the British one is legit and i’m certain that the Belorussian version is 100% illegal, but is made by the TV studio that’s run by the government so there’s not a thing anyone can do about it.

Not sure about the rest.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:51:00 +0000

He was probably like me thinking that Americans and Canadians don’t have separate but same sitcoms.

By: retepslluerb

retepslluerb — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:50:00 +0000

Thank you. I finally got the joke of that Fuuraa episode where Leela channeled Peggy Bundy.

(Never watched MWC in English.)

By: MissCellania

MissCellania — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:47:00 +0000

From what I can tell, all the versions listed credit Ron Leavitt and Michael G. Moye as creators, except for the Polish show The World According to the Kiepskis, which is different, although sources say it was inspired by the Bundys.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:44:00 +0000

Why limit the list to THIS world?

By: HerkyDerky

HerkyDerky — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:30:00 +0000

Because sharing a language means sharing a culture? When’s the last time you enjoyed a sitcom from Belize?

By: CLamb

CLamb — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:18:00 +0000

I wonder if Fox authorized all of these.

By: autark

autark — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:57:00 +0000

Anybody else find it funny that Chile, Argentina and Colombia would all require their own version?

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:38:00 +0000

None of the Peg characters look like they can capture the essence of Katey Sagal, with her dated clothes and simmering resentment of the high school queen bee who is shocked to wake up every day married to a shoe salesman. None of the former communist countries can provide that backstory.

Also, Katey Sagal (voice of Leela on Futurama), has a big voice and has several touring/album credits as a backup singer, so she can pump up the volume as Peg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katey_Sagal

And she won a Golden Globe last year.