WTF is up with Television Companies?
- Thread starter JesterzUSMC
- Start date
IdofEntity
New member
Look, not to rain on everyone's happy sunshine parade of shows they love but why not take two seconds and look at it from an executive's point of view:
1) These copies have already proven themselves on a market. The concept behind the show is solid and is more than likely going to find a large and profitable market within the United States.
2) These shows have already shown what flaws they may have and a team of writers or production managers or whatever can go and make whatever minor corrections are needed.
The show has basically been Beta tested and received positive scores. They also know:
1) American audiences don't watch the best shows. They watch the most popular and the most dramatic.
2) In fiction you get one 'gimme' concept.** Take Firefly*. You had space travel and cowboys. That's two gimmes in one show, and it's hard for people to wrap their heads around and care. Truth be told you could take all of the dramatic elements of firefly, set it in the old west, and it would have made a pretty good western series. Adding in Space Ships just complicated things and risked turning off a portion of the demographic it had alread interested. Or vice versa, it could have been set in a Star Trek type setting and you'd still get an amusing show. But adding cattle runs into Star Trek would have left a good portion of viewers scratching their heads. It simply wasn't necessary to the plot, but it was thrown in to try and be semi-original. It hit a niche market, and an executives job is to hit the largest market possible.
* - Keep in mind I really did enjoy Firefly.
** - The Oscar winning stuff tends to have either one gimme, or none. How many historical pieces or simple drama pieces end up taking home the statue? It's conflict and drama that win these, not gimmicks. Gimmicks risk throwing off or distracting from the central conflict.
Being angry at FOX is pointless. Need someone to shake the pitchfork at? American Viewers. They're the ones who are driving up the numbers for the copy shows, and it's not because there aren't better shows out there.
funnymouth
Active member
all the shows i seem to enjoy get canceled here in the US after two seasons. there isnt really much to watch anymore, and virtually no science fiction or fantasy of any redeemable value. i just watch stuff from the glory days on netflix, TV be damned. occasionally the cable networks keep a good show around, like "Weeds," but network TV is a horrid disappointment.
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They are being run by the same people who run GW.
JesterzUSMC
Recovering Megalomaniac
LMAO!
Tell you the truth, the people I've met that were Neilson box owners were a little on the scary and socially awkward side.
It amazed me that they were being considered "average" and that they were representing other families in America.
Think of the unabomber as a family with a Neilson box.
Einion
New member
Yeah, sucks don't it? It was grittier than the others and the better for it; I think it could have become really great.
Eh? Friends started in 1994, Coupling only in 2000.
Einion
Speaking of which.....we were selected as a 'Neilson' family for this week....They don't give out 'boxes' anymore, (or at least we didn't get one) but we do have 'diaries' we have to fill out.
I'm excited because maybe my TV habits will help keep reality tv off the air...lol
IdofEntity
New member
Should we expect a revival of baywatch, but completely filmed in slow motion?
funnymouth
Active member
blockbuster!
JesterzUSMC
Recovering Megalomaniac
cyberakuma
New member
i think this may be facing some trouble since the americanisation was equated to child pornography
but here's one to get people up in arms....
torchwood
albeit with the original creative crew and possibly some cast the bbc are shifting it to their bbc america branch which will mean only one thing despite us in the u.k. paying a tv license that stops them from taking pay for product placement advertising in their shows this hop over the pond allows them to get away with it without stopping the tv license
so by the time we see it it's not going to be the concern so much over how bad it's going to look (i saw the american red dwarf...both of them) but more what crap are they going to try and sell us this week
cyberakuma
New member
slight crossed wires i think there coupling was a bbc original in the same ilk as friends due to it's overwhelming popularity though it did nowhere near as well over here and quickly got cancelled...but not before the americans saw it and decided to do an american version of it so things are that screwed up with television shows that american tv will copy british tv that copies american tv....no wonder we don't have anything original or remotely good anymore
IdofEntity
New member
Originality isn't all it's cracked up to be. I've seen what I assume to be original plays that were horrible. Original, yes. Entertaining, no.
Remotely good is an excellent thing to strive for!
Einion
New member
We can only hope!
Ah, obvious problem there with the age of consent in the UK being lower. Even where the actors are just playing 16 there are the inevitable concerns. Come to think of it, kinda stupid of them that they could port it over to the US, but then common sense rarely seems to be evident with this sort of thing...
Einion
Beelzebrush
Active member
Do you get the UK version of Shameless in the US? It's quite close to the bone (that and you'd probably need sub-titles in the US
)..... probably my fave tv show at the moment. I can't imagine a US version... is it any good and is the content as risque?
JesterzUSMC
Recovering Megalomaniac
Do you get the UK version of Shameless in the US? It's quite close to the bone (that and you'd probably need sub-titles in the US
I was watching the UK version on BBC America, same with Torchwood, Doctor Who, Being Human, etc.
I was kind of leery about it when I saw the promo for it on SHOtime. I watch Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Dexter, and a few other shows as well.
Gotta say that once you get past the change in location and some flips to the characters and plot in translation, it is pretty good in its own right.
Not a direct import, more of an "I like the idea, what would it be like over here" kind of thing.
Wyrmypops
New member
I always thought, of all shows, Shameless wold be one that'd do well with being re-done for the States. There's too much Brittyness running through it. It's hard enough describing a chav to an American. You ponder on shared references, plump for "white trash", but then realise that doesn't really work as a description of chavs at all as the white trash the American is now thinking of is so different. You end up in a whole mess of explaining the class structure to emphasise the working/lower class, touching on the welfare state and its systems and abusers, and gawd knows what else.
gsr15
Member
Whoops! guess I got that one backwards, silly me not using my Google-Fu to verify before spouting off! :doh!:
