Come to think of it, have the French ever bought the rights to any UK sitcom ideas?
I can imagine Jacques Tati doing a great job of "L'hotel de M.Fawlty".
The Spanish classic "No, descraciademente, no!" has the edge over the weaker French offerings such as "En les autobus" or "Terry et June".
>I can imagine Jacques Tati doing a great job of "L'hotel de M.Fawlty".
Fawlty Towers was shown in France, dubbed. The name was changed (if my memory serves be right) to L'Hotel des Foiles but John Cleese's Character was still called Basil Fawlty.
I often wonder how they replace gags that are based on words in English that sound alike when the same words in, say French are very different.
The Spanish version of Fawlty Towers made Manuel Italian, and I don't think it was as successful there.
Also, the French version of 'Allo 'Allo was incredibly popular from what I hear.
'ave a jolly look at this:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/000818/27/aggcs.html
Ooh lah lah de lah!
Wasn't there a series shown about 10 years ago called Clochemerle set in a small village in about 1920 that gets a public toilet.
I seem to remember that it was actually quite good.
Yeah, that's based on a comic novel by some French writer. The TV version was scripted by Galton&Simpson.
German comedy series. Seen on cable TV in about 1992. Old man behaving like a pension-drawing Chris Morris ie going into a supermarket and chainsawing through the shelves etc... I would love to know more about this.
And then of course there was "Xerxes"...
As I recall, Clochemerle was a British-French-Belgian co-production. Or, given the involvement of the Belgians, perhaps that should be a cocoa-production?
I've seen 'Fawlty Towers' 'Monty Python' and 'One Foot in the Grave' in France, all as VOs, which seems a little odd, if they've got a dubbed version of FT.
German TV (which used to be available on my analogue satellite befor I switched to digital) carried English subtitled versions of Monty Oython and Fawlty Towers, although I don't know if they ever ran the Germans episode!
Also every year on December 31 all the Channel 3 stations in Germany show "Dinner for One, or The Ninetieth Anniversary", a 20-minute sketch by Freddie Frinton, made in the days of black and white, in English with no subtitles but a German introduction. It's about an elderly duchess who likes to celebrate the new year with her gentleman friends, but since they're all dead her butler (Frinton) has to play their roles, slowly getting drunker as he drinks all their toasts. It's quite funny and it's a shame his work never gets shown over here any more.
>I've seen 'Fawlty Towers' 'Monty Python' and 'One Foot in the Grave' in France, all as VOs, which seems a little odd, if they've got a dubbed version of FT.
I saw a clip of a dubbed version of FT on a French language Schools programme some years ago.
Apparently, "The Germans" got shown on German TV for the first time about five years ago, which was probably the first step towards German TV making their own version, which I believe has either just been on, or is being made.
I assume that 'VO' in the context of French TV stands for 'Version Originale' or whatever the correkt spelling is...
Yes, VO stands for version originale, though, on a different subject, I remember, years ago, seeing a schools programme where somebody opened a door and found Fawlty Towers on the other side, together with JC shouting. Does anybody remember this?
I have seen the Vicar of Dibley which is in a way a "French" sit-com
Pulls self satisfied, arch, smug face and sniggers a bit like Kevin Eldon might, at the wonder of his own joke
But has anyone seen a foriegn sitcom written and performed by foreigners, about themselves? Or does the form only exist in UK/US TV?
A long time ago I saw some clips on a magazine programme some clips of Germany's top rated sitcom. It was about this really grumpy character - a kind of cross between Alf Garnett and Victor Meldrew who was from the old East Germany and was having trouble adjusting to life in the new Germany. A sort of prejudiced old commie. It looked a bit grim.
In Holand recently there didn't seem to be much evidence of home-grown sitcom, but then they screen Seinfled at peak time, so I guess they just have enough taste not to bother.