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Post 25 Jan 2011, 10:52 am

Dan,

Oh I agree that L&O:UK is bad. I usually watch as much as it takes me to figure out which epidsode it is (Though I do like Jamie Bamber as an actor).

Also, I don't necessarily this the situation is that we in the USA wouldn't like the shows. It has been my experience that the exact opposites is the case. Many of the shows that become cult hits over here are Brit Imports. I think it is more of a business decision. One would think it is more profitable to pay a license fee and produce your own then to buy outright. Either that or Hollywood really does think Americans are too stupid to like something else.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that were the issue. There is a story that I love. Sinclair Lewis wrote a book 1935 called "It Can't Happen Here" about a fascist dictator taking over the US. Somebody wrote an adaptation for a mini-series in 1982. The concept was rejected by ABC as too cerebral for the US. So the script was reworked making the bad guys man eating aliens. That got made into "V"
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Post 25 Jan 2011, 1:22 pm

GMChad wrote:Ah, "The Wire": my favorite TV series. I just finished the final season (I got started a wee late).
The box set is sitting waiting for us to start on it.

I suspect that it is actually cheaper to simply licence shows than it would be to make your own (which would also be under licence).

Beeb are not all that interested in profit, so until recently did not really set high fees. ITV and other UK commercial channels are looking at the domestic market. So overseas licensing is a bonus. No point making it too expensive.

I'm not too sure about the US, but over here we have the broadcasters who commission content, and separate production companies who make it. Buying a foreign series would be seen as not much different to buying a domestic one, except that flagship programmes will be commissioned.
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Post 04 Sep 2011, 7:35 pm

Well, I just finished watching Series 2 of Survivors on Netflix. I liked the series a lot. I thought the characters were interesting and the interactions of the leads was good. Besides the 3 female leads (Julie Graham, Zoe Tapper and Robyn Addison) were all hot. I kept hoping for some of that famous british nudity :wink:

I will say I am a little upset it was cancelled and there won't be a Series 3. After all, I want to know what happen to Tom when the plane lands and whether Greg's wife and kids were part of the "exodus".


I do have a question for the Brits here. A few months ago, I was looking at a bunch of different British tv programs and I could swear I saw a listing for a show about a fictional royal family. I got the impression is was a kind of West Wing behind the scene thing for the British Royal Family. Now I can't find it anywhere. Does this show really exist? Was/is it any good?
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Post 05 Sep 2011, 8:44 am

danivon
I'm not too sure about the US, but over here we have the broadcasters who commission content, and separate production companies who make it. Buying a foreign series would be seen as not much different to buying a domestic one, except that flagship programmes will be commissioned

Essentially the same arrangement now. (Networks got out of production except for news progtamming by the 70's) The difference being that the BBC tends to give longer term contracts. They'll commit to 13 epsidoes up front whereas in the US often its 6 to 8 episodes... The great thing about cable in the States is the upfront commitment by HBO to expensive productions for their full broadcast cycle. Quality comes from that commitment. The oportunity to earn revenue from more than the braodcast cycle makes this possible. As co-producers they earn from licensing to other braodcast outlets, including foreign sales and through DVD and downloads. The long tail afforded by the various platforms is very different then when there was only broadcast as a revenue source.)
Doesn't the UK also have content laws? That is, in order to acquire a broadcast license dosn't each broadaster commit to airing a certain percentage of domestically made fare, and also commit to a certain investment in local production?
Thats the case in Canada. What it lead to originally was a lot of either poor production qualities for lots of fare, or some very short but well produced short term programming. Virtually unsaleable to most foreign broadcasters. But in the last 10 years, the explosion of channels on cable has lead to a vast appetite for programming everywhere. 20 years ago, there was so little competition for foreign programming in the States that the cost of a BBC program to the channel was peanuts. And since the revenue earned from that US channel was peanuts there wasn't much focus on trying to sell into the US.
With cable channels now challenging the networks for first rate programming, and spending, There's more of a market for foreign programming. Especially it it isn't too foreign.
Canadian shows like Flashpoint and Rookie Blue do well in the US now on network, with long term contracts from CBS and ABC...and production money upfront. Combat Hospital is actually a three country affair with the US UK and Canada...(kind of a Greys Anatomy set in Afghanistan. Not great but okay for the summer fare available.)
The Tudors and Pillars of the Earth are UK Canadian... (wouldn't know it). I'd assume they did fairly well somewhere on US cable because the audience would be expecting the accents seeing as the setting was England in the 16th century. (Kevin Costners' Robin Hood notwithstanding.)
For Canadians used to seeing Toronto or Vancouver stand in for a US city, its nice to see Toronto AS Toronto on shows like Flashpoint. We still get a lot of cable fare produced here standing in for the US (Covert Affairs) but the network stuff seems to have accepted that American audiences will tolerate a foreign setting.
I kind of enjoyed Law and Order Uk for a while. But the recycling of old L&O scripts did the series in... No suspense. And Jamie Bambers accent floored me, having only seen him on Battlestar Gallactica before. Its amazing how Aussie and UK actors can move accents around so comfortably.
The most interesting cable fare last year was a show called End Game. Don't know where it aired in the US, but it was quite clever. Dealt with a Russian Chess master who is physcologically incapable of leaving his hotel, and falls into a business as a private investigator... Cancelled after one year. pity. Sean Doyle was fabulous as Balagan.
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Post 05 Sep 2011, 9:31 am

I actually had another thought on why the US remakes Brit shows. Season length. It seems that most UK shows only have a series length of 6-12 episodes with the majority being 6. Most U.S. series have a minimum 12 episode run with the majority being 22-26 episodes.

As for the accent thing ricky is commenting on, it just takes practice.
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Post 05 Sep 2011, 10:38 am

As for the accent thing ricky is commenting on, it just takes practice.


Tell that to Kevin Costner.
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Post 05 Sep 2011, 12:23 pm

Archduke Russell John wrote:Well, I just finished watching Series 2 of Survivors on Netflix. I liked the series a lot. I thought the characters were interesting and the interactions of the leads was good. Besides the 3 female leads (Julie Graham, Zoe Tapper and Robyn Addison) were all hot. I kept hoping for some of that famous british nudity :wink:
Alas, that is more of a Swedish thing.

I do have a question for the Brits here. A few months ago, I was looking at a bunch of different British tv programs and I could swear I saw a listing for a show about a fictional royal family. I got the impression is was a kind of West Wing behind the scene thing for the British Royal Family. Now I can't find it anywhere. Does this show really exist? Was/is it any good?
I don't remember it. It's not the kind of thing I'd likely watch though.

But a search brings this up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Palace

Is that it? I note it features Sophie Winkleman, which would be a draw for me (and she actually married into royalty), but clearly not enough for me to have stored it in my head. One series and then it was killed off because no-one watched it. I guess our real royals provide enough soap opera for us without made up ones.
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Post 05 Sep 2011, 3:00 pm

Thanks Dan, I believe that is the show. I'll see if it is on Netflix or Hulu and let you know how it is.

Are you familiar with a SciFi show called OutCast. I recognize a few of the actors from other shows that I have liked. Trying to decide if it is worth watching. I need some things to fill up the 2-3 weeks between the season finales of the summer shows and the season premieres of the fall/winter shows.
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Post 05 Sep 2011, 3:04 pm

rickyp wrote:
As for the accent thing ricky is commenting on, it just takes practice.


Tell that to Kevin Costner.


obviously Costner didn't practice.

Years ago I used to do accents just for the hell of it. I got pretty good at an Irish accent and had a passable lower class British accent. Everything else I tried (Jamiacian and Russia) was horrible that always ended up as Irish after more then 3 sentences.
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Post 05 Sep 2011, 3:08 pm

rickyp wrote:The difference being that the BBC tends to give longer term contracts. They'll commit to 13 epsidoes up front whereas in the US often its 6 to 8 episodes...


You sure you don't have this backwards. I can't think of one British show that is more then 6-8 episodes a series. On the other hand almost all American shows have minimum of 12 episodes a season, though they may not always have all 12 episodes shown.
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Post 05 Sep 2011, 4:09 pm

Archduke Russell John wrote: I got pretty good at an Irish accent and had a passable lower class British accent.
Dick Van Dyke stylee :grin: ? There isn't one 'lower class British accent', they are regional - indeed they are the regional accents. The upper class accent is the one that is pretty much geographically neutral (with variations in Scotland).
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Post 05 Sep 2011, 4:10 pm

Archduke Russell John wrote: I got pretty good at an Irish accent and had a passable lower class British accent.
Richard Van Dyke stylee :grin: ? There isn't one 'lower class British accent', they are regional - indeed they are the regional accents. The upper class accent is the one that is pretty much geographically neutral (with variations in Scotland).
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Post 05 Sep 2011, 8:28 pm

danivon wrote:Richard Van Dyke stylee :grin: ? There isn't one 'lower class British accent', they are regional - indeed they are the regional accents.


I understand the "lower class" (perhaps I should have said working class???) is regional. Or rather I assumed it was. It was based on a bunch of different sources, i.e. Mary Poppins, Oliver Twist, the Sidney Poitier movie whose title for the life of me I can't remember, etc, etc, etc, which are all probably laughably wrong. Hence the reason I labeled it passable. :grin:
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Post 06 Sep 2011, 2:18 am

Poitier movie - To Sir, With Love ? Of the three, it's probably the one with the least hammy London accents. Poppins and Twist will have you talking like Bart Simpson's cockney.

Lower class would be a better fit, as middle class people can have strong regional accents, and in rural areas the agricultural workers don't always think of themselves as working class
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Post 06 Sep 2011, 2:21 am

Durned word replacement!

'coc kney'