[Dixielandjazz] American TV

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

One thing which I have never figured out is why we import US sitcoms as 
shown
> in the US and yet when we export our sitcoms to the US, it is only the 
> idea
> which is exported,

That's been going on for a long time.  A friend of mine collected old radio 
shows and had a collection in the thousands all meticulously cataloged.  I 
was talking about it one day and he asked me if there was anything I wanted 
to hear.  I said that I would like to hear some episodes of the Shadow.  He 
asked me if I wanted the Orson Wells, The South African and another one 
which I can't remember where it was done.  The point is that radio shows 
were also exported too but not the original shows.

I would think that Steptoe would sound too much like Step and Fetch It which 
was, I think a character in the 30's or 40's and would have uncomfortable 
racial overtones at least here.  Titles aren't copyrightable here but shows 
are, so I suspect that they might have had to pay royalties.  I understand 
from my son in Germany there are knock off shows like American Idol there 
and the soap operas which originated here are a huge favorite in South 
America and Mexico.  Once you do something successful there are a hundred 
imitators.  That's true of anything.  There are at least two guys who are 
Frank Sinatra knockoffs here that do pretty well with it.

There is another factor.  Humor is different in England than  here.  Truth 
is I don't think most Americans are able to understand the sometimes droll, 
dry humor of the English Sitcom.

Personally I like the English Sitcoms better than the American but overall, 
I would prefer to do something else.
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dingo" <roadie at btinternet.com>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 3:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] American TV


>
> Bob Ringwald wrote (in part)
>
> Sure there is a lot of trash on American TV.  But I have been in the UK 
> and
> seen a lot of trash on their TV channels also.
>
> We get the best of their programming over here on PBS.
>
> England seems to get the worst of ours.
> ~~~~~~~~~
>
>  not the actual programmes as we see them here in the UK.
> I'm thinking in particularly of "Steptoe & Son" which became "Sandford (& 
> Son
> ?) in the States.
> ~
> John D
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>