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vminfla

(1,367 posts)
Wed Jan 4, 2012, 06:34 PM Jan 2012

How does Israeli TV translate to U.S. audiences? Very well

When the season finale of the Showtime thriller "Homeland" ran last month, it didn't just cap Claire Danes' triumphant return to series television — it marked the latest milestone for a small country that lately has become an improbable player in Hollywood.

"Homeland," which broke Showtime's ratings record for a first-year series finale, is adapted from the Israeli show "Hatufim" (Prisoners of War). It's one of a host of U.S. programs that began life as a Hebrew-language series in this Mediterranean nation of only 8 million people. "Who's Still Standing?," the new NBC quiz program in which contestants answering incorrectly are dropped through a hole in the floor, is also an Israeli import. So is the former HBO scripted series "In Treatment," which starred Gabriel Byrne and ran for three seasons.

And that's just the beginning: Nearly half a dozen shows in development at U.S. networks — including the divorce sitcom "Life Isn't Everything" (CBS), a time-travel musical dubbed "Danny Hollywood (the CW) and the border-town murder-mystery "Pillars of Smoke" (NBC) — are based on hit Israeli series, their themes and language tweaked for American audiences.

Unbeknown to most viewers, a small group of creators and industry types has built a pipeline between Israel and the Los Angeles entertainment world 9,000 miles away. Although many American Jews have a political relationship with Israel, the entertainment pipeline is a new development born of the maturation of the Israeli television industry — and has turned a nation known for politics into Hollywood's hottest spawning ground.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-israel-tv-20120102,0,6681322.story

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How does Israeli TV translate to U.S. audiences? Very well (Original Post) vminfla Jan 2012 OP
+1. bemildred Jan 2012 #1
And as a tradeoff, we 'exported' the worst that TV has to offer. Ruby the Liberal Jan 2012 #2
haven't seen it yet.... pelsar Jan 2012 #3
I hate to think which one you have. Ruby the Liberal Jan 2012 #4
I know we have eyl Jan 2012 #5
On behalf of the US, let me extend apologies. Ruby the Liberal Jan 2012 #6

pelsar

(12,283 posts)
3. haven't seen it yet....
Thu Jan 5, 2012, 07:24 AM
Jan 2012

the american one we do get is bad enough, sorry to see we have our own version here....maybe it would be nice if one of the episodes had some localization with one of their kids getting out of the draft through a paid off doctors note, vs another who volunteers for the paratroopers... (true story)

and then we can have the housewife go visit her son, in her porsche while he's neck deep in mud, with his new best ethiopian friends from those poorer neighborhoods that they never visit...

program wouldn't last a season once that aired
___

is the boycott movement gonna start boycotting the TV series now that originates from israel?

Ruby the Liberal

(26,216 posts)
4. I hate to think which one you have.
Thu Jan 5, 2012, 03:22 PM
Jan 2012

Thinking there are about 7 or so cities with their own "show" right now.

I saw some clips of the Tel Aviv version and it reminded me of our New Jersey one. Lots of diva hair tossing & screaming and annoying as all get out.

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