Transplanting Creativity
May. 22nd, 2008 12:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annundrielLast month I posted about my annoyance over the planned American Life on Mars. Nothing's changed. I'm still annoyed.
Tuesday I was at work passing time reading stuff in the New York Times online when I came across this article, "US Television Taps More Imported Series". Now, I am a fan of our versions of The Office and Ugly Betty so maybe I'm a bit of a hypocrit, but the idea of TV shows being imported the way this piece represents them really sits badly with me. I guess it's the whole "imported ideas" thing. I keep getting stuck on, "Why can't we just do whatever needs to be done and see the original versions?"
Basically, why do we feel the need to bring in other peoples' creativity and Americanize it?
Never mind. I know the answer to that. It's not flattering.
There were two specific quotes that particularly bothered me. First, "Another reason for relying on ideas from abroad is the interruption of the flow of home-grown scripts because of the 100-day strike by writers against the TV and movie studios." This is followed by the chairman at DeWitt Media, Gene DeWitt, saying, "If you have a drought, you’re going to look over the fence to see if there’s water there." Which to me, at least Tuesday and at the moment - see, I might just be unreasonable lately, seems like they screwed up and are trying to have something to give television audiences. It comes off as lazy to me. They want money; this is what they're going to do.
Didn't they learn after Coupling?
It just...I don't know. I don't like it. It makes me uncomfortable. They've started showing previews for Eleventh Hour and it looks interesting and I'm sure there's definite possibility of these shows being good (like I said, The Office and Ugly Betty - solid shows). But I don't like that they're talking about transporting talent when the people that are going to be recognized if the shows do succeed are the ones that weren't responsible for the original idea. And that a lot of the television viewing populace will have no idea that what they're watching originally came from some place else.
And, y'know, maybe I'm just being really cynical about this lately. Maybe I wouldn't even think it if they weren't doing Life on Mars. But seriously, there is no way they could make that show and have it be anywhere near as good as the original.
Speaking of previews, does The Mentalist come off as CBS's version of Psych?
Tuesday I was at work passing time reading stuff in the New York Times online when I came across this article, "US Television Taps More Imported Series". Now, I am a fan of our versions of The Office and Ugly Betty so maybe I'm a bit of a hypocrit, but the idea of TV shows being imported the way this piece represents them really sits badly with me. I guess it's the whole "imported ideas" thing. I keep getting stuck on, "Why can't we just do whatever needs to be done and see the original versions?"
Basically, why do we feel the need to bring in other peoples' creativity and Americanize it?
Never mind. I know the answer to that. It's not flattering.
There were two specific quotes that particularly bothered me. First, "Another reason for relying on ideas from abroad is the interruption of the flow of home-grown scripts because of the 100-day strike by writers against the TV and movie studios." This is followed by the chairman at DeWitt Media, Gene DeWitt, saying, "If you have a drought, you’re going to look over the fence to see if there’s water there." Which to me, at least Tuesday and at the moment - see, I might just be unreasonable lately, seems like they screwed up and are trying to have something to give television audiences. It comes off as lazy to me. They want money; this is what they're going to do.
Didn't they learn after Coupling?
It just...I don't know. I don't like it. It makes me uncomfortable. They've started showing previews for Eleventh Hour and it looks interesting and I'm sure there's definite possibility of these shows being good (like I said, The Office and Ugly Betty - solid shows). But I don't like that they're talking about transporting talent when the people that are going to be recognized if the shows do succeed are the ones that weren't responsible for the original idea. And that a lot of the television viewing populace will have no idea that what they're watching originally came from some place else.
And, y'know, maybe I'm just being really cynical about this lately. Maybe I wouldn't even think it if they weren't doing Life on Mars. But seriously, there is no way they could make that show and have it be anywhere near as good as the original.
Speaking of previews, does The Mentalist come off as CBS's version of Psych?
