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American Television in Other Countries

Germany. In 2010, the most popular US-Shows (sorted in descending order of their ratings) were:

1: CSI: Miami
2: Dr. House
3: The Mentalist
4: Bones
5: Navy CIS
6: CSI
7: Lie to me
8: Life
9: Monk
10: Criminal Minds
11: Desperate Housewives
12: Criminal Intent
13: Two and a Half Men
14: CSI: NY
15: Navy CIS: L.A.
16: Human Target
17: Law & Order
18: The Simpsons
19: Fringe
20: Grey’s Anatomy
 
Foolmewunz said:
Oh, yeah!!!??? (That's what passes as a sharp rejoinder in America!)



;) Just kidding. Noted the time stamp and while you read a lot, you don't read fast enough to have read my post while you were typing in the same minute.
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Notice that I went back and edited my post to clarify exactly which post I was referring to...
 
Loads of quality US shows make it over to the UK, basically the best bits if HBO, and loads of crap formula cop shows and sitcoms. The former get better reviews, the latter two get better ratings.

It's dad that more people want to watch amerian dross like CSI: Navy Crime than the quality British a ting in The Wire.
 
If you like those police procedurals, keep an eye peeled for The Closer.
Drama? Breaking Bad.
Sitcoms? It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Parks and Recreation.

:D
 
As noted, Canada gets pretty much everything at pretty much the same time. Which is alright, I suppose, if you like what's offered.

Friends in the UK might be surprised to know I have to buy episodes of Top Gear individually for about $2.50 each (Zune).

And I'm quite happy to do so, because that show is wicked entertaining and I'm not even really into cars.
 
Verklagekasper said:
Germany. In 2010, the most popular US-Shows (sorted in descending order of their ratings) were:

1: CSI: Miami
2: Dr. House
3: The Mentalist
4: Bones
5: Navy CIS
6: CSI
7: Lie to me
8: Life
9: Monk
10: Criminal Minds
11: Desperate Housewives
12: Criminal Intent
13: Two and a Half Men
14: CSI: NY
15: Navy CIS: L.A.
16: Human Target
17: Law & Order
18: The Simpsons
19: Fringe
20: Grey’s Anatomy
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It should be noted that in Germany, everything's dubbed. While the technical quality is quite high, the artistic quality is only mediocre to abysmal, as fas as TV shows are concerned. It doesn't help that there are only about a handful voice over actors. At least it feels that way, as you hear the same voices all over the place (the worst experience in this regard was the combo of M*A*S*H and Hogan's Heroes, done by the same group of people, although the writing of the German dialog was excellent. Varied from the original, but nevertheless excellent).

Worse is the writing, where quite often the German writers lack essential knowledge (and time to do proper research), even on everyday phrases. Really bad it becomes with geek references. Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons and Futurama are pretty much unwatchable in the German version.
 
I am not a fan of USA sitcoms but Married With Children was very funny.
 
1982, Yokosuka, Japan. We're in the barracks while the cruiser is being overhauled. One of the guys obtains a Japanese TV and we get the beers in. That evening we watch "Bonanza" with Japanese dubbing. Hoss Cartwright was most impressive with a Japanese voice.
 
elgarak said:
It should be noted that in Germany, everything's dubbed. While the technical quality is quite high, the artistic quality is only mediocre to abysmal, as fas as TV shows are concerned. It doesn't help that there are only about a handful voice over actors. At least it feels that way, as you hear the same voices all over the place (the worst experience in this regard was the combo of M*A*S*H and Hogan's Heroes, done by the same group of people, although the writing of the German dialog was excellent. Varied from the original, but nevertheless excellent).
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In Québec and France everything is dubbed too, and it can be very annoying.

Like for example, back in the eighties, the actor who dubbed Christopher Reeve in the Superman movies dubbed also Dudley Moore in all his movies. :boggled:

The guy who did the voice of Homer Simpson also dubbed for Mel Gibson...

Another time I rented the Japanese film "The Ballad of Nayarama", and the voice of the main character was dubbed by the actor who was the voice for Peter Falk in Columbo. I actually stopped watching that one because of it.

And for the TV series Miss Marple, the same actress can be heard for different characters, in the same episode, and even in the same scene! I guess in France they have a shortage of old actresses who can do post-sync.
 
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Pardalis said:
In Québec and France everything is dubbed too, and it can be very annoying.

Like for example, back in the eighties, the actor who dubbed Christopher Reeve in the Superman movies dubbed also Dudley Moore in all his movies. :boggled:

The guy who did the voice of Homer Simpson also dubbed for Mel Gibson...

Another time I rented the Japanese film "The Ballad of Nayarama", and the voice of the main character was dubbed by the actor who was the voice for Peter Falk in Columbo. I actually stopped watching that one because of it.

And for the TV series Miss Marple, the same actress can be heard for different characters, in the same episode, and even in the same scene! I guess in France they have a shortage of old actresses who can do post-sync.
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In the 80s, there was a b-action movie co-produced by Brits and Germans. The star was Lewis Collins (best known for the spy series CI5-The Professionals), and a bunch of German dudes, who otherwise mostly work as voice-over actors. The problem was that Mr Collins' standard voice also was in the movie. In the end, all of the German actors were heard, but not for themselves...
 
You have to watch Batman (60's version) speaking fluent Spanish... "a la bati-cueva, joven maravilla!"
 
Sceptic-PK said:
Very true but I still expect, say, ABC to bring us the less commercial gems that are available.

Oh, and I have to thank One HD for (almost) live NFL games. Go Packers!
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I'm disgusted that they show that yet I have to get pay tv to watch Super Rugby.:mad:
 
P.J. Denyer said:
Yeah, lots of American TV in the UK, not that I mind a lot of it is much higher quality than the reality TV, soaps and catchphrase sketch shows that make up so much of our domestic production at the moment.

At the moment I'm particually enjoying

House MD, True Blood, Sons of Anarchy and The Walking Dead


Of course these do share a casting irregularity.... ;)
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In true blood, off the top of my head: Eric is played by a Swede, Bill is played by a Brit, Sookie is played by a Kiwi, Jason is played by an Australian.
 
hgc said:
Dubbed into Welsh? How many non-English speakers are there in Wales?
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In addition to what Shankly said, it whould be noted that there is a specific Welsh-language TV channel, S4C, which in analogue-only days took the place of the rest-of-the-UK Channel 4 in Wales, and therefore annoyed a lot of people who would rather have had that, instead. As Shankly noted 80% of the Welsh population do not speak the language, so the whole TV channel/road sign thing is just political. There's also a Scottish Gaelic channel (BBC Alba) these days.
 
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From a UK perspective, I think one aspect that hasn't been mentioned yet (unless I missed it), is that while there is a lot of American TV available for those who want it, it generally doesn't play in primetime on the four main channels anymore, i.e. BBC 1 & 2, ITV, and Channel 4.
 
I'm American, but spent a few weeks in South Africa about 8 years ago. I was surprised at how much TV was American (at least on the English speaking channels) and even more surprised at how much of it was bad American TV. I specifically remember Jerry Springer and Fear Factor.
 
There is plenty of American television here, usually subtitled in Arabic rather than dubbed. Some Qataris have told me that they picked up a lot of their English from watching American TV.

My favorite anecdote was when a Qatari told me that his mother and his sisters love watching Desperate Housewives -- but they won't let him or his brothers watch it because Mom feels it's not appropriate for the men in the house to watch the show. :)
 
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