Short-Lived American shows available in R2 (1 Viewer)

[Statskeeper]

I was on Amazon Germany tonight and noticed two shows from the late 70s listed: Spencer’s Pilots: http://www.amazon.de/Spencers-Piloten-komplette-remastered-Sprachfassung/dp/B009C8558S/ref=pd_ys_qtk_general_recs_4 Anna and the King of Siam (coming in February, no English soundtrack): http://www.amazon.de/Anna-K%C3%B6nig-von-Siam-Serien-Klassiker/dp/B00A304AYO/ref=sr_1_71?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1358899590&sr=1-71 It's amazing that shows that tanked here are popular elsewhere. And finding what you never thought you'd see is what is great about this hobby.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Some other short-run US shows available in R2 (or R4) but not in the USA: R2/UK * Automan * Manimal * Several Marvel Comics animated shows from the late '60s to early '80s (such as the 'Herbie the Robot' Fantastic Four) R4/Australia * Darkroom

 

[Ethan Riley]

I really want "Anna and the King." Hopefully it'll make its way over here. If it had an English soundtrack, I'd buy the German version.

 

[JamesSmith]

It's true that there are quite a few short-lived American shows that are very popular overseas. As for me, I'm more anxious for these short-lived programs to come out here in the States than the "popular" shows. Other shows that are available overseas are "Captain Nice," and/or "Mr. Terrific." I want Anna and the King out here in the States too. James

 

[Statskeeper]

Unfortunately the stuff from Germany is a mixed bag. I would have bought "The Detectives" if there were an English sound track. I did get "Mr. Terrific" (only problem is the animated opening does not have the audio, even on the English soundtrack), and "Tammy" is also available. My jaw dropped when I saw "Anna and the King" - I would not have guessed it was successful since it was such a flop in the U.S. Here's the link for Captain Nice: http://www.amazon.de/Das-Geheimnis-blauen-Tropfen-komplette/dp/B0051BYOO6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359062523&sr=8-1 And for Mr. Terrific: http://www.amazon.de/Immer-wenn-Pillen-nahm-komplette/dp/B0026L8MDI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359062619&sr=8-1

 

[maskedmala]

There's also the short lived sitcom Pistols 'n Petticoats on Amazon Germany

 

[Statskeeper]

Looks like Captain Nice has a German soundtrack only. Same thing for Pistols 'n Petticoats. And Run, Buddy, Run. How hard would it be to have the original soundtrack included? Guess it depends on the masters used for production.

 

[andrew markworthy]

It's odd how European and US tastes can vary so much on this. For example, House was not all that big a hit in the UK (it was popular, but not a smash hit - a high proportion of Brits probably think Hugh Laurie is still most famous for doing Jeeves and Wooster). Again, you would be hard-pressed to find any Brit over fifty who can remember GIlligan's Island (only a handful of episodes ever aired over here - it worries me I can recall seeing them when I was very young, along with My Friendly Martian, which as far as I know, NOBODY in the whole of the UK watched other than me). On the other hand, the USA seemed to be fond of Benny Hill for years after we grew tired of him in the UK. I should point out that none of the shows you guys have listed were really big hits in the UK. Manimal, Anna and the King, etc, were only ever of minority interest.

 

[Ethan Riley]

When you look, you really find some interesting stuff: At least, I don't think the Bad News Bears sitcom was ever put out in the US. Anybody? http://www.amazon.de/Die-B%C3%A4ren-sind-los-komplette/dp/B005V34N54/ref=pd_cp_d_3

The German title of Mr. Terrific "Immer, wenn er Pillen nahm" roughly translates to "Whenever He Took Pills." (shudder!) I know it was the 60s, but...

Meanwhile, "Get Smart" somehow becomes "Mini Max." --huh?

"3rd Rock From the Sun" becomes "Behind the Rock From the Left." What the---?? :

Family Affair is now "Lieber Onkel Bill" (Dear Uncle Bill). Awww...

And The Bionic Woman becomes "The Seven Million Dollar Woman." Whoa--I always knew she was more high maintenance than Steve Austin!

 

[moviepas]

As for Australia it appeared that Gilligan & My Favorite Martian were very popular. Gilligan had many repeat screenings. Uncle Martin was on the government network. If a local late afternoon, early evening show like a game show, got canned then one station always whacked in M*A*S*H. When in doubt etc. The Brady Bunch the same over the years. Both had long runs on two different networks. Both issued on DVD here. Made all the difference getting The Brady Bunch on DVD, replaced all those old scratched & joined copies they ran on TV. Bit different now with digital copies available. Another series that has not had US DVD is the TV version of How The West Was Won. Known as The Macahans, it is available in Scandinavia in series sets. The BBC set in Greece, Who Pays the Ferryman? which has a Dutch release I now have. Color is fair but well worth it if you liked the original broadcasts. Some Aussie shows got European smatterings before we did like a 20s-style legal drama, Carson's Law that has now started an exclusive on-line release from the current owners of the original production company. Prisoner, aka Prisoner Cell Block H outside Australia, has been done in Australia and has been revived a la Dallas in USA. European releases have been issued. The thing is that a whole story line was deleted from the Australian releases due a similarity to a local murder case and the family objected. After much delay(release put back a few times) those episodes that had been edited for this were issued on a DVD in UK. The Flying Doctor's. There was a miniseries than a long running episodic series. The mini was issued on DVD in UK & Australia and then the UK distributor issued the series up to the last series which they did not issue. The local people have issued the complete series with the mini as a bonus Freebie on-line in a box. This is expensive. I could not talk turkey with them to buy just the last season as I got the rest from UK as it was not slated here. I have a niece who had bits as a policewoman or a nurse in some episodes over the life of the series. I also knew people worked regularly or guest spots in Prisoner. The studios front was used as the entrance to the prison and the outside fences were part of the security of the TV station where it as made. I have been on TV in that studio and worked once on Neighbours and paid but the scenes were not needed. The actual TV station has moved inner city but the site, or what is not houses now is still used for TV series like Neighbours. neighbours had been slated to move to Sydney but plans were scrapped. What annoys me is people on the "gray" market issue some elusive series and offer copies of copies of copies and as a result they are unviewable with washed out faces and, if color, faded to a pink. A good DVD-R series by rightful owners of some of the elusive series would have been useful and stop all this, well, rip-off. I don't buy them but friends have.

 

[Ethan Riley]

It's odd how European and US tastes can vary so much on this. For example, House was not all that big a hit in the UK (it was popular, but not a smash hit - a high proportion of Brits probably think Hugh Laurie is still most famous for doing Jeeves and Wooster). Again, you would be hard-pressed to find any Brit over fifty who can remember GIlligan's Island (only a handful of episodes ever aired over here - it worries me I can recall seeing them when I was very young, along with My Friendly Martian, which as far as I know, NOBODY in the whole of the UK watched other than me). On the other hand, the USA seemed to be fond of Benny Hill for years after we grew tired of him in the UK. I should point out that none of the shows you guys have listed were really big hits in the UK. Manimal, Anna and the King, etc, were only ever of minority interest.

They were never popular here, either. The thing with Benny Hill is that it didn't start airing in the US until 1978 (on late night syndication). And he was frankly getting away with bad boy humor that absolutely did not exist on primetime American television. He was utterly unique to us, and a big hit with school age male teens and older males. I was 13--I remember being stunned at the bawdy humor. Nowadays, I watch that show and think it's actually very classy compared to the rubbish that airs today. The U.S. only ever seems to fixate on one UK show at a time. Right now, it's "Downton Abbey" and yesterday it was "Doctor Who." In the past, Americans would only seem to talk about "Absolutely Fabulous," "The Avengers," "Are You Being Served," and a handful more. Americans rarely seem to mine the wealth of all UK television. But it doesn't help that BBC America only shows old American sci-fi programs and lots of reality shows. We are eternally deprived...

 

[andrew markworthy]

We are eternally deprived...

Ethan, the view in the UK is that the USA is in a golden age of TV and Brit TV is garbage. Downton Abbey is seen as lightweight drivel by the critics, and is a guilty pleasure sort of hit in the UK. Something in a similar vein you are likely to get before too long is Blandings (based on the PG Wodehouse novels - it's dire, by the way).

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Ethan, the view in the UK is that the USA is in a golden age of TV and Brit TV is garbage. Downton Abbey is seen as lightweight drivel by the critics, and is a guilty pleasure sort of hit in the UK..

Of course, I guess it's always been that way, the world over. In the UK, I understand that Dynasty and particularly Dallas were enormously popular, but as with Downton, were seen as cheesy soaps and a guilty pleasure by the critics (certainly in their heyday). Another thing to look at is, at least for us in the States, our programmers only import a select amount of British TV, so we tend to get the "cream of the crop" (or, at least, the most universally-popular). For every Upstairs Downstairs, Fawlty Towers and I Claudius that was imported, we "missed out" on the likes of Yus My Dear, Andy Capp and The Cleopatras. Naturally we think of British TV as being superior, as we're not usually exposed to the worst of UK programming (although now with the internet and DVDs, one can expose oneself to much more things if they so desire). I'm not sure whether you get the same lucky escape from bad US television, though. I suspect your TV networks import more US shows than our do UK shows.

 

[Tory]

Yesterday Doctor Who? Doctor Who is still quite popular. It is not a yesterday type of thing.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Yesterday Doctor Who? Doctor Who is still quite popular. It is not a yesterday type of thing.

That is not true...I meant it quite literally! Nobody--but nobody--watches or talks about Doctor Who in the States! Nobody! It's over! Over, I tell you, over!! It's all Downton Abbey!

 

[andrew markworthy]

I understand that Dynasty and particularly Dallas were enormously popular

I hate to break this to you, but most people watched those programs to laugh at them. Dynasty was widely known as 'Dissentery' in the UK.

Naturally we think of British TV as being superior, as we're not usually exposed to the worst of UK programming

A few years ago you would have been right. But our mainstream programming now really is awful. We have nothing to compare with Broadwalk Empire, The Wire, etc. Even our broadcasting of live events, which used to be the envy of the world, is a disaster these days. You guys probably didn't see it, but there was a major royal event last year, with a massive flotilla of boats going down the Thames. The coverage was so shambolic is created a record number of complaints. E.g. in an attempt to be 'relevant' to today's culture at the moment of the sailing past of the boats of Dunkirk (hugely emotionally meaningful in the UK), the coverage cut to interviewing a group of drag queens. Imagine at the moment they started singing The Star-Spangled Banner a the Superbowl, there was a cut to Jihadists burning the American flag, and you will have some idea how well that went down amongst traditionalists in the UK. The television companies in the UK seem to have lost all sense of priorities. I don't know if this story has reached the USA, but there was a famous British TV and radio personality called Jimmy Savile, who did a lot of highly publicised charity fundraising. He died a couple of years ago. Now long before he died, nearly everyone in the UK had heard rumours that he was a pedophile. After his death, it emerged that he had raped or seriously molested 300 or more children (some of them dying cancer victims - I really wish that last bit was an exaggeration, but it isn't). A year or so ago, the BBC news service wanted to run a program on the allegations, but they were stopped by the senior BBC management. Why? Because it would mean they would have had to have shelved a couple of tribute programs to Savile that had been made for the Christmas schedules. Needless to say, the story did break some time after Christmas, and various people were sacked. So really and truly, I would not look enviously at UK television!

 

[silverking]

I have to disagree with you Andrew, about Dallas & Dynasty's popularity in the UK. Dallas in particular was a very big hit here. Interesting though, that some of the most popular & successful US shows didn't play here or were very low profile. 'Gilligan's Island' has been mentioned & only a few were shown. Another one would be 'The Andy Griffith show', almost an institution in the US but hardly anyone in the UK would know him. Mind you one classic US comedy which seems to be forgotten in the States but still gets reun here & is well loved 'The Phil Silvers show' commonly known as Bilko.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I don't know if this story has reached the USA, but there was a famous British TV and radio personality called Jimmy Savile

Yes, the story certainly made it over here, at least in the media circles I watch/listen to (Jon Stewart's The Daily Show did a sizeable piece on it, and it got a lot of play on NPR). I don't think the average American had any idea who Saville was before the scandal, though I've certainly known who he was ever since the '80s.

So really and truly, I would not look enviously at UK television!

I correspond with a lot of other TV addicts on both sides of the pond and yes, I do understand the programming of particular interest to collectors like myself (repeats of vintage shows, unedited repeats, repeats without a lot of on-screen logos) has also vanished away in the UK like it did in the US before then. I used to have guys tape stuff for me all the time from UK television up until around 2000 or a bit after. Now, it's just a few shows I'll have someone record for me (things like Have I Got News For You or the rare vintage sitcom/drama repeat on BBC4). So, yes, as far as my interests go, I agree, UK television is just as dire as US television. There are a few current sitcoms/dramas I like on both sides of the pond, but to get my "fix" of the stuff I really enjoy, I have to resort to DVDs/Blu-rays. Thank goodness for multi-zone equipment!

 

[andrew markworthy]

I have to disagree with you Andrew, about Dallas & Dynasty's popularity in the UK. Dallas in particular was a very big hit here.

Chris - I'm a Brit. I can assure you that high percentage watched both those shows to laugh at them. I assume you didn't listen to Terry Wogan at the time the shows were originally aired?

 

[Ethan Riley]

I think Americans laughed at the primetime soaps just as much. Dynasty in particular. It started out as fairly serious drama, but devolved into camp and outrageous gowns. There'd be weekly viewer parties in gay bars and drag queens would come in dressed as Alexis and they'd all sit and bitch about the stupid stories. It's all entertainment; I believe that most in the 80s took it no more seriously than fans of the Kardashians do today.