Non US/UK/Australia tv shows??

Not including cartoons IE Pingu, magic roundabout and Japanese Amine

Has anyone ever seen a TV show (i mainly mean sitcoms) that wasn't from the UK, US or Australia ?? We never see a german or finnish comedy series dubbed into the english do we???
Would just be plane interesting to take look at stuff like for a real change...I think

It's probably because the British have a completely different sense of humour to most other countries. Most US sit-coms don't make the transition to a UK audience, the format is simply bought and re-written to match our humour. Similarly, most UK sit-com formats are sold to other countries (eg The Office etc).

Sit-coms are relatively cheap to produce (when compared to drama etc) and therefore far more marketable as a format than a dubbed UK produced programme.

You got to admit tho it would be so refreshing to see what TV shows some other countries tune in for would'nt it????

??? You're joking right. British TV is full of US sitcoms.

Yes, but only those which are of a compatible humour (eg Friends, Scrubs etc) but most of what the US produces would hardly raise a smile here on the main channels.

I agree that alot of the minor channels (Paramount, abc1 etc) manage to stuff their schedules with US sit-coms - but they would never normally be bought by the main players here (unless they put it on CBeebies, Citv etc in keeping with the level of intelligence required).

Even Americans admit that they don't understand the British sense of humour, our natural sense of irony is completely lost on them, and as for satire - that has to be fed to them in simple small doses by the likes of Jay Leno ( ).

Likewise I admit I can't understand most US humour either. It's childish, brash, repetitive and full of stage managed "whoop, whooping" from the studio audience (eg: why must we listen to an audience screaming like they are faking an orgasm just because someone walks into shot? )

I don't like some UK produced sit-coms and comedy programmes, but at least most don't go out of their way to aim at the IQ of a badly trained chimpanzee.

However, it would be interesting to see what the Finns, French, Germans and Croats etc produce.....but I doubt we would find their humour any more bearable than a session of colonic irrigation

...rant over....

I like quite a few US sitcoms but I see your point, don't take much intelligence.

I was in the US talking to someone once tho who told me that it actully does show a sign of itelligence for an american to like british humour. Eg he told me that a pyhics teacher at a top US university problity would go home and watch a british sitcom on a cable channel.

I wasn't aiming quite that high in my estimation of the average US viewer of British sit-coms, but it does perhaps ring true. I have had many amusing hours reading the commentaries of Bill Bryson (an American) who describes the differences between UK & US humour extreemly well. (Details)

I can think of two US sitcoms that have ever made me laugh out loud. Some others can raise a smile. Most don't.

You only have to watch ABC1 to see there's a whole load of sitcoms out there that'll never make it to mainstream TV here because they just aren't funny.

I would like to see sitcoms from other countries. I'm guessing the formats etc just wont gel with our usual style of sitcoms. If you ever get the chance to see an Indian soap you'll see it's a far cry from your usual Eastenders/Coronation Street milarky!

I can never see dubbing going down well, though depending on the programme, it can be preferable to subtitles.

Apart from Neighbours and Home and Away, only a handful of other Aussie programmes have made it on to mainstream UK television. I'm thinking of Heartbreak High and Kath and Kim, while C4 have had co-productions with an Aussie network for The Secret Life of Us and the forthcoming Headland.

Back to none-English programmes - being in Wales it's worth mentioning S4C. BBC2 showed Pobol y Cwm a while ago, and S4C have had a few programmes over the years which I've watched regularly, most notably Pam fi Duw, an excellent teen drama, an area the main UK channels don't cover very well.

Just look at other tv channels around the world they so show a lot of UK, US shows.

I like a lot of American sit-coms old and new a like Threes Company,Happy Days,Scurbs,Two and a Half Men and more.

Does anyone else remember Chateauvallon? It was a kind of upper-class French soap - a bit like France's answer to Dallas. Channel 4 showed it for a while in the 80s. IIRC, it was shown dubbed, but with an omnibus repeat with just subtitles.

It never really caught on. I just think most of the public aren't prepared to make the effort with subtitles, and just don't like dubbing. With such a wealth of programmes made in English from around the world, it's just not something we've felt we have to get used to.