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March 28, 2024, 10:44:41 AM

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TV shows you thought were from different countries

Started by George White, April 10, 2017, 08:41:08 PM

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George White

Any TV shows you thought were British but were American or Aussie or shows you thought were Aussie but were British or British shows you thought were American?

Father Ted is the obvious "I thought it was Irish" one but if it was Irish, it would have had a stilted atmosphere, as RTE don't really have comedy directors (ironic considering Ted director Dermot Lowney began directing shows such as the 88 Eurovision for Telly Eireann). And it certainly in my eyes, being Irish, is an unofficial coproduction, Irish cast, crew, exteriors.

Other shows
A lot of dubbed anime can cause problems. I thought the Cardiff-based dub of the Moomins from the 90s was North American because of Garrick Hagon and an American accent-using Susan Sheridan as main voices.
The Thorn Birds - one of those shows you actually think is Aussie until you watch it and see that only two characters have Aussie accents.
I used to be confused whether Daktari was British or American having bought a Corgi tie-in at a toy fair. Its safari setting for some reason made me think the former. Because I never saw it, I assumed it was British.

There is the phenomenon of Canada Does Not Exist" which is different from US network shows made in Canada, eg X Files as those are set in the US quite blatantly. Canada Does Not Exist is when Canadian shows try deliberately not to mention where they are set, ie fictional towns, "the city", try to use generic legal terms such as "prosecutor" rather than attorney, no shots of money. A lot of Canadian films are the same, e.g. the original My Bloody Valentine with its generic "police officer", yet clearly Canadian, with Moosehead beer and the atmosphere of an episode of the Beachcombers or the irony of the Fly 1986, which Canadian-made seems to be set in Canada, until we see US dollars, ironic that the original The Fly was set in Montreal but shot in Hollywood.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...daDoesNotExist
It began in the 80s with a series called Night Heat, which was a CTV cop show that was picked up by CBS, who wanted it to have a US setting, so duly they complied, then a loophole emerged that because it was a Canadian network show, it had to have Canadian cultural content, and yet CBS wanted a gritty US crime show, so as TV Tropes detailed,they created this weird "generic North Americana" culture.
Similar was the generic Pacific Northwestern city of Seacouver in the Highlander series.
Now, the Next Step and orphan Black have it.
And then you have the Canadian-German Huckleberry Finn adaptations, with dubbed German actress as aunt Polly.

Billy

CITV's 'Spatz' was an odd one, a UK show but half the cast were Canadian as it was a YTV co-production. The video quality also looked like a dodgy NTSC/PAL transfer even though it was (I think?) all filmed in England.

George White

Yes, it was. It'd be a few years until the likes of Worst Witch, Magician's House, I Was A Rat would fake, at least partly, England in Montreal, Vancouver or Toronto, bringing casts over from the UK and getting funding from both BBC and Canada.

Brundle-Fly

Barbapapa. Didn't realise it was French until years later.

Ambient Sheep

I always thought it was Swedish, must have got confused with the Moomins!

Small Man Big Horse

I was admittedly a stupid child but I didn't realise The Magic Roundabout was French until I was in my teens.

Twed

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on April 11, 2017, 05:35:26 PM
I always thought it was Swedish, must have got confused with the Moomins!
And Sweden with Finland.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Twed on April 11, 2017, 05:47:45 PM
And Sweden with Finland.

Oh for fuck's sake, I even checked... but stopped reading too soon (i.e. after four words)...

Quote from: WikipediaThe Moomins (Swedish: Mumintrollen) are the central characters in a series of books and a comic strip by Swedish-speaking Finnish illustrator and writer Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish by Schildts in Finland.

I have a few Finnish friends and know about the Swedish-Finns and Finnish-Finns divide, too.  I hate myself.  I hate myself I hate myself I hate myself.

Utter Shit

Father Ted is essentially Irish isn't it? Irish writers, Irish actors. I know it was a Channel 4 show but still.

Phil_A

Quote from: George White on April 10, 2017, 08:41:08 PM
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...daDoesNotExist
It began in the 80s with a series called Night Heat, which was a CTV cop show that was picked up by CBS, who wanted it to have a US setting, so duly they complied, then a loophole emerged that because it was a Canadian network show, it had to have Canadian cultural content, and yet CBS wanted a gritty US crime show, so as TV Tropes detailed,they created this weird "generic North Americana" culture.

Similarly, Due South, a series all about the cultural differences experienced by a Canadian cop moving to Chicago, which was filmed primarily in...Toronto.

Alberon

The Hellraiser films fall into this. The first is set in a generic city somewhere in the English speaking Western world (though rather obviously filmed in the U.K.) but by the second film it's become clearly American.

Sydward Lartle

Because I was an animation nerd growing up, and I watched far too many 'award winning Polish / Czech / Hungarian (etc) cartoons' on BBC2 as well as Channel Four's patchy but intermittently brilliant World of Animation series, when I first watched And Now For Something Completely Different, I assumed Terry Gilliam was a dark, brooding graduate of Studio Zagreb who'd found a niche producing macabre little cartoons for comedy films.

George White

Some series can be confusing i.e. England-set New-Zealand-German-Yugoslavian Leon Garfield adap Jack Holborn.

George White

For years, I thought Bedknobs and Broomsticks was made in Britain. Obviously, Poppins had a setbound feel and Van Dyke's accent, but Bedknobs felt more English, but no, aside from a few second unit shots, all done in California. A mix of set design, mattes and Brucie do the trick.

Max Headroom - the Series, not the C4 pilot, but the series, a British show made for a US network in America, the producers, Chysalis, a UK company also shot the 1982 tv biopic The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana, which is technically a British coproduction despite its UK setting mostly faked in New York with a mix of US based Brits and local talent.

George White

#14
RTE have been doing this a few times. Putting a few quid to anything Irish-set, the Irish RM, the BBC adaptation of Good Behaviour with Hannah Godon, the Price, the Hanging Gale, and things barely anything to do with Ireland - a couple of PBS plays sometimes but not always about Ireland e.g. Bronte - a one woman show with Julie Harris directed by Oscar-winner turned TV movie maven Delbert Mann, Peter Brook's version of the Mahabharata (because it starred Ciaran Hinds), some C4 opera, HBO/BBC Scotland's Animated Tales of the World, the Lilac Bus, some Dick Francis plays that because of RTE/Canadian funding had their settings changed to Ireland and Canada, with the likes of Niall Toibin popping up, and Brides of Christ - the 1991 Aussie miniseries set in a Catholic girls' school in 60s Sydney, which RTE co-funded as Brenda Fricker was the star, as well as helping the likes of Trimark, Artisan, Miramax, the Isle of Man Film Commission, New Line, BBC Films, Film 4, etc on the likes of the Last of the High Kings, Frankie Starlight, My Left Foot (though not the Field - that was Granada), I Went Down, Beckett on Film, etc.
And also showing anything vaguely Irish-related, Captains and Kings, Ellis Island, Roar, The Thorn Birds, Against the Wind, and Father Ted, obviously - anything set or with Irish characters, no matter how inaccurate.

George White

Short-lived Canadian soap Falcon Beach - each episode's geographically specific was shot twice, one with a US setting, one with a Canadian setting. Can't remember which one BBC showed. Probably the US version.

manticore

I have a Canadian friend who thought Father Ted was set off Newfoundland before she came to Britain. The Newfie accent is quite Irish sounding and she says the spirit and sense of humour of Craggy Island is just right for Newfoundland.

Is Ireland ever mentioned in Father Ted? When the mainland is referenced or visited I don't think it's actually identified as Ireland. Could be wrong.

George White

Well, there's refs to Wexford and Dublin and "Telly Eireann" and Ted does give directions to people. But it could be overlooked.

George White

Just remembered - the Dunnes' Stores Lingerie department is explicitly referred to as "Ireland's Biggest Lingerie section"

Glebe

I like that Father Unctious mentions Dollymount strand in the Christmas special.

EOLAN

Dougal wearing an Ireland Soccer Jersey in bed was a visual one that came to my mind.

George White

I did think that as a very thick kid, Falcon Crest (and possibly Dynasty, thought at least that was partly due to the Moldavian stuff) set in some weird central European country, near Austria or somewhere.
Maybe because of the music to my little ears was a bit National Anthem-y, and the house looked like a castle and possibly the logo too.

buttgammon

My mum thought The Sopranos was set in Italy (and not just the two or three episodes that were set in Italy) until I corrected her. I think she thought it was just an American rendering of Italy; I'm not sure how this accounts for all the New Jersey accents, references and locations, though.

George White

Mother had a similar problem with the film the Pawnbroker with Rod Steiger.  "That German film", about a Holocaust survivor in Harlem.

Maybe, it was because she was raised on things like the Thorn Birds, which was set in Australia but apart from Bryan Brown, everyone was either American or sort of British.

Glebe

Quote from: George White on April 15, 2017, 10:55:54 AMSome series can be confusing i.e. England-set New-Zealand-German-Yugoslavian Leon Garfield adap Jack Holborn.

Huckleberry Finn and His Friends was a Canadian/German co-production, filmed in Canada. Of course a lot of movies/TV shows have used Canada as the US... Vancouver is a popular filming location, I believe.

George White

Yes, and a lot of series have used Canada as the UK, even BBC Sunday classics like the Magician's House and I Was a Rat.

Phil_A

I spent years trying to track down a weird, depressing Japanese cartoon I saw as a kid, which involved a dying old man on a spaceship, a boy getting lost in time and then attacked by giant wasps. That was more or less all I could remember about it. I trawled through endless lists of old animes and couldn't find a single one that fit that description.

Eventually someone I asked recognised what it was, turns out it wasn't Japanese at all but a French/Hungarian film co-written and designed by the legendary Moebius no less, which the BBC aired in a serial format under the name "Time Masters".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Maîtres_du_temps

Also, one of the voices in the English dub is Ray "Mr Benn" Brooks.

Steven

Quote from: buttgammon on June 26, 2017, 03:39:23 PM
My mum thought The Sopranos was set in Italy (and not just the two or three episodes that were set in Italy) until I corrected her. I think she thought it was just an American rendering of Italy; I'm not sure how this accounts for all the New Jersey accents, references and locations, though.

She might have seen the episode where it is set in Italy, though.

Sin Agog

Quote from: Phil_A on June 26, 2017, 04:37:51 PM
I spent years trying to track down a weird, depressing Japanese cartoon I saw as a kid, which involved a dying old man on a spaceship, a boy getting lost in time and then attacked by giant wasps. That was more or less all I could remember about it. I trawled through endless lists of old animes and couldn't find a single one that fit that description.

Eventually someone I asked recognised what it was, turns out it wasn't Japanese at all but a French/Hungarian film co-written and designed by the legendary Moebius no less, which the BBC aired in a serial format under the name "Time Masters".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Maîtres_du_temps

Also, one of the voices in the English dub is Ray "Mr Benn" Brooks.

You've gotta Czech out Fantastic Planet by that guy (Rene Laloux).  I love shit like that.  Spent so many wintry hours down the youtube rabbit hole feeding my head with similar stuff from across the world.  I feel like we've mostly missed a trick in the UK but especially America when it comes to using animation as a device to let our ids run riot.  Then again, probably the most twisted, feral piece of drawn fuckery I've ever seen did come from the mind of a Limey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thxuug3Fyhs

Anyway, the Dougal posts make me think of The Moomins, the ITV stop-motion series from the '70s.  There's just something about the way we did that Postgate style of narration in the '70s and early '80s that feels so warm and British (well, at least the kind of British that doesn't involve pigheadedly ranting about 'muzzies' to anyone who'll hear you, or complaining about your malingering gardener in first class on the train out of London).   Think it originally came from Poland, which doesn't surprise me now as they have a pretty rockin' animation scene.  The guy doing all the narration was called Richard Murdoch, but I'm pretty sure he's no relation.  I'm too scared to wiki him just in case one of my favourite programs is ruined.  The soundtrack was recently released and it's crazy how much it sounds like the kind of dark ambient folk thing you'd expect from the Nurse With Wound list, rather than something from a kid's show.

Gulftastic

Quote from: manticore on June 25, 2017, 10:44:00 PM

Is Ireland ever mentioned in Father Ted? When the mainland is referenced or visited I don't think it's actually identified as Ireland. Could be wrong.

In 'Song For Europe', Ireland is mentioned, and there is a map of of the place above the scoreboard.