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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Which famous TV shows would you like to see re-made for a Chinese audience?
My own pick is Keeping Up Appearances.
Maybe they could change it to a conspicuous consuming middle aged guy to fit China better?
From the American side I think a full length version of Dr Nick's segments from The Simpsons would be great. It could be renamed Guanxi Doctor.
Any ideas? You can venture your own pilot projects here. I think of many all of the time. Maybe I'll share some more...
The Sopranos, I'd love to see the ins and outs of gang members hanging out at KTV and making shady real estate deals based on confidential information about where a new school will be built. We just need to find an overweight Tony Wang who drinks too much, smokes too much, cheats on his wife with hookers, and screws his subordinates out of their fair share of their illegal enterprise's profits. It will be tough to find a Chinese male who meets that description!
ScotsAlan:
If they advertised for a character like that the number of applicants would set a world record :-)
The Sopranos, I'd love to see the ins and outs of gang members hanging out at KTV and making shady real estate deals based on confidential information about where a new school will be built. We just need to find an overweight Tony Wang who drinks too much, smokes too much, cheats on his wife with hookers, and screws his subordinates out of their fair share of their illegal enterprise's profits. It will be tough to find a Chinese male who meets that description!
ScotsAlan:
If they advertised for a character like that the number of applicants would set a world record :-)
Quincey MD. He is a moralistic doc with a Japanese assistant.
Would Chinese Quincy solve crimes or take bribes
ScotsAlan:
This is an American show from the 70/80s. Jack Klugman was the stars name. It predates CSI by a few decades.
ScotsAlan:
How about "spitting image". Fantastic 80`s British political satire.
Lord_hanson:
If they tried to do spitting image then whoever attempted it would spend the rest of his life in prison.
House: TCMD
Instead of demonstrating an encyclopedic knowledge of medical conditions and incredible deductive reasoning, he prescribes random compounds from nature. Fortunately, most of his patients just have a cold. One or two have performance issues.
True Detective
A series of girls are found bound, mutilated and displayed with ritualistic markings. Determined to be suicide. Security cameras "weren't working".
The Walking Dead
Footage of Chinese people trying to get on buses.
Game of Thrones
The Chinese remake has no coarse language, nudity, sex or violence. Essentially, a TV show about people having conversations in gardens.
Sons of Anarchy
Changed (for reasons of "correct moral guidance") to Sons of Harmony. They ride e-bikes instead of Harleys, and despite being incompetent and inconsiderate drivers, are not very badass.
House of Cards
Who needs a remake? The original has everything Chinese people need to know about Western Values.
Hannibal
See above. Accurate portrayal of Western society. Don't go there.
"The Office" (UK version)
The boss spends his time surrounded by family members fawning over him while other employees play online games.
"Yes Minister/Prime Minister" (I know this is old, but i loved the re-runs)
Politician getting into scrapes and gets lots of hongbao, and fixes things though guanxi - with comical results.
laowaigentleman:
Why didn't I think of Yes Minister!
What would the Chinese version be called? Something along the lines of Wise Chairman.
How about a Chinese Blackadder set in various Chinese epochs poo poohing the supernatural claims of an array of "great" historical figures who are portrayed as delusional. Something like Lord Flashart and General Melchett in the fourth series and the Prince Regent in the third.
Smuggling ladies of ill-repute into the Winter Palace during the 1960s would make a great episode.
If they made The Office UK version in China all of the male workers would be Chris Finch and Gareth. There definitely wouldn't be any Tims or Dawns.
laowaigentleman:
A Chinese Sir Humphrey would be fantastic!
And I would never miss an episode of a Chinese version of Blackadder.
Imagine if an actor portrayed Chiang Kai-Shek the way Stephen Fry portrayed the Duke of Wellington.
Married With Children - It is actually only the Al Bundy character that needs adjusting. Perhaps Marcy and Jefferson could do with being more annoying.
Allo Allo - Set in a small village outside of Nanjing. The British airmen would fit right in
Scandinavian:
Keeping up appearances. I think it is a good choice. I actually don't like the show, but I can completely understand why it would be funny in a Chinese remake... or why it would make fun of the Chinese.
laowaigentleman:
I can't stand it, but everything about her fits contemporary China better than any other show I can think of.
Scandinavian:
yup, except, the Chinese Mrs Bucket would have people do all chores for her
Some mothers do 'ave 'em.
No acting skills required for the lead role.
laowaigentleman:
That was the Phantom of the Opera guy, wasn't it?
My friend bought a DVD omnibus and was watching all of it one Sunday. I thought it was so awful.
You're right. Some rich guy can safely pay to put his ne'er do well son in the lead role and not fear losing face at potentially shitty reviews of his performance. It's the show itself that'll cop those.
It's old, but I grew up with that : Once Upon A Time : Life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time...#Once_Upon_a_Time.E2.80.A6_Life
It was an educational animated serie, made by a French/Japanese team, to teach kids how the human body works. It managed to be very accurate, it introduced all the major systems (DNA, immune response, respiration, blood, reproduction) in detail, yet it was accessible to kids, and fun. It was worth a very good biology class !!! Diffusing it here would be great to introduce health as a rational topic to kids.
The Brady Bunch. There will be 6 empty squares in the opening sequence due to one-child policy.
Dr Hu. Travels through time and space practicing TCM.
laowaigentleman:
5 squares, but Alice would probably be undergoing some fairly harsh psychological torment having a wealthy chinese family as her employers.
Perhaps Alice's character could be Indonesian?
nzteacher80:
Defo Indonesian or Filipino. Maybe extra squares could be for 2nd and 3rd wives?
If you go through all the Chinese tv shows that are current or that have been filmed already, you'll find that they have a very wide range of subject matter... There's medical dramas like Grey's Anatomy, there's tons of war that are similar to Band of Brothers, and there are indeed gang type story lines as well as cop and robber type things. There's also family sitcoms. There's also a good bit of fantasy ones but they are related to Chinese culture instead of Western culture, which I guess could be considered the Chinese version of whatever fantasy show you want to fill in the blank with. There are already Chinese versions of these shows, they just suck. The reason they suck is cause they're the Chinese version. The ironic thing is most of the topics mentioned on this page have been done in terms of Chinese television, and they aren't even popular with Chinese audiences.
Two old comedies from the U.K jump to mind, but I'm not sure that a local audience would see them as comical so much as normal.
Fawlty towers. I often feel like Basil Fawlty when he's having a meltdown in some of the ridiculous situations he finds himself in, especially when they involve Manwell, the employee who speaks very little English.
Open all hours. About an old guy and his nephew who run a small convenience store. The old man is stingy and cheap and obsessed with money.
DrMonkey:
Basil Fawlty trying to run an hotel in China, that would be awesome ^^
ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES. A market trader who is always trying to rip people off by tricking them into buying junk. Almost every week he has some get rich quick scheme that doesn't really work. This doesn't need to be changed at all. They even made a Japanese version of this.
Beachcombers --- a long running old , Canadian TV show that I think was very popular in Australia too. Instead of gathering breakaway logs and driftwood, they could collect plastic bags and use " human hair booms" to collect oils along the Chinese coastline.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beachcombers
http://archive.wtsp.com/news/national/story.aspx?storyid=131299
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126536482
Beachcombers --- a long running old , Canadian TV show that I think was very popular in Australia too. Instead of gathering breakaway logs and driftwood, they could collect plastic bags and use " human hair booms" to collect oils along the Chinese coastline.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beachcombers
http://archive.wtsp.com/news/national/story.aspx?storyid=131299
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126536482
I'd like to see a Chinese TV show that isn't shit. Yeah... good luck with that.
I would suggest Mythbusters, but it might get pulled off the air for addressing sensitive issues.
Burak43:
On the contrary! I could see this as a neat propaganda tool:
"Today we are testing the myth that Chinese air quality is bad compared to the west!"
"Let's test the air in China, Country side in Tibet? AQI 20, Tiny village on Hainan? AQI 22"
*shot of Chinese Jamie and Chinese going to Paris*
"Let's test the air in Paris!"
*sticks measuring instrument inside the combustion chamber of a 1962 Peugeot 403 runniing on leaded fuel*
"WOOOOW!!! it's OFF THE CHARTS!!!""
Myth busted! Air quality is much better in China than in the West.
laowaigentleman:
Maybe Chinese Tory will only get his position on the show because of guanxi and he'll be willing to try the most requested by the Chinese audience myth that opening a plane door mid-flight is dangerous...
Samsara:
Mythbusters! Excellent idea, but wishful thinking, considering that Chinese people's entire worldview is based on myths (which in my experience they do not want dispelled).
I'd start with Shaolin kung fu "masters" who claim they can use "qi" to prevent a spear from entering their neck. The experiment would go like this:
Stab.
Spurt. Spurt. Spurt.
Myth debunked.
laowaigentleman:
@samsara
You almost caused me to spit coffee onto my screen, haha!
I don't tend to 'lol' when I'm online or reading a book on a bus, I'm more of a 'pffft' kind of guy if something really tickles me and I can't suppress being audible about it and attracting gormless stares.
I'd love to see that episode so I can find out if my pfft sounds anything like the blood pissing out of the monk's neck.
Lord_hanson:
They had a show like this on Chinese TV. I remember seeing my wife watch a couple. It was about a year or 2 ago. If you watched the video that Vicky posted about the people on the train, well that guy was in it.
hogans heroes, the show would be tunnels underground fighting the japs in nanjing, but the women are the fighters because all the men ran away. the show has orgies during the day and revenge bdsm at night.
ambivalentmace:
yes, great man, wasted life, have all 6 seasons of the show, cranes life was a tragedy, wish i had met him.
How about Kath and Kim from Australia.
Two cashed up classless materialistic women going to the mall all of the time, the mother not noticing that she's getting older and should dress her age, and the daughter insisting on wearing clothes that don't fit her properly so she can look like a sex kitten.
It wouldn't be hard to find a Chinese Kim.
Look at moi Kimmy, look at moi, now I've got one word to say to you Kim: kimchi (guanxi).
laowaigentleman:
Shane Warne is great fun.
I remember the twelfth man commentary where they had Shane Warne out on the pitch sending messages up to the commentary box and Bill Lawrie reads one out.
"it says, wanna root? I don't think that one was intended for us!"
Cops!!!! It would be a smash hit in China.
Chengguan pounding to crap shirtless baijui drunk fat men, tweaked out meth heads and those evil weed smoking celebrity kids....taken down after a spirited chase for dramatic effect.
The Jerry Springer mentality will catch like wild fire and China will never be the same.
People of lesser means get off on watching people more fucked up than themselves...Cops China is a sure winner.