Cold Case," "Trace" stake out foreign markets

[longislanditalian2]

yahoo news





(edited url)

[LillyKat]

Thanks, LII. I guess this is sort of like the U.S. taking the British version of The Office and making it its "own" version.

For me. though, there will only ever be ONE true Lilly Rush (a.k.a. Kathryn Morris) and ONE true show named Cold Case.




(But Susan Chuang as Lilly Wong in Cold Case: Beijing might be OK ... LOL! ... credit to boxman for his post in Caption the Cold Case Image in the Games folder).

[Naj]

Here's another story:

Hollywood Reporter

[samanda]

Interesting. I knew about the upcoming French version of LO:CI, but I didn't know about WaT and CC. Thanks for the info, gals!



@ LillyKat: nice avatar

[boxman]

That's rather interesting news. Thanks for posting it, LII2 and Naj. I wonder which country/city they're gonna release CC in??

[Disasterfreak]

They've done versions of lots of American shows in my country--though not procedurals. They did the Nanny and Married with Children and Mad About You with unexpected success though. So... it's not so bad. Don't worry--there's always just enough of the place's mentality and culture to turn it into a separate show. So there will always be just one Cold Case.

[LillyKat]

disasterfreak said:

They've done versions of lots of American shows in my country--though not procedurals. They did the Nanny and Married with Children and Mad About You with unexpected success though. So... it's not so bad. Don't worry--there's always just enough of the place's mentality and culture to turn it into a separate show. So there will always be just one Cold Case.

Hi DF ... am just curious ... on those American shows that were done for your country ... did they actually keep the original name of the show and/or the main character names, or was it more about keeping to the premise of the American version, and show names/characters were changed to fit the particular region/country. I remember being in Sweden in the early 90s as an exchange student, and my host-sister would say to me, 'This Swedish show is based on a UK version of so-and-so' (I can't remember which one, though - LOL!). I do remember my host mother always enjoying watching the original British programs as broadcast out of the UK - but only if they could get them on one of their channels (they only had two. )


@a2z- thank you!

[riche]

In Britain we've had a few remakes of US shows. It is normally a case of taking the basic premise, the character types and plot lines. The names are likely changed to fit the situation better.

I remember a Mad About You remake called "Loved By You". It was probably later that I saw Mad About You and then found that they had condensed multiple plot-lines into single episodes. British sitcoms tend to only have 6-13 episodes per series which is probably a legacy of having only a handful of channels for many years so the need to change more often to fit more in per year. Getting a 20+ episode long series into less than 10 involved some major re-writing, editing and compressing.

We have shows with similar themes to CC and CSI but I don't think they are related in any way.

I've just remembered a "Married With Children" remake, which turned out to be called "Married For Life". It starred a British comedian called Russ Abbot. The names have been changed a bit. It looks like it only did one (short) series so mustn't have been well received. MWC did get a good, if sporadic and late at night, airing over the years here.

[LillyKat]

riche said:

In Britain we've had a few remakes of US shows. It is normally a case of taking the basic premise, the character types and plot lines. The names are likely changed to fit the situation better.

I remember a Mad About You remake called "Loved By You". It was probably later that I saw Mad About You and then found that they had condensed multiple plot-lines into single episodes. British sitcoms tend to only have 6-13 episodes per series which is probably a legacy of having only a handful of channels for many years so the need to change more often to fit more in per year. Getting a 20+ episode long series into less than 10 involved some major re-writing, editing and compressing.

We have shows with similar themes to CC and CSI but I don't think they are related in any way.

I've just remembered a "Married With Children" remake, which turned out to be called "Married For Life". It starred a British comedian called Russ Abbot. The names have been changed a bit. It looks like it only did one (short) series so mustn't have been well received. MWC did get a good, if sporadic and late at night, airing over the years here.

Thanks for the info, RichE. It sounds like what I thought - keeping to the general premise over exact duplicates of shows. I actually like the Lynley Mystery series that I think is an original UK product (that is, not based on any other show). We get to see that on public television (PBS) here in the U.S. about once a year or so, but we're usually a couple of series' behind that which would be airing (or just aired) in the UK. Same was true with Prime Suspect, and other series that come out of the UK (including comedies, though those tend to be WAY behind - LOL!)

[Naj]

webwire

Warner Bros. International Television to License Format Rights to Hit Drama Series Without A Trace and Cold Case, From Jerry Bruckheimer Television


(WebWire) 3/13/2007 6:58:00 PM


Warner Bros. International Television will team up with international producers and broadcasters to create versions of the global hit drama series Without a Trace and Cold Case, both from Jerry Bruckheimer Television, in territories around the world, it was announced today by Jeffrey R. Schlesinger, President, Warner Bros. International Television (WBITV).


This will mark the first time that WBITV has offered international format rights to series currently being produced by the Studio for broadcast in the U.S. Previously announced format deals have all pertained to content from the Warner Bros. Entertainment library.


"We couldn’t be more excited about taking format rights to ’Without a Trace’ and ’Cold Case,’ two of the most successful drama series in the world, into the marketplace," said Schlesinger. "These shows are compelling procedural dramas, with interesting human characters who work tirelessly to unravel mysteries and find the truth. These stories are some of the most widely accessible in the world, and we look forward to working with local partners to create successful adaptations around the globe."


"This creates exciting possibilities for our series that previously did not exist and is a testament to the uniqueness of what Hank Steinberg and Meredith Stiehm created that this interest exists," said Jerry Bruckheimer, executive producer, Without a Trace and "Cold Case."


The development and eventual production of the international versions of the series will be supervised for WBITV by Denis Leroy, Vice President, Format Licensing and Production, who serves as the Studio’s point person on the formats initiative.


Both Without a Trace, about the elite FBI Missing Persons Squad and starring Emmy® and Golden Globe winner Anthony LaPaglia, and Cold Case, about a Philadelphia police homicide unit investigating long-unsolved crimes and starring Kathryn Morris, are top-rated hits around the world in their original U.S. versions. According to a global television survey released in August 2006 by Informa Telecoms and Media which identified series that ranked in the top 10 in 20 key international territories, Without a Trace is the seventh-most popular show in the world.


Without a Trace was created by Hank Steinberg and is executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, Hank Steinberg, Jan Nash and Greg Walker. The series is from Jerry Bruckheimer Television in association with CBS Productions and Warner Bros. Television.


Cold Case was created by Meredith Stiehm and is executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, Meredith Stiehm and Veena Sud. The series is from Jerry Bruckheimer Television in association with CBS Productions and Warner Bros. Television.


Warner Bros. International Television Distribution is one of the world’s largest distributors of feature films, television programs and animation to the international television marketplace (broadcast, pay cable, basic cable, satellite, pay-per-view, video-on-demand, digital platforms, etc.). It licenses some 48,000 hours of programming (including more than 6,000 features and 74 current series), dubbed or subtitled in more than 40 languages, to telecasters and cablecasters in more than 175 countries.

[toddsmitts]

Adapting hit shows from both sides of the pond has been going on for years.

"All in the Family" was based on an old BBC series "Till Death Us Do Part" (it's "Us Do", not "Do Us"). There were also adaptations of that show in Germany and even Hong Kong.

There was also a British versions of "Who's the Boss?" called "The Upper Hand" (which featured Honor Blackman AKA Goldfinger's meow Galore as the grandma) and one of "The Golden Girls" called "Brighton Belles"

The was also a very short-lived adaptation of the BBC series "Coupling" on NBC a while back.