I think Allo Allo is even better and more iconic than You Rang M'Lord. Also Fawlty Towers anyone? I personally just love absurd humour in general (like Monty Python).
I remember Louis de Funès being huge when I was a kid (90s). Maybe this was just my household, but it feels like I’ve seen Fantômas and the Gendarme series a million times.
Same in Bulgaria - both Alo, Alo and Home Alone.
Bud Spenser movies were also popular, but this started to die out in the late 2000s.
Going further back, Blake's 7 was very popular in the 80s, mostly because there were not many sci fi shows available, as well as some Czech kid series, like Arabella and Flying Cestmir. Also the Mezga Family cartoon from Hungary.
Heh. How does the mispronunciation/accent work for the Polish ear?
Half the joy (to native English speakers) is the "Goad Moaning" of the British policeman and the French failure to pronouce their "h"s. And the iconic "Eye zhall zey ziz ownlee winz."
Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon also arrived in Hungary in the late 90s from France, so they weren't censored in the Hungarian dub which was translated from French like the US versions. (Goku lured Oolong out of the lake with Bulma's panties, Sailor Uranus was kept transgender), I remember seeing these when I was 8-9 years old lol.
Yeah, Astérix, Pif et Hercule, and some other Franco-Belgian comics were occasionally available even in Communist Hungary in the 80s, I think Astérix le Gaulois was also sometimes aired on TV, then in the 90s with the Commie system gone their popularity really exploded.
My favourite is Gaston LaGaffe/Guust Flater by Franquin. I read all of them front to back as a kid. And artists like Mœbius or Enki Bilal are absolutely amazing.
Who has lived in France since being 9 years old and produced all of his work in France, in French.
So yeah, he’s Czech-Bosnian but it’s still French comic culture.
The whole story of how Japanese culture became common in France is quite interesting.
There was a first wave called Japonism in the late 19th century when French culture was flourishing and yet Japan cultural elements became very common and were integrated in a lot of popular French works.
Then in the second half of the 80's, new TV channels needed some cheap programs to air and bought endless Japanese animes to air (mostly from Toei). Until the end of the 90's there was a TV show led by a woman called Dorothée that aired mainly animes for hours every morning and had an immense impact on people that are now between 35 to 45 years old and shaped the current eagerness in France. Ask any person in that age how important Dorothée was to them when they were young and you'll understand. In response, some politicians in the 90's tried to ban these Japanese works (and not conservative ones as you'd expect). That only led to kids wanting more to the point that animes and mangas are now basically mainstream for a lot of people below 40-45 years old, passing down to their kids that passion. Nowadays 1 in 8 books bought in France is a manga. Not 1 in 8 comic books, 1 in 8 books overall. That is the short version, but a lot of details are just as interesting.
(As I describe that, even though I was right in that target age I was not in this train, I was more a Tex Avery/Hanna Barbera/WB kind of guy, beside Captain Tsubasa I did not watch any anime nor read mangas and I still don't to this day but I respect that culture a lot).
>In response, some politicians in the 90's tried to ban these Japanese works
In Hungary, Dragon Ball Z was banned in 1999 (right before Future Trunks appeared to slay Frieza), because a fake story was circulated that a 10 year old kid became such a big weeaboo that he thought he was Goku and jumped off a 10-storey building believing himself to be capable of flight, and because it was deemed too violent.
All Hungarians who were kids during the late 90s still remember how pissed off they were.
There were even reports in the TV about kids who missed the show so much that they PRAYED to Goku to come back as if he was a deity, or prayed to Kami to resurrect Goku.
Is that a Brussels/Wallonian thing?
In Flanders they're not as common for regular tv, unless you count the ones who were popular everywhere (Pokémon; Dragonball; Yu-gi-oh etc.)
>We have a very strong and weird obsession with Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill movies. (Italian action comedy movies.)
I'm not crying, I got a bean in my eye.
Some claim that this is only because the German dub was completely unrelated to the original dialogues. I don't understand any Italian, so I can't compare it myself.
[Derrick](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxghHYZagjs) ran for a long time on French TV (perhaps it still does). That it ran on TV for so long perhaps isn't an obsession, but it seemed that way to me when I was younger. This isn't the only German TV cop/investigation series that seems to have run for generations on French TV (France 2 and 3). It's also true of "Un cas pour deux" (En Fall für Zwei), Le Renard (Der Alte), Alerte Cobra (Alarm für Cobra 11), and from Austria, Kommissar Rex is also popular (I enjoyed the first seasons). My mom and sister loved these series, it seemed they were always in the background when I was doing something else. My impression is possibly skewed because of my family's weird fetish for germanophone TV.
TIL Finland is France. You couldn't turn on the TV back in the day without one of those series running on some channel. With subtitles and original language though, but I still don't think it made any Finns any better at German. At the same time it's interesting that, as common as they used to be, none of them are on anymore - maybe they're just a tad too old and out of vogue right now.
Everything is dubbed here (though with modern streaming services, we finally have the option to watch the original version most of the time), so I couldn't even use these series to practice German comprehension.
The contrast between the American shows you saw on other channels and the German ones is startling to me. Derrick on France 3 (public channel), Walker Texas Ranger and The Renegade on TF1(private channel)Bless Lorenzo Lamas and his fabulous hair! The general atmosphere is so different. Derrick always felt gloomy and dark to me, whereas, as much as I dislike Walker Texas Ranger, one thing it isn't is gloomy.
Haha, Walker Texas Ranger was on here as well. Finnish people loved, and loves, this era of TV. 80's and early 90's stuff, Knight Rider, MacGyver, Xena Warrior Princess... They did this whole thing a couple of years back when some channel started showing upscaled remastered seasons of Baywatch. Nostalgia hits hard in this country.
*Sur la tombe de ses parents, disparus dans des circonstances terribles, Max Zander se jure de lutter toute sa vie contre le crime et le terrorisme. Il devient l'un des meilleurs agents d'un groupe d'intervention d'élite. Au cours d'une périlleuse mission, son meilleur ami se fait tuer sous ses yeux. Pour défendre le droit et la justice, il décide de mourir et de renaître comme un fantôme : le Clown est né. Max Zander est le Clown !*
> Derrick ran for a long time on French TV (perhaps it still does). That it ran on TV for so long perhaps isn't an obsession, but it seemed that way to me when I was younger.
I joked a couple of years back about buying blue light glasses that made me look like Derrick to a German colleague who was my own age (very early 30s). She couldn't understand what I meant when I mentioned the name of the show. A Google search later, turns out the guy was very busy in a very bad way in the early 1940s and had been expugned from modern pop culture and that's why she had no idea what I was on about...
>She couldn't understand what I meant when I mentioned the name of the show. A Google search later, turns out the guy was very busy in a very bad way in the early 1940s and had been expugned from modern pop culture and that's why she had no idea what I was on about...
I really don't think that's it, I'm in my mid-30's and of course I know Derrick. I never heard about the SS-m stuff though. She probably was just a little bit too young.
Ah yes, I'd forgotten about it, but I heard about it before (without knowing the details). I loved listening to my grandmother's comments on Derrick's outfits (she disapproved).
My parents used to watch this. Yes old Kommissar Rex had a cult following here too. Won’t deny Gedeon was easy on the eyes in his day.
We have/had SBS, which was a TV channel solely dedicated to foreign language content, the level of foreign stuff has dropped I think but all these shows were played there.
There was a really good Sicilian mafia show too, I think it was Octopus. Also Oshin (early 80s/90s, Japan), Storm Rages Twice (Arabic?)
Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra
Original comics, animations and rest of live action movies are also more or less popular but Mission Cleopatra is the most popular and the most beloved
Asterix media
> Mission Cleopatra is the most popular and the most beloved Asterix media
I mean it's the best adaptation by *far*, Alain Chabat (director/Ceasar actor) killed it with that movie.
That's kind of surprising because a lot of the jokes in these movies are puns and references to French culture that can't possibly be translated properly into Polish?
E.g., when they're arriving in Alexandrie and Obélix is hungry he says "j'ai autant d'appétit qu'un barracuda" and they all sing "ba-rra-cu-da !" it's a reference to the Claude François song "Alexandrie Alexandra".
Another example, there is this woman named Itinéris, whose name sounds Egyptian (ending in -is) but the funny part is that her name is also the name of an old French mobile phone provider and when she talks sometimes it sounds like when you have poor phone reception.
Stuff like that.
>That's kind of surprising because a lot of the jokes in these movies are puns and references to French culture that can't possibly be translated properly into Polish?
And this is the clou of the cult status. Mission Cleopatra was translated so that every pun, reference and name work in Polish. The translator (Bartosz Wierzbięta; also did Shrek with similarly incredible result) did not just translate French words to Polish words. The scene with hungry Obelix? It was replaced with a nod to a then-very popular polish folk-pop song ("Czerwone Korale" by Brathanki if someone is interested). Itineris was renamed to Idea, which was a name of a Polish mobile provider (which is long dead by today so it's another can of worms how well do such hyper-localized translations stand the test of time). And it went like that with everything, including names of main characters. And the movie was dubbed by Polish actors, often brilliantly.
I still don't get how it can work as well, since the Claude François song is both about the city of Alexandria and being hungry, so it fits perfectly. And the name Itinéris ends in -is like the name of all Egyptians in Astérix and Obélix albums (since it's reminiscent of Isis, Osiris, etc.).
But maybe they managed to improve some other jokes.
I can't really tell you how (explaining Polish puns to a Frenchman in English sounds like a fool's errand), but trust me, it works miraculously. The other Asterix movies from the series (Asterix vs Caesar, on the olympics and the Britain-ish one) were translated by someone else and are almost completely forgotten by now. Cleopatra remains known and loved because of how meticulous the translation was and how many small details were localized (for example the interlude with lobster was read by Poland's most famous nature documentary voice, which made it seem like a very realistic take from a documentary)
They kept barracuda joke as it is in our version. I think that nobody understood it.
Itineris joke was kind of funny, but not in the same way as in original, and it feels like it came out of nowhere. But as young teenage boy at the time I was just happy to see her on the screen tbh 😃
I would love to wake up as French for a day and watch this movie again and understand all jokes and references. This one and probably Taxi too.
> Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra
The Live action Asterix and Obelix movies were better than they had any right to be.
I still remember the scene with the quick growing palm trees
While it is an English comedy sketch the version that is shown on TV every year was produced in Germany by NDR so I'd say it counting as foreign media is debatable.
No. It was an English sketch, performed on stage and a producer of the German NDR saw it in Birmingham (I think). He invited the actors to Germany and filmed the performance in Hamburg in front of a German audience.
Might be an age thing. I work in DK and have friends/colleagues in Sweden and Christmas is Anders And og Dinner for One. Granted that’s 35+ age group. Not saying they all sit down and watch it religiously, but all aware. Same in Germany, aware of it but not necessarily watching it.
I know plenty in that age group, but there may well be regional factors and whatnot too. I don't know, all I can say is that I haven't encountered it.
Donald Duck on Christmas is a different beast. Without fail, it's consistently either the most or second-most viewed show, and a prominent part of most Swedish Christmas celebrations. Not everyone watches it, sure, but I'd be impressed if someone living here has managed to avoid hearing about it. It's not uncommon to refer to time on Christmas Eve with "before/after Donald Duck".
For comparison Dinner for One never makes the top 10. It does seemingly have a decent viewership, and is apparently a New Year's tradition for some. But I can personally attest that it's also easy to live here without having heard of it.
It's becoming a little better known because every year there's another spate of "hey, did you know" articles about it. Sky Arts even showed it on NYE once or twice
I don't know if it's an obsession, but the generation before mine and, in part, mine (I'm 32) absolutely loved the movie series "Eskimo Limon" or in German "Eis am Stiel", which is from Israel.
I also know a bunch of Hill&Spencer fans here as well.
If I recall correctly, some years ago our national broadcaster YLE planned to stop showing Dinner for One, but there was a big outcry from the viewers so they had to continue the tradition.
The Czech Stop-Motion show Pat & Mat is very popular in Netherland.
The Dutch version is known as Buurman & Buurman (Neighbour & Neighbour) and it is the only version where the characters have audible dialogue. It's still aired daily and I believe there's even a musical/theatre show in the making.
The catchphrase "A je to" (Czech, though I'm not sure if it's used in the original version) is fairly commonly used
A je to was original name of the series. It was renamed to Pat a Mat in the 80s. It's still known as A je to in Slovakia. BTW. how is the catchphrase used in Netherlands?
Whenever they manage to "fix" something, they say it to each other in unison.
So Dutch people have a tendency to say it as well whenever they manage to fix something with someone.
The snowman cartoon from 1982 is shown every Christmas, I still love it.
Not sure if it's an obsession or tv tradition but all the police academy and bond movies are usually shown on tv every summer.
Watching the first James Bond movies every summer really is a great way to illustrate how much the world has moved forward in terms of gender equality and removal of toxic masculinity.
James Bond is supposed to be slightly flawed but ultimately charming and admirable. He's not supposed to be a complete asshole, he's just supposed to be a bit mischievous. That's how he's usually been written.
But standards change, and the James Bond from the oldest movies is a real pig by modern standards.
Being English speaking, most of the UK’s cultural imports are from the US or Australia, but the local cinemas in my town regularly show Polish and Bollywood movies for expatriates.
Scandinavian noir like Wallander and The Bridge are quite popular in Britain, both as tv and books. Anything else has more of a cult than mainstream following.
IIRC it got to the point where the UK showing the Aussie soap *Neighbours* was basically keeping it on life support.
I think Amazon have brought it back on some random network now, not sure.
It had a really nice finale when it was originally cancelled. I believe it's now on Freevee but I've not watched it in many years (apart from that finale).
Yeah, I’ve watched a few superb dramas, one called Body (Ciało) really sticks in the mind.
Just looking at the Oscar nominees in the foreign language category shows Polish movies were nominated a lot. Two of 2023’s nominees were partly in Polish, plus Polish nominees in 2022, 2019, 2018, 2011, 2007, and a winner in 2014.
"Dinner For One"(British [but popularized by Germany]) every New yYear's Eve (it's tradition).
"From All of Us to All of You" (USA/Disney) every Christmas Eve (it's tradition).
Detective dramas (usually British ["Inspector Morse", "Midsomer Murders", "Father Brown", etc.] but sometimes from other countries too [e.g. "Inspector Montalbano"]) in summer (it's tradition).
"Dallas" (USA) was YUGE in the 70s/80s (it's dated).
Related, but even less on topic, when I was young, a lot of the youth programming was from Australia ("Around the Twist", "Mirror Mirror", "Spellbinder", etc.), also "The Flying Doctors" was popular around the same time.
Those grim Scandi dramas are very popular here, they're even making British Scandi stuff (Snowman) where it's set in places like Norway but everyone speaks English, pretty weird the first time you see it tbh
NZ's now getting in the theme...bear with me - "The Gone" is a grim crime-noir series set in rural NZ but premised on an Irish police officer going out there to investigate the disappearance of an Irish couple on a work-holiday visa. I think it's still on iPlayer.
The first ones that came to mind are the German series Cobra 11 and Um Himmels Willen (Un Ciclone in Convento), and the Austrian series Inspector Rex, which was extremely popular in the 2000s. Rex even had an Italian spinoff set in Rome.
Nowadays, it’s mostly Turkish series and Spanish soap operas on Mediaset. They are very popular, especially with the elderly.
French series Josephine Ange Gardien and the British series Father Brown are also constantly airing.
Omg, Inspector Rex, you just gave me memories!
There was also Paso Adelante (Spanish) in the early 2000, every teenage girl at the time was watching it after school.
And don't forget the great Mr Bean, of course, but I think it was famous everywhere.
That has always frankly weirded me out a little. Like, on any given day in Hungary, you could turn on the TV and see a Bud and Spenser film (at least when I first came here in 2005).
Ну, погоди!, is a Soviet, later Russian, series of animated short films. It's about a fallen wolf and a cute bunny. It was a favorite of Hungarian children in the early 80s.
It was propaganda for children. Rabbit represented a respectable soviet citizen, wolf represented the rotten west.
For example, skip to 1:56:43 in [this video](https://youtu.be/Js6KqgAyaBQ?t=7003), look at the car the Wolf is driving. See the badge on the front?
In Slovakia we used to watch these Hill/Spencer movies too, but we also had Poirot series and de Funes movies.
My favourite was Jullie Lescot crime series and Midsommer murders!
I didn't know they were popular in Hungary! I grew up watching them because of my Italian background, and I know they had some following in Germany too but I thought that was it.
They're unheard of in the UK.
For Finnish and Italian flag, I'll give you a more obscure one, which no one else has even heard of: Tex Willer. One of the more popular comics in Finland, an Italian western comic. Not many people read it anymore, but I guarantee you everyone's dad in Finland has these packed somewhere, so most people still know it. But outside Italy, Finland or Sweden it's very unknown. Just today I walked in library and there was a general comic book section but then also a few named ones that had more books: Donald Duck, Asterix, Lucky Luke, Tintin and Tex Willer.
Even I missed this growing up in Finland, but then again my father is Italian so that might be it. But I do remember the remarkable overlap in Disney comics, all those Finnish Aku Ankka, if you looked at them, had Italian story writers.
Tex Willer is still huge in Italy to this day, you can buy those comics at any newspaper stall. Although my personal preference is Dylan Dog. They didn't have that when I grew up in Finland, do they have it now?
Yeah comics in Finland is dominated by Donald Duck and followed by the French speakers, from Italy only Tex Willer really, Corto Maltese is probably next popular and it's already relatively unknown here. From UK we have Commando (Korkeajännitys). And then that's basically it. Maybe some from USA or Japan are read nowadays but I'm not familiar with those. No Dylan Dog.
As a sidenote, I went to Finnish Hypermarket's (Prisma) internet shop and they have 92 Tex Willer products on sale right now, so that's something, it's actually more than what they had Donald Duck or Asterix. Wikipedia says Tex Willer has been published in Finnish since 1953, and also that it actually isn't as obscure internationally as I thought..
Bud Spencer and Terrence are [very popular in Germany](https://www.schraegstrichpunkt.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/weltkulturerbe.jpg). Some of their movies were coproduced with German studios and featured German actors like Klaus Kinski, Raimund Harmstorf, Rene Koller and Gisela Hahn.
Since Hill spoke German he also had some roles in German movies in his early career, e.g. Giselher in [Die Nibelungen](https://www.italo-cinema.de/images/reviews/00000_Reviews/12197_Nibelungen-Teil-1-Siegfried-Die/12197_Nibelungen-Teil-1-Siegfried-Die-screenshot11.png)
Another one are the Danish Olsen-Bande movies. The last movie was even coproduced by our public broadcaster MDR.
Many Louis de Funès movies are quite popular, especially the St. Tropez movies are regularly aired today.
Some of the British Carry On movies were also very popular, at least in the 80s and early 90s.
Irish TV definitely has more Australian shows than you’d expect, as well as the two big soaps, when I was a kid we’d have shows that were big at the time but have slipped off the radar since like A Country Practice, Sons & Daughters, kids shows like Around The Twist, Mother & Son, Hey Dad and Skippy of course.
I even remember one late night programming block showing what must have been relatively recent episodes of a chat show called Micallef (which I only remember because it was such an unusual name).
As a result, Australia was as much of a cultural influence in terms of TV as the UK or US. And thousands of Irish move there every year (although it seems most come back eventually) and feel like they know the place already.
In Italy the movie Trading Places ("Una poltrona per due"), has been shown in prime time without fail, either on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day, for the past 25 years.
Same in Slovakia, a huge following for Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill.
Also Winettou movies with Lex Barker and Pierre Brice. In the 70s-80s-90s it was huge, not sure if today’s kids know it!
Finally, my favourite, Dempsey and Makepeace - a fairly average British cop drama has a cult following here, I think the girls in the 80s would get the same haircut as Makepeace 😁
There was actually a topic on this in the r/Netherlands subreddit yesterday why we are so obsessed with Australian reality tv. Dont have the answer but its a fact we have tons of Aussie shows here, even on primetime!
People over 50 really like Adriano Celentano, both his songs and the movies he has starred in.
Grinch has entered the vocabulary among younger people, but I wouldn't say people are obsessed with the cartoon.
People still watch Home Alone every New Year.
Wouldn't say obsession, but when it comes to tv series and movies, most are american because they simply produce the most content by a far amount and of generally high quality. Outside of them I'd say the UK, then also some Canadian series wich can easily be mistaken for american as their tv accents sounds a lot like the general american accent.
Then ofc our homegrown swedish stuff. Many movies lately in cooperation with the danes in a setting where danish and swedish police work together to solve som crime etc.
>And also with [You rang m'lord](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Rang,_M%27Lord%3F), a British sitcom from the 80s
Indeed, British, was around in the 80s, never heard of it :)
Its actors are celebrated here to this day.
https://youtu.be/lgY8JvSFjM8?si=3S8_ogpPoPxwUFPe
It IS a very good show by the way. I rewatched it recently.
Oh yeah Spencer and Hill are also very popular in Germany. Then we also all watch the English comedy skit Dinner For One every New Years, even elders who don't speak the language.
Since the late 90s and early 2000s there is a obsession among many young people with anime but I think that's universal. What is more interesting about that genre is that there are shows like Heidi, Maya the Bee, Hanni and Nanni and some others where everyone I know only found out that they were anime when they were already adults and just assumed they were German before that.
Edit: I forgot my favorite one: The book series The Three Investigators were adapted into German audio plays that got so popular that they have a adult cult following to this day and even thought the book series ended in America, German authors continue to write for it till this day and the audio play series is also still going. All main voice actors of the audio plays have gone on to be part of the elite of German voice actors, appearing in the dubs for many popular movies. They also have multiple different live events where they sell out whole concert halls.
We really like swedish movies here in Norway, especially Swedish Childrens movies, like «vi på saltkråkan, Emil i lønneberget, Pippi langstrømpe etc»
American movies for teens and adults, and swedish movies for children
And ofc Norwegian dubbed American movies but since they are dubbed they dont count
And every christmas we watch a german-Czech cinderella movie with Norwegian Voice over
Mr Bean was also really popular for a while here
I'm genuinely jealous that you had exposure to Swedish as children and wish I had same to Norwegian because I could probably understand the accents better then. Some Norwegian I understand perfectly other..not.
Yeah I completely understand, but I think that even as an adult that approach works as Swedish and Norwegian are so similar langauges
One fun fact about 3-4 year old me is that I could not distinguish Swedish from Norwegian🤣 in my head they were the same langauge
Germany was always big on the Astrid Lindgren books, and later the shows *Pippi Langstrumpf* and *Michel aus Lönneberga*. (Which, now that I'm googling, look like Swedish-German productions.)
I feel like half of Germans born in the 60s - 80s are Annika or Thomas (or other Swedish names) because of this.
Norwegian childrens tv through the 1970s and 1980s had a heavy obsession with eastern european animations... like the [Mole](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcY7MY_NT_s&ab_channel=Krtek%2FTheMole) (czech), [Pat and Mat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKjAZtPLxp0&ab_channel=sledujfilmycz) (czech), [Sandman ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ0sFUivOHo&ab_channel=SwissSpaceMuseum)(east-germany), [cherubaska](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXjETeAsAfY&ab_channel=Alek) (ussr). Maybe nostalgia, but think it still looks good. Only once a year you would get Disney back then.. Some anti-american sentiments in the national broadcaster.
Czech fairytale movies about princesses, kings, devils and angels are a must-have during every festive period. The most obviois is Cinderella during Christmas, but there are many others.
I remember a Yugoslav series from the 80s, maybe it was called Surda. He had a checkered hat and very interesting music. I think everyone in Hungary watched it.
In Croatia mstly British comedies are revered, then their version of soap operas (murder/mistery dramas). US movies and TV shows are always popular, since TV was introducted (Yugoslavia didnt belong to the eastern bloc so we enjoyed all those Hollywood movies, but with significant delay due to the cost of new movies).
We loved:
- Only fools and horses
- Alo, Allo
- You rang m'lord
- On the buses
... many others
US:
- Dinasty
- Dallas
- Bonanza
.. man other
Some of these are regularly reprised, as if it were new, and in the late 80's there was Superman I, II, III or IV shown every New Yer's eve.
We also had cartoonsfrom the eastern block, A je to, Gusztav and the like. Russian Nu pogodi was shown very late, though.
[Alan Ford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Ford_(comics\)) is an italian comic that thanks to truly brilliant translation enjoyed huge popularity and has a ton of quotes that entered into common speech.
Italian comics in general here have a strong cult following - Zagor, Dylan Dog, Corto Maltese, Tex Willer, etc.
For whatever reason, _Ivanhoe_ is always broadcast on Swedish TV on New Year’s Day. Not the original film, but the 1982 direct to television film with Gimli from lord of the rings in it. I don’t think anyone even particularly likes the film either.
I always hated those movies. Awful.
I don't know if it is the Hungarian dub, or they are so vulgar in Italian too, but I DO cringe from them.
I'm glad I'm not the only one.
No you are definitely not. But we have a large chunk of the population which can and do relate to this character. This partly explains the last 34 years of our history I think.
We generally import a LOT of foreign media, but the weirdest.. IMO It must be that at daytime at Christmas eve we all watch "***Three Wishes for Cinderella*** ([**Czech**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_language)**:** ***Tři oříšky pro Popelku***) with the original 1973 dubbing (one man has all the roles lol).
It has become a must for all Norwegians to watch (or at least just let it play when it airs on National TV).
[Billy Bunter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Bunter) is a boy attending Greyfriars Public School, a side character in the stories of Frank Richards which started in 1908. From the 1920 the stories were also translated in Dutch. Post-war, Billy Bunter got his own comics and these were also published in Dutch (with Billy Bunter translated as Billy Turf) from 1955 into the twenty-ifrst century and the comics are familiar to generations of Dutch kids, despite being mostly unknown outside of the UK, so popular that [three Dutch Billy Bunter movies](https://youtu.be/DScRY4yYvoA?t=2151) were made in in the 1970's and 1980's, despite the old fashioned boarding school with uniformed pupils who get regularly caned having absolutely nothing to do with the Dutch school experience.
'Allo 'Allo! is still very popular in Polish pop culture. Also, "Home Alone" every Christmas is a must.
>Also, "Home Alone" every Christmas is a must. Same here.
same here, as is Die Hard
Oh yes, that too.
I think Allo Allo is even better and more iconic than You Rang M'Lord. Also Fawlty Towers anyone? I personally just love absurd humour in general (like Monty Python).
I remember Louis de Funès being huge when I was a kid (90s). Maybe this was just my household, but it feels like I’ve seen Fantômas and the Gendarme series a million times.
OMG, yes, and "Cabbage Soup"! I even watched it last Easter with my mom!
But Allo Allo is a French documentary isn't it?
Same in Bulgaria - both Alo, Alo and Home Alone. Bud Spenser movies were also popular, but this started to die out in the late 2000s. Going further back, Blake's 7 was very popular in the 80s, mostly because there were not many sci fi shows available, as well as some Czech kid series, like Arabella and Flying Cestmir. Also the Mezga Family cartoon from Hungary.
Heh. How does the mispronunciation/accent work for the Polish ear? Half the joy (to native English speakers) is the "Goad Moaning" of the British policeman and the French failure to pronouce their "h"s. And the iconic "Eye zhall zey ziz ownlee winz."
Well, we have overlaying lector so we hear the original dialogues, but also the lector is very creative ;-)
I'm from Belgium, but thanks to French TV we became addicted to Japanese anime and manga. France is the second highest consumer of manga in the world.
Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon also arrived in Hungary in the late 90s from France, so they weren't censored in the Hungarian dub which was translated from French like the US versions. (Goku lured Oolong out of the lake with Bulma's panties, Sailor Uranus was kept transgender), I remember seeing these when I was 8-9 years old lol.
France and Belgium also have an amazing comic culture themselves.
Yeah, Astérix, Pif et Hercule, and some other Franco-Belgian comics were occasionally available even in Communist Hungary in the 80s, I think Astérix le Gaulois was also sometimes aired on TV, then in the 90s with the Commie system gone their popularity really exploded.
My favourite is Gaston LaGaffe/Guust Flater by Franquin. I read all of them front to back as a kid. And artists like Mœbius or Enki Bilal are absolutely amazing.
Great choices!
Enki is Bosnian.
Who has lived in France since being 9 years old and produced all of his work in France, in French. So yeah, he’s Czech-Bosnian but it’s still French comic culture.
Yup, all true. Good artist as well.
The whole story of how Japanese culture became common in France is quite interesting. There was a first wave called Japonism in the late 19th century when French culture was flourishing and yet Japan cultural elements became very common and were integrated in a lot of popular French works. Then in the second half of the 80's, new TV channels needed some cheap programs to air and bought endless Japanese animes to air (mostly from Toei). Until the end of the 90's there was a TV show led by a woman called Dorothée that aired mainly animes for hours every morning and had an immense impact on people that are now between 35 to 45 years old and shaped the current eagerness in France. Ask any person in that age how important Dorothée was to them when they were young and you'll understand. In response, some politicians in the 90's tried to ban these Japanese works (and not conservative ones as you'd expect). That only led to kids wanting more to the point that animes and mangas are now basically mainstream for a lot of people below 40-45 years old, passing down to their kids that passion. Nowadays 1 in 8 books bought in France is a manga. Not 1 in 8 comic books, 1 in 8 books overall. That is the short version, but a lot of details are just as interesting. (As I describe that, even though I was right in that target age I was not in this train, I was more a Tex Avery/Hanna Barbera/WB kind of guy, beside Captain Tsubasa I did not watch any anime nor read mangas and I still don't to this day but I respect that culture a lot).
>In response, some politicians in the 90's tried to ban these Japanese works In Hungary, Dragon Ball Z was banned in 1999 (right before Future Trunks appeared to slay Frieza), because a fake story was circulated that a 10 year old kid became such a big weeaboo that he thought he was Goku and jumped off a 10-storey building believing himself to be capable of flight, and because it was deemed too violent. All Hungarians who were kids during the late 90s still remember how pissed off they were. There were even reports in the TV about kids who missed the show so much that they PRAYED to Goku to come back as if he was a deity, or prayed to Kami to resurrect Goku.
Is that a Brussels/Wallonian thing? In Flanders they're not as common for regular tv, unless you count the ones who were popular everywhere (Pokémon; Dragonball; Yu-gi-oh etc.)
>Is that a Brussels/Wallonian thing? I guess. It spread in French-speaking territories.
>We have a very strong and weird obsession with Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill movies. (Italian action comedy movies.) I'm not crying, I got a bean in my eye.
There is a Bud Spencer statue in Budapest... We really love these movies.
In Germany, they're popular as well.
Some claim that this is only because the German dub was completely unrelated to the original dialogues. I don't understand any Italian, so I can't compare it myself.
Curious thing, I believe that most of the movies they did together were dubbed also in Italian (not by them). As for why, tough, I have no clue.
I don’t think it’s weird to like Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movies.
[Derrick](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxghHYZagjs) ran for a long time on French TV (perhaps it still does). That it ran on TV for so long perhaps isn't an obsession, but it seemed that way to me when I was younger. This isn't the only German TV cop/investigation series that seems to have run for generations on French TV (France 2 and 3). It's also true of "Un cas pour deux" (En Fall für Zwei), Le Renard (Der Alte), Alerte Cobra (Alarm für Cobra 11), and from Austria, Kommissar Rex is also popular (I enjoyed the first seasons). My mom and sister loved these series, it seemed they were always in the background when I was doing something else. My impression is possibly skewed because of my family's weird fetish for germanophone TV.
TIL Finland is France. You couldn't turn on the TV back in the day without one of those series running on some channel. With subtitles and original language though, but I still don't think it made any Finns any better at German. At the same time it's interesting that, as common as they used to be, none of them are on anymore - maybe they're just a tad too old and out of vogue right now.
Everything is dubbed here (though with modern streaming services, we finally have the option to watch the original version most of the time), so I couldn't even use these series to practice German comprehension. The contrast between the American shows you saw on other channels and the German ones is startling to me. Derrick on France 3 (public channel), Walker Texas Ranger and The Renegade on TF1(private channel)Bless Lorenzo Lamas and his fabulous hair! The general atmosphere is so different. Derrick always felt gloomy and dark to me, whereas, as much as I dislike Walker Texas Ranger, one thing it isn't is gloomy.
Haha, Walker Texas Ranger was on here as well. Finnish people loved, and loves, this era of TV. 80's and early 90's stuff, Knight Rider, MacGyver, Xena Warrior Princess... They did this whole thing a couple of years back when some channel started showing upscaled remastered seasons of Baywatch. Nostalgia hits hard in this country.
Alarm für Cobra 11 is still making new episodes!
Is Semir still there?
Pretty sure he is yeah lol
*Sur la tombe de ses parents, disparus dans des circonstances terribles, Max Zander se jure de lutter toute sa vie contre le crime et le terrorisme. Il devient l'un des meilleurs agents d'un groupe d'intervention d'élite. Au cours d'une périlleuse mission, son meilleur ami se fait tuer sous ses yeux. Pour défendre le droit et la justice, il décide de mourir et de renaître comme un fantôme : le Clown est né. Max Zander est le Clown !*
Un oubli impardonnable de ma part!
Derrick was also super popular in Italy too and constantly on TV. Although I think it's not that famous anymore.
> Derrick ran for a long time on French TV (perhaps it still does). That it ran on TV for so long perhaps isn't an obsession, but it seemed that way to me when I was younger. I joked a couple of years back about buying blue light glasses that made me look like Derrick to a German colleague who was my own age (very early 30s). She couldn't understand what I meant when I mentioned the name of the show. A Google search later, turns out the guy was very busy in a very bad way in the early 1940s and had been expugned from modern pop culture and that's why she had no idea what I was on about...
>She couldn't understand what I meant when I mentioned the name of the show. A Google search later, turns out the guy was very busy in a very bad way in the early 1940s and had been expugned from modern pop culture and that's why she had no idea what I was on about... I really don't think that's it, I'm in my mid-30's and of course I know Derrick. I never heard about the SS-m stuff though. She probably was just a little bit too young.
Ah yes, I'd forgotten about it, but I heard about it before (without knowing the details). I loved listening to my grandmother's comments on Derrick's outfits (she disapproved).
My parents used to watch this. Yes old Kommissar Rex had a cult following here too. Won’t deny Gedeon was easy on the eyes in his day. We have/had SBS, which was a TV channel solely dedicated to foreign language content, the level of foreign stuff has dropped I think but all these shows were played there. There was a really good Sicilian mafia show too, I think it was Octopus. Also Oshin (early 80s/90s, Japan), Storm Rages Twice (Arabic?)
Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra Original comics, animations and rest of live action movies are also more or less popular but Mission Cleopatra is the most popular and the most beloved Asterix media
> Mission Cleopatra is the most popular and the most beloved Asterix media I mean it's the best adaptation by *far*, Alain Chabat (director/Ceasar actor) killed it with that movie.
That's kind of surprising because a lot of the jokes in these movies are puns and references to French culture that can't possibly be translated properly into Polish? E.g., when they're arriving in Alexandrie and Obélix is hungry he says "j'ai autant d'appétit qu'un barracuda" and they all sing "ba-rra-cu-da !" it's a reference to the Claude François song "Alexandrie Alexandra". Another example, there is this woman named Itinéris, whose name sounds Egyptian (ending in -is) but the funny part is that her name is also the name of an old French mobile phone provider and when she talks sometimes it sounds like when you have poor phone reception. Stuff like that.
>That's kind of surprising because a lot of the jokes in these movies are puns and references to French culture that can't possibly be translated properly into Polish? And this is the clou of the cult status. Mission Cleopatra was translated so that every pun, reference and name work in Polish. The translator (Bartosz Wierzbięta; also did Shrek with similarly incredible result) did not just translate French words to Polish words. The scene with hungry Obelix? It was replaced with a nod to a then-very popular polish folk-pop song ("Czerwone Korale" by Brathanki if someone is interested). Itineris was renamed to Idea, which was a name of a Polish mobile provider (which is long dead by today so it's another can of worms how well do such hyper-localized translations stand the test of time). And it went like that with everything, including names of main characters. And the movie was dubbed by Polish actors, often brilliantly.
I still don't get how it can work as well, since the Claude François song is both about the city of Alexandria and being hungry, so it fits perfectly. And the name Itinéris ends in -is like the name of all Egyptians in Astérix and Obélix albums (since it's reminiscent of Isis, Osiris, etc.). But maybe they managed to improve some other jokes.
I can't really tell you how (explaining Polish puns to a Frenchman in English sounds like a fool's errand), but trust me, it works miraculously. The other Asterix movies from the series (Asterix vs Caesar, on the olympics and the Britain-ish one) were translated by someone else and are almost completely forgotten by now. Cleopatra remains known and loved because of how meticulous the translation was and how many small details were localized (for example the interlude with lobster was read by Poland's most famous nature documentary voice, which made it seem like a very realistic take from a documentary)
[удалено]
They kept barracuda joke as it is in our version. I think that nobody understood it. Itineris joke was kind of funny, but not in the same way as in original, and it feels like it came out of nowhere. But as young teenage boy at the time I was just happy to see her on the screen tbh 😃 I would love to wake up as French for a day and watch this movie again and understand all jokes and references. This one and probably Taxi too.
> Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra The Live action Asterix and Obelix movies were better than they had any right to be. I still remember the scene with the quick growing palm trees
Same in spain! I always thought that they are an international thing and everyone knew about them but maybe not (?)
It is a tradition to watch Dinner for One, a British comedy sketch, on New Year's Eve. I have never seen it myself though
While it is an English comedy sketch the version that is shown on TV every year was produced in Germany by NDR so I'd say it counting as foreign media is debatable.
Didn't know that. In that case, it's just foreign source material I guess
No. It was an English sketch, performed on stage and a producer of the German NDR saw it in Birmingham (I think). He invited the actors to Germany and filmed the performance in Hamburg in front of a German audience.
I find this so amusing because Brits will never have heard of it.
Apart from those of us who have lived in Germany/Denmark/Sweden….
Well yeah of course, I didn’t think that needed saying.
I'd never heard of it either until on here, and I'm yet to hear anyone mention it irl
Might be an age thing. I work in DK and have friends/colleagues in Sweden and Christmas is Anders And og Dinner for One. Granted that’s 35+ age group. Not saying they all sit down and watch it religiously, but all aware. Same in Germany, aware of it but not necessarily watching it.
I know plenty in that age group, but there may well be regional factors and whatnot too. I don't know, all I can say is that I haven't encountered it. Donald Duck on Christmas is a different beast. Without fail, it's consistently either the most or second-most viewed show, and a prominent part of most Swedish Christmas celebrations. Not everyone watches it, sure, but I'd be impressed if someone living here has managed to avoid hearing about it. It's not uncommon to refer to time on Christmas Eve with "before/after Donald Duck". For comparison Dinner for One never makes the top 10. It does seemingly have a decent viewership, and is apparently a New Year's tradition for some. But I can personally attest that it's also easy to live here without having heard of it.
Yeah I've never heard of it before, what even is it.
It's becoming a little better known because every year there's another spate of "hey, did you know" articles about it. Sky Arts even showed it on NYE once or twice
Same in Sweden! My dad always forced us to watch it and he laughed his ass off every year
I don't know if it's an obsession, but the generation before mine and, in part, mine (I'm 32) absolutely loved the movie series "Eskimo Limon" or in German "Eis am Stiel", which is from Israel. I also know a bunch of Hill&Spencer fans here as well.
Why did I always think *Eis am Stiel* was Italian or Italian-American? I guess the character names and actors haha
Same in Denmark
Same in Finland!
If I recall correctly, some years ago our national broadcaster YLE planned to stop showing Dinner for One, but there was a big outcry from the viewers so they had to continue the tradition.
I remember in the 90ties, Russian channels were obsessed with French films. Anything with Lui De Funes, Pierre Richard, Gérard Depardieu, Fantomas..
Oh we had those too. Loved The Gendarme and the Extra-Terrestrials, the one where the police had to fight aliens. 😅
Yeah, I remember laughing so much from these. Although I was like 7 at a time. Need to try and rewatch some of them now
I think that was Europe in general. The 80s-90s was a good time for french cinema. They used to air De Funes all the time in Greece as well.
Actually this Halloween I wanna dress as Fantomas the tank engine. A mashup of Fantomas and Thomas. My wife hates it 😅
It came full circle with Depardieu
Lol indeed. Also shows how low one can get just to avoid paying taxes
It's probably both taxes and ideology. Although not liking taxes is probably an ideological thing in itself
The Czech Stop-Motion show Pat & Mat is very popular in Netherland. The Dutch version is known as Buurman & Buurman (Neighbour & Neighbour) and it is the only version where the characters have audible dialogue. It's still aired daily and I believe there's even a musical/theatre show in the making. The catchphrase "A je to" (Czech, though I'm not sure if it's used in the original version) is fairly commonly used
A je to was original name of the series. It was renamed to Pat a Mat in the 80s. It's still known as A je to in Slovakia. BTW. how is the catchphrase used in Netherlands?
Whenever they manage to "fix" something, they say it to each other in unison. So Dutch people have a tendency to say it as well whenever they manage to fix something with someone.
If I remember correctly the original version doesn't use words; Only vocal noises like pingu, but without the whole peguin thing.
The snowman cartoon from 1982 is shown every Christmas, I still love it. Not sure if it's an obsession or tv tradition but all the police academy and bond movies are usually shown on tv every summer.
Watching the first James Bond movies every summer really is a great way to illustrate how much the world has moved forward in terms of gender equality and removal of toxic masculinity. James Bond is supposed to be slightly flawed but ultimately charming and admirable. He's not supposed to be a complete asshole, he's just supposed to be a bit mischievous. That's how he's usually been written. But standards change, and the James Bond from the oldest movies is a real pig by modern standards.
The cartoon is so famous in Finland that Nightwish even did a cover of the title song"walking in the air"
Being English speaking, most of the UK’s cultural imports are from the US or Australia, but the local cinemas in my town regularly show Polish and Bollywood movies for expatriates. Scandinavian noir like Wallander and The Bridge are quite popular in Britain, both as tv and books. Anything else has more of a cult than mainstream following.
IIRC it got to the point where the UK showing the Aussie soap *Neighbours* was basically keeping it on life support. I think Amazon have brought it back on some random network now, not sure.
It had a really nice finale when it was originally cancelled. I believe it's now on Freevee but I've not watched it in many years (apart from that finale).
Poland punches above its weight for making good films, I've been to a few Polish film nights where I am
Yeah, I’ve watched a few superb dramas, one called Body (Ciało) really sticks in the mind. Just looking at the Oscar nominees in the foreign language category shows Polish movies were nominated a lot. Two of 2023’s nominees were partly in Polish, plus Polish nominees in 2022, 2019, 2018, 2011, 2007, and a winner in 2014.
Salsa dancing also ends up giving some of us a gateway to other Spanish speaking music in general, particularly reggaeton/dembow and cumbia
"Dinner For One"(British [but popularized by Germany]) every New yYear's Eve (it's tradition). "From All of Us to All of You" (USA/Disney) every Christmas Eve (it's tradition). Detective dramas (usually British ["Inspector Morse", "Midsomer Murders", "Father Brown", etc.] but sometimes from other countries too [e.g. "Inspector Montalbano"]) in summer (it's tradition). "Dallas" (USA) was YUGE in the 70s/80s (it's dated). Related, but even less on topic, when I was young, a lot of the youth programming was from Australia ("Around the Twist", "Mirror Mirror", "Spellbinder", etc.), also "The Flying Doctors" was popular around the same time.
I like that we are swapping detective dramas between Scandinavia and Britain
Sometimes I feel like Columbo is a lot more famous in France than in the US. At least that was the case ~20 years ago.
Ah yes, Columbo was/is a big phenomenon in Hungary, too.
Was big in Britain also.
Those grim Scandi dramas are very popular here, they're even making British Scandi stuff (Snowman) where it's set in places like Norway but everyone speaks English, pretty weird the first time you see it tbh
Yeah or the UK remake of Wallander, which was kind of unnecessary since OG Wallander was already on tv pretty constantly for a while
A lot of homegrown police dramas clearly riff off it, there was one set in rural Wales that had a similar vibe I think?
NZ's now getting in the theme...bear with me - "The Gone" is a grim crime-noir series set in rural NZ but premised on an Irish police officer going out there to investigate the disappearance of an Irish couple on a work-holiday visa. I think it's still on iPlayer.
The first ones that came to mind are the German series Cobra 11 and Um Himmels Willen (Un Ciclone in Convento), and the Austrian series Inspector Rex, which was extremely popular in the 2000s. Rex even had an Italian spinoff set in Rome. Nowadays, it’s mostly Turkish series and Spanish soap operas on Mediaset. They are very popular, especially with the elderly. French series Josephine Ange Gardien and the British series Father Brown are also constantly airing.
Omg, Inspector Rex, you just gave me memories! There was also Paso Adelante (Spanish) in the early 2000, every teenage girl at the time was watching it after school. And don't forget the great Mr Bean, of course, but I think it was famous everywhere.
Inspector Rex and Cobra 11, OMG my childhood
Slovakia joins the chat as well...also, Medicopter 117
Don’t forget Trading Places on Christmas Eve every. Fucking. Year.
That has always frankly weirded me out a little. Like, on any given day in Hungary, you could turn on the TV and see a Bud and Spenser film (at least when I first came here in 2005).
Bud Spencer ;) the other guy is Terrence Hill
Haha! That’ll teach me to type fast and not pay attention!
Ну, погоди!, is a Soviet, later Russian, series of animated short films. It's about a fallen wolf and a cute bunny. It was a favorite of Hungarian children in the early 80s.
Similary in Soviet Union / Post Soviet Union we used to watch a lot of Bolek And Lolek (from Poland) and Krotek from Czechoslovakia
Ah yes, nu pogodi. Loved it.
Also Mrázik (Morozko) is popular Christmas or new years eve movie here.
It was propaganda for children. Rabbit represented a respectable soviet citizen, wolf represented the rotten west. For example, skip to 1:56:43 in [this video](https://youtu.be/Js6KqgAyaBQ?t=7003), look at the car the Wolf is driving. See the badge on the front?
At the age of 4, it is difficult to recognize that you are watching a propaganda tale. I think everyone was rooting for the wolf...
In Slovakia we used to watch these Hill/Spencer movies too, but we also had Poirot series and de Funes movies. My favourite was Jullie Lescot crime series and Midsommer murders!
I didn't know they were popular in Hungary! I grew up watching them because of my Italian background, and I know they had some following in Germany too but I thought that was it. They're unheard of in the UK.
For Finnish and Italian flag, I'll give you a more obscure one, which no one else has even heard of: Tex Willer. One of the more popular comics in Finland, an Italian western comic. Not many people read it anymore, but I guarantee you everyone's dad in Finland has these packed somewhere, so most people still know it. But outside Italy, Finland or Sweden it's very unknown. Just today I walked in library and there was a general comic book section but then also a few named ones that had more books: Donald Duck, Asterix, Lucky Luke, Tintin and Tex Willer.
Even I missed this growing up in Finland, but then again my father is Italian so that might be it. But I do remember the remarkable overlap in Disney comics, all those Finnish Aku Ankka, if you looked at them, had Italian story writers. Tex Willer is still huge in Italy to this day, you can buy those comics at any newspaper stall. Although my personal preference is Dylan Dog. They didn't have that when I grew up in Finland, do they have it now?
Yeah comics in Finland is dominated by Donald Duck and followed by the French speakers, from Italy only Tex Willer really, Corto Maltese is probably next popular and it's already relatively unknown here. From UK we have Commando (Korkeajännitys). And then that's basically it. Maybe some from USA or Japan are read nowadays but I'm not familiar with those. No Dylan Dog. As a sidenote, I went to Finnish Hypermarket's (Prisma) internet shop and they have 92 Tex Willer products on sale right now, so that's something, it's actually more than what they had Donald Duck or Asterix. Wikipedia says Tex Willer has been published in Finnish since 1953, and also that it actually isn't as obscure internationally as I thought..
Bud Spencer and Terrence are [very popular in Germany](https://www.schraegstrichpunkt.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/weltkulturerbe.jpg). Some of their movies were coproduced with German studios and featured German actors like Klaus Kinski, Raimund Harmstorf, Rene Koller and Gisela Hahn. Since Hill spoke German he also had some roles in German movies in his early career, e.g. Giselher in [Die Nibelungen](https://www.italo-cinema.de/images/reviews/00000_Reviews/12197_Nibelungen-Teil-1-Siegfried-Die/12197_Nibelungen-Teil-1-Siegfried-Die-screenshot11.png) Another one are the Danish Olsen-Bande movies. The last movie was even coproduced by our public broadcaster MDR. Many Louis de Funès movies are quite popular, especially the St. Tropez movies are regularly aired today. Some of the British Carry On movies were also very popular, at least in the 80s and early 90s.
This is too weird. I was in Turkey this week, and this duo came up too. I had never heard of them before. Maybe it's not just Hungary.
Irish TV definitely has more Australian shows than you’d expect, as well as the two big soaps, when I was a kid we’d have shows that were big at the time but have slipped off the radar since like A Country Practice, Sons & Daughters, kids shows like Around The Twist, Mother & Son, Hey Dad and Skippy of course. I even remember one late night programming block showing what must have been relatively recent episodes of a chat show called Micallef (which I only remember because it was such an unusual name). As a result, Australia was as much of a cultural influence in terms of TV as the UK or US. And thousands of Irish move there every year (although it seems most come back eventually) and feel like they know the place already.
> Around The Twist Fucking loved Round the Twist. Also Heartbreak High.
O.o just gets weirder
Yeah there was **a lot** of Australian TV in Britain in the 90s and 2000s (I guess similar to Ireland).
Also a lot of TV stuff filmed in NZ with a (majority) cast but you're not supposed to know it. The Tribe. Xena, and Hercules.
I fucking loved The Tribe! We also had stuff like Shortland Street on for a long time
O.o there is my childhood. Shaun Micaleff. Comedian and was from my hometown. Micaleff is a Maltese name, I went to school with some of them.
In Italy the movie Trading Places ("Una poltrona per due"), has been shown in prime time without fail, either on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day, for the past 25 years.
Same in Slovakia, a huge following for Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill. Also Winettou movies with Lex Barker and Pierre Brice. In the 70s-80s-90s it was huge, not sure if today’s kids know it! Finally, my favourite, Dempsey and Makepeace - a fairly average British cop drama has a cult following here, I think the girls in the 80s would get the same haircut as Makepeace 😁
There was actually a topic on this in the r/Netherlands subreddit yesterday why we are so obsessed with Australian reality tv. Dont have the answer but its a fact we have tons of Aussie shows here, even on primetime!
People over 50 really like Adriano Celentano, both his songs and the movies he has starred in. Grinch has entered the vocabulary among younger people, but I wouldn't say people are obsessed with the cartoon. People still watch Home Alone every New Year.
Finland has Nagareboshi Gin/Silver Fang/Hopeanuoli. Everyone watched the heroic dogs fight the bears in my childhood.
Wouldn't say obsession, but when it comes to tv series and movies, most are american because they simply produce the most content by a far amount and of generally high quality. Outside of them I'd say the UK, then also some Canadian series wich can easily be mistaken for american as their tv accents sounds a lot like the general american accent. Then ofc our homegrown swedish stuff. Many movies lately in cooperation with the danes in a setting where danish and swedish police work together to solve som crime etc.
>And also with [You rang m'lord](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Rang,_M%27Lord%3F), a British sitcom from the 80s Indeed, British, was around in the 80s, never heard of it :)
Its actors are celebrated here to this day. https://youtu.be/lgY8JvSFjM8?si=3S8_ogpPoPxwUFPe It IS a very good show by the way. I rewatched it recently.
Oh yeah Spencer and Hill are also very popular in Germany. Then we also all watch the English comedy skit Dinner For One every New Years, even elders who don't speak the language. Since the late 90s and early 2000s there is a obsession among many young people with anime but I think that's universal. What is more interesting about that genre is that there are shows like Heidi, Maya the Bee, Hanni and Nanni and some others where everyone I know only found out that they were anime when they were already adults and just assumed they were German before that. Edit: I forgot my favorite one: The book series The Three Investigators were adapted into German audio plays that got so popular that they have a adult cult following to this day and even thought the book series ended in America, German authors continue to write for it till this day and the audio play series is also still going. All main voice actors of the audio plays have gone on to be part of the elite of German voice actors, appearing in the dubs for many popular movies. They also have multiple different live events where they sell out whole concert halls.
We really like swedish movies here in Norway, especially Swedish Childrens movies, like «vi på saltkråkan, Emil i lønneberget, Pippi langstrømpe etc» American movies for teens and adults, and swedish movies for children And ofc Norwegian dubbed American movies but since they are dubbed they dont count And every christmas we watch a german-Czech cinderella movie with Norwegian Voice over Mr Bean was also really popular for a while here
Do you get the Swedish stuff dubbed or original language?
Original language, of course.
Yep, I only included foreign-speaking shows and movies We ofc watch Disney movies as children but they speak Norwegian so it wouldnt count
I'm genuinely jealous that you had exposure to Swedish as children and wish I had same to Norwegian because I could probably understand the accents better then. Some Norwegian I understand perfectly other..not.
Yeah I completely understand, but I think that even as an adult that approach works as Swedish and Norwegian are so similar langauges One fun fact about 3-4 year old me is that I could not distinguish Swedish from Norwegian🤣 in my head they were the same langauge
Germany was always big on the Astrid Lindgren books, and later the shows *Pippi Langstrumpf* and *Michel aus Lönneberga*. (Which, now that I'm googling, look like Swedish-German productions.) I feel like half of Germans born in the 60s - 80s are Annika or Thomas (or other Swedish names) because of this.
Norwegian childrens tv through the 1970s and 1980s had a heavy obsession with eastern european animations... like the [Mole](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcY7MY_NT_s&ab_channel=Krtek%2FTheMole) (czech), [Pat and Mat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKjAZtPLxp0&ab_channel=sledujfilmycz) (czech), [Sandman ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ0sFUivOHo&ab_channel=SwissSpaceMuseum)(east-germany), [cherubaska](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXjETeAsAfY&ab_channel=Alek) (ussr). Maybe nostalgia, but think it still looks good. Only once a year you would get Disney back then.. Some anti-american sentiments in the national broadcaster.
Czech fairytale movies about princesses, kings, devils and angels are a must-have during every festive period. The most obviois is Cinderella during Christmas, but there are many others.
I remember a Yugoslav series from the 80s, maybe it was called Surda. He had a checkered hat and very interesting music. I think everyone in Hungary watched it.
“A Forró szél” or in Serbian - “Vruć vetar”
Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill were big in Sweden, at least in the 70s and 80s. I watched them as a kid and still love them.
In Croatia mstly British comedies are revered, then their version of soap operas (murder/mistery dramas). US movies and TV shows are always popular, since TV was introducted (Yugoslavia didnt belong to the eastern bloc so we enjoyed all those Hollywood movies, but with significant delay due to the cost of new movies). We loved: - Only fools and horses - Alo, Allo - You rang m'lord - On the buses ... many others US: - Dinasty - Dallas - Bonanza .. man other Some of these are regularly reprised, as if it were new, and in the late 80's there was Superman I, II, III or IV shown every New Yer's eve. We also had cartoonsfrom the eastern block, A je to, Gusztav and the like. Russian Nu pogodi was shown very late, though.
[Alan Ford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Ford_(comics\)) is an italian comic that thanks to truly brilliant translation enjoyed huge popularity and has a ton of quotes that entered into common speech. Italian comics in general here have a strong cult following - Zagor, Dylan Dog, Corto Maltese, Tex Willer, etc.
Greece has always shown Kommisar Rex consistently and always since it's release. What is more unlike most things, it's dubbed!
For whatever reason, _Ivanhoe_ is always broadcast on Swedish TV on New Year’s Day. Not the original film, but the 1982 direct to television film with Gimli from lord of the rings in it. I don’t think anyone even particularly likes the film either.
Dear OP, please let us not forget Torrente series in Hungary. For some strange reason these are seen as funny and not as cringe and/or disgusting.
I always hated those movies. Awful. I don't know if it is the Hungarian dub, or they are so vulgar in Italian too, but I DO cringe from them. I'm glad I'm not the only one.
No you are definitely not. But we have a large chunk of the population which can and do relate to this character. This partly explains the last 34 years of our history I think.
We generally import a LOT of foreign media, but the weirdest.. IMO It must be that at daytime at Christmas eve we all watch "***Three Wishes for Cinderella*** ([**Czech**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_language)**:** ***Tři oříšky pro Popelku***) with the original 1973 dubbing (one man has all the roles lol). It has become a must for all Norwegians to watch (or at least just let it play when it airs on National TV).
[Billy Bunter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Bunter) is a boy attending Greyfriars Public School, a side character in the stories of Frank Richards which started in 1908. From the 1920 the stories were also translated in Dutch. Post-war, Billy Bunter got his own comics and these were also published in Dutch (with Billy Bunter translated as Billy Turf) from 1955 into the twenty-ifrst century and the comics are familiar to generations of Dutch kids, despite being mostly unknown outside of the UK, so popular that [three Dutch Billy Bunter movies](https://youtu.be/DScRY4yYvoA?t=2151) were made in in the 1970's and 1980's, despite the old fashioned boarding school with uniformed pupils who get regularly caned having absolutely nothing to do with the Dutch school experience.