I’m a long time Honeymooners fan and I found out recently that in several foreign countries, Poland, Sweden, Netherlands, and Indonesia - they have redone “The Honeymooners”.
What’s interesting is not only does “Ralph” still drive a bus and “Ed” (they have different names) still work in a sewer, but often the scripts are practically translated word for word.
Take THIS Youtube video. These are the different shows openings.
And THIS video of the show in Poland split screens with the original 1955 show. Notice how characters props, and such are the same?
This is actually quite common: the formats to successful shows are licensed to foreign producers and they make them locally, under the assumption that the humor and so forth will translate successfully. I’ve seen Married … with Children produced in Russia, Bewitched produced in Argentina, Good Times produced in Great Britain, and probably others that I can’t think of right offhand. Usually it works pretty well, since ordinary Joes and the situations they find themselves in are similar wherever you go.
One show that didn’t go over well was an unlicensed ripoff of Big Bang Theory produced in Belarus. It was called Botaniki (“Botanists,” the Russian word for “nerds”) and couldn’t compete with the actual BBT, which is aired with Russian (or Belarussian) dubbed over the English.
Some Honeymooners trivia:
Audrey Meadows almost didn’t get the part of Alice because Jackie Gleason thought she was too young and pretty. He was persuaded otherwise when she anonymously sent him some photos of herself working in the kitchen after she had just gotten out of bed.
Gleason was always throwing parties that lasted into the wee hours, so the production schedule was constantly falling behind. At least one episode was done entirely with the actors improvising their lines, since no script was ready on shooting day.
Very little (if any) time was spent in rehearsal; when you see Gleason patting his stomach, it’s the signal that he had forgotten his lines.
The Nanny had ten international versions – say what you will about Ms. Drescher but she made a mint off her rights to the concept.
The Honeymooners is interesting though since the new versions are fairly contemporary. Thought it was interesting that the wives appeared to actually have lives (and even jobs) outside the home versus the American original.