Slight correction: It’s not “the Germans” that love Hasselhoff, but a certain generation (I know, because I belong to that generation). As kellner explained in this old thread, kids in the 80s got their first impression of US series (of that time), and it was the coolest thing on terrestial TV. I, too, watched Knight Rider as a teen (and, though I can’t fathom why today, at that time I thought he was good-looking, even if the stories were dumb). So when a couple of years later his “Looking for freedom” came out, it expressed my teenage feelings of not being free quite adequately, and did for many others.
Another point is geography: while in the US it may be fairly easy to meet stars, only a couple of US stars come overseas. So if a star does the long journey, he will find more fans than at home.
But to answer the OP: I second “Sound of Music”. It’s practically unknown to the Austrian and German TV watchers, because it’s categorized as “Heimatfilm” (home country movie) - made in the 50s and early 60s in colour, showing wholesome country life, simple plots, lots of love and idyllic scenery, so people could stop dealing with real life problems and forget all the whole World War/rebuilding stuff. When, on a rainy Sunday afternoon today on public TV they are repeated, they are (stereotypically) watched only by the older generation, which loves this sentimental stuff (partly reminiscing their own youth, of course, and partly for the no-problem idyllic.)
In fact, I think the only pampleths advertising “Sound of Music” tours in Salzburg are in English, because only American tourists are interested in them. (I had to explain to my fiance what it was all about).
Not stars, exactly, but legends/stories that fit the pattern:
The Little Dutch Boy, who stood all through the long dark night with his finger plugging up a leak in a dike, comes of course from an American children’s novel. Anyone who has ever lived in a country as low-lying as most of the Netherlands would never make up such a story, since the correct response to a leaking dike is not to plug up the hole. The correct response to a leaking dike is to warn the village and run for high ground :eek:
Trolls do not live under bridges. They live inside mountains. The reason that troll was so upset about the three goats crossing the bridge was that the bridge gave them access to his mountain, and he didn’t want any animals grazing on his mountain. This does not stop American tourists from asking locals here if that particular bridge has a troll living under it, har har har. Incidentally, those jokes are harmless here in the cities, but in the mountains, you do not mention the hidden folk while outdoors.
And while it is true the Norwegian treasury, most of it in the form of gold bars, was smuggled out of the country as the Nazis were advancing - in a few instances through Nazi-occupied territory - no sleds or children were involved. That, too, is from an American children’s novel. Trust me, it’s a cool enough story without that.