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CBS announces I Love Lucy reboot


Brock

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... for Latvia.

 

From the Hollywood Reporter:

 

 


CBS Studios has signed a deal for a local-language reboot of the Lucille Ball sitcom, nearly 60 years after it went off the air in the U.S..

I Love Lucy fans have had a long wait.

It's been 58 years since the last episode of the classic American sitcom starring Lucille Ball aired on U.S. television. But now I Love Lucy is returning to TV. Sort of.

On Tuesday, CBS Studios International announced a deal with Latvian broadcaster MTG TV to reboot I Love Lucy for the Baltic market. The Latvian series, called Darling Monika, will run for 10 episodes on Latvian network LNT this September.

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/i-love-lucy-return-tvin-819267

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I don't know Latvian but a little googling yielded that the show is called "Sirdsmīļā Monika" and its official site is here: http://skaties.lv/sovi-seriali/seriali/sirdsmila-monika/

 

You can see two random episodes of the "original" Latvian show here:

 

The new "reboot" series has a couple of videos on the official site but I couldn't get the videos to work.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't know Latvian but a little googling yielded that the show is called "Sirdsmīļā Monika" and its official site is here: http://skaties.lv/sovi-seriali/seriali/sirdsmila-monika/

 

You can see two random episodes of the "original" Latvian show here:

 

The new "reboot" series has a couple of videos on the official site but I couldn't get the videos to work.

 

So this series originally aired in Latvia in 1999 and it was such a hit they're bringing it back with this same cast.  Interesting.  Thanks for posting these episodes.  I can see that there's really nothing original about it except the actors and the language -- and a cheap production budget.  But other than that, the set is almost identical to the Ricardo's apartment.  And it appears they took actual I Love Lucy scripts and just translated them directly to Latvian.  The first episode here is "Fred and Ethel Fight," and the second is "Young Fans."  I watched the first one all the way through and, frankly, I would think the Latvians should prefer seeing I Love Lucy dubbed or subtitled over watching this mess.  It looks rather amateurish.  There does not appear to be any chemistry among the actors, and this lady ain't no Lucille Ball.

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What's the word I'm looking for? Oh yes...appalling.

 

Well, I wouldn't go that far. You have to give them credit for trying and the main actress does look a tiny bit like Lucy. And I don't think it was a rip-off either, since CBS licensed the show to them. This is done overseas all the time, by the way. There was a very funny documentary about the (disastrous) efforts to adapt Everybody Loves Raymond for Russian television. I believe it's on Netflix, it's called Exporting Raymond. Check it out!

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Oh yeah, international remakes are a big thing. I know "The Nanny" has been remade into nearly every language imaginable.

 

They do deserve credit for trying with this one, but I have to concur: it just doesn't ring true. Then again, these are remakes of first season episodes that weren't quite as strong as those to come. Maybe if they focused on the later scripts they'd have a bit more to work with.

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Well, I wouldn't go that far. You have to give them credit for trying and the main actress does look a tiny bit like Lucy. And I don't think it was a rip-off either, since CBS licensed the show to them. This is done overseas all the time, by the way. There was a very funny documentary about the (disastrous) efforts to adapt Everybody Loves Raymond for Russian television. I believe it's on Netflix, it's called Exporting Raymond. Check it out!

It's incredible how stubborn those Russian TV producers are. I'm surprised that "Everybody Loves Kostya" wasn't a failure.
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