Before we start on our Top Ten TV Things Of The Year (we're not naming our Worst TV Show Of The Year until we hit number two on the Best TV list, to ramp up the suspense), here's another rundown. This'll seem a really bad idea when we sober up, but until then:
BrokenTV's Top Five Hosts Of Foreign Versions Of Deal Or No Deal
5. Argentina
So, that's what happened to John Gregory.
4. Slovakia
Clearly a surefire way to get ahead in Slovakian television is to have the WORLD'S TINIEST BEARD. It makes Tony Almeida in the first series of 24 look like Brian Blessed.
3. Bulgaria
Similarly, really bad shirts work well with executives of Bulgarian television.
2. Australia
Never mind the host, what's going on with all the clones in the background? Genetically created identical octuplets? Are they the contestants? If so, does all the money eventually go to an evil scientist in a mountaintop castle? And why are the prizes contained in children's lunchboxes? BROKENtv DEMANDS ANSWERS.
1. Slovenia
In Slovenia, the host's name is Victory Looser. And this is what he looks like. This is excellent.
(More accurately, it's the quiz host persona of TV personality Bojan Emersic. We still want to see it, though. Is there a Slovenian version of UKNova?)
In other DoND news, it seems talks are in place to have an extra episode in primetime, as well as the standard daytime episodes. Well, as long as it doesn't interfere with BrokenTV's ongoing mission to win the viewers prize (via the free web entry, obv). Now, who's up for our sweepstake competition, to see who can guess when the first tabloid columnist will erroneously claim Deal is another British TV invention taking off all over the world, like they always incorrectly do with the similarly Dutch TV show Big Brother?
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The slovakian host looks a little bit like TV's David Tennant. The Aussie host also hosts the Australian version of Dragon's Den. So there we are.
And the French version is the best one.
I'm going to plug more DoND things you may or may not find interesting now.
It's the Australian version!
It's loads of other versions from around the world! (NB: Big.)
That's all very well, but!
(a) Did you know the original US pilot was hosted by Patrick Kielty? (Probably: yes, and no wonder it took another eighteen months to make it to air from that point, eh?)
(b) Know anywhere someone could possibly get a torrent for foreign DoND shows, English language subtitles not even remotely required? Especially the Slovakian version, and also, because of you, I want to see the French version now, dammit? (Oh, and there's an Aussie version of Dragon's Den? Lawks!)
A) Yes I did, and if you go to www.russlandau.com you should be able to find an EXCLUSIVE clip. The channel that made the pilots actually dropped it after making it, and NBC came along and picked it up again.
Having procured the opening week episodes, I will say that it's "very American", with every meaning inferred with that description.
b) Torrent? Sadly not, but if you register with www.talpa.tv (most of it easy, a Dutch postcode is four figures followed by two letters) you can watch the recent episodes of the original Dutch show by going to Programma Gemist and looking up Miljoenenjacht. I heartily recommend the episode where the woman wins 1.5m Euros whilst holding a briefcase with something like 10 Euros inside - absolutely amazingly tense watching that on the live streaming.
I want to watch the Slovak version now and all. But I only get to watch what my dealer can get for me. He sent me half an episode of the Indian version where rather fantastically, the host shouts a lot and goes "DEAL" [thumb up!] "YA NO DEAL!" [thumb down], which we'll all be doing in the playground tomorrow.
Other things: the Bulgarian version appears to be hosted by Michael Barrymore. And the Argentinian version is hosted by the guy who hosted their version of Fort Boyard.
If you mail me your address, I might be able to bung some foreign episodes on a DVD for you in the New Year. The French show has a fantastically cheesy Bontempi keyboard theme tune with bonkers noises over the top of it. It should all be awful, and yet it all works wonderfully.
Actually, just having another look at the Kielty pilot footage (I say pilot, but they filmed five episodes and just never broadcast them) on that page (it's in multimedia, incidentally) and comparing it to how the show actually turned out some things are revealed:
1) That the Kielty show had a cracking theme tune.
2) And that it actually looked rather more fun. The presentation is far more European in style, but they've nicked the dancing models, bank figure and the models opening the briefcases from the Mexican version so that's alright then.
You're forgetting the HIDEOUSLY FUNNY My Family, and the OH MAN IT'S SO FUNNY Coronation Street Pantomime. Oh how we laughed. Oh how.
Blimey, that Dutch version of DonD sounds like an entire series of TVS Ultra Quiz crammed into just the pre-box section of the show. And it's quite interesting that 'our' version of it seems to be much, much lower-key than in other nations. Compared to the 'glitter literally coming out of the set' on the foreign versions, ours looks like a non-broadcast pilot. Of course, this is the Correct British Way To Do Things, so I'm not complaining.
Things I'd like to see on 'our' Deal Or No Deal: each contestant represents one ITV region, a bit like the Italian version. "And representing Grampian, it's our old friend Dougal!" And a French-version-style Children In Need-ish running 'total of money won by people' wouldn't go amiss, either.
Oh, and cheers - check your inbox.
We have really good reason to believe the Italian/French show was going to be used as an exact model until quite late in the production - it would certainly explain the bouncy comedy theme tune.
All of those look superb. That's all.
Oh, and Patrick Kielty? What on earth possessed them?
We get the australian version here in New Zealand...
The clones are the models who hold the cases while the contestant picks which one they want.
Looks like its the same for the Argentinian version too.
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