Welcome to the Sitcom School: A Globalized Outlook for the Study of Television History

Abstract

Extending back the insight offered by the emerging framework of global television formats, this article examines the production and public reception of the first Israeli sitcom, Krovim-Krovim, produced by Israeli Educational Television (IETV) between 1982 and 1986. As the first fullblown Israeli series and a show modeled on the globally popular sitcom formula, Krovim-Krovim was simultaneously celebrated for its Israeliness and condemned as a potential source of Western 'cultural contamination'. The concerns converging around Krovim-Krovim in 1980s Israel are representative of a larger global trend in that period that witnessed 'the second wave of globalization'. The simplistic media imperialism scenario that still dominates scholarship of these trends fails to grasp the complexities typifying the process of globalization. Representing as they do simultaneous standardization and heterogenization of form and content across borders, global television formats seems to embody these complexities. By reevaluating IETV's sitcom production as an early case of format adaptation this article demonstrates the promises of this fresh outlook for the study of historical as well as contemporary trends in television globalization. By foregrounding the perspective of 'local' producers and critics, this article explores the cultural significance of format adaptation for marginal and belated broadcast systems -like 1980s Israeli television.

The logic of formatting: A case study on transnational television production

“…Production processes are deeply embedded in both the global and the local; people in television industriesespecially in format-exporting countriessimultaneously negotiate globalized conditions and local constraints (Shahaf 2016). While this negotiation seems to be at the core of transnationalization, occurring 'on the ground' (Shahaf 2007) and shaping the output of the television industry, little is known about daily practices and decision making in television production, the work and identities of television professionals, and the process of programme development: 'More work is needed to explore the international dimensions of media production in more detail' (Paterson et al 2016: 8). Therefore, our study focuses on the microlevel of television production.…”

“…Global-local thinking, however, remains persistent (Havens 2020), and much research has been devoted to demonstrating the persistence of the local in the global. In addition to underlying cultural essentialism, national imaginaries and the dichotomization of global economy and local culture (Esser 2014;Shahaf 2007), methodological shortcomings seem to contribute to an (over)emphasis on locality. Text-based programme-specific format studies have highlighted the reproduction of national and cultural identities in local adaptations while ignoring the inherently transnational context in which they are produced (Esser 2014;Müller 2011;Oren 2012).…”

From The Simpsons to “The Simpsons of the South Pacific”: New Zealand’s First Primetime Animation, bro’Town

“…In the context of debates on media globalization, there is a tendency for studies on domestic or regional versions of format and generic television adaptations (e.g., Liebes and Livingstone 1998;Shahaf 2007) to focus on the uniqueness of the national or regional versions with the potential to "counterbalance" the power of global media forces" and to celebrate them as "harbingers of cultural diversity" (Kraidy 2005, 99). As Waisbord (2004, 367) points out, global media and the national are not antithetical but, actually, are integrated in complex ways.…”

Homegrown reality: locally formatted Israeli programming and the global spread of format TV

“…This formal or conceptual flow has had a much longer history in shaping television globalization and is much more diverse than what can be revealed by the study of corporate trade activities alone (Shahaf 2007;Chalaby, 2012;Bourdon 2012;Oren and Shahaf 2012). By overemphasizing official trade, this framework inadvertently yields a partial understanding of the process through which new format television spreads globally.…”