Wednesday, August 8, 2012

If the Chinese Ripped-Off Friends with Ipartment Did Norman Lear Rip-Off Till Death Us Do Part with All in the Family?


Some critics are criticizing the Chinese for allegedly copying the American hit sitcom Friends, with a Chinese sitcom, produced by the Shanghai FILM Group, called Ipartment.

The Chinese are accused of stealing jokes, plot lines and scenes from Friends.

One of the friends in Ipartment, a guy named Chen, said Ipartment is an homage to Friends.

I really don't get what the big deal is.

Is it not true that American sitcom producer, Norman Lear, based one of America's all time biggest hit sitcoms, All in the Family, on the British TV sitcom Till Death Us Do Part?

Looking at the picture of the cast of Ipartment, I can not tell who the Rachel or Lisa characters are. I see no blondes.

And do any Chinese still wear Mao jackets? I can remember when that was all the Chinese wore.

Nowadays the Chinese are quite stylish.

I bought myself a Mao jacket and cap years ago at Chinatown in San Francisco. I was with a group of friends (nothing to do with the old NBC hit sitcom) and we all bought Mao jackets.

A short time after acquiring our Mao jackets we all went to a disco wearing them.

We were asked to leave. I guess we were suspected of being subversive communists.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Three's Company was identical to a British comedy called Man About The House. Many of the scripts were exactly the same. I assume some type of royalties deal was made with the Brits.

The sequel, Three's a Crowd, was the same as Robin's Nest the British sequel to Man About The House.

And Sanford and Son was a remake of Steptoe and Son

KERA in Dallas aired many of the Man About The House episodes and the original was far superior to the American version I think.