RTE buying Irish-themed imports, was this a deliberate thing?

George White

Noted this looking this old RTE guides.

You see a lot of faux-Irish claptrap, stuff that you think, 'oh, they bought this rather than make their own show?'

70s/80s US miniseries about immigrants/expats like Captains and the Kings, the Thorn Birds (set in a Californian Australia but about Irish immigrants constantly wittering on about their ranch 'Drogeedah'), the Manions of America (which was shot here), myriad shows about the Kennedys (Hoover vs the Kennedys, Kennedy, JFK - Restless Youth, the Kennedys of Massachusetts, Young Joe - The Forgotten Kennedy, A Woman Named Jackie), Ryan's Hope, the Aussie drama Against the Wind...

Do we even think they got a deal from the US syndicators/distributors because they were Irish?

Later on, Jakers - the Adventures of Piggly Winks, Roar, the Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog (which was made here)...

Other examples are welcome.

davidsaucedo

Sometimes we think they got a deal from the US syndicators/distributors because they were Irish

whisky_galore

...

L1011

"Do we even think they got a deal from the US syndicators/distributors because they were Irish?"

No. But they were popular with the audience at the time.

A lot of these were secondary/tertiary grade shows and would have been dirt cheap to obtain rights to

Hangdogroad

Vaguely remember on a St Paddy's Day in the 80s RTE showing an American made for tv movie about some children befriending a Leprechaun. It had a contemporary US setting.

Peregrinus

What L1011 said. People were interested in seeing Ireland, or Irish people, or people with Irish connections depicted on screen. RTE had a limited budget, a lot of this stuff was fairly cheap, and it was of more interest to an Irish audience than similarly cheap stuff with no Irish angle to it.

George White

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121703951#Comment_121703951

This yoke?

A rare live action role for legendary voice actor Dick Beals (the voice of myriad kids of both genders in Hanna Barbera shows, never went through puberty, hence his androgynous look and voice - he was in his 50s here).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k9s-zRjum8

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121704081#Comment_121704081

That's the one, would have been circa 1986/87 when RTE showed it.

Hangdogroad

Dunno if this counts but it has Tom Hulce as an Irish character who also narrates, I remember seeing it on RTE at some point. The Legend Of John Henry.

https://youtu.be/jEGKwdvEF44?feature=shared

whisky_galore

The presumption that Irish audiences like the usual Irish-centric navel gazing stuff. The telly version of Ireland's Own magazine. Safe, uncontroversial and staid.

George White

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709347#Comment_121709347

Exactly. That's it. 'Oh, you want to hear about the story of the Irishman who made it big in the States?' Here it is, again and again and again.

Shown on RTE2 over Paddys Day 1993, A Green Journey/The Love She Sought (1990), an Angela Lansbury TVM set in Minnesota and Ireland, but shot entirely here, with Quinsborough Road,Bray playing 'Staggerford,Minnesota', Niall Toibin as a local, resembling one of those Oirish Murder She Wrotes in reverse, with Irish actors doing dodgy accents as American stereotypes. Lansbury is a teacher going to Ireland to meet Irish penpal Denholm Elliott, not realising he's a priest. Features a mainly Irish cast aside from Robert Prosky as the Minnesotan Bishop, and Cynthia Nixon and Gary Hershberger (Mike, the lad in Twin Peaks Nadine Hurley had an affair with, after she lost her memory/gained super-strength) as Lansbury's students. Enniskerry, the Gresham, Merchants' Arch, that woman who plays the concertina outside Bewleys etc. feature. Was shown on UTV.

Lansbury also did the CBS version of Colm Toibin's the Blackwater Lightship, which was shown on RTE. Sadly, the film doesn't have Lansbury's character go on about Charlie Bird, like in the book.

I am surprised there are things even RTE turned down or didn't notice

From the same director as A Green Journey, Choices of the Heart (1983), a TV movie from NBC with Melissa Gilbert post-Little House as Jean Donovan, a US missionary killed in El Salvador (a big thing in Ireland back then, thanks to Bishop Casey visiting Romero's funeral and what not) who studied in IIRC Cork, but the film has her study in a Dublin that looks suspiciously like Mexico (where the thing was shot). The nearest thing to a native is Martin Sheen (who is dual citizen) as a priest doing a not-bad accent, Patrick Cassidy (brother of David and Shaun, and son of Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones) doing a definitely-bad accent. C4 did show it.

George White

From the Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990, shot in New York and Massachusetts)

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121703984#Comment_121703984

It was cheap and lots of areas only had 2 channels so had no choice but to watch whatever crap RTE put on.

fran38

I remember Against the Wind from the early 80s. Never shown again I don't think?

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121714740#Comment_121714740

I remember it being rerun on RTE circa 1990.

fran38

Oh right. I didnt know that.

George White

Notice RTE in 1988 showed Hold the Dream, the sequel to Barbara Taylor Bradford'a A Woman of Substance, which features Liam Neeson as 'Blackie' (now in old age makeup to play an 85 year old), and stuff involving an estate in Ireland (played by somewhere in the Home Counties) where 'Lady Elmira Dunvale' is murdered, with a few migrant actors like Sean Caffrey playing Gardai.

And Paedophile Stephen Collins plays an Anglo-Irish character, Blackie's grandson supposedly raised in Yorkshire with a Mid-Atlantic accent.

Notice RTE or BBC didn't show A War of Children (1972). Probably too controversial/silly.

Children in the Crossfire (NBC, 1984) went straight to video, another story of kids in the Troubles, made in the Republic but set in Belfast.

Ballymena Telegraph review: 'CHILDREN OF THE CROSSFIRE A well meaning yarn all about youngsters from Belfast going on a trip to America. Unfortunately, it's very patronising and the acting is noticeably bad. One youngster performs like a run-down Dalek'.ly got

NBC's Remember (another BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD) was shot in Ireland, but only got regional ITV and a video release.

cml387

While we are on the subject, one of the series used as part of the RTE 2 test transmissions was this:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0334832/

George White

I always wondered about that, because it was a PBS series in the US that wasn't a UK import. And astonishing cast for a kids' show, including baby Sigourney, William Hurt, John Houseman in the period when Americans assumed that he had to be in everything to add a bit of 'class', scumbag William Hurt, Enda Kenny doppelganger Victor Garber, Milo O'Shea and faux-Rathdrum Broadway legend George Hearn (who played a Rathdrum native in Murder She Wrote, with bits of 2nd unit of the town intercut with the main unit shots in Pasadena and Universal City, and then later starred in TV3/CBS John B Keane adap Durango (1999) which actually shot in Rathdrum).

Was also shown c.1980.

Also I see Lisa Pelikan (star of Shakin' Carrie; Jennifer the Snake Goddess (1978) was the flame-haired Irish stereotype with wonky accent.

George White

An ep of Ripley's Believe it Or Not with Jack Palance (ABC, one of those US shows RTE picked up that no British station did) had a Christy Brown ep.

Hangdogroad

The 1989 revival of Mission Impossible had an episode entitled Banshee set in the Northern Ireland village of "BallyNaGragh", but filmed in Queensland, Australia. RTE showed this series but I don't think it was picked up by the UK terrestrial channels, which is a pity as there was also an episode set in England about Devil worshiping aristos.