International versions of Golden Girls: Greek, Russian, UK

[patrickinstardom]

I have vaguely heard about the UK version of Golden Girls which was canceled very quickly. But I never knew about the other international versions.

On the "Golden Girls" Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gol...eign_versions), there's interesting talk about the series in Greece and Russia (in addition to the UK).

Here's what the page says:

"Brighton Belles

Also in 1993, ITV premiered Brighton Belles, a United Kingdom version of the American sitcom. The show, starring Sheila Hancock, Wendy Craig, Sheila Gish, and Jean Boht was nearly identical to Girls except for character name changes and actor portrayals. The 10-episode series was canceled after six weeks due to low ratings, with the final four episodes airing more than a year later. [1]

Russian Adaptation

A Russian remake was broadcast in 2006, titled Большие Девочки ("Bolshie Devochki" or, literally, "Big Girls") with such renowed Russian actresses as Galina Petrova as Irina (Dorothy), Olga Ostroumova as Nadejda (Blanche), Valentina Telechkina as Margarita (Rose) and Elena Millioti as Sofya (Sophia.) However, the concept never caught on with the Russian viewers and the show was cancelled after only thirty-two episodes. A-Media (a Russian production company also responsible for the remakes of such sitcoms as The Nanny, Third Rock From the Sun, The Brady Bunch and Perfect Strangers) has yet to sell the completed episodes into syndication.[2]

Greek adaptation

In 2008, Greek broadcaster ET1 premiered Golden Girls (Greek: XΡΥΣΑ ΚΟΡΙΤΣΙΑ Chrysa Koritsia), which features the four women but in Greece. Each of the characters have been Hellenized to suit the culture and modern setting. Names were only slightly changed but more for cultural reasons, as Sophia (whose first name was unchanged, as the word "Sophia" is in fact Greek for "thought"), Bela (Blanche), Dora (Dorothy), Fifi (Rose), and Panos (Stan). The series has been airing since mid January, and features many similar plots to the original. ET1 aired a rerun of the show in the summer 2008 and managed to take a place in the top10 rates chart, presented by AGB. The Greek edition features Mirka Papakonsantinoy as Dora, Dina Konsta as Sofia, Eleni Gerasimidou as Fifi and Ivonni Maltezoy as Bela."

The Greek Adaptation premiered in 2008!

It'd be very interesting to see clips from these series on YouTube! Anyone know if YouTube or maybe iTunes might have them?

I live in the US so I don't get these shows.

~Patrick

[patrickinstardom]

I don't know Greek but I looked up the Greek title (with Greek character-set):
XΡΥΣΑ ΚΟΡΙΤΣΙΑ and found this site "GreekTube" --

http://www.greektube.org/content/view/33267/2/

Enjoy!

I'll be honest... I skipped around the episode and it reminded me of Golden Girls, but I wasn't sure because I don't understand Greek... heck I'm still not sure... but after skipping around the clip, the characterizations seemed similar to Golden Girls!!!

Now, I've got to find them with English subtitles

There seems to be more episodes available on that website. **CORRECTION: I searched and episode 15, the one I linked to above seems to be the only one on GreekTube. Also, it appears to be a preview (5 minutes of the entire 47 minutes, 33 seconds of the series).

But nonetheless, it's exciting to view the Greek Golden Girls!

Again, enjoy! I can't get out of the house since there's so much snow where I live so now I have another thing to do

~Patrick