Best Polish Adaptations of American TV Shows

niania_forum_kadr_2.jpg, default, Photo from the set of the series 'Niania', 2005-2009, TVN, photo: Krzysztof Kuczyk/Forum, center, #000000

#film

In 1989 Poland regained its freedom from Soviet rule, opening Poland to the world. One of Poland’s most successful imports was the adaptation of famous American television shows. Two of the most famous adaptations were of sitcoms: 'The Nanny' and 'The Honeymooners'. These different takes on classic shows revealed the lives of Poles and their aspirations to find financial stability after the end of the communist regime.

The Nanny

The original version of The Nanny aired on CBS from 3 November 1993 to 23 June 1999. The Nanny ran for 146 episodes across six seasons. The fairytale story about Fran Fine, the fired bridal consultant who in a mix-up works as the nanny to a rich man’s children, became an American classic.

Picture display

standardowy [760 px]

Photo from the set of the series 'Niania', 2005-2009, TVN, photo: Krzysztof Kuczyk/Forum

Picture image

niania_forum_232.jpg

Poland’s adaptation of The Nanny premiered on Polish television in 2005. It aired on TVN as Niania from 2005 to 2009, with 134 episodes. In 2008, the show won the Telekamery – the Polish equivalent to the Emmys – for Best Comedy Series.

Niania had a similar premise to its American counterpart. The Polish nanny, Frania, is also a bridal consultant fired by her boyfriend who ran the bridal shop she worked at. She shows up at Maksymilian Skalski’s house to sell cosmetics, and Konrad, the butler of the house, mistakenly thinks that Frania is there to interview for the vacant nanny position. Frania gets the job and eventually marries Maks. The premise has some minor differences to its American counterpart, such as making Maks a television producer instead of a Broadway producer.

Niania is a unique adaptation because it is nearly identical to the original series. Every episode is a remake of the American episodes, and the scripts are similar. Only slight cultural adjustments, such as replacing an American guest star in an episode with a Polish guest star, differentiate the two. Even though Niania did not remake every single episode of The Nanny, it still ends in a similar way. The chapter of the characters' lives all living together is closed, as they decide to go their separate ways.

Picture display

standardowy [760 px]

Still from the 'Niania' series, 2005-2009, photo: CPT Holdings Inc./TVN

Picture image

niania_serial_tvn_.jpg

Niania is nearly identical to The Nanny – so why was it so successful? The original could have just been dubbed or subbed into the Polish language. Niania was popular because it was a universal fairytale. The story of poverty to prosperity, as Frania went from being a door-to-door saleswoman to the wife of a celebrity, is what people aspire to, no matter how unrealistic that is. The same is true for Poles. When Poland rejoined the world after the fall of the communist regime, Poles could now dream that anything truly was possible in life, watching their actors speaking those fairytale dreams in the language of their ancestors and in the language which they spoke in their homes.

Picture display

standardowy [760 px]

Still from the TV series 'Miodowe lata', 1998 - 2003, photo: Studio A

Picture image

miodowe_lata.jpg

The Honeymooners

The original version of The Honeymooners aired from 1955 to 1956 on CBS. The black-and-white television sitcom had a 39-episode run. The classic show about working class life centered on Ralph Kramden, a bus driver, and his wife, Alice, who live in a Brooklyn apartment. In the building they meet with their friends: a sewer worker named Ed Norton and his wife, Trixie. Throughout the series, Ralph enjoys dragging Ed into his get-rich-quick schemes, which all inevitably fail.

The Polish adaptation, Miodowe Lata (Honey Years) aired on Polsat for nine seasons, from 1998 to 2003. It far surpassed the episode count of the original series, finishing with 131.

Miodowe Lata also had a similar premise to its original counterpart. Karol Krawczyk lives with his wife Alina in an apartment. Their best friends, Tadeusz Norek and his wife Danuta, also live in the same apartment building. Karol and Tadeusz are both members of the working class: Karol drives a tram while Tadeusz works in the sewers. As in the original series, Karol brings Tadeusz into catastrophically planned get-rich-quick schemes.

The show which aired in color still represented the black-and-white life of the characters of The Honeymooners. Poles lived in a capitalist society in the late 1990s to early 2000s, but capitalism did not guarantee that everyone would be rich, and many Poles could relate to the working class struggles of Karol and Tadeusz.

At the same time, Miodowe Lata is a more original adaptation than Niania. Miodowe Lata also features characters not in the original series, such as Krawczyk’s neighbor Roman Kurski, a jovial unrepentant criminal. Miodowe Lata also remade classic episodes of The Honeymooners such as ‘The Golfer’, ‘The $99,000 Answer’, and ‘A Matter of Life and Death’, but it also created original episodes representative of the problems of contemporary society.

Picture display

standardowy [760 px]

Still from the TV series 'Miodowe lata', 1998 - 2003, photo: Studio A

Picture image

miodowe_leat_1.jpg

In ‘Przepraszam Cię’ (‘I’m Sorry’), Miodowe Lata updates the old conflict with the family for the era of trashy TV. Karol and Tadek decide to go on a trashy television show on which people apologize to each other, with the best apology on each episode winning a monetary prize. For their episode, Karol and Tadek decide to apologize to their wives for a fake conflict, and their wives will accept their apologies. But on the program, Karol thinks he will lose after seeing a 'real' apology between a man and his father-in-law, who reconcile after recounting how the man supposedly poured glass into his father-in-law’s soup and the father-in-law supposedly threw the man off the third story of a building. Karol doubts his chances of winning and wants to leave, but Tadek convinces him to stay: Tadek says they can win by making up even grander conflicts. However, the bizarre stories they tell on stage infuriate their wives standing backstage. Karol wins the monetary prize after issuing an authentic apology to his wife saying that he made up those lies since he truly has a fantastic wife.

Another episode, 'Ukryte Kamery' (Hidden Cameras), brings reality TV to the series. A cable TV salesman tells Karol and Alina they can star in a reality TV show on cable if they purchase cable, but Alina declines due to the cost. Without Alina’s knowledge, Karol agrees to the salesman’s next offer of free cable TV in exchange for hidden cameras being installed in his apartment for a 24/7 reality show about their life. Miodowe Lata updates the show by including an episode on reality television and the challenge of running a 24/7 program. After Karol discovers that viewers criticize him for wearing socks in bed and being called pet names by his wife, he decides to act out a scene with Tadek to regain popularity. At the same time, after finding the program on TV, Alina and Danuta plan to get revenge on their husbands for not telling them they were being filmed. In an acted scene, Tadek, dressed as a vampire, is ready to pretend to stab Karol with a stake – but when he pulls back Karol’s shower curtain, he finds Danuta dressed as a vampire. Tadek flees, and he and Karol are further scared after seeing Alina also dressed as a vampire. The cable TV salesman loves the episode, but in the end he wants to replace Karol and Tadek in their apartment with professional actors. They refuse, and the couples remain together, away from television cameras.

Picture display

standardowy [760 px]

Still from the TV series 'Miodowe lata', 1998 - 2003, photo: Studio A

Picture image

miodowe_lata_2.jpg

The adaptation also responds to Poland’s history as a communist state of the Soviet Union. In 'Partia' (Party), Karol decides to form a new political party with Tadek called P.T.I.K. (Partia Transportu and Konserwacji; The Party of Transport and Conservation) after he finds out that the Warsaw government will give an apartment as an office for every newly registered political party. Their party is a sham, as Karol plans to live in his party’s apartment, and later Tadek would form another breakaway party for his own apartment. P.T.I.K. is approved, but they find out that they will not be able to move in for three years, as the building has yet to be built. The men are unable to dissolve their party because they can’t get approval of the members they invented, and they fail to get it shut down due to inflammatory rhetoric, as the fliers they print get destroyed in the rain. The episode ends with strangers running into Karol’s apartment, bearing a suitcase in one instance and baseball bats in another, thinking P.T.I.K. is a Communist party and later a nationalist party. In the end, Karol and Tadek sell their party to their neighbor’s friend and are surprised to find out that the friend has been arrested for being a member of the mafia, showing them the severity of the political world.

The Dream of Financial Stability

Niania and Miodowe Lata adapted successful American sitcoms in their own ways. Niania successfully replicated a more contemporary sitcom through the talent and physical similarities of its Polish actors. Miodowe Lata successfully contemporised an old sitcom by adapting it to the media and politics of Poland. Both adaptations, despite their differences, touch on the same theme resonating in post-Communist Poland. That theme is financial stability. Niania offered viewers a fairytale rags-to-riches story, while Miodowe Lata displayed the working-class struggle towards a better future.

Language English