Japanese Comedy For Overseas Online Audiences

[Mulboyne]

Variety: Trio offer Japanese shows on Joost
The NTV network, comedy talent shop Yoshimoto Kogyo and ad agency Dentsu are partnering to offer Japanese comedy and variety shows to U.S. auds on broadband. The service is a first of its kind for the Japanese broadcasting biz, which has long been hampered by rights issues from beaming programming abroad. Starting in December, the partners will launch an ad-supported service called "Japanese Humor -- Owarai" in the U.S. on a specialized broadband channel on the U.K.-based Joost site. They will begin with 105 episodes of six shows, for a total of 35 hours of programming. Joost, NTV, Yoshimoto and rights holders will divide the ad revenue. The trio plan to offer other programming internationally via broadband.

[Bucky]

Oh Boy!

I remember back in the day. . . .

:noose:

[size=100][color=#000000]Actually, this isn't a Seventies variety show at all, but it misses being one by only by a few months. Pink Lady was first broadcast on March 1, 1980 and lasted only six weeks. It starred Mitsuyo Nemoto (Mie, pronounced 'me') and Keko Masuda (Kei, pronounced 'kay') - and comedian Jeff Altman. [/color][/SIZE]
[size=100][color=#2f4f4f][color=#000000]The show was half sitcom and half variety show and was one of (then new) NBC president Fred Silverman's projects. It was Silverman's idea to give Sonny and Cher a variety series in the Seventies when he was head of programming at CBS - and he was hoping lightning would strike again when he took over the programming duties at NBC. [/color][/color][/SIZE]
[size=100][color=#2f4f4f][color=#000000]Fred Silverman hoped this would be a 'new wave' 'Sonny and Cher Show' - the fact that two of the three stars couldn't speak English (and the other played a hopelessly bad comedian) would be seen as a clever gimmick, he hoped. Silverman was desperate for a hit at this point. He had tremendous success at CBS, then again at ABC, but almost every programming decision he made at NBC proved to be a bad move. [/color][/color][/SIZE]
[size=100][color=#2f4f4f][color=#000000]The concept was simple: Jeff Altman serves as 'interpreter' for the two ladies, which meant 'translating' (upstaging) their songs and talking oriental gibberish to his two confused co-stars in an attempt explain American culture. They interact with the guest stars - then at the end of the show, they all jump into a hot tub together. [/color][/color][/SIZE]
[size=100][color=#2f4f4f][color=#000000]'Pink Lady' did so poorly on the first Saturday night outing that the very next week it was moved to Friday nights and retitled Pink Lady and Jeff with Jim ('Ernest') Varney joining the cast. After the series was mercifully canceled, the Pink Ladies went back to Japan, and Jeff Altman went on to host the last few seasons of 'Solid Gold'. [/color][/color][/SIZE]