TV’s The Office to open a Petach Tikva branch

April 13, 2009 - 4:20 PM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Pop Culture 

The OfficeExciting Israeli pop culture news has reached us with the recent announcement that the local satellite TV provider, Yes, will soon be running its own version of the landmark satirical half-hour comedy series The Office. A full 15 episodes have already been contracted, set to air in about a year from now, with the Israeli firm July August, which was behind the recent success of The Band’s Visit, handling production.

Co-creator Ricky Gervais was quoted in The Guardian‘s piece announcing the project saying,

“I am thrilled and amazed that Israel are making The Office with local writers, directors and actors. I mean, who ever heard of Jewish entertainers?”

Ha’aretz reported shortly thereafter that screenwriting will be handled by B’tipul‘s Uzi Weill and the director will be Eitan Tzur, who also had a hand in that Israeli television export’s success.

When Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant developed The Office as what would become a two-season sitcom for the BBC, they had no idea what levels of universal appeal their odd sense of humor had the potential of reaching. Sure, Gervais’ portrayal of oblivious, over-the-top, tasteless paper company branch boss David Brent was arguably grounded primarily in esoteric British dry humor stylings and in specifically British office culture-inspired mishaps. But the show also managed to tap into the universal phenomenon of “cubicle angst,” and its mockumentary-inspired packaging, complete with uncomfortable silences, helped rocket it into global cult favorite status.

Soon the BBC was licensing local versions of the show to markets outside England, with France, Russia, Chile, Canada and the United States (pictured) creating their own takes. While the US version got off to a rocky start (its short first season was more or less a remake of the original British one, just with some local flavor and accents added), it hit its stride towards the beginning of season two and is now enjoying its fifth successful season on NBC.

It can be argued that one of the reasons that the American Office has been as much of a creative success as it has been is that the writers have allowed for the characters to take on lives of their own in ways that are distinctively American. The action all takes place against the backdrops of corporate booze cruises, office outings to Chili’s (where family members’ drinks might or might not be comped), ridicule of those who count Legally Blonde as an all-time favorite movie, peeking at one another’s high school yearbooks – you know, American office culture type stuff.

Having watched both the British and American versions of The Office for several years, I have wondered many times how an Israeli version might manifest itself. Israeli office culture has its own cultural mores and archetypes.

Also according to The Guardian:

….Giyora Yahalom, head of production at the Israeli satellite broadcaster Yes, added: “We are sure that the universal experience of contemporary office life will speak to Israeli viewers. There is no doubt that our viewers will enjoy the same jokes as their contemporaries in the UK.”

And the Ha’aretz piece makes a good argument that the creators are taking the proper approach, reporting that the show

…will take place at the dreary workplace of “Super Office,” a fictional office-supply firm in Petah Tikva.

….The cast will include a variety of Israeli types – an Arab warehouse manager, an ultra-Orthodox saleswoman and a bitter Russian accountant. The Israeli answer to David Brent, the obnoxious boss of the U.K. program, will be named Avi Meshulam, though an actor has yet to be pegged for the role.

Exciting stuff. Hopefully the creative team will have enough self-depreciating perspective to do it right.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Our Hospital Adventure

October 31, 2008 - 1:24 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: General 

Big government is making a big comeback, what with $700 billion bank bailouts, so the term “socialized medicine” isn’t as scary as it used to be. And we all know how expensive health care is in the States. But, as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. Despite the high cost, “everyone knows” how much higher the quality of health care is in the U.S., and how inferior it is in countries with socialized medicine, like the U.K., where people have to wait for months for simple procedures, and those who can afford it flee the public health system, and go private.

clalit.jpg

Having lived in Israel for some 15 years – moving here from the U.S. before the huge increase in health insurance costs – I can’t speak of what typical Americans, or Britons for that matter, have to go through to either get or pay for health care. I can only speak about what I’ve experienced here in Israel.

I bring this up now because I – and my wife – have just had a hospital experience. She was “in” for a couple of days last week for a procedure (let’s just leave it at that). This isn’t the first time, of course – we’ve had three of our five kids here. And in her previous experiences, she would have at least partially agreed with the conventional wisdom that private medical care is better.

But things have changed dramatically over the past few years; the service is no longer surly, and even the old, broken down hospital seemed brighter and spiffier this time around. Hospitals aren’t a pleasant place to stay, no matter what, but the hospital she had to spend a night at while she recuperated was completely refurbished, with pleasant chairs and plenty of light. Some of the personnel weren’t as pleasant as we would have liked, but I have seen far worse behavior on the part of hospital workers in the States – and in Israel, hospital staff don’t immediately call in security when you would put up an argument with them. They even seem to have gotten the paperwork right – one form was all it took, and she was enrolled in the computer, with all the information transmitted to all the appropriate departments immediately.

And the total cost for everything – would you believe 130 shekels? That’s about $35 in today’s money. Although many pundits would say that Israel is losing its socialist spirit (the official poverty figures can be pretty shocking), it’s clear that that spirit still reigns supreme in health care. True, it’s more expensive that it used to be, but try even talking to a doctor in the U.S. for $35.

It was a real surprise to an American immigrant who still expects Israeli medical care to be second rate – the whole process was pretty first rate, as far as I could tell. There seems to be a lot of that going on in Israel today – take highways and roads, for example. All sorts of new highways seem to be popping up all over the place; you can get around the Tel Aviv and even Jerusalem metropolitan areas pretty quickly now. But don’t we pay excessively high taxes for all this? Nope; if you live in the New York Metropolitan area and include your state, city, federal, and real estate taxes, it doesn’t really add up to more than we pay here overall. Pretty shocking, huh?

Tags: , , , , , ,

Baruch Obama

July 24, 2008 - 7:37 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Politics 

Baruch Obama!Barack Obama had quite a whirlwind trip here yesterday. He met with three past prime ministers, the current prime minister and pretty much everyone who wants to be prime minister. It was as much as a photo opportunity for Israeli politicians who want to be seen with the possible next president of the United States as it was for Obama.

Obama was received quite well as he was shuffled from meeting to meeting, with a visit to Yad Vashem, a quick stop in Ramallah, an important visit to Sderot and a predawn visit to the Western Wall. Personally, I think the most important aspect of his trip was his visit to Sderot. Obama delivered his only speech of his trip there (and said all the right things of course). As a result, Sderot’s plight will get mentioned in nearly every newspaper in the world today and all three major television networks in the states surely mentioned it last night.

Politics here unfortunately tend to be single-issue oriented. I think we, as Jews, need to wake up and realize that while the security and peace for Israel is important for the America, it is not the number one issue. Yair Lapid nails this in an excellent column in Yediot this week.

Tags: , , , , , ,

 

© 2012 ISRAELITY | Sitemap