Fiction TV Formats in Poland –

Why Bother to Adapt?

Sylwia SzostakUniversity of Nottingham

aaxss2@nottingham.ac.uk

Bogdan Czaja, Deputy Programming Director at TVN,personal interview, December 2011

‘when you buy a format, you also buy a certain feeling of security. Scripts that have been tried elsewhere, produced in various markets, that proved successful somewhere else might also work for us.’

BRZYDULA (TVN, 2008-2009)POLISH ADAPTATION OF BETTY, LA FEA

Izabela Łopuch, Executive Producer in TV Drama and Feature Film Production Department at TVN,personal interview, January 2012

‘Whenever you launch a new thing, and for TVN telenovela was a new genre, it is worth to rely on an idea that has been tested elsewhere. The first telenovela that we made was BrzydUla, based on Betty, La Fea – which of course is a massive hit – you probably cannot name another telenovela format more popular than that.’

PROSTO W SERCE (TVN, 2010)POLISH ADAPTATION OF SOS MI VIDA

MAJKA (TVN, 2011) POLISH ADAPTATION OF JUANA LA VIRGEN

FIRST POLISH DOMESTIC TELENOWELA JULIA (TVN, 2012)

Izabela Łopuch, Executive Producer in TV Drama and Feature Film Production Department at TVN,personal interview, January 2012

‘It was a natural progression towards a greater input on our behalf, which finally led us to our first originally scripted telenovela – Julia. So I think that in the past three years we managed to train people how to write a telenovela from scratch, while learning ourselves how to produce it. The whole experience with adapting this genre taught us how a telenovela should be done. Through working on adapting, we raised two strong scriptwriting teams, that now work on our domestic telenovela. As a result, we no longer have to look up to others.’

W11 – WYDZIAŁ ŚLEDCZY (TVN, 2004- present)POLISH ADAPTATION OF K11 - KOMMISSARE IM EINSATZ

Bogdan Czaja, Deputy Programming Director at TVN,personal interview, December 2011

‘W-11 was a case of introducing a new genre. We decided to adapt this format after seeing how well it did in Germany. We decided to make it because it was something that was absent in Poland. An added bonus was that it is relatively cheap to make, especially when compared to some big scripted dramas. In the case of W-11, we thought that this is the type of show we are able to make, it is something new, it works in Germany, maybe it will work in Poland too.’

FIRST DOMESTIC DOCU-CRIME SHOW –DETEKTYWI (TVN, 2005- present)

SECOND DOMESTIC DOCU-CRIME SHOW – MALANOWSKI I PARTNERZY (Polsat, 2009-present)

LUDZIE CHUDEGO (Polsat, 2010-2011)– POLISH ADAPTATION OF LOS HOMBRES DE PACO

LOS HOMBRES DE PACO (Antena 3, 2005-2010)

WSZYSCY KOCHAJA ROMANA (TVN, 2011) – POLISH ADAPTATION OF EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND

NIANIA (TVN, 2005-2009) – POLISH ADAPTATION OF THE NANNY

HELA W OPALACH (TVN, 2006-2007) – POLISH ADAPTATION OF GRACE UNDER FIRE