The history of post-1989 Polish serialized fiction falls into two periods. The first, from the 1990s to the mid-2000s, was characterized by heavy American imports. The second, from the mid-2000s up to 2012, is characterized by the gradual disappearance of American productions from the prime time schedules of Polish terrestrial broadcasters, as they turned to domestic products. Despite an increasing self-sufficiency in generating original television fiction content and the erosion of the hegemony of American imports on Poland’s TV screens, American programming still plays an important role in shaping Poland’s television industry and the fiction programming it produces. This article explores the impact of American programming on the Polish television market in terms of genres of domestic fiction, their narrative conventions and aesthetic qualities. American television, however, is not just mechanically transplanted, as Polish producers adjust foreign ideas to local structures of feeling. The genres that Polish broadcasters produce, as well as the narrative strategies and aesthetic canons of the domestic show, become a site of negotiation between the American influence and the domestic Politsh televisual culture. This article not only explores the myriad ways in which Poland’s television professionals borrow iconic elements of American television culture and its programming ideas, but it also illuminates how those foreign elements are transformed into the Polish context.
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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Imitation, Borrowing, Recycling. American Models and Polish Domestic Drama
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Imitation, Borrowing, Recycling. American Models and Polish Domestic Drama
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IMITATION, BORROWING, RECYCLING.
AMERICAN MODELS AND POLISH DOMESTIC DRAMA
Sylwia Szostak, University of Nottingham




  Abstract

  1990s to the mid-2000s, was characterized by heavy American imports. The second, from the
  mid-2000s up to 2012, is characterized by the gradual disappearance of American productions
  from the prime time schedules of Polish terrestrial broadcasters, as they turned to domestic
                                                                                             -
  tent and the erosion of the hegemony of American imports on Poland’s TV screens, American
                                                                                             -
  tion programming it produces. This article explores the impact of American programming on

  and aesthetic qualities. American television, however, is not just mechanically transplanted,
  as Polish producers adjust foreign ideas to local structures of feeling. The genres that Polish
  broadcasters produce, as well as the narrative strategies and aesthetic canons of the domestic

  televisual culture. This article not only explores the myriad ways in which Poland’s television
  professionals borrow iconic elements of American television culture and its programming
  ideas, but it also illuminates how those foreign elements are transformed into the Polish con-
  text.




                                                           Imitation is the sincerest form of television.
                                                                                             Fred Allen

   In 2009, one of Poland’s internet sites devoted to TV shows created a playful slideshow, which
demonstrates how Polish TV series borrow heavily from foreign productions.1 This is illustrated
by 16 examples, each accompanied with a short description, where American TV series are con-
trasted with their supposed Polish equivalents. According to the site, American shows such as Ally
McBeal (Fox, 1997-2002), Fringe (Fox, 2008-2013), The Sopranos (HBO, 1999-2007) and The
West Wing (NBC, 1999-2006) each inspired a Polish copycat show. This playful game of associ-


CINÉMA & CIE, vol. XII, no. 19, Fall 2012                                                             73
SYLWIA SZOSTAK

an important characteristic of the Polish television sector and a recent trend in the construction
of televisual imagery in Poland: namely the heavy borrowing of foreign, particularly American,
ideas and television formulas.
                                                                                                 -

involved in international audiovisual exchanges – including the importation of foreign, mainly
American programming – and thus part of the highly interconnected global television industry.




                    POLSAT
     35
                       Poland
     30                USA
                       South America
     25                Europe (non-domestic)
     20

     15

     10

      5

      0
          1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

     4pm-11pm (              , 1998-2011)

                    TVN
     35
                       Poland
     30                USA
                       South America
     25                Europe (non-domestic)
     20

     15

     10

      5

      0
          1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

     4pm-11pm (              , 1998-2011)


74
                IMITATION, BORROWING, RECYCLING. AMERICAN MODELS AND POLISH DOMESTIC DRAMA

                    TVP1
     20
                        Poland
     18                 USA
     16                 Europe (non-domestic)
     14                 other (Canada)
     12
     10
      8
      6
      4
      2
      0
          1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011


     4pm-11pm (             , 1998-2011)

  For Poland’s three terrestrial free-to-air broadcasters – public service one TVP1 and its two

representing high season for television in Poland, demonstrates an overwhelming dominance of




29 serialized scripted episodes broadcasted by Polsat, as many as 26 were of domestic origin, and
only two were American imports. A similar trend is pronounced on TVN, Poland’s second com-

was of domestic origin.
   Poland’s broadcasters are not unique in their move from importation towards domestic produc-
tion: it is a successive stage of development and business strategy for the growth of a channel. In


                                                                                             -
ern Europe in mind, that “American imports have often been important for the introduction of
                                                                                             -
gramming is not always necessary to continue the commercial model.” It remains true for Poland
                                                                   2




and more on domestic product.


still plentiful increasingly occupy a more marginalised position in the schedule.”3 Steemers con-
tinues that “US series are now often restricted to daytime or late-night slots on the main free-to-
                                                    4

have not completely disappeared from the broadcast schedules of Poland’s terrestrial broadcasters.
American shows continue to be imported but they are migrating to daytime or late-night slots


                                                                                                75
SYLWIA SZOSTAK

and from the Polish high season in the autumn and spring months to less competitive winter and
summer periods.
  The move towards domestic programming and the decline of imported programming is usually

D. Straubhaar claims that local viewers prefer domestic programming over imported fare because
they prefer narratives that incorporate familiar elements, and thus choose “their own cultural prod-
ucts when they can.”5
or national material when available.”6 Bogdan Czaja, Deputy Programming director at TVN, rec-
ognizes the importance of cultural proximity:

  This is how markets work, not only here but elsewhere as well – local content always works better.
  Viewers prefer shows featuring characters that speak Polish and deal with problems and issues they can
  relate to. The general truth is that people want to watch Polish series more than the imported content.7




becomes exclusively Polish. Tapio Varis reminds us however that “the real social and political
impact of imported programs may be greater than might be inferred from the volume of imported
material.”8




other than the presence of imported content, namely licensed formatting and emulation.

                                                                                              -
rative formulas characteristic for serialized storytelling and associated production modes were
completely alien to Polish commercial broadcasters as those only began functioning in the 1990s

as TVP (the former state broadcaster, after 1989 transformed into the public service broadcaster)


                                                                                                             -




create their own local programming content.
  This was the case with TVN’s treatment of the telenovela genre. In the late 1990s, the broad-
caster was importing South American productions, such as Esmeralda (Televisa, 1997), Rosalinda
(Canal de las Estrellas, 1999), Ricos y famosos (Canal 9, 1997-1998), Por tu amor (Canal de las
Estrellas, 1999), La intrusa (Televisa, 2001), Yo soy Betty, la fea (RCN TV, 1999-2001) and many
                                                                                               -



76
                IMITATION, BORROWING, RECYCLING. AMERICAN MODELS AND POLISH DOMESTIC DRAMA

so TVN commissioned local adaptations of the Columbian series Yo soy Betty, la fea in 2008 and
2009, the Argentinean production Sos mi vida (Canal 13, 2006-2007) in 2010 and the Venezuelan
Juana la virgen (RCTV, 2002) in 2011. After these three telenovela adaptations, the time came for
                                          Julia, which can be considered a crowning achievement
after a long period of training, during which the broadcaster learned through adapting the produc-
tion mode of this particular genre.

struggled with, which is demonstrated by the numerous sitcom adaptations that have been made in
                                                                                                -
casters began to rely heavily on this programming type, importing shows such as Caroline in the
City (NBC, 1995-1999), Married with Children (Fox, 1987-1997), Wings (NBC, 1990-1997), The
Nanny (CBS, 1993-1999), Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS, 1996-2005), The Fresh Prince of
Bel-Air (NBC, 1990-1996) and many others. The reliance on American sitcoms declined towards
the end of 1990s, as was the case with American programming more generally. Almost immedi-
ately, American sitcoms began to be replaced by those of domestic origin. Polish broadcasters,
however, have not succeeded in producing commercially viable original sitcoms, and therefore
                                                                                                -
caster’s failure at sourcing original concepts. In 2005 TVN produced a Polish adaptation of the
American format The Nanny. A year later TVN adapted Grace Under Fire (ABC, 1993-1998)
and most recently Everybody Loves Raymond in 2011. In this instance, scripted formats helped to
substitute imported programming with domestic fare that would continue the aesthetic strategies
of the imports, marginalizing especially American content in the primetime slots. However, adapt-

broadcasters to turn towards sourcing more programmes domestically. The Executive Producer in


  After our experiences with formatting we now know that adapting can be such hard work, involving so
  many profound changes to the script that sometimes it does not really make sense to be paying for a
  format. That is why we started investing more time and effort into our own originally scripted drama.9

  This shift toward domestic original production does not mean that foreign television has

television is not evident through the number of imported series but rather through the impact of
foreign television on originally scripted Polish drama. Licensed formatting, where the owners of

producer can borrow and recycle programming ideas. In addition to a number of internationally
successful formats, which are bought and adapted legally, television executives can appropriate

argued that this copycat phenomenon, which includes borrowing and modifying other cultural
texts to augment local production, is common in the media industries. In fact, Albert Moran
                                                                                                  -
spread and persistent over the past 80 years.”10 Michael Keane, Anthony Y.H. Fung and Albert
Moran similarly claim that “the reality of today’s international mediascape is that television con-

                                                                                                       77
SYLWIA SZOSTAK


                                                       11




channels and also more production.”12

own programming and American imports, Therefore, it is especially American programming that
has had considerable impact and power in the audio-visual industry in Europe.13 Today, copying
and borrowing are practices that are endemic and even essential to the TV industry in Poland,
where American television has become a major source of inspiration for the local television pro-
fessionals. However, the informal copying practices have derived from the structural conditions
of the Polish television industry rather than from any individual misconduct. Interviews with a
variety of TV professionals reveal that practices of emulation are not isolated instances but an

understands that the recycling of ideas is an inherent part of the creative industries:

  Everything has already been written in the Bible, and then Shakespeare repeated it. So if you were to
  write stories that do not resemble anything that had come before it, you would soon realise that you can-
  not write anything because, when you come to think of it, everything has already been thought of. I think
  that copying is a natural part of the industry and creative work more generally. Writing my own scripts,
  I feel that I am inspired by programmes I have watched. This is exactly one of the reasons why I watch

  good, there is no shame in being inspired by it.14

  As a direct result of the creation of the commercial sector in the late 1990s, the competition
for viewers became crucial to securing the existence of commercial broadcasters and equally im-
portant for the partially advertising-funded public broadcaster TVP. As the private sector matured
during the 2000s, the three main terrestrial broadcasters (the public TVP and its two commercial
competitors – TVN and Polsat) began competing not only with each other, but increasingly also
with the newly established thematic cable and satellite channels: AXN, FOX, Universal Channel

been gradually directing the Polish audience away from the terrestrial broadcasters. In 2007 the
combined share of the pay TV channels accounted for 20% of the audience share among adults
aged 16-49 and the percentage has been increasing ever since: to 24% in 2008, 29% in 2009 and
32% in 2010. In 2010, out of 38 million Poles who had access to television services, 26.6 million
had access to pay-TV offerings.15 As the Polish industry plunged into this heightened competition
for ratings, the domestic soap operas produced by TVP since the 1990s and into the 2000s contin-
ued to be extremely successful and able to generate impressive ratings.
  Klan (TVP1, 1997-), the longest running Polish soap opera, averaged 7.3 million total view-

of 3.1 million viewers in 2011.16 Plebania (TVP1, 2000-2012), another long-running domestic
soap, demonstrated a similar tendency of declining viewership from 5.3 million in 2000 to a still

soap opera, went from 4 million viewers in 2000 to 7.5 million in 2011.17 The viewership for

78
                 IMITATION, BORROWING, RECYCLING. AMERICAN MODELS AND POLISH DOMESTIC DRAMA


generating an audience of 3 million viewers constitutes a considerable success.

out a loyal audience, but what this type of programming fails to do is to attract the commercial au-
diences – the advertiser-coveted adult 16-49 demographic. Domestic soaps produced by the public
service broadcaster TVP attract mainly female audiences above the age of 50, from rural areas of
Poland and urban areas whose population is below 100,000 residents.18 Recently, the commercial
terrestrial broadcasters – Polsat and TVN – have begun to appeal to an audience segment that is
                                                                                                   -
ferent viewing experience to that supplied by the studio-based soap operas produced by the public
service broadcaster TVP. TVN’s Programming Deputy-Director Bogdan Czaja explains that:




  [16-49 demographics], we need to compete with those really well-made American shows. For those
  people the point of reference is not domestic soaps, because soaps do not exist for them: when soaps
  are broadcast they are at work and even if they are not they would not want to watch that type of show
  anyway. That type of audience has to have content that can endure comparisons with shows like Friends
  for example, The Sopranos or Desperate Housewives. Those people know those American shows, they
  like them and they think “now give me a domestic drama, I am willing to watch it but make sure it is
  better or at least as good as the American shows I know.” Competing with American shows is not an
  easy thing to do.19


  The commercial terrestrial broadcasters, in order to reach the commercial viewers, and prevent
the audience from tuning to cable channels, began to emulate American exports by producing

American television programmes and their genres were considered to be excellent models for the
production of more competitive programmes.
  This article describes the manner in which American television practices are creatively appro-
priated, thus demonstrating a mode through which American programmes play an important de-



myriad ways in which Poland’s TV professionals emulate iconic attributes of American television,
such as aesthetically ambitious mise-en-scène and the cultivation of style, as well as American
programming ideas, such as genres and storytelling modes. Yet this article examines not only the

Building on interviews with the creators of two original Polish prime time dramas, Lekarze (2012-
) and Prawo Agaty (2012-), produced by the commercial broadcaster TVN, this article explores



within the Polish television industry as manifested through the practice of appropriation of attri-
butes of American television.

                                                                                                       79
SYLWIA SZOSTAK

American textual models and original Polish drama


                                                                                                -
uous rehashing of relatively constant formats and genres (e.g. the cop show, the sitcom, the soap
opera).”20

of the generic impact of American television is Prawo Agaty (English title: True Law




                  Fig. 4 – TVN’s legal prime time drama Prawo Agaty. Courtesy of TVN

  The series focuses on Agata Przybysz, a successful lawyer, who suddenly loses her prestigious
job. As the titular character is forced to abandon her old habits, the series depicts how Agata tries
to build her life and career from scratch, while struggling with various legal cases. Bogumil Lips-

drama:




  of the genre. I watched several of those. I wanted to rely on Ally McBeal the least actually, to avoid
  obvious comparisons. I watched                    because it was the most recent legal drama. I also
  watched Harry’s Law, and Drop Dead Diva. I watched a couple of episodes of Boston Legal, and classic
  American movies that centre around legal issues, such as                , for example. All those shows
  inspired me and helped me to spot what is important for a legal drama. But it’s not that I methodologi-

  ideas through watching different things.21

  This account highlights how watching American programming can support local producers in
the creation of domestic programming. This approach is not an isolated case. In September 2012,
the commercial broadcaster TVN premiered its most recent original prime time drama Lekarze

80
                 IMITATION, BORROWING, RECYCLING. AMERICAN MODELS AND POLISH DOMESTIC DRAMA

(English title: Medics) – and thus expanded its programming repertoire with yet another new
                                                                     22
                                                                        The show focuses on




  of                   . But neither the public broadcaster nor we [TVN] managed to buy that expensive
  format. It is a great show, I would love to have writers that could produce such a great script and create
  a Polish                   . Once we decided to produce an original medical drama, instead of adapting

  the medical drama out there. Particularly, the American shows such as E.R,                    , House
  M.D., Private Practice, and               . But I also watched some British ones, but there are not as
  many British medical dramas as American ones. I watched them but it was not what I was after. I feel
  that my biggest inspiration was                                                                      -
  cluded, to watch                   as a type of homework. My intention was never to copy and imitate
  the show, but it was a huge inspiration certainly.23



whose existence is indebted to the generic impact of American prime time dramas. American
genres inform the understanding of Polish TV professionals, who learn the new cultural language

versions of textual models from the American television culture. Polish producers thus become ac-
tive agents in the on-going process of strengthening the existing repertoire of Polish broadcasters




            Fig. 5 – TVN’s medical prime time drama Lekarze. Courtesy of TVN/Piotr Litwic



through a straightforward homogenisation, in which cultural difference and diversity are eradicat-

                                                                                                           81
SYLWIA SZOSTAK

ed. Polish TV professionals recognise that directly copying American elements into Polish reality




  If we were to make a Polish The Bold and the Beautiful without changing the context, this series would
  surely fail. Polish viewers are willing to accept certain programmes as foreign imports made in the En-
  glish language, shows like The Bold and The Beautiful, but also more sophisticated American drama.
  But if you were to copy those directly one to one in the Polish language set in small town Poland, those
  would not work. You need to introduce profound changes to foreign programming ideas and adapt to the
  Polish context for them to work.24

  This account highlights the importance of the local Polish context in transplanting American
television elements. The recognition that American TV forms and ideas need to be indige-


American prime time drama and its genres, American programmes are not imitated, simply
                                                                                     -


– the head writer for Prawo Agaty:

  We all, writers and viewers alike, when we think of court cases we think of the American legal cases,

  script for Prawo Agaty, I realised that what I thought happens in court is what can happen only in Amer-



  asking myself “how will I ever write that show?” And then we made the decision to allow ourselves the
  creative freedom to break some of the basic rules that govern the Polish courtroom. One of the biggest
  obstacles was the issue of legal language, which in Poland is quite elaborate and complicated. So we
  knew that we would also need to simplify the language our characters spoke in the courtroom so as not

  legal phrase. There is even a gossip that law students in Poland have watched too many American legal

  legal terminology. There is an anecdote connected with this. I think while shooting the second episode of
  season 1, Leszek who plays the main lead was tired of repeating the same long Polish phrase over and

  So we faced a lot of practical obstacles connected with what we could and could not do in writing the
  show and we had to try really hard to make the show work.25




82
                 IMITATION, BORROWING, RECYCLING. AMERICAN MODELS AND POLISH DOMESTIC DRAMA


convinced of the necessity to localise the American genre of legal procedural to the Polish context:

  I knew that we would not be able to tell interesting courts stories simply because law and legal proceed-
  ings in Poland are very boring, complicated, but more importantly extend over long periods of time.
  From the beginning, I knew that I would not be able to present the real court cases. I had to simplify the
  court stories and tell them less literally, putting emphasis on something else. I decided to concentrate
  on the drama aspect, emotionally resonant dilemmas of interesting people caught up in compelling situ-

  a legal drama to succeed in Poland it has to put more emphasis on the character development and their
  emotions, rather than the actual legal proceedings. In America they can produce legal dramas the way
  they do because they have a different legal system.26

 Because of the disparities between the Polish and American legal realities, the impact of The
Good Wife (CBS, 2009-) on the Polish “incarnation” is smaller than one might expect from the




  Despite my watching of                                                                                  Pra-
  wo Agaty. We used                    to see how they write their legal cases into the episodes. But not what
  type of cases they are but rather how they are told. The biggest lesson I took from                 was how

                 , what is important in those legal cases. Sometimes it is the small gestures the characters
  make. So it was attention to those little details and shooting them well that captured my attention.27

                                                                                                                 -

Prawo Agaty                                                              The Good Wife:


  beside him, and the defendant and prosecutor on the other, sometimes three if you want to include the

  takes too much time for us to shoot similarly to the way they do in              , because we have to
  position the camera on four different sides. In Poland the defender and the prosecutor are sitting op-

  to capture the exchanges and the interactions between the characters we had to position the camera in
  four different spots. It was taking us too much time to shoot like that. So we knew that we had to modify
  that and simplify the exchanges between the characters. This was very challenging. Americans have to
  do it from only two perspectives, sometimes three. This was a big lesson for me, as I did not realise that
  while watching                    .28

  The above accounts demonstrate that the local Polish context can in some instances render di-
rect imitation impossible. However, cultural congruity is not the only factor determining the extent

                                                                                                             83
SYLWIA SZOSTAK

and character of Polish TV’s emulation of its American source material. Polish television profes-
sionals that I have interviewed report that another factor determining the limits of innovation in


do with the fact that:

  Polish viewers are used to telenovela narration symptomatic of Polish daily soaps produced in the

  of narration to what the Polish audience is used to. I think that we should try to challenge that a bit but
  we need to build acceptance for experimentation over time. The bottom-line is that our programming
  experiments should not be revolutionary but rather evolutionary. It should be a gradual process of pre-
  paring the Polish viewers for a new type of programme in their own language and context.29

                                                                                                   -
sual forms and structures of domestic drama and would not accept some American televisual sto-
rytelling characteristics. Years of exposure to domestic series such as Klan – the longest running
Polish soap opera, Plebania,                   and many other Polish programmes that are mixtures
of soap opera and telenovela narrative models, have made the Polish audience accustomed to a
particular, explicit way of storytelling. Particularly where the extended long-running series allow
a lot of space for story development and detailed and elaborate dialogue. Polish producers and




  The pilot of Prawo Agaty

  pretty much her whole life story. We made the pilot this way because we had to think of the local viewers.
  In an American series you would not have a pilot episode with such an elaborate exposition and you
  would probably start with what we made as episode two. In an American series you would start with a
  legal case episode and you would communicate the background information from the character’s life
  story through some signals and the viewer would accumulate information throughout the season. But the

  two episodes premiered back-to-back as a double bill.30



which Polish producers can use American storytelling models. With the Polish viewer in mind, the


law based stories of an episodic nature. The local sentiments had an impact throughout season 1.
The viewer preference for telenovela storytelling made it challenging for the creators of Prawo
Agaty to create the type of narration symptomatic of a legal drama, where plots of a legal nature
are interwoven with those relating to the main character’s personal life. Due to the nature of such
stories, the personal and emotional plots cannot be developed in such detail as they usually are in
an extended narrative universe of a soap opera or telenovela. Writing a show with limited personal

84
                 IMITATION, BORROWING, RECYCLING. AMERICAN MODELS AND POLISH DOMESTIC DRAMA




  When you watch American drama the writing craft is based on showing character relations in a sim-



  the writers of Prawo Agaty need to show only the essence of the drama aspect, because we do not have
  room to develop it in such detail. But this makes the writing process interesting and challenging for me
  – that we do not make characters repeat the same information over and over again.31

  Despite the awareness that viewers in Poland might expect a more detailed and elaborate de-
piction of the characters’ emotional universe, the creators of Prawo Agaty decided to develop the
show’s narrative in a manner resembling the American storytelling model characteristic for a legal
drama, namely the one that combines the self-enclosed episodic structure of different legal cases
with personal plotlines that extend over the whole season. Following this narrative structure meant
moving away from the domestic tradition of telenovela story writing with extended serialised
characterisation and inclusion of excessive detail not directly relevant for the story development.
                                                                                        32
                                                                                           This mode
of storytelling rewards dedicated viewers by introducing larger arcs of narrative progression but

model of television storytelling is distinct for its use of narrative complexity as an alternative to

inception.”33 Recent original Polish TV series, such as Prawo Agaty and Lekarze, share the for-
mal attributes of this storytelling mode of contemporary American television, where the episodic
cases, legal and medical respectively, are complemented with the overarching plots of character


  I wanted Prawo Agaty to have a procedural structure, with new story in each episode. So my basic pre-
  occupation was how to combine the episodic, case-based structure with the narrative drama arc. And
  this is what will make people tune in, the drama arc. I do not think the case structure would be enough

  art to it.34

 But Prawo Agaty and Lekarze are not isolated cases. Bogdan Czaja, TVN’s Deputy Program-
ming Director, recognizes the increasing importance of the blending of the episodic and the serial


                                                                                                      -
  isodic form with a narrative arc, but not too serialised. The types of shows that do not seem to work



  and requires watching episode by episode, it does not work. We lose viewers like that. Someone will miss

                                                                                                         85
SYLWIA SZOSTAK

  an episode or two and if they cannot follow on a casual basis we will lose the audience. So it is best
  to have a show that, even if it has the continuity across episodes is not too demanding. This is the best
  recipe for a show nowadays.35

  These accounts suggest that a new paradigm of television storytelling is emerging in Poland,
with a reconceptualisation of the boundary between episodic and serial forms. New norms of
storytelling practice emerge in Poland as Polish practitioners borrow the proven storytelling re-
sources of American television’s craft tradition.
  As we have seen, American contributions do not erode the importance of the local context in

local expectations. Even though local Polish storytellers and producers turn to American cultural


American programmes and their genres on Polish original drama is not pronounced through imi-

adjusted to the local context. Thus more often than not, the reliance on American programmes is
                                                                                              -
can genre traditions, rather than resulting in straightforward imitation.



US Television as a model for visual aesthetics


television culture, namely the generic and storytelling standards, but has also raised awareness of the




  I think that the point is not really about making Polish drama, Polish stories, similar to those from
  American shows. I think it has more to do with how those American shows are made and to aim for that
  type of quality.36



comes to the visual quality of television drama:

  The American shows that we all have watched made us hope for more. The cinema quality of the Ameri-
  can productions, particularly those cable ones is very high. The Polish viewer no longer wants to watch
  the cheaper, rough-looking programmes but they expect a better quality viewing experience, one asso-
  ciated with American productions.37

  American product that dominated the Polish schedules in the 1990s introduced Polish viewers
to TV programming of a certain aesthetic quality. As a result, judgments about style and quality
                                                                                               -


86
                 IMITATION, BORROWING, RECYCLING. AMERICAN MODELS AND POLISH DOMESTIC DRAMA

values and the cultivation of style.38                                                               -
duction sector now allows Polish producers to engage with, and respond to, viewers’ expectations
by producing original Polish drama that emulates American visual style and its production value.
American programming thus provides a model for not only generic conventions but also for visual
style as well. What Polish producers learned from American programming is that producing top
quality TV drama relies on attention to detail, careful planning and the distinctive use of visual
resources; and not just characterisation, dramatic logic and thematic complexity. The visual quali-
ty of Polish drama productions now means aesthetically ambitious programming, where different
aspects of mise-en-scène, such as costume, décor, and properties are prioritised, as well as their or-
ganisation and interplay.39                                                          mise-en-scène,
and its potential for expression, during pre-production and shooting of Prawo Agaty:

  In a story you are telling in a TV show, everything matters: costumes, props, set design, shots, acting,
  screenplay. All those have to work well together because if any of those does not, it weakens the show.
  It was extremely important for me to make all those elements click. It requires a lot of effort to make

  groups of people and co-ordinate. Every detail matters and so attention to detail is crucial. It makes a

  the character is. The Americans know about that, they pay attention to detail and this is what makes their
  shows special, this is what sets them apart. Take Desperate Housewives for example. If you watch the
  show, you can recognise where a given scene is taking place even if there are no characters present. The
  level of detail in each character’s house allows you to know exactly who this house belongs to. Every
  detail is an important part of the show and how it matters. In Poland you do not yet really pay attention
  to those little things. So it is a matter of aesthetics. I was very sensitive to those visual matters and I
  wanted to make my creative team aware of all those aesthetic issues as well. First, you have to make

  contributes to the story. So when you have three characters you need to personalise their workspace,
  make their houses, workspaces, match the characters and their personalities.40



                                                              Lekarze and gives a sense of how mise-en-
scène, in her opinion, contributes to the visual style:

  I personally divide shows between the sloppy ones and those that are made scrupulously. And I only
  want to make shows that are made in a way that is very thorough and meticulous. It is the combination
  of factors such as set design, photography, lighting but also editing. You cannot see quality as a single
  factor. The quality has to be built on many different levels, from the script, the cast, creative teams, and
  the technical aspects. I know that everything matters and I try to pay attention to every single detail as
  even the smallest element can send signals to the viewer. You can either make use of that opportunity to
  communicate with the viewer through aesthetic elements or waste it. This is something I work on with
  our designers and the creative team. It matters where a character lives, what his or her apartment looks
  like. How their mother looks, whether she cooks home-made Polish dumplings or they eat out. Elements
  like that have to be included on the level of the script, which I always monitor and then I also try to be

                                                                                                             87
SYLWIA SZOSTAK

  the person who sees it through on all levels of pre- and post-production as well. Only then does the show
  become a complete entity. A TV show is not a shipment of nails, but a work of art. Maybe TV art with a
  small “a” but still art.41

                                                                                               -
ly seen as a carefully planned product which is becoming increasingly uniform as a result of the
growing emphasis on consistency and attention to detail. Polish producers stress the importance
                                                                                               -
miotically rich production design and the foregrounding of the individual elements of what you


programming, whose visual aesthetics became the new standard in TV series production.
  The visual aspect of television production and the quality of what can be seen on the small
screen is not only dependent on consistency, attention to detail and mise-en-scène. The issues of


switched from using the HD Betacam cameras for the Polish domestically produced show Lekarze
to the state-of-the-art Arri Alexa digital camera, which is gradually becoming the standard in the
American television industry. A small sample of American television productions that have chosen
to use the Alexa camera system include the following: the HBO television productions True Blood
(2008-), Girls (2012-), and Game of Thrones (2011-); Fox’s House M.D. (2004-2012) and Bones
(2005-); ABC’s Castle (2009-), Pan Am (2011) and Once Upon a Time (2011-); NBC’s Grimm
(2011-), Community (2009-); CBS’s Person of Interest (2011-); The CW’s Ringer (2011-) and Su-
pernatural (2005-); and Showtime’s Californication (2007-) and Homeland (2011-); among many
others.42
to emulate the quality of image of contemporary high caliber American television productions.

quality of Polish TV drama:

  We now work on Arri Alexa cameras, the type of cameras with which the Americans are shooting their
  TV shows. We no longer use HD Betacam. So we have gone one step further. Why? We did it because we

  and the shooting equipment can all make a difference. I wanted the experience to be made as realistic as
  possible. I wanted the hospital we built in our studios to look as real as possible. The quality therefore
  is very much related to the quality of image.43

  US series have affected Polish television drama in relation to visual aesthetics on a number
of levels: from the emphasis on aesthetically ambitious mise-en-scène and stylistic coherence to


of American programming. TVN is so far the only broadcaster using this equipment and Lekarze




88
                IMITATION, BORROWING, RECYCLING. AMERICAN MODELS AND POLISH DOMESTIC DRAMA

Conclusion

  The instances highlighted in this article identify the vital ways in which American television
production practices have contributed to the development of domestic serialised production in
Poland. The impact of US drama on local Polish TV culture is visible through the assimilation of
American genres, narrative formulae, as well as in the matters of visual style and aesthetics. As a
result, some Polish programmes now have content, style, form and cultural cache previously asso-
ciated only with American imports. What needs to be emphasised, and it is an important point, is

                                                                         Lekarze and Prawo Agaty
have managed to attract audiences as well as advertisers. Each episode of season one of TVN’s
prime time medical drama, broadcast between 3 September and 26 November 2012, attracted on
average a little above 3 million viewers, giving TVN 23.10% audience share in the 9.30 pm slot
among 4+ demographics and more importantly almost 24% share among the 16-49 demograph-
                                                                                    Lekarze in fact
improved the viewership for the broadcaster in its slot compared with the corresponding period of
2011, when the viewing numbers were lower by nearly 800 000. Additionally, the series managed
                                                                         44
                                                                            Similarly, each episode
of season one of Prawo Agaty                                                                      -
day nights at 9 pm, gave TVN a second place in the given slot.  45

26 million zlotych from advertising.46
for successive seasons. At the time of writing, season 3 of both Lekarze and Prawo Agaty were in
production.47

cultural imposition on the indigenous Polish culture. Polish producers do not just mechanical-
ly transplant American television as the local cultural context is critical in dictating which ele-
ments of American television programming should be emulated. While Polish broadcasters refer

attune their material to the local context. This is certainly visible in the attitudes of Polish industry

ideas. Therefore, the cultural translation of American elements and practices are attractive con-

  This however opens up a complex question: does a distinctly Polish television industry actually


shows, the boundary between the foreign and the indigenous is to some extent blurred – as even
the shows produced locally, that do not rely on international scripted formats, borrow heavily from


as discussed in this chapter, supports Ien Ang’s observation that “the global and the local should
not be conceived as two distinct, separate and opposing realities, but as complexly articulated,
mutually constitutive.”48
  This article contextualises Polish TV shows as culturally hybrid forms in which the global and

                                                                                                      89
SYLWIA SZOSTAK

the local are inextricably intertwined. This leads to the emergence of aesthetics which are la-
beled and experienced as Polish, but are in fact indebted to American forms, genres and practices.
                                                                                                 -
tonomous. On the contrary, Polish TV drama is interdependent and interconnected: shaped by the
domestication of imported cultural goods and audiovisual elements and responsive to internation-

                                                                                                             -




Knowledge transfer between academia and media industries is still relatively rare, particularly in the Po-




                                               aleSeriale, http://aleseriale.pl/gid,5281,img,206623,fototemat.

                        Selling Television. British Television in the Global Marketplace, BFI, London 2004,
     p. 14.
3    Idem, p. 150.
4    Ibidem.
                                                                                                             -
     ity,” in Critical Studies in Mass Communication, no. 8, 1991, p. 51.
                              World Television. From Global to Local,
     2007, p. 27.
7    Bogdan Czaja (Deputy Programming Director at TVN) in discussion with the author, December 2011
     (my translation).
                                                    Television Journal of Communication, vol. 24, no. 1, 1974,
     p. 107.


10 Albert Moran,                                             , in Id. (ed.), TV Formats Worldwide: Localis-
   ing Global Programs, Intellect Ltd., Bristol 2009, p. 15.
11 Michael Keane, Anthony Y.H. Fung, Albert Moran, New Television, Globalisation, and The East Asian
   Cultural Imagination, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong 2007, p. 88.
                                     The Anglo-American Media Connection, Oxford University Press, Ox-
   ford 1999, p. 4.
                                                                                                       Amer-
   ican Television. Point of Reference or European Nightmare?
   A European Television History                                                                      Imperi-
                                                                              , in William Uricchio (ed.), We
   Europeans?, University of Chicago Press/Intellect, Chicago-Bristol 2008.
14 Karol Klementewicz (Television Scriptwriter) in discussion with the author, December 2011 (my trans-
   lation).
                                                              Media2.pl, http://media2.pl/media/73956-Pol-



90
                 IMITATION, BORROWING, RECYCLING. AMERICAN MODELS AND POLISH DOMESTIC DRAMA


17   Ibidem.
18   Ibidem.
19   Bogdan Czaja in discussion with the author, cit.
20   Ien Ang, Living Room Wars, Routledge, London 1996, p. 154.
                                                                                                          -
   lation).
22 It is important to point out that the public service broadcaster TVP has been producing a medical series
                        since 1999. But this programme was initially produced as a format adaptation, only
   later became to be produced based on original scripts. Therefore,                   cannot be treated as
   an original Polish medical drama.

24 Ibidem.
                                    Prawo Agaty

27 Ibidem.
28 Ibidem.


31 Ibidem.
32 Robin Nelson, TV Drama in Transition. Forms, Values and Cultural Change, Macmillan Press, Bas-
                                                                                                     -
   porary scripted prime time serial.” See Michael Z. Newman, “From Beats to Arcs: Toward A Poetics of
   Television Narrative,” in The Velvet Light Trap, no. 58, 2006, p. 16.
                                                                                The Velvet Light Trap,
   no. 58, 2006, p. 29.

35 Bogdan Czaja in discussion with the author, cit.


                      Televisuality: Style, Crisis, and Authority In American Television, Rutgers University

39 For a detailed discussion of mise-en-scène                   Mise-en-scène. Film Style and Interpretation,



42 For a comprehensive list of productions that have used the ALEXA camera system see the manufactur-
   er’s website at “Credits,” Arri. Digital Cameras


                                                                              Wirtualne Media, http://www.

                                                                              Wirtualne Media, http://www.

                                                                               Wirtualne Media, http://www.

                                              Wirtualne Media                                               -

48 Ien Ang, Living Room Wars, cit., p. 153.




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