Tuesday, March 24, 2009

"A new, year-old, ABC Family original (made by someone else in a foreign country) series"

If you've been watching ABC lately, you will probably have seen one of their promos for "a new ABC Family Original Program", Sophie. I'd link to the main ABC Sophie website, except that they've instituted the excreable practice of having the same promos - very loud promos - start playing automatically when you load the page. So I'll link to one of the sub-sites.

See that? Sophie, "A NEW ABC FAMILY ORIGINAL PROGRAM".

Which is confusing me, since the series is in its second season on CBC and I've been watching it sporadically for more than a year. (Here's the CBC Sophie page.)

I'm trying to understand this within a framework that doesn't involve a) time travel or b) ABC flat-out lying. But I'm not having any success.

ronnie

5 Comments:

Blogger Dann said...

All you have to do is parse the phrase "a new ABC Family original program" correctly.

The program is "new" to the ABC Family channel.

It is an original program....as opposed to being a sequel or a knock-off or something else.

All you have to do is think like a media marketing hack and it suddenly makes sense! Of course, they don't exactly live in the same world as the rest of us.

HTH!!

Regards,
Dann

10:11 p.m.  
Blogger ronnie said...

Dann, I tried to "think like a media marking hack" and I got a migraine. And I'm a government beaurocrat!

I'm reminded of an old saying: "Dammit, that's an explanation, it's not an excuse!!!"

Sadly, it also makes sense.

9:02 p.m.  
Blogger Brent McKee said...

Basically they're saying that it is original - in the United States - as opposed to having been seen on some other network - in the United States - and then being "repurposed" to ABC Family.

At least it's better than calling the showing of some movie "a world television premiere" despite the fact that the movie had been on a Canadian network a few days (or weeks or months) before. You must remember this: Americans are at heart a very insular people.

6:44 p.m.  
Blogger ronnie said...

Ah, yes. "If it didn't happen here, it didn't happen."

The "world television premiere" thing is particularly noticeable for us in Canada - where we get Quebec tv stations, which get the latest Hollywood blockbusters dubbed in French several months before they even play on English Canadian tv. Which is several months before they appear on American tv.

Broadcast rights - they are a funny thing.

9:16 p.m.  
Blogger Dann said...

I didn't say that it would make sense to a normal person with the usual frame of reference. I said that it would make sense if you parsed it like a marketing hack.

Sorry for the headache. [grin]

5:56 p.m.  

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