Russian knockoff It's Always Sunny in Moscow vs. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

A couple weeks ago, Philadelphia reddit noticed the TV show В москве всегда солнечно, aka It's Always Sunny in Moscow — a near shot-for-shot Russian-language adaptation of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The show premiered in Russia May 12, and 16 episodes have aired. (The episodes draw from the first three seasons of the original; we figured out which lines up with which and put a guide at the bottom.)

From the Google-Translated official page from the TNT network:

Strong friendship, true love, idealism, nobility and dignity, humility and kindness - all this has nothing to do with the heroes of the series "In Moscow always sunny."

Four young heroes: Sergei Kovalev and Alain, Maxim Borisenko and Roman Makarov. They went to school together. They have their own business - a pub "Philadelphia". But revenue it almost does not work. All their hopes and plans - love and money - are crumbling, when confronted with reality.The reason for this - their selfishness, laziness and stupidity.

It was only natural cheerfulness with already marked stupidity help them to remain optimistic and not to indulge in melancholy. In addition, parents Sergey and Alena, played Dmitri Astrakhan and Irina Apeksimova convincingly show that not only the young can be bad man. ...

PS: Average number of sunny days in Moscow - 77.

They describe the original series as:

An American television series, devised and embodied Rob MakElhenni, Glenn Houertonom and Charlie Dai. It's the story about the situations in which heroes - the owners of Paddy's Pub, not too successful Irish pub in Philadelphia.

And:

A couple of years ago, TNT acquired the film rights to this painting company of 20th Century Fox. Directors of the series were Alexander and Sergei Naumov Sentsov. The premiere episode of the first scheduled for May 12, 2014.

comedy sitcom "In Moscow's Always Sunny" does not tell the audience about the strong friendship, generosity, reciprocity, loyalty and true love. The main heroes of the series are the Sergei Kovalev and Alain, Roman Makarov and Maxim Borisenko. Guys once attended the same school, but now they are a joint business, the company has its own bar "Philadelphia", which does not generate revenue. Then one day, long-term plans and hopes Alona Sergei, Roma and Max crumble because of laziness and selfishness. And only cheerfulness and often occurs stupidity help children remain optimistic and not get depressed.

For reference, here's a promo photo of the main cast, left to right: "Waitress - girl with whom love Max," then Alain = Dee, Sergei = Dennis, Max = Charlie, Roman = Mac, and Anatoly Kovalev = Frank.

And here's a trailer:

This may seem bizarre, but it's actually really common — Russian networks very closely adapt tons of foreign sitcoms almost scene by scene. Check out this pretty fascinating article from Russia Beyond the Headlines on post-Soviet-era TV production:

The TV-series market in Russia was in turmoil at the turn of the century: as the demand for foreign productions fell steeply, there was not enough Russian "soap" to fill the void. It was simply unrealistic to increase production quickly enough, with a general lack of script writers, directors, lighting and sound technicians, etc.

The troubled market was rescued by Amedia in 2004, when it premiered a Russian version of the popular American sitcom "The Nanny" (1993–1999) on the Russian channel STS. It turned out that adapting a foreign show for the Russian palate served the double purpose of saving the producer many headaches and quelling viewers' aversion to depictions of life that are "foreign" to Russians.

The story was there, and so were the scripts – they just needed to be tweaked a little. The characters were already well-developed, and absolutely everything could be copied from the original series, down to the setting and the exact positions of characters for each scene. The foreign "donors" were even so nice as to supply information on the positions of lighting.

After the Nanny, there were more: Married With Children, How I Met Your Mother, House, etc. Many were done by the same network adapting It's Always Sunny — it's TNT in English and THT in Cyrillic. There's even a documentary, Exporting Raymond, about trying to adapt Everybody Loves Raymond:

Mostly, the Russian crew found the show boring, not funny, with characters they couldn't relate to, including the show's title character, who they though was weak and emasculated.

"I was told that the Russian men are way more macho than American men. And no way does the wife rule the house. And I thought just listening to this that this was baloney," [writer Phil] Rosenthal explains. "I think you could be the most macho guy in the world and as soon as you get in the house, the wife is telling you to pick up your socks."

It's Always Sunny also doesn't seem to be translating very well. For one, some of the situations that are meant to create comedy are extremely specific to America. For example, take the very first episode of IASIP, adapted as the first episode of IASIM: "The Gang Gets Racist." The plot of the American version is summarized as:

Charlie and Mac try to prove that they are not racist after Charlie's crush overhears Charlie saying something offensive about African Americans. Meanwhile, Dee hires a black man from her acting class to boost business for Paddy's Pub—and ends up turning the pub into a gay bar.

It just doesn't seem like that situation would be relevant enough to be funny in Russia, which has comparatively little ethnic diversity and very, very few people of African descent. (Plus, a history of treating both people of color and gay people really terribly.) Ditto "Gun Fever," "Charlie Wants an Abortion," and "The Gang Goes Jihad," all of which were adapted. (The first season of IASIM draws episodes from the first three seasons of IASIP.)

But most of the complaints seem to be about the censorship. While most other sitcoms adapted for Russian network primetime came from American network primetime, IASIP was on cable, and could make jokes that won't fly on network in either country. So Russian writers have to write their own jokes to replace ones that are too much for the censors, and it appears that they don't blend well with the original show's humor. From a comment on a sort of Russian IMDB, again run through Google Translate:

I am a fan of the original show called "Always Sunny In Philadelphia." I am not an enemy of quality adaptations of foreign shows and series. But I can not stand the base product, even if shot under license. Namely clone so ugly and turned the TV series "In Moscow always sunny."

Usually adaptation removed in an attempt to make the show better (and sometimes with a much bigger budget), the viewer closer to understanding the specific country. "Philadelphia" is, in all probability, have decided to reshoot censored. The fact that in the United States this show is broadcast cable channel for a specific audience, and in our latitudes, his jokes and plot twists would have been too spicy for terrestrial channels (even for TNT). ...

Yes, except for censorship, dialogues absolutely reproduce the original, but the smile on his face did not cause. Why? Perhaps, as they say, some people just do not know how to tell jokes. Summing up, I can only say that if you do not like tracing paper entitled "In Moscow always sunny" (and it seems to me that the overwhelming success it will not achieve) do not rush to turn up his nose from the sitcom "always sunny in Philadelphia." However, despite the fact that, as I said in the beginning, I am a fan of "Philadelphia", I would not strongly recommend you to view the original - Philadelphia humor is very specific, and not everyone will appreciate it.

We haven't had a chance to look at all the episodes yet, but even in the adaptation of second-season IASIP episode "Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom," they cut out a chaste but post-coital scene between Mac and Dennis' mom. Here — we actually made a little video comparing this plotline in the two versions scene by scene, because we got kind of obsessed with В Москве всегда солнечно.

So it's very, very, very similar, even down to the way the shots are framed. Here's more Russian complaints about the show, which we excerpt mostly because Google Translate sometimes makes them sound really poetic:

The Original Series "Always Sunny In Philadelphia" was just nuclear. Very funny because he was hard of jokes about drugs, alcohol, homeless, sex and psychosis. He walked on cable television in the U.S., so he could afford the hard humor. We have the same series goes on national television, which can not be so hard to joke. So from there cut a lot of jokes, and to the timing of the series remained the same, they stretched the dialogue, which is why the series has ceased to be dynamic. U.S. version we are talking about drug addicts, alcoholics and losers. And American actors like these representatives of American society. Our stupidly copied images instead to pick actors similar to our drunks and drug addicts. As a result, the show does not have strong images. not worth watching.

And:

Another remake from our Russian authors who have no original ideas, and they stupidly copied American sitcoms, well then, do have their own line, not connected with the original. ... And people with TNT channel thought, "let's take the idea of the American TV series, American TV series Heroes, jokes American TV series, ottsenzurim them and transfer the action to Moscow." And so came the series "In Moscow's Always Sunny"

I have to say that I am not a fan of the original series, and looked just a couple of seasons, well, for comparison. And you know what? Absolutely no difference. And like everything should be happy, but no. You know why? Because most of the jokes of the original cut for reasons of censorship, because Russia - is a cultural country, that really there to say something. So, most of the jokes were cut and added their own, and they are so moronic and unfunny that I want to just get up and turn off the TV.

The characters are also copied, but for some reason our Mack, whose name is Roma, even more stupid than the original (That, at least, it seemed to me) I honestly do not understand why Konstantin Kryukov, a pretty good actor, by our standards, agreed to role in this series. Some would say that grandma de need and actor should eat. From this we can agree, but you also have at least some value. ...

Absolutely stupid, hackneyed and worthless remake that does not deserve any attention. The only redeeming feature of this series is that the video quality here is much better than the original.

And:

I'm 23, but I grew up on the "Adventures Shurika" and other Soviet films, a few of my peers understand me when I quote these movies. Of course, American culture and brainwashed me, I particularly am a fan of "Always Sunny In Philadelphia", and this series of 9 seasons I looked TWICE! TWO! Watched both English and Russian and in both cases the characters shocked me with their stupidity and crazy. The Russian version is not so, beginning with the title!

The role of Charlie (fat in the Russian version), which should be leading in this series, is very heavy for the actor of "Moscow", Mac - the Russian hero lacks charisma, Sergey and Alena still somehow pull their role. I can not imagine what the Russian actor can pull the role of Denis DeVito (Depardieu may be invited). ...

Do not know who came up with the idea to adapt this series! In the American version of all the problems raised American society is drug addiction, racism, homophobia, health insurance, life on benefits. Watch Philadelphia and you believe that the heroes sheer morons, it is their way of life, their philosophy, and in the full version of our inconsistencies from the beginning. In general, there is nothing here that would be interesting and familiar simple Russian man in the street. Series about fringe of American society. ...

Finally, I will say that in this respect the Americans fellows, the industry they work wonderfully! Americans can adapt even better to take the same legendary «The Office». They took the British version and made ​​it into a masterpiece. Let us pray that our not filmed "Office" or, God forgive me, "Friends"!

And:

At one time I thought more brazen plagiarism than " adaptation "of the series" How I Met Your Mother "will not be, but" always sunny in Moscow "has managed to beat him. At this time, adaptator not even bother to just borrowing ideas or plot points, and stupidly copied the script " Always Sunny In Philadelphia ", changing the English names for Russian.

If you watched the pilot series of the American original, which was called "gang of racists", then a pilot series of "Moscow" was viewed by you. worth immediately say that adaptation and plagiarism are two completely different things. For example take, everyone's favorite TV series " Interns . " Yes, it's plagiarism magnificent series " Hospital "and" House MD "in terms of borrowing ideas and the characters, but the" Interns "had with them a large number of independent ideas, but eventually turned into a standalone product. In " Moscow " copied all the title, the opening titles, theme music, nature of the characters, INTERIOR script, etc. ...

I really liked the show " Always Sunny In Philadelphia ", especially first seasons. Although I understand that this series will never gain cult status and remains vtoroplanovuyu, look at the adventures of drunken idiots, it was interesting. Especially the antics of Charlie , whose role was to pass into a great movie. Besides, the series was created by friends who have written the script, filmed a pilot series and starred. And, although it is recognized that in the Russian serial withdrew two good actor: Kryukov Olerinskaya nevertheless, actors irrevocably lose their prototypes.

Quite difficult to give all this praise. It's like if I took a picture of " Mona Lisa ", erased the name of Leonardo da Vinci would have written his and told everyone:" Delight ! ". This series may not appeal to those who watched the original version. More blatant exploitation, not even ideas, but the whole scenario does not meet often, and it causes overflowing soul outrage. What is most interesting that TNT many serials, purely its own, but at times their unclean hands reach for something sacred. What will be their next step is difficult to predict, but it is terrible in advance.

And sharing this one just for sheer weirdness — we think it might have something to do with the popular House adaptation?

Why do people laugh at me? Laughter, like a dream - the best medicine for the soul. To laugh or not - a matter of taste, but what exactly you will not after watching the new series "IMHB" so that healthy and sound sleep. So promise to Americans. Original «IASIF» tore nailed tolerance America, raising the bar to unbelievable heights of cynicism and Danny DeVito from all seems so half of South Park was born.

But if Americans needed an outlet from the 'Washington Regional Committee ", is it possible to say something similar about the Russian audience? Notorious pop cultural references. television in the modern world has become a battleground for ideologies, project space for designers stories. But for a simple viewer everything looks easier. Watched on TV on the poor and the siry - sat up in his eyes. Laughed heartily and life is getting better. These and enjoy media. About advertising had long been clear, but more complex "audio-visual content" beats us to the very inside. Meaner than the picture, the more kick. Everyone remembers dill on NTV about robbery-scuffle.

And it looked, it's about life! Our subconscious mind is set on the perception of the danger in the first place and eyes from terrible shots, so if you decide to watch it - do not tear. But the thoughtful reader will object that "pink snot" really bored very quickly, however - as anyone. So how do you attract the attention of the audience with one hand and do not push them away, leaving an unpleasant aftertaste, on the other? That this we should learn from the Americans, though now it is not fashionable. Masterpieces overseas serialostroeniya operate on the edge, on the brink and beyond foul, so that the viewer only opens his mouth. It is worth noting that the viewer not only "there the" but "tutoshny." So, right in the bull's-eye hit, regardless of cultural references.

A similar effect on our not yet observed, gloomy Russian genius only produces excellent grim reality for the same viewer (under the impression "It's hard to be a god" Hermann.) In this key adaptation "Fili" acquires special significance. TV screen becomes a battlefield, if you can call the operating table. Symbolically, an American consultant who arrived in Moscow, soon retreated to his home in California, took a gift from Gen. Frost as brutal cold. Peter's poverty problem - take from Basurmanov best and turn against them. Sharp and ruthless American scalpel just for cutting ulcers on wounded Russian soul. A medical treatment, having laughed and sleep off vdarit on possible enemy ... well, "Kin-dza-dzoy" to begin.

Anyway! Each of the 16 episodes of В Москве всегда солнечно correlates with an episode of IASIP; here's a little guide to which lines up with which. (They haven't done any Nightman episodes yet, which breaks our heart.)

Москве	Adaptation of	season	episode
1	The Gang Gets Racist	1	1
2	Underage Drinking: A National Concern	1	3
3	Charlie Has Cancer	1	4
4	Gun Fever	1	5
5	Charlie Gets Crippled	2	1
6	The Gang Goes Jihad	2	2
7	Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom	2	4
8	Charlie Wants an Abortion	1	2
9	100 Dollar Baby	2	5
10	Charlie Got Molested	1	7
11	The Gang Sells Out	3	7
12	Dennis and Dee Get a New Dad	2	10
13	Dennis Looks Like a Registered Sex Offender	3	11
14	Dennis and Dee's Mom Is Dead	3	3
15	The Gang Finds a Dead Guy	1	6
16	Mac Is a Serial Killer	3	10

If anyone's a fluent Russian speaker who'd want to help with this project, sort of like what we did with Rocky: Das Musical, get in touch — emilyg@citypaper.net.