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Adaptation: Cultural Alliances and Television Production in Israel and the United States
Abstract by Dr. Isra Ali On Session 274  (Transnational Cultural Production)

On Tuesday, November 25 at 1:30 pm

2014 Annual Meeting

Abstract
This paper considers the concept of cultural alliance as a reflection on globalization, and political and economic alliances, by examining the recent spate of adaptations of Israeli television programs for American audiences. Since 2009, the dramas In Treatment (Be Tipul), Homeland (Prisoners of War), Hostages, and the game show Who’s Still Standing? have all been adapted to air in the U.S. Demand for content from the Israeli market increased to the degree that Hostages was contracted for adaptation by U.S. television executives before it aired in Israel; two new shows from Homeland creator Gideon Raff (Tyrant, depicting the return of an Arab dictator's son and his American family to a fictional Middle Eastern nation, and Dig, about an American FBI agent investigating the death of an archaeologist in Jerusalem) are now in production in partnership with U.S. television networks. As a center of media production the U. S. television content airs widely throughout the globe, but only a select number of international television programs make it to air for U.S. audiences, and even then only after they have been adapted to an American scenario using American characters. U. S. networks adapt content from nations they perceive to be socially and politically akin. In this context, the adaptation of Israeli television shows can be thought of as a mode of demonstrating these perceived affinities through cultural production. I explore how narratives in these cultural products enforce and complicate notions of sameness and difference/allies and others, particularly when the topic of the show is a global political conflict in which the U.S. and Israel are currently engaged in. This paper explores the confluence of factors that have created the heightened, rapid paced cultural exchange between the U.S and Israel in the realm of entertainment television. This begins with an analysis of the emergence of the television industry in Israel in 1966 and its subsequent growth, the long-term importation of U.S. media to Israel, as well as the ways in which Israeli television content is influenced by the broader political context in which it exists. That analysis is put into conversation with a consideration of the specific political historical moment of the 21st century, and the era of the War on Terror, in which these television shows are being produced. Finally, this study examines the process of adaptation itself, to think about how Israeli stories are interpreted to become American stories.
Discipline
International Relations/Affairs
Geographic Area
Israel
Sub Area
Media