Too Many Telenovela Remakes?
All three of Univision's
primetime telenovelas are remakes. "La Fea Más Bella" is a
Televisa remake of Fernando Gaitán's "Yo soy Betty, la fea." "Destilando Amor" is the Mexicanization
of another Gaitán novela "Café, con aroma de mujer". In the new
Televisa-produced version, Colombian coffee has been replaced with Mexican
tequila. (The original setting of a coffee plantation has been replaced with an
agave plantation and agave is the basic ingredient of tequila). "Duelo de
Pasiones" is yet another Televisa remake. This novela is a remake of "Flor
de las Nieves", which first aired in Cuba in the late 1950s (I can't
pinpoint the exact date.)
Telemundo also has a remake
in the mix with the Brazilian telenovela "La Esclava Isaura" (see here for background on Telemundo and Brazilian
telenovelas)
"On the business side
the same telenovela format can be a hit again and again" says University
of Georgia Associate Professor Carolina Acosta-Alzuru who is an academic
specialist in telenovelas and newbie blogger. Televisa, which supplies
Univision's primetime telenovelas, has been particularly reticent in the past
few years to experiment with new storylines preferring to stick with the tried
and true.
"I am not against the
remake but I am against remakes becoming the only kind of telenovela" says
Acosta-Alzuru.
Given the high financial
stakes in both Mexico and the United States, creative risk-taking and the production
of original telenovelas are not likely in coming years to be high on the agenda
of Televisa executives. After all, they might reasonably ask - why take a new
risk when you have an old and proven ratings-winner ready to go? (Consider Univision's "expensive lesson" with the original production of "Te Amaré En Silencio")
Telemundo has taken many
more creative risks than Televisa and Univision in the past few years. And at great expense by, for the most part, producing its own
novelas. Yet, the NBCU-owned network still remains a distant second in ratings
to Univision, which airs a steady supply of Televisa's telenovela remakes.
Go figure.
Good post.
Posted by: Cashlin | October 28, 2008 at 12:49 PM