Russian Government Licenses, Recreates Married, With Children

The New York Times profiles Russia’s latest sitcom sensation, an officially-licensed version of the Fox classic, Married, With Children. Even more bizarre, it was licensed by the Russian government itself and follows the plotlines of the original series almost exactly.

“ ‘Married With Children,’ with its satire on the American middle class, fits the style of our channel well,” said Dmitri Troitsky, a senior executive at the Russian channel TNT, a Gazprom-owned network whose programming bent is roughly similar to that of the Fox network in the United States. “It seemed interesting and topical for us to do a parody on the Russian middle class.”

These days, American visitors in Russia could be forgiven for thinking they had stumbled upon some bizarre realm of reruns. Adaptations of two other shows, “Who’s the Boss?” and “The Nanny,” are also popular here.

Still Married, With Children, but in Russian [NYTimes.com]