I am not much of a TV fan. I probably watch a couple of hours a month of TV. but over the years i have seen that there are several programs that are replicas of famous ones.
for example, the other day i was going through the channels when i saw a program which was trying to copy Jeff Dunham. The guy had a puppet which was very similar to the original “Walter”. The problem is that he was not even able to copy Dunham. when the puppet talked, they never showed the guy, meaning that the guy was not really a ventriloquist. and the puppet was a bad replica too. all in all, it only showed how unintelligent the guys producing that show were. it was embarrassing. ( I think the name of the show was “ghair siasi” on express but can not exactly remember.)
This is not the first time these channels have done it. I remember another program on some channel called “the Ghaffars at dhorajee” which was a copy of…you get it… the Kumars at No. 42. the producers were so pathetic that they could not even come up with an original name, let alone an original concept. Ghaffars, Kumars…give me a break. and Zeba shahnaz trying to be Meera Syal… again give me a break. and i think i have also seen a “Friends” copy somehwere on these channels.
then there were some shows that were done by the (in)famous Sahir Lodhi in one of his former lives ( No matter how bad his ratings are, he always gets a new life. makes me wonder if he belongs to the feline family). he was trying to mimic David Letterman. he had arranged the same kind of set with New york skyline in the background and a coffee cup at his table. it is just that Mr. Lodhi was not that funny, despite trying his best.
Oh, the copying is not just limited to foreign programs. ARY was able to copy one of its own programs..Bulbulay was being mimicked by DugDugi.. and now as i was searching through google, i also saw another poster for a program called “Rasgullay”]]. the picture looks so much like the bulbulay poster.
The list could go on and on. the point is that all these things are not funny. they are rather embarrassing. what happened to the creativity? what happened to people who could produce shows like “fifty fifty” and “studio dhai” and “studio ponay teen”? they were creative and funny shows.
these copycats have created new lows in all the categories of entertainment.
P.s. I am posting after a long time so i could not embed all the links. sorry for that.
