Surprise, surprise. There's a global market for American TV.

Racing through December and trying not to be too dismayed by the scheduling conflicts and missed opportunities.  Family responsibilities.  Too much to do.  The tree isn't up. I'm so tired I found myself in tears on the way to the day job on Monday.  But I watched Phil Rosenthal's hilarious doc, Exporting Raymond, while wrapping gifts the other night and was amazed to learn there is such a foreign clamoring for American TV.  No, not subtitled reruns.  They are selling the scripts to foreign production companies and reshooting the series with foreign casts.  This doc is about efforts to sell Everybody Loves Raymond to Russia.  It's an eye-opener, and very funny!  Hang in through the credits.  There's a scream of a sight gag involving a Big Mouth Bass (the animated plaque.)  Also check out the completed Russian episodes.  The question I had was, "Is this kind of humor universal?  Or have we found a new way to export American culture?  If the latter, let's hope they stick to shows like The Nanny and ELR and leave Community in the can (or wherever they keep shows these days.)