Television Transplants

Like American pizza and French drugstores, the form and flavor of cultural phenomena often change in the translation from one country to another. So it would seem with television. Recently a pair of TV series have appeared, one in West Germany, the other in England, that present, in effect, foreign versions of two well-known American television families:

ONE HEART AND ONE SOUL. Hen Alfred Tetzlaff is the hero of West Germany's hottest new situation comedy. He is a first cousin to both All in the Family's Archie Bunker and his relative, Alf Garnett of the BBC comedy series Till Death Us Do Part. Herr Tetzlaff is a slobbish, slipper-shod metalworker. Married to an addled blonde whom he calls "dumb cow," he has a jeans-wearing daughter and a liberal son-in-law. He deplores long hair, beards and miniskirts, surefire signs of Germany's moral decline. He also dislikes almost everybody, especially foreign laborers, Slavs (Russians) and "Sozis"--socialists, Communists, intellectuals and Willy Brandt. So far, so familiar.

However, the German Bunker, says the show's producer, Wolfgang Menge, is "more malicious, less human, more vulgar" than his American counterpart. The cocky, mustachioed Alfred was intended to be loathsome, and to impress his estimated 27 million viewers as such. Instead, his tirades have inspired a flood of laudatory mail: "Dear Herr Tetzlaff, you spoke right out of my heart," or "Keep on! You have millions of people on your side." Archie Bunker, when he first appeared, got his share of similar support, but--in the eyes of a critical national and foreign press, at least--Archie's popularity was not quite as frightening. But then Archie, unlike Alfred, did not remind anyone of Adolf.

THE FAMILY. The Wilkinses of Reading, England, are a British edition of the Louds of Santa Barbara, Calif. The BBC's twelve-part prime-time show offers its audiences a fly-on-the-wall look at an ordinary family's affairs similar to the Public Broadcasting System's documentary series. But unlike the troubled Louds, the BBC'S blue-collar Wilkinses are earthy, frank and seemingly stable.

Since the first episodes have been shown on the air before the final ones have been shot, not even the Wilkinses themselves know what will happen next. So far, the suspense has centered on the efforts of Mrs. Wilkins and Eldest Daughter Marian, 19, to goad Marian's boy friend Tom (with whom she shares a room at the top of the family house) into marriage. "He's a bit thick," says Marian of Tom. "He's not thick," counters her mother. "Otherwise you'd already be married to him."

The show has become quite popular and controversial. Aside from some blue language and Marian's living arrangements, what seems to be most disturbing is the Wilkinses' blithe unconcern for national affairs. The government? Well, Mrs. Wilkins did once refer to "that ponce [pimp] Heath." Inflation? Mrs. Wilkins complains about the 2 1/2p rise in the price of oranges. She grants a penny to seasonal fluctuation, "but that extra penny-ha'penny," she says, "some guy's copping for himself." What this program shows, says Producer Paul Watson, "is that decisions on things like the Common Market have been made by a small number of people, and most of the rest of the country just did not give a damn."

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