Polish Prime Time
“Rich Man, Poor Man” did well. So did “Princess Daisy” and “The Long Hot Summer.” But the TV program that has scored the highest ratings on Polish TV is the Brazilian-made rags-to-riches period saga, “Slave Girl Isaura”--in which a beautiful young woman triumphs over her evil master.
This according to Lew Rywin, managing director of PolTel, the state-owned agency that oversees the country’s TV, radio and film production, interviewed recently on our visit to Katowice, Poland.
The country produces about 200 hours of home-grown fare--including “Labyrinth,” the first Poland-made soap opera, about the lives and loves of three families who work at a laboratory, airing on Sunday afternoons.
As for Western programming: Poland purchases about 1,200 hours annually. “The Winds of War” (1983) is currently showing. And the short-lived cop series “Dempsey and Makepeace” (1986).
If Polish TV seems a tad behind in some respects, it’s got something U.S. TV doesn’t.
“You will see more nudity on Polish TV,” bragged Rywin. “We are not afraid to show bare breasts.” But, he added, “no pubic hair.”
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