The Samsonadzes (partially found Georgian animated TV sitcom; 2009-2010)

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Samsonadzes.png

The title card for the series, featuring the entire Samsonadze family.

Status: Partially Found

The Samsonadzes was an animated television sitcom from the country of Georgia. It was created and produced by Shalva Ramishvili and began airing on the Georgian television network Imedi TV in November of 2009, and ended sometime in 2010.

Overview

It is commonly cited as being a cheap knockoff of the American FOX animated sitcom The Simpsons, with there being many similarities between the two, such as the intro and theme, the character archetypes, etc. The main protagonist, Gela Samsonadze, is considered to be a ripoff of Homer Simpson, Dodo Samsonadze (Gela's wife) is similar to Marge Simpson, Shorena Samsonadze to Lisa, Gia Samsonadze to Bart, and Samson Samsonadze to Abe Simpson.[1] The family also has a pet, a talking parrot named Koke. Another character that makes appearances throughout the series is an elderly woman named Gupa(?) Samsonadze.

Despite all the accusations of The Samsonadzes being a clone of The Simpsons, Shalva Ramishvili has claimed that his work is not a copy of Matt Groening's. He acknowledged that while there are similarities between the two, there were also differences, such as the topics The Samsonadzes satirized. While The Simpsons touched on American topics, Ramishvili intended for his show to have a resonance with Georgian audiences, with Ramishvili commenting that the series involves:

"[a] Georgian family, Georgian plots[?], with Georgian jokes, Georgian plot, with Georgian developments and with Georgian social humor."[2]

There are also other noticeable differences between this series and The Simpsons; Gela works in a bank, unlike Homer, who works at a nuclear power plant. There are only two Samsonadze children, instead of three like the Simpson family. The series' humor and plot was also more political, with some episodes depicting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, sending his agents into the Samsonadzes' town in order to gain information and study the city's culture.[1] One of the most noticeable differences between the two series is that The Samsonadzes was animated in CGI while The Simpsons is 2D.

Even though the series' run was short-lived, it was immensely popular in Georgia, according to a BBC News video and article. According to said video, it was a massive ratings success, with Ramishvili hoping it would become as popular and last as long as The Simpsons had at the time (when The Samsonadzes was made, The Simpsons had been airing for twenty years).[3] However, the series was cancelled in 2010 with only 18 episodes having been made.

Availability

As said above, the series had a short run and only lasted 18 episodes. Out of those 18 episodes, around 10 or 11 are accessible online. The rest of them are very hard to come by on the internet, very likely due to the series' general obscurity and short run.[4]

An English dub of the series also exists, but this dub is entirely lost except for one clip from episode 13.

Gallery

An ad for the series that introduces every major character.

The first episode of the series.

BBC News's video on the series.

A clip of the English dub.

External Links

References