De-Canadization

ABC Family recently premiered a new drama series entitled Falcon Beach. This teen-centric, OC-esque drama is a Canadian production. However, I guess either the people behind the show (or ABC Family itself) think that Americans won't watch a show that doesn't take place in America because they have decided to remove any Canadian references.

I was watching the new episode that aired on Monday with the closed-captioning on. There was a line in the show where a character said “I'm moving to Toronto” in the closed-captioning. However, when the line was spoken, it was changed to “I'm moving to New York.” Also, in the series' premiere episode, a reference to “university” was changed to “college.”

Usually, shows that come from Canada don't undergo this type of localization. Other Canadian imports (such as the Degrassi shows) never changed dialogue to give the impression that the show could possibly take place anywhere other than Canada.

I wonder why ABC Family and/or the producers actually went through the trouble of doing that, especially since Degrassi: The Next Generation fans will recognize Ephraim Ellis, one of Falcon Beach's regulars, as abusive boyfriend/gunshot victim Rick. The success of Degrassi and its sister show Instant Star on The N shows that good TV, no matter its origin, can succeed without being Americanized. I mean really...what kind of person automatically hates something just because it's from Canada?