Escrava Isaura (1976 TV Series) - Escrava Isaura Around The World

Escrava Isaura Around The World

Escrava Isaura achieved worldwide success. According to a research conducted by Good Morning America, it is the most dubbed program in the history of world television.

It was the first telenovela broadcast in Hungary under the title Rabszolgasors (English: Fate of the slaves). It was picked up by János Horváth, a Magyar Televízió executive, who is most notably known for starting a telenovela craze with Escrava Isaura. According to an urban legend, Hungarian viewers collected money before the happy ending of the telenovela to free Isaura. Later Lucélia Santos visited the country. After the success of the series in Hungary other communist countries also aired the show. In 1984, it became the most popular program in the history of Polish television, reaching more than 81 percent of share. Since then, it was aired at least two other times in the country.

Lucélia Santos became the first non-Chinese leading actress of a television show broadcast in the People's Republic of China, in addition to being the first telenovela shown in the Soviet Union, where it had a broad appeal. The word "fazenda" (Portuguese: farm) jokingly became a synonym for the small land plots used for dachas. In the show, "fazenda" is used as a synonym for plantation.

In communist Albania, small FIAT police vans were for a while called "Isaura", a reference to the slave-like treatment that awaited most of those that were unlucky enough to ever be dragged into one.