Israelis! On your TV!

Israelis are all over the tube these days, both on and off the screen. Here's where you can find them:

Oded Fehr (right) with Morris Chestnut on "V"

V

If ABC's sci-fi show "V" can't be bothered with any sort of interesting plot advancement or a modicum of un-nauseating writing, at least they could give their (probably almost non-existent) female audience a bit of eye candy. Enter Israeli actor Oded Fehr - of the "Resident Evil" series, "Sleeper Cell" and "The Mummy" - who is currently guest starring as Eli Cohn, a former Mossad agent helping FBI Agent Erica Evans ("Lost" vet Elizabeth Mitchell) and pals take down the scary alien Visitors.

(Side note: Why do the Visitors call themselves "V's," in which the V stands for Visitor, the name we Earthicans gave them? Don't they have a name for themselves on their home world or something? Obviously we call them Visitors because they're visiting us, but...all right, whatever. To paraphrase Cher Horowitz, looking for sense in "V" is like looking for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie.)

Anyway, "V" has Fehr doing all sorts of wacky things, such as looking serious, frowning and having gray hair. Look, I really don't know or care what his character is there for, all I know is he's 85 times better looking than anyone else on the show, therefore he will probably die soon.

The cast of "Traffic Light"

Traffic Light

Last night, Fox premiered its new mid-season sitcom, "Traffic Light." The show is a remake of the Israeli series "Ramzor," which means, uh, traffic light.

The show's gimmick is the traffic light metaphor. Its plot follows three best friends from college, one of whom is married with a kid (red light), one who just moved in with his girlfriend (yellow light) and one who's perpetually single (green light).

"Ramzor" is a huge hit in Israel and has aired two seasons so far. In 2010 it became the first Israeli TV show to win an International Emmy Award for best comedy series. Adir Miller, who created "Ramzor" and stars in the show as the "yellow light" character, is credited as the creator and an executive producer of "Traffic Light." (Sharp-eyed viewers may also have noticed the logo for Israeli network Keshet that flashed on the screen at the end of the show.)

"Traffic Light" stars American "Office" alum David Denman as the "red light," Nelson Franklin (who also had a funny bit part on the American "Office" as the IT guy) as the "yellow light" and Kris Marshall (a British actor whom you may recognize as the guy who goes to America to meet women in "Love Actually") as the "green light."

The show has gotten mixed-to-negative reviews and its numbers weren't great either - the premiere got 4.59 million viewers, making it the third-least-watched show of the night on the major networks, ahead of the CW's "One Tree Hill" and "Hellcats" (is that a thing?). Still, it did better than the show it replaced, so it might make it through the season if the numbers stay around the same.

Patriots

While the jury is clearly still out on "Traffic Light," American networks seem hot to remake Israeli TV shows (maybe because of the success of HBO's "In Treatment," based on the Israeli series "BeTipul"). JTA reports that Claire Danes arrived in Israel today to film scenes for her new Fox show, "Patriots," based on the Israeli show "Kidnapped." (Side note: Claire Danes coming back to TV? Yay!)

According to Ynetnews, "Kidnapped" tells the story of two Israeli soldiers who survived being prisoners of war in Lebanon for 17 years. They return to Israel as part of a prisoner exchange, and the show examines their reassimilation back into society and their families.

"Patriots" will follow a similar plot, except that it will be about American soldiers taken prisoner after 9/11. Danes will play a "bipolar CIA agent" who becomes suspicious of one of the returning Marines.

The Arab-Israeli village of Barta'a, near Haifa, will double as an Iraqi town during filming. The show is being co-written by "Kidnapped" creater Gideon Raf and "24" executive producers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa.

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