German soaps: GZSZ, UU & AWZ

[MKA]

Are the German soaps running as normal during the Christmas?

[Huntress]

All four soaps run during the whole year except on national holidays:

• New Year's Day (Neujahr) – January 1st
• Good Friday (Karfreitag) – either March or April
• Easter Monday (Ostermontag) – either March or April
• Labor Day (Tag der Arbeit) – May 1st
• Ascension Day (Christi Himmelfahrt) – either May or June
• Whit Monday (Pfingstmontag) – either May or June
• German Day of Unity (Tag der Deutschen Einheit) – October 3rd
• Christmas (Weihnachten) – December 25th and 26th

In addition, there are no new episodes on Christmas Eve (Heiligabend) (December 24th) and New Year's Eve (Silvester) (December 31st) due to holiday programming. These days are no official holidays, but most people are on holiday during this time anyway.

There are also some holidays that are only holidays in some of our 16 federal states, for example All Saints' Day (Allerheiligen) (November 1st). Until a few years ago, the soaps did not air new episodes on this day either, but somehow this was abolished.

"Verbotene Liebe" is the only soap to frequently pre-empt episodes throughout the year because of sports coverage since ARD holds the rights to broadcast all major sports events (Olympic Games, soccer, winter sports, swimming events, track and fields events etc.)

Edited December 28, 2013 by Huntress

[MKA]

Thanks for the answer! Then the broadcast is a bit different in Germany than here in Norway. Here, Hotel Cæsar has two major breaks during a year: one for the summer and one through Christmas. The summer break has previously usually been approximately three months, but in recent years it has been cut down to two months (I guess it is done in an attempt to keep the gap between filming and broadcast of the episodes a little closer than it otherwise would have been, since the production films five episodes a week, while the TV channel, TV 2, broadcasts only four a week), so the summer break these days are normally from mid-June to mid-August. The Christmas break also used to be longer in the past, up to 1-1,5 months, but are these days approximately three weeks, from mid-December to early January. In addition, the show had a one-week Easter break both in 2012 and in 2013, for the first time since 2003. However, the show runs as normally on national holidays - including both the Norwegian Constitution Day (National Day of Norway, 17th May) and Labor Day.

[maybetomorrow]

The shows might not be on a break during summer but I recall that every year some fans complain about a 'Sommerloch' with slow storylines that are basically prolonged until autumn.

Caro and Thore had their debut on VL last friday. Meh. However, I do like that neither seems to have a Lahnstein connection (other than the obligatory desire to work for them) or a Wolf connection. I wonder if they'll move Caro to the flatshare and have Olli as her support...

Even though I'm only watching GZSZ sporadically (it just lacks a certain character I'd watch it for) I have to say that the show's look is pretty fabulous. On top of having the best and biggest outside set they seem to be shooting a lot on location in Berlin these days. I guess RTL also spent some money on AWZ and UU because I feel they also are allowed out of Cologne Ossendorf more than they used to but not nearly as much as GZSZ.

[Huntress]

I think the "Sommerloch" was pretty much present in the 2000s. These days stories are dragged out for a much longer time, so there's no hard cut in quality during the sommer months. Maybe the stories' overall quality has become worse, though

Up until 2005/2006, when all RTL soaps received their first outdoor sets (which were later extended), the shows used to film many scenes on location. UU for example had the "Übersee" bar which was located at a real lake and was part of the show's summer storylines for at least 7 consecutive years. I think the set was eventually abolished in 2008 or 2009.

When GZSZ introduced the "Kiez" (Berlin neighborhood) formula, the show basically changed overnight. Not only became the storylines more down-to-earth and realistic – the last outrageous storylines were the Marc/Viktor/Sandra triangle with the terror wedding and mannequins as wedding guests, and the "Inception" cult storyline in 2006/2007 –, the sets also lost their lost typical "soapy" look. However, the exclusive use of the outdoor set instead of filming on location became annoying because we always the same sets over and over again. For a while, many scenes took place in that subway wagon where people randomly met.

UU's and AWZ's outdoor sets are rather small compared to GZSZ's and they are close to one another since both shows are filmed on the same lot. If you look closely enough, you can see the entrace gate to the show's studios and other maintenance buildings in the background of many of AWZ's outdoor scenes.

[Ben]

I've just Googled that Marc/Viktor/Sandra story and it sounds so OTT, campy fun. Let's see if I have this right: Viktor was Marc's evil schizophrenic identitical twin who assumed Marc's identity and hooked up with Sandra. He forced her marry him, held her hostage, only to die when the cops stormed the bunker. Sounds crazy fun, but if the writing wasn't good then it's a fail.

What was the Inception cult story about?

Does Germany air any of the UK and Oz soaps? Which US soaps are popular?

Edited December 31, 2013 by Ben

[Huntress]

Yes, that sums up Marc/Viktor/Sandra pretty well.

The "Inception" story happened shortly after and Sandra was a main player in that as well (that girl surely was tortured during her 8 years on the show). After the debacle with Viktor, Sandra got back together with Marc, but then she thought she was pregnant, which caused a rift between them because Sandra had already suffered a miscarriage two years earlier (with her then boyfriend Deniz, who was killed on their wedding day when he fell from a tower) and she didn't want to suffer that again. In turn, Marc thought he shouldn't become a father because of his genes (he feared that he and the baby might be schizophrenic as well). After her mother Senta and her uncle Hannes had died in a plane crash, Sandra hit rock bottom.

In the meantime, Sandra's best friend Verena planned to marry her boyfriend Vincent Buhr, but then had an affair with Sebastian Winter. Vincent found out and disappeared for several months. When he returned to Berlin, he had become a spokesperson for "Incecption", an instituion which promised its participants to "remodel their lives". Sandra, fragile as she was, fell prey to their mind games and began to turn on her friends. Marc and Verena teamed up to help Vincent and Sandra to quit "Inception". Vincent was first to realize his mistake and broke freem from "Inception", but Sandra was not listening to anyone and even had Vincent beat up. After she was kicked off from "Inception" due to Vincent's scheming, Sandra tried to commit suicide, but was rescued by Marc in the last second. Sandra hoped to reunite with Marc, but he married Katrin Flemming instead, who was only out for his money. Vincent meanwhile fell in love with the daughter of the leader of "Inception". Eventually, they took the cult down and left town together in August 2007.

Sandra remained on the show until June 2008 (episode 4000). After Katrin and Marc had split up, a quadrangle developed between Sandra, Verena, Marc and Verena's former lover Leon with Sandra and Leon becoming an item much to Marc's and Verena's dismay. Sandra and Marc eventually reunited and left Berlin, while Verena and Leon got back together and were a couple until 2011 when Verena was killed off.

---

Quite a lot of foreign soaps were shown in Germany, however many of them ran only for a rather short time and none of the soaps are still on the air.

I tried to make a list... I'm not sure if it's 100 % accurate.

As the World Turns – Jung und leidenschaftlich (1992-1993 on RTL; 1993-1994 on VOX, 194 dubbed episodes from the 80s?)

The Bold and the Beautiful – Reich und Schön (1988-2011 on Tele5 > RTL > ZDF, from first episode on, last new US episode was from February 2011)

Days of our Lives – Zeit der Sehnsucht (1993-1995 on RTL; later on Premiere; 919 dubbed episodes from the late 80s)

General Hospital – General Hospital (1988-1991 on Sat.1, 884 dubbed episodes from the early 80s)

Guiding Light – Springfield Story (1986-1999 on RTL, 3278 dubbed episodes from 1979 to 1992)

One Life to Live – Liebe, Lüge, Leidenschaft (1989-1990 on Pro7, 357 dubbed episodes from 1980/1981)

Santa Barbara – California Clan (1988-1997 on RTL, full run, 2175 dubbed episodes)

Sunset Beach – Sunset Beach (1998-1999 on RTL, only the first year of the show was dubbed)

The Young and the Restless – Schatten der Leidenschaft (1993-1994 on Sat.1; later episodes from the mid 90s on Premiere; re-start on ZDF with US episodes from 2005/2006 from March to December 2008; in total 1718 dubbed episodes)

Of course we had all the primetime soaps of the last decades (and most American shows in general).

The only Aussie soap that was shown here was Neighbours (844 episodes from the late 80s). I don't think any British soap has ever aired in Germany.

We also had several South American and Mexican telenovelas, for example Rubí or Salomé.

Edited December 31, 2013 by Huntress

[maybetomorrow]

True. VL also seems to be shooting their 'Barno' scenes around there. You can see some of these ominous blue doors in all three soaps. But yeah, I think RTL must have given them some more money because AWZ now regularly features this 'random' street and I think they are using a real apartment for Isabell/Richard. GZSZ is all over Berlin and thankfully they have toned down those 'random' subway meetings. They must have realized that Berlin's subway system doesn't rely on one wagon alone.

I wonder why GZSZ insited on this swift change, portraying urban 'reality' now. Hasn't it always been the most successful soap anyway? I think all of the soaps followed the lead a bit and have toned the typical soapy and whacky elements a bit. No more Alien-dream-episodes.

[Ben]

Thanks for the breakdown of the Inception story. Doesn't sound as interesting as the Marc/Viktor/Sandra story, but Sandra sure had a lot of drama packed onto her. Cult stories can be quite boring, IMO; there isn't much scope to reinvent it, so once you've seen one cult story, you've generally seen them all. I think cult stories work best when they are super creepy.

Judging from that list, it appears that foreign soaps don't do all that well in Germany, bar B&B, which appears to be the exception running for nearly it's entirety. Shame it got dropped in 2011, after such an impressive run. Long time fans must have been gutted.

I notice that Germans translate some of the titles, but keep the original English titles for others, while changing the names completely for some. Like, B&B gets translated, but Sunset Beach is left with its original English title, but Santa Barbara and GL are given new names: California Clan and Springfield Story, respectfully. Why were they given new names instead of a German translation or just keeping their English name?

I always imagined Germany would have aired Home & Away at some point. Do you think the British soaps wouldn't appeal to a German audience? Is there much British TV broadcast in Germany?

[Huntress]

Yes, the fans were gutted, considering the show still attracted a million viewers every day. However, ZDF wanted to restructure their program and kicked B&B off its schedule, stating that they were too close to the US airings and that they needed to take a break. Since two episodes were shown every day, they were indeed close to the US airings and had to take breaks before. In order to avoid this problem, ZDF tried airing Y&R and B&B back to back (with Y&R episodes split in half as two individual of episodes of 20 minutes each). but almost nobody wanted to see Y&R so they had to revert to showing two episodes of B&B.

Currently repeats of B&B are shown on Tele5, but they only have the rights for a small amount of episodes from 2007 onwards. Tele5 is a rather small station and they cannot afford dubbing new episodes. So far, DVD sets of the first 250 episodes (7 individual boxes) have been released here.

I think it's either up to the tv station or the distributor to decide if a show's name gets translated. Up until the 90s it was rather common for show's titles to be translated, but these days they usually have their original titles. Sometimes a subtitle is added for a better understanding of what the show is about, for example "Grey's Anatomy – Die jungen Ärzte" (Grey's Anatomy – The Young Doctors).

In many cases names were translated because the majority of people back then wouldn't know what it means. Nowadays almost everyone speaks and understands English to a certain degree, but it was of course different with older generations. My grandparents for example couldn't speak a word and wouldn't even listen to music with foreign lyrics.

Other than American programs, there's hardly any other foreign stuff on tv. The only current show from the UK I can think of is Downton Abbey. Oh, and Inspector Barnaby is also quite popular.

In many regions you can also watch stations from other countries. My cable provider carries free stations from France, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Turkey and even some Arabic channels. I also have BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and the likes.

[maybetomorrow]

ZDF really didn't cover itself in glory when they dropped B&B. I only watched it occasionally but it was interesting to see what an American soap was like (style, storylines, structure, dialogue, etc.) and compare it to the German soaps. And of course now they are repeating one of their many many crime shows in B&B's slot.

So we had the first episodes of 2014... not exactly a very promising or exciting start I think. Except maybe for the beginning of this Katrin/Bommel story on GZSZ. The stuck-up workaholic recovering from a stroke and the leftie philosophy student 20 years her junior? It's so absurd and weird that it could be good again. At least it's a small surprise and not the usual formula with the huge signposts that we have on VL with their new telenovela 'super' couple.

[Ben]

That's such a terrible reason for dumping a popular show. Did the restructure work for ZDF? This may be stupid, but why couldn't ZDF just air 1 episode a day, instead of 2? Is it b/c they are only 20 minutes long (without commercials), and ZDF favours 60 minute slots?

Editing a 40 minute show into 2 episodes would never really work, as the structure and pacing would be all wrong.

Thanks for explaining the names thing; it actually makes perfect sense why some shows are translated and other's aren't.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Ben

[DRW50]

Welcome to the board, maybetomorrow.

[maybetomorrow]

B&B had the 11.15am to midday slot. So ZDF either had to show two B&B episodes or edit Y&R if they wanted to air Y&R and B&B episodes back to back. No idea why they never tried to alternate them in the slot.

I suppose it worked for them. The reruns of their crime shows in B&B's slot have pretty good ratings and are probably cheaper with no dubbing and not having to acquire the rights. ZDF also got rid of their other telenovela/soap slot at 4.15pm where they had a series of successful telenovelas and then tried and failed to establish a medical daily. They replaced it with...surprise...reruns of their crime shows.

Thank you.

[Huntress]

Well, it worked for Days of our Lives. At first, RTL aired unedited episodes of Days at 2 p.m. Then they moved the show to 10.30 a.m. and split the episodes.

In France, Days currently airs as 20-minutes episodes on France 2 at 9.10 a.m as "Des jours et des vies". It is followed by B&B aka "Amour, Gloire et Beauté" at 9.30 a.m. I think their current Days episodes are from 2003/2004 and B&B is from 2011.