Huntress

Looks like ProSieben has already buried "Die Cooking Academy". The linear primetime run ends this week – after only 20 episodes – and the remaining, already completed episodes will only air early in the morning and via streaming on JOYN (and Disney+). They had originally planned 120 episodes, but it doesn’t look like there’ll be any more than that. On linear TV, the soap had a lousy market share of 2-3 % and about 120,000 viewers. Meanwhile, UU has done a bit of cast cleanup: Diego Carlos Seyfarth (David Junker), Julius Dombrinck (Theo Wolters), and Floriane Eichhorn (Nadine Pfeiffer) have all been written out over the past few weeks. Seyfarth and Dombrinck had been around since 2022, and Eichhorn since 2023. In exchange, Nadine Menz (ex-Ayla, GZSZ) will be joining in December as Britta’s sister Naomi, and Guido Broscheit (who’s been in countless TV formats over the past 20 years) started last week as Jori Jansen. Viola Wedekind (another veteran actress) will debut as Dana Gülek soon. This week on GZSZ: "Behind the Scenes" of the hostage situation:

I remember watching the first few episodes back in ~ 2010, when someone first uploaded the whole series to YouTube. I think I made it to episode six before I lost interest. During the pandemic I thought, "Alright, let’s give this another try," but honestly, it still felt like a slog to get through. I can’t even pinpoint the main issue. The cast wasn’t that bad, and a few of the characters were actually pretty entertaining to watch. But the central couples were dull and completely lacked chemistry, most of the backstories were weak or barely developed, and bringing in Jennie Garth as a "vixen" didn’t work either, since she only interacted with two characters: her love interest and her brother. On top of that, they’d already thrown another blonde troublemaker (Bridget?) into the mix right after the pilot, and by then it felt like the writers had painted themselves into a corner with too many storylines before the show even had a chance to take off. Jennie Garth looked stunning, though, and it was good seeing her step into a role so different from Kelly Taylor (The $treet only aired a couple of months after 90210's cancellation).

ProSieben is back in the soap business: "Die Cooking-Academy" (The Cooking Academy) will debut on October 6th, 2025 and will air weekdays at 6 pm. Among the cast are some well-known faces, such as Simone Hanselmann (ex-GZSZ), Lea Marlen Woitack (ex-GZSZ, ex-RR), and Matthias Brüggenolte (ex-AWZ). Official synopsis: Friendship, intrigue, love, rivalry, family ties, performance pressure, passion – and of course, a hunger for more – shape everyday life at the prestigious Cooking Academy "Culinary Arts by Alexander Eichen" (Matthias Brüggenolte), located on the German-French border. At the academy, top chefs train the culinary talents of tomorrow for the world of haute cuisine – under intense pressure. Who will make it to the culinary Olympus? And what must be left behind to get there ...? At the heart of the series is young chef Irini (Lara Kimpel). She’s accepted into the academy, only to find herself facing fierce competition. And as if that weren’t enough, Chris (Brian Rosenkranz) and Rafael (Louis J. Wagenbrenner) both turn her world upside down. This is ProSieben's 3rd attempt at establishing a new soap opera. From 1999 to 2000, the channel – which belongs to the ProSiebenSat.1 Media group – aired "Mallorca – Suche nach dem Paradies", and from 2006 to 2007, the telenovela "Lotta in Love" ran for a total of 130 episodes. Both shows were utter failures. So, in October the German soap line-up will look like this: 2.10 pm: Rote Rosen (ARD) 3.15 pm: Sturm der Liebe (ARD) 5.30 pm: Unter uns (RTL) 6.00 pm: Die Cooking-Academy (Pro7) 7.00 pm: Die Landarzt-Praxis / Die Spreewald-Klinik (Sat.1) (alternating) 7.05 pm: Alles was zählt (RTL) 7:30 pm: Dahoam is Dahoam (BR) 7.40 pm: Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (RTL)

I think they're afraid to bring Anna back because of the two failed recasts. Janis Rattenni (the first Anna) literally grew up on the screens, and when she had finished high school and wanted to work in a different field, they had no choice to recast. Kathleen Fiedler looked the part, but she was too wooden (I still wonder how she lasted 4 full years). Then Marylu-Saskia Poolman took over, and we all remember that Anna's face was destroyed in an explosion to explain the recast. Poolman wasn't too bad, but I remember that TPTB weren't happy with her performance, and she was let go in early 2014. Also, I think that Anna getting married to her cousin Paco (and even being pregnant by him) was a really tacky storyline and destroyed the character. In the end of her run, they'd really ran out of ideas for Anna and paired her off with Rufus of all people. They'd have to recast Anna a 3rd time, and I don't think they'll do that (same reason why they probably won't bring back Till back anytime soon). I liked the Chris recast, but yeah, the Corinna recast just wasn't Corinna. I mean, of course people can change over time, but the first Corinna was a very seductive, feisty, and sometimes hysterical woman, always involved in some drama. The recast was just a bland stay-at-home mom. It wasn't even the actress's fault – she just wasn't given any good material. The writers also didn't care much about Aunt Lulu (why she was even introduced in the first place?). Chris and Jenny should have stayed on the show and should have become the new Weigel core family. I mean, they really made an effort with fleshing out Cilly's character and establishing her as a legacy character (she's great, btw), so why couldn't they have done the same with her parents and Jenny?

Episodes 7800 to 7844 have recently been released on DVD in Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0F2XD369X In 2011, the first box sets were released, starting with episode 1. After 10 sets, the series was put on hold for a while. In 2024, a new edition was released, followed by Box Vol. 12 in February 2025, featuring episodes 250 to 300. The older episodes are now labeled "Wie alles begann" (How It All Began), while this new box is called "Eine neue Ära" (A New Era), because they stopped showing B&B in 2011. In 2023, a different channel bought new episodes and skipped several years in the process. Nobody watched the newer episodes so the show was canceled once again.

To be honest: I rather watch the classic episodes on RTL+ than the current ones 🤣 Another soft relaunch is in the works at AWZ – for what feels like the umpteenth time. Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen, one of the show's flagship stars, is leaving the soap. Her final appearance will be on July 4, 2025. Schmidt-Tychsen took on the role of Jennifer (aka "Jenny") Steinkamp, the eldest Steinkamp daughter, in December 2011. The role was previously played by Christiane Klimt (2006–2008), Silvia Maleen (2008–2010), and Sophie Lutz (2011, in a video message). After years of scheming, heartbreak, and failed marriages (including with Julian, David, Erik, Veit, Deniz, and Justus), Jenny finally finds true love with Ingo. The couple emigrates together to Mallorca. This also marks another exit: Original cast member André Dietz (Ingo) is leaving the show once more. He only returned in December 2024 after nearly four years away. However, both actors have stated they are open to returning for guest appearances in the future. Two weeks later, a brand-new sport is being introduced to the show: After figure skating, dancing, soccer, artistic gymnastics, and more figure skating, tennis is now taking center stage. Alongside this comes another surprise addition to the ever-expanding Steinkamp family tree: Original character Simone Steinkamp (played by Tatjana Clasing) learns that, back in her youth in Argentina, she not only gave birth to Maximilian (a fact revealed in 2007), but also to his twin sister Gabriella. Gabriella's daughter, Joana, is a celebrated tennis star who travels to Essen due to medical issues – where she encounters her biological family. Joana will be portrayed by Josephine Martz, while Gabriella will be played by Bianca Hein. Both actresses bring prior soap experience to the table: Martz appeared in the short-lived Sat.1 soap "Alles oder nichts", and Hein was a main cast member on UU (as Meike Wagner from 2000 to 2002). Hein also had a leading role in the telenovela "Verliebt in Berlin" and has appeared in numerous crime series. Meanwhile, it's still unclear whether the figure skating storylines will continue or if they'll be dropped once again. Currently, two figure skaters – Valea and Charlie – are still on the canvas, with Deniz working as their coach.

Cast changes in 2025 (so far, not much has happened): GZSZ Pauline Afaja (Flo Kästner) departed on March 10th, 2025. She had only been on the show for about a year. Flo as a character never really clicked with the audience. Her final storyline involved her catching feelings for the much older Nina Reichelt Klee Ahrens Navarro out of the blue – while she was in a relationship with the wheelchair-bound Jonas Seefeld. Onno Buß joined the cast as Julian Kaltenbach on January 31st, 2025. Julian is Matilda's twin brother ... and another illegitimate child of Jo Gerner. Charlott Reschke, who had played Johanna Flemming on a recurring basis from 2015 to 2024, returned at the end of May. The 20-year old actress has now been placed on contract. Last week on GZSZ: This week on GZSZ: Current Contract Cast (as of 06/2025): With images: https://www.soapsworld.de/gute-zeiten-schlechte-zeiten-gzsz/besetzung/ Wolfgang BAHRO – Dr. Jo Gerner (1993-present) Lennart BORCHERT – Moritz Bode (2020-present) Josefin BRESSEL – Alicia Bäumler (2023-present) Onno BUSS – Julian Kaltenbach (2025-present) Felix van DEVENTER – Jonas Seefeld (2014-present) Nina ENSMANN – Jessica Reichelt (2022-present) Anna Katharina FECHER – Matilda Kaltenbach (2024-present) Patrick FERNANDEZ – Carlos Lopes (2022-present) Ulrike FRANK – Katrin Flemming (2004-present; recurring previously) Patrick HEINRICH – Erik Fritsche (2019-present; recurring previously) Felix von JASCHEROFF – John Bachmann (2001-2014; 2015-present) Chryssanthi KAVAZI – Laura Bachmann (2017-present) Jan KITTMANN – Tobias Evers (2020-present) Olivia MAREI – Toni Ahrens (2018-present) Anne MENDEN – Emily Wiedmann (2004-present) Niklas OSTERLOH – Paul Wiedmann (2016-present) Lars PAPE – Michi Bode (2022-present; recurring previously) Charlott RESCHKE – Johanna Flemming (2025-present; recurring previously) Eva Mona RODEKIRCHEN – Maren Seefeld (2010-2022; 2023-present) Jörn SCHLÖNVOIGT – Dr. Philip Höfer (2004-present) Laura Dandelion SEIBERT – Zoe Vogt (2024-present; recurring previously) Iris Mareike STEEN – Lilly Seefeld (2010-present) Timur ÜLKER – Nihat Güney (2018-present) Maria WEDIG – Nina Reichelt (2017-present) Gisa ZACH – Yvonne Bode (2019-present) AWZ Matthias Brüggenolte departed the show on January 8th, 2025, when his character Justus Albrecht was killed off after being injured in a fire. Brüggenolte had joined AWZ in 2020. Original cast member Julia Augustin returned as Vanessa Steinkamp on May 21st, 2025. She was last seen in 2021. Florian Thunemann joined AWZ on May 26th, 2025 as Dragan Petrovic, a man from Daniela's past. Current Contract Cast (as of 06/2025): With images: https://www.soapsworld.de/alles-was-zaehlt-awz/besetzung/ Suri ABBASSI – Leyla Öztürk (2021-present) Riccardo ANGELINI – Matteo Borazio (2024-present) Berrit ARNOLD – Daniela Bremer (2021-present; recurring previously) Julia AUGUSTIN – Vanessa Steinkamp (2006-2009; 2010-2012; 2013; 2014-2021; 2025-present) Stefan BOCKELMANN – Henning Ziegler (2021-present) Tatjana CLASING – Simone Steinkamp (2006-present) André DIETZ – Ingo Zadek (2006-2020; 2024-present) Igor DOLGATSCHEW – Deniz Öztürk (2007-present) Marc DUMITRU – Kilian Reichenbach (2022-present) Shaolyn FERNANDEZ – Charlie Beer (2024-present) Amrei HAARDT – Nathalie von Altenburg (2019-2020; 2021-2023; 2024-present) Antonia KOLANO – Valea Borazio (2024-present) Féréba KONÉ – Imani Okana (2022-present) Silvan-Pierre LEIRICH – Richard Steinkamp (2006-present) Ania NIEDIECK – Isabelle Reichenbach (2010-present) Jörg ROHDE – Ben Steinkamp (2009-present) Sarah Victoria SCHALOW – Hanna Kern (2023-present) Kaja SCHMIDT-TYCHSEN – Jenny Steinkamp #4 (2011-present) Florian THUNEMANN – Dragan Petrovic (2025-present) Julia WIEDEMANN – Lucie Ziegler (2020-2023; 2023-present) UU In December 2024, Mehmet Kucak joined the show as Ferhat Gülek, Esma and Baris's father and Nuray's son. Roughly four months later, the character was recast with Harun Yildirim, who first appeared on March 27th, 2025. Kucak reportedly left the show for "personal reasons". Maxim Agné (Henry Gerlach) departed the show on May 5th, 2025. Current Contract Cast (as of 06/2025): With images: https://www.soapsworld.de/unter-uns-uu/besetzung/ Timothy BOLDT – Ringo Huber (2012-present) Özge DELIOGLAN – Esma Gülek (2024-present) Metehan DEMIRÖZ – Baris Gülek (2024-present) Julius DOMBRINK – Theo Wolters #2 (2022-present) Floriane EICHHORN – Nadine Pfeiffer (2023-present) Jens HAJEK – Benedikt Huber (2016-present) Benjamin HEINRICH – Benno "Bambi" Hirschberger (2013-present) Isabell HERTEL – Ute Huber (1995-present) Tabea HEYNIG – Britta Schönfeld-Küpper (2010-present) Lilay HUSER – Nuray Gülek (2024-present) Carina KOLLER – Cecilia Weigel (2021-present) Miriam LAHNSTEIN – Patrizia Neumann-Goldberg (2023-present) Bettine LANGEHEIN – Stella Richter (2022-present) Patrick MÜLLER – Tobias Lassner (2006-present) Valea SCALABRINO – Sina Hirschberger (2010-present) Diego Carlos SEYFARTH – David Junker (2022-present) Lars STEINHÖFEL – Easy Winter (2005-present) Theresa TRASER – Ronja Pfeiffer (2023-present) Milos VUKOVIC – Paco Weigel (2000-present) Harun YILDIRIM – Ferhat Gülek #2 (2025-present)

Yeah, as you wrote, an Israeli win would have been a political disaster. Congratulations to Austria. 0 points from the televoting to Switzerland was a disgrace. Other than that, I really enjoyed the show ... but I'm also glad that Eurovision season is over 😂 Full results: Recap of the Grand Final:

In the 2nd semi-final, I enjoyed Denmark and Luxembourg (plus France) the most. I was also positively surprised by Germany's performance, because usually our performances are ... well, lackluster, to put it nicely. The one country I did not expect to qualify was Armenia, but yeah, the staging probably helped a lot, because the song itself is just noise in my ears. I thought Serbia would make it instead. None of the Ex-Yugo countries made it to the Grand Final (first time since 2013), while all the Nordics and Baltics qualified. Recap of the 2nd semi-final:

Portugal qualifying was the only shocker. I'm really happy for Iceland. IMO, the automatic finalists – Spain, Switzerland and Italy – had the best performances. I love the studio version of Azerbaijan, but on stage, it was a disaster.

All 37 songs from this year's competition: My current Top 10 before the rehearsals: 01 pt – Italy 02 pts – Germany 03 pts – Azerbaijan 04 pts – Luxembourg 05 pts – Finland 06 pts – The Netherlands 07 pts – Iceland 08 pts – France 10 pts – Sweden 12 pts – Denmark

This year's line-up is almost complete ... we're only still waiting for the songs from Cyprus, France, and Georgia. Czechia 2025: Adonxs / "Kiss Kiss Goodbye" Language: English Israel 2025: Yuval Raphael / "New Day Will Rise" Language: English, French & Hebrew Portugal 2025: NAPA / "Deslocado" Language: Portuguese San Marino 2025: Gabry Ponte / "Tutta L'Italia" Language: Italian Switzerland 2025: Zoe Me / "Voyage" Language: French Ukraine 2025: Ziferblat / "Bird of Pray" Language: English, Ukrainian United Kingdom 2025: Remember Monday / "What the Hell Just Happened?" Language: English

She was actually sick during the National Final. The performance in the semi-final was much better. --- Next few entries: Austria is bombastic, but also quite weird. I guess the juries will love this. Italy is nice and understated. Serbia is quite boring, and Croatia ... well 😂 Austria 2025: JJ / "Wasted Love" Language: English Croatia 2025: Marko Boŝnjak / "Poison Cake" Language: English Italy 2025: Lucio Corsi / "Volevo essere un duro" Language: Italian Serbia 2025: Princ / "Mila" Language: Serbian

Sweden should send "Bara bada bastu", that's a great song and performance. Next few entries ... Denmark, Germany, Iceland, and The Netherlands are actually quite good IMO. Australia 2025: Go-Jo / "Milkshake Man" Language: English Denmark 2025: Sissal / "Hallucination" Language: English Germany 2025: Abor & Tynna / "Baller" Language: German (first time Germany will be sending a song in German since 2007) Iceland 2025: Væb / "Róa" Language: Icelandic The Netherlands 2025: Claude / "C'est la vie" Language: English & French

Next few entries ... I don't think we've heard or seen the winner yet 😂 Armenia 2025: Parg / "Survivor" Language: English Azerbaijan 2025: Mamagama / "Run with U" Language: English Lithuania 2025: Katarsis / "Tavo akys" Language: Lithuanian Norway 2025: Kyle Alessandro / "Lighter" Language: English Poland 2025: Justyna Steczkowska / "Gaja" Language: Polish & English Justyna already represented Poland in the 1995 Contest – 30 years ago. Back then, she finished in 18th place. Can she do better this time?

Next few entries ... Finland and Malta are a quite controversial, if you ask me. Finland 2025: Erika Vikman / "Ich komme" Language: Finnish, but the phrase "Ich komme" is German and means both "I am coming" and "I have an orgasm". Latvia 2025:Tautumeitas / "Bur man laimi" Language: Latvian Malta 2025: Miriana Conte / "Kant" Language: English, with the song title "Kant" being in Maltese, meaning "to sing". Let's see if the EBU allows the line "serving kant" (which sounds like serving c*nt) to be sung in the actual live shows.

Next few entries: Belgium 2025: Red Sebastian / "Strobe Lights" Language: English Greece 2025: Klavdia / "Asteromáta" Language: Greek Slovenia 2025: Klemen / "How Much Time Do We Have Left" Language: English Spain 2025: Melody / "Esa diva" Language: Spanish

Following Switzerland's Nemo winning the 2024 Contest with the song "The Code", the 69th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Basel, Switzerland, with the Grand Final taking place 17 May 2025. Official Recap of the 2024 Final: In 2025, 37 countries will take part – the same number as last year. Moldova, initially scheduled to compete, has withdrawn. They have taken part in every competition since their debut in 2005, and their best result to date was a 3rd place in 2017. In turn, Montenegro, which last competed in 2022, returns to the Contest. The Balkan country has only managed to qualifiy for the Grand Final on two occasions. Until March, every country has to select their entry via a national final or an internal selection. List of Participants: Albania Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Belgium Croatia Cyprus Czechia Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Iceland Ireland Israel Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal San Marino Serbia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom --- The first entries have been selected: Albania 2025: Shkodra Elektronike / "Zjerm" Language: Albanian Luxembourg 2025: Laura Thorn / "La poupée monte le son" Language: French Montenegro 2025: Nina Žižić / "Dobrodošli" Language: Montenegrin

I don't have the pictures at hand, but some I remember: - Felicia's shot in the 1990 opening looked like OG Kristen's shot (peeking through a gate). The same gate also appeared in one of Becky's shots in 1999. - One of Adam's shots in the 1998 opening (lounging in the pool) looked like one of Clarke's shots from the previous year. - Kristen #2 in 2001 had a similar pose to Maggie from the 1995 opening and Macy in the 1999 opening (sitting on the couch dressed in a silky robe). - The same living room / striped couch appears in shots used for Claudia Cortez (1996) and Jennifer Finnigan's Bridget (2000). - When Darla was re-added to the opening in 2003, one of her shots (looking out of the window) resembled Taylor's old shots, just mirrored, and the other one with the satin bed sheets resembled one of Lauren's shots from the 1998 opening. - Winsor Harmon's Thorne, Lilly Melgar's Claudia, and Jennifer Finnigan's Bridget all had shots taken at the same green window. Prior to the 2003 affair, Darla definitely showed some interest Thorne. In 1997, when Thorne had moved into his beach house, Darla visited him there and aggressively flirted with him. In the 90s, when Darla was still on contract – she was bumped to recurring once Saul had died –, they tested Darla with a lot of men (Clarke, Thorne, Anthony, Connor, Dylan), but never fully went there. At one point, she even dreamed of being Eric's wife.

Some news: For its 30th anniversary, UU received completely new opening credits. Again, there are two versions: Version A Carina Koller as Cecilia Weigel – Timothy Boldt as Ringo Huber & Patrick Müller as Tobias Lassner – Floriane Eichhorn as Nadine Pfeiffer – Julius Dombrink as Theo Wolters – Özge Delioglan as Esma Gülek – Maxim Agné as Henry Gerlach & Diego Carlos Seyfarth as David Junker – Milos Vukovic as Paco Weigel – Miriam Lahnstein as Tanja Neumann-Goldberg Version B Jens Hajek as Benedikt Huber – Theresa Traser as Ronja Pfeiffer – Bettine Langehein as Stella Richter – Valea Scalabrino as Sina Hirschberger & Benjamin Heinrich as Bambi Hirschberger – Metehan Demiröz as Baris Gülek – Tabea Heynig as Britta Schönfeld – Lars Steinhöfel as Easy Winter – Isabell Hertel as Ute Huber Both versions can be watched here: https://www.rtl.de/sendungen/unter-uns/neuer-unter-uns-vorspann-das-hat-sich-veraendert-id1936827.html (Not sure if the videos are geo-blocked, though.) Margot Weigel's secret daughter Nuray, played by Turkish actress Lilay Huser, just appeared on the show. Nuray's the love child of Margot and Yusuf, and thus related to the Weigel family. Newbies Esma and Baris are Nuray's grandchildren. They are all somehow related to the other remaining members of the Weigel family clan (= Cecilia, Paco, Sina, and David). Like, Nuray is Paco and Sina's aunt, and Cecilia and David's great-aunt. The Weigel family has always had a very complicated family tree, but it's getting messier every year. Behind the Scenes of filming Margot Weigel's past in the 1950s: --- GZSZ's opening credits also received an update. There are still 3 different versions. Josefin Bressel (Alicia) and Lara Dandelion Seibert (Zoe) were added, but strangely enough, Pauline Afaja (Flo) and Anna Katharina Fecher (Melanie) were forgotten. In turn, Marc Weinmann (Luis) and Charlotte Reschke (Johanna), who both left the show in recent weeks, are still included. Olivia Marei (Toni), Eva Mona Rodekirchen (Maren), Felix van Deventer (Jonas), and Niklas Osterloh (Paul) received new footage. Behind the Scenes of filming the opening credits and one version of the updated opening credits (at the end of the video): GZSZ's child-oriented spin-off "Uferpark" debuted on streaming and also on linear TV. The show uses the same outdoor set as GZSZ and also features GZSZ's longest-running cast member Wolfgang Bahro (Dr. Jo Gerner) in a recurring capacity. --- Meanwhile, the telenovela "Rote Rosen" has started its 23rd cycle. This time, former GZSZ actress Lea Marlen Woitack – now with darker hair than back in the day – plays the lead character. From 2014 to 2019, Woitack starred on GZSZ as Sophie Lindh.

Now we know what the big surprise was: They brought back Margot Weigel via AI. The actress, Christiane Maybach, died in 2006 at the age of 74. Last week, Margot appeared as a "dream-like" vision to her granddaughter Cecilia. Margot's AI version looked a lot younger than she ever did on the show, though, but she had the same voice. While exploring her family's rich history, Cecilia meets two new characters, Baris and Esma Gülek, who turn out to be her distant relatives. Apparently, back in the 1950s, Margot had an affair with a Turkish gentleman, and thus had a secret 3rd child ... Özge Delioglan plays Esma, and Metehan Demiröz plays Baris. Both are on contract with the show. It was about time that the show added some Turkish-German actors, especially since the show has always taken place in Cologne, where there are a lot of people of Turkish origin. In the show's first 3 years, there was Aylin, but that's it. I just noticed that all 3 RTL soaps currently have one token black character (GZSZ = Flo, AWZ = Imani, UU = Theo). At least all of them have frontburner storylines and are involved in complicated relationships: Flo's boyfriend Jonas has been confined to a wheelchair for nearly a year, Imani's boyfriend Tom is an ex-con, and Theo's girlfriend Britta is a cougar almost twice his age.

GZSZ is heading south: The show is currently filming another primetime special – and this time, they've chosen Spain as their destination, where filming is taking place in and around Barcelona. Among those involved are (left to right): Ulrike Frank (Katrin Flemming), Lars Pape (Michi Bode), Eva Mona Rodekirchen (Maren Seefeld), Felix van Deventer (Jonas Seefeld), and Iris Mareike Steen (Lilly Seefeld). The special will be probably broadcast in late November/early December. In recent years, the show has filmed at such places as the islands of Mallorca (2018) and Fuerteventura (2020), and in Paris (2023). Meanwhile, one half of the show's gay couple Moritz & Luis is leaving: Marc Weinmann, who joined the show in September 2021 as Luis Ahrens, is departing next week. Weinmann was the second actor in the role. Another recast is unlikely to happen.

Carrie Mitchum departed in #991. Mary Sheldon subbed in #992, #993, and #995. Then, Donna was written off the show until Mitchum returned for a few guest appearances in 1994.

Thanks, that was really fascinating to read 😀 I wasn't aware of all these storyline adaptions from later episodes of The Restless Years, but in hindsight, it makes total sense. Milla was a replacement for Marina, Michael for Frank, and Saskia took Julia's spot. The other characters that were introduced in 1993 didn't make a huge impact ... Oh, and of course Jo Gerner is the only character who has stayed on board until today. With a few exceptions (mainly the older cast members), everyone who appeared in the 1993 episodes was gone by summer 1996. Yeah, I know what you mean. They clearly had ideas what kind of stories they wanted to tell, but they didn't really know how to do it (yet). In the first year (when they still adapted the Australian scripts), there were also some stories that were simply dropped. For example, one episode ended with Julia kissing Heiko out of the blue. In the next episode, they acted as if this had never happened and the kiss or any romantic attraction between the two was never brought up again. Some episodes also didn't have a cliffhanger and just ended mid-scene. It was definitely a weird era. I once read that for a long time, the producers tried to hide the fact that the first year of the show even existed 🤣 Like I wrote before, there were also many cringy stories later on. For example, when André buys an ice cream machine for his shop and for a couple of episodes, there are a lot of children singing and dancing inside the shop. The story ended with one of the kids (I think it was Milla's brother) getting an upset stomach after eating too much ice cream. There's also an episode where the characters start singing Christmas carols mid-scene (because the the show wanted to promote a Christmas CD). In 1996, there was a story involving a magician (Felix), who organized a role-playing game called "The Octagon". Basically all the younger characters took part in it, and they had to solve quests and whatnot. It was horrible and lasted way too long. In 1995/1996, there was a story where two "bands" competed against each other, and the winning groups "Just Friends" – consisting of 4 recurring characters – released a couple of Eurodance songs with two of their singles even reaching the Top 10 of the charts. Whenever they released a new single, they were forced into the storylines again between 1996 and 1998. For example, they played a key role in the 1000th episode, and again, when one very popular character died one year later. They also switched two members on two occasions. I mean, the lead singer could actually sing, but the songs were cheap, even for Eurodance standards. The other female member quit the group a year later and somehow became a quite succesful actress. That was their first and most successful song which they also performed a hundred million times on the show:

Cool that you're watching it for the first time. Who are your favorites characters at that point of the show (if you have any 🤣)? I liked Tina, Milla, Vera, and Saskia best. Most of the male cast annoyed me, especially Patrick, Peter, and Clemens. They officially ditched the Australian scripts at episode #231, but surely still borrowed from the Australian scripts (and also from GTST, the Dutch adaption, which at that time had already run for 3 years). Between #231 and #250, they wrote out half of the characters and introduced like 30 new people (major and minor roles). Also, a lot of sets were changed. Back then, they didn't really distinguish between contract and recurring cast which is also reflected in the closing credits. Everyone that appeared in a given episode is just listed in random order. The first "real" closing credits, where you can see who's part of the main cast and who's a guest star, start around #360. There are of course many storylines that are really cheesy and cringy and wouldn't work today. And the acting is horrendous in most cases. That's because most of the actors they hired back then were either completely inexperienced newbies or theater actors. The latter overacted most of the time, and the former ... well, they did the best they could. Which wasn't much in many cases.