Huntress

Now it's official: Petra Blossey, the last remaining original cast member, has left Unter uns after 25 years. In July 2019, Blossey's alter ego Irene Weigel-Küpper left to visit her daughter Anna in Japan. On the episode dated November 28th, 2019, Irene's husband Robert (Luca Maric) and foster-daughter Sina (Valea Scalabrino) impatiently await Irene's return at the airport. They are shocked when Irene eventually "returns" – in a coffin... Petra Blossey debuted as Irene Weigel on the show's 1st episode on November 28th, 1994. Born in the former German Democratic Republic, Irene, née Schwarz, fled to West Germany in the 1970s, moved to Cologne, and married master baker Wolfgang Weigel. They had three children: Chris (aged 19 at the show's debut), Till (aged 16) and Anna (aged 12). Back then, the extended Weigel family also consisted of Wolfgang's mother Margot Weigel, Margot's sister Sophie Himmel, Irene's brother Dr. Olaf Schwarz, and Olaf's daughter Antonia Schwarz. These characters were gradually phased out over the years, with only Till remaining on the show (after a recast). Olaf departed in 1995, Antonia and Chris in 1997, Margot died off-screen in 2006 (the actress passed away in 2005), and Sophie died off-screen in 2012. Till left in 1996, but returned in 2000. Anna originally left in 2004, returned as a recast in 2006, and received a third recast in 2009, with the final actress leaving in 2014. Over the past 25 years, Irene lived through a lot of trials and tribulations: She became pregnant with a disabled baby, but suffered a miscarriage. She was hit on by a lesbian friend of hers. She lost her memory and had amnesia, not recognizing her entire family, for months. Wolfgang left her for a younger woman, but returned to Irene after a while. In 2009, Wolfgang died of a heart attack. Irene was heartbroken for months, but found a new love in stubborn handyman Robert Küpper, whom she eventually married. For years, Irene battled Wolfgang's illegitimate son Rolf Jäger, who terrorized the neighborhood with his sick antics. On the other hand, she gladly took in Wolfgang's illegitimate daughter Sina who appeared in town after Wolfgang's death. Irene was a tower of strength for every neighbor of the apartment house Schillerallee 10. According to an extensive interview, Petra Blossey decided to quit Unter uns at her own request. She taped her final scenes in April 2019 and moved back to her native Potsdam (near Berlin) to be with her family. --- In other news: After being with the show for roughly one year, Madeleine Krakor is leaving Alles was zählt. The red-haired actress debuted in the contract role of Steffi König in Oktober 2018. Steffi was a boring character from the get-go. She became Ingo's (André Dietz) new girlfriend of the year and was only obsessed with becoming pregnant – but Ingo is infertile. When she met her former crush Sören, she had a one-night-stand with him. Of course she became pregnant by him, and now Steffi's leaving town with Sören. In turn, actress Franziska van der Heide has been cast in the new contract role Ina Ziegler. Van der Heide is best known for her stint on GZSZ where she played streetkid Mieze on contract from 2013 to 2015. In a first press release, Ina is said to be the sister of an established character. She is also a professional cook. (And she will probably also only last a year on this incestuous show.) Seriously, AWZ has been so boring for ages. Apparently they can't afford more than 16 regular cast members – but instead of using all of them, only ~ 8 of them get frontburner storylines while the others are just filler material. In addition, recurring actors Alexandra Fonsatti (Chiara) and Ron Holzschuh (Niclas) are featured more than most regulars. Why they don't drop all this dead weight and hire some new fresh faces is beyond me.

This is the new intro for Unter uns which will debut during the anniversary week later this month. Again, there will be two different versions. The show's logo and the theme have been updated once again. Version A: Jens Hajek (Benedikt Huber) –Antonia Michalsky (Saskia Weigel Huber) – Benjamin Heinrich (Bambi Hirschberger) – Tabea Heynig (Britta Schönfeld) – Kai Noll (Rufus Sturm) – Jakob Graf (Luke Färber, new contract role) – Josephine Becker (Leni Schäfer) – Milos Vukovic (Paco Weigel) – Timothy Boldt (Ringo Beckmann) – Isabell Hertel (Ute Kiefer)

The Thomas/Gabriela wedding storyline happened in the summer of 2005, shortly after Taylor had returned. Antonio Sabato was also added in the summer of 2005 – they brought him in as a person from Taylor's past, then he kissed Brooke, and eventually he was interested in Bridget. I thought Dante only had chemistry with Felicia but that Dante/Felicia/Bridget triangle story went nowhere and was dropped in late 2006. In turn, the Megan/Massimo storyline happened in the spring of 2006 😉

On November 28th, 2019, Unter uns celebrates its 25th anniversary. The official press release says: * Barbara Prakopenka played Kira Beckmann on contract from 2012 to 2014. ** Andreas Büngen played Jan Gräser on contract from 2002 to 2009. The wedding was filmed at the same castle that was used as the setting for Verbotene Liebe from 2003 to its cancellation in 2014. There's also going to be a funeral as pictures from the filming have leaked online. There's still speculation that Irene may only return as a corpse... However, Benedikt could also be the dead person as his ex-wife Andrea (Astrid Leberti) and his son Valentin (Aaron Koszuta) are rumoured to attend the funeral. Official Contract Cast during the 25th anniversary: Josephine Becker – Leni Schäfer (2019-present) Sharon Berlinghoff – Vivien Köhler (2018-present) Petra Blossey – Irene Weigel-Küpper, née Schwarz (1994-present) Timothy Boldt – Ringo Beckmann (2012-present) Andrea Brix – Roswitha Küpper-Pütz (2016-present; recurring previously) Claudelle Deckert – Eva Wagner, formerly Weigel (2001-2006; 2008-present; recurring otherwise) Jens Hajek – Benedikt Huber (2016-present) Benjamin Heinrich – Benno "Bambi" Hirschberger (2013-present) Isabell Hertel – Ute Kiefer, formerly Kern, Weigel, Fink (1995-present) Tabea Heynig – Britta Schönfeld, formerly Sturm (2010-present) Luca Maric – Robert Küpper (2015-present) Yannik Meyer – Conor Weigel (2018-present) Antonia Michalsky – Saskia Huber, née Weigel (2017-present) Alexander Milo – Jakob Huber (2017-present) Patrick Müller – Tobias Lassner (2006-present) Kai Noll – Rufus Sturm (2003-present) Ben Ruedinger – Till Weigel #2 (2000-present) Valea Scalabrino – Sina Hirschberger, née Uhland (2010-present) Lars Steinhöfel – Ingo "Easy" Winter (2005-present) Milos Vukovic – Paco Weigel (2000-present) 1. Kira, Ringo, Easy and Tobias; 2. Paco, Tobias, Jan and Easy, 3. Sina and Robert, 4. Till, Ute and Conor

What a surprise 😒 On AWZ, Franziska Benz departs the show on September 9th, 2019, when her character Michelle Bauer is killed off. During the premiere of the figure skating show, Michelle gets attacked by an assassin and is fatally wounded. Michelle was introduced in February 2016 as Simone Steinkamp's niece. A successful figure skater, Michelle was Marie Schmidt's biggest rival on the squad. Other storylines included her troubled relationship with her estranged father Vincent Thalbach, who turned out to be a drug lord. Michelle experienced a downward spiral in 2018, feeling that nobody really cared about her, but she was eventually rescued by Maximilian von Altenburg who gave her new courage to face life. Michelle went back to normal and even became friends with her former nemesis Marie. She found her one true love in Moritz Brunner (Tijan Njie) and competed for the main role in the figure skating show, successfully outdoing Chiara Nadolny. Following Chiara's failure, Susanne Gebhardt, Chiara's coach, snaps and hires an assassin to take care of Michelle. ––– On GZSZ, former recurring star Annabella Zetsch (Brenda Schubert) has been placed on contract and reappears on today's episode. Brenda was introduced in the summer of 2018 as a classmate of Luis Ahrens (Maximilian Braun) whom she blackmailed with a video showing him masturbating. Brenda's bullying almost drove Luis into suicide. She was eventually punished for her actions and departed in October 2018. In April 2019, Brenda reappeared for two episodes where it was revealed that Brenda is Robert Klee's (Nils Schulz) daughter. She apologized to Luis, but disappeared again. Now Brenda moves in with Robert and his new girlfriend Nina (Maria Wedig), Luis's mother. In a press release, she's described as having become a new person who has learned from her past mistakes. ––– On UU, fans are worried about Petra Blossey (Irene Weigel), the show's only remaining original cast member, who hasn't been seen on-screen in weeks. In July 2019, Irene went to visit her youngest Anna in Japan, but so far there's no news of her coming back. The 63-year old actress even missed the annual fan event in August, and has posted cryptical posts on Instagram. The show celebrates its 25th anniversary in November 2019. So far, it has been revealed that a wedding will take place (most likely that of gay couple Easy and Ringo) and that former contract star Barbara Prakopenka (Kira Beckmann) will return for a guest appearance. Prakopenka starred as Ringo's twin sister from 2012 to 2014 and has since moved on to a successful primetime career. ––– RTL's new daily crime drama "Herz über Kopf" debuted on August 26th, 2019 at 5 pm. So far, the show has only attracted a meager 0.5 million viewers with a market share of 6%. Official promo: ––– Flashback: GZSZ – Episode Count October 1993 This is the month where the Panty Hose Murderer storyline began and the first two murders, Hilda and Yasemin, took place. For a half-hour show, the show had a large cast back then, but every character had its purpose and was involved in at least one storyline. A total of 18 episodes aired this month. No new episodes on 10/19/1993, 10/21/1993 and 10/22/1993 [reasons unknown] 01. Frank-Thomas Mende (Clemens Richter) : 11 ** Hannelore Minkus (Beatrice Zimmermann) : 11 ** Michael O. Rüdiger (Matthias Zimmermann) : 11 04. Angela Neumann (Vera Richter) : 10 ** Sandra Keller (Tina Ullrich) : 10 ** Udo Thies (Dr. Michael Gundlach) : 10 ** Victoria Sturm (Milla Engel) : 10 08. Andrea-Kathrin Loewig (Iris Gehbauer) : 9 ** Claudia Weiske (Elke Opitz) : 9 ** Hans Christiani (A.R. Daniel) : 9 ** Sali Landricina (Peter Becker) : 9 ** Saskia Valencia (Saskia Rother) : 9 13. Gerd Blahuschek (Hartmut Söllner) : 8 ** Heinke Hüttmann (Karin Becker) : 8 ** Lisa Riecken (Elisabeth Meinhart) : 8 ** Mirjam Köfer (Diana Richter) : 8 ** Timmo Niesner (Tommy Walter) : 8 ** Wolfgang Bahro (Dr. Jo Gerner) : 8 19. Alexander Kiersch (Patrick Graf) : 7 ** Andreas Elsholz (Heiko Richter) : 7 ** Fenja Rühl (Barbara Wiebe) : 7 22. Carolina Squella (Nicole Ehlert) : 6 ** Ines Victoria (Yasemin Mutlu) : 6 ** Marcus Ulbricht (Tobias Gericke) : 6 25. Julian Scheunemann (Charlie Fierek) : 5 ** Michael Trischan (Jürgen Borchert) : 5 27. Christiane Reiff (Gerda Becker) : 4 ** Matthias Matz (André Holm) : 4 ** Robert Schröter (Jack) : 4 30. Alexander Eisenfeld (Olli Engel) : 3 ** Dagobert Walter (Mario Münster) : 3 ** Debora Weigert (Hilda Berg) : 3 ** Werner Kanitz (Erwin Becker) : 3 34. Peter Zintner (Heinrich Rother) : 2 35. Christoph Piesk (Oswald Löpelmann) : 1 ** Constanze Roeder (Mrs. Rother) : 1 ** Jochen Senf (Dr. Dietrich Romberg) : 1 ** Walter Jacob (Rudolf Söllner) : 1 CONTRACT ARRIVALS *: Wolfgang Bahro (Dr. Jo Gerner) [02/03/1993] Saskia Valencia (Saskia Rother) [03/08/1993] Mirjam Köfer (Diana Richter) [03/24/1993] Timmo Niesner (Tommy Walter) [04/02/1993] Dirk Meier (Florian May) [04/13/1993] Ines Victoria (Yasemin Mutlu) [04/26/1993] Udo Thies (Dr. Michael Gundlach) [04/27/1993] Victoria Sturm (Milla Engel) [04/29/1993] Andrea-Kathrin Loewig (Iris Gehbauer) [05/05/1993] Matthias Matz (André Holm) [06/11/1993; recurring previously] Fenja Rühl (Barbara Wiebe) [07/05/1993] Michael O. Rüdiger (Matthias Zimmermann) [07/19/1993] Michael Trischan (Jürgen Borchert) [08/03/1993] Gerd Blahuschek (Hartmut Söllner) [10/28/1993; recurring previously] Marcus Ullbricht (Tobias Gericke) [10/28/1993; recurring previously] Heinke Hüttmann (Karin Becker) [11/02/1993; recurring previously] Hannelore Minkus (Beatrice Zimmermann) [11/05/1993; recurring previously] CONTRACT DEPARTURES: Suzanne Ziellenbach (Lilo Gottschick) [04/08/1993] Natascha Pfeiffer (Marina Geppert) [04/16/1993] Thomas Gohlke (Karsten Richter) [04/16/1993] Marie-Christine Herriger (Julia Backhoff) [04/26/1993] Johannes Baasner (Dr. Frank Ullrich) [04/28/1993] Dirk Meier (Florian May) [09/02/1993] Ines Victoria (Yasemin Mutlu) [10/26/1993] Mirjam Köfer (Diana Richter) [11/23/1993] Timmo Niesner (Tommy Walter) [11/29/1993] Marcus Ullbricht (Tobias Gericke) [12/17/1993] * The show only received detailed closing credits beginning with episode 350 (10/08/1993). Before episode 350, the cast was listed alphabetically with only the performers' names appearing and no distinction between main and guest roles was made. For example, in some episodes actor Zsolt Bács-Bayer was listed first in the credits despite only appearing sporadically in a C-Story – but since his last name begins with a "B", he was always listed first. In many episodes, several performers were even missing from the credits. Beginning with episode 350, character names were added to the credits (although only first names and in some cases, only their last names, for example "Dr. Gundlach" or "Mrs. Meinhart"). Finally, guest and recurring performers were divided from the main cast with an "And" credit. Thus, contract arrival dates for performers who debuted before episode 350 are their first appearances. They were all listed as contract roles in episode 350, and Bahro, Valencia, Köfer, Niesner, Meier, Victoria, Thies and Sturm were added to the opening credits in episode 272 (06/14/1993). The only actor who is still on the show as of today is Wolfgang Bahro as Dr. Jo Gerner.

The strange thing is that both Saul and Darla were not added to the opening until 1993. Darla was bumped to recurring in 1996 and was removed from the opening with the December 1996 update. Saul must have been taken off contract in 1995 (months before the actor's death). A few other short-lived contract roles weren't added to the opening at all during the first few years of the show. From 1993 on, I think every contract role appeared on the opening at least for a short while, even some of the child actors (the pre-Jacob Young Rick and the pre-Jennifer Finnigan Bridget). They started updating the credits more often with up to 4 different versions each year.

If I remember correctly, Jessica Walter was dumped because she was too expensive. She was supposed to return for guest appearances later on, but that never materialized. Lori was part of the main cast until the season 3 finale and returned for a single guest appearance in the season 5 premiere where she had like 3 or 4 lines. I don't remember Ryan claiming to live at Melrose Place – and I watched every single episode of that rotten show He was shown to be living at an apartment complex, but it wasn't Melrose Place.

Same here. In season 1, they teased this Kelly/Brenda/Ryan triangle for weeks which eventually went nowhere and the juiciest part (Brenda hooking up with Ryan) happened off-screen. When Brenda was out of the picture, Kelly finally slept with Ryan, but then the story was dropped and in season 2, Ryan was paired with Naomi's sister Jen (whom I found more interesting than any of the teens except Naomi and Adrianna). Kelly continued appearing as a supporting character in Silver's story but apparently left town without an explanation (and left Silver living in her garage). But that was 90210's biggest mistake... dropping interesting stories left and right, and repeating the same boring stuff (triangles and more triangles) every other week. The writers really thought their audience was stupid and not able to remember things that happened two episodes ago.

Haven't done this in a long time... Preview Pics August 2019 Unter uns 01. Andrea (Astrid Leberti) accepts Rufus's (Kai Noll) marriage proposal 02. Leni (Josephine Becker) tells Paco (Milos Vukovic) that she is his daughter 03. Andrea tells her father Robert (Luca Maric) that she wants to leave Schillerallee (which she eventually does) 04. Ringo (Timothy Boldt) and Easy (Lars Steinhöfel) spend a nice holiday together 05. Ute (Isabell Hertel) comforts Benedikt (Jens Huber) after Andrea has left town with their newborn baby 06. Vivien (Sharon Berlinghoff) suffers from exam anxiety 07. Eva (Claudelle Deckert) is shocked when Till declares war on her 08. Jakob's (Alexander Milo, right) colleague Samuel (Alexander Koch) shows his true colors 09. Having returned from rehab, Larissa (Linda König) tells her father Benedikt that she wants to keep her distance 10. Saskia (Antonia Michalsky) and Paco argue about Paco's attitude towards Leni 11. Till (Ben Ruedinger) is not impressed by Rufus's advice 12. Dream sequence: Ringo dreams that Britta (Tabea Heynig) treats him like a puppy Alles was zählt 01. Lena (Birte Glang) apologizes to Alexander (Ralf-Maximilian Prack) for not having enough time for him 02. Nathalie (Amrei Haardt, left) is shocked that Isabelle (Ania Niedieck) has contacted Finn's father without his knowledge 03. Simone (Tatjana Clasing) has to live with the fact that her long-kept secret has been revealed: Vanessa is not Richard's daughter 04. Moritz (Tijan Njie, left) can't deal with Niclas's (Ron Holzschuh) behavior 05. Lena tries to seduce Marian (Sam Öztürk) 06. Vanessa (Julia Augustin) starts an argument with Simone 07. Dream sequence: Jenny (Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen, right) dreams that Deniz (Igor Dolgatschew) has an affair with Marie (Cheyenne Pahde) 08. Jenny finds out that Deniz has indeed slept with Marie and Vanessa comforts her sister 09. Michelle (Franziska Benz) is disappointed when Niclas doesn't want to give her the lead role in his musical 10. Steffi (Madeleine Krakor) and Ingo (André Dietz) plan on adopting a child 11. An unhinged Susanne (Hanne Wolharn) has manipulated Michelle's skates 12. Richard (Silvian-Pierre Leirich) and Jenny avoid Simone Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten 01. Robert's ex Kerstin (Charlotte Sieglin, right) tries to breed discord between Robert (Nils Schulz) and Nina (Maria Wedig) 02. Toni (Olivia Marei, left) and Shirin (Gamze Senol, middle) argue about Erik as Sunny (Valentine Pahde) tries to intervene 03. Yvonne (Gisa Zach, left) and Laura (Chryssanthi Kavazi) are confident that Laura's condition will soon improve 04. After Robert has decided that he needs to leave for South Africa, he and Nina agree on having a long-distance relationship 05. Yvonne and Philip (Jörn Schlönvoigt) are worried about Laura 06. Shirin and Toni come to Erik's rescue 07. Lilly (Iris Mareike Steen, right) is annoyed by Emily's (Anne Menden) selfish actions 08. Toni and Erik (Patrick Heinrich) can't hide their feelings for one another 09. Katrin (Ulrike Frank) is back in town and is greeted by her best friend Maren (Eva Mona Rodekirchen) 10. Emily feels pressured when Paul (Niklas Osterloh) wants to start a family with her 11. Yvonne and Felix (Thaddäus Meilinger) wait for news about Laura 12. Shirin and John (Felix von Jascheroff) plan on helping Erik getting back on track

Some casting and general news from the past few weeks: RTL has now officially cancelled its 4th daily soap "Freundinnen". The last new episode was shown on April 12th, 2019, and the last re-run was shown on June 28th, 2019. This fall, probably in September, a new daily soap called "Herz über Kopf" will debut at 5 pm. Until then, a reality format called "Meine Geschichte – Mein Leben" (My Story – My Life) airs in this difficult timeslot. The cancellation of "Freundinnen" has definitely helped UU's ratings: For months, the veteran show had been in a ratings slump due to its weak lead-in. On July 2nd, UU eventually reached its highest ratings of the year so far with a market share of 16.2% among the target audience. On the same day, AWZ also reached its highest ratings of the year with a market share of 17% among the target audience. On GZSZ, actor Patrick Heinrich returned to the show on May 2nd, 2019 in the role of bad boy Erik Fritsche – this time as a contract role. In 2018, Erik was introduced as Shirin's (Gamze Senol) husband who was just released from prison. Shirin hadn't told anybody about her husband's existence, not even her business partner John (Felix von Jascheroff) who was slowly falling in love with Shirin. When John and Shirin went to Mallorca to celebrate the birthday of John's siblings, the jealous Erik followed them and nearly killed John. He was sent to prison again. Now Erik is back in town and tries to prove that he's changed. Of course everybody avoids him, especially Shirin and John. Erik's working undercover for the police to bust another drug dealer – his own half brother – but the only person who knows this is cop Toni Ahrens (Olivia Marei). Of course Toni falls in love with Erik and tries to defend his actions. In turn, Maximilian Braun departed the show at the end of June 2019. Braun had played teenager Luis Ahrens for roughly two years. Even though he was a contract role, Luis only had one major storyline in 2018 when he was blackmailed with a video showing him masturbating, but for the most part he was just a supporting role and a sidekick for his mother Nina (Maria Wedig) and his best friend Jonas (Felix van Deventer). On UU, actress Josephine Becker joined the show in late April 2019 in the contract role of Leni Schäfer. Leni is a teenage girl who arrived at Schillerallee to find her biological father. Two men are put on her shortlist: Paco Weigel (Milos Vukovic) or Easy Winter (Lars Steinhöfel). The latter came out as gay in 2017 and has been in a relationship with Ringo Beckmann (Timothy Boldt) for a while now. Leni announced that Easy was her father, which strained Easy and Ringo's relationship. However, this month it is revealed that Leni was lying and that she knew all along that Paco is her true father. Paternity issues also play a role on AWZ where the history of the Steinkamp family is rewritten: Vanessa (Julia Augustin) finds out that Richard (Silvan-Pierre Leirich) is not her biological father! Her mother Simone (Tatjana Clasing) had an affair with Niclas Nadolny (Ron Holzschuh), and Niclas is Vanessa's real father. At the beginning of the show (in 2006), Vanessa fell in love with her best friend Ben, not knowing that Ben was the secret child of Richard and Nadja Roschinski. When the truth came out a while later, Vanessa wanted to commit suicide. The paternity reveal means that Vanessa and Ben aren't half-siblings after all. Hopefully, the show won't go down that route and pair up Vanessa and Ben after all these years. Also on AWZ, former UU actress Amrei Haardt joined the contract cast at the end of May 2019 as Nathalie Reichenbach, Isabelle's (Ania Niedieck) poor cousin. In turn, Ania Niedieck will be going on maternity leave later this summer. The blonde actress previously took an extended hiatus from the show after giving birth to her first child in 2016. Niedieck has been part of the contract cast since 2010. Original cast member Madlen Kaniuth departed the show on May 24th, 2019. The ginger-haired actress had played the recurring role of nosy secretary Brigitte Schnell since the very first episode in September 2006. Even though she never had a major storyline of her own, Brigitte was always involved in the lives of the Steinkamp family and had one night stands with several leading men.

Since there's not much going on with the daily soaps right now, I finally got around to watch a primetime series that first aired in 2016. "Ku'damm '56" is a mini-series consisting of 3 parts that takes place in Berlin in 1956. "Ku'damm" is the local name of "Kurfürstendamm", one of the most famous streets in Berlin. During the separation of Berlin, Kurfürstendamm was the main shopping area of West Berlin. The series chronicles the lives of Caterina Schöllack (Claudia Michelsen) and her three daughters Helga (Maria Ehrich), Eva (Emilia Schüle) and Monika (Sonja Gerhardt). Caterina owns a dance school, takes great pride in keeping a strict discipline and wants to marry her daughters off to wealthy men. However, nothing goes as planned. Her husband Gerd (Robert Schupp) has gone missing in WW2 and for years, Caterina has had a secret affair with Fritz Assmann (Uwe Ochsenknecht), a long-time friend of the family. Helga gets married to West Prussian Wolfgang von Boost (August Wittgenstein) who's about to become a district attorney. However, he is secretly gay and meets other men at night time. Helga doesn't understand why Wolfgang doesn't want to get intimate with her. Wolfgang visits Dr. Jürgen Fassbender (Heino Ferch) who tries to "cure" Wolfgang of his homosexuality. Because of the pressure, Wolfgang resorts to violence and hits Helga. In turn, Helga gets the chance to become a TV star when she is booked for TV commercial where she has to play the perfect 50s housewife. When Monika sees Wolfgang at a cruising park receiving oral sex from another guy, she and Eva tell Helga about her husband's secret desire, but Helga refuses to believe them. Eva works as a nurse at a mental hospital and Dr. Fassbender is her boss. Encouraged by her mother, she is determined to marry the much older doctor. However, Eva soon falls for Rudi Hauer (Steven Windolf), the husband of one her patients and a professional soccer player. Rudi wants to leave his wife Christa (Anne Werner) for Eva and tells her that he strives for a divorce. Christa commits suicide by jumping from a window. Eva is devastated, but then accepts Fassbender's proposal, to Rudi's horror. Monika is the black sheep of the family. At the beginning, she returns home after she had been thrown out of a housekeeping school because of indecent behavior (she was caught dancing in the rain only in her underwear). Caterina loses no opportunity to tell Monika how much she loathes her. Monika has little self-esteem. Caterina eventually tries to set her up with Joachim Franck (Sabin Tambrea), the son of a weathly business man. Joachim, however, is up to no good. He gets drunk and rapes Monika on their first "date". Afterwards, Caterina tells Monika to pull herself together. Caterina tries to blackmail the Francks so that Joachim will marry Monika, but the Francks twist the facts and declare that Monika seduced Joachim. Monika tries to commit suicide by drowning herself in a lake. She is rescued by her sisters at the last minute. Afterwards, she is given a job teaching at the dance school. Monika meets Freddy Donath (Trystan Pütter), a member of the dance school's resident band. When he takes her dancing, Monika discovers her love for rock'n'roll music – which her mother hates because she thinks it's vulgar and tasteless. Monika and Freddy take part in dancing contests and also start a secret affair. However, Joachim still pops up in her life. Joachim, who has narcissistic tendencies, is indifferent to life. He gets drunk and has a terrible car crash which leaves him with a broken knee. After recovering, he breaks with his father and wants to start a new life by becoming a novel author. Caterina is shocked when she learns that Gerd has been back in Berlin for years without telling her. He now lives in East Berlin and has started a new family. Monika and her sisters discover that her parents "stole" the dance school from a Jewish family that were sent to a death camp in WW2. When he came back to Berlin after the war, Gerd was full of shame and couldn't return to his former life. In the meantime, Monika finds out that she's pregnant – with Freddy's child. Urged by both Freddy and her mother, she thinks about having an abortion. During a subway ride, Caterina tells Monika that her real father is Fritz Assmann and not Gerd Schöllack. In the end, Monika decides to keep the child. The series ends with Monika leaving Berlin with Freddy. The series was so successful that a sequel was filmed: "Ku'damm '59" takes place in 1959 and also consists of 3 parts. Another sequel, "Ku'damm '62" will premiere in 2020. in 2017, Sonja Gerhardt was nominated for an "International Emmy" as "Best Actress" for her portrayal of Monika Schöllack. The sequel:

RTL has apparently decided to cancel its daily soap "Freundinnen" (Girlfriends) which debuted on August 28th, 2018. Initially, RTL only ordered 159 episodes. The last new episode was shown on April 12th, 2019 – since then, they've been repeating the show from the very beginning. "Freundinnen" had several cross-overs with "Unter uns" (both shows air back-to-back): After taking a leave from UU, Milos Vukovic appeared as his UU character Paco Weigel on "Freundinnen" for a brief run at the end of 2018. Vukovic returned to UU full-time in April 2019. In episode 116 of "Freundinnen", former UU regular Stefan Bockelmann joined the contract cast as his UU character Malte Winter. Bockelmann had been a regular on UU from 2001 to 2017. Last but not least, Kai Noll briefly appeared as his UU character Rufus Sturm on "Freundinnen" in February and March 2019. Noll has been a steady cast member on UU since 2003. Now RTL has announced that a new daily soap will take "Freundinnen's" place in the fall. The new show is called "Herz über Kopf" (a pun on the idiom "Hals über Kopf" which means "Head over Heels" – "Herz über Kopf" literally translates as "Heart over Head") and is supposed to be a mixture of a daily soap and a crime show. According to a press release, actors Mandy Neidig, Felix Maximilian, Daniel Sellier, Sarah Mangione and Tanja Tischewitsch are among the cast. Due to its weak lead-in "Freundinnen", UU's ratings have gone down the drain as well. Currently the repeats of "Freundinnen" have a market share between 3 and 4%. Ratings of the past 3 days: May 27th: Sturm der Liebe: Total viewers 1.65m | Market share: 15.0% | Market share 14-59: n/a Unter uns: Total viewers 0.98m | Market share: 7.3% | Market share 14-59: 9.3% Alles was zählt: Total viewers 1.75m | Market share: 7.8% | Market share 14-59: 11.0% GZSZ: Total viewers 2.7m | Market share: 10.4% | Market share 14-59: 18.1% May 28th: Sturm der Liebe: Total viewers 1.5m | Market share: 13.9% | Market share 14-59: n/a Unter uns: Total viewers 0.92m | Market share: 6.7% | Market share 14-59: 9.1% Alles was zählt: Total viewers 2.09m | Market share: 9.1% | Market share 14-59: 12.6% GZSZ: Total viewers 2.89m | Market share: 10.9% | Market share 14-59: 19.0% May 29th: Sturm der Liebe: Total viewers 1.49m | Market share: 15.7% | Market share 14-59: n/a Unter uns: Total viewers 0.77m | Market share: 6.6% | Market share 14-59: 8.0% Alles was zählt: Total viewers 1.62m | Market share: 8.4% | Market share 14-59: 12.6% GZSZ: Total viewers 2.35m | Market share: 10.7% | Market share 14-59: 19.9%

RTL is promoting the hell out of it. Promo for GZSZ's primetime episode: "Am 30. April... gefangen im Netz der Intrigen... Laura: Ich glaube, diesmal wird alles gut... Jo: Dass ich so was noch einmal erlebe... Katrin: Mich zu unterschätzen ist ein großer Fehler... Doch wer hält am Ende alle Fäden in der Hand? Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten in Spielfilmlänge! Am 30. April!" "On April 30th... caught in a web of intrigues... Laura: I believe that everything will go well this time... Jo: Can't believe I'm going through this once again... Katrin: Underestimating me is a big mistake... But in the end, who will pull the strings? Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten in feature-length! On April 30th!" And the promo for "Nachtschwestern"... basically the plot is about two women who used to be best friends... then one of them slept with the husband of the other one... the friendship ended, and years later they unexpectedly become colleagues as night nurses. The promo is a bit boring, though.

On April 30th, 2019, GZSZ is going to have another 90-minutes primetime episode. This year, the special will focus on the Gerner clan (Katrin & Jo vs. Laura) and Emily's stalker Karla. The primetime episode is followed by the premiere of the new primetime soap "Nachtschwestern" (Night Nurses) and a "GZSZ – Behind the Scenes" special. "Nachtschwestern" stars former soap actors Ines Quermann (née Kurenbach, ex-UU), Mimi Fiedler (ex-UU), Sila Sahin (ex-GZSZ), Oliver Franck (ex-GZSZ) and Nassim Avat (ex-AWZ). GZSZ also updated its opening two weeks ago. This was the first update since fall 2017. Eric Stehfest (Chris Lehmann), Lea Marlen Woitack (Sophie Lindh), Luise von Finckh (Jule Vogt) and Linda Marlen Runge (Anni Brehme) were removed. Valentina Pahde (Sunny Richter), Daniel Fehlow (Leon Moreno), Iris Mareike Steen (Lilly Seefeld) and Chryssanthi Kavazi (Laura Weber) reveived new footage. Thomas Drechsel's (Max "Tuner" Krüger) scene is a recycled shot from 2017. The previous opening showed him together with Linda Marlen Runge (Anni Brehme). This is the first opening to feature Olivia Marei (Toni Ahrens), Maximilian Braun (Luis Ahrens), Gamze Senol (Shirin Akinci) and Timur Ülker (Nihat Güney). Contract stars Gisa Zach (Yvonne Bode), who debuted in January, and Nils Schulz (Robert Klee), who debuts this week, were not added. Here are the 3 versions: Version 1: Valentine Pahde (Sunny Richter) – Ulrike Frank (Katrin Flemming) – Wolfgang Bahro (Jo Gerner) – Berlin Alexanderplatz – Jörn Schlönvoigt (Dr. Philip Höfer) & Felix von Jascheroff (John Bachmann) – Thaddäus Meilinger (Felix Lehmann) – Brandenburg Gate – Olivia Marei (Toni Ahrens) & Maximilian Braun (Luis Ahrens) – Maria Wedig (Nina Ahrens) – Berlin Subway – GZSZ Version 2: Anne Menden (Emily Wiedmann) – Clemens Löhr (Alexander Cöster) – Eva Mona Rodekirchen (Maren Seefeld) – Berlin Alexanderplatz – Felix van Deventer (Jonas Seefeld) & Niklas Osterloh (Paul Wiedmann) – Valentina Pahde (Sunny Richter) – Brandenburg Gate – Daniel Fehlow (Leon Moreno) – Gamze Senol (Shirin Akinci) – Berlin Subway – GZSZ Version 3: Wolfgang Bahro (Jo Gerner) – Ulrike Frank (Katrin Flemming) – Berlin Alexanderplatz – Valentine Pahde (Sunny Richter), Gamze Senol (Shirin Akinci) & Iris Mareike Steen (Lilly Seefeld) – Thomas Drechsel (Max "Tuner" Krüger) – Brandenburg Gate – Timur Ülker (Nihat Güney) – Iris Mareike Steen (Lilly Seefeld) – Chryssanthi Kavazi (Laura Weber) – Berlin Subway – GZSZ AWZ last updated its opening in January 2019. Tanja Szewczenko (Diana Sommer), Christian Feist (Damian Steinkamp) and Heike Warmuth (Carmen Bauer) were removed. This is the first opening to feature Tijan Njie (Moritz Brunner), Christopher Kohn (Dr. Finn Albrecht) and Madeleine Krakor (Steffi König). Bela Klentze (Ronny Bergmann) was eventually re-added to the opening, as was returning cast member Francisco Medina (Maximilian von Altenburg). In addition, the order was slightly changed. Contract star Birte Glang (as a recast Lena Öztürk), who debuted only three weeks later, was not added. These are the two current versions: Version 1: Tatjana Clasing (Simone Steinkamp) – Sam Eisenstein (Marian Öztürk) – Silvan-Pierre Leirich (Richard Steinkamp) –Cheyenne Pahde (Marie Schmidt) – Igor Dolgatschew (Deniz Öztürk) – Tijan Njie (Moritz Brunner) – Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen (Jenny Steinkamp-Öztürk) – Francisco Medina (Maximilian von Altenburg) – Jörg Rohde (Ben Steinkamp) – Maike Johanna Reuter (Pauline Reusch) – Alles was zählt Version 2: Julia Augustin (Vanessa Steinkamp-Lukowski) – Lars Korten (Christoph Lukowski) – Ania Niedieck (Isabelle Pachlhuber) – Christopher Kohn (Dr. Finn Albrecht) – Tatjana Clasing (Simone Steinkamp) – Silvan-Pierre Leirich (Richard Steinkamp) – Madeleine Krakor (Steffi König) – André Dietz (Ingo Zadek) – Bela Klentze (Ronny Bergmann) – Franziska Benz (Michelle Bauer) – Alles was zählt

Unfortunately, they shut down that website when TVnow was relaunched. 😶 TVnow is still uploading classic episodes of GZSZ and UU. Currently, GZSZ is up until episode #290 (July 1993), and UU is up until episode #220 (October 1995). In addition, premium users have access to every episode since May 2007. For AWZ, the whole series is available for streaming. Cancelled soaps that are available for streaming: Verbotene Liebe (1995-2015): https://www.youtube.com/user/verboteneliebe1994/playlists has uploaded most episodes Alles oder Nichts (2018-2019): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8l-jbLsudDXOC6kkBxm0gw/videos has the whole series Marienhof (1992-2011): https://www.youtube.com/user/masterof1990/videos has some full episodes, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEg8dmaYzd0X7hu4KNHcuNA/videos has a lot of episodes Mallorca – Suche nach dem Paradies (1999-2000): https://www.youtube.com/user/suchenachdemparadies/videos has the whole series Alle zusammen – jeder für sich (1996-1997): https://www.youtube.com/user/allezusammen1996/videos has the whole series Ahornallee (2007): The whole series is available on TVnow Some Comings and Goings: In an unexpected turns of events, Daniel Fehlow (Leon Moreno) has been written out of GZSZ. The actor first joined in April 1996, departed in May 1999, and then returned in April 2001. Thus, he's the show's second longest-running cast member. Episodes had to be edited to conceal Fehlow's sudden exit. At the same time, Fehlow's wife Jessica Ginkel, who starred as Caroline Neustädter on GZSZ from 2006 to 2009, also announced her exit from the successful primetime series "Der Lehrer" (The Teacher). Reasons are unknown, and it's unclear whether Fehlow returns to GZSZ in the near future. Also on GZSZ, Nils Schulz has been cast in the new contract role Robert Klee. Robert is a successful architect and is probably becoming Nina's (Maria Wedig) new love interest. Apparently, he's also the father of Brenda, a character that recurred on the show last summer. Brenda was a classmate of Nina's son Luis (Maximilian Braun). She blackmailed Luis with a video showing him masturbating. Her heavy bullying almost pushed Luis into suicide. Maike Johanna Reuter (Pauline Reusch) is departing AWZ in April 2019. The actress joined the contract cast in October 2017. Pauline is the latest member of AWZ's "Failed Leading Lady" club. In turn, Ron Holzschuh has joined AWZ in the role of Nicolas Nadolny, a new enemy of the Steinkamp family. Holzschuh previously played the devilish Bernd von Beyenbach for several years on "Verbotene Liebe", and he also had a recurring role on UU in 2014. AWZ has a cross-over with the show "Vermisst" (Missing). In AWZ's storyline, Moritz (Tijan Njie) is searching for his long-lost father. Sandra Eckhardt, host of "Vermisst", will appear on AWZ as herself and reunites Moritz and his father.

In honor of TVnow uploading GZSZ and UU from the very beginning – the whole first year of GZSZ is up already, and the first 70 episodes of UU as well – I've deviced to translate a summary of the first 100 episodes of GZSZ, covering May to October 1992. I will do the same for the first 100 episodes of UU as well. As GZSZ was adapted from the Australian soap "The Restless Years", the first year of the soap (and its Dutch adaption "Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden") had the same storylines and characters as the original, with only minor tweaks. Both GZSZ and GTST went their own ways after episode 230. Only a few months before graduation, a group of friends drops out of high school because they are curious about the "real life" and want to be independent. Peter Becker (1st actor: Matthias Hinze, 2nd actor: Sali Landricina) is regularly beaten up by his father Erwin (Werner Kanitz) and thus wants to move out from home. His mother Gerda (Christiane Reiff) is not a big help because she's too afraid to stand up to Erwin. When a fight escalates, Peter hits his father back for the very first time. A short time later, Peter learns that Erwin and Gerda only adopted him. He doesn't want to return home and finds shelter at his best friend Heiko Richter's (Andreas Elsholz) home. Peter wants to find a job, but that's easier said than done. A while later, he gets the chance to become the manager of the "Parkcafé". Heiko's parents Clemens (Frank-Thomas Mende) and Vera Richter (Angela Neumann) own a spacious home in the suburbs, where Heiko grows up in a well-protected environment. While Clemens works as an art director at Oswald Löpelmann's (Bernhard Heinrich Herzog) advertising agency, Vera takes care of the house and the garden. The domestic idyll breaks to bits when Clemens and Vera tell Heiko that they're getting divorced because Clemens has started an affair with his secretary Claudia Wedemaier (1st actress: Andrea Höhne). Vera consoles herself with Clemens's choleric colleague A.R. Daniel (Hans Christiani). Together, they drown their sorrows in alcohol. Only when Claudia becomes involved with Oswald and wants to marry him does Clemens realize that he's made a big mistake. While Oswald soon sends Claudia to Paris, Clemens returns to Vera. A while later, they're excpecting a second child. Also, they're heading to Wilkenstein where they are supposed to manage a new subsidiary of Oswald's agency. Patrick Graf (Alexander Kiersch), son of business mogul Richard Graf (1st actor: Lutz Moik), also drops out of school. None of the friends particularly like him because he's obnoxious and bigheaded. Patrick believes that having a rich dad will open up any door for him, but then he learns that Richard doesn't want to support him at all. Patrick starts working as an intern at Oswald's agency where he has to work under Clemens and Daniel. Both men can't stand him while Oswald takes a liking to him. Before Oswald follows Claudia to Paris, he hands over all duties to Clemens and appoints Patrick as his right-hand man. Daniel feels overlooked and resigns from the agency. Heiko's girlfriend Tina Ullrich (1st acress: Sandra Keller) wants to become a successful singer or model. Her parents died when she was a little girl, and she lives with her much older brother, the doctor Frank Ullrich (Johannes Baasner), who has his own doctor's office. Frank is against Tina's future plan, but she has a mind of her own and soon meets the wrong people. Patrick promises her to make her famous. After breaking up with Heiko, Tina becomes engaged to Patrick, but then she learns that she's pregnant with Heiko's child. She wants to have an abortion but Heiko wants to fight for the child's life and even turns to the media to bring the story into the news. Tina is involved in a car accident and loses the child. When Heiko receives the news, he is heartbroken and leaves to town. He strands at the farm of the Hahnich family and lives there for a while. Heiko almost dies when he is eletrocuted. At the hospital, he is reunited with his parents Clemens and Vera and returns home soon after. Elisabeth Meinhart (Lisa Riecken), who was the teacher of Heiko and the others, is terminally ill and has to quit her job. When she tries to kill herself in the 1st episode, she is rescued by Peter. That they are mother and son is a secret that only comes to light years later! After a very complicated surgery, Elisabeth's condition improves significantly. In the meantime, Daniel establishes the "Domi-Ziel", a shelter for homeless and troubled youths. Both Elisabeth and Peter become staff members. Tina's best friend Elke Opitz (Claudia Weiske) has different problems: She drops out of school because she's having an affair with her teacher Michael Döring (Michael Spitzl). Elke and Michael soon become engaged. Elke has to say goodbye to her parents because they are moving to Rostock. She moves in with her neighbor Elisabeth. While looking for a job, Elke meets Julia Backhoff (Marie-Christine Herriger), a former friend who has left school some time earlier. Julia has supposedly found a good job and is making a lot of money. But it's fool's gold: Julia's working as an escort for the shady Lilo Gottschick (Suzanne Ziellenbach). Lilo was once also one of Elisabeth's students and still hates her. Lilo also wants to hire Elke and Elke agrees. However, she is shocked when she learns that Julia sleeps with her clients. Thus, she quits the job at Lilo's agency. Elke doesn't suspect that Lilo has an affair with Michael. One day, Michael rapes Elke who is still a virgin. A few days later, Michael is murdered and Elke is the main suspect. It takes a while until the true culprit is found: It is Michael's ex-wife Annette Döring (Claudia Arnold-Brauner). Shortly after, Elke learns that her mother was killed in a car accident. Her father wants her to move away with him, but Elke decides to stay in town. She moves in with her friends Marina Geppert (Natascha Pfeiffer) and Martin Sommer (Oliver Polster) and starts working as a receptionist at Frank's doctor's office. Frank falls in love with Elke but she is still traumatized and rejects him. In the meantime, Julia falls in love with Peter whom she doesn't tell about her job as a prostitute. When he learns the truth, he wants to leave town with her to forget the past, but misunderstandings between the couple lead to a sudden break-up. Julia leaves for Cyprus, but returns a while later and starts working at the "Classic Hotel". She soon gets Heiko a job as a night porter. Julia and Heiko start spending time together which angers Peter. Tina and Frank are visited by a woman who introduces herself as their presumed dead aunt Helga (1st actress: Nora Bendig). She soon becomes an essential part of the Ullrich household and embarks on a relationship with Daniel, but then she is haunted by her past: Her dangerous ex-husband Erik West (Michael Griem) has fled from an asylum and is somewhere out there to get her. Marina, who at first works as a waitress at the "Parkcafé", hopes to meet the man of her dreams. She is, however, ill-fated. Because of her naivety, Marina is caught in the clutches of the fortuneteller Frau Simone (Brigitte Mira). Soon she spends her whole money for sessions with Frau Simone and only trusts the words of the old woman. Frau Simone tells Marina that Elisabeth is a bad influence and that she will die on the next 13th. Furthermore, there's the young married couple Bertram (Dirk Borchardt) and Denise Köhler (Viktoria Voigt), who are friends with Peter and Tina. They don't have enough money for them and their little son to survive. When Denise tells her husband that's pregnant again, Bertram asks her to get an abortion. As she doesn't have the money for a legit doctor, Denise goes to a quack doctor. Afterwards, she has medical problems. However, all ends well for the Köhlers: Bertram finds a well-paid job and he and Denise are last seen moving to a new and spacious apartment. Original Cast: Matthias Hinze † – Peter Becker #1 (contract: 1992) Frank-Thomas Mende – Clemens Richter (contract: 1992-2010, guest: 2011) Angela Neumann – Vera Richter (contract: 1992-1997) Andreas Elsholz – Heiko Richter (contract: 1992-1996) Sandra Keller – Tina Ullrich, later Zimmermann #1 (contract: 1992-1996) Claudia Weiske – Elke Opitz, later Opitz-Graf † (contract: 1992-1997, guest: 1999, killed off-screen: 2012) Alexander Kiersch – Patrick Graf, Sr. † (contract: 1992-1996) Natascha Pfeiffer – Marina Geppert, later Richter (contract: 1992-1993) Marie-Christine Herriger – Julia Backhoff (contract: 1992-1993) Johannes Baasner – Dr. Frank Ullrich (contract: 1992-1993) Lisa Riecken – Elisabeth Meinhart, later Daniel, later Buhr, later Richter (contract: 1992-2010, guest: 2011) Hans Christiani – A.R. Daniel (contract: 1992-2009) Suzanne Ziellenbach – Lilo Gottschick (contract: 1992-1993) Later additions: Sali Landricina – Peter Becker #2 (contract: 1992-1995, recurring: 1995-1996) Notes: Peter Becker was recast a third time with Patrick Harzig when the character was re-introduced as a contract role in 1999. Harzig lasted in the role until 2002. Tina Ullrich-Zimmermann was recast briefly in 2000 with Ulrike Frank when the character was brought back to launch GZSZ's primetime spin-off "Großstadtträume". The show failed big time and was canceled after 7 episodes. All the others were recurring characters and none of them lasted beyond the first year. Two characters were recast when they were re-introduced as recurring characters in later years: Richard Graf (briefly in 1996) and Claudia Wedemaier-Löpelmann (for several months in 1993-1994).

I have mixed feelings about this. AON's premise was excellent, as was the first batch of episodes. They had the chance to create something really great – but they forgot one thing: Every show needs characters the audience can identify with. On AON, however, everyone turned out to be either devious, dumb or bratty. The only standout character was Melissa, but the sudden recast obviously scared away half of the already small audience. Compared to the other soaps, the pacing is also too slow. If you're the new soap among a bunch of established ones, you need to bring in the big guns. AON just couldn't deliver. --- GZSZ's Felix van Deventer (Jonas Seefeld) takes part in the upcoming 13th season of "Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!" (I'm a Celebrity – Get Me out of Here!). --- RTL released a "Best of 2018" video for GZSZ: https://www.rtl.de/cms/so-war-das-gzsz-jahr-2018-4273645.html "After a one-night-stand with Leon (Daniel Fehlow), Maren (Eva Mona Rodekirchen) found out that she was pregnant. She and Alex (Clemens Löhr) broke up, but after the birth of little Emma, the couple reconciled. Because of Leon's infidelity, (Lea Marlen Woitack), Leon and Sophie (Lea Marlen Woitack) ended up getting a divorce. Sophie found a new love in Maren's son Jonas (Felix van Deventer). Jo Gerner (Wolfgang Bahro) had the worst year of his life [I beg to differ]: He got buried alive by the criminal Sascha Keller and lost his home and his company to his nemesis Felix (Thaddäus Meilinger). Gerner's granddaughter Sunny (Valentina Pahde) also experienced a personal trauma as she was involved in Keller's accidental death. However, 2018 also offered many beautiful moments: Emily (Anne Menden) and Paul (Niklas Osterloh) got married, just like Felix and Laura (Chryssanthi Kavazi). Nina's (Maria Wedig) daughter Toni (Olivia Marei) returned home after five years of not speaking to her family, and John found a new love in Shirin (Gamze Senol)."

Unfortunately, I don't think that's possible for any of the soaps. 😶 Sat.1 has just announced that "Alles oder Nichts" has been canceled. The daily soap has been taken off the network's schedule immediately. Episode #50 last Friday was the last episode to be aired on Sat.1. However, production will continue for a few more weeks as the series will receive a proper ending and the remaining episodes will be shown online and on the smaller channel Sat. 1 Emotions. As of today, 101 episodes have been completed.

While GZSZ's 6666th episode was another ratings success for RTL, Sat.1's daily "Alles oder Nichts" is almost dead. Yesterday, the show reached a new low: Only a meager 0.38 million people tuned in, which means a market share of 1.8 % in its timeslot. Doesn't help that lead actress Sarah Maria Besgen had to leave the soap for health reasons in episode #45. Her character Melissa Brock is now being played by Tanja Wenzel, who had her first acting gig on GZSZ in the mid 90s (back then as a brunette). She later had a contract role for 5 years on "Verbotene Liebe" (with blonde hair) and also played a major part in the telenovela "Anna und die Liebe" (again with blonde hair). Now she's back to being a brunette. But seriously, couldn't they have found an actress who at least looks a bit like Sarah Maria? 😶 Sarah Maria's last scene as Melissa: Tanja's first scene as Melissa:

Both Emma Caulfield (Susan) and Jason Wiles (Colin) were promoted to "Also Starring" status in the middle of season 6 (Wiles two episodes before Emma, if I remember correctly) so I think both were supposed to become regulars at a later point. In season 5, both Jamie Walters and Kathleen Robertson were credited as "Also Starring" before becoming regulars in season 6. They completely destroyed Susan's and Colin's characters only two or three episodes before the season 6 finale so them being written out probably was a rather quick decision.

Probably the most unexpected #1 song in recent months: It came out of nowhere and was/is #1 in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland (plus #2 in UK and many other European countries).

GZSZ ends the year 2018 with its 6666th episode. The year closes with a big bang: The battle for the Gerner empire is at full blast. Will Katrin and Jo lose everything and take it without a whimper? No, never! They contrive a bold scheme and declare war on Felix and Laura! Meanwhile, Sunny makes a big mistake: She takes drugs to numb her exam anxiety. Of course this doesn't end well and she ends up in the ice-cold Spree river while the New Year's celebrations are going on around her. Will Sunny die? What will happen in 2019? Will Sunny be rescued and by whom? Will one character really die? What will happen to Maren, Alex, Leon and the baby that nobody had planned? Will Gerner regain control over his empire? Who will fall in love, who will break up? In addition, RTL has now begun to upload the very first episodes from 1992 to its streaming portal TVNOW. All episodes from 2006 to today are already available for premium users. The ladies at the photo shoot: The stars of AWZ, UU and GZSZ are thankful for 100.000 subscribers to the RTL youtube channel:

Official Promo: 6000 Episodes of UU (naked butt alert!) "We have laughed... we have suffered... we have lived... 6000 episodes full of emotions... we are celebrating 6000 episodes of Unter uns... Tuesday 5.30!" Backstage: Taking Selfies Interview: "How many autograms have you given?"

I haven't watched it often (my grandmother used to watch it religiously though from the very beginning until the early 2000s), so I can't comment on the show's stories. The special thing is that "Lindenstraße" has never changed its producers: Hans W. Geißendörfer created the show in 1985 and is still Executive Producer as of today. In 2015, his daughter Hana Geißendörfer joined the production team. In all objectivity, the show can definitely be called a "cultural artifact" because it was the first tv show to tackle topics like HIV (in straight and gay characters), homo, bi- and transsexuality, environmentalism, vegetarism, Islamism and terrorism, criticism of the armed forces, pressure to achieve in society, unemployment, stalking, assisted suicide, integration problems, current politics and so much more. "Lindenstraße" has always had a multicultural cast, most notably families of Turkish, Greek and Italian origin. Despite being a weekly half-hour show, the show has a cast of roughly 40 main characters. --- Since the soap year 2018 is almost over, it's time for a little retrospective. Current soap schedule: 2.10 pm Rote Rosen (ARD) 3.10 pm Sturm der Liebe (ARD) 5.00 pm Freundinnen (RTL) 5.30 pm Unter uns (RTL) 8.30 pm Alles oder nichts (Sat.1) 7.05 pm Alles was zählt (RTL) 7.40 pm Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (RTL) Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (1992-present, RTL) Total episodes in 2018: 251 (#6415 to #6666 [#6515, #6516 and #6517 were shown as a 90 minute episode on the same day]) Current cast: http://www.soapsworld.de/gute-zeiten-schlechte-zeiten-gzsz/besetzung Contract arrivals: Olivia Marei as Toni Ahrens (July 2018-present) Gamze Senol as Shirin Akinci (February 2018-present; recurring previously) Timur Ülker as Nihat Güney (September 2018-present) Contract departures: Oliver Franck as Martin Ahrens (August 2017-February 2018) Linda Marlen Runge as Anni Brehme (August 2013-August 2018) Confirmed for 2019: Departing: Lea Marlen Woitack as Sophie Lindh (March 2014-2019) Arriving: Gisa Zach as Yvonne Bode (January 2019-present) Unter uns (1994-present, RTL) Total episodes in 2018: 249 (#5766 to #6015) Current cast: http://www.soapsworld.de/unter-uns-uu/besetzung Contract arrivals: Sharon Berlinghoff as Vivien Köhler (July 2018-present) Linda König as Larissa Huber (April 2018-present) Yannik Meyer as Conor Weigel (September 2018-present) Contract departures: Pauline Angert as Kay-C Schneider (September 2016-April 2018) Nora Koppen as Elli Schneider Weigel † (September 2015-October 2018) Milos Vukovic as Paco Weigel (May 2000-December 2018) Alles was zählt (2006-present, RTL) Total episodes in 2018: 249 (#2844 to #3093) Current cast: http://www.soapsworld.de/alles-was-zaehlt-awz/besetzung Contract arrivals: Christopher Kohn as Dr. Finn Albrecht (October 2018-present; recurring previously)* Madeleine Krakor as Steffi König (October 2018-present) Tijan Njie as Moritz Brunner (October 2018-present; recurring previously)* * Still listed as recurring in the closing credits, but listed as contract on the show's website Contract departures: Daniel Buder as Vincent Thalbach (September 2016-February 2018) Christian Feist as Damian Steinkamp (November 2017-November 2018) Juliette Greco as Lena Öztürk #1/#3 (May 2007-January 2013; September 2013-August 2018) Francisco Medina as Maximilian von Altenburg (October 2007-October 2013; November 2014-April 2015; January 2017-April 2017; January 2018-April 2018) Tanja Szewczenko as Diana Sommer (September 2006-January 2009; April 2016-November 2018) Heike Warmuth as Carmen Bauer (February 2016-December 2018) Confirmed for 2019: Arriving: Birte Glang as Lena Öztürk #4 (2019-present) Freundinnen (2018-present, RTL) Total episodes in 2018: 86 (#1 to #86) Alles oder nichts (2018-present, Sat.1) Total episodes in 2018: 47 (#1 to #47) Current cast: https://www.sat1.de/tv/alles-oder-nichts/darsteller Rote Rosen (2006-present, ARD) Total episodes in 2018: 227 (#2573 to #2800) Current cast: http://www.daserste.de/unterhaltung/soaps-telenovelas/rote-rosen/darsteller/index.html Sturm der Liebe (2005-present, ARD) Total episodes in 2018: 225 (#2839 to #3064) Current cast: http://www.daserste.de/unterhaltung/soaps-telenovelas/sturm-der-liebe/darsteller/index.html Lindenstraße (1985-present, ARD) Total episodes in 2018: 45 (#1610 to #1655) Current cast: https://www1.wdr.de/daserste/lindenstrasse/personen/aktive/index.html