Huntress

I'm not Carl, but I can answer

Yes, Clarissa's on her way out again. Her return in the Mallorca storyline in 2011 was great, but once Jan and Julia had left in January 2012 and Clarissa had been relocated to Düsseldorf, they didn't know how to use her. Her last airdate is March 20th, 2013. According to an official statement, Isa Jank is just taking an extended break, but we all know what that means.

Remo Schulze who has played Clarissa's nephew Timo Mendes since 2011 is also on his way out. So are Krystian Martinek (Ludwig von Lahnstein) and Christoph Mary (Hagen von Lahnstein). Both apparently die in a plane crash.

VL still suffers from very poor ratings. We can be lucky if the show survives into 2014.

AWZ on the other hand has been retooled again with the introduction of the "Dance Academy", run by Jenny and Simone Steinkamp. Four new characters have arrived on the scene:

• Andreas Hofer as David M. Degen, a dance instructor, who will be torn between Jenny and Simone
• Jenny Bach as Julia Meyer, an aspiring dancer and Bea's younger sister
• Jennifer Dessin-Brasching as Letizia Kaldenhoff, Julia's biggest rival in the academy and Maximilian's long-lost daughter from Argentina
• Marc Schöttner as Lukas Levin, David's son, a dancer and a love interest for Julia and Letizia

Jenny Bach, Marc Schötter and Jennifer Dessin-Brasching on the AWZ set

The show has also featured a lot of nude scenes lately, most notably by Jörg Rohde (Ben Steinkamp) and Volkan Isbert (Can Öztürk).

I found Jasmine Guy's acting very flat and fake. She somehow tried to imitate Heather Locklear in the way she uttered her lines, but failed miserably.

Estonian is such a beautiful language

 

A major German soap website conduced a poll on last year's most popular characters, actors and couples.

Here are some of the results:

Alles was zählt

-> Who's who? http://www.soapsworld.de/alles-was-zaehlt-awz/besetzung

Favorite male character 2012

Ingo Zadek 23.9 %
Ben Steinkamp 18.5 %
Deniz Öztürk 13.2 %
Dr. Axel Schwarz 9.50 %
Richard Steinkamp 8.67 %
Maximilian von Altenburg 7.85 %
Florian Wild 6.19 %
Marian Öztürk 4.95 %
Rüdiger Steinkamp 4.13 %
Jan Marco Schöler 2.89 %

Favorite female character 2012
Isabelle Steinkamp 20.4 %
Annette Bergmann 18.0 %
Simone Steinkamp 11.4 %
Beatrice Meyer 9.01 %
Vanessa Steinkamp 8.19 %
Katja Bergmann 8.19 %
Sarah Wendt 5.32 %
Franziska Steinkamp 5.32 %
Lena Bergmann 4.09 %
Jenny Steinkamp 4.09 %
Zoé Laffort 2.45 %
Viktoria König 2.04 %
Melanie Wendt 1.22 %

Best actor 2012
André Dietz (Ingo Zadek) 30.2 %
Jörg Rohde (Ben Steinkamp) 18.6 %
Daniel Aichinger (Dr. Axel Schwarz) 14.5 %
Silvan-Pierre Leirich (Richard Steinkamp) 10.4 %
Francisco Medina (Maximilian v. Altenburg) 7.55 %
Igor Dolgatschew (Deniz Öztürk) 6.97 %
Ulrich Drewes (Rüdiger Steinkamp) 4.65 %
Michael N. Kuehl (Florian Wild) 4.65 %
Sam Eisenstein (Marian Öztürk) 1.74 %
Salvatore Greco (Jan Marco Schöler) 0.58 %

Best actress 2012
Ania Niedieck (Isabelle Steinkamp) 26.9 %
Tatjana Clasing (Simone Steinkamp) 19.2 %
Ulrike Röseberg (Annette Bergmann) 14.6 %
Julia Augustin (Vanessa Steinkamp) 9.35 %
Caroline Frier (Beatrice Meyer) 7.01 %
Anna-Katharina Samsel (Katja Bergmann) 5.84 %
Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen (Jenny Steinkamp) 4.67 %
Juliette Menke (Lena Bergmann) 3.50 %
Katharina Woschek (Zoé Laffort) 2.92 %
Christina Siemoneit (Sarah Wendt) 2.33 %
Julia Engelmann (Franziska Steinkamp) 1.75 %
Anna Katharina Fecher (Melanie Wendt) 1.16 %
Rosetta Pedone (Viktoria König) 0.58 %

GZSZ

-> Who's who? http://www.soapsworld.de/gute-zeiten-schlechte-zeiten-gzsz/besetzung

Favorite male character 2012

Patrick Gerner 21.2 %
John Bachmann 17.4 %
Tayfun Badak 14.6 %
Vince Köpke 10.4 %
Dr. Jo Gerner 10.4 %
Dominik Gerner 7.61 %
Max "Tuner" Krüger 6.98 %
Zac Klingenthal 5.07 %
Philip Höfer 3.17 %
Alexander Cöster 1.58 %
Leon Moreno 1.26 %

Favorite female character 2012
Emily Höfer 34.2 %
Lilly Seefeld 27.6 %
Katrin Flemming-Gerner 11.8 %
Maren Seefeld 6.64 %
Pia Koch 6.29 %
Jasmin Flemming 5.24 %
Ayla Özgül 4.19 %
Tanja Seefeld 3.14 %
Jacky Krüger 0.69 %

Best actor 2012
Björn Harras (Patrick Gerner) 38.2 %
Wolfgang Bahro (Dr. Jo Gerner) 16.9 %
Felix von Jascheroff (John Bachmann) 10.4 %
Tayfun Baydar (Tayfun Badak) 8.26 %
Vincent Krüger (Vince Köpke) 6.08 %
Raul Richter (Dominik Gerner) 5.65 %
Jascha Rust (Zac Klingenthal) 3.91 %
Thomas Drechsel (Max "Tuner" Krüger) 3.47 %
Jörn Schlönvoigt (Philip Höfer) 3.47 %
Daniel Fehlow (Leon Moreno) 1.73 %
Clemens Löhr (Alexander Cöster) 1.73 %

Best actress 2012
Anne Menden (Emily Höfer) 41.2 %
Iris Mareike Steen (Lilly Seefeld) 17.9 %
Ulrike Frank (Katrin Flemming-Gerner) 14.3 %
Senta-Sofia Delliponti (Tanja Seefeld) 6.72 %
Isabell Horn (Pia Koch) 6.72 %
Eva Mona Rodekirchen (Maren Seefeld) 6.72 %
Sila Sahin (Ayla Özgül) 2.69 %
Janina Uhse (Jasmin Flemming) 2.24 %
Samia Dauenhauer (Jacky Krüger) 1.34 %

Unter uns

-> Who's who? http://www.soapsworld.de/unter-uns-uu/besetzung

Favorite male character 2012

Tobias Lassner 37.7 %
Erik Hansen 34.7 %
Easy Winter 8.19 %
Ringo Beckmann 6.88 %
Till Weigel 2.61 %
Rolf Jäger 2.25 %
Malte Winter 1.90 %
Paco Weigel 1.78 %
Bela Hoffmann 1.42 %
Moritz Schönfeld 0.83 %
Rufus Sturm 0.59 %
Henning Fink 0.59 %
Paul Beckmann 0.23 %
Nils Hoffmann 0.11 %

Favorite female character 2012
Micki Fink 36.8 %
Sina Uhland 29.3 %
Eva Wagner 10.5 %
Britta Schönfeld 5.68 %
Ute Fink 3.83 %
Suji Wagner 3.30 %
Anna Weigel 2.64 %
Rebecca Mattern 2.24 %
Lili Mattern 2.24 %
Kira Beckmann 1.84 %
Irene Weigel 1.05 %
Sonja Beckmann 0.26 %
Bine Kern 0.13 %

Best actor 2012
Patrick Müller (Tobias Lassner) 36.1 %
Maximilian Claus (Erik Hansen) 32.5 %
Timothy Boldt (Ringo Beckmann) 7.89 %
Stefan Franz (Rolf Jäger) 6.45 %
Lars Steinhöfel (Easy Winter) 4.16 %
Stefan Bockelmann (Malte Winter) 3.87 %
Kai Noll (Rufus Sturm) 3.15 %
Ben Ruedinger (Till Weigel) 2.43 %
Milos Vukovic (Paco Weigel) 1.29 %
Bela Klentze (Bela Hoffmann) 0.86 %
Martin Baden (Nils Hoffmann) 0.57 %
Marvin Linke (Moritz Schönfeld) 0.28 %
Benjamin Kiss (Henning Fink) 0.28 %
Eric Langner (Paul Beckmann) 0.14 %

Best actress 2012
Joy Lee Juana Abiola-Müller (Micki Fink) 37.5 %
Valea Scalabrino (Sina Uhland) 26.5 %
Tabea Heynig (Britta Schönfeld) 12.5 %
Claudelle Deckert (Eva Wagner) 11.2 %
Marylu Saskia Poolman (Anna Weigel) 4.61 %
Imke Brügger (Rebecca Mattern) 2.63 %
Isabell Hertel (Ute Fink) 1.53 %
Sarah Bogen (Lili Mattern) 0.87 %
Petra Blossey (Irene Weigel) 0.65 %
Mine Voss (Suji Wagner) 0.65 %
Barbara Prakopenka (Kira Beckmann) 0.65 %
Ela Paul (Bine Kern) 0.21 %
Anne Apitzsch (Sonja Beckmann) 0.21 %

Verbotene Liebe

-> Who's who? http://www.deutsche-dailys.de/verbotene-liebe/rollen

Favorite male character 2012

Oliver Sabel 35.8 %
Christian Mann 27.8 %
Ansgar von Lahnstein 10.2 %
Tristan von Lahnstein 8 %
Sebastian von Lahnstein 5.2 %
Ricardo Mendes 5.2 %
Arno Brandner 3.06 %
Emilio Sanchez 1.86 %
Timo Mendes 0.93 %
Andi Fritzsche 0.8 %
Thomas Wolf 0.26 %
Ludwig von Lahnstein 0.26 %
Hagen von Lahnstein 0.26 %
Daniel Fritzsche 0.13 %

Favorite female character 2012
Rebecca von Lahnstein 22.0 %
Tanja von Anstetten 13.6 %
Marlene von Lahnstein 12.5 %
Charlie Schneider 11.7 %
Bella Jacob 11.5 %
Jessica Stiehl 9.85 %
Dana Wolf 4.19 %
Clarissa von Anstetten 3.98 %
Helena von Lahnstein 3.14 %
Nico von Lahnstein 2.93 %
Kim Wolf 1.88 %
Leonie Richter 1.46 %
Viktoria Wolf 1.04 %

Best actor 2012
Jo Weil (Oliver Sabel) 35.1 %
Thore Schölermann (Christian Mann) 23.5 %
Jens Hartwig (Tristan von Lahnstein) 12.7 %
Wolfram Grandezka (Ansgar von Lahnstein) 9.62 %
Daniel Sellier (Ricardo Mendes) 6.46 %
Sebastian Schlemmer (Seb. von Lahnstein) 5.83 %
Konrad Krauss (Arno Brandner) 3.47 %
Florian Wünsche (Emilio Sanchez) 1.10 %
Till Demtrøder (Thomas Wolf) 0.78 %
Krystian Martinek (Ludwig von Lahnstein) 0.63 %
Remo Schulze (Timo Mendes) 0.47 %
Christoph Mory (Hagen von Lahnstein) 0.15 %
Dominic Saleh-Zaki (Andi Fritzsche) 0 %
Dirk Moritz (Daniel Fritzsche) 0 %

Best actress 2012
Tatjana Kästel (Rebecca von Lahnstein) 26.3 %
Miriam Lahnstein (Tanja von Anstetten) 15.6 %
Melanie Kogler (Marlene von Lahnstein) 11.8 %
Gabriele Metzger (Charlie Schneider) 10.4 %
Janina Isabell Batoly (Bella Jacob) 10 %
Jana Julie Kilka (Jessica Stiehl) 8.18 %
Isa Jank (Clarissa von Anstetten) 4.54 %
Martina Servatius (Elisabeth von Lahnstein) 4.09 %
Diane Willems (Dana Wolf) 2.5 %
Verena Zimmermann (Nico von Lahnstein) 1.36 %
Stefanie Bock (Leonie Richter) 1.36 %
Renee Weibel (Helena von Lahnstein) 1.36 %
Nicole Mieth (Kim Wolf) 1.36 %
Patricia Schäfer (Viktoria Wolf) 0.90 %

The 7th season of Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus! ended last night. UU's Claudelle Deckert made a respectable third place.

Full results:

12. Helmut Berger (actor, had to leave early because of health reasons)

11. Silva Gonzalez (singer)

10. Klaus Baumgart (singer, replaced Berger)

09. Arno Funke (became famous for blackmailing a department store company, spent many years in jail)

08. Allegra Curtis (actress)

07. Iris Klein (ex-Big Brother-contestant, mother of starlet Daniela Katzenberger)

06. Georgina Bülowious (ex-contestant on Der Bachelor)

05. Patrick Nuo (singer and ex-judge on German Idol)

04. Fiona Erdmann (model, ex-contestant on Germany's Next Top Model, starred on the telenovela Anna und die Liebe)

03. Claudelle Deckert (actress, Unter uns)

02. Olivia Jones (drag artist)

01. Joey Heindle (ex-contestant on German Idol)

Sarah was a bad-acted character so I'm glad she's out. She should take Marco with her, though. The actor is just as horrible.

Yesterday the new season of Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus! (I'm a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!) started. Among the contestants is Claudelle Deckert, who has portrayed Eva Wagner on "Unter uns" since 2001.

An overview of all contestants can be found here: http://www.rtl.de/cms/sendungen/ich-bin-ein-star/dschungelcamp-kandidaten.html

LOL - I never noticed that before, but you're absolutely right about them using the same poses over and over again.

Alles was zählt has apparently reacted to its ratings crisis: Following the exit of Rosetta Pedone's character Viktoria König in early December, Christina Siemoneit's Sarah Wendt is also on her way out, which brings Sarah's and Marco's (Salvatore Greco) frontburner love story to an end. Siemoneit first aired in September 2011 and will last air in February 2013. Marco will be paired with resident villain Isabelle (Ania Niedieck) instead.

For the first time in the history of German soaps, a pregnant actress will be replaced by another actress during her maternity leave. In the past, characters played by pregnant actresses were simply written off the canvas or were pregnant on the show as well. Now Juliette Menke, who has appeared on AWZ since May 2007 in the role of Lena Bergmann von Altenburg Öztürk, will be replaced by Maria Kempken as of January 2013. It has been stated that Kempken will play the role for at least six months. If Menke will return at all is a different matter. (I have never liked the character of Lena and I don't understand why she has lasted so long while her sister Annette had to die. Instead they just "cloned" Annette by introducing the character of Bea and even making Bea Ingo's (Annette's ex-husband) new love interest.)

In addition, five new characters will be added during the next few weeks, the first one making his debut in tonight's episode: Volkan Isbert as Can Öztürk, Marian's nephew and Deniz's cousin. A teenage troublemaker, Can sets his sights on Zoé (Katharina Woschek), who initially gives him the cold shoulder.

Next year, the following characters will arrive: David Degen, a dance instructor; Bea's younger sister Julia, an aspiring dancer; Marian's yet unnamed mother, who writes relationship guidebooks; and Maximilian's 19-year old daughter Letizia from Argentina. The corresponding actors are still unknown.

Verbotene Liebe is also still in trouble ratings-wise. Early next year, ARD tests a different show, "Heiter bis tödlich", in VL's timeslot on three days (February 12th to 14th). "Heiter bis tödlich" is a criminal series with comedy influences which currently airs at 6.50 p.m. – right after "Verbotene Liebe". In January 2013, "Verbotene Liebe" celebrates its 18th birthday – will the show survive or will it find the same fate as "Marienhof" which was cancelled two years ago shortly after its 18th birthday?

This happy instrumental tune has been a huge hit on the German, Austrian and Swiss charts, where it peaked at 3, 4 and 4 respectively. "Sonnentanz" means "Sun Dance".

Unter uns has updated its opening, without Nils, Bine, Rebecca and Lili and with Suji, Ringo, Kira, Sonja, Paul and Erik. This time they shuffled characters around instead of just removing and adding them.

Version A

Order: Marylu Saskia as Anna Weigel & Milos Vukovic as Paco Weigel – Joy Lee Juana Abiola-Müller as Micki Fink, Isabell Hertel as Ute Fink, Benjamin Kiss as Henning Fink & Marvin Linke as Moritz Schönfeld – Lars Steinhöfel as Easy Winter & Mine Voss as Suji Wagner – Kai Noll as Rufus Sturm – Ben Ruedinger as Till Weigel, Petra Blossey as Irene Weigel, Valea Scalabrino as Sina Uhland & Stefan Franz as Rolf Jäger – Unter uns

Changes from the previous version: Scenes 2 and 3 were swapped. Ute was shown with Eva, who was removed from this version. New footage of Micki and Henning was added to the scene. Old footage of Moritz – from scene 2 – was also added. In scene 3, Easy was previously shown with Sina, Moritz and Lili. Rufus was moved over from version B, replacing Malte's old single shot.

Version B

Order: Timothy Boldt as Ringo Beckmann, Barbara Prakopenka as Kira Beckmann, Eric Langner as Paul Beckmann & Anne Apitzsch as Sonja Beckmann – Claudelle Deckert as Eva Wagner – Bela Klentze as Bela Hoffmann, Patrick Müller as Tobias Lassner & Joy Lee Juana Abiola-Müller as Micki Fink – Valea Scalabrino as Sina Uhland & Maximilian Claus as Erik Hansen – Milos Vukovic as Paco Weigel – Stefan Bockelmann as Malte Winter & Tabea Heynig as Britta Schönfeld – Unter uns

Changes from the previous version: The Beckmann family replaces the old shot of Nils, Bine and Bela. Tobias and Micki received new footage. Sina and Erik replace Rebecca and Rufus. Ute and Henning have been removed from the final shot, which now only shows Malte and Britta.

Yeah, I read about that Josh Madden story.

In Patrick's case, the story went as the following: His parents, Patrick Sr. and Elke, were both on the show from the first episode on. They were classmates but grew apart once they had left school. One year later, Jo Gerner was introduced as Patrick's older half-brother. Sometime later that year, Elke and Patrick became a couple, but they broke up in 1994. Elke then had a short fling with Jo, which ended quickly because Jo has always been a rascal. Afterwards Elke couldn't stand Jo and she reunited with Patrick whom she eventually married in 1995. In late 1995, Patrick found out that he had brain cancer. He died in January 1996. After his death, Elke found out that she was pregnant and she gave birth to Patrick Jr. in the fall of 1996. In May 1997, Elke left town with her new boyfriend. She returned for a week in 1999.

In November 2009, an all grown-up Patrick Jr. reappeared in town and he tried to become a part of his uncle's family (which consists of Jo, Jo's son Dominik, Jo's wife Katrin, Katrin's daughter Jasmin and Jo's and Katrin's daughter Johanna). He even changed his name to become Patrick Gerner. There was a lot of turmoil between all the family members including a hostage situation.

The character of Elke was ruined in the process because she was suddenly portrayed to be a bad mother who had abandoned Patrick etc. She was eventually killed off off-screen two weeks ago. On her death bed she confessed that Patrick was Jo's son which is completely impossible because Elke would have never had sex with Jo at the time that Patrick was conceived. Because Patrick feels unloved by the Gerner family, Patrick fakes his suicide. However, he has an accident and eventually dies for real.

That's Patrick Gerner, as played by Björn Harras since November 2009. A very controversial character due to the fact that they rewrote the show's history in an implausible way just to make him Jo Gerner's son. Now Patrick's being killed off which makes the retcon even more pointless.

Poor Emily is pregnant with Patrick's child, but Tayfun will support her as it seems. They'll probably become the next hot couple since Tayfun's wife Dascha won't return to the canvas.

Preview pics for December 2012

Alles was zählt

1. Marco (Salvatore Greco) and Viktoria (Rosetta Pedone) 2. Deniz (Igor Dolgatschew), Marian (Sam Eisenstein) and Lena (Juliette Menke) 3. Simone (Tatjana Clasing), Richard (Silvan-Pierre Leirich) and Jenny (Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen) 4. Maximilian (Francisco Medina) and Isabelle (Ania Niedieck) 5. Isabelle and Maximilian 6. Jenny and Friederike (Annelinde Gerstl) 7. Simone, Richard and Rüdiger (Ulrich Drewes) 8. Marian, Deniz and Can (new contract cast member Volkan Isbert) 9. Jenny and Hendrik (Martin Rother) 10. Simone, Richard and Rüdiger

Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten

​1. Jo Gerner (Wolfgang Bahro) and his deceased son Patrick (Björn Harras) 2. Emily (Anne Menden) and Patrick 3. Gerner and Emily 4. Tayfun (Tayfun Baydar) and Emily 5. Pia (Isabell Horn), John (Felix von Jascheroff) and Leon (Daniel Fehlow) 6. Katrin (Ulrike Frank), Johanna and Gerner 7. Kurt (Tim Williams) and Jasmin (Janina Uhse) 8. Tayfun and Emily 9. Ayla (Sila Sahin) and Philip (Jörn Schlönvoigt) 10. Maren (Eva Mona Rodekirchen) and Lilly (Iris Mareike Steen)

Unter uns

​1. Eva (Claudelle Deckert) 2. Paco (Milos Vukovic) and Anna (Marylu Saskia Poolman) 3. Micki (Joy Lee Juana Abiola-Müller) and Tobias (Patrick Müller) 4. Till (Ben Ruedinger) and Irene (Petra Blossey) 5. Eva and Till 6. Erik (Maximilian Claus) and Sina (Valea Katharina Scalabrino) 7. Tobias and Kira (Barbara Prakopenka) 8. Tobias, Micki and Bela (Bela Klentze) 9. Easy (Lars Steinhöfel) and Suji (Mine Voß) 10. Irene and Anna

Verbotene Liebe

​1. Marlene (Melanie Kogler) 2. Ricardo (Daniel Sellier), Ludwig (Krystian Martinek) and Elisabeth (Martina Servatius) 3. Assistant, Tanja (Miriam Lahnstein) and Rebecca (Tatjana Kästel) 4. Olli (Jo Weil) and Charlie (Gabriele Metzger) 5. Olli and Bella (Janina Isabell Batoly) 6. Ludwig 7. Rebecca and Marlene 8. Jessica (Jana Julie Kilka) and Olli 9. Clarissa (Isa Jank) and Ansgar (Wolfram Grandezka) 10. Kim (Nicole Mieth) and Emilio (Florian Wünsche)

Actually you can't take this award show seriously. The so-called "jury" consisted of three people from various gossip magazines and of course mainly teenagers took part in the internet voting. "Hand aufs Herz" and "Anna und die Liebe" had (and still have) a huge online fanbase (HaH mainly due to its lesbian couple Emma and Jenny), but apart from these people, hardly anyone watched these shows so they were cancelled.

And a category for the sexiest person? A bit shallow, if you ask me. I guess Sila Sahin only won because she appeared totally nude in the German edition of "Playboy" last year which was quite a scandal since she is a Muslim.

Last night the German Soap Award took place for the second time. The winners were determined by a jury and internet voting.

The winners were:

Best actress: Lucy Scherer (currently stars as Marlene on "Sturm der Liebe", was also nominated for her role as lesbian student Jenny on the cancelled soap "Hand aufs Herz")

Best actor: Wolfram Grandezka (has appeared as Ansgar von Lahnstein von "Verbotene Liebe" since 2004, starred on "Unter uns" from 1998 to 2000)

Best villain: Sarah Mühlhause (starred as Carla Rhönstedt on the cancelled soap "Anna und die Liebe" from 2010 to 2012)

Sexiest female: Sila Sahin (has appeared as Ayla Özgül on "Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten" since 2009)

Sexiest male: Frederic Heidorn (starred as Ronnie on the cancelled soap "Hand aufs Herz")

Best newcomer: Caroline Maria Frier (currently stars as Bea on "Alles was zählt", previously appeared on the cancelled soap "Hand aufs Herz")

Best couple: Sila Sahin and Jörn Schlönvoigt (Ayla & Philip) from "Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten". They are a couple in real life as well.

Female fan favorite: Kasia Borek (starred as lesbian student Emma on "Hand aufs Herz" and as photographer Olivia on "Anna und die Liebe", both shows were cancelled)

Male fan favorite: Jo Weil (has appeared as Oliver on "Verbotene Liebe" from 2000 to 2002 and since 2007)

Best soap: "Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten"

Best social issues-orientated storytelling: "Unter uns"

Special sprize: Marie-Luise Marjan (has appeared as Helga Beimer on "Lindenstraße" since the first episode in 1985)

No, Deniz is still on the canvas. Apparently he will turn out to be the father of Jessica's son. The baby is currently being taken care of by Marian and Lena since Marian thinks that he is the father. I think Lena will be the one to find out the truth.

The threesome story... oh well... it all sort of began in 2009 when John had an affair with Caroline, the ex-girlfriend of his best friend Tim. Caroline became pregnant with John's child, but decided to leave town with Tim since she still loved him. So in September 2009, Tim and Caroline left Berlin. John hooked up with Pia and they had a casual sex affair which evolved into a serious relationship as time went by. Pia even convinced John to meet his new-born son.

In 2010, Pia's half-sister Verena married Leon, an old buddy of John's. Verena and Leon have a son, Oskar. In July 2011, Verena was run over by a car and died. Leon was of course devastated. Pia tried to support him and took care of Oskar. Pia and Leon grew closer and eventually had sex. Now Pia is torn between John and Leon because she wants to be with both of them, She even proposed a threesome which I think John turned down. Currently they have some sort of "shared" relationship where Pia spends time with Leon on certain days and with John on other days. Pia now wants them all to move in together. It's all very weird and the whole storyline is very unpopular with the audience.

There was a similar storyline before in 2005 with Lena (John's older sister), Tim and Henrik which was thankfully scrapped after a short time.

Are you sad about any of these departures?

Apart from those on GZSZ, no. The teens on GZSZ are currently the only thing worth watching, especially Lilly's bulemia storyline. The worst storyline at the moment is that awful Pia/Leon/John threesome storyline.

AWZ has become a problem for RTL during the past few weeks. The soap lost a huge part of its market share thanks to "Berlin – Tag und Nacht" ("Berlin – Night & Day), a scripted reality show, which runs opposite AWZ on RTL2. "Berlin – Tag & Nacht" is so successful that two similar shows set in Cologne and Hamburg will be produced in the near future. I personally don't understand why people like to watch amateur actors doing stupid stuff and screaming at each other instead of a high quality production with real actors.

Anyway, AWZ needs to up their game in order to stay on the air.

Wasn't it rumored at the time that the original plan was to have Jake and Amanda, not Michael and Sydney?

I'm pretty sure that early press releases stated that David was supposed to be Jake's son. David even looked like he could be Jake's son and the whole character was clearly modelled after him.

Amanda was supposed to get murdered in the pilot, but Heather Locklear didn't want Amanda to die and therefore did not agree to appear in the reboot. Only when the show was already in serious danger of cancellation did she accept to return. The whole reboot must have cost the CW a lot of money, considering that Locklear and Leighton were among the highest-paid TV actresses in the 90s.

Courtney Thorne-Smith was also slated to appear in the reboot, but that never materialized.

Some casting news:

• On AWZ, Rosetta Pedone is already out as Viktoria König. Pedone joined the soap in July 2012.
  
• Meanwhile, two recurring cast members return to the canvas soon: Anneline Gerstl will once again portray Friederike von Altenburg, Simone's devious mother. Gerstl first appeared in 2007 and has made sporadic appearances ever since. Following the cancellation of the telenovala "Wege zum Glück", where she played one of the lead roles, Andrea Cleven is also back on AWZ as Jessica Haagner, the Jenny look-alike and Marian's ex lover. Cleven previously portrayed the character from fall 2010 to spring 2011.
  
• On GZSZ, Björn Harras is out as Patrick Gerner aka Patrick Graf, Jr. Harras joined the soap in November 2009. His character is supposed to have a "shocking ending".
  
• Also on GZSZ, Senta-Sofia Delliponti will be taking an extended break from the soap. Delliponti joined the soap in December 2010 as Tanja Seefeld. After trying to kill her bulemic younger sister Lilly (Iris Marike Steen) under the influence of drugs, Tanja flies to the US to live with her father Kurt (Tim Williams) – however, Kurt is on his way back to Berlin simultaneously, so Tanja's fate will be probably left unknown for a while – if she does return after all. According to rumors, Delliponti – and several of her younger co-stars – want to leave the show for good, but the producers want to keep them no matter what. In the case of Björn Harras, they weren't successful.
  
• On UU, Maximilian Claus returns as teacher Erik Hansen this week. The character was initially conceived as a short-term recurring role and debuted in June 2011. Eric's romance with his student Sina Uhland (Valea Scalabrino) proved to be a huge success with the audience so the story arc was extended until December 2011. Then Claus departed the show because he wanted to do theater work and Eric subsequently left to New Zealand. Now Maximilian Claus has been placed on contract and Eric is back to woo Sina once more.
  
• On VL, Renee Weibel and Dirk Moritz are out. Weibel joined the soap in October 2009 as Helena von Lahnstein, and Moritz first appeared as a recast Daniel Fritzsche in November 2011. The recast clearly wasn't successful.
  

What did you think of them? I know Florian was Roman's brother. I guess he had no role without Roman.

Both Florian and Franziska were introduced in 2010 to revitalize the teen scene. While Florian is of course Roman's younger brother, Franziska is the niece of Richard Steinkamp. When Franziska's father Rüdiger, Richard's brother, went to jail, the Steinkamps decided to let Franziska stay with them.

Florian became a member of the ice hockey squad. Franziska disguised herself as a boy to become a player as well and she was admitted into the team under the name "Frank Schneider". After a while, Franziska fell in love with Florian. He also developed feelings for "Frank" and feared that he was gay. Eventually, Franziska revealed herself as being a girl. Initially, Florian was shocked, but then he forgave her and the two became a couple.

Their relationship ended during the summer of 2011 when Florian began an affair with the much older Lena Bergmann von Altenburg Öztürk. Florian and Lena stayed together until Lena decided to marry Marian who was in danger of being deported to Turkey. Florian couldn't handle the whole situation and broke up with Lena. A while ago, Florian had a little fling with Zoé but she just used him.

Franziska had little to do other than fighting with teen brat Melanie Wendt. In July 2012, her father Rüdiger (now a contract role and played by a different actor) was released from prison. There was a lot of potential for their strained relationship but little happened because Rüdiger is currently focused on taking revenge on Richard and seducing Richard's wife Simone. The teens were just pushed to the sidelines.

Two more cast members have decided to leave Alles was zählt: Michael N. Kuehl (Florian Wild) and Julia Engelmann (Franziska Steinkamp) have already filmed their goodbye scenes and will last air in October. Both actors joined the show in 2010. Following their departures – Florian and Franziska will leave town together – the teen scene on AWZ will be non-existant, with the recently SORASed Zoé (Katharina Woschek) being the only character under the age of 20.

 

 

 

 

It was... I remember watching this as a 10-year old. But I never felt sorry for Antonia because I couldn't stand her Laura on the other hand was one of my favorites because she was so nasty. She did a lot of horrible things during her 6 1/2 year run, though.

When her mother was run over by a truck and subsequently fell into a coma, Laura had to move in with the Albrechts (Marc's family). She put the blame for her mother's accident on Regina, Marc's mother, and tried to terrorize the whole family. Of course she was also constantly fighting with Antonia who was now Marc's new girlfriend. Another victim of Laura's schemes was Antonia's best friend Ute, who was a very insecure teenager and hopelessly in love with Till Weigel (the two eventually got married in January 2003 and have a son named Conor, but they split up in 2008).

Regina became a cleptomaniac. Later Laura found out that Marc's father Joachim had faked his doctor's degree. She blackmailed him and the marriage of Regina and Joachim broke apart. Joachim ended up living on the streets and disappeared on a ship to the Netherlands. After Antonia had left town, Laura and Marc had sex and Laura claimed to the pregnant. Regina didn't believe her and forced her to go to the doctor with her. On their way to the doctor's office, their taxi crashed. Regina was dead.

Marc and Laura continued to live in the Albrecht flat which was then (fall 1997) occupied by a new family, the Falkenbergs (Viktor, Claudia and their teenage daughters Jessica and Alexa). After a while, Laura found out that Viktor was her biological father.

The Falkenbergs weren't a happy family, either: Viktor was a real devil, terrorizing and degrading his wife Claudia. He even forced her to prostitute herself. In the fall of 1999, Jessica found out about her father's evil behavior and that he was plotting to kill Andreas Sandmann, the father of one of her best friends. Jessica and Andreas fled town on a motorcycle but then had a fatal crash. Both died. Alexa left town only a few episodes later. Following these events, Claudia had a nervous breakdown.

When she returned to the Schillerallee, she was a stronger woman. She threw Viktor out and began an affair with another man. Little did she know that that man was paid by Viktor. Eventually Viktor killed the other guy and walled his corpse in. When the truth came out, Viktor wanted to flee the country with Claudia. At the airport, he was killed by the rotor of an airplane. A while later, Claudia found out that new Schillerallee resident Gideon Kern was her illegitimate son. Gideon was a psychopath, and when he couldn't win his ex-girlfriend Rebecca back, he first shot her and then committed suicide. After this tragic event, Claudia left Schillerallee to live with Alexa.

Meanwhile, Laura had opened up her own modeling agency which went bankrupt after some time. After Marc had left town, Laura found a new job working at Sue Sommerfeld's advertising agency. She also moved in with Sue and her former arch enemy Ute. Her new love interest was Maximilian Pfitzer, a poor carpenter. When Laura was the victim of a hit and run accident, she told the police that Sue was the driver – which of course was not true, but Laura wanted to take over the company. Only Max believed Laura's claims, but then the truth came to light. Despite her name being cleared, Sue left town and the agency was bought by Stefan Kramer who subsequently moved into the former Falkenberg flat with his wife Helena and daughter Vicky.

Laura was courted by Markus Korte, one of Stefan's clients. Since he was able to offer Laura a luxurious life, she broke up with Max and decided to marry Stefan. The new-wed couple eft town in March 2001 and Max was heartbroken. Six months later, Laura suddenly returned to Cologne and confessed her love to Max. The two reunited and moved to Paris.

I've been watching more UU classics and those early episodes featured "the shower from hell". These particular scenes happened in episodes 15 and 18 from December 1994.

The story went as the following: In the first episode of the soap, Antonia moved to Cologne and subsequently became a student at Thomas-Mann-Gymnasium (a public high school). Marc and his ex-girlfriend Laura were among her classmates. Laura couldn't stand Antonia and tried to denounce her in front of the other students and the school's principal. Together with her best friend Carmen, she eventually forged out a devious plan. When Antonia went to shower at the school's gym after PE class, they locked her inside one of the shower stalls and turned on boiling water. Antonia was severely burned in the process. Of course Antonia and her friends Marc, Till and Heike knew that Laura was responsible for this gruesome act. Laura asked her mother to give her an alibi and put the blame on Carmen so that Carmen was expelled from school. To take revenge, Till and Marc locked Laura in one of the shower stalls and mixed the water with black ink. Laura was humiliated in front of the whole class and her mother found out about her lies.

No, "Unter uns" has never had a gay character yet.

However, Armin, who was introduced in episode 2, was only allowed to move in with Jennifer and Corinna (and Melanie, who first appeared in episode 8) because he made everyone believe that he was gay. In reality, he was head over heels in love with Corinna, who in turn was attracted to both Chris and Alexander. Armin tried to push Melanie towards Chris so that he could have Corinna for himself. Eventually, Corinna and Alexander became a couple and Chris had a fling with Melanie. Melanie became pregnant with Chris's child, but she lost the baby and got sucked into a cult. Jennifer and Armin who at first could not stand each other developed feelings for one another after the truth about Armin's sexuality had become public, but then Armin was shot.

Melanie emigrated to the United States with her new boyfriend in 1995, while Alexander moved to Brazil in 1996 to become a priest.

Corinna and Chris left town together in 1997. It has been mentioned that they got married and that they have two children now.

Jennifer lasted the longest of the original attic flat crew. In 1998, she disappeared in the dead of the night to begin a new life in Africa.

They were all of course gradually replaced by new characters. The crew of the attic flat has changed a lot during the past 18 years, but nothing compares to the original cast. Almost every younger character has lived there for at least a short period.