German soaps: GZSZ, UU & AWZ

[DRW50]

Geez. VL fans must be crushed That false hope is so cruel. Who let that happen??

Deniz's female love interests clearly have no luck.

[Huntress]

And his latest love interest doesn't have any luck either: Letizia von Altenburg will be brutally killed off in November.

In the spring of 2013, Letizia Kaldenhoff arrived in Essen to become a dancer at the "Steinkamp Dance Academy". She was born in Argentina, but spent most of her life in New York where she studied dancing. At the "Dance Academy" she met her former lover Lukas Levin. The two continued their affair, but Letizia had competition in Julia Meyer, another dancer. Both fought over Lukas and over being the best dancer at the academy. Letizia also found out that Maximilian von Altenburg is her biological father. Thus, she is a member of the wealthy Steinkamp family – the family who owns the "Dance Academy". Letizia moved into the Steinkamp mansion. When Lukas chose Julia, Letizia was furious and set the academy on fire. Constanze, an employee, died in the fire. Letizia put the blame on Julia. She only told her grandma Simone, Maximilian's mother, the truth.

A bit later, Maximilian's old nemesis Rafael Suarez returned to destroy Maximilian once and for all. After luring Maximilian into a trap, he buried Maximilian alive. However, when Rafael later checked Maximilian's graveside, the grave was empty. Maximilian had disappeared and hasn't been found since.

Letizia was devastated about her father's apparent death. In 2014, she confessed that she was responsible for the fire and faced charges. Letizia became broke and almost homeless. When Deniz was nice to her and helped her, she became attracted to him even though he was in a steady relationship with Melanie. Behind Melanie's back, Letizia tried to win Deniz for herself. Next month, Melanie will find out the truth. She will break up with Deniz and hastily leave town (Melanie's portrayer Anna Katharina Fecher is also one of the 7 fired cast members).

Meanwhile, Rafael returns again because he wants to know where Maximilian is. He feels that Simone knows something and takes Vanessa and Letizia hostage to blackmail the Steinkamp family. Eventually, Rafael brutally shoots Letizia in front of Vanessa. Her last airdate is November 17th, 2014.

Edited September 24, 2014 by Huntress

[Huntress]

Preview Pictures for October/November 2014:

Unter uns

01. Bambi (Benjamin Heinrich, right) threatens Rolf (Stefan Franz) to stay away from his family 02. Till (Ben Ruedinger, left) senses that something is going on between Sascha and Eva and asks Malte (Stefan Bockelmann) for his opinion 03. Joe (Sarah Hannemann) agrees to continue working with Orkan (Karim Günes) 04. Micki (Joy Lee Juana Abiola-Möller) tries to make Tobias jealous by dancing with Nikos (Chronis Karakassidis) 05. Ringo (Timothy Boldt) tries to settle a dispute between Kira (Barbara Prakopenka) and Kimberly (Maja Lehrer) 06. When her colleague Tom (Frederic Heidorn, right) molests her, Lisa (Svenja Jung) takes matters into her own hands 07. Leonie (Maria Kempken) and Paco (Milos Vukovic) plan their wedding 08. Ute (Isabell Hertel, left) and Henning (Benjamin Kiss) ask Kimberly to stay with them 09. Eva (Claudelle Deckert) threatens to ruin Rolf's life once and for all 10. Eva breaks down because of her pill addiction

Alles was zählt

01. Raquel (Yara Hassan) meets Toni (new series regular Michéle Fichtner) for the first time 02. Melanie (Anna Katharina Fecher, left) is furious when she witnesses an intimate moment between Deniz (Igor Dolgatschew) and Letizia (Jennifer Dessin-Brasching) 03. After breaking up with Deniz, Melanie leaves town and says goodbye to her friends Bea, Ben, Ingo, Julia, Lena and Can 04. Larissa (Naima Fehrenbacher, middle) arrives in town and meets her half-sister Isabelle (Ania Niedieck, right) 05. Rafael (Nikolas Schmid) seeks revenge and kidnaps Letizia 06. Julia (Jenny Bach, middle) tries to forget her sorrows and dances the night away 07. Katja (Anna Katharina Samsel) and Can (Volkan Isbert) cannot mend their relationship 08. Rafael holds Letizia and Vanessa (Julia Augustin) at gunpoint 09. After the diner has burnt down, Bea (Caroline Frier) and Ingo (André Dietz) are in trouble 10. Rafael shoots Letizia in the head while Vanessa has to watch 11. Richard (Silvan-Pierre Leirich) and Simone (Tatjana Clasing) are confronted with Letizia's bloody corpse 12. Can and his new girlfriend Susi (Sarah Thonig)

Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten

01. Leon (Daniel Fehlow, left) visits Tayfun (Tayfun Baydar) in the hospital 02. Tuner (Thomas Drechsel) undergoes heart surgery 03. Nele (Ramona Dempsey) is furious after Mesut (Mustafa Alin) has ruined her favorite top 04. Ayla (Nadine Menz) tries to support Tayfun whose life has been shattered 05. Vince (Vincent Krüger) is beaten up 06. Jo (Wolfgang Bahro) proposes to Sophie (Lea Marlen Woitack) 07. Mieze (Franziska van der Heide) takes care of Vince 08. Jasmin (Janina Uhse, middle) is jealous when Anni (Linda Marlen Runge) flirts with Lia (Alisa Nikolaus) 09. Dominik (Raul Richter) and Elena (Elena Garcia Gerlach) get married 10. Nele catches the bridal bouquet

Verbotene Liebe

01. Olli (Jo Weil) consoles Bella (Janina Isabell Batoly), not knowing that she is in love with the same guy he is lusting after 02. And that would be Jo (Mickey Hardt) who soon shares an intimate moment with Olli 03. Tanja (Miriam Lahnstein, right) plays the victim to gain Elisabeth's (Martina Servatius) trust 04. Tim (Marc Barthel) finds a gun in his dead father's belongings 05. The Helmke brothers – Jo, Frank (Christoph Kottenkamp) and Tim – go on a fishing trip 06. Rebecca (Tatjana Kästel) and Kim (Nicole Mieth) have trouble at work 07. Elisabeth's nerves are strained and she starts taking sedative medication 08. When she surprises him looking through confidential files, Emilio (Florian Wünsche) seduces Tanja 09. Tim's ex-girlfriend Gina (Sila Sahin) arrives in town 10. Andi (Dominic Saleh-Zaki) apologizes to his girlfriend Bella and his flatmate Sascha (Sascha Pederiva) for being too jealous, not knowing that they have slept together behind his back

Edited October 12, 2014 by Huntress

[Huntress]

Say goodbye to "Verbotene Liebe", say hello to "Vergeltung".

Today it was announced that the 20-year old soap "Verbotene Liebe" will not only change its broadcasting format from daily to weekly airings, the show will also receive a new name. From 2015 on, the drama will be known as "Vergeltung" ("Revenge"/"Vengeance"/"Payback").

The premise: A new character, Mila von Draskow, arrives in town to take revenge on the aristocratic von Lahnstein family. Mila is a friend of Nico von Lahnstein (Verena Zimmermann-Bonato). The latter returns to the canvas full-time after being on contract from 2002 to 2007 and again from 2010 to 2012. She last appeared in this year's online special. Three other new cast members have started filming this month.

Similarities to the US primetime drama "Revenge" cannot be denied. In Germany, the original "Revenge" is shown on VOX, a sister channel of RTL.

[Ben]

That sounds like one of those odd decisions that will either work or fail. Curtailing the number of episodes from being a daily drama to a weekly drama is one thing, but changing the whole show is completely different. They may as well start a new show.

Current viewers may have problems adapting to the new format, as surely it will no longer feel like VL, even though it will centre around familiar characters. I guess they aren't bothered about existing viewers as there isn't many, and are hoping they can entice old viewers/new viewers to tune in.

I guess they will be getting rid of several characters in order to sustain the weekly format? It does sound eerily similar to Revenge (right down to the new title), which I think shows a lack of imagination.

What do current fans think of these plans? I wouldn't be happy if I was a fan.

[Huntress]

They weren't happy and voiced their opinions all over the internet.

The next day, a network executive declared that the show will still be called "Verbotene Liebe" and that the renaming was just a misunderstanding. Yeah, right.

This whole thing is a mess and they should have just cancelled the show instead of sucking the last drop of blood out of it.

But VL is not the only soap that's in trouble. I wrote about AWZ's mass firing a while ago (the firings of Anna Katharina Fecher, Hannes Sell, Jennifer Dessin-Brasching, Jenny Bach, Yara Hassan, Michéle Fichtner and Naima Fehrenbacher), and now the once so powerful GZSZ is also suffering from declining ratings.

Since two more fan favorites are leaving during the next few weeks – Raul Richter's Dominik Gundlach will be killed off in November and Jascha Rust's Zac Klingenthal will depart the canvas in December –, the producers are obviously afraid that even more viewers will dump the soap, so they decided to bring back two former fan favorites: Felix von Jascheroff and Isabell Horn return to the soap in January 2015.

Both actors left the show this past February after their characters John Bachmann and Pia Koch got married. Back then, it was reported that von Jascheroff was leaving the show after 13 years because he wanted to other things. His co-star Isabell Horn had to leave with him because the writers didn't know what to do with Pia once John was gone. Now both actors are reportedly very happy to be back on the set.

This is only the second time in the 22-year old show's history that GZSZ is bringing back a former character as a contract role. The only other case was Daniel Fehlow as Leon Moreno who returned in 2001 after a two-year absence. He's still on contract as of today. Usually former contract roles only appeared as guests after their exit, or former recurring roles were upgraded to contract roles.

[Huntress]

Not only will Isabell Horn return to GZSZ, she will also bring her character Pia to AWZ. According to an interview she gave this week, the actress said that she will mainly film for AWZ while visiting GZSZ from time to time.

This will be the first big crossover in the history of German soaps. In 2010, GZSZ and AWZ already had a short crossover when AWZ's Simone and Richard Steinkamp came to Berlin to attend an event hosted by GZSZ's Katrin Flemming.

There are also news regarding VL's future: The first six weekly episodes will bring closure to the current storylines and will result in a big showdown. Beginning with episode 7, the show will move into a new direction, probably with a smaller main cast. The season will then end with a cliffhanger before the summer break. In April 2015, the network has to decide whether the show will live on for another season.

Next week, another mixture of a daily soap and a reality show starts airing on RTL weekdays at 5 pm, right before "Unter uns". The show is called "Berlin Models" and – guess what – follows the antics of a bunch of models working for an agency in Berlin. I cannot see this show lasting longer than three months.

This is the official website: http://www.rtl.de/cms/sendungen/berlin-models-unser-leben-unser-traum.html

[DRW50]

So it's a reality show but will be on five days a week? That could be interesting, but the model concept seems so played out.

[Huntress]

Yes, it will be shown five days a week.

"Berlin Models" is RTL's answer to RTL2's "Berlin – Tag & Nacht" (Berlin – Day & Night) which was launched in 2011 and which airs against AWZ and GZSZ. BTN's success was responsible for a change of tone on the daily soaps because in order to stay interesting they had to dumb down their storylines, put more emphasis on sex and changed the way the characters speak. The language has become way more colloquial and characters use swear words all the time now.

The whole cast on BTN consists of amateur actors who portray fictious people. Like most reality shows, scenes of their everyday lives are mixed with short interviews where they comment on what has happened. The whole look and feel is just trashy, but more than 1 million people tune in every day. BTN's success even spawned a spin-off "Köln 50667" (50667 Cologne) which has been on the air since 2013.

Even the official website looks trashy: http://www.rtl2.de/sendung/berlin-tag-und-nacht

RTL2 is generally regarded as being low-class television. Their most successful programs are BTN, "Köln 50667", "Frauentausch" (Wife Swap) and other strange reality shows. They also brought "Big Brother" to German television in 2000.

Edited November 7, 2014 by Huntress

[DRW50]

Do they have one of those "dating naked" shows or am I thinking of something else?

Do you think the dumber soap material has helped lead soaps to lose some of their fans?

[Huntress]

There was a show called "Adam sucht Eva – Gestrandet im Paradies" which is based on the Dutch original "Adam zkt. Eva". I think the US version is called "Dating Naked". In Germany, the show ran on RTL between August and September 2014. The first season consisted of six episodes which were shown Thursdays at 10 pm. It was watched by ca. 1 million people.

"Berlin Models" started two days ago and only 700.000 people watched the first episode. I expect the show to be off the air within 3 months. It is hilariously bad.

So now that the soap year 2014 is almost over and previews have arrived covering the first week of January 2015, it is time to take a look at this year's cast changes. Only contract roles are listed:

Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten

In:

Philipp Christopher as David Brenner (March 2014 to present)

Felix van Deventer as Jonas Seefeld (July 2014 to present)

Nadine Menz as Ayla Höfer #2 (recast, May 2014 to present)

Eric Stehfest as Chris Lehmann (December 2014 to present)

Lea Marlen Woitack as Sophie Lindh (March 2014-present)

Placed on contract:

Mustafa Alin as Mesut Yildiz (recurring from May 2011 to December 2013; contract since January 2014)

Elena Garcia Gerlach as Elena Castillo (recurring from July 2013 to March 2014; contract since October 2014)

Out:

Felix von Jascheroff as John Bachmann (July 2001 to February 2014 -> character returns next year)

Isabell Horn as Pia Koch (March 2009 to February 2014 -> character returns next year)

Merlin Leonhardt as Till "Bommel" Kuhn (recurring from August 2012 to December 2013; contract from January to July 2014)

Raul Richter as Dominik Gundlach Gerner (December 2007 to November 2014)

Jascha Rust as Zacharias "Zac" Klingenthal (March 2011 to November 2014)

Sila Sahin as Ayla Höfer #1 (September 2009 to February 2014 -> character was recast)

Unter uns

In:

Svenja Jung as Lisa Brück (January 2014 to present)

Maria Kempken as Leonie Weidenfeld #2 (recast; April 2014 to present)

Ines Kurenbach as Caro Kasper (August 2014 to present)

Maja Lehrer as Kimberly Pötter (June 2014 to present))

Out:

Anne Apitzsch as Sonja Beckmann (August 2012 to May 2014)

Stefan Franz as Rolf Jäger (contract from June 2002 to April 2013; limited return from September to December 2014)

Eric Langner as Paul Beckmann (August 2012 to May 2014)

Marylu-Saskia Poolman as Anna Weigel #3 (September 2010 to July 2014)

Barbara Prakopenka as Kira Beckmann (August 2012 to October 2014)

Alles was zählt

In:

Julia Augustin as Vanessa Steinkamp (August 2006 to April 2009; August 2010 to February 2012; August to September 2013; October 2014 to present)

Naima Fehrenbacher as Larissa Schuhmann (October 2014 to present)

Michèle Fichtner as Toni Fuchs (October 2014-present)

Christina Klein as Iva Lubowski (October 2014-present)

Francisco Medina as Maximilian von Altenburg (October 2007 to October 2013; limited return from November 2014 to present)

Alexander Wüst as Erik Schulte (May 2014-present)

Out:

Carlo Degen as Joscha Degen (June 2013 to May 2014)

Jennifer Dessin-Brasching as Letizia von Altenburg (March 2013 to November 2014)

Anna Katharina Fecher as Melanie Wendt (August 2011 to July 2012; June 2013 to October 2014)

Alexander Gier as Dr. Kai Seebach (November 2013 to May 2014)

Andreas Hofer as David M. Degen (February 2013 to May 2014)

Marc Schöttner as Lukas Levin (April 2013 to May 2014)

Hannes Sell as Felix Landeck (May to October 2014)

Verbotene Liebe

In:

Marc Barthel as Tim Helmke (October 2014 to present)

Clara Gerst as Lara Cornelius #2 (recast; October 2014 to present)

Mickey Hardt as Jo Helmke (September 2014 to present)

Out:

Till Demtrøder as Thomas Wolf (April 2011 to October 2014)

Jana Julie Kilka as Jessica Stiehl (January 2010 to September 2014)

Melanie Kogler as Marlene Wolf von Lahnstein (January 2011 to September 2014)

Christoph Mory as Hagen von Lahnstein #2 (May 2011 to April 2013; May 2014 to September 2014)

Philipp Oehme as Thore Hellström (December 2013 to October 2014)

Kim Riedle as Giselle Schulz (February to October 2014)

Daniel Sellier as Dr. Ricardo Mendes (June 2011 to September 2014)

Katja Sieder as Caro Schulz (December 2013 to October 2014)

Susanne Szell as Biggi Schumann (November 2013 to October 2014)

Diane Willems as Dana Wolf (January 2011 to September 2014)

Edited November 30, 2014 by Huntress

[DRW50]

What do you think of Jo/Olli on VL? It must be weird for the guy who plays Olli, as his name is Jo.

[Huntress]

I don't like them that much. The actor who plays Jo is very unattractive to me and I still cannot understand that they wasted Olli/Sascha after so many months of build-up.

Tomorrow, Unter uns celebrates 20 years on the air. For this special occasion, RTL put up 20 classic (and not so classic because they are quite recent) episodes for free. All of these episodes are the first appearances of new contract roles.

You can find them here: http://rtl-now.rtl.de/unter-uns.php?reiter=2

[Huntress]

UU's original opening sequence:

http://youtu.be/GIEkY4yhGR0

Edited December 1, 2014 by Huntress

[CassieFan]

Verbotene liebe will start airing in Croatia, starting December 19th on HRT 1 channel. The show is translated as "Straight to your heart". I think they'll start with Mallorca episodes, since they mention Jan, Clarissa and Julia.

Fun fact - RTL Television had its own version of 'Forbidden love', daily soap that ran from 2004 to 2008. In it, Jan, Julia and Clarissa were Daniel, Petra and Victoria.