German soaps: GZSZ, UU & AWZ

[DRW50]

This channel seems to be uploading VL episodes. Can anyone tell me what era of the show this is or what the main stories were?

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0ba1BgIiyFiLPZOlWRINdw/videos

[Huntress]

Wow, I didn't know that channel.

The first episode that was uploaded is #1537 from June 20th, 2001 with the most recent episode being #2021 from July 21st, 2003.

The main story in 2001 was the romance between Henning von Anstetten and Marie von Beyenbach. Tanja von Anstetten who had rejoined the show in early 2001 wanted to marry Henning herself and made him and Marie believe that they were siblings. Henning and Tanja's arch nemesis Clarissa uncovered Tanja's plans and staged a wedding for Henning and Tanja. In order to receive his family fortune, Tanja planned on shooting Henning, but he wore a bullet-proof vest. Tanja then tried to flee the country. When Clarissa boarded a plane to the Bahamas, Tanja was also there dressed as a stewardess. Clarissa held Tanja at gunpoint and said "Game over, Tanja!" Then the plane crashed and both Tanja and Clarissa were presumed dead. Tanja returned in 2004 (and is still part of the weekly version) and Clarissa returned in 2011 during the Mallorca storyline.

2001 to 2003 is also considered to be the von Beyenbach era. The von Beyenbachs replaced the von Anstettens as the main aristocratic family. They consisted of patriarch Martin, mother Beatrice, and their children Marie, Felix and Franziska. In 2003, Martin's evil brother Bernd and his daughter Vanessa joined the show. Beatrice fell in love with Bernd. The von Beyenbachs were gradually phased out in the summer of 2003 with Franziska leaving to New York to start a model career, Marie becoming HIV-positive and starting a new life somewhere else, and Martin and Beatrice being killed off in a boat explosion. Felix and Vanessa lasted until 2006, and Bernd until 2007. The von Beyenbachs were replaced by the von Lahnsteins in late 2003.

Most storylines involved love triangles in all kinds of variations which has always been VL's main story formula. Best friends fighting for the same man/woman, father and son fighting for the same woman, sisters fighting for the same guy, a guy or a woman in a straight relationship falling in love with a gay character etc. pp.

Looking at the opening credits from #1537, there were the following characters:

• Clarissa von Anstetten (played by Isa Jank from 1995-2001; 2011-2013): Mentioned above.
• Carolin von Anstetten (played by Jutta Fastian from 1998-2000): Henning's ex-wife, had an affair with Christoph and got pregnant with his child, had already left the canvas at that point
• Henning von Anstetten (played by Markus Hoffmann from 1995-1996; Hendrik Martz from 1998-1999; Patrik Fichte from 1999-2002): Eventually married Marie in 2002 only to fall from a tower on his wedding day. He died immediately.
• Christoph von Anstetten (played by Jürgen Zartmann from 1995-2000): Henning's father and Clarissa's ex-husband, had an affair with his son's wife, was pushed into suicide by Clarissa in late 2000
• Christian Toppe (played by Luke Wilkins from 1999-2001): Younger brother of the late Heino Toppe, had a fling with Lara Cornelius, wanted to become a famous pop star and left town
• Lara Cornelius (played by Karoline Schuch from 2000-2002; Clara Gerst from 2014-2015): Grew up believing that Elisabeth Ryan Brandner was her aunt, moved in with the Branders, then found out that her cousin Nina Ryan is her biological mother and Elisabeth is her grandmother, had a fling with Christian and a brief relationship with Andi, followed Nina to Greece, came back to town for a brief time in 2014
• Ulli Prozeski (played by Andreas Stenschke from 1997-2000): Youngest son of the Prozeski family, Clarissa's nephew, after brief relationships with girls he turned out to be gay and was in a relationship with Tom Seifert. eventually left for Munich, had already left the canvas at that time
• Charlie Schneider (played by Gabriele Metzger from 1995-2015): Clarissa's former best friend, restaurant owner, always unlucky in love (at least until she eventually got married in 2014)
• Daniel Fritzsche (played by Markus Prinz from 1999-2002; Dirk Moritz from 2011-2012): Andi's older brother, a sports student, was in a relationship with Gabriella Santos until it was revealed that he had a child with another woman, moves to France; the character was brought back years later for a brief period
• Gabriella Santos (played by Kerstin Radt from 1999-2002): Originally from Venzuela, had to endure a rape, was a in a relationship with Daniel, cheated on him with his best friend Jonas, followed Daniel to France
• Elisabeth Ryan Brandner (played by Martina Servatius from 1999-2015): Nina's mother, Lara's grandmother, at that time Arno Brander's wife, later she married Johannes Count von Lahnstein and after that Johannes's brother Ludwig Count von Lahnstein
• Arno Brandner (played by Konrad Krauss from 1995-2012): patriarch of the Brandner family, fatherly figure for everyone, died of Alzheimer's in 2012
• Jonas Schilling (played by Matthias Beier from 2000-2001): Daniel's best friend, had affairs with Kati and Gabriella, had already left the canvas at that point
• Tom Seifert (played by Kay Böger from 1999-2003): Alexa's older brother, a doctor and openly gay, had relationships with Ulli and Olli, tried to conceive a child with his best friend Jule, grew jealous of Jule's relationship with Florian Brandner, moved to Nepal
• Alexa Seifert (played by Kerstin Kramer from 2000-2004): Tom's annoying little sister, Lara's best friend, wanted to become a dancer, had relationships with Felix von Beyenbach and Robin Brandner
• Jule Roth (played by Tanja Lanäus from 2000-2002): A bisexual woman who had relationships with Simon, Nina and Florian, conceived a child with Tom and later moved to Greece to live with Nina and Simon
• Simon Roloff (played by Clemens Löhr from 2000-2002): Older brother of Mark and Lukas, had a relationship with Jule, moved to Greece
• Nina Ryan (played by Freya Trampert from 1998-2001): A lesbian woman who had relationships with Arno's second wife Erika and later with Jule, Lara Cornelius was revealed to be her daughter, moved to Greece
• Marie von Beyenbach (played by Solveig Duda from 2000-2003): Mentioned above.
• Henning
• Clarissa
• Kati von Sterneck (played by Insa Magdalena Steinhaus in 1995; Kerstin Landsmann from 1995-2001): Daughter of Barbara von Sterneck, Christoph's step-daughter, lost her great love Heino Toppe in a plane crash, had already left the canvas at that point
• Christoph
• Mark Roloff (played by Carsten Spengemann from 1999-2003): Former bodyguard and a ladies' man, had affairs with Kati, Isabell, Marie and Cecile, felt guilty for Henning's death and eventually fell off the same tower that Henning fell down
• Isabell Mohr (played by Tanja Wenzel from 1999-2004): Carolin's younger sister, was stalked by her ex-boyfriend Sebastian, later married Florian Brandner, was drugged and raped, became pregnant by her rapist
• Carolin

The opening credits changed in episode #1605 and were completely re-done, Even though this was Clarissa's final episode, she was still featured, although only for a few days.

• Marie
• Henning
• Martin von Beyenbach (played by Günter Clemens from 2000-2001; Gerry Hungbauer from 2001-2003)
• Beatrice von Beyenbach (played by Jeannine Burch from 2001-2003)
• Franziska von Beyenbach (played by Lina Tiedtke from 2001-2003)
• Clarissa
• Tom
• Oliver "Olli" Sabel (played by Jo Weil from 2000-2002; 2007-2014)
• Charlie
• Mark
• Felix von Beyenbach (played by Andreas Potulski from 2001-2003; Stefan Kirch from 2003-2006)
• Christian
• Alexa
• Lara
• Andi Fritzsche (played by Dominic Saleh-Zaki from 2001-2007; 2009-2015)
• Daniel
• Gabriella
• Elisabeth
• Arno
• Jule
• Isabell
• Lukas Roloff (played by Christoph Dostal from 2001-2002): Mark and Simon's criminal brother, had affairs with Tanja and Charlie, went to prison after a robbery
• Henning

In episode #1617, Clarissa's shot was replaced by

• Cecile de Maron (played by Yvonne Burbach from 2001-2006): Was briefly engaged to Henning during his break-up from Marie, was in a relationship with Robin Brandner, later married Johannes Count von Lahnstein, but eventually fell in love with Johannes's son Leonard, was hit by a car and died

The next opening update occured in episode #1902 after half of the contract cast had left the show at the end of the year 2002:

• Marie
• Lars Schneider (played by Herbert Ulrich from 2002-2005): Charlie's younger brother, Olli's uncle, a lawyer, was torn between sisters Sylvia Jones and Hanna Novak
• Hanna Novak (played by Katharina Dalichau from 2002-2004): Sylvia's younger sister, was once married to David, fell in love with Lars but lost him to her sister, later embarked on a lesbian relationship with Carla von Lahnstein, died of a kidney failure (Hanna was a very popular character back in the day)
• Florian Brandner (played by Frederic A. Komp from 1995-1998; Alex Huber from 2002-2004): Arno's youngest son, was a troublemaker during his teenage days, later became a photographer and was involved with Jule and Isabell
• Isabell
• Tom
• Charlie
• Beatrice
• Franziska
• Cecile
• Robin Brandner (played by Nils Brunkhorst from 2002-2005): Arno's nephew, older brother of Jana and Nico, had relationships with Cecile, Alexa and Coco
• Jana Brandner (played by Friederike Sipp from 2002-2005; Vanessa Jung from 2005-2008): Arno's niece, younger sister of Robin, twin sister of Nico, was originally a shy girl but ended up taking drugs and working as a prostitute, was in a relationship with Andi and later married Leonard von Lahnstein, died in a car crash
• Nico Brandner von Lahnstein (played by Verena Zimmermann from 2002-2007; 2010-2012; 2015)
• Andi
• Elisabeth
• Arno
• Franziska
• Felix
• Alexa
• Beatrice
• Martin
• Sylvia Jones (played by Heike Trinker from 2002-2005): A mysterious woman who turns out to be Martin's ex-wife and Felix's biological mother

Several of these characters returned in short scenes for VL's 10th anniversary in January 2005. Except for a few instances, they did not interact with any of the current characters but appeared in the same locations. Among these characters were Carolin, Ulli, Daniel, Gabriella, Tom, Simon and Kati (and several characters pre-2000).

[DRW50]

Thanks for all those details. I really appreciate it. Do you think this period is worth watching?

So Tom was gay - was he just jealous of Jule with Florian like on a friend level, or did he have feelings for her?

[Huntress]

Well, this period belongs to a time when German soaps were very different from today, even though it's only been ~ 13 years that these episodes were shot. The lighting was glary, the sets looked like theater stages, the camera work was static, the characters were very stereotypical, storylines were fast-paced, most cast members only stayed for 2-3 years, and the acting was hit and miss. The transformation to a more realistic approach began around 2005, and today production values and acting are top-notch (except for a few exceptions here and there).

From a nostalgic viewpoint, watching these episodes can be fun. I recently watched the first year of GZSZ from 1992/1993 on DVD and I really enjoyed it for what it was, even though the acting was wooden, hardly any emotions were conveyed, and the storylines included tons of WTF moments. Back then, the shows didn't take themselves too seriously.

I don't really remember much about Tom on VL other than him being unattractive (IMO) and always frowning at people. The whole squad around Tom, Jule, Nina and Simon was really boring. The only character out of that group that was a bit interesting was Isabell, and the actress was really beautiful.

–––

On Monday's episode of Unter Uns, Sina (Valea Scalabrino) and Bambi (Benjamin Heinrich) eventually get married. For this occasion, the show released a new cast picture.

Back row (from left to right): Claudelle Deckert as Eva Wagner Weigel (2001-2006; 2008-present), Ben Ruedinger as Till Weigel #2 (2000-present), Marvin Linke as Moritz Schönfeld (2010-present), Stefano Ligorio as Gianni (recurring, 2015-present), Lars Steinhöfel as Easy Winter (2005-present), Patrick Müller as Tobias Lassner (2006-present), Benjamin Kiss as Henning Fink #2 (2010-present), Isabell Hertel as Ute Kiefer Kern Weigel Fink (1995-present), Stefan Bockelmann as Malte Winter (2001-present), Kai Noll as Rufus Sturm (2003-present), Tabea Heynig as Britta Schönfeld (2010-present)

Middle row (from left to right): Frank Voß as Uli Hirschberger (recurring, 2014-present), Petra Nadolny as Susanne Hirschberger (recurring, 2014-present), Valea Scalabrino as Sina Uhland Hirschberger (2010-present), Benjamin Heinrich as Bambi Hirschberger (2013-present), Petra Blossey as Irene Weigel (1994-present), Luca Maric as Robert Küpper (2015-present), Maria Kempken as Leonie Weidenfeld #2 (2014-present), Amrei Haardt as Jule Kasper (2015-present), Ines Kurenbach as Caro Kasper (2014-present)

Front row (from left to right): Thomas Maximilian Held as Mathieu (guest, 2015), Milos Vukovic as Paco Weigel (2000-present)

Missing contract cast members: Timothy Boldt as Ringo Beckmann (2012-present), Olivia Burkhart as Fiona Novak (2015-present), Alexander Sholti as Sascha Brenner (2013-present)

[DRW50]

Thanks. Are you enjoying UU right now?

[Huntress]

Like I've written before, UU is definitely the most stable soap. It never really had a phase where it was completely unwatchable, and its fanbase is very loyal.

The show's problem are its ever-changing lead-ins. From 1994 to 1998, the game show "Jeopardy" was UU's lead-in, followed by "The Nanny" from 1998 to 2002. In 2007, another soap named "Ahornallee" debuted at 5 pm, but it was cancelled after a few weeks due to low ratings. Since then, UU's lead-in have been various reality shows which don't really attract the same audience as UU does.

In other news: Former GZSZ actress Yvonne Catterfeld is currently celebrating her comeback as a singer. Catterfeld starred as Julia Blum on GZSZ from 2001 to 2005. In 2001, she released her first single, but it wasn't until spring 2003 that she scored her first #1 hit with "Für dich" (For You). The song and the corresponding album "Meine Welt" (My World) went platinum.

Catterfeld wasn't the only singer on GZSZ, though: Her co-star Jeannette Biedermann, who portrayed Marie Balzer from 1999 to 2004, was just as successful. Their music style was different, though, with Biedermann mainly doing pop-rock in English and Catterfeld singing in German. Biedermann eventually left the show in March 2004, while Catterfeld made her final appearance in February 2005.

In 2004, Catterfeld released her second album "Farben meiner Welt" (Colors of My World), followed by "Unterwegs" (Travelling) in 2005. Both albums went gold, and Catterfeld scored three more top 10 singles, the latest being "Erinner mich, dich zu vergessen" (Remind Me to Forget You) in 2006. The following three albums "Aura", "Blau in Blau" (Blue in Blue) and "Lieber so" (Rather Like That) were commercial flops and Catterfeld turned to acting instead.

Following Catterfeld's appearance on the tv show "Sing meinen Song" (Sing My Song) – a show where several musicians cover each other's songs (there are several versions of this show in different European countries, see Wikipedia – on May 19th, 2015, the album "Lieber so", which was originally released in 2013, received a major sales boost and hit the album charts at #14 this week, with the single of the same entering the singles charts at #24.

I'm glad that she's having commercial success again, because Yvonne has always been a talented performer.

http://youtu.be/ak2P7ukW2j0

Live performance in 2013:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_P4t6oidWI

Live performance in 2005:

http://youtu.be/WfRO3HULuBg

http://youtu.be/TTW4rJXrE3E

[Huntress]

Even though the show is virtually dead, Verbotene Liebe is receiving a double DVD release at the end of June.

UFA Serial Drama, Das Erste and Diamant Video issue the complete first season of the weekly version for 18 € and a 20 year anniversary box for 32 €. The content of the latter box was determined through an online poll. The cover art features Julia & Jan (the original "forbidden love"), Clarissa, Charlie, Arno, Ansgar, Elisabeth, Carla, Olli, Andi, Tristan, Tanja and Nico.

Diamant Video previously published two box sets of VL with episodes 1-50 and 51-100 plus single anniversary DVDs for the 2500th, 3000th and the 3500th episodes. They also released 4 box sets of GZSZ spanning episodes 1 to 200 plus a collection of anniversary episodes, and one box of UU with the show's first 50 episodes. Because of poor sales, no other sets were released.

Marienhof, which was cancelled in May 2011 (God, it's been 4 years already), had two DVD releases: One box includes the first 10 episodes from 1992 and 20 selected episodes ranging from 1995 to 2011 as well as several specials including the farewell party and the teardown of the show's sets. A second box consists of episodes 170 to 219 from 1995, which were the first 50 episodes after the show had been transformed from a weekly to a daily soap.

Meanwhile, the 10th box of The Bold and the Beautiful featuring episodes 225 to 250 was released in April. Looks like this will be the last set, though, because Fernsehjuwelen has not issued any further boxes for pre-order yet. Their releases of Guiding Light and Neighbours were discontinued after one and two boxes, respectively.

[DRW50]

Thanks. It's too bad they didn't have higher sales. I guess DVD sales are fading everywhere.

[TimWil]

I wish Netflix and hulu would add these German soaps.

[Huntress]

Goodbye, Verbotene Liebe: One hour ago, ARD announced that the soap will not be renewed for another season. The show's final episode (#4664) will be broadcast tomorrow.

Source: http://www.daserste.de/unterhaltung/soaps-telenovelas/verbotene-liebe/specials/verbotene-liebe-nach-4664-folgen-ist-schluss100.html

It's really not a big surprise, considering that ratings have not improved since February. Transforming the soap into a weekly version and getting rid of almost every familiar element clearly didn't sit well with most of the remaining fanbase.

[DRW50]

End of an era...

Will you miss it?

[TimWil]

I wish Netflix would buy all the episodes.

[Ben]

Are the remaining 3 soaps in any danger of cancellation? Or was it just VL that was struggling?

I kinda think they missed the boat on these releases. The time to release soap box-sets was during the hight of their popularity, not over a decade later when soap ratings have taken a tumble for the worst. Sales were always going to struggle. But, I give the German companies props for even trying, as no-one else has.

[Huntress]

In the 90s and early 00s, "Verbotene Liebe" and "Marienhof" (both ARD) had a larger audience than "Unter uns" (RTL). Roughly 3 million people tuned in every day. Then somehow things fell apart. "Marienhof" started struggling in 2005 and "Verbotene Liebe" followed around 2008/2009. In 2010, "Marienhof" only attracted 1.5 million viewers and had a market share of 8 %, but "Verbotene Liebe" didn't fare much better. Initially, ARD wanted to get rid of both soaps, but then they decided to cancel "Marienhof" (which aired its finale in May 2011) and to keep "Verbotene Liebe" on the air.

In the summer of 2011, VL was extended from 20 to 45 minutes to fill "Marienhof's" former time slot. The show also brought back several former characters and filmed half of its storylines on location on Mallorca for half a year. On paper, that sounded like a great idea, but most of the storylines fell flat (for example Clarissa's return), and fans were annoyed by the dominance of the von Lahnstein family.

In January 2012, episodes were shortened to 35 minutes, only to return to 45 minutes six months later. In 2013, only 1.3 million watched VL regularly and the show's average market share was 6.8%. In 2014, ARD tested several new formats in VL's timeslot so that the soap had to go on hiatus for a while. The show's cancellation was made official on July 17th, 2014. Originally, the soap was to end its broadcast run in January 2015, but then ARD decided to show the final 15 episodes of the last daily season on a weekly basis. There was a long break between November 2014 and February 2015. "Verbotene Liebe" never recovered from all the damage. Unlike "Marienhof", the show will not have a real finale but end with a cliffhanger.

The RTL soaps (GZSZ, UU and AWZ) still have solid ratings. UU and AWZ have increased their market share compared to recent years and GZSZ usually has a market share of 20%.

ARD's telenovelas "Rote Rosen" and "Sturm der Liebe" are also still going strong.

Later this year, Sat.1 will launch a new daily soap called "Mila – Allein war gestern" (roughly translated as Mila – No Longer Alone). The show's main heroine will be played by Susan Sideropoulos who portrayed Verena Koch on GZSZ from 2001 to 2011. There are also several other former soap actors among the cast, for example Simone Hanselmann (ex-GZSZ) and Jenny Bach (ex-AWZ).

[Ben]

So, what is it about the RTL soaps that makes them more popular? Are they just better written/acted? Is RTL a more popular network than ARD?