German soaps: GZSZ, UU & AWZ

[DRW50]

Thanks for sharing all the lovely photos. 

 

The hit and run story sounds like the kind of drama American and UK soaps don't know how to do now.

[Huntress]

Official promo video for AWZ's 3000th episode:

 

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And two videos of Emily and Paul's wedding on GZSZ: Teaser and Backstage.

 

 

 

[Huntress]

At the beginning of the 3000th episode, AWZ will unveil its brand new opening sequence.

 

Again, there are two versions. The theme has not been changed (and you can see Pauline and Vanessa singing the lyrics – or in Vanessa's case, it's rather bawling).

 

Everyone who appears in the new opening has appeared in the previous opening as well. However, three performers who were in the previous opening were not included this time: Francisco Medina (Maximilian von Altenburg), who departed the show in April; Juliette Greco (Lena Öztürk), who's on maternity leave and last aired August 6th, 2018; and Bela Klentze (Ronny Bergmann), who came by an injury while taking part in the 11th season of "Dancing with the Stars" and last aired on May 2nd, 2018.

 

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Version A
Order: Tatjana Clasing as Simone Steinkamp – Sam Eisenstein as Marian Öztürk – Igor Dolgatschew as Deniz Öztürk – Cheyenne Pahde as Marie Schmidt – Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen as Jenny Steinkamp – Silvan-Pierre Leirich as Richard Steinkamp –Jörg Rohde as Ben Steinkamp – Maike Johanna Reuter as Pauline Reusch – Alles was zählt

 

Version B
Order: Julia Augustin as Vanessa Steinkamp – Lars Korten as Christoph Lukowski – Ania Niedieck as Isabelle Pachlhuber – Tanja Szewczenko as Diana Sommer – Christian Feist as Damian Steinkamp – Tatjana Clasing as Simone Steinkamp – Silvan-Pierre Leirich as Richard Steinkamp – Heike Warmuth as Carmen Bauer – André Dietz as Ingo Zadek – Franziska Benz as Michelle Bauer – Alles was zählt

 

In addition, RTL launches a 4th daily drama on August 20th, 2018: "Freundinnen" (Girlfriends) airs weekdays at 5 pm, followed by "Unter uns" at 5.30 pm. The show is about 4 female friends and their daily struggles. Judging from the previews, it looks like a mixture of a soap and a sitcom. (I think I already hate it and I'm sure it won't last long.)

 

 

 

[Huntress]

AWZ: "3000 episodes – and we still haven't had enough!" (Image Campaign)

 

 

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Backstage at the Anniversary Episode Screening

Several cast members attended the Fan Event, including contract stars Jörg Rohde, Franziska Benz, Igor Dolgatschew, Silvan-Pierre Leirich, and recurring stars Roni Zorina, Christopher Kohn, Madlen Kaniuth, Ingeborg Brings and Tijan Njie.

 

 

Edited August 19, 2018 by Huntress

[DRW50]

Thank you for sharing these. I hope the fans are enjoying the anniversary.

[Huntress]

Yeah, they definitely did

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 I'm glad that AWZ finally got a lot of press coverage because the show's debut in 2006 definitely changed the quality of the remaining soaps for the better. Back then it introcuded a new standard, and even flagship GZSZ borrowed heavily from AWZ's filming and storytelling techniques.

 

RTL's new 4th daily soap "Freundinnen" went on the air last week, but ratings have been awful so far. They only managed to get half of UU's ratings (and these are not great at the moment, either).

 

Yesterday's live ratings:

 

2:10 pm: Rote Rosen | Total viewers: 1.47m | Market share: 14.5%

3.10 pm: Sturm der Liebe | Total viewers: 1.63m | Market share: 14.1%

5.00 pm: Freundinnen | Total viewers: 0.67m | Market share: 5.5% | Viewers 14-59: 0.43m | Market share: 7.7%
5.30 pm: Unter uns | Total viewers: 1.09m | Market share: 7.9% | Viewers 14-59: 0.71m | Market share: 10.7%
7.05 pm: Alles was zählt | Total viewers: 2.1m | Market share: 9.3% | Viewers 14-59: 1.37m | Market share: 13.1%
7.40 pm: Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten | Total viewers: 2.86m | Market share: 11.2% | Viewers 14-59: 2.02m | Market share: 16.5%

 

Yesterday's Top 10 programs on RTL's streaming platform:

 

01. Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (RTL - daily soap)

02. Köln 50667 (RTL2 - daily scripted reality)

03. Die Bachelorette (The Bachelorette) (RTL - weekly scripted reality)

04. Alles was zählt (RTL - daily soap)

05. Berlin - Tag und Nacht (Berlin - Day and Night) (RTL2 - daily scripted reality)

06. Shopping Queen (VOX - daily scripted reality)

07. Unter uns (RTL - daily soap)

08. Zwischen Tüll und Tränen (Between Tulle and Tears) (VOX - daily scripted reality)

09. Hilf mir! Jung, pleite und verzweifelt (Help Me! Young, Broke and Desperate) (RTL2 - daily scripted reality)

10. Alarm für Cobra 11 (RTL - weekly action series)

 

As you can see, the soaps are competing with other "high quality programs" 

[DRW50]

That's a shame. What do you think of it?

 

That last reality show sounds just awful. Is it poverty porn?

[wingwalker]

So Huntress,  

 

I know you don't normally cover Sturm der Liebe since I think it's sort of a telenovela, but someone'e been subbing the Boris and Tobias storyline. I've really been enjoyed it a lot.  Then I found out that Tom Chroust is on the writing staff.  Given he created Oliver and Christian on VL and Deniz and Roman on AWZ,  I have to imagine Boris and Tobias is his idea or has a hand in writing it. 

 

[Huntress]

 

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 No, it's a really bad scripted reality show. Every episode deals with a teenager or young adult in trouble, usually focusing on money, family or school problems, sexual abuse, mobbing, etc.

 

It's a typical RTL2 show.

 

Their current top 10 shows are:

1. Berlin – Tag und Nacht (Berlin – Day and Night)
2. Köln 50667 (Cologne 50667)
3. Love Island
4. Die Wollnys – Eine schrecklich große Familie (The Wollnys – An Awfully Big Family)
5. Curvy Supermodel (Like Germany's Next Top Model, but for plus size models – the "real" GNTM runs on rival network Pro7)
6. Hilf mir! Jung, pleite und verzweifelt (Help Me! Young, Broke and Desperate)
7. Armes Deutschland (Poor Germany)
8. Hartz und herzlich (Hartz and Hearty – Hartz IV is the colloquial term for welfare / social aid in Germany)
9. Echt Familie – das sind wir! (True Family – This Is Us)
10. Autopsie (Autopsy)

The whole channel is full of trash tv. BTN airs against AWZ and GZSZ and has a market share of ~ 13 percent.

 

 

That's perfectly possible that Chroust created the storyline. He's been writing for soaps since the late 90s – he first wrote for VL in 1998, and went to GZSZ in the early 00s. I think he went back and forth between VL, AWZ and GZSZ for quite a while (all produced by UFA Serial Drama), and now he's writing for Sturm der Liebe (which is produced by Bavaria Film).

 

AWZ and UU's current headwriters are Nicole Peisker and Nina Blum, respectively. I don't know who's writing GZSZ at the moment. Producers Petra Kolle and Damian Lott are usually the ones giving interviews.

[Huntress]

The cast of UU at the 15th annual Fan Event

 

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In attendance were: Sharon Berlinghoff (Vivien Köhler), Petra Blossey (Irene Weigel-Küpper), Timothy Boldt (Ringo Beckmann), Andrea Brix (Roswitha Küpper-Pütz), Jens Hajek (Benedikt Huber), Isabell Hertel (Ute Kiefer), Tabea Heynig (Britta Sturm), Chronis Karakassidis (Nikos Karadimas), Lena Klöber (Sarah Fuchs), Linda König (Larissa Huber), Sebastian Kolb (Marc Reichert), Nora Koppen (Elli Weigel), Astrid Leberti (Andrea Huber), Stefano Ligorio (Gianni Aurino), Luca Maric (Robert Küpper), Antonia Michalsky (Saskia Weigel), Alexander Milo (Jakob Huber), Patrick Müller (Tobias Lassner), Valea Scalabrino (Sina Hirschberger), Mariella Simon (Lotta Sturm), Lars Steinhöfel (Easy Winter), Milos Vukovic (Paco Weigel)

 

Not pictured: Contract stars Claudelle Deckert (Eva Wagner), Benjamin Heinrich (Bambi Hirschberger), Ben Ruedinger (Till Weigel)

 

---

 

On AWZ, Ekaterina Osimowa Steinkamp (Roni Zorina) died a horrible death: When her husband Ben was about to get shot by the devious Rottmann, Ekaterina grabbed Rottmann and touched a power line. Both were eletrocuted. Ekaterina died at the hospital. Bye bye, beautiful.

 

–––

 

And the next new soap has started taping: "Alles oder Nichts" (All or Nothing) is Sat.1's latest venture.

 

Since the 90s, the network has tried to establish a daily soap on several occasions, but all efforts ended badly. We had "So ist das Leben – Die Wagenfelds" (That's Life – The Wagenfeld Family) from 1995-1996, "Geliebte Schwestern" (Beloved Nurses) from 1997 to 1998, "Hand aufs Herz" (Cross My Heart) from 2010 to 2011, and "Mila" in 2015. In the mid/late 00s, Sat.1 had two successful telenovelas – "Verliebt in Berlin" (2005-2007) and "Anna und die Liebe" (2008-2012) – both of which however died a quick death after several behind-the-scenes changes.

 

The new soap is described as a "glamour soap". At the beginning, business mogul Axel Brock dies in a plane crash. At the reading of Axel's will, his wife Melissa and their two children Jascha and Maria learn that Axel had three illegitimate children: Jenni, Anja and Daniel. A fight between rich and poor ensues – everyone wants their share of the family business. "We are telling a story of Top Dog vs. Underdog. The battle line runs straight through the family. Our show wants to polarize, but we will also tell emotional stories. It's a mirror of our time," says one of the showrunners.

 

The show is produced by Berlin-based company Producers at Work. Among the cast are Anna Mennicken, Raphael Vogt (ex-GZSZ), Franziska Breite, Anne Brendler (ex-GZSZ), Mirco Reseg, Thomas Morris, Niki Finger, Marc Barthel (ex-VL), and Taynara Wolf.

Edited September 8, 2018 by Huntress

[Huntress]

As of episode #3000, AWZ has had 75 performers in contract roles.

 

Here are all of them, ranked by their duration on contract...

 

(* denotes original cast member | † denotes deceased character)

 

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The Top 10 – AWZ's most iconic performers

1. Tatjana Clasing as Simone von Altenburg Steinkamp [2006-present | 3000 eps] *
2. Silvan-Pierre Leirich as Richard Steinkamp [2006-present | 3000 eps] *
3. André Dietz as Ingo Zadek [2006-present; recurring previously | 2949 eps]
4. Sam Eisenstein as Marian Öztürk [2006-present; recurring previously | 2929 eps]
5. Igor Dolgatschew as Deniz Öztürk [2007-present | 2769 eps]
6. Juliette Greco as Lena Bergmann von Altenburg Öztürk #1/#3 [2007-2013; 2013-2018 | 2650 eps]
7. Jörg Rohde as Ben Roschinski Steinkamp #2 [2009-present | 2198 eps]
8. Julia Augustin as Dr. Vanessa Steinkamp Lukowski [2006-2009; 2010-2012; 2013; 2014-present | 2054 eps] *
9. Ania Niedieck as Isabelle Reichenbach Steinkamp von Altenburg Pachlhuber [2010-2016; 2017-present | 1851 eps]
10. Francisco Medina as Maximilian Santiago de Castillo von Altenburg [2007-2013; 2014-2015; 2017; 2018 | 1746 eps]
    
    
    Northern Jenny  Ah, Axel, Annette and Roman.. those were the golden days. Katja – not so much. Bea, Oliver and Mike sucked big time.
11. Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen as Jenny Steinkamp Herzog Schwarz Hartmann Schulte Öztürk #3 [2011-present | 1674 eps]
12. Daniel Aichinger as Dr. Axel Schwarz [2006-2012; recurring otherwise | 1453 eps] *
13. Ulrike Röseberg as Annette Bergmann Zadek [2006-2012 | 1452 eps] †
14. Tanja Szewczenko as Diana Sommer [2006-2009; 2016-present | 1443 eps] *
15. Anna Katharina Samsel as Katja Bergmann [2009-2015 | 1387 eps]
16. Dennis Grabosch as Roman Wild [2006-2011 | 1299 eps] * †
17. Lars Korten as Christoph Lukowski [2015-present | 894 eps]
18. Caroline Frier as Beatrice Meyer Steinkamp Zadek [2012-2016 | 874 eps]
19. Norman Kalle as Dr. Oliver Sommer [2007-2010; recurring previously | 843 eps]
20. Stephen Dürr as Mike Hartwig [2006-2009 | 812 eps] * †
    
    
    Nina  Can  Melanie 
21. Nathalie Thiede as Nina Sommer [2006-2009 | 793 eps] *
22. Christina Klein as Iva Lukowski [2014-2017 | 754 eps]
23. Franziska Benz as Michelle Bauer [2016-present | 628 eps]
24. Volkan Isbert as Can Öztürk [2012-2015 | 626 eps]
25. Heike Warmuth as Carmen Bauer [2016-present | 625 eps]
26. Michael N. Kuehl as Florian Wild [2010-2012 | 618 eps]
27. Daniel Brockhaus as Dr. Thomas Brück [2015-2017 | 597 eps]
28. Anna Katharina Fecher as Melanie Wendt [2011-2012; 2013-2014 | 569 eps]
29. Nina Bott as Celine Laffort [2008-2010 | 542 eps]
30. Cheyenne Pahde as Marie Schmidt #2 [2016-present | 532 eps]
    
    
    Ugh, Austrian Jenny... she was nothing compared to the real prissy Jenny  Sweet Julia  Letizia was such a wasted opportunity – as was Vincent.
31. Silvia Maleen as Jenny Steinkamp Herzog Schwarz Hartmann Schulte Öztürk #2 [2008-2010 | 522 eps]
32. Julia Engelmann as Franziska Steinkamp [2010-2012 | 520 eps]
33. Salvatore Greco as Jan Marco Schöler [2011-2013 | 501 eps]
34. Jenny Bach as Julia Meyer [2013-2015 | 468 eps] †
35. Christiane Klimt as Jenny Steinkamp Herzog Schwarz Hartmann Schulte Öztürk #1 [2006-2008 | 450 eps] *
36. Jennifer Dessin-Brasching as Letizia Kaldenhoff von Altenburg [2013-2014 | 419 eps] †
37. Tobias Licht as Lars Berger [2008-2010; recurring previously | 388 eps]
38. Bela Klentze as Ronny Bergmann [2017-present; recurring previously | 387 eps]
39. Daniel Buder as Vincent Thalbach [2016-2018 | 359 eps]
40. Maria Wedig as Juli von Altenburg [2008-2009 | 356 eps]
    
    
    The real Nadja  Tobi  Everyone else here sucked big time. Well, David was ok. But he kidnapped Jenny's baby!
     
41. Regine Seidler as Nadja Roschinski #1 [2006-2008 | 355 eps] *
42. Julian Bayer as Leo Brück [2015-2017 | 349 eps]
43. Christina Siemoneit as Sarah Wendt [2011-2013 | 344 eps]
44. Christoph Humnig as Tom Reichenbach [2010-2011 | 341 eps]
45. Nadine Rennack as Stella Coretti [2008-2010 | 336 eps]
46. Yara Hassan as Raquel Santana [2013-2015 | 327 eps] †
47. André Emanuel Kaminski as Tim Herzog [2006-2007 | 323 eps] *
48. Michael Jassin as Tobi Märtz [2015-2016; recurring previously | 317 eps]
49. Paul T. Grasshoff as Julian Herzog [2006-2007 | 313 eps] * †
50. Andreas Hofer as David M. Degen [2013-2014 | 301 eps]
    
    
    Another bunch of nobodies. Mrs. Trinker was so wasted in this thankless role. Pia with her smug face...  That awful Nadja recast... 
     
51. Heike Trinker as Claudia Bergmann [2010-2011; recurring otherwise | 292 eps]
52. Armin Dallapiccola as Dieter Sommer [2006-2007 | 291 eps] *
53. Marc Schöttner as Lukas Levin [2013-2014 | 268 eps]
54. Carsten Clemens as Veit Hartmann [2015-2016 | 264 eps]
55. Andreas Seyferth as Grandpa Lutz Hoffmann [2006-2007 | 263 eps] *
56. Isabell Horn as Pia Koch [2015-2016 | 250 eps] _{(Horn played the same character on GZSZ from 2009-2014 and again in 2015)}
57. Julia Albrecht as Flo Brück [2015-2016 | 248 eps]
58. Barbara Sotelsek as Sonja Brück [2015-2016 | 248 eps]
59. Carlo Degen as Joscha Degen [2013-2014 | 236 eps]
60. Birgit Würz as Nadja Roschinski #2 [2008 | 216 eps]
    
    
    The worst of the bunch with the exceptions of Rüdiger Kai. Pauline and Damian are still relatively new so they still have the chance to make a lasting impression.
    Poor Toni... we were all very sad when you broke your neck... not.
     
61. Jan Niklas Berg as Ben Roschinski Steinkamp #1 [2006-2007 | 214 eps] *
62. Maike Johanna Reuter as Pauline Reusch [2017-present | 207 eps]
63. Ulrich Drewes as Rüdiger Steinkamp #2 [2012-2013 | 201 eps] _{(this character was played by a different actor in 2010 in a recurring capacity)}
64. Katharina Woschek as Zoé Laffort #2 [2012-2013 | 199 eps] _{(this character was played by a different actress between 2008 and 2010 in a recurring capacity)}
65. Susanne Schlenzig as Jutta Sommer [2006-2007; 192 eps] *
66. Judith Neumann as Marie Schmidt #1 [2015-2016 | 188 eps]
67. Christian Feist as Damian Steinkamp [2017-present | 179 eps]
68. Alexander Wüst as Erik Schulte [2014-2015 | 177 eps] †
69. Maria Kempken as Lena Bergmann von Altenburg Öztürk #2 [158 eps]
70. Robert Maaser as Tim Hayer [2017 | 122 eps]
71. Alexander Gier as Dr. Kai Seebach [2013-2014 | 119 eps]
72. Rosetta Pedone as Viktoria König [2012 | 97 eps]
73. Hannes Sell as Felix Landeck [2014 | 92 eps]
74. Naima Fehrenbacher as Larissa Schuhmann [2014-2015 | 68 eps]
75. Michèle Fichtner as Toni Fuchs [2014-2015 | 66 eps] †

Edited September 21, 2018 by Huntress

[wingwalker]

16.  Dennis Grabosch as Roman Wild [2006-2011 | 1299 eps] * †

 

 

I miss Roman so much.  Deniz and Roman are my favorite tv couple,  and not just  "favorite gay couple", but favorite couple period.  There was something about them that was special. 

 

13.  Ulrike Röseberg as Annette Bergmann Zadek [2006-2012 | 1452 eps] †

 

Another favorite I miss a lot. 

[DRW50]

Sorry they deleted your photos.

[Huntress]

 

Obviously somebody's not appreciating my hard work 

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Some news:

• RTL has not given up on their 4th daily soap "Freundinnen" yet even though ratings are still terrible. Now they're even doing a crossover with UU: Milos Vukovic, who has played Paco Weigel on UU since 2000, will appear on "Freundinnen" as his UU character in several episodes in December 2018 and January 2019. This means that all 4 RTL soaps belong to the same fictional universe since GZSZ and AWZ have had two crossovers so far, and AWZ and UU have also had a minor crossover before.
• Also on UU, Yannik Meyer has joined the cast in the role of Conor Weigel. The character has been slightly SORASed: Conor, who was born in 2003, is now ca. 22 years old. Meyer is the first actor to portray the role on contract. In good old soap fashion, there's going to be a love triangle between Conor, his father Till and Till's wife Eva.
• On AWZ, Tanja Szewczenko has decided to leave the soap once again. The actress originally played Diana Sommer, the show's first heroine, from 2006 to 2009. In spring 2016, Szewczenko returned to much fanfare, but apart from a romance with Ingo (André Dietz) and working as Marie's (Cheyenne Pahde) coach, she hasn't driven much story. This year, she has already appeared infrequently. Szewczenko will last air in November 2018 when Diana accepts a new job in Las Vegas.
• Also on AWZ, Madeleine Krakor joined the cast in the new contract role of Steffi König on October 10th, 2018. Steffi is an old friend of Lena's (Juliette Greco – who's currently on maternity leave) and quickly becomes friends with Ben and Ingo. She's probably becoming Ben's new love interest.
• In addition, the show just brought back Simone's mother Friederike von Altenburg. The character was portrayed on a recurring basis by Annelinde Gerstl between 2007 and 2012. Now 70-year old veteran actress Ursula Michaelis has stepped into the role. Friederike, nicknamed "Die Fledermaus" (The Bat) by her family, once again causes confusion among the Steinkamps.
• Furthermore, Francisco Medina will once again return to the show later this year, which will be his fourth return overall. Medina has portrayed Maximilian von Altenburg from 2007 to 2013, 2014 to 2015, early 2017, and most recently from January to April 2018. Bela Klentze, who had to take a break from filming following an accident, will also resume playing Ronny Bergmann later this year.
• On GZSZ, there's also a new contract role as Timur Ülker has joined the cast as Nihat Güney, Shirin's (Gamze Senol) cousin. Nihat's father is a successful lawyer and wants his son to follow in his footsteps, but Nihat has other plans and soon becomes entangled in the lives of Shirin, John, Emily and Paul. Before joining GZSZ, Timur Ülker was a regular on the scripted reality "Berlin – Tag und Nacht", and he also appeared as a totally nude contestant on the 4th season of "Adam sucht Eva" (Dating Naked).
• Sat.1 has made the first 5 episodes of its new daily soap "Alles oder Nichts" available for streaming several days before its television premiere. This is the official website: https://www.sat1.de/tv/alles-oder-nichts, and this is the cast page: https://www.sat1.de/tv/alles-oder-nichts/darsteller
  
  First promo:
  Voice-over: "Vor zwei Wochen bin ich ums Leben gekommen. – Das hier ist meine Familie. – Das sind meine Kinder. Sie kennen sich nicht, und sie haben nichts gemeinsam. Bis auf... mein Erbe. Aber es geht um mehr als nur mein Geld... es geht darum, um sein Glück zu kämpfen... um ALLES ODER NICHTS..." [Die neue Daily Soap, ab 22. Oktober um 18.30]
  Translation: "Two weeks ago, I lost my life. – This is my family. – These are my children. They don't know each other, and they don't have anything in common. Except for... my inheritance. But it's about more than just my money... it's about fighting for one's fortune... about EVERYTHING OR NOTHING..." [The new daily soap, starting October 22nd at 6.30]
   

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Edited October 15, 2018 by Huntress

[Huntress]

Sat1 has already uploaded the first 5 episodes of "Alles oder Nichts" on youtube.

This actually looks very promising.

 

First episode:

 

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Promos:

 

GENERAL

 

 

ANJA

 

 

 

MELISSA

 

 

ROCKO

 

 

JENNI

 

 

DANIEL