German soaps: GZSZ, UU & AWZ

[DRW50]

Thanks. And they aren't geoblocked, which is nice.

[Huntress]

 

Very good – I wasn't sure if they were.

 

I think they did a very good job with casting all the roles – there doesn't seem to be a weak link. It's also interesting that most of the poor characters speak in Berlin dialect.
And we already got our "love at first sight" couple with Jenni and Tarek at the end of the 1st episode 

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Opening sequence:
Jascha, Melissa & Maria – Melissa – Maria – Jascha – Daniel (3x) – Rocko & Anja (3x) – Bea – Bea, Olaf & Tarek – Tarek (2x) – Chelsey (2x) – Mike, Jenni, Basti & Elke – Jenni – Alles oder Nichts

 

The end credits list the actors alphabetically, ordered by their first names and omitting any character names, which is also quite unique.

 

The original cast consists of the following actors:

 

Anna Mennicken – Jenni Neumann
Anne Brendler – Elke Neumann
Anno Kaspar Friedrich von Heimburg – Jascha Brock
Franziska Breite – Anja "Angel" Meyer
Heiko Kiesow – Axel Brock
Josephine Martz – Maria Brock
Lennart Borchert – Basti Neumann
Marc Barthel – Rocko Schwarz
Michael Krabbe – Horst Wölling
Mirco Reseg – Mike Neumann
Niki Finger – Bea Brock
Raphael Vogt – Daniel Wagner
Sarah Maria Besgen – Melissa Brock
Thomas Morris – Olaf Brock
Varol Sahin – Tarek Aliki

 

Four more main characters are introduced in subsequent episodes.

 

I really hope this show succeeds... it reminds me so much of early AWZ. (Sarah Maria Besgen would have been a perfect Jenny Steinkamp recast.)

[Huntress]

The new daily soap "Alles oder Nichts" finished its first week on the air - and ratings were terrible. The show only managed to attract 0.8 million viewers, and Friday's episode only had 0.6 million viewers (market share 14-49: less than 5 %). This won't be enough to keep it on the air.

[Skylover]

Nihat is hot!

[Huntress]

Some casting news:

• On AWZ, recurring stars Christopher Kohn (Dr. Finn Albrecht) and Tijan Njie (Moritz Brunner) have apparently been placed on contract – at least they were added to the STARS section on the official website last week. In the closing credits, they are still listed as recurring, though.
• On GZSZ, Lea Marlen Woitack has announced that she will departing the soap in spring 2019. Woitack joined the cast in March 2014 as Sophie Lindh. Originally a love interest for the much older Jo Gerner, she fell in love with Leon Moreno a few months later and married him in 2015. Neither Gerner's schemes nor the problems with Leon's children could keep them apart. The couple briefly split when Sophie had a miscarriage, but they reunited a few weeks later. Other storylines involved Sophie's job as the editor of "Metropolitan Trends" (a job she lost thanks to Katrin Flemming) and her becoming Jasmin and Emily's business partner at the fashion label "Tussi Attack". One night, Leon slept with Maren Seefeld, which resulted in Maren becoming pregnant. Maren decided to keep the child, and at first she and Leon kept it all a secret. Sophie eventually learned the truth in the show's 6500th episode. At first she wanted to be accepting, but eventually she couldn't deal with all the drama and broke up with Leon. Now she's found a new lover – Maren's 20-year old son Jonas!
  (I'm sad to see her go – Sophie is a very down-to-earth and rational character, and she and Emily as BFFs have always played so well against each other. She could have driven so much story, but she was hardly given a chance.)

UU celebrates 6000 episodes in early December.

 

Backstage at the photo shoot:

 

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Contract cast of the 6000th episode:

 

Sharon Berlinghoff – Vivien Köhler (2018-present)
Petra Blossey – Irene Weigel-Küpper (1994-present)
Timothy Boldt – Ringo Beckmann (2012-present)
Andrea Brix – Roswitha Küpper-Pütz (2016-present; recurring previously)
Claudelle Deckert – Eva Wagner (2001-2006; 2008-present)
Jens Hajek – Benedikt Huber (2016-present)
Benjamin Heinrich – Benno "Bambi" Hirschberger (2013-present)
Isabell Hertel – Ute Kiefer (1995-present)

Tabea Heynig – Britta Sturm (2010-present)
Linda König – Larissa Huber (2018-present)
Astrid Leberti – Andrea Huber #2 (2017-present)
Luca Maric – Robert Küpper (2015-present)
Yannik Meyer – Conor Weigel #4 (2018-present)
Antonia Michalsky – Saskia Weigel (2017-present)
Alexander Milo – Jakob Huber (2017-present)
Patrick Müller – Tobias Lassner (2006-present)
Kai Noll – Rufus Sturm (2003-present)
Ben Ruedinger – Till Weigel #2 (2000-present)

Valea Scalabrino – Sina Hirschberger (2010-present)
Lars Steinhöfel – Ingo "Easy" Winter (2005-present)

Milos Vukovic – Paco Weigel (2000-present)

Edited November 7, 2018 by Huntress

[Huntress]

Germany's longest running weekly soap has been canceled: "Lindenstraße", which debuted in December 1985 on ARD, will air its final episode in spring 2020. Once a groundbreaking show and must-see TV attracting 10 million people on average, the soap has suffered from declining ratings since the 2000s. At the turn of the millennium, "Lindenstraße" still had an audience of 5 million, but these days they're lucky to get 2 million. It clearly didn't help that ARD started pre-empting episodes on short notice and aired them on ONE, a niche channel, instead. In addition, questionable casting choices and budget cuts alienated fans. 8 cast members have been with the show since day one.

 

"Lindenstraße" was inspired by ITV's Coronation Street. The show takes place in the fictional Lindenstraße neighborhood in Munich. 

 

Official website: https://www1.wdr.de/daserste/lindenstrasse/index.html

Current cast: https://www1.wdr.de/daserste/lindenstrasse/personen/aktive/index.html

Edited November 18, 2018 by Huntress

[DRW50]

Sad to see a long-running show go. I wonder if ARD was trying to kill it. Will you miss it? 

[Huntress]

 

I haven't watched it often (my grandmother used to watch it religiously though from the very beginning until the early 2000s), so I can't comment on the show's stories. The special thing is that "Lindenstraße" has never changed its producers: Hans W. Geißendörfer created the show in 1985 and is still Executive Producer as of today. In 2015, his daughter Hana Geißendörfer joined the production team. In all objectivity, the show can definitely be called a "cultural artifact" because it was the first tv show to tackle topics like HIV (in straight and gay characters), homo, bi- and transsexuality, environmentalism, vegetarism, Islamism and terrorism, criticism of the armed forces, pressure to achieve in society, unemployment, stalking, assisted suicide, integration problems, current politics and so much more. "Lindenstraße" has always had a multicultural cast, most notably families of Turkish, Greek and Italian origin. Despite being a weekly half-hour show, the show has a cast of roughly 40 main characters.

 

---

 

Since the soap year 2018 is almost over, it's time for a little retrospective.

 

Current soap schedule:

2.10 pm Rote Rosen (ARD)

3.10 pm Sturm der Liebe (ARD)

5.00 pm Freundinnen (RTL)

5.30 pm Unter uns (RTL)

8.30 pm Alles oder nichts (Sat.1)

7.05 pm Alles was zählt (RTL)

7.40 pm Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (RTL)
 
Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (1992-present, RTL)
Total episodes in 2018: 251 (#6415 to #6666 [#6515, #6516 and #6517 were shown as a 90 minute episode on the same day])
Current cast: http://www.soapsworld.de/gute-zeiten-schlechte-zeiten-gzsz/besetzung

 

Contract arrivals:
Olivia Marei as Toni Ahrens (July 2018-present)
Gamze Senol as Shirin Akinci (February 2018-present; recurring previously)
Timur Ülker as Nihat Güney (September 2018-present)

 

Contract departures:
Oliver Franck as Martin Ahrens (August 2017-February 2018)
Linda Marlen Runge as Anni Brehme (August 2013-August 2018)

 

Confirmed for 2019:
Departing: Lea Marlen Woitack as Sophie Lindh (March 2014-2019)
Arriving: Gisa Zach as Yvonne Bode (January 2019-present)

 

Unter uns (1994-present, RTL)
Total episodes in 2018: 249 (#5766 to #6015)
Current cast: http://www.soapsworld.de/unter-uns-uu/besetzung

 

Contract arrivals:
Sharon Berlinghoff as Vivien Köhler (July 2018-present)
Linda König as Larissa Huber (April 2018-present)
Yannik Meyer as Conor Weigel (September 2018-present)

 

Contract departures:
Pauline Angert as Kay-C Schneider (September 2016-April 2018)
Nora Koppen as Elli Schneider Weigel † (September 2015-October 2018)
Milos Vukovic as Paco Weigel (May 2000-December 2018)

 

Alles was zählt (2006-present, RTL)
Total episodes in 2018: 249 (#2844 to #3093)
Current cast: http://www.soapsworld.de/alles-was-zaehlt-awz/besetzung

 

Contract arrivals:
Christopher Kohn as Dr. Finn Albrecht (October 2018-present; recurring previously)*
Madeleine Krakor as Steffi König (October 2018-present)
Tijan Njie as Moritz Brunner (October 2018-present; recurring previously)*

* Still listed as recurring in the closing credits, but listed as contract on the show's website

 

Contract departures:
Daniel Buder as Vincent Thalbach (September 2016-February 2018)
Christian Feist as Damian Steinkamp (November 2017-November 2018)
Juliette Greco as Lena Öztürk #1/#3 (May 2007-January 2013; September 2013-August 2018)
Francisco Medina as Maximilian von Altenburg (October 2007-October 2013; November 2014-April 2015; January 2017-April 2017; January 2018-April 2018)
Tanja Szewczenko as Diana Sommer (September 2006-January 2009; April 2016-November 2018)
Heike Warmuth as Carmen Bauer (February 2016-December 2018)

 

Confirmed for 2019:
Arriving: Birte Glang as Lena Öztürk #4 (2019-present)

 

Freundinnen (2018-present, RTL)
Total episodes in 2018: 86 (#1 to #86)

 

Alles oder nichts (2018-present, Sat.1)
Total episodes in 2018: 47 (#1 to #47)
Current cast: https://www.sat1.de/tv/alles-oder-nichts/darsteller

 

Rote Rosen (2006-present, ARD)
Total episodes in 2018: 227 (#2573 to #2800)
Current cast: http://www.daserste.de/unterhaltung/soaps-telenovelas/rote-rosen/darsteller/index.html

 

Sturm der Liebe (2005-present, ARD)
Total episodes in 2018: 225 (#2839 to #3064)
Current cast: http://www.daserste.de/unterhaltung/soaps-telenovelas/sturm-der-liebe/darsteller/index.html

 

Lindenstraße (1985-present, ARD)
Total episodes in 2018: 45 (#1610 to #1655)
Current cast: https://www1.wdr.de/daserste/lindenstrasse/personen/aktive/index.html

[Huntress]

Official Promo: 6000 Episodes of UU (naked butt alert!)

"We have laughed... we have suffered... we have lived... 6000 episodes full of emotions... we are celebrating 6000 episodes of Unter uns... Tuesday 5.30!"

 

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Backstage: Taking Selfies

 

 

Interview: "How many autograms have you given?"

 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2018 by Huntress

[Huntress]

GZSZ ends the year 2018 with its 6666th episode.

 

The year closes with a big bang: The battle for the Gerner empire is at full blast. Will Katrin and Jo lose everything and take it without a whimper? No, never! They contrive a bold scheme and declare war on Felix and Laura! Meanwhile, Sunny makes a big mistake: She takes drugs to numb her exam anxiety. Of course this doesn't end well and she ends up in the ice-cold Spree river while the New Year's celebrations are going on around her. Will Sunny die?

 

What will happen in 2019? Will Sunny be rescued and by whom? Will one character really die? What will happen to Maren, Alex, Leon and the baby that nobody had planned? Will Gerner regain control over his empire? Who will fall in love, who will break up?

 

In addition, RTL has now begun to upload the very first episodes from 1992 to its streaming portal TVNOW. All episodes from 2006 to today are already available for premium users.

 

The ladies at the photo shoot:

 

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The stars of AWZ, UU and GZSZ are thankful for 100.000 subscribers to the RTL youtube channel:

 

 

Edited December 19, 2018 by Huntress

[Huntress]

While GZSZ's 6666th episode was another ratings success for RTL, Sat.1's daily "Alles oder Nichts" is almost dead. Yesterday, the show reached a new low: Only a meager 0.38 million people tuned in, which means a market share of 1.8 % in its timeslot.

 

Doesn't help that lead actress Sarah Maria Besgen had to leave the soap for health reasons in episode #45. Her character Melissa Brock is now being played by Tanja Wenzel, who had her first acting gig on GZSZ in the mid 90s (back then as a brunette). She later had a contract role for 5 years on "Verbotene Liebe" (with blonde hair) and also played a major part in the telenovela "Anna und die Liebe" (again with blonde hair). Now she's back to being a brunette.

 

But seriously, couldn't they have found an actress who at least looks a bit like Sarah Maria? 

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Sarah Maria's last scene as Melissa:

 

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Tanja's first scene as Melissa:

 

 

[FrenchFan]

I was wondering if there Was a way to watch these soaps with English subtitles.

[Huntress]

Unfortunately, I don't think that's possible for any of the soaps. 

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Sat.1 has just announced that "Alles oder Nichts" has been canceled. The daily soap has been taken off the network's schedule immediately. Episode #50 last Friday was the last episode to be aired on Sat.1.

 

However, production will continue for a few more weeks as the series will receive a proper ending and the remaining episodes will be shown online and on the smaller channel Sat. 1 Emotions. As of today, 101 episodes have been completed.

[DRW50]

Will you miss the show? 

[wingwalker]

 

 

Someone does upload english subs for the gay storylines on Unter Uns and Sturm Der Liebe, but I don't think anyone does full episodes.