German soaps: GZSZ, UU & AWZ

[Huntress]

I didn't know where else to post this, but these have been the 25 most watched US shows on German television during the last 12 months:

[Huntress]

After 18 years on the air, "Marienhof" has been canceled by the ARD.

The show began in November 1992 as a serial that was broadcasted twice a week. The first 52 episodes ran 50 minutes. Following the success of RTL's daily soaps "GZSZ" and "Unter uns", the ARD also wanted to launch daily soaps in the mid 90s, and created "Verbotene Liebe". "Marienhof" was then also transformed into a daily soap with five half-hour episodes per week. Both ARD soaps had solid ratings until 2007/2008. Earlier this year, rumors began to circle that the ARD wants to cancel one or even both of their soaps to restructure their evening program.

"Marienhof's" last tape day is February 11th, 2011 with the final episode airing at the end of March. A new crime show will then most likely debut in "Marienhof's" time slot at 6:30 pm.

Current (and most likely final) contract cast of "Marienhof": http://www.daserste.de/marienhof/darsteller.asp

"Verbotene Liebe" might be the next soap to go since its ratings are only slightly better than "Marienhof's".

[DRW50]

That's a shame. Will you miss the show?

Are soaps on the way out in Germany?

[Huntress]

Apparently "Verbotene Liebe" will be extended to 45 minutes in May 2011, meaning it'll take over "Marienhof's" time slot. IMO, this is a really bad move because VL's ratings have been tanking as well (HHs 18-49 7.9 percent in 2010 compared to 10.3 in 2007). It seems that they're trying their best to get VL canceled too in the near future.

I don't think the soap genre is dying in Germany though because new soaps and telenovelas are still being developed. Actually, we have too many of these shows right now, so it was just a matter of time before one of the older ones gets canceled.

Until 2004, we only had four daily soaps: GZSZ and UU (both on RTL) plus VL and MH (both on ARD). Sat.1, RTL2 and Pro7 tried to establish other soaps in the late 90s, but failed miserably, so all of them were canceled after one year. Then in 2004, the first telenovela "Bianca – Wege zum Glück" was launched on ZDF. A few months later, "Verliebt in Berlin" (the German version of "Betty La Fea"/"Ugly Betty") on Sat.1 followed, becoming the most successful telenovela to date.

All of a sudden, every network produced their own telenovelas – some were short-lived, some have been running for some years now (the most successful ones being "Sturm der Liebe" and "Rote Rosen" on ARD). AWZ was originally created as a telenovela called "Diana's Dream", but was then transformed into a traditional daily soap. On the other hand, the telenovelas influenced the storytelling of the established daily soaps. In the 90s, the daily soaps were full of outrageous storylines. In recent years, they have tried to become more realistic and have primarily focused on romantic triangles. I think this brought about Marienhof's downfall, because they introduced a telenovela-like story-arc that centered around Toni, David and Nic, and fired a lot of well-liked cast members in the process.

I won't miss "Marienhof" that much as I've rarely watched the show (maybe 2, 3 times a year), but seeing a long-established show going off the air is of course always sad.

Edited December 16, 2010 by Huntress

[DRW50]

Thanks for expanding. Why did Marienhof fire so many cast members? Did they think the older actors were nothing compared to new or cheaper faces?

Is Marienhof the show with the gay doctor? I can't remember.

I thought I'd read that there weren't a lot of new soaps being made in Germany. I'm glad to hear otherwise.

VL as a show confuses me. Christian and Olli are so popular, yet the show is scared to do anything with them. Even turning them both straight would probably get more interest than their stories over the last few years. Meanwhile you have this Rebecca who doesn't seem popular yet the show keeps pushing her at people, even having her become a lesbian overnight.

[Huntress]

Until 2003 or so, Marienhof had a very large cast for a half-hour soap with 28-30 contract actors. They rotated storylines back then so that some of the characters had frontburner storylines while others were on the backburner during that time and were barely seen. On the other soaps, the cast has always consisted of 18-22 contract actors and every main character is usually involved in a major storyline because in the German soap industry there are no such things as recurring characters or being placed on recurring status once your contract ends/isn't renewed. Anyway, at some point Marienhof also opted for a smaller cast and many long-time characters were written off the canvas. Today, there are still several actors who have been with the show for 10+ years, but they are barely used. Giovanni Arvaneh (Sülo, 1995-1998; 2003-present), Christian Buse (Thorsten, 1999-present), and Alfonso Losa (Carlos, 2000-present) were even removed from the opening. Right now Sülo has a big storyline, but only because he's dying of cancer (he dies in the Christmas episode next week). Another veteran actress, Nicole Belstler-Boettcher, was fired in 2009 after being with the show since 1995. She was brought back earlier this year – at first for a guest appearance – and was then placed back on contract only to be fired again after two months because the writers couldn't come up with any stories for her character.

No, that must be "Lindenstraße", Germany's adaption of "Coronation Street". That show celebrated its 25th anniversary last week and still airs every Sunday on ARD. Current cast of "Lindenstraße": http://www.lindenstrasse.de/Leute/Rollen/liste.jsp?rstatus=aktiv

I think TPTB are obsessed with Jasmin Lord (Rebecca) because she was voted "Sexiest Soap Star" two years in a row I think the problem with having only two gay characters on a show is that you can't really do much with them once they are together. Of course you can always throw a third person in the mix – which AWZ did with Roman and Deniz this year when Roman's first love appeared in town –, but I don't think you can repeat those kind of storylines more than once per couple before it gets boring. However, it's good to see at least one stable couple on a soap because usually couples don't last longer than a year – and why not presenting the gay couple as the stable one? On AWZ, there are of course also Ingo and Annette who are happily married

[CassieFan]

Huntress, do you know anything about Anna und die liebe? It starts here in Croatia in January 2011 on a new channel...

[Huntress]

"Anna und die Liebe" is a telenovela that airs weekdays at 6 p.m. on Sat.1. It was launched in August 2008 and airs against "Verbotene Liebe" in its timeslot.

The first 300 episodes featured Anna (played by Jeanette Biedermann who appeared as the very popular Marie Balzer on GZSZ from 1999-2004 and who is also a very successful singer), a shy girl who falls in love with Jonas, the son of a wealthy family. He, of course, was first involved with Anna's evil step-sister Katja.

Once Anna and Jonas finally got married, a new main character was introduced: Anna's cousin Mia (played by Josephine Schmidt who had previously played Paula Rapf on GZSZ from 2002-2009). Her love interest was Alexander Zeiss (played by Thorsten Grasshoff who had portrayed Julian Herzog, Diana's husband, during the first year of AWZ).

After one year Mia and Alexander got married and left town. Anna and Jonas were then brought back, but a few weeks ago Jonas was killed off. He's still on the canvas, but now as a ghost, helping Anna to overcome his death and to find a new love.

Current cast of "Anna und die Liebe": http://www.deutsche-dailys.de/anna-und-die-liebe/rollen

[CassieFan]

Thanks a lot. I'll check it out, is it good?

[wingwalker]

I wonder if a lot of it has to do with the writer Tom Chroust? He's written for both VL and AWZ and I believe created both the gay couples Christian & Olli and Deniz & Roman. It seems every time he leaves one soap, one couple ceases to get story or airtime, and the couple on the show he joins, starts to get story again. Chrolli hasn't gotten a lot of story since Tom left after the Boxing storyline, when he arrived at AWZ, they put Roman & Deniz back together and gave them lots of stories, now he left AWZ for VL a couple months ago, Deniz & Roman are no longer getting story, so I suspect Christian & Ollie could get some attention soon.

[Huntress]

Tom Chroust was also once a member of GZSZ's writing staff (around 2001/2002) but back then the show did not have a gay couple. He also wrote for VL in 2001 during the fabulous Clarissa/Tanja feud which resulted in their plane crashing (their final scene was Clarissa pointing her gun at Tanja, saying "Game over, Tanja!").

"AWZ" unveiled its new opening today. Both versions can be watched here: http://www.rtl.de/cms/unterhaltung/awz/awz-storys/neuer-vorspann-awz.html

Version 1: Tatjana Clasing as Simone Steinkamp & Francisco Medina as Maximilian von Altenburg – Juliette Menke as Lena Bergmann, Ulrike Röseberg as Annette Bergmann & Anna-Katharina Samsel as Katja Bergmann – André Dietz as Ingo Zadek / Igor Dolgatschew as Deniz Öztürk – Julia Augustin as Vanessa Steinkamp / Silvan-Pierre Leirich as Richard Steinkamp & Jörg Rohde as Ben Steinkamp – Julia Engelmann as Franziska Steinkamp / Michael N. Kuehl as Florian Wild – Heike Trinker as Claudia Bergmann & Katja Bergmann / Ania Niedieck as Isabelle Reichenbach – Alles was zählt

Version 2: Silvan-Pierre Leirich as Richard Steinkamp & Tatjana Clasing as Simone Steinkamp – Ulrike Röseberg as Annette Bergmann – André Dietz as Ingo Zadek / Christoph Humnig as Tom Reichenbach – Daniel Aichinger as Axel Schwarz, Francisco Medina as Maximilian von Altenburg & Juliette Menke as Lena Bergmann – Dennis Grabosch as Roman Wild / Igor Dolgatschew as Deniz Öztürk & Sam Eisenstein as Marian Öztürk – Ania Niedieck as Isabelle Reichenbach & Anna-Katharina Samsel as Katja Bergmann / Heike Trinker as Claudia Bergmann – Alles was zählt

[Skylover]

I can't believe Marienhof has been canceled. It is definitely my favourite of the German soaps, and I think it's such a shame that all that history has gone to waste when they could have easily turned the show around.

Shame the the hottest soap hunk Marlon will be gone now too! I've changed my avatar in memory of him. I hope he goes to another soap now!

[CassieFan]

"Alles was zählt" will air in Croatia on RTL 1 starting February 7'th. 2 episodes will be aired daily.

[Huntress]

That's cool - although the beginning was very slow with all that Diana/Julian stuff. Once the show became a true soap opera (after six months or so), it became my favourite show. The Croatian title is "Sve što je bitno", isn't it?

Speaking of "AWZ", it seems that Jenny isn't dead after all. Tomorrow, actress Sophie Lutz assumes the role that has previously been played by Christiane Klimt (2006-2008) and Silvia Maleen (2008-2010). At first, Lutz will only appear as Jenny in a video clip, reading out her will. Since there's already a promotional picture with Lutz dressed up as Jenny, one can assume that the character will return full-time later this year.

[CassieFan]

"Alles was zählt" was cancelled in Croatia due to bad ratings after 35 episodes :/ "Judging Amy" replaced the show.