Schillerstraße
Encyclopedia
Schillerstraße is a German improvisational comedy show that airs weekly on Sat.1
. It is recorded without a script and broadcast unedited to a large extent. The American broadcaster Fox
has earned the licence for Schillerstraße and is to produce its own series.
, in 2009 Jürgen Vogel
- all the actors keep their real names) who lives on the fictional street "Schillerstraße" in Cologne
, Germany
. The main character is regularly visited by friends and relatives. The participants only know the topic of the episode in advance. The whole plot has to be improvised comically. The cast receive directions from the Spielleiter (game master) on their headphones, and have to follow the cues, e.g. "Cordula: Tell the others you're pregnant!". The show mostly airs unedited and things that go wrong are not removed, either.
The main cast have included Cordula Stratmann
, Annette Frier
, Martin "Maddin" Schneider
, Michael Kessler
and Ralf Schmitz
. They interchange with dozens of other guests.
The show was created by Maike Tatzig who is also the show's executive producer. In September 2005 she took over the task of the game master, after Georg Uecker
left or had to leave the show for unknown reasons.
The show is produced by Hurricane Fernsehproduktion GmbH.
. The episodes originally only lasted 30 minutes were aired in the later evening programme and were a big success. For this reason, the run time was extended in January 2005 and moved into a prime time slot on Thursdays. On 26 January 2007 Schillerstraße got a new slot during Friday evening prime time and started with a special 90-minute 100th episode broadcast in which the actors and the game master Maike Tatzig looked back at the previous 99 episodes. The former game master Georg Uecker was not mentioned once; instead they decided to make it look like Maike Tatzig had been the game master since the beginning of the show.
After Uecker left the show, producer Maike Tatzig became the game master in autumn 2005, officially due to schedule problems of Uecker.
On 20 April 2006 the stage was extended. So that the show could reasonably be continued without Cordula Stratmann, who was on maternity leave and was therefore not available for some episodes, they created a pub next door, the Schillereck (Schiller corner). Stratmann's pregnancy was never part of the show. Her character on the show became fat and had to go to a diet camp. The pub is "owned" by Bernhard Hoëcker, a friend of Cordula's. The stages are set in a right angle. To be able to use both stages in one show, a rotatable audience stand was constructed.
After its surprising success, the format was sold internationally. The rights were sold to the American media company Fox
which is going to produce the show in the USA, Great Britain
, Australia
, New Zealand
and Canada
. The rights have been sold as well to France
, Italy
, Spain
, Belgium
, the Netherlands
, Finland
, Estonia
http://www.tv3.ee/content/blogcategory/442/598/#:443:vilde01, Russia
, Romania
, Hungary
, Turkey
and Israel
.
In South Africa
the show is produced and aired by Afrikaans
channel kykNet
under the title Proesstraat
.
Sat.1
Sat.1 is a privately owned German television broadcasting station. Sat.1 was the first privately owned television broadcasting station in Germany, having started one day before RTL Television....
. It is recorded without a script and broadcast unedited to a large extent. The American broadcaster Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
has earned the licence for Schillerstraße and is to produce its own series.
Idea and show structure
The setting of the show is the living room of the main actor (until 2008 Cordula StratmannCordula Stratmann
Cordula Stratmann is a German comedian. After taking the Abitur school-leaving examination, she studied social work at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences in North Rhine-Westphalia, in Cologne. During her work at the family counselling section of the Pulheim youth welfare office she also...
, in 2009 Jürgen Vogel
Jürgen Vogel
Jürgen Peter Vogel is a German actor, screenwriter, film producer and singer.-Biography:Jürgen Vogel is the son of a Hamburg waiter and a housewife. He worked as a child model, later had various jobs and visited the Munich drama school for one day. In 1985 he moved to Berlin, where he shared a...
- all the actors keep their real names) who lives on the fictional street "Schillerstraße" in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The main character is regularly visited by friends and relatives. The participants only know the topic of the episode in advance. The whole plot has to be improvised comically. The cast receive directions from the Spielleiter (game master) on their headphones, and have to follow the cues, e.g. "Cordula: Tell the others you're pregnant!". The show mostly airs unedited and things that go wrong are not removed, either.
The main cast have included Cordula Stratmann
Cordula Stratmann
Cordula Stratmann is a German comedian. After taking the Abitur school-leaving examination, she studied social work at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences in North Rhine-Westphalia, in Cologne. During her work at the family counselling section of the Pulheim youth welfare office she also...
, Annette Frier
Annette Frier
Annette Wünsche is a German actress and comedian.-Biography:After the Abitur she studied classical acting at the school of the German theater "Der Keller" for three years and worked as a theater actress in Cologne.-Actress career:In 1997 Frier was member of the cast of the RTL series Hinter...
, Martin "Maddin" Schneider
Martin Schneider
Martin Schneider , often just called "Maddin", is a German comedian, cabarettist and actor.- Biography :Martin Schneider grew up in Burgholzhausen, a district of Friedrichsdorf....
, Michael Kessler
Michael Kessler
Michael Kessler is a German actor, comedian and author from Wiesbaden.- Theater :After his acting training at Westfälische Schauspielschule Bochum from 1988 to 1992, Kessler had roles at the following theaters: Schauspielhaus Bochum, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Nationaltheater Mannheim and...
and Ralf Schmitz
Ralf Schmitz
Ralf Schmitz is a German actor.- Filmography :* since 2003: Genial daneben – Die Comedy Arena* 2004–2006: Schillerstraße* 2002–2005: Die Dreisten Drei Ralf Schmitz (* 3 November 1974 in Leverkusen) is a German actor.- Filmography :* since 2003: Genial daneben – Die Comedy Arena* 2004–2006:...
. They interchange with dozens of other guests.
The show was created by Maike Tatzig who is also the show's executive producer. In September 2005 she took over the task of the game master, after Georg Uecker
Georg Uecker
Georg Uecker is a German actor.Uecker studied theatre and film, Scandinavian studies and Latin studies at the University of Cologne....
left or had to leave the show for unknown reasons.
The show is produced by Hurricane Fernsehproduktion GmbH.
Development
Schillerstraße first aired on 3 September 2004 on the German TV channel Sat.1Sat.1
Sat.1 is a privately owned German television broadcasting station. Sat.1 was the first privately owned television broadcasting station in Germany, having started one day before RTL Television....
. The episodes originally only lasted 30 minutes were aired in the later evening programme and were a big success. For this reason, the run time was extended in January 2005 and moved into a prime time slot on Thursdays. On 26 January 2007 Schillerstraße got a new slot during Friday evening prime time and started with a special 90-minute 100th episode broadcast in which the actors and the game master Maike Tatzig looked back at the previous 99 episodes. The former game master Georg Uecker was not mentioned once; instead they decided to make it look like Maike Tatzig had been the game master since the beginning of the show.
After Uecker left the show, producer Maike Tatzig became the game master in autumn 2005, officially due to schedule problems of Uecker.
On 20 April 2006 the stage was extended. So that the show could reasonably be continued without Cordula Stratmann, who was on maternity leave and was therefore not available for some episodes, they created a pub next door, the Schillereck (Schiller corner). Stratmann's pregnancy was never part of the show. Her character on the show became fat and had to go to a diet camp. The pub is "owned" by Bernhard Hoëcker, a friend of Cordula's. The stages are set in a right angle. To be able to use both stages in one show, a rotatable audience stand was constructed.
After its surprising success, the format was sold internationally. The rights were sold to the American media company Fox
Fox Entertainment Group
The Fox Entertainment Group is an American entertainment industry company that owns film studios and terrestrial, cable, and direct broadcast satellite television properties...
which is going to produce the show in the USA, Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The rights have been sold as well to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
http://www.tv3.ee/content/blogcategory/442/598/#:443:vilde01, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
In South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
the show is produced and aired by Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
channel kykNet
KykNet
kykNET is a South African television channel, which broadcasts in Afrikaans. Owned by pay-TV operator M-Net, it was launched on the DStv satellite service in October 1999.-Programs:Some of the programs broadcast on kykNET:*DKNT*Trompie...
under the title Proesstraat
Proesstraat
Proesstraat is an Afrikaans Television-Show which airs on kykNet based on the German improvisational comedy show Schillerstrasse...
.
Awards won
- 2005 - Rose d'OrRose d'OrThe Rose d’Or is one of the most important international festivals in entertainment television. It was founded in Montreux in 1961 and has taken place in Lucerne since 2004. Producers, executives from independent and public service broadcasters and heads of production companies from over 40...
Preis der Presse (Press Award) - 2005 - Deutscher Comedypreis (German Comedy Award) as beste Impro-Serie (best improvised show)
- 2005 - Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German Television Award) as beste Impro-Comedy (best improvised comedy)
- 2006 - Goldene RomyRomy (TV award)The Romy TV award in honor of the actress Romy Schneider was created in 1990 by the Austrian newspaper Kurier – or rather their movie reviewer Rudolf John, who also designed the 30.5 cm gilded trophy. It recalls a scene from the movie The Swimmingpool with Alain Delon, when Romy Schneider...
(Golden Romy) in the category beste Programmidee (best idea) - 2006 - Radio Regenbogen Award 2005 in the category Comedy 2005