German Article https://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/t3881 Runboard| German Article en-us Thu, 28 Mar 2024 17:31:09 +0000 Thu, 28 Mar 2024 17:31:09 +0000 https://www.runboard.com/ rssfeeds_managingeditor@runboard.com (Runboard.com RSS feeds managing editor) rssfeeds_webmaster@runboard.com (Runboard.com RSS feeds webmaster) akBBS 60 Re: German Articlehttps://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355464,from=rss#post355464https://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355464,from=rss#post355464Thank you so mich for the translation, unmei, that's awesome! ..And it's articles like this that have stopped me from having time to post nondisclosed_email@example.com (Messup434)Thu, 14 Feb 2019 16:39:35 +0000 Re: German Articlehttps://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355460,from=rss#post355460https://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355460,from=rss#post355460Thank you for all of that Unmei. nondisclosed_email@example.com (josechung)Sun, 10 Feb 2019 21:47:50 +0000 Re: German Articlehttps://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355459,from=rss#post355459https://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355459,from=rss#post355459There we go. I hope there are not too many grammar and spelling mistakes. Have fun reading! Ratings in the millions with "colourful slapstick" Schadenfreude always works on television. In 1999, the japanese gameshow "Takeshi's Castle" came to Germany and saved the almost bankrupt station DSF (German Sports Television). Feature writers were in shock, the youth was delighted. On June 1st 2005 the graduate class of the Fachoberschule in Bad Tölz took revenge on their teachers. They were kidnapped and only set free after they had competed at the games on the sports ground. Equipped with American Football gear the educators had to fight with cushioned sticks, walk over narrow planks above a swimming pool. They also had to do rodeo on a fake bull, race in a shopping trolley and do sumo in fatsuits. The graduates sprayed "GrohGaschi's Castle" (in dependence on the deputy headmaster's name) on a sheet behind the stage because they had copied a japanese gameshow that came to German television in 1999 and excited millions of German students: "Takeshi's Castle" In Japan the trash show [in Germany almost any TV programme that is not culturally valuable is considered to be trash] already started in 1986. It was not much needed to do the show, except some crazy people, who embarrass themselves deliberately on TV. About a hundred contestants per episode were supposed to storm a castle and overcome a lot of obstacles: stones that break off, rotating rollers, mazes and wobbly bridges. Moreover, there were monsters who painted their faces and shot the contestants with water pistols and volleyballs. "Once again a new day at Takeshi's Castle begins" [phrase of the German dub that was used at every beginning of an episode] Schadenfreude was essential. Host Takeshi Kitano dressed up in a baronial silk gown, his entourage wore fantasy uniforms. Together they mocked the contestants who ran against closed doors and fell into the mud. "For me, to be on TV is exactly like how japanese employees loiter around bars and slag of their bosses after work", Kitano once told the "SZ-Magazin", "the difference is, I get paid to do that". Next to his ridiculous show, Kitano made bloodthirsty mafia movies that ectasised the critics at international movie festivals. He was somewhat like a mixture of Quentin Tarantino and Stefan Raab [German TV entertainer and late night host who retired in 2015, I thought he is hilarious] Sporting game show have been on German television for a long time. For decades "Spiel ohne Grenzen" ["Games without frontiers"] was one of the most famous TV shows in Europe. From 1965 on, teams from different cities competed against each other, first nationally, then internationally. Often they had to carry things in big costumes over slippery roads, soft soap was used massively. That looked like slapstick, but there were tournament rules and the whole show was supervised by strict referees. Kitano ignored all of this. He invented the more radical "Takeshi's Castle" and put the contestants into a Jump'n'Run-like situation. They had to conquer level after level, just a few made it to the final boss: Then count Takeshi welcomed them to the final battle with water pistols or lasers on electric carts. Italian comedians invented "General Putzerstofen" The main prize was 1,000,000 Yen (today almost 8,000€). But usually, Takeshi destroyed everybody: 129 episodes were taped within three years, but the contestants only won eight times. The keenest contestants took a consolation prize of 100,000 Yen. In Japan, the show was broadcast every friday, having quick success. An Italian station bought the rights in 1989, three local comedians provided a voiceover. They gave one of Takeshi's henchman the silly name "General Putzerstofen". In Portugal the show was broadcast as well. In Germany though, it took over a decade for Takeshi's absurdities to reach a TV station. Maybe the stations did not receive an offer, maybe they underestimated the appeal. Until this Kindergeburtstagsklamauk [literally: children's birthday party slapstick/shenanigans] made it to the German afternoon programme - thanks to Wolfgang Wild. "Takeshi's Castle was mostly my fault", Wild, 59, said on the phone. Today he is a privateer in Miami. In 1993, Wild came to the German Sports Television (DSF), a newly found and always poor TV station, as a tennis commentator. "It is expensive to broadcast live sports, you cannot earn money this way in Germany", Wild says. Because there was no live sports except on weekends, DSF broadcast old tennis and football matches during the week. Wild was bored by that and critisised DSF's programme. In 1998, his boss made him programme director and told him: "Just do it yourself then!". From now on, Wild was looking for cheap shows "that you can put on sports television with a halfway good consciense". Then he came across the tapes from Japan. "It felt like 350 managers were above me" He had to convince his bosses first. "I was programme director but it still felt as if there were 350 managers above me" They called "Takeshi's Castle" "moronic" and "idiotic". They were not all wrong though. Wolfgang Wild's argument was: "One episode only costs a couple of 1000 Mark [German currency before the Euro], that will not hurt as much". His bosses let him buy the show "with high doubts" as he states. An external agency cut the episodes and provided the German commentary with catchphrases like "Only a wet contestant is a good contestant". On a monday in August 1999 the first episode aired on DSF. Already on the next friday, more than a million Germans were watching "Takeshi's Castle", especially students and young adults - the favourite audience of the private stations. The DSF's advertisers were enthusiastic, in 2001 the station got into the black for a very first time. Critics felt proven correctly that the greed for entertainment destroyed humanity. "Humiliation without frontiers" the "SPIEGEL reporter" wrote, "inhuman" was the "Süddeutsche"'s judgment. For the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" the show was a "foresight: Also here in Germany the contestants could soon face the biggest ridiculousness possible". Unimpressed Wild bought more gameshows. "Sports Bakka" from Japan, "American Gladiators" from the USA, "Ice Warriors" from Great Britain, "Xapatan" from France. Takeshi still was the most successful said the former programme director, a long time before fail videos on Youtube or fail shows on TV emerged. "Rather an accident" His team even thought of a German version in the amusement park in Rust. "But the idea was too expensive for DSF" says Wild. His vision would first become reality in 2016, when RTL produced "Ninja Warrior Germany", but it was without the ridiculousness as the show still is an athletic competition with over-the-top commentators. In 2002, Stefan Ziffner became the new boss of DSF. Today he says "Takeshi's Castle rather was an accident than a visionary decision". Just as most sports journalists he was not a fan of the show and stopped it shortly after his inauguration. Wild, already not with DSF anymore at that point, does not understand the decision up until today: "My successors have done things way worse than I did". In 2002, DSF started airign "Sexy Sport Clips", where naked women lounged next to surfboards or pool tables. Dirty stuff inbetween phone sex advertisement. "Takeshi's Castle" got a new dub and was aired on Tele5, then RTL 2, Comedy Central and RTL Nitro. Later remakes from Great Britain and Thailand were added to the original episodes from the eighties. The hype became independent already. During the 2000s youth's trips, fire departments, sports clubs and boy scouts - everybody played the challenges of "Takeshi's Castle". Just as the graduates from Bad Tölz.nondisclosed_email@example.com (unmei)Sun, 10 Feb 2019 14:26:16 +0000 Re: Re:https://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355458,from=rss#post355458https://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355458,from=rss#post355458Quote:unmei wrote: I should have time to translate it on Sunday It mainly discusses the big success of the first dub, despite the German press tearing the show apart, calling it "inhuman" and other stuff. Danke dirnondisclosed_email@example.com (josechung)Sat, 09 Feb 2019 01:27:14 +0000 Re:https://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355457,from=rss#post355457https://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355457,from=rss#post355457I should have time to translate it on Sunday It mainly discusses the big success of the first dub, despite the German press tearing the show apart, calling it "inhuman" and other stuff.nondisclosed_email@example.com (unmei)Fri, 08 Feb 2019 22:40:11 +0000 Re: German Articlehttps://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355455,from=rss#post355455https://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355455,from=rss#post355455Google Translate is what I didnondisclosed_email@example.com (General Jonnie)Fri, 08 Feb 2019 09:17:02 +0000 Re: German Articlehttps://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355454,from=rss#post355454https://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355454,from=rss#post355454Now all we need is someone to translate it...nondisclosed_email@example.com (josechung)Thu, 07 Feb 2019 23:01:53 +0000 German Articlehttps://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355453,from=rss#post355453https://bkeshiheads.runboard.com/p355453,from=rss#post355453A fascinating read of how Takeshis Castle came to Germany and it's success http://m.spiegel.de/einestages/takeshi-s-castle-big-in-japan-gameshow-mit-riesenerfolg-a-1249322.html nondisclosed_email@example.com (General Jonnie)Thu, 07 Feb 2019 08:44:14 +0000