7 Tage, 7 Köpfe (''Sieben Tage, sieben Köpfe'', lit. ''Seven days, seven heads'') is a German comedy television program of the television station
RTL Television
RTL (from '), formerly RTL plus and RTL Television, is a German-language free-to-air television channel owned by the RTL Group, headquartered in Cologne. Founded as an offshoot of the German-language radio programme '' ,'' RTL is consider ...
and featured a humorous retrospective of the past week. The show was hosted by
Jochen Busse
Jochen Busse (born 28 January 1941 in Iserlohn) is a German television actor.
He began work as a stage actor at the Kammerspiele in Munich in 1960 and made his TV debut the same year. He has made 80 appearances in television since 1960. Jochen ...
.
From 23 February 1996 the show was recorded every Friday in the afternoon to be broadcast in the evening, normally at 10:15 pm, on RTL. On 2 June 2005 it was announced that the show was to be discontinued at the end of 2005 due to declining audience ratings amongst other things. On 30 December 2005 the last show entitled "Das große Finale" ("The Grand Finale") was broadcast.
The Show
Concept
In the show the most recent topics of the last seven days were reviewed humorously by seven celebrities.
The regular staff consisted of presenter
Jochen Busse
Jochen Busse (born 28 January 1941 in Iserlohn) is a German television actor.
He began work as a stage actor at the Kammerspiele in Munich in 1960 and made his TV debut the same year. He has made 80 appearances in television since 1960. Jochen ...
and five celebrities. Each week, a new guest from the field of
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...
or comedy was added to fill the seventh seat.
After a short topic introduction by Busse, each celebrity commented on the topic with a joke or a sketch. Also the dynamic between the celebrities and the guests was beneficial to the success of the show.
However, it has emerged that each of the celebrities' contributions were normally prewritten by a team of
ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often ...
s and were rehearsed before the recording, as is common practice in many "comedy" shows.
Kalle Pohl
Kalle Pohl (born 20 August 1951 in Düren) is a German comedian and actor.
Life
Pohl works as comedian and actor in Germany. He plays guitarre.
Works
Theatre
* 2007: ''Norman, bist du es?''
* 2010: ''Denn sie wissen nicht, was sie erben' ...
Oliver Welke
Oliver Welke (born 19 April 1966) is a German television presenter, journalist, satirist, comedian and voice actor.
Biography
Welke was born in Bielefeld and studied journalism at the University of Münster, graduating in 1993. He then worke ...
, who took the seat of
Rudi Carrell
Rudi Carrell (born Rudolf Wijbrand Kesselaar; 19 December 1934 – 7 July 2006) was a Dutch entertainer. Along with famous entertainers such as Johannes Heesters and Linda de Mol, he was one of the most successful Dutch personalities active in ...
in 2002. Carrell however still appeared on camera at special events and produced the show.
In the beginning the staff consisted of
Karl Dall
Karl Bernhard Dall (, 1 February 1941 – 23 November 2020) was a German comedian, singer, and television presenter. His distinctive 'hanging' eye was caused by a congenital ptosis.
Family
Karl Dall was born in Emden, Germany, the son of ...
,
Bärbel Schäfer
Bärbel Schäfer (born 16 December 1963 in Bremen) is a German television presenter and talk show host.
Life
Schäfer works in Germany as television presenter and talk show host. In 2004 Schäfer married Michel Friedman in Eschborn, only short ...
,
Hellmuth Karasek
Hellmuth Karasek (4 January 1934 – 29 September 2015) was a German journalist, literary critic, novelist, and the author of many books on literature and film. He was one of Germany's best-known feuilletonists.
Biography
Karasek was born in t ...
Jürgen Möllemann
Jürgen Wilhelm Möllemann (15 July 1945 – 5 June 2003) was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as Minister of State at the Foreign Office (1982–1987), as Minister of Education and Research (1987–1991), ...
Marcel Reif
Marcel Reif (born 27 November 1949) is a Swiss television sport journalist and commentator
Biography
Reif was born in Wałbrzych, Silesia (formerly Waldenburg), four years after the area was transferred to Poland from Germany following World ...
.
Carrell died in 2006 of lung cancer at the age of 71 in his sanctuary in
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
.
Guests
The seventh seat and sometimes even one or two regulars' seats were given to another celebrity from comedy or politics each week. Thus over 70 different celebrities were guests on the show, among them
Michael Mittermeier
Michael Fritz Mittermeier (born 3 April 1966) is a German comedian.
Early life
Mittermeier was born in Dorfen, Upper Bavaria. During his childhood he lived in Bavaria. After school he studied theatre.
Career
In 1996, Mittermeier started th ...
Mario Barth
Mario Wolfgang Barth (born 1 November 1972) is a German comedian who mainly deals with the interactions between men and women.
Early life
Barth was one out of six children born to a family in Berlin-Mariendorf. Raised Catholic, he served as a ...
Ingo Oschmann
Ingo Oschmann (born 3 August 1969 in Bielefeld) is a German comedian, entertainer and stage magician who also works as a television presenter and actor. In 2003, he became the first comedian to win the final of ''Star Search'' in Germany.
Career ...
,
Bernhard Hoëcker
Bernhard Hoëcker (; born Bernhard Hoecker-von Mühlenfels; 20 March 1970) is a German comedian, actor and television presenter. He is best known for the spoof show Switch, as well as being a permanent member of the previous Genial guessing team ...
,
Hennes Bender Hennes may refer to:
Business
* H&M, a Swedish multi-national retail-clothing company
* ''Hennes (magazine)'', a Swedish magazine
Places
* Hennes, Norway, a village in Hadsel municipality, Nordland county, Norway
Music
* Hennes bästa, a compil ...
Oliver Pocher
Oliver Pocher (born 18 February 1978) is a German comedian, entertainer, television personality and host.
Early life and professional training
Pocher is the son of Gerhard and Jutta Pocher; he was born and grew up in Hanover, West Germany. Hi ...
.
In the final show Harald Schmidt appeared in the last five minutes of the show as a guest. Schmidt often ridiculed the show in his own show - for which he "apologized" in the show - and was one of the greatest critics of the show. Nevertheless, he agreed to this guest appearance because of his paragon and fatherly friend
Rudi Carrell
Rudi Carrell (born Rudolf Wijbrand Kesselaar; 19 December 1934 – 7 July 2006) was a Dutch entertainer. Along with famous entertainers such as Johannes Heesters and Linda de Mol, he was one of the most successful Dutch personalities active in ...
, who was already so ill at this time that he only poured a glass of water over Harald Schmidt on his final appearance without saying a word.
Running gags
Over time, some things on the show evolved into
running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are no ...
s. For example,
Rudi Carrell
Rudi Carrell (born Rudolf Wijbrand Kesselaar; 19 December 1934 – 7 July 2006) was a Dutch entertainer. Along with famous entertainers such as Johannes Heesters and Linda de Mol, he was one of the most successful Dutch personalities active in ...
always made jokes about Mike Krüger's nose, who in turn made jokes about the Dutch and their caravans and about Carrell's age.
Kalle Pohl
Kalle Pohl (born 20 August 1951 in Düren) is a German comedian and actor.
Life
Pohl works as comedian and actor in Germany. He plays guitarre.
Works
Theatre
* 2007: ''Norman, bist du es?''
* 2010: ''Denn sie wissen nicht, was sie erben' ...
Oliver Welke
Oliver Welke (born 19 April 1966) is a German television presenter, journalist, satirist, comedian and voice actor.
Biography
Welke was born in Bielefeld and studied journalism at the University of Münster, graduating in 1993. He then worke ...
about baldness,
Jochen Busse
Jochen Busse (born 28 January 1941 in Iserlohn) is a German television actor.
He began work as a stage actor at the Kammerspiele in Munich in 1960 and made his TV debut the same year. He has made 80 appearances in television since 1960. Jochen ...
about ironing creases and Gaby Köster had to suffer jokes about women.
Other running gags were the "terrible childhood" of Mike Krüger. This gag always began with:"Ja, Sie wissen alle...ich hatte eine (Oooohhh!)..fürchterliche Kindheit."/"Well, you all know it...I had a (Audience: Oooohhh!)..terrible childhood." Running gags of Kalle Pohl were his pretendes stunning success with women (Ja, ich als Frauentyp..."/"Well, me as a woman's hero..."), his "cousin Hein Spack" (Vetter Hein Spack) who is always angry ("Ey wat is los, dumm Sau?!"Ey what's the matter, dumb sow?!") or his "aunt Mimi" (Tante Mimi) who is always complaining. Gaby Köster made such a running gag with her "grandma Finchen" (Oma Finchen) who is also perpetually nagging.
Jochen Busse always greeted the audience "in seiner gewohnt liebenswürdigen Art" (in his distinctly amicable way) and finished each show with: "Bleiben Sie uns gewogen" (Keep us in good remembrance). The recent shows each ended with a "surprise".
Awards
The format was awarded prizes several times. The show received television and viewer awards like the " Golden Lion" and the "
Bambi
''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten ...
".
In 2004 the special prize of the
Deutscher Comedypreis
The Deutscher Comedypreis ("German Comedy Award") is awarded by Brainpool TV. Because Brainpool's in-house productions have received extensive awards, the designation as the ''German Comedy Award'' is controversial.
The awards ceremony takes plac ...
(German Comedy Prize) was awarded to ''7 Tage, 7 Köpfe'', since the show had been on RTL for 250 shows and set benchmarks in German television comedy.
See also
*
German television comedy
Germany has a long tradition of television comedy stretching as far back as the 1950s, and with its origins in cabaret and radio.
1960s
*1963: ''Der 90. Geburtstag'' (''Dinner for One'') is a comedy sketch recorded on 8 July 1963 at ''Theater am B ...
References
''This article was translated from its equivalent on German Wikipedia.''