''Teufels Großmutter'' (''Devil's Grandmother'') is a twelve-part German/Swiss comedy television series which ran for one season in 1985 and 1986. Co-produced by

SF DRS Schweizer Fernsehen (SF; "Swiss Television") is the German-language division of SRG SSR, in charge of production and distribution of television programmes in Switzerland for German-speaking Switzerland. It has its head office in Zürich.

in Switzerland and

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

in Germany, it was scripted by Justus Pfaue and directed by Rob Herzet, premiered in August 1985 on DRS and was subsequently broadcast on

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of t ...

and in 1986 on ZDF. The series, particularly the performance of Horney as the grandmother, was acclaimed in newspapers such as the ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

'', ''

Bild am Sonntag ''Bild am Sonntag'' (''BamS'') is the largest-selling German national Sunday newspaper published in Berlin, Germany. History and profile ''Bild am Sonntag'' was first published on 29 April 1956.Helmut Böger, ''Bild'', 8 May 2011Die Story von Ba ...

'' and ''

Hannoversche Allgemeine ''Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung'' (abbreviated HAZ) is a German newspaper with a circulation of 158,000 (as of 2009) and a widespread resonance all over Germany. It is distributed in Hanover and in all Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: ...

''. ''Teufels Großmutter'' was issued on DVD in July 2007.

Setting and cast

The series is about the worries and joys of the three-generation Teufel family in Berlin, who run a boatyard. The head of the family is grandmother Dorothea Teufel, played by

Brigitte Horney Brigitte Horney (, 29 March 1911 – 27 July 1988) was a German theatre and film actress. Best remembered was her role as Empress Katherine the Great in the 1943 version of the UFA film version of ''Baron Münchhausen'', directed by Josef von ...

. The male lead, Dorothea's ex-husband Friedrich-Heinrich, was played by

Peter Pasetti Peter Pasetti (1916–1996) was a German stage, television and film actor. He played a number of leading roles in post-Second World War productions such as the operetta film '' A Night in Venice'' (1953).Goble p.446 From the late 1950s he appeared ...

Loni von Friedl Loni von Friedl (born 1943) is an Austrian film and television actress.Bock & Bergfelder p. 268 She began as a child actress in the early 1950s, before graduating to mature roles during the following decade. The daughter of cinematographer F ...

and

Gerd Baltus Gerd Baltus (29 March 1932 – 13 December 2019) was a German television actor. Baltus was born in Bremen. While doing law studies Baltus became interested in acting. In 1952 he got his first theatre booking in Hamburg, later in Bonn, West Ber ...

also starred. *

as Dorothea Teufel *

as F.H. *

Matthias Hinze Matthias Hinze (7 February 1969 in Berlin – 13 April 2007 in Berlin) was a German actor who specialized in dubbing. Filmography * 1984: '' Eine Klasse für sich'' * 1985: '' Teufels Großmutter'' as Friedrich * 1988: '' Nordlichter'' * 1988 ...

as Friedrich * Natascha Rybakowski as Doris *

as Frank *

as Hetty *

Rijk de Gooyer Rijk de Gooyer (17 December 1925 – 2 November 2011) was a Dutch Golden Calf-winning actor, writer, comedian and singer. From the 1950s until the early 1970s, he became well known in The Netherlands as part of a comic duo with John Kraaijkamp ...

as Hans Binnenbruck * Horst Pinnow as Christian * Hans-Jürgen Dittberner as Thomas Heindl *

Stefan Gossler Stefan Gossler (born 1955) is a German actor and voice actor from Siegen. Voice roles Anime *Case Closed (Gin) *Digimon Frontier (Gigasmon, Grumblemon) *Dr. Slump (Doctor Mashirito (first voice)) *Dragon Ball Z & Dragonball Z Kai ( Cell) *Texhno ...

as Stefan * Manfred Lehmann as shipyard worker *

Andreas Mannkopff Andreas ( el, Ἀνδρέας) is a name usually given to males in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Armenia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Finland, Flanders, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. The name ...

as Gisbert Schulz *Maria Krasna as Anna Sitic * Roswitha Schreiner as Nicole *

Gerhard Bös Gerhard is a name of Germanic origin and may refer to: Given name * Gerhard (bishop of Passau) (fl. 932–946), German prelate * Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg (1292–1340), German prince, regent of Denmark * Gerhard Barkhorn (1919–1 ...

as Rüdiger *

Peter Döring Peter Döring (born 14 August 1943) is a German wrestler. He competed in the men's freestyle 87 kg at the 1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Ol ...

as teacher Böhmler *

Nana Spier Nana, Nanna, Na Na or NANA may refer to: People and fictional characters * Nana (given name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Nana (surname), including a list of people and characters with the surname * Nana ( ...

as Brigitte

Broadcast history

''Teufels Großmutter'' was broadcast on the German-language Swiss station DRS 1 starting on 31 August 1985, on

ORF 1 ORF 1 (''ORF eins'') is an Austrian public television channel owned by ORF. It was the first television channel in Austria, started in 1955. ORF 1 is one of four public TV channels in Austria. It is funded by a mixture of advertising revenue and ...

in Austria starting on 22 November 1985, and on ZDF's early evening programme from 2 January until 20 March 1986. It was re-broadcast on ZDF in 1990 and on

KiKa KiKA (contraction of ''Der KinderKAnal von ARD und ZDF'' ARD_(broadcaster).html" ;"title="he Children's Channel of ARD (broadcaster)">ARD and ZDF]) is a German free-to-air television channel based in Erfurt, Germany. It is managed by a joi ...

and ZDF in 1997.

Episodes

12 episodes of the series were produced.

Reception

The first episode of the series was watched by 8 million viewers on ZDF. The series, particularly Horney'sperformance, was well-received by the critics. ''

'' wrote that "Author and director took exact measure with their leading actress and gave her a role in which she can bring all her compassionate and whimsical abilities to full fruition." ''

'' described Horney's performance of Dorothea as "resolute". The ''

'' wrote that it was "unconventional and endearing as one could wish for in a grandmother."

References

External links