RTL Samstag Nacht

rtl samstag nacht is truly based on saturday night live, but its NOT lousy. it was the first real comedy show of that format ever in germany. it pushed the comedy boom here. without samstag nacht, there wouldnt be that much comedy in tv today. way too bad, the show was canceled after 5 years in 1998.

me and my friends back then always watched it. is was a highlight on tv every week. a must-see. when i hear the show's theme, i remember the time back then. almost brings a tear to my eye. :)

i love SuperRTL for rerunning the show, even if they bring it every night.

This show started a real comedy boom in Germany. When it was shown first in 1993, nobody knew this kind of TV show here. Sure there were some similar shows before like "Total Normal". But so much various characters like in this show there weren't before. For example some sketches playing with words: "Der Sport" (translated: Sports) or "Kentucky schreit ficken" (translated: Kentucky screams CENSORED). "Zwei Stühle, eine Meinung" (translated: Two chairs, one opinion) or "Schreinemakers Ihre Schwester-TV" were funny talk shows. All of the actors in this show became popular in Germany later. And tough RTL Samstag Nacht stopped its production in 1997 its broadcoasted today on some TV programmes.

This show had some very funny recurring elements, e.g. the "Sports" section, having the names of famous German athletes replaced by similar sounding nouns from a different word-field like vegetables. Of course this has to be experienced to grasp how funny it was... The famous spoof of modern talk-shows "Zwei Stuehle, Eine Meinung" (Two Chairs, One Opinion) deserved all the praise and awards it received. It uncovered the stupidity, arrogance and over-estimation of people involved with this "format". In all, this show was definitely not lousy, but a funny and mostly original approach to Saturday Night Entertainment.

Was alright in the 90s. A bit like the Simpsons rationale. It's a new concept and there hadn't been any funny stuff before. Germany in the 90s was school that started at 7:40am, when you turned 18 you got a letter from the German military that they were going to conscript you, and the med authorities touched your testicles without asking. It's a matter of taste, whether a TV channel should allow comedy shows in that system. Don't go through all the other German 90s comedy shows, I'll sum them up and rate them here: Samstag Nacht: 3/10. Repetitive. Switch: 5/10. Imaginative but offensive at times. 'Ladykracher' was in the 00s, a hit and miss, and the hits were funny, 8/10. There have been dozens of comparable comedy shows that flooded Germany only in the 90s, but absolutely rank below 3 stars. Returning to the more important issue: should an oppressive system like Germany where people habitually cross boundaries broadcast any comedy shows ? Shouldn't the young people get the message by NOT showing any comedy shows ? It depends if there is YouTube, I would say. There was no YouTube in 90s ... I still can't give it a 'yes.' I hope Germany falls into foreign proprietorship, and we'll never have to discuss this impossible question ever again.

For that we don't get to see the American SNL the show Samstag Nacht was a very good representative of the original. The show had some scenes and sketches that have not been on the SNL and some have been in a way, and without it maybe Germans would have never found their way to get interested in the American SNL and would not buy their DVDs which is the only way to get to watch it here. By the way, any show shown here is a "copy", its always a country doing it first and others follow... On the other hand, I really request the Germany TV to show SNL either in English or dubbed! And RTL Samstag Nacht should be available on DVD here!