This is a list of Italian television related events from
1987.
Events.
RAI
7 February. The
Sanremo Festival, won by the trio
Morandi,
Tozzi and
Ruggeri and hosted by
Pippo Baudo, gets an audience of 18.300.000 spectators (3 TV viewers on 4), an absolute record in the history of the singing event. The show is marked by an incident of the guest singer
Patsy Kensit, who accidentally shows a naked breast on air. It is also marked by
Claudio Villa’s death, announced by Baudo during the final evening.[1]
20 February.Enzo Tortora comes back to television, four years after his arrest, with a new season of Portobello. Greeted with a standing ovation, he answers with a quip (“Well, where were we?”), then he thanks the public for their solidarity towards him during his judiciary troubles.[2]
5 March. Reorganization of
RAI, giving to each of the three great parties (
DC,
PSI and
PCI) the control of a channel.
RAI 3 (till then a cultural channel, for a niche audience) is greatly potentiated and put under the direction of the communist Angelo Guglielmi;
TG3 is separated from the
TGR (regional news) and trusted to Sandro Curzi (former journalist of
Radio Prague).[3]
10 July.Adriano Celentano signs a contract with RAI for the conduction of Fantastico 8, under conditions of exceptional favor (the artistic direction and 3 billion liras, more other money by the sponsors). The show will be one of the most controversial in the history of Italian television.[4]
4 September: 14.084.000 TV viewers follow
Madonna's
concert, broadcast by
RAI 1 from the
Turin Olympic stadium; it is the second highest rating of the year, after the Sanremo festival.[5]
7 November.At the eve of the
1987 Italian referendum, Adriano Celentano, from the Fantastico’s stage, rails against hunting and invites the audience to write on the voting paper “Chase is against love” (forgetting that such act would invalidate the vote). Although he retracts almost immediately, the outburst causes a trial against him and a fine of 200 million liras. This is only the most sensational of Celentano's provocations. In other episodes of the show, he asks the public to turn off the TV or to change the channel.[6] Other controversies are aroused by the monologues of
Franca Rame (who describes crudely her rape) and
Dario Fo (an irreverent retelling of the
Gospel).[7]
Fininvest
20 March: Pippo Baudo and
Raffaella Carrà, the two greatest Italian TV stars, pass from RAI to
Fininvest, signing generous exclusive contracts (for Baudo, 20 billion liras and the chair of artistic director; for Carrà, 8 billion liras); later, they are imitated by other two popular figures as
Enrica Bonaccorti and
Milly Carlucci. In spite of this sensational “shopping campaign” by Fininvest, in the following season RAI maintains the primacy of viewings and the four newcomers’ shows on
Canale 5 are flops.[8]
4 October: birth of Italia 7, a syndication of local stations, managed (also if not directly owned) by Fininvest, that provides the programs and the publicity; it's meant as a channel for the male public. The 24 November, Fininvest gets the control also of
TeleCapodistria, that specializes in sport events.[9]
15 October: the young actor
Nick Novecento dies precociously for a heart attack. Fininvest, with a very controversial decision, chooses to still air the registered episodes of the Maurizio Costanzo show where the deceased appeared as commentator.[10]
Minor channels.
5 September: end of the syndication Euro TV, splitting in two separate network: Odeon TV (that begins broadcasting the day after) and Italia 7 (starting in October, see over). Odeon TV, owned by two businessmen near to the DC (
Callisto Tanzi and Edoardo Longarini) in the following years tries unsuccessfully to become the “third pole” of Italian TV, after RAI and Fininvest.[3]
7 September: Rete A is the first private channel to air a national newscast, directed by
Emilio Fede.[3]
21 December: birth of
Padre Pio TV, owned by the San Giovanni in Rotondo
Capuchins and aimed to the devotees of the friar.
Mezzogiorno è… (Noon is...) – mix of variety and talk show hosted on RAI 2 by
Gianfranco Funari; it's for three seasons the most followed program of the lunch hour. In spite of its public success, in 1990, for an interview by Funari to the
PRI secretary
Giorgio La Malfa unwelcome to the PSI (that has the control of RAI 2) the show is deleted and the presenter moved away from RAI.[11]
Biberon, with the Bagalino troupe (
Pippo Franco,
Oreste Lionello,
Leo Gullotta), lasted 3 seasons. In this show of political satire (but the mockery is, really, very tame and obsequious) an average family meets the doubles of the most known politicians.
D.O.C.: Musica e altro a denominazione d'origine controllata (CDO: music and more with a controlled designation of origin) – musical show, centered on jazz and authorial song, hosted by
Renzo Arbore.[12]
Il milionario (The millionaire) – game show with Jocelyn Hattab.
Big! – interstitial program for children of the afternoon, with cartoons.
News and educational
Mixer cultura (Mixer culture) – talk show hosted by Arnaldo Bagnasco, that applies the formula of the infotainment to the cultural actuality.[13]
Samarcanda (Samarkand) – controversial talk show hosted by
Michele Santoro, praised as an example of brave journalism, not fearing thorny questions as
Mafia and
Mani pulite, but also charged of demagogy and factionalism (the conductor doesn't hide his leftist sympathies).[14]
Telefono giallo (The yellow phone) – crime magazine, hosted by
Corrado Augias; 3 season. The show re-enacts unsolved crimes, often with political implications; sensational is the episode about the
Itavia Flight 870, with the revelations of an anonymous by phone.[15]
Fininvest
Serials
I ragazzi della 3. C. (The 3C boys) – 3 seasons; directed by
Claudio Risi, script by the
Vanzina brothers. The serial, remembered also for its unprejudiced product placements, mildly satirizes the mores of the Italian middle-class Youth, through the life of some teen-agers, schoolmates in a Roman high school. It gets an unexpected success and it's now considered a time capsule of the Eighties.
Colpo grosso (Jackpot) (Europa 7) – sexy game, where the plays are just a pretest to undress female dancers and contenders; hosted by
Umberto Smaila; 5 seasons. Infamous for its bad taste, the show gets the same an audience of two million viewers, becomes a cultural phenomenon and is largely imitated abroad.[16]
Baby show (Junior TV) – show for children, produced by
Baby Records.
La ruota della fortuna (Odeon TV) – Italian version of
Wheel of fortune; becomes a national success after having transmigrated on the Fininvest channels, where is trusted to Mike Bongiorno and
Enrico Papi.
Forza Italia (Come on, Italy) (Odeon TV) – sport magazine, hosted by
Walter Zenga.
Qui studio, a voi stadio (Studio calls Stadium) (
Telelombardia) – football magazine, with Fabio Ravezzani; it is again now one of the most popular sport program in Italy, also if broadcast by a local channel.
Television shows
RAI
TV-movies
Le lunghe ombre (The long shadows) by
Gianfranco Mingozzi, with
Lina Sastri; coming-of-age story, set in the Second World War.
Un’australiana a Roma (An Australian girl in Rome) by
Sergio Martino; the sad love story between an Australian tourist (
Nicole Kidman, by then unknown outside her country) and an Italian disabled boy (
Massimo Ciavarro).
The success of La piovra pushes RAI to exploit the vein of the stories about organized crime, with three miniseries in a year.
La piovra 3 – by Luigi Perelli, in 7 episodes, with
Michele Placido and
Giuliana De Sio; debut of the main villain of the cycle, the icy boss Tano Cariddi, played by
Remo Girone.[18]
Due assi per un turbo (Two aces for a turbo) – in 12 episodes; international co-production, with Renato D’Amore and
Christian Fremont as two adventurous truckers.
Variety
Fantastico 8 – hosted by
Adriano Celentano, sided by “the four worst in the world” (
Marisa Laurito,
Massimo Boldi,
Heather Parisi and
Maurizio Micheli). Celentano transforms the traditional Saturday evening spectacle in a happening, based on the absolute improvisation and the provocation. The show, also if gets very high ratings, is ravaged by critics and causes also political controversies (see over).
Indietro tutta (Full speed back) – hosted by
Renzo Arbore and
Nino Frassica, demented and exasperated parody of the Italian televisions’ trends by then, as the quiz without cultural value, the undressed female dancers (the “cluck cluck girls”, attired as chickens) and the publicity's invasiveness.[19] The show, to which
Massimo Troisi too takes part by phone, sees the debuts of
Maria Grazia Cucinotta and
Paola Cortellesi (who sings one of the tracks).[20]
Bella d’estate (Nice in summer) – musical show, hosted by Ramona Dell’Abate, with
Walter Chiari.
Canzonissime – musical show celebrating the centenary of the
phonograph record; Effetto Non Stop, dieci anni dopo (Non stop effect, ten years later) – show celebrating the decennial of
Non stop; and Ieri, Goggi, domain (Yesterday, Goggi and tomorrow), magazine; all hosted by
Loretta Goggi.
La fabbrica dei sogni (The dreams’ factory) – game show among the Italian regions, hosted by
Alessandro Benvenuti; it's the first variety aired on RAI 3.
La grande corsa (The big race) and La grande occasione (The big chance) – game shows inspired, respectively, by Italian geography and economy, both hosted by
Luciano Rispoli.
Immagina (Imagine) – variety on the topic of fantasy, hosted by Edwige Fenech, and shot in high definition.
Marisa la nuit – anthological show with the material coming from the
RAI teche, hosted by Marisa Laurito
Per chi suona la campanella (For whom the bluebell sounds) – variety, with the troupe of Il Bagaglino.
Pronto, Topolino? (Hello, Mickey Mouse?) and Pronto, è la RAI? (Hello, RAI?) – shows resuming the formula of Pronto, Raffaella, hosted by
Giancarlo Magalli.
Linea rovente (Burning line) – talk show hosted by
Giuliano Ferrara, one of the first Italian examples of infotainment (the interviews have the form of a symbolic trial).[21]
Fininvest
TV-movies
Nontuttorosa (Not just romance) by Armanzio Todini, with
Marisa Laurito; rom-com with a writer of romance and her guardian angel as protagonists.
Parole e baci (Words and kisses) by Rossella and
Simona Izzo, with Simona Izzo and
Ricky Tognazzi; chronicle of a marital crisis.
Provare per credere (Seeing is believing) - sexy comedy by
Sergio Martino, with the telemarketer Guido Angeli in the role of a playboy.
Miniseries
Professione vacanze (Profession holidays) – by
Vittorio De Sisti, ideated and interpreted by
Jerry Calà, who plays the goofy and womanizer director of a resort; it's one of the first successes of the fiction by Fininvest.
Che piacere averti qui (What a pleasure to have you here) – with
Paolo Villaggio.
Ciao Enrica (Hi, Enrica) – talk show with Enrica Bonaccorti.
Festival – hosted by Pippo Baudo; meant as the Fininvest's answer to Fantastico, it's an unforeseen flop, also because the excessive amount of publicity, so to induce Baudo to terminate the contract with the company.
La giostra (The carousel) – interstitial program of the Sunday afternoon, hosted by Enrica Bonaccorti.
Lupo solitario (Wolfman Jack) – ideated by Antonio Ricci, hosted by Patrizio Roversi and Suzy Blady; experimental and demented variety, very appreciated by
Umberto Eco who call it “the variety of the future”.
This is a list of Italian television related events from
1987.
Events.
RAI
7 February. The
Sanremo Festival, won by the trio
Morandi,
Tozzi and
Ruggeri and hosted by
Pippo Baudo, gets an audience of 18.300.000 spectators (3 TV viewers on 4), an absolute record in the history of the singing event. The show is marked by an incident of the guest singer
Patsy Kensit, who accidentally shows a naked breast on air. It is also marked by
Claudio Villa’s death, announced by Baudo during the final evening.[1]
20 February.Enzo Tortora comes back to television, four years after his arrest, with a new season of Portobello. Greeted with a standing ovation, he answers with a quip (“Well, where were we?”), then he thanks the public for their solidarity towards him during his judiciary troubles.[2]
5 March. Reorganization of
RAI, giving to each of the three great parties (
DC,
PSI and
PCI) the control of a channel.
RAI 3 (till then a cultural channel, for a niche audience) is greatly potentiated and put under the direction of the communist Angelo Guglielmi;
TG3 is separated from the
TGR (regional news) and trusted to Sandro Curzi (former journalist of
Radio Prague).[3]
10 July.Adriano Celentano signs a contract with RAI for the conduction of Fantastico 8, under conditions of exceptional favor (the artistic direction and 3 billion liras, more other money by the sponsors). The show will be one of the most controversial in the history of Italian television.[4]
4 September: 14.084.000 TV viewers follow
Madonna's
concert, broadcast by
RAI 1 from the
Turin Olympic stadium; it is the second highest rating of the year, after the Sanremo festival.[5]
7 November.At the eve of the
1987 Italian referendum, Adriano Celentano, from the Fantastico’s stage, rails against hunting and invites the audience to write on the voting paper “Chase is against love” (forgetting that such act would invalidate the vote). Although he retracts almost immediately, the outburst causes a trial against him and a fine of 200 million liras. This is only the most sensational of Celentano's provocations. In other episodes of the show, he asks the public to turn off the TV or to change the channel.[6] Other controversies are aroused by the monologues of
Franca Rame (who describes crudely her rape) and
Dario Fo (an irreverent retelling of the
Gospel).[7]
Fininvest
20 March: Pippo Baudo and
Raffaella Carrà, the two greatest Italian TV stars, pass from RAI to
Fininvest, signing generous exclusive contracts (for Baudo, 20 billion liras and the chair of artistic director; for Carrà, 8 billion liras); later, they are imitated by other two popular figures as
Enrica Bonaccorti and
Milly Carlucci. In spite of this sensational “shopping campaign” by Fininvest, in the following season RAI maintains the primacy of viewings and the four newcomers’ shows on
Canale 5 are flops.[8]
4 October: birth of Italia 7, a syndication of local stations, managed (also if not directly owned) by Fininvest, that provides the programs and the publicity; it's meant as a channel for the male public. The 24 November, Fininvest gets the control also of
TeleCapodistria, that specializes in sport events.[9]
15 October: the young actor
Nick Novecento dies precociously for a heart attack. Fininvest, with a very controversial decision, chooses to still air the registered episodes of the Maurizio Costanzo show where the deceased appeared as commentator.[10]
Minor channels.
5 September: end of the syndication Euro TV, splitting in two separate network: Odeon TV (that begins broadcasting the day after) and Italia 7 (starting in October, see over). Odeon TV, owned by two businessmen near to the DC (
Callisto Tanzi and Edoardo Longarini) in the following years tries unsuccessfully to become the “third pole” of Italian TV, after RAI and Fininvest.[3]
7 September: Rete A is the first private channel to air a national newscast, directed by
Emilio Fede.[3]
21 December: birth of
Padre Pio TV, owned by the San Giovanni in Rotondo
Capuchins and aimed to the devotees of the friar.
Mezzogiorno è… (Noon is...) – mix of variety and talk show hosted on RAI 2 by
Gianfranco Funari; it's for three seasons the most followed program of the lunch hour. In spite of its public success, in 1990, for an interview by Funari to the
PRI secretary
Giorgio La Malfa unwelcome to the PSI (that has the control of RAI 2) the show is deleted and the presenter moved away from RAI.[11]
Biberon, with the Bagalino troupe (
Pippo Franco,
Oreste Lionello,
Leo Gullotta), lasted 3 seasons. In this show of political satire (but the mockery is, really, very tame and obsequious) an average family meets the doubles of the most known politicians.
D.O.C.: Musica e altro a denominazione d'origine controllata (CDO: music and more with a controlled designation of origin) – musical show, centered on jazz and authorial song, hosted by
Renzo Arbore.[12]
Il milionario (The millionaire) – game show with Jocelyn Hattab.
Big! – interstitial program for children of the afternoon, with cartoons.
News and educational
Mixer cultura (Mixer culture) – talk show hosted by Arnaldo Bagnasco, that applies the formula of the infotainment to the cultural actuality.[13]
Samarcanda (Samarkand) – controversial talk show hosted by
Michele Santoro, praised as an example of brave journalism, not fearing thorny questions as
Mafia and
Mani pulite, but also charged of demagogy and factionalism (the conductor doesn't hide his leftist sympathies).[14]
Telefono giallo (The yellow phone) – crime magazine, hosted by
Corrado Augias; 3 season. The show re-enacts unsolved crimes, often with political implications; sensational is the episode about the
Itavia Flight 870, with the revelations of an anonymous by phone.[15]
Fininvest
Serials
I ragazzi della 3. C. (The 3C boys) – 3 seasons; directed by
Claudio Risi, script by the
Vanzina brothers. The serial, remembered also for its unprejudiced product placements, mildly satirizes the mores of the Italian middle-class Youth, through the life of some teen-agers, schoolmates in a Roman high school. It gets an unexpected success and it's now considered a time capsule of the Eighties.
Colpo grosso (Jackpot) (Europa 7) – sexy game, where the plays are just a pretest to undress female dancers and contenders; hosted by
Umberto Smaila; 5 seasons. Infamous for its bad taste, the show gets the same an audience of two million viewers, becomes a cultural phenomenon and is largely imitated abroad.[16]
Baby show (Junior TV) – show for children, produced by
Baby Records.
La ruota della fortuna (Odeon TV) – Italian version of
Wheel of fortune; becomes a national success after having transmigrated on the Fininvest channels, where is trusted to Mike Bongiorno and
Enrico Papi.
Forza Italia (Come on, Italy) (Odeon TV) – sport magazine, hosted by
Walter Zenga.
Qui studio, a voi stadio (Studio calls Stadium) (
Telelombardia) – football magazine, with Fabio Ravezzani; it is again now one of the most popular sport program in Italy, also if broadcast by a local channel.
Television shows
RAI
TV-movies
Le lunghe ombre (The long shadows) by
Gianfranco Mingozzi, with
Lina Sastri; coming-of-age story, set in the Second World War.
Un’australiana a Roma (An Australian girl in Rome) by
Sergio Martino; the sad love story between an Australian tourist (
Nicole Kidman, by then unknown outside her country) and an Italian disabled boy (
Massimo Ciavarro).
The success of La piovra pushes RAI to exploit the vein of the stories about organized crime, with three miniseries in a year.
La piovra 3 – by Luigi Perelli, in 7 episodes, with
Michele Placido and
Giuliana De Sio; debut of the main villain of the cycle, the icy boss Tano Cariddi, played by
Remo Girone.[18]
Due assi per un turbo (Two aces for a turbo) – in 12 episodes; international co-production, with Renato D’Amore and
Christian Fremont as two adventurous truckers.
Variety
Fantastico 8 – hosted by
Adriano Celentano, sided by “the four worst in the world” (
Marisa Laurito,
Massimo Boldi,
Heather Parisi and
Maurizio Micheli). Celentano transforms the traditional Saturday evening spectacle in a happening, based on the absolute improvisation and the provocation. The show, also if gets very high ratings, is ravaged by critics and causes also political controversies (see over).
Indietro tutta (Full speed back) – hosted by
Renzo Arbore and
Nino Frassica, demented and exasperated parody of the Italian televisions’ trends by then, as the quiz without cultural value, the undressed female dancers (the “cluck cluck girls”, attired as chickens) and the publicity's invasiveness.[19] The show, to which
Massimo Troisi too takes part by phone, sees the debuts of
Maria Grazia Cucinotta and
Paola Cortellesi (who sings one of the tracks).[20]
Bella d’estate (Nice in summer) – musical show, hosted by Ramona Dell’Abate, with
Walter Chiari.
Canzonissime – musical show celebrating the centenary of the
phonograph record; Effetto Non Stop, dieci anni dopo (Non stop effect, ten years later) – show celebrating the decennial of
Non stop; and Ieri, Goggi, domain (Yesterday, Goggi and tomorrow), magazine; all hosted by
Loretta Goggi.
La fabbrica dei sogni (The dreams’ factory) – game show among the Italian regions, hosted by
Alessandro Benvenuti; it's the first variety aired on RAI 3.
La grande corsa (The big race) and La grande occasione (The big chance) – game shows inspired, respectively, by Italian geography and economy, both hosted by
Luciano Rispoli.
Immagina (Imagine) – variety on the topic of fantasy, hosted by Edwige Fenech, and shot in high definition.
Marisa la nuit – anthological show with the material coming from the
RAI teche, hosted by Marisa Laurito
Per chi suona la campanella (For whom the bluebell sounds) – variety, with the troupe of Il Bagaglino.
Pronto, Topolino? (Hello, Mickey Mouse?) and Pronto, è la RAI? (Hello, RAI?) – shows resuming the formula of Pronto, Raffaella, hosted by
Giancarlo Magalli.
Linea rovente (Burning line) – talk show hosted by
Giuliano Ferrara, one of the first Italian examples of infotainment (the interviews have the form of a symbolic trial).[21]
Fininvest
TV-movies
Nontuttorosa (Not just romance) by Armanzio Todini, with
Marisa Laurito; rom-com with a writer of romance and her guardian angel as protagonists.
Parole e baci (Words and kisses) by Rossella and
Simona Izzo, with Simona Izzo and
Ricky Tognazzi; chronicle of a marital crisis.
Provare per credere (Seeing is believing) - sexy comedy by
Sergio Martino, with the telemarketer Guido Angeli in the role of a playboy.
Miniseries
Professione vacanze (Profession holidays) – by
Vittorio De Sisti, ideated and interpreted by
Jerry Calà, who plays the goofy and womanizer director of a resort; it's one of the first successes of the fiction by Fininvest.
Che piacere averti qui (What a pleasure to have you here) – with
Paolo Villaggio.
Ciao Enrica (Hi, Enrica) – talk show with Enrica Bonaccorti.
Festival – hosted by Pippo Baudo; meant as the Fininvest's answer to Fantastico, it's an unforeseen flop, also because the excessive amount of publicity, so to induce Baudo to terminate the contract with the company.
La giostra (The carousel) – interstitial program of the Sunday afternoon, hosted by Enrica Bonaccorti.
Lupo solitario (Wolfman Jack) – ideated by Antonio Ricci, hosted by Patrizio Roversi and Suzy Blady; experimental and demented variety, very appreciated by
Umberto Eco who call it “the variety of the future”.