New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Billy Nolan" data-source="post: 434827" data-attributes="member: 1037">In the course of my research for the Knots Landing press release I wrote for the German magazine "Serien Retro" I contacted ZDF and SAT.1 in October 2025 to clarify questions that German fans of "Knots Landing" have long had unanswered:My questions for ZDF:1. Why were some episodes not dubbed or broadcast at the time?2. Why were some of the original US opening sequences not shown in the ZDF broadcast?3. What ratings did the series achieve during its initial broadcast? According to GfK, viewership in autumn 1989 reached up to 5 million (source: GfK reports in November 1990 for the broadcast period from August to December 1989).4. Why was the series subsequently moved from Saturday evening programming to the afternoon slot, which led to a significant drop in ratings (according to GfK in summer 1990: 1 million viewers)?5. What were the reasons for the later sale of the broadcasting rights to SAT.1?My questions for SAT.1:1. Why were some episodes not dubbed or not broadcast on SAT.1?2. Why were some of the original opening sequences not shown?3. Is it true that SAT.1 was interested in the series as early as the mid-1980s, but that the broadcasting rights were acquired by ZDF at that time?Answers:Of course, one has to bear in mind that there are hardly any answers to such specific questions these days. Nevertheless, I gave it a try.ZDF's response was rather unsatisfactory, referring to the production of the episodes. These were dubbed by the Munich dubbing studio, Taurus Film GmbH, and individually prepared for media use (PR photos, etc.). They were essentially ZDF's service provider. But the decision as to which opening sequences and episodes were not shown, or why broadcast slots were changed (despite good ratings), can only be answered by the program service. The reply email is still pending and probably won't arrive.Communication with SAT.1 was a different story:Replies came quite quickly, and I even received a personal call from the head of on-air operations (CvD) in the editorial department. They had, of course, taken over the series pre-produced by ZDF up to season 7 1/2 and then continued it. The unaired episodes were no longer an issue by the early 1990s, and the focus was on dubbing the new episodes and seasons. The extremely long opening sequence of season 8, which had already been shown in the final episodes of season 7 (after the takeover by SAT.1), was apparently intended as a kind of "innovative gift" to the new SAT.1 viewers. At the time, they felt the opening sequence looked fresh and modern.In the early to mid-1990s, it was common practice to "cut" episodes and shorten, omit, or replace opening sequences. This wasn't an isolated case with "Knots Landing," unless the licensors had stipulated otherwise. That wasn't the case with Knots Landing. US series opening sequences were sometimes adapted to suit the specific country.The reason episodes were omitted was simply to tailor the episode offerings to the German market. It was felt that some episodes wouldn't resonate with the German target audience.The fact that Knots Landing was sold by SAT.1 in 1995 is largely due to the then-new managing director, Fred Kogel, who rejuvenated SAT.1 and completely restructured the channel. Therefore, German viewers can be truly grateful that SAT.1 ultimately commissioned the dubbing of the final episodes of seasons 13 and 14. At that point, the channel had already abandoned series like Falcon Crest and "Knots Landing" in its medium-term plans.That's just some background information.The conversation with the head of programming at SAT.1 was truly informative and very pleasant.[ATTACH=full]58200[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

Verification: 6 + 4 =