Out of the blue
Out of the blue is a German television series that was produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk from 1995 to 1999 . It has run several times since it was first broadcast on ARD , in 2017 on One .
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After the sudden death of his ex-wife, the easy-going graphic artist Tobias Sandmann takes in their two children and their much younger adoptive brother. Alicia and Henrik are teenagers, Carlos is preschool. The arrival of the three means a great change for everyone, which - according to the series title - "out of the blue" falls on them.
While the first three seasons could be filmed with a largely unchanged leading group of actors, the characters of Henrik and Alicia Sandmann were replaced by the characters of Luca and Miriam Pauly in the fourth season.
Characters
Sandmann family
Tobias Sandmann
Tobias Sandmann is the father of Alicia and Henrik Sandmann. His parents Wilhelm Sandmann and Dora Sandmann died in 1981 and left the house in which the Sandmann family lived to Tobias and his wife. Tobias works as a cartoonist and lives with his roommate Christoph Dengler in Starnberg. His wife Gudrun separated from Tobias years ago, forbade him to have any contact with the children, and finally emigrated with them to Brazil. Tobias' rapidly changing and sometimes simultaneous female acquaintances end when he meets the lawyer Julia Janowski and falls in love with her.
Christoph Dengler
Christoph Dengler is the Sandmann family's roommate and something of a second father figure for the children. He loves sailing and works in his shipyard on Lake Starnberg. His particular pride is his own sailing boat. Christoph is characterized by the fact that he is always helpful in the conflicts of the Sandmanns and often acts as the voice of reason.
Alicia Sandmann
Alicia Sandmann is the daughter of Tobias Sandmann and his wife Gudrun. She is initially in upper school, is finishing high school amid turbulence and then tries her hand at working as an intern in a hospital, later as a trainee at a newspaper. Alicia is always trying to make the world a better place, and she often goes through the wall with her head. As the oldest of the children, unlike Henrik, she still has some fragmentary memories of the time before her parents' divorce and of her paternal grandparents.
Henrik Sandmann
Henrik Sandmann is the son of Tobias Sandmann and his wife Gudrun. He goes to the same school as Alicia. As a student he is rather mediocre and often gets into corresponding difficulties. Henrik plays football enthusiastically and ends up with the young players from FC Bayern Munich. His best friend is Sylvester Gruber. At first he is with Claire Obermeier, who, however, leaves him over time. The relationship with his father Tobias is initially characterized by difficulties, because Henrik cannot forgive his father for the many years without contact and Tobias does not show him the expected trust from the start. Over time, however, Tobias learns to trust Henrik and accept him for who he is. For his part, Henrik learns from Christoph how much Tobias suffered from being separated from his children, and that the desire for contact with them always existed, but Gudrun did not agree.
Carlos Sandmann
Carlos Sandmann is the adoptive son of Gudrun Sandmann, whom Tobias finally adopts as his son. First he goes to kindergarten, but will start school in the course of the second season.
Luca Pauly
Luca Pauly and her sister Miriam join the Sandmanns after Alicia and Henrik finally went abroad. Her character replaces Alicia in terms of problems and perspectives from the fourth season. Just as Alicia had to deal with the Islamic faith in the first season, for example, Luca is confronted by her boyfriend with the Jewish faith and the cultural and religious conflicts associated with it. She plays the cello and eventually marries Rufus Goldberg.
Miriam Pauly
Miriam Pauly, Luca's younger sister, is called Mimi and moves in with her older sister at the beginning of the fourth season with the Sandmanns. Their conflicts are similar to those that Henrik had to deal with in the first three seasons.
relative
Hermann Strohmeyer
Hermann and Gretel Strohmeyer are the parents of Tobias ex-wife Gudrun. The relationship between the Strohmeyers and the Sandmanns is severely disturbed at the beginning, especially Tobias and Hermann Strohmeyer argue about the past and blame each other for the failure of Tobias and Gudrun's marriage. Due to the conservative attitude and the idea of Hermann Strohmeyer to put Carlos in a home, the children finally decide to live with Tobias and Christoph. Later, however, after the death of Gretel Strohmeyer, the relationship with Hermann Strohmeyer changed. Carlos in particular plays a major role here, who wins Hermann Strohmeyer as a grandfather and questions and even changes his conservative views.
Gretel Strohmeyer
Gretel Strohmeyer, who receives the children together with her husband Hermann Strohmeyer, is more in the shadow of them and bows to their ideas. Only after her death, at the request of the deceased, does Hermann reconcile with the Sandmanns.
Wilhelm and Dora Sandmann
Tobias parents Wilhelm and Dora Sandmann do not appear in the series, but died before that. Alicia's memories in particular are clouded when a will from Wilhelm Sandmann that prefers the male heir is found.
Friends
Julia Janowski
The lawyer Julia Janowski works in the office of her fiancé, Dr. Ingo Baumgartner, and his father. She initially represents the interests of Hermann and Gretel Strohmeyer, but with increasing reluctance after recognizing their conservative views and their intention to give Carlos to a home. When the Strohmeyers see her accepting a bouquet of flowers from Tobias, she loses her mandate. Shortly thereafter she broke off her engagement to Dr. Ingo Baumgartner and resigns from her position in the office. Her initial affection for Tobias Sandmann turns into love, and the two begin a relationship.
Sylvester Gruber
Sylvester Gruber is Henrik's classmate and plays on the same soccer team as him. At first he thinks Henrik is conceited and arrogant and tries to make life difficult for him. However, after scoring an important goal in a football match together, the two realize how futile their enmity is, and Sylvester becomes Henrik's best friend. Sylvester and Henrik are always looking for ways to make big bucks quickly and they regularly get into trouble.
Stefanie Tümmler
Stefanie Tümmler belongs to Alicia's circle of friends and goes to the same class with her. Shortly before graduating from high school, she got into a crisis and finally refused to take the high school exams so that she would not have to bow to her parents' expectations.
Other people
Dr. Wiesner
Dr. Wiesner is a math teacher at the school that Henrik and Alicia go to. In the beginning, he is characterized by the fact that he approaches his students in a harassing manner and with little understanding. When a classmate seems to overreact due to his behavior while preparing for the Abitur, Alicia takes a stand against him and takes legal action, whereupon Dr. Wiesner almost wants to move away from Starnberg.
DVDs
All five seasons are now available on DVD.
Locations
The series was mainly shot on Lake Starnberg . The most common locations, the Sandmann family's house in Icking , and the Christoph Dengler shipyard, which is actually the Simmerding shipyard in the municipality of Berg , can still be viewed in almost unchanged condition.
Web links
- Episode guide
- Out of the blue in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Out of the blue (detailed information about seasons 1 to 3 on DVD)