Elephant, Tiger & Co.

Television series
Original title	Elephant, Tiger & Co.
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Year (s)	since 2003
Production company	Central German radio
length	25 minutes long versions: 48 minutes
Episodes	800+ long versions: 486 in 10 seasons
genre	Zoo documentary soap
Theme music	Ingxoxo from Amampondo
idea	Jan Tenhaven and Axel Friedrich
First broadcast	April 1st, 2003 on MDR television long version: October 4th, 2005 on Das Erste
occupation
Speaker: Christian Steyer

Elefant, Tiger & Co. is a television series by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) that has been broadcast since April 1, 2003. It is considered the most successful German zoo docu-soap . The location is the zoological garden in Leipzig .

content

Lama Horst

In the series incidents from the daily life of the zoo animals and the work of are keepers , curators and veterinarians reproduced, such as the history of the small Angola - lion Malik, the samples of public advertising appearances of Lamas Horst and alpacas Harry and the move of the animals into new Gondwanaland .

In 2010 and 2011, the world-famous, now deceased Virginia opossum Heidi was part of the show's animal ensemble, to which a separate series on the Internet was dedicated.

background

From March 5th, 2002, the MDR broadcasted 15-minute episodes Elefant, Tiger und Co. with the second title Tierzulande at 9:30 p.m. in the series Here in Germany . A total of 12 episodes were broadcast, starting with the first episode Operation Day in the Zoo and produced by DocStation (written / directed by Katrin Völker, Marcus Fischötter). Due to the keen public interest, the MDR took over this program on its own and started broadcasting it as an independent format from April 1, 2003.

By including the zookeeper personalities in the concept and plot of the series, the series is considered a pioneer in the field of zoo docu-soaps. The success of Elefant, Tiger & Co. exceeded the expectations of the MDR and the zoo. In the meantime (2018) more than 800 episodes have been produced and broadcast.

First 15-minute, later 25-minute episodes were produced for Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. For the afternoon program of the first , reruns of the television series were cut into 48-minute blocks. The broadcast of the first season of these episodes from October 4 to December 23, 2005, was watched by an average of 1.93 million viewers. The second season, which was broadcast from January 24th to April 5th, 2007, reached an average of 2.64 million viewers. A total of ten seasons of these long versions were published by 2017. In addition, three 90-minute special programs with Sven Voss appeared : Elefant, Tiger & Co. - Spezial: Der Zoo macht Schule (first broadcast: April 19, 2019), a program that reports on the transformation of the zoo from an entertainment establishment to an educational institution, Elefant , Tiger & Co. - Special: The Jubilee (first broadcast: June 8, 2019), a TV special for the 15th anniversary of Elefant, Tiger & Co. and ETC-Spezial: A zoo is renovating (Internet first broadcast: April 7th 2020), a special that deals with the new buildings and renovations of the Leipzig Zoo in previous years.

The series was largely developed by the two television authors Jan Tenhaven and Axel Friedrich. In the meantime, nine other authors are alternately responsible for the program: Jens Strohschnieder, Kerstin Holl, Antje Schneider, Eva Demmler, Lutz Tauscher, Stefanie Wagemann, Christiane Probst, Beate Gerber and Melanie Henze. The speaker and - in special broadcasts - an occasional actor is the musician and actor Christian Steyer . His representatives are the radio play speaker Uve Teschner and, since 2019, the scriptwriter and director Stefan Barth .

Staggering the long versions

From 2005 to 2017, a total of 486 episodes of the 48-minute long versions were created in ten seasons.

Season	First broadcast from	until	consequences
1.	October 4, 2005	December 23, 2005	46 + 10?
2.	January 24, 2007	April 5, 2007	49?
3.	July 28, 2008	October 8, 2008	40
4th	July 21, 2009	October 28, 2009	67
5.	October 24, 2011	December 20, 2011	40
6th	August 13, 2012	October 10, 2012	40
7th	June. 17.2013	15th July 2013	20th
8th.	April 22, 2014	July 1, 2014	45
9.	April 13, 2015	29th August 2015	59
10.	April 20, 2017	October 28, 2017	50

1. ↑ The second episode of the third season Der Mull-Verband from July 29, 2008 is the 127th episode of the 48-minute long versions. Accordingly, the first two seasons would have to consist of a total of 125 episodes. Elefant, Tiger & Co. (127) at programm.ard.de.

More zoo docu soaps

According to the concept of Elefant, Tiger & Co. , other zoo documentary soaps were also designed, such as penguin, lion & Co. from the all-weather zoo Münster and panda, gorilla & Co. from the zoo and zoological garden in Berlin. Further offshoot series followed and the ZDF broadcast similar series, with titles such as Berliner Schnauzen from the Berlin Zoological Garden and Tierisch Kölsch from the Cologne Zoo . As a reaction to the many imitators, the claim Elefant, Tiger & Co. - The original is now being made in the credits .

In the speech at the opening of the new elephant enclosure in Leipzig Zoo in March 2006, Bernhard Blaszkiewitz , the then director of Tierpark Berlin , emphasized the benefits of all zoos from this broadcast format, combined with the demand “to pack more information into such programs”.

Another ARD program that also takes place in Leipzig Zoo, albeit with a purely fictional plot, is veterinarian Dr. Mertens .

literature

• Eva Demmler, Axel Friedrich, Antje Schneider and Jens Strohschnieder: Elefant, Tiger & Co. Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-430-30023-0 .

Web links

• Elefant, Tiger & Co. in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Elefant, Tiger & Co. at Fernsehserien.de
• Elefant, Tiger & Co. on the MDR page for the broadcast

Footnotes

1. ↑ Elefant, Tiger & Co (MDR). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 24, 2011 ; accessed on November 2, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Elefant, Tiger & Co - transmission date chronicle. In: fernsehserien.de. Retrieved November 2, 2015 .  
    
2. ↑ Press kit of ARD: Zoogeschichten im Erste. 333 episodes & more ..., 2007, p. 4.
3. ↑ Status: March 15, 2007 / ARD press kit: Zoogeschichten im Erste. 333 episodes & more ..., 2007, p. 5.
4. ↑ Elefant, Tiger & Co. - Special: The zoo makes school at mdr.de. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
5. ↑ Elefant, Tiger & Co. - Special: The anniversary at mdr.de. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
6. ↑ A zoo is renovating! at mdr.de. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
7. ↑ Broadcast dates at fernsehserien.de. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
8. ↑ Bernhard Blaszkiewitz: Greeting for the opening of the Ganesha Mandir elephant temple on March 31, 2006 in the Leipzig Zoological Garden. In: Milu. Messages from the Tierpark Berlin-Friedrichsfelde - Volume 11 - Issue 6. Berlin 2006, pp. 720–721.