Hello Spencer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Television series
Original title Hello Spencer
Country of production Germany
original language German
Year (s) 1979-2001
Episodes 275
Director Klaus Wirbitzky ,
Peter Podehl ,
Winfried Debertin ,
John Delbridge ,
Achim Lenz,
Christoph Busse ,
Udo-Wolfgang Wilk ,
Molitoris,
Jan Fantl
idea Winfried Debertin ,
Angelika Paetow
script Peter Podehl
production Peter Podehl
music Matthias Felsch ,
Ingfried Hoffmann
camera Karl-Heinz Pfeiffer
First broadcast December 27, 1979 on III. TV program of the Nordkette

Hallo Spencer is a German puppet show with snap-mouth figures that was produced by the NDR from 1979 to 2001 . A total of 275 episodes and some special editions were created that were broadcast in the first and third programs . The series was later also broadcast on the commercial network Nickelodeon , on the pay-TV channel Premiere and on Arte . The series was last seen in March 2011 on NDR television .

Plot and concept

Most of the episodes tell a story from the round village. These are characterized by humor, but also by educational content typical of children's series (such as “Above and below” or “The cleverer gives in”). Recurring elements are the songs of Quietschbeus and Poldi's Fresssucht (“I want to eat you!”), Lexi's know-it-all and other characteristics of the villagers. The main characters represent identification offers for viewers of different ages.

There are several other "types" of episodes as well. In some episodes, stories are told by Max and Molly (60 to 62 and 88 to 94). In other episodes Spencer tells / shows films or stories in the studio (episodes 63, 64, 95 to 97 and 109 to 114). A number of episodes also take place in the city in which Spencer lives (129 to 133, 147 to 163, 177 to 187 and 201 to 206). Spencer also sometimes tells stories here himself. Episodes 207 to 211 are set in the school for young kites that Poldi attends.

From episode 238, Hallo Spencer finally said goodbye to the principle of the classic Runddorf episode. The episodes 238 to 249 are so-called magazine episodes . The episodes 250 to 275 take place in the dolls workshop or in the plastic studio and, in addition to the frame story, consist of numerous films.

The individual episodes are not related in terms of content (with a few exceptions), so the characters do not get older, and events in individual episodes usually do not result in any permanent change in the environment.

However, some characters have undergone significant changes over the years of production:

  • Poldi - The young dragon often appears immature and relatively aggressive in the first few episodes; it is therefore generally avoided by most of the villagers. Later he is kinder and more responsible. In one episode he learns that it means “I want to eat you ”, but continues to use the wrong form so that he can be improved and thus get into conversation.
  • Kasi - His character is noticeably dependent on his puppeteer. In the later episodes, in which Martin Leßmann lent him his voice, he doesn't put up with it and, on the other hand, emphasizes his moral ideas more aggressively, sometimes even annoyingly.
  • Lexi - He falls in love with Lisa in episode 53 (Lexi's great love ); one of the few occurrences that have a significant impact beyond a single episode.
  • Karl-Heinz - With the player Karime Vakilzadeh, he was given a pronounced Hessian dialect, which of course changed his appearance accordingly.
  • Lulu - In the first five episodes she is very naive, for example she doesn't even know that icicles melt in a warm room. From episode 6 onwards she will gradually become more mature and grown up.

background

The series was conceived by Angelika Paetow and Winfried Debertin . Debertin developed the figures for this and built them in his workshop. The first episodes were directed by Peter Podehl and Armin Maiwald , who also wrote Spencer's greeting: “Hello, dear people, from A to Z, from 1 to 100, from north to south, from east to west, here I am, your dearest good old Spencer! ”. Maiwald withdrew from production after a while. The direction remained in the hands of Peter Podehl, who also wrote most of the scripts (around 200).

For the 25th anniversary in 2004, the original backdrops were moved to Heide-Park Soltau . There, new stories about the round village were performed by audio animatronics in the Spencer show. When the license expired, the show was suspended and Ghostbusters 5D was opened in the building at the start of the 2017 season.

The village is laid out in a ring, with the following order (clockwise): Spencer's studio - Lexis Pilz - Nepomukhausen Castle - Kasimir's chestnut - Poldi's crater - The twins' houseboat - Crossing - Elvis and Lulu's railroad carriages - Squeaky boo show decorations

On September 7, 2001, the previous episode (275th Poldi and Mucki ) was broadcast.

Because of the death of Kasimir puppeteer Herbert Langemann, the episode "Kasi Needs Help" (episode 87) was not completed and broadcast.

Introduction

The intro of the series is a creative collage, presented by a red and blue plasticine figure, the so-called ' Plonsters ', who otherwise neither appear nor are mentioned in the series. In the various picture collages, almost all of the main actors in the series are shown. The scene was filmed using stop-motion technology .

The introduction is musically accompanied by jazzy music in the shuffler rhythm, played by a jazz orchestra. After the tutti winds, piano, accordion, drums and bass, the striking trombone melody is particularly noticeable, which gets a particularly rough and shrill sound with certain techniques such as growls , shakes and glissandi , but also the attached mute.

The series abroad

The foreign rights to Hallo Spencer were sold to Haim Saban in the early 1990s . The series has been running ever since. a. in the USA , the People's Republic of China , Spain , Singapore , Belarus , Scandinavia and the Netherlands .

The US version, entitled The Hallo Spencer Show , has been heavily edited. The episodes are around 7 minutes shorter and contain a song at the end in which the plot of the episode is summarized in a spoken chant. So that the American viewers are not surprised by the Hello Spencer sign in the studio, Spencer was given the first name Hello . Some other names have also been changed. Elvis was renamed “Elmar”, Nepomuk into “Grumpowsky” (short form “Grumpy”) and the Quietschbeus into “The Screech Boys”. Spencerdorf became Spencerville. Since there is already a Spencerville in Ohio , the plot has been moved there.

characters

Villager

Spencer

Spencer is the protagonist and presenter of his own show. Does he seem to live outside the village at the beginning of the series (episode 8: he comes to the studio after Elvis from "home"; episode 12: Spencer reports about his neighbors - all indications that he commutes to work) is he was temporarily homeless during the 1988/89 season (episodes 115–128) (episode 115: You see Spencer sleeping in the studio, episode 127: Spencer brushes his teeth there). Since the episodes from Hallerstrasse , Spencer has apparently been living in town again, from episode 130 “The Summer Party” he also shows himself in his living room there.

Spencer monitors the round village with his monitor. Important attributes are his blue armchair, the pneumatic tube, the visophone with which he can contact individual villagers or all of them together as a conference call, his brown checked jacket with a matching flat cap . He is the only character who breaks through the fourth wall in every episode and speaks directly to the audience, the other characters rarely turn to the audience (exception is Elvis, who often greets and / or says goodbye to the audience from the studio) . A special skill that makes him indispensable in the series is his finger snap, with which he is able to switch to any location in the village. When he had to be replaced by Elvis due to illness, for example, he only managed to change the scene by hitting the desk and shouting "Snap your fingers". Another time he even plays a video recording of Spencer's finger snap.

Elvis

Since the second season (episode 6: Many wishes ) has worked as Spencer's assistant, Elvis is often sent to messenger services, opinion polls or to correct or carry out mistakes. With his card index he also performs the function of the registration office. Elvis is sometimes simple, often slowly or completely incomprehensible, which is why he tends to be angry and also jealous. In episodes in which fairy tales, sagas or operas are re-enacted, he is therefore often assigned the role of a rival or even an evil character. Since the first Max and Molly season (episodes 60–64) Elvis has been known as a passionate video lender, and his large collection is also used in later episodes.

In the first season, Elvis lives with his girlfriend Lulu and her sister Peggy in a three-room apartment in a nearby town, then with Lulu in a disused train carriage, the Traumexpress . Elvis' hobby is the care and maintenance of cacti.

  • Speaker: Wilhelm Helmrich (episodes 1–187; 1979–1991), Matthias Hirth (episodes 188–249; 1992–1995)

Lulu

Lulu lives with Elvis in the Traumexpress train car . She is fashion conscious and has already designed her own collection. In the first few episodes she had movable hands (operated by a second player like Spencer), but no nose. Both will change from the second season.

  • Speaker: Maria Ilic

Nepomuk

Nepomuk, a quirky sculptor of noble blood (proven by Lexi on the basis of genealogical studies) lives at Schloss Nepomukhausen . His full name - Nepomuk XXIII. - he tries to hide, but he only allows his friend and neighbor Casimir to use the nickname Nepi . When the other villagers call him that, he always responds with a powerful organ “What's my name?” - “Nepomuk.” - “Well, please, do it!”

He is a stubborn but reliable character.

Casimir

Kasimir (mostly Kasi) lives in a chestnut tree with an elevator (the apartment, a kind of tree house, is never shown), is Nepomuk's closest friend and has a connection to Galaktika. He is helpful to the point of self-sacrifice, likes to take care of municipal tasks such as garbage disposal, mail delivery, if necessary, and leads disaster control

This humble good nature is partly taken advantage of by the villagers. He likes to spend his little free time cleaning his beloved chestnut grill.

Poldi

The young dragon Poldi lives in the most geologically active part of the village in a volcanic crater. Although he threatens every passer-by with his consumption, he always fails on the accusative: His "I am Poldi, the most beautiful young dragon in the world, huaaa, and I want to eat you!" Is always corrected, which takes away the seriousness of his threat.

Poldi visits the kite school, from where he reports about his swarm of pummel peaks .

  • Speaker: Friedrich Wollweber

Lexi

The intellectual among the villagers lives with his library in a kind of mushroom house, where he works - still on the typewriter - on his life's work, a lexiclopedia. Since he is mentally superior to his neighbors, he represents a valuable authority in all questions of knowledge in which the others are overwhelmed, but often bores them with verbosity and often arrogant lexicons.

He feels drawn to Lisa - sometimes in love - and quarrels - but rarely seriously - with neighbor Nepomuk XXIII. who already calls it "annelid worm".

Squeak

The Quietschbeus are the band in the Runddorf and consist of the band leader Karl-Heinz (green nose, red hair; keyboard), Karl-Otto (blue nose, blond hair; guitar) and Karl-Gustav (red nose, brown hair; drums and Saxophone). In each episode, the squeaky boys sing a song that goes with the topic. Karl-Heinz later got a Hessian dialect, Karl-Gustav finds it difficult to make decisions ("Well, on the one hand ... - but on the other hand ..."). Karl-Otto, the village's best tenor, stutters when speaking but, according to his own statement, never when singing; however, there is at least one episode in which he stutters while singing (e.g. episode Mensch Lulu ). They live in their own show decoration, which is directly adjacent to Spencer's studio and is only separated from it by a curtain. The railway carriage can be seen through a window. In later episodes, the Quietschbeus' living area was expanded to include a studio with a basement. Karl-Opa also appears in one episode. The Quietschbeus like to ride their motorbike (specially made for three people) through the village. The band's name is a nod to the Beach Boys .

  • Player and speaker Karl-Heinz: Petra Zieser , Karime Vakilzadeh, Eva Behrmann, Maria Happel
  • Player and speaker Karl-Gustav: Lorenz Claussen , Klaus Naeve
  • Player and speaker Karl-Otto: Jürgen Meuter , Matthias Hirth, Fred Bräutigam, Lothar Kreutzer

The Twins

The twins are Mona (braids) and Lisa (ponytail). They live in a houseboat and keep arguing about who is the more attractive of the two. The characters didn't appear until the second season. Running gag is that both are often confused with each other by the other villagers, they have different voices and different characters (Lisa is more open, Mona, on the other hand, is often bitchy).

  • Speaker Mona: Petra Zieser, Sabine Steincke, Karime Vakilzadeh
  • Speaker Lisa: Eva Behrmann

Galactica

Galaktika is the fairy godmother who is summoned by the villagers in an emergency with a rhyme: "We call you, Galaktika / from the distant star Andromeda." The following lines each refer to the situation that Galaktika is called to help. Often the residents bring up all their talent for improvisation to put a complicated situation into rhyme. Only Nepomuk can occasionally do nothing with her and when she is called mumbles, "the Andromedan jackdaw."

Galaktika, supposedly from the star system Andromeda , usually appears immediately in a small shuttle in the form of a crystal or diamond and solves the problems at hand as a deus ex machina . Occasionally, however, she refers to “Andromedan laws”, which in some cases forbid her to help, and encourages the villagers to help themselves. She is of a generous, mild character and does not mind being called Gali .

  • Speaker: Maria Ilic

Nero

The antagonist of the fairy godmother Galaktika , named after the Roman emperor (37-68), also just called Black Fiend at the beginning of the program , was removed from the series as a regular figure in 1982 because the younger viewers did not like him. After episode 25, he only had two guest appearances. Sometimes viewers found it disturbing that the villagers often did not see Nero, although he was laughing in front of their eyes.

  • Speaker: Wilhelm Helmrich, Friedrich Wollweber, Matthias Hirth

Peggy

Peggy is Lulu's sister who only appeared in the first season.

Young dragon pupil

Chubby prongs

Pummelzacken is Poldi's girlfriend. Her shade of green is a little lighter than his and the spinous processes on her back are pink. She appears in some episodes in the village and in the school for young kites.

  • Speaker: Sabine Steincke

Seven of Spades and Ace of Diamonds

Seven of Spades and Ace of Diamonds are two schoolmates at Poldi's young dragon school. In episodes 207 to 211 it becomes apparent that they are not friends with him.

City dwellers

Zacharias Zuckerguss, the baker, Susanne Sonnenschein as well as Ernst and Ulrich live in the city.

  • Speaker Zacharias Zuckerguss: Lothar Kreutzer
  • Speaker Susanne Sonnenschein: Eva Behrmann, Sabine Steincke

More figures

Max and Molly

Max (Martin Leßmann) is a penguin and Molly (Karime Vakilzadeh) is a kangaroo. Your means of transportation is the banana mobile. You live on an island. In episodes 60 to 62 and 88 to 94 their adventures were reported. They later got their own cartoon series.

Egidius Soltanelle

Egidius first got to know the villagers when he was looking for a stolen pallet with roller skates in Spencerdorf. Since then, the criminal investigator with a home loan and savings contract has occasionally appeared as an official in the village. He likes Lulu.

  • Speaker: Lorenz Claussen, Wilhelm Helmrich

Moritz

Moritz (Martin Leßmann) celebrated his debut in 1999 on the 20th birthday of the series. After his first season in the doll's workshop, he takes on the role of the mad reporter in the 2001 season and reports on his outdoor shoots.

The spherical Kugelgunde

She is the leading actress in episode 125: The Stowaway. It is similar to Galaktika, but does not come from the "distant star Andromeda", but is a "star child" from the star cluster Coma Berenices .

  • Speaker: Andrea Bongers and others.

Elmar

He is the cousin of Elvis, who looks very similar to this one. He lives in town and appears in episode 151.

Madame

Madame is an old friend of Nepomuk from France who visits him in episode 194.

  • Speaker: Sabine Steincke

Vladimir

Spencer's old friend comes to visit him in the modern studio and is the lead actor in episodes 246 to 248.

  • Speaker: Lothar Kreutzer

Mucki

Mucki is a dragon friend of Poldi, who appears in the 275th and so far last episode.

New Years Eve

Sylvester (Joachim Hall) is Spencer's cousin from America, who makes a very brief appearance for the first time in the "City series" Hunting Rabbits, Hooking Hooks . Spencer's relative, who does not have a good relationship with Spencer but regrets it, also appears in episodes 158 and 185 of Hallerstrasse.

The Knubbels

The Knubbels live on an island in the sea and give Max and Molly the banana mobile. The seven islanders all have different hobbies: MacZahl (Joachim Hall) loves counting, letters (Sabine Steincke) can write and read, Elli Formelli (Eva Behrmann) likes shapes, Miss Ton (Karime Vakilzadeh) sings and makes music, Hampelix (Wilhelm Helmrich) fidgets and is unsteady, Marcel Paletti (Lorenz Claussen) is the local artist and Protzikowski (Klaus Naeve) is a boor from the very beginning. The Knubbels' stories are shown as clips in the Max and Molly episodes.

DVD

On April 30, 2009, the first season of Hallo Spencer was released on DVD with the first 36 episodes. The second season followed on November 30, 2012 (although several episodes were omitted). The remaining seasons have not yet been published (as of 04/2018). Only a fan box with six DVDs containing selected (more recent) episodes was launched on November 16, 2007.

Comic

In 1989, ten Hello Spencer comic books were published to mark the tenth anniversary of the series . Some of the stories were later used in the television series as well. The booklet also contained other children's stories and some extras.

Radio plays

In addition, 13 radio play episodes for Hallo Spencer have been published by the Europa label .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hello Spencer - Behind the Scenes [Special] - video dailymotion. Retrieved April 23, 2019 .
  2. ↑ New family adventure 2017 at Heide Park Resort: Ghostbusters 5D - the ultimate ghost hunt. In: https://www.heide-park.de . Heide-Park Soltau GmbH press office, October 15, 2016, accessed on January 12, 2018 .
  3. ↑ fernsehserien.de, Hallo Spencer - episode guide
  4. ↑ hoerspiele.de, Hallo Spencer - Overview of radio plays

Web links