Four against Willi

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Ticket to the first broadcast on September 25, 1986

Four against Willi , also 4 against Willi , was a TV show by the inventor Jochen Filser , which ran between October 11, 1986 and 1989 as a Saturday evening show on ARD . The first broadcast was recorded on September 25, 1986 in the Augsburg sports hall . The show was moderated by Mike Krüger . A total of 13 issues were produced, with two television families competing against each other in the last broadcast, namely the Rombach family from the “ Forsthaus Falkenau ” against the Beimers from “ Lindenstrasse ”. The title of the show was the golden hamster Willi, who served as the show's mascot . It was both a living animal and a cartoon character .

Entertainment concept

Plot of the show

In each show, two families competed against each other in order to master various tasks in the competition. In the first episodes, the families brought their entire living room furniture, which was included in the game concept, into the hall. However, after about half of the shows produced, this type of stage design was abandoned. For each game, the candidates could choose between three levels of difficulty. The more they dared, the more seconds they could collect for the final. If a candidate won a game with degree of difficulty three, he was credited with 30 seconds, otherwise only 20 or ten seconds. In the finale, one member of each family had to capture the virtual Willi on the big video screen. This video game was controlled by means of a futuristic-looking gold suit with sensors on the upper arms, forehead and buttocks. With handshakes on these spots, the cursor could be moved on the screen to catch Willi. As was customary at the time, there was always a musical interruption. B. on November 15, 1986 the British pop band Duran Duran their hit "Notorious".

Random principle of currency choice

At the end of the broadcast, the winning family that emerged from the final received the amount they had won. The hamster Willi was placed in a labyrinth with three exits; Depending on the outcome, the family was paid the amount in German marks , Austrian shillings or a low-value, other European currency (e.g. drachma , lira ).

Oddities and criticism

Some elements of the show were very daring for the time. For example, in one program the old VW Passat of a young candidate from Austria was scrapped without his knowledge, in another the punk rock band Die Toten Hosen was let into the apartment of a candidate family at airtime to celebrate a wild party. The post office clerk Heinrich Gronenberg had an Iroquois hair done. A woman had to crawl over the oiled body of an ice hockey team. In 1986, the show was awarded the negative pickle Saure Gurke by the media women’s meeting . The relevant candidates received generous compensation in the program (a new VW Golf Cabrio in the first case mentioned, a housing, tidying and cleaning service for one year in the second), but the program was often considered too anarchic and over its entire duration criticized too little family-friendly. This was one of the main reasons why it was discontinued after only three years, despite the sustained high ratings.

The Austrian director Heide Pils accompanied the members of a Graz family who participated as candidates in the show in her report "Star for one night".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mike Krüger on the TV "gold rush time": As a hamster Willi "Wetten dass ..?" should trump , dwdl.de , October 12, 2015
  2. ↑ Inferno of good mood , Der Spiegel 22/1987, May 25, 1987