1987 in Italian television

This is a list of Italian television related events from 1987.

Events.

RAI

7 February. The Sanremo Festival, won by the trio Morandi, Tozzi and Ruggeri and hosted by Pippo Baudo, gets an audience of 18.300.000 spectators (3 TV viewers on 4), an absolute record in the history of the singing event. The show is marked by an incident of the guest singer Patsy Kensit, who accidentally shows a naked breast on air. It is also marked by Claudio Villa’s death, announced by Baudo during the final evening. 20 February. Enzo Tortora comes back to television, four years after his arrest, with a new season of Portobello. Greeted with a standing ovation, he answers with a quip (“Well, where were we?”), then he thanks the public for their solidarity towards him during his judiciary troubles. 5 March. Reorganization of RAI, giving to each of the three great parties (DC, PSI and PCI) the control of a channel. RAI 3 (till then a cultural channel, for a niche audience) is greatly potentiated and put under the direction of the communist Angelo Guglielmi; TG3 is separated from the TGR (regional news) and trusted to Sandro Curzi (former journalist of Radio Prague). 26 April: Sergio Zavoli is the first Western journalist to visit the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the first anniversary of the disaster. 10 July. Adriano Celentano signs a contract with RAI for the conduction of Fantastico 8, under conditions of exceptional favor (the artistic direction and 3 billion liras, more other money by the sponsors). The show will be one of the most controversial in the history of Italian television. 28 August-6 September: RAI is the oficial televisión for the World Championship of Athletics in Rome. 4 September: 14.084.000 TV viewers follow Madonna's concert, broadcast by RAI 1 from the Turin Olympic stadium; it is the second highest rating of the year, after the Sanremo festival. 7 November.At the eve of the 1987 Italian referendum, Adriano Celentano, from the Fantastico’s stage, rails against hunting and invites the audience to write on the voting paper “Chase is against love” (forgetting that such act would invalidate the vote). Although he retracts almost immediately, the outburst causes a trial against him and a fine of 200 million liras. This is only the most sensational of Celentano's provocations. In other episodes of the show, he asks the public to turn off the TV or to change the channel. Other controversies are aroused by the monologues of Franca Rame (who describes crudely her rape) and Dario Fo (an irreverent retelling of the Gospel).

Fininvest

20 March: Pippo Baudo and Raffaella Carrà, the two greatest Italian TV stars, pass from RAI to Fininvest, signing generous exclusive contracts (for Baudo, 20 billion liras and the chair of artistic director; for Carrà, 8 billion liras); later, they are imitated by other two popular figures as Enrica Bonaccorti and Milly Carlucci. In spite of this sensational “shopping campaign” by Fininvest, in the following season RAI maintains the primacy of viewings and the four newcomers’ shows on Canale 5 are flops. 21 March: “night of the spots”. Provocatively, Canale 5 broadcasts four uninterrupted hours of American commercials from midnight to dawn, interrupted only by a few clips of famous films. 14 June: 1987 Italian general election. For the first time, Canale 5 takes part in the electoral campaign with tribunes and political programs (but broadcast only in the late evening). 4 October: birth of Italia 7, a syndication of local stations, managed (also if not directly owned) by Fininvest, that provides the programs and the publicity; it's meant as a channel for the male public. The 24 November, Fininvest gets the control also of TeleCapodistria, that specializes in sport events. 15 October: the young actor Nick Novecento dies precociously for a heart attack. Fininvest, with a very controversial decision, chooses to still air the registered episodes of the Maurizio Costanzo show where the deceased appeared as commentator.

Minor channels.

5 September: end of the syndication Euro TV, splitting in two separate network: Odeon TV (that begins broadcasting the day after) and Italia 7 (starting in October, see over). Odeon TV, owned by two businessmen near to the DC (Callisto Tanzi and Edoardo Longarini) in the following years tries unsuccessfully to become the “third pole” of Italian TV, after RAI and Fininvest. 7 September: Rete A is the first private channel to air a national newscast, directed by Emilio Fede. 21 December: birth of Padre Pio TV, owned by the San Giovanni in Rotondo Capuchins and aimed to the devotees of the friar.

Awards 4. Telegatto Award, for the season 1986–1987.

Man and woman of the year: Pippo Baudo and Enrica Bonaccorti. Best TV movie: La voglia di vincere (for Italy) and North and South (for abroad). Best serial: I ragazzi della 3. C (for Italy) and Dallas (for abroad). Best miniseries: Mino il piccolo alpino. Best spot: yogurt Yomo, with Beppe Grillo. Best quiz: Pentatlon. Best variety: Drive In. Best talk show: Domenica In Best educational: Il mondo di Quark. Best magazine: Il fatto. Best music show: 37. Sanremo Festival. Best sport magazine: La domenica sportiva. Best show for children: Bim bum bam. Awards for the foreign TV: Maxwell Caufield (USA), Michel Drucker (France), Julia Smith (UK), Josè Luis Moreno (Spain), Horst Tappert and Hanna Schygulla (Germany). Special awards: Mrs. Annalisa Galbiati (reader of Sorrisi e canzoni TV), Capitol (for having reached 1281 episodes), Corrado Maltoni, Raimondo Vianello and Sandra Mondaini (for the 25 years of career), Fantastico 7 (for the highest rating).

Debuts

Rai

Variety

Mezzogiorno è... (Noon is...) – mix of variety and talk show hosted on RAI 2 by Gianfranco Funari; it's for three seasons the most followed program of the lunch hour. In spite of its public success, in 1990, for an interview by Funari to the PRI secretary Giorgio La Malfa unwelcome to the PSI (that has the control of RAI 2) the show is deleted and the presenter moved away from RAI. Harem – feminist talk-show, hosted by Catherine Spaak, with three female guests and a male one, who only intervenes at the end; 15 seasons. Magazine 3 – at the beginning an anthology of the RAI 3's best, it later became a talk-show with Oreste De Fornari and Daniele Luttazzi; lasted till 2002. Biberon, with the Bagalino troupe (Pippo Franco, Oreste Lionello, Leo Gullotta), lasted 3 seasons. In this show of political satire (but the mockery is, really, very tame and obsequious) an average family meets the doubles of the most known politicians. D.O.C.: Musica e altro a denominazione d'origine controllata (CDO: music and more with a controlled designation of origin) – musical show, centered on jazz and authorial song, hosted by Renzo Arbore. Il milionario (The millionaire) – game show with Jocelyn Hattab. Va’ pensiero (Go, mind) – interstitial program of the Sunday afternoon, with Andrea Barbato, Galeazzo Benti and Oliviero Beha. Porto matto (Crazy port) – show of the summer. Patatrac – show for children of the morning. Big! – interstitial program for children of the afternoon, with cartoons.

News and educational

Mixer cultura (Mixer culture) – talk show hosted by Arnaldo Bagnasco, that applies the formula of the infotainment to the cultural actuality. Samarcanda (Samarkand) – controversial talk show hosted by Michele Santoro, praised as an example of brave journalism, not fearing thorny questions as Mafia and Mani pulite, but also charged of demagogy and factionalism (the conductor doesn't hide his leftist sympathies). Telefono giallo (The yellow phone) – crime magazine, hosted by Corrado Augias; 3 season. The show re-enacts unsolved crimes, often with political implications; sensational is the episode about the Itavia Flight 870, with the revelations of an anonymous by phone. Diogene – TG2 column in defense of the rights of citizens and consumers, hosted by Mario Pastore and Antonio Lubrano. Il caso hosted by Enzo Biagi; 2 seasons. Cinema! – cinema magazine, care of Francesco Bortolini and Claudio Masenza. Viaggio intorno all’uomo (Travel around the man) – cycle of films followed by a debate about social questions, hosted by Sergio Zavoli; 3 seasons.

Fininvest

Serials

I ragazzi della 3. C. (The 3C boys) – 3 seasons; directed by Claudio Risi, script by the Vanzina brothers. The serial, remembered also for its unprejudiced product placements, mildly satirizes the mores of the Italian middle-class youth, through the life of some teen-agers, schoolmates in a Roman high school. It gets an unexpected success and it's now considered a time capsule of the Eighties.

Variety

Caffelatte (Coffee with milk) – cartoon show. Candid camera – lasted till 2008 and hosted, among others, by Gerry Scotti and Paolo Bonolis. Tra moglie e marito – Italian version of The newlywed game, hosted by Marco Columbro; five seasons. Telemike – quiz show with Mike Bongiorno. Tu come noi (You like us) - show about the live of ordinary people, hosted by Pippo Baudo.

News and educational

Tivù Tivù – news magazine hosted by Arrigo Levi.

Minor channels

Colpo grosso (Jackpot) (Europa 7) – sexy game, where the plays are just a pretest to undress female dancers and contenders; hosted by Umberto Smaila; 5 seasons. Infamous for its bad taste, the show gets the same an audience of two million viewers, becomes a cultural phenomenon and is largely imitated abroad. Baby show (Junior TV) – show for children, produced by Baby Records. La ruota della fortuna (Odeon TV) – Italian version of Wheel of fortune; becomes a national success after having transmigrated on the Fininvest channels, where is trusted to Mike Bongiorno, Enrico Papi, and Gerry Scotti; 22 seasons (by now). Forza Italia (Come on, Italy) (Odeon TV) – sport magazine, hosted by Walter Zenga. Qui studio, a voi stadio (Studio calls Stadium) (Telelombardia) – football magazine, with Fabio Ravezzani; it is again now one of the most popular sport program in Italy, even if broadcast by a local channel.

International Perry Mason (RAI 2) The Black Forest clinic (RAI 3)

Television shows

RAI

TV-movies

Le lunghe ombre (The long shadows) by Gianfranco Mingozzi, with Lina Sastri; coming-of-age story, set in the Second World War. Un’australiana a Roma (An Australian girl in Rome) by Sergio Martino; the sad love story between an Australian tourist (Nicole Kidman, by then unknown outside her country) and an Italian disabled boy (Massimo Ciavarro). Ellepi – by Roberto Malenotti, with Massimo Ghini and Janis Lee; four undergraduates passionate about music record their first disk. Assicurazione sulla morte (Death insurance) – noir by Carlo Lizzani, from James Hadley Chase’s Tell it to the birds, with Patricia Millardet; Italo-French coproduction.

Miniseries

Il generale (The general) – by Luigi Magni, in 4 episodes; historically accurate biopic about Giuseppe Garibaldi, with Franco Nero as protagonist, sided by a stellar cast (Erland Joshephson as Cavour, Jacques Perrin as Vittorio Emanuele II, Flavio Bucci as Mazzini). Treasure Island in outer space – ideated by Renato Castellani and directed, after his death, by Antonio Margheriti, sci-fi version of the Stevenson’s novel; with the young Itaco Nardulli as Jim, Anthony Quinn as Long John Silver and Ernest Borgnine as Billy Bones. One of the most expensive RAI production (25 billion liras), it's a flop in Italy, while outside gets a relative success and inspires Disney's Treasure planet. Voglia di vincere (Desire to win) – by Vittorio Sindoni, in 3 episodes, with Gianni Morandi and Catherine Spaak; sport melodrama about the World Rally Championship. Little Roma – by Francesco Massaro, in 10 episodes, with Ferruccio Amendola; the life in a popular district of the Italian capital.