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#5 Auf Klo
funk (ARD/ZDF), 2016–
The topics that concern us all while growing up - and long after. AUF KLO is something like the Dr. Sommer column of Generation Z: informative, uninhibited and yet much more inclusive, fair and compassionate than the infamous Bravo page ever was.
Have you ever been sexually harassed? How do you deal with your porn addiction? When was the last time you cried? What was your first blackout like? AUF KLO addresses a young audience with interviews and supposedly embarrassing self-experiments by its moderators – regardless of whether they are cis or trans, straight or queer, white or BIPoC, with or without disabilities. The funk format demonstrates what are otherwise often just empty words: There are no stupid questions!
Don't miss: Interview with Maria Popov from AUF KLO
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#4 Durch die Nacht mit ...
ZDF/Arte, 2002–
Two well-known celebrities hit the town together. This must have been the pitch for this cult show. As simple as the idea is, the result is brilliant.
DURCH DIE NACHT MIT... is fun and brings us closer to the faces we love. It is both a time document – Ulrich Seidl shows Josef Bierbichler Kyiv long before the director was criticized for his work and the city was bombed – and a travel guide – Fatih Akin takes Thea Dorn through Istanbul – or a piece of german television history: how Michel Friedman explains to Christopher Schlingensief the difference between narcissism and authenticity over truffle spaghetti – this is courageous and above all: great television.
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#3 Domian
1 LIVE/WDR, 1995–2016
He looks like the friendly neighbor next door, is approachable like a good friend, and listens with the calmness and openness of the best psychotherapist. DOMIAN – broadcast from 1995 to 2016 on 1 Live and simultaneously on WDR television – is something like the father of all German podcasts, at the same time a telephone counseling service, an invitation to look beyond one's own horizon and – perhaps above all – incredibly entertaining.
For those looking for examples, they should listen to how the host talks to callers who believe they are possessed by demons, listens to a 70-year-old woman describing her first cunnilingus experience in the forest, or hears from a 26-year-old – this episode became legendary - how he regularly copulates with 60kg of ground meat in his bathtub. A phone – and the willingness to talk about absolutely anything. But despite all the craziness, one should not make the mistake of dismissing DOMIAN as trash TV. When Jürgen Domian, who is himself gay, energetically but never unreasonably discusses with a homophobic caller whose arguments crumble step by step, it becomes clear: DOMIAN was above all the mouthpiece of an extremely complex society.
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#2 Talk 2000
Kanal 4 (RTL/Sat.1), 1997
Schlingensief, again. »I have to say, I've experienced a lot on television – but this was new to me« Hildegard Knef said in one of the best episodes of the visionary anti-talk show. Beate Uhse discusses morality with Schlingensief. Harald Schmidt makes him sweat. And Carl Alexander Prince of Hohenzollern threatens him with his lawyer in front of the cameras.
»The ultimate swan song to a television format that has long since run its course and yet cannot be killed« wrote a newspaper in 1997. TALK 2000 was much more than anarchic provocation, Schlingensief's view of his guests – no matter who was in front of him – was always open and benevolent. Precisely because so little was rehearsed in advance, the dimly lit canteen of the Volksbühne could unexpectedly become a stage for great moments: for choruses, scuffles and unforgettable dialogues.
Schlingensief: »You were born as a prince. Or how does it work, what is the exact process?«
Carl Alexander Prince of Hohenzollern: »Yes, as a prince. Unfortunately.«
Schlingensief: »What's unfortunate about that?«
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#1 13 Fragen
ZDFKultur, 2020–
Cinema affects us as individual viewers and is only indirectly a medium of the masses. Even theater has largely ceased to believe in the power of the present audience collective. Only »television« – which in the digital age is called talk shows, web series, or channels – remains to summon a democratic society to assemble.
13 FRAGEN – the show as an agora: Six guests with different backgrounds and very diverse opinions come together on the occasion of a conflict question (»Should the rich pay more?«, »Should all drugs be legal?«, »Does identity politics divide our society?«), divided into two groups, »Yes« or »No« and held in check by the wonderful moderators Salwa Houmsi and Jo Schück. What follows is reminiscent of 1, 2 or 3 or the children's game heaven and hell: Further questions and the resulting heated discussions bring them closer together on the playing field. Where else on the net, if not on the Channel unbubble, are cultivated debates still taking place? 13 FRAGEN realizes a dream that Twitter has failed to achieve. Its motto is: »Out of the bubble, into the exchange!«. We think: Mission accomplished.
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