Verliebt in Berlin

Verliebt in Berlin

ViB logo
Created by Michael Esser
Peter Schlesselmann
Starring Alexandra Neldel
Mathis Künzler
Tim Sander
Laura Osswald
Opening theme Nena — "Liebe Ist"
Country of origin Germany
Original language(s) German
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 645
Production
Producer(s) Markus Brunnemann
Rainer Wemcken
Location(s) Berlin, Germany
Running time 30 min (approx. 24 min)
Distributor SevenOne International
Release
Original network Sat.1
Picture format 576i (SDTV)
Original release 28 February 2005 – 12 October 2007
Chronology
Related shows German adaption of Betty la Fea
External links
Website

Verliebt in Berlin (German pun for In Love in/with Berlin; abbreviation: ViB) is a Golden Rose-winning German telenovela, starring Alexandra Neldel, along with Mathis Künzler, Tim Sander, and Laura Osswald. It premiered on 28 February 2005 on Sat.1 in most of German-speaking Europe, with its final episode broadcast on 12 October 2007. The series is an adaptation of the Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea, written by Fernando Gaitán and produced by RCN TV.

The original season of the serial comedy-drama followed the life of the unsophisticated but good-natured Lisa Plenske (Neldel), and her incongruous job at the ultra-chic Berlin fashion house Kerima Moda; while the second season revolved around Lisa's ham-fisted but sly half-brother Bruno (Sander) and junior designer Hannah Refrath (Osswald). Lisa and Bruno's status as two "fish out of water" drove much of the story plot.

ViB was adapted into a Berlin setting by creators Michael Esser, Peter Schlesselmann and their co-team and co-producers Markus Brunnemann and Rainer Wemcken, whose production company Phoenix Film Karlheinz Brunnemann GmbH & Co. Produktions KG partnered with Grundy UFA TV Produktions GmbH to create the half-hour-long program for the German-speaking audience.

Plot

Original season

David, Mariella and Lisa in the first season of the telenovela.

The plot is set in the present time. Elisabeth "Lisa" Plenske (Alexandra Neldel), a kind, intelligent, but naive and not necessarily beautiful young woman, grows up in the (fictional) village Göberitz, near Berlin, with her parents Bernd (Volker Herold) and Helga (Ulrike Mai). Lisa moves to Berlin and tries to get a job at Kerima Moda, a fashion company. There, she bumps into the junior chairman David Seidel (Mathis Künzler) and falls in love with him. She starts off catering at Kerima Moda, but manages to get promoted to personal assistant of Seidel. She works with him, however he does not really notice her qualities (much less herself as a woman), because he is engaged to Mariella von Brahmberg (Bianca Hein) and is also involved with various other women.

During the course of the series, Lisa manages to save and finally own Kerima Moda, rescues her boss David from death and the wrath of his then-fiancée, watches the dissolve of his engagement to Mariella, protects the company from David's maleficent rival and stepbrother and Mariella's brother Richard von Brahmberg (Karim Köster) and his mother Sophie von Brahmberg (Gabrielle Scharnitzky), endures the antics of the secretary Sabrina (Nina-Friederike Gnädig), falls in love with and gets engaged to Robert "Rokko" Kowalski (Manuel Cortez), while bearing the quirks of the chief designer Hugo Haas (Hubertus Regout) and helping his assistant Hannah Refrath (Laura Osswald), David's sister Kim (Lara-Isabelle Rentinck) and the runner boy Timo (Matthias Dietrich) with their love lives.

She is aided by her best friend Jürgen Decker (Oliver Bokern) and the cook Agnes Hetzer (Susanne Szell). In the end, she calls off the wedding to Rokko, marries David instead and sails with him on his boat to the Caribbean.

Second season

Season two centers around sympathetic conman Bruno Lehmann (Tim Sander), who is Lisa's half-brother. Bruno is on the run and lands up in Berlin to see his (unassuming) father Bernd. There, he starts to save the lifework of his half-sister Lisa, and Bruno starts to realize that his charm won't get him anywhere and that sometimes you have to work for your achievements. Also, he starts to fall in love with the young (and married) designer Nora Lindberg (Julia Malik). Because of bad ratings, Sat1 replaced Julia Malik. So Bruno is now fallen in love with Kim who is the younger sister of David Seidel and married to the evil Paolo Amendola . Since January 2007 Bruno Lehmann isn't the main character, who is in love with somebody, anymore. Instead it's the returned designer Hannah Refrath who is in love with him …

Background

Production

The concept for the German adaptation of Yo Soy Betty La Fea was the end result of a long consideration process. The original name of the telenovela was Alles nur aus Liebe (Everything just out of love), but the for soap operas typical abbreviation would have been ANAL, so the title was changed. Lisa also was called "Lily" in earlier versions.

Most Verliebt in Berlin episodes were shot in two closed studios in Berlin-Adlershof. While switching between a range of 24 different sets, the team generally filmed one episode (each 25 minutes) per day; in addition, outdoor shots in Berlin were booked twice a week. Supervised by creators Michael Esser, and Peter Schlesselmann, 15 writers daily drafted a script for one episode. Nearly 120 crewmembers were involved in the shooting of a single episode.[1]

Originally, 225 episodes would have been produced and aired within a year. However, since the telenovela was very successful, Sat.1 produced the series for another year. On September 1, 2006, a 90-minute TV movie was aired - hence being the final episode of the first season (with ratings of more than 7.6 million people watching — very much for the German market). Two versions of this movie exist: one, where Lisa marries David (the canonical version which was chosen in the end) and the other, where she marries Rokko.

In June 2006, Grundy UFA and Sat.1 officially announced the renewal of a new season for another year. Till August 2007, 280 more episodes were to be produced with Bruno Lehman as new protagonist. With the combination of renewal and change of protagonist, the series left the traditional set-up of a telenovela with a set run, and a closed story and moved towards the concept of a soap opera. The reason for this is possibly the huge success of the series: it managed to get similar high viewership like Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten, the soap opera which had previously dominated viewership just before primetime. In January 2007 it was announced that Alexandra Neldel would reprise the role of Lisa Plenske Seidel during a four-week visit to Verliebt in Berlin in April.

Merchandising

Additional information about the telenovela is available via a fan magazine (available in Germany, Switzerland and Austria), as well as a PC video game adventure. Also, DVD boxes are available (20 episodes each), including the specials. The 18th box set includes the last twenty episodes and the TV movie. On October 6, 2006 the alternate ending of the TV movie was released. The show also spawned a series of novels and a soundtrack CD containing music from the series, including the show's theme song by Nena, plus songs from Dido, Glashaus, Sarah Connor, Norah Jones, Sarah McLachlan, Joss Stone, and others.

Miscellaneous

Since January 2006, the Hungarian TV station TV2 is airing a dubbed version of ViB called Lisa csak egy van (There's only one Lisa). Also, the French TV station TF1, the Belgian RTL-TVI and the Télévision Suisse Romande air a dubbed version called Le destin de Lisa (The destiny of Lisa). In Slovakia, the series is aired with its original title Verliebt in Berlin on TV JOJ.

The series was originally planned to be titled "Alles Nur Aus Liebe" (Everything Out Of Love), but the producers decided to change the name once realising that the acronym for this title would be inappropriate.[2]

Awards and nominations

Cast

Main actors

Actor Role Episodes Year(s)
Alexandra Neldel Elisabeth Maria "Lisa" Seidel, (born Plenske) 1–feature film, 519–534 2005–2006, 2007
Mathis Künzler David Hieronymus Seidel 1–feature film 2005–2006
Volker Herold Bernd Plenske 1–645 2005–2007
Ulrike Mai Helga Plenske 1–645 2005–2007
Wilhelm Manske Friedrich Seidel 1–645 2005–2007
Olivia Pascal Laura Seidel 1–645 2005–2007
Hubertus Regout Hugo Haas 1–645 2005–2007
Gabrielle Scharnitzky Sophie von Brahmberg 1–645 2005–2007
Susanne Szell Agnes Hetzer 1–234, 398–405 2005–2006
Bianca Hein Mariella van der Lohe, (née von Brahmberg) 1–254, feature film 2005–2006
Nina-Friederike Gnädig Sabrina Hofmann 1–feature film 2005–2006
Stefanie Höner Inka Pietsch 1–feature film 2005–2006
Karim Köster Richard von Brahmberg 1–feature film 2005–2006
Alexander Sternberg Maximilian "Max" Petersen 1–393 2005–2006
Laura Osswald Hannah Lehmann, (née Refrath) 1–feature film, 449–645 2005–2006, 2007
Matthias Dietrich Timo Pietsch 2–384 2005–2006
Oliver Bokern Jürgen Decker 6–645 2005–2007
Lara-Isabelle Rentinck Kimberly Frederike "Kim" Seidel 7–645 2005–2007
Bärbel Schleker Yvonne Petersen, (née Kuballa) 8–393 2005–2006
Manuel Cortez Robert Konrad "Rokko" Kowalski 226–feature film 2005–2006
Tim Sander Bruno Lehmann 365–645 2006–2007
Julia Malik Nora Lindbergh, (née Amendola) 365–448 2006–2007
Alexandra Seefisch Doreen Vogel 372–645 2006–2007
Thorsten Feller Paolo Amendola † 376–645 2006–2007
Matthias Gall Sven Lindbergh 394–645 2006–2007
Anja Thiemann Theresa Maria Funke 402–645 2006–2007
Susanne Szell Lotte Hetzer 404–645 2006–2007
Daniel Roesner Luis Rothenburg 419–645 2006–2007
Yvonne Hornack Peggy Refrath 515–645 2007
Björn Harras Tobias Refrath 540–645 2007
Dirk Schoedon René Refrath 562–645 2007
Igor Jeftic Jan Rothenburg 584–638 2007

Minor actors

Actor Role Episodes Year(s)
Lilli Anders Ariane Sommerstädt 4–645 2005–2007
Claudia Weiske Gabriele Kamps 32–645 2005–2007
Susanne Berckhemer Britta Haas, (née Paul) † 24–267 2005–2006
Clayton Nemrow Lars van der Lohe 52–254 2005–2006
Gabriele Metzger Traudl Decker 55–534 2005–2007
Jean-Marc Birkholz Marc Trojan 72–645 2006–2007
Roman Rossa Viktor Karski 76–150 2006
Shai Hoffmann Alexander "Alex" Greifenhagen 133–319 2006
Matthias Rott Boris Wudtke 148–233 2006
Axel Röhrle Olaf Kern 301–329 2006
Ina Rudolph Katarina Dorn 307–329 2006
Nora Düding Angelina Martens 338–405 2006
Dieter Bach Johannes Fuchs 339–522 2006–2007
Peter Raffalt Martin König 386–406 2006
Katharina Koschny Doris Lehmann 373–645 2006–2007
Axel Scholtz Meister Pöhnke 490–636 2006–2007
Kristina van Eyck Tante Carlotta Amendola 412–424, 640–645 2006, 2007
Roberto Guerra Roberto Donatelli † 478–535 2007
Maike Jüttendonk Judith Haake 498–645 2007
David C. Bunners Maurice Maria Ming 529–582 2007
Mirjam Heimann Susanne "Susi" Breuer 556–645 2007
Roberto Guerra Giorgio Donatelli 626–645 2007
Claudio Maniscalco Luigi 640–643 2007

References

  1. ↑ Der Sonnyboy von "Verliebt in Berlin". Berliner Morgenpost. May 15, 2006. Retrieved November 28, 2006.
  2. ↑ Dr. Ankowitsch's Kleines Konversationslexikon
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