TV Italian Style
The ‘TV Italian Style’ podcast is an A-Z of the golden age of Italian television of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s from the perspective of the ever popular varietà and the famous faces who would host and guest star on these shows. It’s a bilingual podcast, in English and Italian, with conversations with experts on Italian TV and culture alongside clips from all the best shows and performances. Visit the accompanying website https://tvitalianstyle.wordpress.com/ to download translated transcriptions for each episode to support your listening.
TV Italian Style
G: Gran Festival del varietà and others - variety shows of the 1950s
In this episode, we're focusing on where it all began for the varietà televisivo and looking in particular at the series from the 1950s that helped establish the genre and its primary characteristics. With the help of the listings magazine Radiocorriere we'll look at the different series that debuted at the start of regular television broadcasts in January 1954 - Settenote; I love you, je t’aime, io t’amo; Antologia del buonumore; Ciribinibin; Rosso e nero, and Un due tre - as well as series like Ottovolante and Gran Festival del varietà which were broadcast later that year.
We'll also look at who was appearing on these series and talk about the Compagnia di Rivista della TV alongside the international stars like Henri Salvador and Joséphine Baker who also guest starred on varietà in this decade. One important show we'll talk about is Lui e lei which did not follow the typical format for the varietà that was emerging in the 1950s. And we'll also mention the scandalous moment on Le piazzette in 1956, which is a good reminder of the levels of control that were present around television in these years.