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These are the ten most-watched television programs in West Germany exactly 40 years ago:
Feature films were particularly popular during Christmas week 1985: Doctor Zhivago, Flatfoot in Hong Kong, Mary Poppins and Topaz were all in the top 10, as was the German TV movie The Woman with the Carbuncle Stones.
Feature films were particularly popular during Christmas week 1985: Doctor Zhivago, Flatfoot in Hong Kong, Mary Poppins and Topaz were all in the top 10, as was the German TV movie The Woman with the Carbuncle Stones.
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GILLIGAN'S ISLAND had at least one more season in it before it completely exhausted every possible storyline for a group of seven castaways stranded on an island. Just one more season of, say, 30 episodes and a proper series finale with Tina Louise still around as Ginger.
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Ratings from the two RTE channels in Ireland (RTE1 and Network 2) from September 1991.
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How enlightening to see some Irish ratings! I had to do some research on the top shows because Glenroe, Where in the World?, and Bibi were completely unfamiliar to me. It's cool that Ireland had its own primetime soap!
Paradise being the most-watched US series is quite a surprise! It's also nice that Knots Landing was still popular in Ireland so late in its run. The Irish liked Home and Away more than Neighbours, which doesn't even appear on the list—that's interesting information too!
Paradise being the most-watched US series is quite a surprise! It's also nice that Knots Landing was still popular in Ireland so late in its run. The Irish liked Home and Away more than Neighbours, which doesn't even appear on the list—that's interesting information too!
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Yes. It's refreshing to see how thorough it is.
Always nice to see it appear in a top ten, even if it is only on a technicality.
I'd love to know what kind of numbers the British airings of Knots did during its original (mostly daytime) run, but could never find that kind of information as the published TV ratings only ever seemed to include the Top Ten or Twenty for the week across all channels combined.
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Glenroe was huge in its time, even if it was pretty gentle by modern soap standards. At the time of these ratings, Ireland’s population was only 3.5m, meaning over a third of the country watched the show.
If I’m remembering correctly, Knots Landing remained Top Ten or Twenty, right up until the end. It was originally stripped across weekday afternoons on RTE1 (similar to BBC) but due to them either catching up on US broadcasts or because of its popularity, it was moved to a weekly primetime slot.
Home and Away was huge here, particularly among younger viewers. Neighbours doesn’t appear on the list here because it didn’t start broadcasting in Ireland on RTE until the early 00’s. Prior to that, only viewers that had access to BBC1 could watch it. Pre-Sky Digital, that meant viewers living along the border with Northern Ireland or on the east coast.
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It was big enough for me to have heard of it without ever having watched it. I don't even know if it aired on British TV.
This is random, but I remember in the early Eighties, ITV attempted to give many of its franchises regional soaps, most of which were very short lived (like Taff Acre for HTV Wales). I wonder if this in some way could have inspired RTE.
Wow. That's great.
Which is the opposite of British TV, where it began in prime time but got shelved then given the daytime treatment for most of its run.
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As it happens, RTE actually inspired ITV. Glenroe is the last of a trilogy of rural soaps, starting with The Riordans, which first aired in 1965. When ITV were launching Emmerdale Farm in the 70’s, they visited Ireland to see RTE’s techniques for filming The Riordans on the farm and in outdoor settings.
When The Riordans ended, it spawned Bracken, a two season spinoff that transplanted Gabriel Byrne’s character from Kilkenny to the Wicklow Mountains. When it ended after two years, two Bracken characters (played by Mick Lally and Joe Lynch) moved down off the mountain, to launch Glenroe.
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That's really impressive, and actually quite sweet.
What a legacy. Great to know that a currently-running soap has a history going back to the Sixties. There aren't many series of any kind that can say this anymore.
