Rumores (partially found Mexican sitcom; 2001-2002)

A screenshot from the show.

Status: Partially Found

Rumores was a Mexican sitcom that ran from 2001 to the fall of 2002. The show was initially broadcasted by TV Azteca Noreste and then was later picked up by Televisa's Monterrey affiliate. Unusual for its time period, it was a local attempt to produce an American-style sitcom.

Plot

The show centered around tabloid newspaper Rumores! (Rumours!) run by a young man Diego, which finds its popularity increased overnight after two newcomers Simón and Orejas start fabricating outlandish stories which are then published. However, the newspaper's questionable journalistic standards and practices draw the ire of a girl named Cassandra, head of a media watchdog non-profit named Sin Engaños (No More Lies),^[1] not to mention that the false stories end up causing comical repercussions for all the parties involved.

Cast and Crew

The main characters were known as Simón and Orejas, a pair of journalistic troublemakers portrayed by Gregory Duke (who was also one of the show's main writers) and Paco Segovia, respectively. Supporting cast consisted of characters such as media activist Cassandra (played by Pilar Reyes),^[2] Office girl Sara (played by Minerva Cavazos), Rumores! secretary/receptionist Lola, (played by Elka Rodríguez), the newspaper's head Diego (played by José Enrique Matar) and the slacker "gofer" Edipo (played by Ignacio "Nacho" Llantada, who would later gain notoriety as the frontman of Mexican pop-rock group Los Claxons).^[3]

The show was directed by Marcelo González (Whose later work includes the direction and writing of a 2015 romantic comedy titled Estar o no estar) and Roberto Martínez Treviño is credited by IMDb as the show's creator and co-writer alongside Gregory Duke.

Production

Rumores was completely developed and produced in the city of Monterrey, Mexico's third largest city and a hub of interaction with the English-speaking world (Due to its proximity with the U.S. state of Texas). It was initially picked up by TV Azteca's regional affiliate Azteca Noreste (Covering the states of Nuevo León and Tamaulipas as well as the city of Saltillo east of the state of Coahuila), premiering Monday, October 1st, 2001 at 11.30pm on Azteca's channel 7.^[2] This particular timeslot, coupled with the show's American sitcom stylings made it difficult for the show to gain an audience, even with its intended 18-to-25 age range. The show concluded its eight-episode first season and was quickly dropped by the network.

However, it drew interest from rival station Televisa Monterrey (Which owned local channels 2 and 34), who picked up the show for a second season,^[3] airing Mondays in prime time during the fall of 2002. Once again low ratings were drawn and the show was quietly cancelled.

Availability

Because of the aforementioned low ratings, lack of interest and/or unfamiliarity of local audiences with homegrown programming that tried to break the mold, the show has remained mostly buried in the collective memory of Monterrey's television history.

Up until November 7th, 2018, no visual media of the show was thought to exist on the Internet. However, it was later found that the actress who portrayed Lola, Elka Rodríguez (Who since then has moved to the United States and has done minor roles in American TV shows and sitcoms such as Modern Family), has uploaded five videos (said uploads dating back to mid-2015) with samples of her acting in Rumores to YouTube, both independently and as part of her acting demo reel, giving a glimpse of what this sitcom had to offer. For it being produced in Monterrey and only aired in Northeastern Mexico, its production values clearly show that this sitcom was aiming for national distribution.