Tabaluga tivi (partially found ZDFtivi German game show; 1997-2011)
Tabaluga tivi was a long-running German gameshow that aired on ZDFtivi from 1997-2011 and had reruns on KiKA every Sunday. It premiered on October 4th, 1997 and aired its last episode on May 7th, 2011. It was canceled to make way for "new and innovative entertainment formats"[1]. The show was produced on behalf of ZDFtivi by the Munich production company MingaMedia and recorded in the Bavaria Studios near Munich. The show ran for 14 years with a total of 652 episodes, and was cancelled to make way for new formats.
Format
Two presenters along with Tabaluga the dragon, Happy the snowhare, Arktos the snowman, and James the mute penguin butler ran the game show. Each episode ran for 90 minutes until 2006, where the runtime was shortened to 65 minutes until 2008, where it was shortened once again to 45 minutes. There were two teams of two children each, one red team and one yellow team, competed against each other in 5 rounds (changed to 3 rounds in 2003). Action, skill and knowledge games alternated. There used to be a second quiz in the first round. In 2003, this was replaced with the "Freundschaftbox", which was then replaced by "Wortball" in 2008. The two teams collected lucky points during the game rounds (from 2003), which was converted into a sum of money at the end of the episode and would be donated to a good cause. The children would determine the donation goal themselves beforehand.
From 2000 to 2011, there was a segment called "Arktos’ unheimlich böse Aufgabe" where the external presenters had to solve a task given by Arktos in 90 seconds. If the presenter managed to complete the task in time, the winning team would receive a bonus point for the final game.
The final game was called the "Arktos Super-Spiel", and was there since the beginning of the show. A path would light up on the board briefly, before going out, and the team would have to cross the board by remembering where the path was. From 1997 to 2003, if the players won the "Arktos Super-Spiel", the team would win the Golden Tabaluga, a golden trophy statue that looked like the dragon, Tabaluga.
Throughout the entire game show's run, there were educational and service short films and series aired during the show, which fell into the "Drachenstark" category. There were often also music acts and performances from studio guests. From 2003-2011, there was an article series on the show called "Das verschenkte Glück". The article series presented short films showing stories of people who gone through special efforts to help others and make them happy. "Glücksbringer" were given the Golden Tabaluga as an award. From 1997-2006, the show would air 2 episodes of German cartoons and TV shows. Most notably, all 78 episodes of the Tabaluga cartoon adaption had their broadcast premiere on this show.
Broadcast, Promotions, and Availability
The show was broadcast on ZDFtivi on Saturday afternoons at 1:30 p.m. until 2000 where it was moved later in the morning. In 2006, the show's broadcast slot was moved to 7:20 a.m. in the early morning. In 2008, it moved airing times yet again to 6:50 a.m until May 7th, 2011, where the final episode aired at 6:15 a.m. in the morning. The episodes were rebroadcast several times throughout their lifespan on KiKA every Sunday.
There was also an website that offered videos of several episodes, such as the final episode, segments from the show, some episodes of the spin-off series "Ein tierisch tolles Haus", information about the show, information about Tabaluga and his friends, schedules for airings and reruns of episodes of the main show and the spin-offs, held many contests, and much more things.
The show was heavily promoted in magazines while it was running, usually talking about when the next episode aired, when the previous episode aired, and when an episode would be re-broadcast.
Out of the 652 episodes, only 3 have resurfaced in full, with clips and segments of various other known and unknown episodes resurfacing over the years, though some episodes have segments cut out in the episodes or have muted music due to copyright.
List of Episodes
# | Episode Title | Air Date | Status |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Folge 1 | October 4th, 1997 | Lost |
2 | Folge 2 | October 11th, 1997 | Lost |
3 | Folge 3 | October 18th, 1997 | Lost |
4 | Folge 4 | October 25th, 1997 | Lost |
5 | Folge 5 | November 1st, 1997 | Lost |
6 | Folge 6 | November 8th, 1997 | Lost |
7 | Folge 7 | November 16th, 1997 | Lost |
8 | Folge 8 | November 22nd, 1997 | Lost |
9 | Folge 9 | November 29th, 1997 | Lost |
10 | Folge 10 | December 6th, 1997 | Lost |
11 | Folge 11 | December 13th, 1997 | Lost |
12 | Folge 12 | December 20th, 1997 | Lost |
13 | Folge 13 | December 27th, 1997 | Lost |
14 | Folge 14 | January 3rd, 1998 | Lost |
15 | Folge 15 | January 10th, 1998 | Lost |
16 | Folge 16 | January 18th, 1998 | Lost |
17 | Folge 17 | January 24th, 1997 | Lost |
18 | Folge 18 | January 31st, 1998 | Lost |
19 | Folge 19 | February 8th, 1998 | Lost |
20 | Folge 20 | February 14th, 1998 | Lost |
21 | Folge 21 | February 21st, 1998 | Lost |
22 | Folge 22 | February 28th, 1998 | Lost |
23 | Folge 23 | March 7th, 1998 | Lost |
24 | Folge 24 | March 14th, 1998 | Lost |
25 | Folge 25 | March 21st, 1998 | Lost |
26 | Folge 26 | March 28th, 1998 | Lost |
27 | Folge 27 | April 4th, 1998 | Partially Found (Drachenstark Segment) |
27 | Folge 28 | April 11th, 1998 | Lost |
29 | Folge 29 | April 18th, 1998 | Lost |
30 | Folge 30 | April 25th, 1998 | Lost |
31 | Folge 31 | May 2nd, 1998 | Lost |
32 | Folge 32 | May 9th, 1998 | Lost |
33 | Folge 33 | May 16th, 1998 | Lost |
34 | Folge 34 | May 23rd, 1998 | Found |
35 | Folge 35 | May 30th, 1998 | Lost |
36 | Folge 36 | June 6th, 1998 | Lost |
37 | Folge 37 | June 13th, 1998 | Lost |
38 | Folge 38 | June 20th, 1998 | Lost |
39 | Folge 39 | June 27th, 1998 | Lost |
40 | Folge 40 | July 4th, 1998 | Lost |
41 | Folge 41 | July 11th, 1998 | Lost |
42 | Folge 42 | July 18th, 1998 | Lost |
43 | Folge 43 | July 25th, 1998 | Lost |
44 | Folge 44 | August 1st, 1998 | Lost |
45 | Folge 45 | August 8th, 1998 | Lost |
46 | Folge 46 | August 15th, 1998 | Lost |
47 | Folge 47 | August 22nd, 1998 | Lost |
48 | Folge 48 | August 29th, 1998 | Lost |
49 | Folge 49 | August 5th, 1998 | Lost |
50 | Folge 50 | August 12th, 1998 | Lost |
51 | Folge 51 | August 19th, 1998 | Lost |
52 | Folge 52 | August 25th, 1998 | Lost |
53 | Folge 53 | October 3rd, 1998 | Lost |
54 | Folge 54 | October 10th, 1998 | Lost |
55 | Folge 55 | October 17th, 1998 | Lost |
56 | Folge 56 | October 24th, 1998 | Lost |
57 | Folge 57 | October 31st, 1998 | Lost |
58 | Folge 58 | November 7th, 1998 | Lost |
59 | Folge 59 | November 14th, 1998 | Lost |
60 | Folge 60 | November 21st, 1998 | Lost |
61 | Folge 61 | November 28th, 1998 | Lost |
62 | Folge 62 | December 5th, 1998 | Lost |
63 | Folge 63 | December 12th, 1998 | Lost |
64 | Folge 64 | December 20th, 1998 | Lost |
65 | Folge 65 | January 2nd, 1999 | Lost |
66 | Folge 66 | January 9th, 1999 | Lost |
67 | Folge 67 | January 16th, 1999 | Lost |
68 | Folge 68 | January 23rd, 1999 | Lost |
69 | Folge 69 | January 30th, 1999 | Lost |
70 | Folge 70 | Feburary 6th, 1999 | Lost |
Gallery
Coming Soon!
External Links
Archives of Tabaluga tivi's first website (archive.org)
Archives of Tabaluga tivi's second website (archive.org)
Archives of Tabaluga tivi's third and final website (archive.org)