1981 in Italian television

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This is a list of Italian television related events from 1981.

Events

Rai

• February 7: Alice wins the Sanremo festival, hosted by Claudio Cecchetto and Eleonora Vallone, with the song Per Elisa  ; for the fist time in ten years, RAI broadcasts integrally the show. With this edition the festival, after a decline in the Seventies, knows a renewed success both for the record sales and as TV event; the final evening is the most seen show of the year, with 22,7 million spectators. ^[1]
• March 12: RAI cancels last minute the airing of the documentary AAA offresi; the film, realized by a feminist collective, describes crudely the daily life of a prostitute.  The censorious measure, wanted by Mauro Bubbico, president of the Parliamentary Commission of Vigilance on television, is stigmatized by the public opinion. AAA offresi is by now again inedited. ^[2]
• March 18: the existence of the clandestine masonic lodge Propaganda 2 is revealed; among its objiectives, enounced in the Democratic rebirth plan, ^[3] there are the privatization of RAI and the liberalization of the private TV channels. Several RAI journalists and functionaries result to be members of the lodge, as the vice president Gianfranco Orsello, the TG1 director Franco Colombo, the radio news director Gustavo Selva and the correspondent from Paris Gino Nebiolo. ^[4]
• May 13: attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II. A long extraordinary edition of TG2 gives the first and contradictories news about the pontifex’s conditions and the attacker’s identity, but without showing images of the event, because the RAI cameras have left St. Peter’s square few moments before the shooting. ^[5]
• June 12: Vermicino accident; the little Alfredo Rampi, 6 years old, dies at the bottom of a well, where he had failed three days before. RAI 1 and 2 follow the unsuccessful recovery operation, till its tragic epilogue, with a 36 hours live broadcast (the longest in RAI history),hosted by Piero Badaloni and followed by around 20 million viewers. The event arouses both emotion and controversies; RAI is charged to have made a spectacle out of the suffering. ^[6]

Private channels

In 1981, the private networks become a serious thread for RAI, with an average of 5 million viewers (1,39 for Canale 5 alone) against the 7,8 million ones of the state television. Particularly active is Silvio Berlusconi’s Canale 5, that tries even to snatch the rights to Serie A from RAI, while Angelo Rizzoli’s Primarete indipendente, is overwhelmed by the general crisis of the Rizzoli group. ^[1]

• March 18: the P2 scandal involves the private television too. The two main editors in the field, Angelo Rizzoli and Silvio Berlusconi, and the journalist Maurizio Costanzo, director of the Primarete news program, Contatto, are registered to the lodge. ^[4]
• June 2: Canale 5 begins airing Dallas ; some episodes were already broadcast by RAI 1, with moderate success. The change of channel benefits the serial, that gets very high ratings; in the following years, it becomes the Canale 5’ flagship and a custom phenomenon. ^[7]
• July 21: a sentence of the Constitutional Court confirms the RAI monopoly on the national information; the Primarete news program, Contatto, stop broadcasting. ^[4]
• October 5: the circuit GPE – Telemond, controlled by Mondadori, ceases activity; the local televisions who are part of it enter in the two new national network, Italia Uno and Rete Quattro.

Debuts

RAI

Variety

• Blitz – 3 seasons. Interstitial program of the Sunday afternoon, hosted by Gianni Minà and focused on sport and entertainment. In 1984, the show is at the center of a scandal, because of a blasphemy said live by the actor Leopoldo Mastelloni in an interview. ^[8]
• Mister Fantasy – Musica da vedere (Music to see), variety hosted by Carlo Massarini and Mario Luzzato Fegis, that reveals the music videos (often realized on purpose for the show) to the Italian public; four seasons. ^[9]

Private channels

Show for children

• Bim Bum Bam (Antenna Nord, later Italia Uno and Canale 5) – lasted till 2002, hosted for all the 1980s by Paolo Bonolis, sided by the puppet Uan. The program, started in the Rusconi's Antenna Nord as a simple container of animated films, becomes, after the passage to Fininvest, the most popular show for children of the time. The show includes, besides the cartoons (of which The Smurfs is the most successful), comical sketches and parody fiction. ^[10]  

Television shows

Drama

• I giochi del diavolo (The devil’s games) – cycle of TV-movies, based on six fantastic tales of the Nineteenth Century, chosen by Italo Calvino; the most significant is La Vénus d'Ille , by Mario and Lamberto Bava, from Prosper Merimée’s tale. ^[11]
• La giacca verde (The green jacket) – by Franco Giraldi, with Jean-Pierre Cassel, Renzo Montagnani and Senta Berger; from a Mario Soldati’s story. In the second world war, a famous conductor and a modest timpanist  exchange their social roles and almost their identities.
• Il padre (The father) – by Giorgio Pressburger, from the Strindberg’s play, with Giorgio Albertazzi. ^[12]
• Maria Zef – by Vittorio Cottafavi, from the novel of Paola Drigo, with Renata Chiappino and Siro Angeli; 2 episodes. It’s the story (played in Friulian language with Italian subtitles) of a country girl, victim of the misery and of her uncle’s abuses. ^[13]

Miniseries

• Don Luigi Sturzo - by Giovanni Fago, biopic with Flavio Bucci in the title role; 3 episodes. ^[14]
• Vita di Antonio Gramsci (Life of Antonio Gramsci) – by Raffaele Maiello, script by Suso Cecchi D’Amico and Giuseppe Fiori, with Mattia Sbragia in the title role; 4 episodes. ^[15]
• George Sand – by Giorgio Albertazzi (also actor as Michel de Bourges), with Anna Proclemer in the title role; 4 episodes. ^[16]

Variety

• Tutto compreso (All inclusive) – by Giancarlo Nicotra, with Ezio Greggio and Enrico Beruschi; variety set in a resort, considered a forerunner of the Drive In ’s formula. ^[17]
• Stasera niente di nuovo (Nothing new tonight) – by Romolo Siena; last show in RAI of Raimondo Vianello and Sandra Mondaini, sided by the young soubrette Heather Parisi. ^[18]
• Telepatria international ovvero niente paura siamo italiani (Telepatria international, or No fear, we are Italians) variety with Renzo Arbore and Luciano De Crescenzo, dealing ironically with the Italian patriotism theme: 3 episodes. ^[19]
• Mille milioni (A thousand millions) – musical show with Raffaella Carrà, coproduced by RAI and 4 foreign televisions and shot in 5 world metropolis (Mexico City, Buenos Aires, London, Moscow and Rome). ^[20]

News and educational

• È una domenica sera di novembre (It’s a november Sunday evening) – documentary by Lina Wertmuller about the 1980 Irpinia earthquake, with an interview to Martin Scorsese. ^[21]

Channels

New channels

• VB33

References

1. Hit (2010-08-22). "Auditel Rewind - 1981". TvBlog (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-02-23.
2. Fedi, Giuseppe (13 March 1981). "Telegramma di Bubbico e AAA offresi sostituito all'ultimo momento da un film". La Stampa . p. 1.
3. "Testo integrale del Piano di Rinascita Democratica" (PDF). Archivio Antimafia.
4. Bruno, Somalvico (25 October 2012). "cronologia radiotelevisiva III: 1976-1992: 1980-1985". cronologia radiotelevisiva III. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
5. "Wojtyla, il gigante della fede 1981 - Tg2 Edizione straordinaria: l'attentato al Papa - Video". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-02-23.
6. Hit (2021-06-10). "Piero Badaloni, quel mio Vermicino fra rabbia e tristezza". TvBlog (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-02-29.
7. "Stasera ritorna Dallas". La Stampa . 2 June 1981. p. 23.
8. "Blitz". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-07-16.
9. "Mister Fantasy". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2021-05-13.
10. "bim bum bam". Lega Nerd (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-12-03.
11. "I giochi del diavolo". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2021-10-31.
12. "Il padre". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-12-01.
13. "Maria Zef". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2023-12-20.
14. "Don Luigi Sturzo". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-12-01.
15. "Vita di Antonio Gramsci". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-12-01.
16. "George Sand". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2021-03-10.
17. "Tutto compreso". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-12-03.
18. "Stasera niente di nuovo". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-12-03.
19. "Telepatria International". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-07-26.
20. "Millemilioni". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2023-07-18.
21. "È una domenica sera di novembre". RaiPlay (in Italian). Retrieved 2023-07-18.