Thirty years after the last chapter of The Golden Rocket Gangthe youth strip of Canale 13 starring Adrián Suar, Araceli González, Diego Torres, Fabián Vena and Gloria Carrá which marked a milestone of television in the early 90s, that of the screenwriter Sergio Vainmann -creator of the strip together with Jorge Maestro- assured that “The values that were at stake The band They were the ones who were being lost in society.”
It was September 1991 when Channel 13 premiered a children’s series about three cousins who, after spending their childhood summers in their grandparents’ house in Villa Gesell, had drifted apart due to their parents’ quarrels.
The kick that gave life to the story was the death of the grandfather, who had decided to leave the three grandchildren with a particular legacy that would force them to meet again: the old yellow Oldsmobile Golden Rocket with which he took them for walks around the spa town .
The formation of the cast
When Diego Torres hadn’t recorded any of his eleven albums, Fabián Vena had barely acted fifth year assistant and Adrián Suar, who had worked in little hairneither dreaming of running a production company nor of becoming El Trece’s programming manager, they played the three cousins with the surname “Conejo” who reconnected after a long time with distrust.
For Maestro and Vainman, who came from hits like Treble clef, We and fears or Marital statusthis series presented a technical and script challenge in a television and a society that was in the midst of a transformation process.
“It was clear that there was a generation gap between parents and children at the time, because parents who had gone through the 70s were very particular, so we were speaking to a generation that was looking for its own path,” Maestro said.
But it was still a risky bet: The Golden Rocket Gang should compete with Friends are friendsTelefe’s hit comedy about the friendship between a 30-something womanizer and an 18-year-old boy starring Pablo Rago and “Carlín” Calvo which swept the ratings on Tuesdays at 9pm.
But it went well: the first chapter reached peaks of 35 points and competed the same way.
Ninety-five episodes two theatrical seasons in Buenos Aires and then in Mar del Plata, the strip that brought together newcomers like Araceli González, Gloria Carrá, Marisa Mondino, Carolina Fal, Germán Palacios and Fernán Mirás with recognized names like Hugo Arana, Nelly Beltran and Jorge Sassiits final chapter aired on January 7, 1993.
And although thirty years later one can only see a few episodes uploaded by anonymous users to YouTube, The Golden Rocket Gang marked a generation of spectators, catapulted the careers of numerous artists and left a song sung by Alejandro Lerner and Carlos Mellino (Together forever) which has become the mandatory soundtrack for graduate and quinceanera videos.
“A more open competition has begun”
-In which context of Argentine television does the program appear?
Sergio Vaiman: -In the early 1990s, the situation on open television was comparable, because since 1984 the only private channel was 9, owned by Alejandro Romay, and the others were administered by the state. With the menemism they returned to private hands and a much more open and close competition began which improved production standards. It’s at The bandCanale 13 has doubled the days away from the studio, substantially changing the way of counting.
How was the choice of the cast?
Master George: -Our three protagonists were Vena, who had just acted fifth year assistant on Channel 9; Torres, who had worked us and the otherscomedy for families on Canale 13 and we needed Leo Sbaraglia, who came from Violin key but he already had other projects and in the face of the emergency we chose Adrián Suar, who was one of the many young actors who came to ask for work at the channel.
-What was the challenge of speaking to a young audience in the early 90s?
JM: -It’s not that he proposed “let’s talk about this”, but we were clear that there was a generation gap between parents and children at that time, and we talked a little about the independence of these young people, who were already older than those Of Violin key, were entering their second decade of life and finding their way. Fabian was looking for a way to survive; Diego who tries to devote himself to his vocation which was music and Adrián, following the family program of having a degree.
MS: -A well-marked thing about the program was the need to find one’s own way, away from what the family mandate has marked and the history carved in stone by the parents. It was the struggle for independence, but with the help of peers and not of parents.
-How did that fiction that exalted solidarity between equals dialogue in a context like that of the 90s?
JM: -There is one thing that has to do with our writing: we always wanted to show the opposite of what reigned. We never take the public as “customers” even though we wanted to have a lot of ratings.
MS: -In that sense we thought, because we proposed that the best way out for young people was solidarity between peers, coming together and helping each other to pick up those who have fallen, accompanying those who came behind and not having that individualistic attitude. At the beginning the cousins each go their own way and realize that forced coexistence becomes necessary and ends up being virtuous.
Source: Telam
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Source: Clarin
