The return of the Rich and Famous, the soap opera that became the symbol of the ’90s

If not for the wandering clothes and makeup, the long -awaited reunion of the actors -part of the historical cast of Rich and Famous, who will return to El Nueve- can mimic a typical alumni reunion. People who haven’t met in years, those who continued to interact with Zoom during the pandemic and those who weren’t present (even physically) because of job commitments.

“You took me to my house,” his female companions reminded him. Diego ramosstar with Natalia Oreiro of the iconic telenovela of the ’90s, which 25 years later they were called to celebrate in a special program -this Sunday, May 29 at exactly 11:00 pm- its re -launch on screen in from Monday 30 to 15.

Close to the scheduled time, to record an unpublished broadcast that will have Carolina Papaleo as hostess and videos with greetings from Natalia Oreiro and Carina Zampini (the great absentees with notice) all going up and down the stairs until they reached Studio 7.

All but Grace Palwho was left to wait for his colleague and friend Antonio Grimau in an office and can hardly walk alone, without pain.

“I twisted my ankle in the street in the most stupid way because I do the shopping,” she shares out loud and laughing, while her companions Lorena Paola and Paola Papini they are being updated with a delay of more than two decades. “Your son is 23 and the last time I saw him was at birth, when I visited you in the hospital,” exclaimed Papini, who immediately greeted newcomer Karina Buseki.

Sequential story

Recording hasn’t started yet, but behind the scenes is already a whirlwind of anecdotes. Births, motions, pregnancies, not exactly from fictionis part of a stage accompanied by some of today’s reunions.

“I still see many of them. Like my aunt in the novel, Gracielita Pal, who was a witness to my first wedding, because in these corridors I met the father of my son. That’s also where our friendship with Carina Zampini was born, which, in fact, we found out together in the bathroom of my house that she was going to be a mother. My mother went to buy the test for her, ”Lorena Paola admits.

The good times are together. It doesn’t matter if the fancy wedding scene of the stars, shot at Hurlingham Polo Field, lasted an entire day until dawn, or if the famous hot air balloon from which Diego Ramos and Natalia fled seek another eternal hour of coolness outside.

A novel in three studies

“Making novels at that time was like making one’s own country. We recorded in three studios, also about 50 miles[80 km]from here and, because of the crowd, we traveled by long-distance buses. No cell phones or computers. then it was a huge job of anticipation in every detail ”, explains Rubén Lescano, was Production Coordinator and now producer of special television.

“They’re different times. When the viewer sees the revival, it’s going to have to find itself especially in the year ’97, because the novel’s times are different. A book at the time had 36 to 40 scenes. Now it can reach 60, because everything is very choppy”, He taught about the program that keeps an entire country in doubt.

Diego Ramos runs the corridors in a jog along Clarion, because this is all it takes to start. “These studies are almost novel released. It’s a time we started moving and it’s almost not here. Everything is still to be done and under construction”, he assured. the actor chosen by Alejandro Romayin principle, to form a villain.

The villain who does not

“I will be Natalia’s sister and it will be bad. But at that moment the protagonist left, I don’t know why, and they called me to a casting to try me out. At first I didn’t want to, because for me the bad guy has more of an acting game ”, admitting that, as the leading man of a wealthy family, traveled to Punta del Este, Uruguay and Cuba, where there was an epic scene. recorded that he still has not forgotten.

“The story generated passions in people, like a Romeo and Juliet more updated. An entire town in Cuba was asked to be extra behind Natalia. And to this day I continue to encounter people who are overweight and they tell me: ‘We were kidnapped Rich and famous‘. Because my dad on the strip was a mobster, so they always kidnapped me, they tried to hit me or shot me. “

In the second season and changing protagonists, the broadcasting of fiction from the beginning of 1997 to 1998 -on the old Channel 9 of Romay- was the reason the whole family gathered in front of the television at dinner time.

“I think Romay will be happy. He was always behind the camera giving a little suggestion. One day he said to me: you have grown your beard. Be careful because age increases drastically. The kind of care he has for the program, down to the smallest detail, ”Grimau said.

Pal completes: “My girl Manuela (the actress) was still young and when she came to do the casting her partner was Alejandro. She’s wonderful. “

A soap opera where the bad guys win

Although the plot corresponds to the classic soap opera, where the love of the main characters is based on balance due to the irreparable confrontation between their families (the Salerno-García Mendez) it is the same a fiction in which evil prevailed over good.

Labels that result in self -establishment in the association of the wicked Carla Lucero (Forever Little Woman), a character who catapulted Carina Zampini into that category and who for the first time I jumped from one fiction to another like a wink on tv

The fiction of the Romay era, remastered

Saving the channel’s historical archive, “a project we’re working on and it takes almost 4 years”, is the first step of the announced return of fiction to the Nine.

“We are happy to be fulfilling one of the objectives, which is resume national fiction on the grid. The first episode coincided with Amazon when we first released the Maradona series and we also had a premiere of two unit episodes: Supernovawith Amazon, which will start in July, and another in Flow, which will be released in the second semester ”, expects Sebastián Rolandi, General Manager of El Nueve.

Also confirm changing the strange ladyanother milestone in television, “also in a digitized folder” with a possible projection for 2023.

But television is different and so is the audience that consumes it. “We understand that it has changed. What was previously more consumed with prime time at night it also works in the afternoon and we understand that there is a niche there, where it opens a possibility that other channels are also exploring”, He pointed out about the 3:00 pm time slot chosen to relaunch the hit novel in the 90s.

And he assumes: “I don’t see it as a risk, but as a strong channel bet. We want to appreciate Argentine fiction and what our actors, our screenwriters, our historical directors mean.”

And it ends: “Analyzing the reunion with the staff of a famous contact such as Natalia Oreiro or Diego Ramos, retrieving the historical archive and linking us to a figure as valuable as Romay for what channel history and who introduced fiction in 9 and in the audiovisual of open channels ”.

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