Tabaluga tivi (partially found ZDFtivi German game show; 1997-2011)
Tabaluga tivi's first logo
Status: Partially Found
This article has been tagged as Needing work due to its editor notes and unfinished nature.
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 segments are cut out in the episodes or have muted music due to copyright.
List of Episodes
| # | Episode Title | Air Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Folge 1|October 4th, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 2|October 11th, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 3|October 18th, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 4|October 25th, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 5|November 1st, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 6|November 8th, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 7|November 16th, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 8|November 22nd, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 9|November 29th, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 10|December 6th, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 11|December 13th, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 12|December 20th, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 13|December 27th, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 14|January 3rd, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 15|January 10th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 16|January 18th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 17|January 24th, 1997|Lost | |||
| Folge 18|January 31st, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 19|February 8th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 20|February 14th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 21|February 21st, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 22|February 28th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 23|March 7th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 24|March 14th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 25|March 21st, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 26|March 28th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 27|April 4th, 1998|Partially Found | |||
| Folge 28|April 11th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 29|April 18th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 30|April 25th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 31|May 2nd, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 32|May 9th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 33|May 16th, 1998|Lost | |||
| Folge 34|May 23rd, 1998|Partially Found | |||
| Folge 35|May 30th, 1998|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)