Sebastian Pufpaff delivers an impressively sovereign debut at Stefan Raab’s desk. TV Total is back. And that’s good. The TV review.
Frankfurt – TV Total is back. Already in the opening credits, a hint that Stefan Raab is producing here makes it clear that this program breathes the spirit of the inventor. Maximum pressure for the new host, one might think. Sebastian Pufpaff answers with disarming self-evidence.
After only a few minutes, someone tweeted: “First thought at the beginning of the broadcast: the show lived from Stefan Raab – after five minutes: the show is the show! Puffi does it great. ”This impression is not exclusive to him. It doesn’t take a quarter of an hour and Raab is (almost) forgotten. This is also due to the fact that so many nostalgic elements flow into the clearly revamped setting.
Manfred Winkens: The voice of TV Total makes it easier for Sebastian Pufpaff to get started
It starts with the well-known intro and all the jingles that are amazingly familiar even six years later without TV Total. This is due to the still fantastic Heavytones. But first and foremost, it’s up to Manfred Winkens.
Manfred Winkens is the fantastic voiceover, who in its incomparable way also the “regulatory authority regulation for the designation of landscape protection areas in the area scenery of the cities of Dorsten and Waltrop as well as in parts of Castrop-Rauxel, Datteln, Haltern am See and Marl in the area of the district Recklinghausen “(it really exists) could read aloud: It would be totally funny.
Winkens already makes TV Total feel like TV Total. Just like the set. Sebastian Pufpaff behind the scenes, visibly impressed by his working environment: “You know it, but everything is new.” The new stage is basically a modernized version of the old one. It seems familiar enough for nostalgic feelings, but also picks up the generations (descending in age) on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
TV Total with Pufpaff against “Wetten, dass ..?” With Gottschalk: The elephant is in the room
For these generations, the excruciatingly long commercial breaks could become an obstacle. Streaming portals and media libraries, YouTube, social media: linear television is struggling hard. The excavation of cult formats comes at a time when the concentration span is decreasing and the media offer is increasing.
| broadcast | TV total |
| Moderation | Sebastian Pufpaff |
| episode | 2304 |
| First broadcast | March 8, 1999 |
| Channel | ProSieben |
Against this trend, the broadcasters are now sending their mothballed flagships TV Total and “Wetten, dass ..?” Out to sea. Because it is present on TV again almost at the same time, the comparison of the formats constantly resonates. Sebastian Pufpaff jokes about Thomas Gottschalk and his ZDF program: “When he was young, Germany had completely different borders.” Before that, the ProSieben comedian had almost made it to Gottschalk’s stage with a ZDF jacket and camera team.
While Gottschalk struggled unpleasantly into his show with a few eye-catching sexist jokes, Pufpaff ignites directly. Sometimes his punchlines sound like Stefan Raab himself spoke. In other moments, Pufpaff suggests that TV Total could move a little closer to the social discourse in the future. However, without wanting to hurt anyone. When Pufpaff made fun of Markus Lanz’s need to communicate in connection with the podcast by Markus Lanz and Richard David Precht, he left the controversial views of the podcast duo on the subject of vaccination against Corona uncommented.
TV Total doesn’t want to be political, Sebastian Pufpaff doesn’t want to hurt anyone
TV Total shows at such moments that it does not want to be a political format. TV Total wants to invite people from all generations to fight their way through strenuous advertising blocks voluntarily and together. The punch lines are right. About Julian Reichelt, who was fired at Bild, and his behavior in the office of editor-in-chief, Pufpaff squeals: “What do you give to whom who already had them all?” Reichelt’s loyal fanboy Paul Ronzheimer calls Pufpaff a “fat Harry Potter”. It’s not the fine blade. But over it so that it works.
In between there are ambiguous moments. Pufpaff never mentions Raab once. However, he cannot do without a trigger entirely: “This show always had a secret real star, but so far it has not been there.” Art break. “No, not him.” What is meant instead is the legendary nipple board. The arrangement of all the buttons on the show desk with which Pufpaff, like Raab once, plays short trash snippets that quickly become memes.
At the end, Pufpaff asks with a wink: “Has anyone ever tried to run down a bobsled run in an original Chinese wok?” Interesting idea. Should there finally be another Wok World Cup: Sebastian Pufpaff, as host, would quickly make Raab forget there too. As with TV Total. “Bet that..? (Mirko Schmid)
