Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Acensbart
Excellent but underrated film
Supelice
Dreadfully Boring
Adrianapolis
Was 'Eldorado' ever intended to be taken seriously, or was it just an elaborate stunt by the B.B.C. to get rid of Terry Wogan's thrice-weekly ego trip cum chat show? At one point the hype was so great it threatened to overshadow that of 'Star Wars'! Trailers interfaced every B.B.C. programme for what felt like months before its debut. The cast hogged Breakfast Time to brag about how great it was going to be. Even children's presenter Andi Peters plugged the new soap from the safety of his 'broom cupboard'. As a result viewers tired of the thing before they actually saw it. Created and produced by the 'Eastenders' ( itself not very good ) team of Julia Smith and Tony Holland, the Spanish soap cost licence-payers' a king's ransom with the building on location of a replica Spanish town.The characters were stereotypes with absurd names like 'Bunny' and 'Fizz' ( speaking of which, whatever happened to Kathy Pitkin? She was heavily hyped as the new Catherine Zeta Jones but nothing became of her. Possibly stacking shelves in Asda somewhere ). The plots were the usual soap drivel about lust and adultery. The dialogue was risible. Roland Curram played a moustached gay character ( surprise, surprise! ), while Jesse Birdsall was a sub-'Dirty Den' figure. Comedy actress Patricia Brake was wasted. Polly Perkins was 'Trish' the Barbara Windsor-like barmaid.After a respectable rating of seven million for the first episode, interest tapered off alarmingly ( 'Panorama' actually overtook it one Monday night! ), critics were hostile, and the tabloid press tore it to shreds the way it recently did with poor Gordon Brown's Government. 'El-Bore-Ado' and 'Helldorado' were nick-names the show could have done without. Yet B.B.C.-1 Controller Jonathan Powell refused to scrap it, arguing that the longer it was on air, the more chance it had of attracting an audience. 'Spitting Image' mocked his decision in a sketch in which a photograph of a turd was put on air, and Powell told the Board of B.B.C. Governors it would remain there until it eventually became a hit.When it became apparent 'Eldorado' was attracting no-one, Powell resigned and incoming B.B.C.-1 controller Alan Yentob read it the last rites - rightly so. Amazingly a few misguided souls protested as the plug was pulled ( is the Eldorado Appreciation Society Espana - T.E.A.S.E. - still in existence? ). On the night the last episode went out, a bus-load of angry fans stormed the B.B.C. Television Centre, shouting abuse at Yentob, while over in Spain, a cast member with a poor command of English blubbed on camera: "Mr.Yentob...you are a bad man and you have done a very terrible thing!". Actually, his decision to kill off 'Eldorado' was eminently sensible. Refusing to admit they'd failed, the B.B.C. issued episodes on a video-tape called 'Adios Eldorado' which became a surprise best seller! The sad thing about the debacle was it was one of the last series from the great Verity Lambert, and cast a pall over her otherwise glittering career.
myles-campbell
"Are you ready for Eldorado?" This was the immortal line used by the BBC to herald their new thrice-weekly Spanish sunshine soap 'Eldorado' back in 1992. And much-heralded it was! 'Eldorado' was everywhere back in early 1992, in the papers, on TV trailers and in magazines. It was to be set in the purpose-built fictional Spanish resort of Los Barcos and would feature the "hedonism, heartbreak and deep-dark secrets" of a group of ex-pats and their fellow Europeans and would be the BBC's crowning glory, a sun, sea and sangria "supersoap". Were we ready for Eldorado? After enormous trumpeting, it looked like although 7 million of us were indeed ready for 'Eldorado', the show itself clearly wasn't ready for us. The flaws were unmistakable. Firstly, producer Julia Smith (who gave the BBC the hugely successful 'Eastenders' in 1985) had agreed to bring the start date forward from September to July. This created numerous problems. For a start the beautiful multi-million pound set would not be fully finished and it seemed foolish to have spent so many millions on such a great set design by Keith Harris, only to hurry ahead without allowing for it to be finished to the standard that such investment warranted. Not only this but summer viewing figures are always lower than those in winter so it seemed strange to launch a sunshine soap at a time when it would have the least appeal-in the summer! Julia Smith hired many unknown actors in a bid to make them stars but most were wooden and had to be axed after only a few months, notably the notorious Kathy Pitkin as Fizz. Writers were not allowed to see each others scripts which made continuity extremely difficult, another rule of Smith's, and because the set wasn't complete, sound in areas such as the Centro Commercial was awful. To top it all many scenes were conducted in foreign languages, which alienated viewers, story lines were poor and with the BBC ordering 3 episodes per week instead of the initial 2, the show simply couldn't cope. With no time for rehearsals, read-through's or help with acting, 'Eldorado' was not the "supersoap" promised by the BBC. Only 3 weeks in and it was in crisis, viewing figures were tumbling to 3 million, the papers slated it daily and it was fast becoming a £10 million failure. Something had to give. After only a few months, Julia Smith was axed from her post as producer and replaced by Corinne Hollingworth. Almost immediately the show began to turn around. Characters such as Dieter, Allan, Gavin and Snowy were axed in a cast cull while Marchell Betak was replaced as Trine Svendsen by Clare Wilkie. Exciting story lines such as the secret life and subsequent death of Javier, the attack on bar owner Joy and the difficulties of alcoholic Drew, were introduced. Scripts improved enormously, the sound was perfected and there was more focus on the experienced actors. New characters such as Natalie and 'Razor' proved a hit and by late 1992, 'Eldorado' was quickly becoming the hit that the BBC had promised. It had begun to find a direction, an identity, it wasn't too serious or too light-hearted but a mixture of both. It was becoming a quality production dealing with the highs and lows and emotions of people who no longer belonged in the UK and who had to build a new sense of who they were in an alien European community. It was relevant, very different and a soap that was giving us a new perspective. It was an experiment with the genre of soap opera that was starting to pay off. 'Eldorado' was being networked in several European countries, public opinion was changing and viewing figures were growing rapidly, ultimately matching those of 'EastEnders'. 'Eldorado' was finding its feet. However, just as things were on the up, Jonathan Powell was replaced by Alan Yentob as director of BBC1 and within a week of his appointment, he made the shock announcement that 'Eldorado' was to be axed. Yentob disliked the show and was largely unaware of its recent improvements. It seems he felt that it hadn't achieved the success expected of it after 8 months. Indeed it hadn't, but that was because the BBC had expected far too much; an instant hit. Soaps need time to grow and develop and no soap is an immediate success. Like 'Eldorado', 'EastEnders' was no major success story after its first 8 months and had numerous teething troubles. Unlike 'Eldorado', 'EastEnders' was given a chance and just look how it turned out. By March 1993, 'Eldorado' was destined to emulate the success of its sister soap 'EastEnders' but it would never have the chance.'Eldorado'was going to get there, watching some of the late episodes alone proves that, as do the high viewing figures it was achieving towards the end. But it was not to be. On July 9th 1993, we said goodbye to some great soap characters such as Freddie, Gwen, Joy, Trish and Marcus not forgetting the likes of Drew, Isabelle, Pilar and Nessa (the first disabled soap character who was played by a real-life disabled person). Far from justifying the criticisms leveled at it by the tabloids, 'Eldorado' went out in style with an excellent final episode that demonstrated just how far it had come. A massive 11 million people watched as Marcus and Pilar sailed off into the night and those blue credits rolled for the last time to Simon May's fantastic arrangement of the theme tune. In the end, we were ready for more 'Eldorado' just when the show had become ready for us. Isn't it ironic then that we had to say "Adios Eldorado".
C L (Severus_Snape666)
OK, so I admit, I never saw it when it was originally aired (being 8 at the time!), and I bought the Adios Eldorado video because I'd heard so much about Jesse Birdsall's character, Marcus! I thought it would be a 1992 version of Sunset Beach- terrible acting, bad sets, poor story lines that never went anywhere. But, I was wrong, for the characters were well thought out and yet the soap didn't got too bogged down with overly serious plots that modern soaps rely on. The quirky, colourful characters worked well because they were larger than life, not trying to be as close to a normal world as possible. I've only ever seen the couple of hours worth on the video, so I'm still waiting to see reruns on UK Gold, but I think its a fantastic show, Even my 12 yr old sister loves it.
gwilym49
Not a bad soap. However, the BBC, in its wisdom, decided to pull the plug when it seemed to be getting off the ground. This decision has always seemed a puzzle when programmes of questionable quality are screened by the same organization. It was sad to lose this programme, and how much public money was thrown away?
