"Schmidteinander" was a very successful comedy series in the early nineties.
It was a quite new and unique format in Germany at its time, a lot of people I know (including myself, of course) were crazy about it when it came out. So it became a "cult show" as the press still likes to call it.
As far as I can say there were not a lot of other exciting comedy shows on German television when "Schmidteinander" was first shown at the WDR TV (later it was shown on the ARD). Apart from "Schmidteinander" there was Hape Kerkeling with "Total Normal" which you might compare in a way but there are a lot of differences, too.
"Schmidteinander" had two hosts: Harald Schmidt - who was then known for his Kabarett (political satire) performances and later became Germany's most popular late night show host - and Herbert Feuerstein who was called the chief author and responsible for the majority of great jokes. A lot could be said about both of them but you may read all about it in their biographies. They made a great team possibly because of their personal differences (even the optical difference fit very well). Also because of the simple idea that they kept playfully arguing with each other and pulled each other's leg.
The show was inspired by American TV shows plus a shot of British humour and dry German humour: a mixture of popular guests, music performances, even dance numbers by the "Hupfdolls" (whoever decided to take that into the show!), crazy running gags, live sketches and recorded sketches, etc. etc. The improvised dialogues went really well usually.
Although the show had some low points and weak sketches it was a lot of fun most of the time and surely inspiring for other comedy shows to come in the future!
To me it was a real event just like watching Monty Python's Flying Circus for the first time and I am glad I was there when it happened! :) I guess credit must be given to Herbert Feuerstein - THANK YOU!
I could go on for hours but this is just meant to be a general introduction... I hope there will be more comments.
