Our memories of RTL 7

RTL 7 is a television station that began broadcasting on December 6, 1996 and then disappeared from the screens in 2002. During these few years, however, she managed to broadcast a dozen or so different series that we remember forever. Here are a few of them!

Dragon Ball

On October 1, 1999, the great Polish TV premiere of the Dragon Ball anime took place . A characteristic feature of this series was French dubbing, which was related to the Belgian roots of the RTL concern, as well as the fact that in the 1990s Dragon Ball in Europe was distributed only by the French branch of AB Productions and Polish voiceover Zbigniew Dobrzański. Initially, this series was broadcast from Monday to Friday at 15:00, but as RTL air time was enriched, 7 hours changed. Due to the huge interest in anime, the station decided to buy the first series, “Z” and “GT”. The number of daily episodes that were broadcast also doubled. The popularity of Dragon Ballin Poland, it also resulted in the development of the entire range of animations broadcast in the series Awesome Cartoons . It should be added that the “Dragon Balls” came to Poland quite late. The Japanese premiere of this anime took place on February 26, 1986. An interesting fact is that about a year before “Siódemka”, the efforts to acquire the series were abandoned by the “Polsat” station, which, as it turned out, was a “marketing shot in the foot” shortly thereafter.

For the youth of the 90s, including me, the appearance of Dragon Ball on television is an important and breakthrough moment in getting to know what a different kind of animation can be. This made us different from our parents brought up on polite cartoons, such as Bolek and Lolek or Reksio . There were already series about heroes, such as He-Man and the rulers of the universe or Captain Planet and planetarians, but they were not sprinkled with brutality, especially Dragon Ball Z. Someone might say that it was not for children because it was pouring blood in streams and the great master Goku that is, Roshi was an erotomaniac. These are the arguments, in my opinion, of people who watched Dragon Ball in snippets. StudioToei Animation translated the great mangaka work of Akira Toriyama to the TV screen in an interesting and extremely precise way. The viewer matures with the episodes of “Dragon Balls”. The action from the initially gag game, turns into an adventure to finally reveal its dark arcana, including life and death fights. Years later, someone could translate the names of the main characters, ie “Songo”, “Brilliant Turtle” or “Satan Heart” but at the turn of the old and new millennium we absolutely did not mind. Dragon Ball will forever remain one of the most important symbols of the 90s and the flagship of the RTL 7 series.

Knights of the zodiac

Knights of the Zodiac is one of the most popular anime series of all time. The series came to Poland in 1999 in parallel with the appearance of the Odjazdowe Cartoons band where it was broadcast before Dragon Ball. The series is commonly known as Saint Seiya, but RTL 7 station acquired the French version, hence the translation of the Knights of the Zodiac . Unfortunately, multiple translations made some scenes incomprehensible and some threads censored. Nevertheless, thanks to the charismatic voice of the lector Paweł Siedlik, the series saved its original meaning.

The anime showed a world full of values, in which the most important role is played by honor, sacrifice for others, and keeping an oath once before. Watching the Knights of the Zodiac makes you believe that even the most distant goals are achievable. The plot of the anime itself refers to all kinds of Greek, Nordic and even Buddhist myths and legends, which also allows you to expand your knowledge about them. The image of the characters of the brave Knights of Athena has not aged despite the passage of time. Many anime and film makers admit that they drew inspiration from Masami Kurumada’s manga. For anime creators from Toei Animation studio, the series became a ticket to a great career, and for RTL 7 station, one of the symbols of ambitious animation, which also appeared on the air.

Kacper

It was the first production aired right after the RTL 7 station was launched, which, to the rhythm of the band Europe – The Final Countdown, started the revolution of entertainment programs, seials and animations with a big bang. It was a cartoon continuation of the events shown in the great cinema hit Kacper from 1995 with Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman in the lead roles. Original title is The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper .

The series was about the adventures of a friendly ghost named Kacper. He lived with his three uncles – Fat, Stink and Stretch, who treated his ward like a servant. Kacper, unlike his uncles and other ghosts, did not like to scare people and was therefore considered a misfit. In the series, some of the main roles were played by the love of the sprite Kat with her father Dr. Harvey. A direct continuation of the series was the 1998 film Kacper and Wendy about the spirit’s friendship with a young witch. Despite the passage of years, I still like to return to this magical story. I recommend it for long family screenings in front of TV.

Are you afraid of the dark?

Although this series for young people was initially broadcast on Canal +, for many it will probably be associated primarily with the RTL 7 station. Of course, because it was scrambled on the first channel and only a few had the opportunity to watch it. The production itself was created thanks to the cooperation of Canadian and American filmmakers and made its debut in Haloween on October 31, 1995. She was telling about a group called “Society of Darkness.” They met by the fire in the evenings to tell each other terrifying stories about all sorts of paranormal and science-fiction phenomena. The viewer, of course, not only listened to the story itself, but could watch it in its entirety. Ultimately, 94 episodes were created. It featured several actors who made careers in show business over time. They were, among others Elisha Cuthbert, Jaoanna Garcia, Venessa Langies or Rachel Blanchard. But without a doubt the biggest star to start withAre you afraid of the dark is Ryan Gosling, who played Jamie for 4 years.

Girl with the computer

When you are disliked by your peers who usually despise or tease you, what will you do? Preferably your own super girl! At least that’s what Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) decided. Using a computer, they created the super-sexy, super-intelligent and magical Lisa (Kelly LeBrock). It was with her help that they were to win the sympathy of their classmates. Of course, things didn’t always go as they would like.

Computer Girl is a series that was created in 1985, and in Poland it was broadcast on RTL 7. It is a comedy addressed to young people, although the numerous sexual overtones and the main character strongly exposing her charms definitely denied this. Although in those years the production was certainly entertaining, nowadays it rather strikes with shortcomings, weak jokes and not very successful special effects. So I guess it’s better to just remember her than to come back to her. However, it is worth mentioning that several stars worked on it. In supporting roles, we could see, among others Robert Downey Jr. and Bill Paxton, John Hughes was responsible for directing, while the music for the series was created by Danny Elfman.

Rocky, Moose, Super Someone and friends

Rocky and Łoś Superktoś are heroes who made their debut in the USA in 1959. They have become extremely popular, so we can often see their likenesses at various parades or in figurine stores, and they are mentioned in American films and series. In our country, however, they remained anonymous for a long time. Only the RTL 7 station reached for this duo and it was there that we were able to meet them. If we did not count the film based on the production (which we may better forget about anyway), after the collapse of the channel, we never saw a flying squirrel and a not-so-wise moose spied on by a couple of secret agents from Russia.