“The VIVA Story – too cool for this world!”
ARD will show a documentary about music channels at the end of December
Collien Ulmen-Fernandes is a former VIVA presenter.
© Florida Factual/Tom Ballschmieter
The music station VIVA would have celebrated its 30th birthday in December 2023, but it was discontinued in 2018. A documentary from ARD Kultur now looks back.
On December 1, 1993, the German youth and music station went out of business VIVA on air. On December 31, 2018, it was shut down after 25 years. To mark the 30th anniversary of the broadcast’s launch, ARD Kultur looks at the station’s rise, success and crash in a three-part documentary. Filming for the project wrapped up last Monday (September 25). All three episodes of “The VIVA Story – too cool for this world!” (working title) will be available from December 1, 2023 in the ARD media library and on ardkultur.de. A TV broadcast is scheduled to follow at the end of the year.
Seeing familiar faces again
Not only VIVA founder Dieter Gorny (70) as well as the program managers and editorial managers have their say in the documentary. The ex-VIVA presenters Nilz Bokelberg (46), Markus Kavka (56) and Collien Ulmen-Fernandes (42) each present an episode and tell their personal anecdotes from their time at the station.
Colleagues of the three will also share their experiences with the audience, including Oliver Pocher (45), Mola Adebisi (50), Aleksandra Bechtel (50), Gülcan Kamps (41) and Matthias Opdenhövel (53). Musicians such as Smudo (55), Kim Frank (41), Thees Uhlmann (49), HP Baxter (59) and Jasmin Wagner (43) will also comment. Archive material and music videos complement the statements of the interviewees. According to a statement from ARD Kultur, the film was shot at original locations in Cologne and Berlin, among others.
In 2018, a few companions and stars had already gathered to say goodbye to symbolically bury German music television. In “VIVA Forever – The Show” we remembered past years for another two hours before broadcasting stopped at 2:00 p.m. While the show fittingly featured the Spice Girls’ “Viva Forever” as the final clip, it was the Fantas who performed the very last song. The last music video in the station’s history was “Too cool for this world”.