Dietmar Schönherr with Romy Schneider during the talk show “The Later the Evening” on October 30, 1974. On March 18, 1973, the first edition of the show “The Later the Evening…” started, which is regarded as the archetype of the talk show on German television .
Photo: picture alliance/dpa, Horst Ossinger. All rights reserved.
The idea came from the urbane actor Dietmar Schönherr, who not only traveled the world, but also space in “Space Patrol”. With his wife Vivi Bach, he revolutionized entertainment television in the late 1960s: “Wünsch dir was” was an anarchic game show; someone almost drowned in a car heaved into a pool of water.
Schönherr had seen the late-night shows in the USA and offered WDR a concept. The title “Zoom” has been discarded. Werner Höfer, television director of the WDR and host of the “International Morning Pint”, had a German suggestion: “The later the evening”. That was already proverbial. But things weren’t that fussy at Schönherr. While the older gentlemen debated world politics at the “Frühschoppen” (morning pint), “The Later the Evening” was the stage for the so-called younger generation. In addition to the notorious rioter Klaus Kinski, it was above all Romy Schneider, whose performance with the dangerous Burkhard Driest in 1974 became legendary the very next day.
Schneider paid tribute to the jailed Hallodri and screenwriter with the sentences: “I like you. I like you very much.” Knowledgeable viewers noticed that she says these sentences in one of the “Sissi” films. But they fit so well in this situation – although Romy Schneider was still working against the Sissi image in Germany.
Never again has a talk show been as beautiful as it was with the bon vivant and revolutionary Dietmar Schönherr
The age-radical Curd Jürgens, who wanted a role like Marlon Brando in “The Last Tango in Paris”, tore off his annoying toupee in one show. Those were years of upheaval.
Dietmar Schönherr only stayed for three years and left with the order that the younger ones would now like to take over. First it was the jovial Hansjürgen Rosenbauer, then the awkward Reinhard Münchenhagen until the end of the talk show in 1978. “3 nach 9” by Radio Bremen had meanwhile become the TV broadcaster’s most popular forum – and this talk show still exists today.
“The later the evening” has remained the pattern. Never again has a talk show been as beautiful as it was with the bon vivant and revolutionary Dietmar Schönherr. Schönherr then often sat in the speeches of other moderators – he dominated both sides.
More columns by Arne Willander