“I took “El chapulín colorado” to Channel 13, but the controller at the time, a sailor, objected to the phrase “Follow me, the good ones.” He told me it was subversive. I opened my eyes, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and I went with the cans to another channel. “El chavo” continues to garner ratings to this day,” says Fernando Marinhistoric radio and TV producer and director of the 70s, 80s and 90s whose career is evoked in the docuseries “The looking machine.”
It will be broadcast from November 9 on Crónica TV and Infobae and covers milestones of Marin as “Video show”, “News table”, “Calabromas”, “El Chavo del 8”, Racing Campeón, Juan Pablo II, Cantaniños, Guillermo Vilas, Monzón and others.
“There are certain languages that I can’t get used to in the media, everything ends up focusing on the sexual line. I lived through the years of Juan Carlos Altavista, Gordo Mesa, Juan Carlos Mareco, Guillermo Brizuela Méndez, Pato Carré, Calabró, etc. “They caused a constant smile, they entertained for an hour without letting a single word escape,” remember Marin.
The documentary series “The looking machine”, is directed by Julio Pannocelebrated theater director of “People, places and things”, “Alice -Alice by heart-“, “Almost Normal” and “A movie without Julie.” panno He created the documentary series with fictional moments, first-person accounts, archival material, as well as testimonies from personalities and stars. We talk with Marin.
Journalist: What can you evoke from TV milestones in which you were a part such as Video Show?
Fernando Marin: It was a before and after on Argentine TV. We got a space during closing hours where the meditation programs and priests or rabbis were on, from 11 to 1, and on Channel 11 they made a space for us when the rating measurement was no longer included. In those years there were two measurement companies, Ipsa and Mercados y Tendencias. We incorporated the VCR into Argentine TV with a portable camera that we call the viewing machine. Those crates of fruit from Río Negro were replaced by this little camera and that backpack that an assistant carried. That microwave was nothing more and nothing less than an outdoor truck, which allowed us to travel the world and have teams of journalists, assistants and producers. We also had a network of hostesses to whom we delivered the u-matics at the nearest airport, that’s what the cassettes were called, which arrived in Argentina in 24 hours. From there they traveled to the advanced editing island and we edited notes from those 5 or 6 teams so that they would come out that same night, it was almost a live thing for those times and very new without the immediacy of today. He created an unusual spectacle of communication and journalism.
Q: Who were the different drivers?
FM: The first year was Cacho Fontana, prominent and outstanding. When he left I decided to continue even without him and I called Andrés Percivalle, we doubled the rating on Channel 9 in prime time. Later the duo Bernardo Neustadt and Llamas de Madariaga arrived and the fourth year I had the audacity to call the leading man Alberto Closas as host, who seduced the audience, especially female, and then Antonio Carrizo arrived in an unforgettable cycle.
Q.: Then came “Mesa de Noticias”, a classic of Argentine humor.
FM: I had been doing radio for many years with Juan Carlos Mesa and we got together with Carlos Montero who had been news director of Channel 13. We created “News Table” that at first, as El Gordo said, we thought of a red wine and a soda for all audiences. They sent us to what was ATC, today Public TV, at 8 at night at a time that had no ratings and was the air revolution. Even Fernando Bravo made his appearance as an actor out there telling news. It marked a peak that everyone remembers, with Gianni Lunadei, Alberto Fernández de Rosa, Edgardo Mesa and an unforgettable cast.
Q: What can you say about Calabromas and El Chavo?
FM: “Calabromas” came second and I tempted him to be first. His wife Coca helped me a lot and we launched “La vida en Calabromas”. “El Chavo” was a bet from a third party who recommended him to me in Mexico when we went to a boxing production. I found the half-hour format extraordinary in times when everything was one hour.
Q: Later you became president of Racing.
FM: I was born in the River club but my Galician grandfather had arrived in the country and joined Racing I don’t know why, my father, I and all generations follow him. I went to see River a lot, I accompanied a friend who had an audience. I saw Racing three-time champion in ’49, ’50 and ’51, in that famous final against Banfield where they wanted to prevent a small team from winning. Life led me to preside over Racing and save it from ostracism and disappearance. It was the worst moment in the country in 2001 and I brought a man who was not from Racing, Mostaza Merlo, and the first championship was a drama. We were saved from relegation by a goal from Milito. The second championship is that remembered triumph that we achieved after 35 years. I go into a lot of detail about all this in the documentary.
Q: How did you get Juan Pablo Segundo to touch your head and bless you?
FM: It was known that Juan Pablo Segundo would arrive in peace due to the Falklands War. The World Cup was being held in Spain, little was known about this unusual and rogue war for excessive ambitions and they told me to interview Cardinal Piroño, the Pope’s private secretary. Llamas de Madariaga insisted that he was on Radio Belgrano and I traveled to Rome for the article. I was greeted by Sister Rosario, a little Spanish nun who accompanied me to her eminence who was traveling to Argentina the next day. I insisted on seeing it and managed to go through some tunnels that ended in San Pedro Square with 25 thousand people. I rest my hands on a railing next to an Australian priest, and then I see that John Paul the Second got out of the Popemobile to say a few words. He came walking straight towards me, shortening his path towards where we were, I felt that he was looking at me and when he was a meter away from me he approached, took my head in his hands and my eyes watered. I managed to say “I am Argentine” and he replied “Solo paroli di amore”. And he retired. The Australian next to me asked me if I was a prominent man. There was a man next to me who took photos and my wife knew it was from a dairio, I chased him away, he gave me his card and the next day I looked through 200 negatives until I found the photo in which the Pope was holding my head. It was like a miracle. I became a devotee of John Paul the Second and said a prayer to him every day. When he died I was in Russia and passed through Rome to visit his funeral chapel.
Q.: What do you remember about Cantaniños?
FM: It was a revolution, the great performer was not chosen but rather the jury was 8 and 10 year old boys who distinguished the one who had the most fun for them, there were no big stars, they were nice songs that they will remember as “I have a little brother.” The different Cantaniños released long plays, we won 3 platinum records, which was the maximum prize that the recorders gave. One year we sold more than Julio Iglesias.
Q.: Returning to sports, did you travel with Guillermo Vilas and Carlos Monzón?
FM: I did the first Davis Cup in color for Channel 9, it was the team with Batata Clerk, Richard Cano, Lito Alvarez and captain Oscar Furlong, world basketball champion in the ’50s. Then he was my father-in-law because his son married my daughter. With Carlitos Monzón the connection was through Tito Lectoure. I did shows from the ’60s until we linked up with Goar Mestre, skilled in content and commercial aspects. He gave us free fight space and he prorated rotating spots. I traveled with Monzón around the world except for the first fight against Benvenuti, we experienced dramatic, fun, unusual moments and I got to know Monzón very closely. Wherever he went he revolutionized the public, especially the girls. He was very good looking and when the fight was over we would go out to eat or to a night club. Dressed in a tuxedo he revolutionized the atmosphere.
fernando marin.avif
Q: What can you say about the new audiovisual world?
FM: There was an unusual evolution in the audiovisual world, for better and worse. In some aspects we transform the world into a handkerchief and that is good, it is something very powerful to see war in color and instantly. There is a great massiveness that gravitated to the media, and with technology the non-aesthetic grew, I am referring to certain languages that I am not getting used to in the media. I don’t like seeing Mirtha’s elegant table with the people dressed to the nines and the cameraman in Bermuda shorts, but I lived in another century. Today the entertainment industry is very vast, it is a little saturated because everything ends up focusing on the sexual line, all the jokes have a double intention on that side. I lived through the years of Juan Carlos Altavista, Gordo Mesa, Juan Carlos Mareco, Guillermo Brizuela Méndez, Pato Carré, Calabró, etc. They caused a constant smile, maybe not laughter but it was valid and they entertained for an hour without a single word escaped them.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
