The North German children’s program Hallo Spencer began in 1979 and only ended in 2013 after 275 episodes on the third programs and on KiKA. Less known than the international Sesame Street, the program with the colorful puppets has won many fans over the years, who still do nostalgic feelings for Spencer, Poldi, Elvis, Mona, Lisa and Co. have. One of these is Jan Böhmermann, whose ZDF magazine Royale is jointly responsible for the upcoming return of the characters in Hello Spencer – The Film.
No, he didn’t wish for anything from space goddess Galaktika from the distant star Andromeda, but after a doll parody sketch he got in touch with Spencer creator Winfried Debertin, who had kept all of his doll creations. The film was then created under the direction of music video director Timo Schierhorn, which is aimed not only at children, but especially at fans who have grown up a bit meta comes along.
Hello Spencer – The film will bring back nostalgic feelings for old fans this year
The Hello Spencer film is about the fictional Spencer inventor Jakob Sesam (Rainer Bock), who lives in an old disco 20 years after his TV hit, which he inhabits with his puppet ensemble. In order not to be thrown out onto the street by disco owner Peggy (Victoria Trauttmansdorff), Jakob and his long-time girlfriend Luise (Margarita Broich) have to raise ten million euros as quickly as possible – and quickly plan a Hello Spencer film.
In the trailer (in the window above the article) we not only see how Jakob tries to get his film onto fictionalized versions of Amazon Prime and Netflix, but above all also prominent co-stars like Tocotronic singer Dirk von Lowtzow and producer Jan Böhmermann himself. The ZDF presenter said about his creative motivation:
We don’t want to and, above all, we can’t put Hello Spencer back on television. Our main concern is to save Hello Spencer from the end and to tell the story of Winfried Debertin and his magical world. Without our film, Kasi’s tree house, Lexi’s mushroom, Poldi’s volcano world and Elvis and Lulu’s train carriage would have ended up in the bulk waste compactor of cultural history.
Only last year, a German cult artifact from the same period was successfully brought back from obscurity with New Stories from Pumuckl. At Moviepilot, the series revival with the cheeky goblin has a high rating of 7.8 in the community. We’ll find out later this year whether the Spencer film will do similarly well.
When and where can Hello Spencer – The Movie be seen?
The Muppet-like Hello Spencer film will be on ZDFneo on December 25th, 2024 at 8:15 p.m. and on December 27th at 11:45 p.m. in the ZDF program under the tree. But it’s also quicker with a snap of your fingers or a click: a month earlier, from November 23rd at 10 a.m., you can find the nostalgic doll adventure for free in the ZDFmediathek.