SchleFaZ (Die schlechtesten Filme aller Zeiten) ("The worst movies of all time") is a satirical film series from the German private broadcaster Tele 5 (since 2024 NITRO). In this series, mainly B-movies, which are characterized by particularly bad workmanship or unintentionally funny ideas, are introduced, commented on and presented by Oliver Kalkofe and Peter Rütten. These films themselves are called "Schlefaze".
In 2013, Kalkofe and fellow comedian Peter Rütten created and began hosting the still-running show SchleFaZ on Tele 5, which is loosely based on the format of American TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000. The name "SchleFaZ" is a pun on "GröFaZ" (Größter Feldherr aller Zeiten; roughly, "Greatest field commander of all time"; the German word Feldherr has no exact English equivalent), a derogatory nickname for Adolf Hitler. The title is also a reference to the former slogan of the German TV-Station Kabel 1, which was "Die besten Filme aller Zeiten" (The best movies of all time).
In it, Kalkofe and Rütten present trash films, introduce them with various background information, after every commercial break comment on the plot so far, and in the end summarize upon it, all within a retro-styled studio decorated in reference to the current film they are commenting on. The show has become an instant surprise hit for Tele 5, being the channel's leading show in ratings (with Kalkofe's other show Kalkofes Mattscheibe Rekalked being second), and during broadcasts of the show on Friday nights, the hashtag #schlefaz regularly enters the German Twitter top ten charts, which has prompted German TV Guides and even Tele 5 themselves to adopt the Twitter hashtag as a semi-official name for the show, also used by show hosts Kalkofe and Rütten themselves. Rütten and Kalkofe made an ironic cameo appearance in the 2015 movie Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! and the 2017 movie Sharknado 5: Global Swarming.
Since 2021 a spin-off with the most iconic movies was announced. The series called KulFaZ started in June 2022 with four films and was continued in 2023 with four more films.
On 25 September, Tele 5 announced that it would be discontinuing the format at the end of the year.
Kalkofe and Rütten hope for another broadcaster to step in.
"After eleven extremely successful years (...) it is now unfortunately time to say goodbye at the height of success. We are understandably saddened and yet grateful for the many moments of creative madness that we were able to create during this time," Kalkofe and Rütten emphasized in a joint statement. "To our wonderful fans, we promise: The fancy battleship #SchleFaZ will not sink despite everything, but will look for a new home port and continue to sail around the world of bad film live on stage. You Can't Stop the #SchleFaZ!"
After the last movie No. 164 Kalkofe and Rütten presented together with Oliver Schablitzki – Executive Vice President Multichannel from RTL Deutschland -, that the series will continue on NITRO and on Streamingplatform RTL+. The first NITRO-Season ran from 30 August till 1 November 2024.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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