Cuéntame Cómo Pasó (transl: tell me how it happened) is a Spanish soap opera that runs on RTVE 1 since 13th September 2001. After an initial 10 series and a brief break, it came back for an 11th series after its immense popularity. Famous for being quite witty, with occasional dry, dark humour more in common with British TV.
The entire thing is one enormous Flashback belonging to Carlos Alcantara, and it follows his life growing up in The '60s and The '70s during the decay of the Franco regime and the Transition to democracy. Edutainment Show, mix of macro and micro history: the big events of the time (the lunar landings, the assassination of Carrero Blanco, Franco’s death, Eurovision (whoops)) and this typical middle class Madrid family’s story, narrated soap- opera style and with voiceovers from adult Carlos.
It’s all deliciously sepia- tinged and has the remarkable effect of making you nostalgic for the seventies, even if you weren’t there! One of the best aspects of it is its epic music. Note: It’s not a musical (yet) but simply plays four or five songs from the era each episode. Heaven for pop music geeks.
Cuentame can safely be considered to be a family show; good ol’ pure nostalgia for parents/grandparents (anyone over fifty) providing them with a nice long sesh in which they can bitch about the Franco regime they experienced, and for the kids a dramatized, perhaps definitely exaggerated insight into how their parents may have lived back in the Good Old Days. This is combined with either “I’m so glad I didn’t live back then” or “I so wish I could have lived back then”!
So basically little Carlitos is growing up in exciting times. He’s the youngest child initially of a hardworking, despairing father, and "absolutely perfect" mother, with a hippie Cool Big Sis, a communist brother, and a lovely Catholic gran. And don’t forget his fleet of flare-wearing friends.
After 23 years and almost all of its original (main) cast remaining, it's been announced that Season 23 will be the last, with a shortened 7 episode run.
Needs Wiki Magic.
The series contains the following tropes:
- The '60s: The series starts with the Alcántaras buying their first TV on April 1968, so they can watch the Eurovision Song Contest (which Spain's Massiel wins).
- The '70s: Covered in Seasons 3-13.
- The '80s: Covered in Seasons 13-20.
- The '90s: The current setting, starting in Season 20.
- The New '20s: Season 21 is split between the corresponding plot of 1992-1993, and another showing the Alcántaras in the present of 2020-2021, mostly dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Carlitos was this on his childhood years, always taking big responsibilities —this is highlighted in the very first episode. With time, this developed into him becoming The Heart of his family, which gets highlighted by his grandma Herminia... on the very last episode of the show.
- The Artifact: After 20 years, the actor playing young Carlos had enough and his character left for New York City in 1989. Nevertheless, the series continued into the 90s following his parents and siblings with old Carlos still acting as narrator, just more sparingly. The Covid-19 special came to unexpected rescue by allowing the old Carlos to appear onscreen (played by the same actor) and revealing that he had become a writer.
- Badass Preacher: Padre Froilán.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Alcántara's become one, funnily enough. Nearly every one of the younger siblings has either divorced (several times), become widowed, or otherwise had a very turbulent personal life.
- Catchphrase:
- Antonio ¡Me cago en la leche, Merche! (Literally: ''I shit on the milk!''
- Been There, Shaped History: The main plot kicks in when the middle child, Tony, becomes an Innocent Bystander in the 1968 protests on his very first day of college Bit of history! and is given a black eye by the police. This incident makes the young boy begin to evolve from a Wide-Eyed Idealist whose only worries are those of a stereotypical teenager, to a passionate member of La Résistance. From then on, some member of the family is always connected in one way or another to the history of the country.
- Big Brother Worship: Carlos absolutely adores his older brother. The feeling is mutual, even if Carlos gets on Tony's nerves sometimes.
- The Bus Came Back: In account for its large cast, the series tends to bring back characters even several years after their last appearance. Pretty impressive given its longevity and a sign of distinction for the show.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Series is normally good at keeping track of its large cast but there are a few examples such as Jose Luis and his sister and more surprisingly Maica.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Don Pablo especially comes to mind.
- Doomed by Canon: The writers of the show are constrained by the real history of Franco's time Spain
- Dream Sequence: appear periodically. Often incredibly cool/ scary/ funny, sometimes all at once! They give the show a wacky surreal feel, much complemented by the hippy music.
- Foreign Remake: Technically, if unofficially, of The Wonder Years. Though the series being set during the Spanish Transitition to Democracy, it is much less about childhood nostalgia and much bigger on political and social commentary. In turn, the series had several remakes on different countries, nearly all beginning with a nuclear family buying a TV:
- Raccontami in Italy's Rai 1, follows the Ferrucci family in Rome. Because of Italy's earlier economic boom and democratic regime after World War II, the series begins earlier (in 1960), has less political content, and covers three years per season instead of two. It was cancelled after two seasons.
- Conta-me Como Foi in Portugal's RTP1, follows the Lopes family of Lisbon and is among the closest to the Spanish original. It lasted only 5 seasons, covering the period from April 1968 (last months of the Salazar period just before his substitution by Marcello Caetano on 27 September 1968) then the whole Marcellist period all the way to 25 April 1974 (the Carnation Revolution). It had a
Spiritual Successor, Depois do Adeus, following the unrelated Mendonças, which lasted only one season covering the Revolution and immediate post-Revolutionary period, ending with the approval of a new Constitution and the democratic election of the first non-provisional President. - Τα Καλύτερά μας Χρόνια in Greece's ERT, follows the Antonopoulou family in Athens during the Greek Junta of 1967-1974.
- Cuéntame cómo pasó in Argentina's TVP, follows the Martínez family in Buenos Aires. Despite the names of the series and most characters remaining the same, it is among the most diverging remakes, starting in 1974 and promoting the romance of Inés and Eugenio (who appears from the first episode) to main plot. It lasted only one season, but it was a season of 74 episodes, covering the 1976-1983 dictatorship in its entirety. Interestingly, the grandmother Herminia is still Spanish, having emigrated to Argentina in 1939.
- Los 80 in Chile's Canal 13. Officially not a remake since it was produced after talks to remake the Spanish series broke down, it follows the Herrera family in Santiago from 1982 to 1989, during the later years of the Pinochet dictatorship. Bizarrely, the rights to remake Los 80 were acquired by Spanish company Telecinco while Los 80 was still in production, which then made their own period show set in Spain to compete with the original Cuéntame cómo pasó.
- The rights to remake the series have also been bought in Bulgaria and the United States (with the proposed title Remember When).
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Clara, the family's neighbour, is initially rumoured to be a prostitute because she is a single mother with no stable income. However, people start taking notice of her sweet nature and eventually warm up to her.
- Knight in Sour Armour: Antonio, bless him.
- Mental Affair: Elisa and Antonio.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The fictional Toni's journalistic career mirrors Arturo Pérez-Reverte's, beginning in Pueblo then working for TVE as a Foreign Correspondent and news host.
- Once a Season: On later seasons, either some of the characters or the entire family spend some episodes in Sagrillas, the village where Antonio and Merche were born.
- Product Placement: Brilliantly done by showing the characters seeing on TV the real adverts used by the sponsoring brands at the time of the setting.
- Put on a Bus: Toni exited the series five episodes into season 17 when he had to get out of the country after receiving death threats. The Bus Came Back on the next season.
- Straight Gay: Paqui’s first boyfriend.
- The Woobie: Josete is sometimes played as the In-Universe Woobie.
- Writing Around Trademarks: The original name of the show was just “Cuéntame”, but due to copyright reasons (there’s a song, in fact the title song, which is called that), so it became "Cuéntame Cómo Pasó".
