Schillerstrasse (Schiller Street) was a German improvisational comedy show that aired from 2004 to 2011. It was recorded without a script, in front of a live audience and broadcasted unedited. Hilarity Ensues. The American broadcaster Fox bought the rights to the show and is going to make its own version of it. Since 2009 it's been broadcast in Russia as Южное Бутово (Juschnoje butowo, South Butovo).
The Setting is the living room of the main actor (Cordula Stratmann until 2008, Jürgen Vogel from 2009 to 2011), who lives in the fictional „Schillerstraße“ in Cologne and is often visited by friends and relatives. There's also the „Schillereck“, a pub near the aparment, owned by Cordula's friend Bernhard Hoëcker.
The actors only know the topic of the episode, everything else is improvised. The cast receives directions from the „Spielleiter“ (Game Master) on their headphones, which can lead from mostly harmless stuff like „Cordula: Imitate your mother“ to absurdities like „Annette: You desire the bar stool“. Of course, all the directions have to be carried out as fast as possible.
The first main cast consisted of Cordula Stratmann, Annette Frier, Martin „Maddin“ Schneider, Michael Kessler and Ralf Schmitz.
Compare Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which has a similar concept.
Tropes
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:Annette: (opens door to the „Toilet“): That's not a toilet, that's a TV studio!Cordula (looking at the audience): Where did you come from?
- Brick Joke: Ralf puts condoms in Cordula's lamp in Ep. 51. Turns out they're still there in Ep. 85, where he rediscovers them.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: Maddin gets the direction to tell a Hessian joke in Ep. 1. He constantly mixes everything up and it turns out Cordula already knows the joke.
- Christmas Episode: Ep. 58, where Christmas is celebrated two days in advance because Cordula and her friends will spend the holidays with their families.
- Enter Stage Window: Michael's first appearance on the show? Climbing through the window.
- Halloween Episode: Ep. 9
- Mail-Order Bride: One of the directions for Cordula in Ep. 4 is believing that Maddin's new girlfriend is a mail order bride from Russia.
- Special Guest: Oh, so many, mostly well-known German comedians but also actors like Moritz Bleibtreu.
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Spiritual Successor: Hotel Zuhause: Bitte Stören! (Hotel Home: Please Disturb!) which aired in 2014, but wasn't so successful as the original.
