PODCAST: “I KNOW WHAT THE AUDIENCE WILL BE EXCITED ABOUT.” SAYS THE FATHER OF TV HITS MICHAL REITLER

6. 6. 2023
It's easy to miss his name in the headlines. But without him, viewers would miss out on the best TV projects of the last decade-plus. TV producer Michal Reitler, who is also behind the TV series Ulice, Most!, Iveta, Cases of the 1st Department and others, visited the Blesk.cz studio.

Michal Reitler, a native of Prague, should be listed in the "occupation" column: producer, scriptwriter, dramaturg, and most recently, director of content development at Nova TV. Under his hands, TV hits were born on Czech Television, and now you can find the shows he has been a major contributor to mainly on Voyo. These include Ulice, which he was at the beginning of, and the new releases King of Šumava: The Phantom of the Dark Region (2022) and the biographical miniseries Iveta (2022 and 2023). He has won seven Czech Lions, and was nominated for three this year alone. But he also has a number of foreign awards on his shelf.

What exactly is his profession? "The producer is the mom, the dad of the project, and his job is to bring out a healthy project that has strong vocal cords and a good heart. That is to say, a thing that is talked about, that entertains you, that takes you somewhere you may not have been before or tells you something you didn't know about," Michal Reitler revealed on the Blesk Podcast. Even after all these years, Ulice, an exceptional project in the history of Czech television, remains closest to his heart. What's his knack for finding the right hit? "I've somehow developed the feeling of knowing who our viewers are, so if what I read would excite them. Iveta, I think, is a pretty good example."

Together, we then reminisced about the original cast of Ulica as well as special moments comparable to Bobby Ewing's Dallas shower. That is, the situation when Tereza Brodská had to have an operation and during one episode she changed roles with Veronika Žilková. "That's where Ulice is absolutely fantastic. Anyone who does news or diary work knows that you have to check in content every day. And it really was the case that the two actresses met at the door. Bára Jordánová, the character played by Tereza, was leaving, the doorbell rang, a person rang the doorbell, opened the door and there was Veronika Žilková standing there and she said, I'm Bára, I'm Bára too. They exchanged positions."

A big theme is the miniseries Iveta, which opens up the rather sad and definitely tragic life of Iveta Bartošová with three more episodes on Voyo. "You still have to take into account that you're going to tell a story, you're building the appeal of the narrative on the fate of people who lived and who have relatives, survivors. And you have to think very carefully in the preparatory stages if you want to bring the story back to them," Reitler believes. But the TV secrets that are his daily bread continue to be revealed...

How does he see the transformation of Ulica's child actors into independent adult performers? What made the filming of Iveta fragile? As a producer, how many TV projects does he get on his desk each year? Why does Hospital on the Edge of Town or Cottagers still fly? And where should you turn too if you have an idea for a new series? Michal Reitler reveals this in the Blesk Podcast, listen and watch here.

Source: blesk.cz
Loading more ...