''Disco'' was a

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

program that aired in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

on the

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

network from 1971 to 1982. It generally aired on the first Saturday of each month at 7:30PM, each show running 45 minutes. 133 shows were produced. The show was hosted by German actor and comedian

Ilja Richter Ilja Richter (born 24 November 1952 in East Berlin) is a German actor, voice actor, television presenter, singer, theatre director and author. Life Ilja Richter was born to parents Georg and Eva Richter. Georg was a Communist, who named Ilja ...

. Its lesser known predecessor on ZDF, ''4-3-2-1 Hot & Sweet'' was aired between 1966 and 1970, presenters included Ilja Richter and Suzanne Doucet. ''Disco'' generally served a younger pop-oriented audience compared to ZDF's own ''

Hitparade A hit parade is a list of tunes that are most popular at any given time. Hit Parade or hitparade or The Hit Parade may also refer to: Film and television * ''Hit Parade'' (film), a 1953 West German musical film * ''Hit Parade'' (TV series), a ...

'' show, and until 1972, its main competitor was ''

Beat-Club ''Beat-Club'' is a West German music programme that ran from September 1965 to December 1972. It was broadcast from Bremen, West Germany on ''Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen'', the national public TV channel of the ARD, and produced by one of its ...

'' (originally patterned after the pure live-act show ''

Ready Steady Go! ''Ready Steady Go!'' (or ''RSG!'') was a British rock/pop music television programme broadcast every Friday evening from 9 August 1963 until 23 December 1966. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan wanted a light enter ...

'' in the UK, from the late-1960s turning more and more into psychedelic music videos made especially for the invited acts), followed by ''

Musikladen ''Der Musikladen'' (german: The Music Shop) was a West German music television programme that ran from 13 December 1972 to 29 November 1984. The show continued the 1960s '' Beat-Club'' under a new name, and in turn was replaced by ''Extratour' ...

'', both on ARD. Starting in 1984, reruns ''Disco'' were shown regularly on ZDF Musikkanal and, after the 1989 closedown of the latter, on

3sat In logic and computer science, the Boolean satisfiability problem (sometimes called propositional satisfiability problem and abbreviated SATISFIABILITY, SAT or B-SAT) is the problem of determining if there exists an interpretation that satisfie ...

, lasting for a full 25 years. The

ZDF Theaterkanal ZDFtheaterkanal was a TV station and part of the digital TV package offered by ZDF. The channel was broadcast daily from 9 am until 2 am the following day, starting on 9 December 1999. The broadcasting was stopped on 7 May 2011 in favor of ZDFkul ...

(which is now zdf.kultur) aired repeats of the entire series between 2004 and 2012. In 2007,

ZDF Dokukanal ZDFdokukanal was a TV station between 1 April 2000 and 31 October 2009 and part of the digital TV package offered by ZDF. Distribution The program was broadcast nationwide via the TV cable networks (DVB-C) and the satellite Astra 19.2°E (DVB-S ...

began to air reruns, starting with episodes from 1975. Multiple repeats of the series have also been shown on

hit24 Hit24 was a German television channel that mainly broadcast music from the field of rock and roll and pop. The 24-hour special-interest programme featured music clips, hosted music programmes and live concerts. Broadcasting started on 3 April 200 ...

. The show focused on chart hits current at the time of airing, giving about equal airtime to international pop music and German Schlager. Despite its name, it did not particularly focus on

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

music although it featured many disco hits as long as they were chart relevant. (The name of the show was devised before disco as a musical style existed).

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, tt0204768 1971 German television series debuts 1982 German television series endings German-language television shows Pop music television series ZDF original programming