''Fantastico'' was an Italian Saturday night variety show broadcast by

Rai 1 Rai 1 () is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream and general ...

from 1979 to 1991, with an interruption in 1980, when it was replaced by the game show ''Scacco Matto''. The TV program was linked with the Italian national lottery, and every edition consisted of 13 episodes with the final episode broadcast on 6 January, with the extraction of the winning tickets.Aldo Grasso – Massimo Scaglioni, ''Enciclopedia della Televisione'', Garzanti, Milano, 1996 – 2003. The show was generally different in its structure from one edition to another; the first edition was seen by an average of 23.6 million viewers. During the years the ratings dropped, and after a disappointing edition hosted by

Raffaella Carrà Raffaella Maria Roberta Pelloni (18 June 1943 – 5 July 2021), better known as Raffaella Carrà (), was an Italian singer, dancer, television presenter, actress and model. She was well known in Europe and Latin America as a result of her many ...

and

Johnny Dorelli Johnny Dorelli (real name Giorgio Guidi; born 20 February 1937) is an Italian actor, singer and television host. Early life Dorelli was born in Meda, Italy. In 1946 he moved to New York City with his family, where his father, Nino D'Aurelio ...

(7.8 million viewers) the show was replaced by the variety-quiz '' Scommettiamo che?''. An attempt to revive the show was made in 1997, but ''Fantastico Enrico'' (so titled as a reference to the presenter

Enrico Montesano Enrico Montesano (born 7 June 1945) is an Italian actor and showman. Career Montesano comes from a family involved in theatre, and he made his debut in 1966 in a show named ''Humor nero'', alongside of Vittorio Metz. Later he became a very ...

) obtained low ratings and Montesano eventually abandoned the show. Several opening songs of the show charted, and two of them (

Heather Parisi Heather Elizabeth Parisi (born January 27, 1960) is an American-born Italian dancer, singer and television personality. She was one of the most popular personalities of Italian television from the late 1970s to the 1990s. Life and career Born i ...

's "Disco Bambina" and "Cicale") peaked first at the Italian hit parade.

Editions

References

1979 Italian television series debuts 1991 Italian television series endings Italian television shows RAI original programming 1970s Italian television series 1980s Italian television series 1990s Italian television series {{Italy-tv-prog-stub