''Karkú'' is a Chilean teen telenovela television series, co-produced by My Friend Entertainment and

Televisión Nacional de Chile Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) is a Chilean Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It was founded by order of President Eduardo Frei Montalva and it was launched nationwide on 18 September 1969. Since then, the company has been re ...

(TVN).

Plot

Emilia, a 13-year-old girl, is sent by her parents from the small city of

Vallenar Vallenar is a city and commune in Atacama Region, Chile. It is the capital of the Huasco Province and is located in the valley of the Huasco River. Vallenar has 52,000 inhabitants. Its main activities are farming and mining. It was founded as ...

, Chile, to live with her uncles in metropolitan

Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

. There, she enters the British College, where she befriends Fernanda, Valentina, Zico, Alex, and Martín, with whom she tries to fund a year-end trip overseas. The series follows exploring everyday-life problems of teenagers, including friendship and romance.

Cast

;Main cast *Constanza Piccoli as Emilia "Emi" Valdés *Ignacio Sepúlveda as Francisco "Zico" Sotomayor *

Raquel Calderón Raquel or Racquel is a variation of the given name Rachel. Notable people with the name include: Raquel * Raquel (wrestler), Brazilian professional wrestler * Raquel Alessi (born 1983), American former actress and model * Raquel Naa Ayorkor Ammah ...

as Fernanda "Feña" Urquieta *Cesar Morales as Martín Maldonado * Luciana Echeverría como Valentina "Vale" Urquieta *Vicente Muñoz como Alex Schilling *

Constanza Herrero Constanza Belén Herrero Parada (born July 10, 1991), is an Australian-Chilean singer, songwriter, and actress. Constanza first gained recognition as a teenager after becoming a member of the MTV award winner band Six Pack (Chilean band), Six Pac ...

como Daniela "Dana" Hamilton (season 3 only) *Nicolás Guerra como Cristian "Chris" Hamilton (season 3 only) ;Supporting cast *Gustavo Becerra as Inspector Palacios *Marcos Bucci as Marcos "Chanchivia" Valdivia *Patricia Irribarra as Miss Elena *Renato Münster as Uncle Arturo *Vania Alejandra López as Margarita *Peggy Cordero as Edna, Dana and Chris's grandmother *Carlos Embry as Manuel Valdés, Emilia's father *Araceli Vitta as Miss Fabiana Castillo *Paulina Hunt as Nurse María Eugenia *Javiera Hernández as Miss Daniela *Paula Sharim as Uncle Mariana *Daniel Herrera as Lucas *Francisca Reiss as Patricia, Emilia's mother *Rodrigo Leon as Diego, Fernanda's friend

Production and themes

The first Latin American telenovela for young audience, ''Karkú'' was co-produced My Friend Entertainment and

(TVN). Its title is derived from mapudungún and means "to dare," which "faithfully reflects the spirit of the plot," according to TVN. The series was created Onell López Campos and José Francisco García, with Campos as director along with Juan Pablo Tapia, and García as executive producer, and Felipe Vergara and Soledad Pérez as producers. It explores the aging of teenagers, focusing on Latin America, and producers tried to prompt diligence, teamwork, and friendship on its viewers. López commented he tried to insert music as feature that "not only plays as an ornament, but is part of the undertaking of the protagonists, is a tool that they have."

Broadcasting

The first two seasons were broadcast by TVN in Chile; from February 5, to March 8, 2007, and from January 2, to February 6, 2008. The third season was first broadcast on

Nickelodeon Latin America Nickelodeon is a Hispanic/Latin American pay television channel, counterpart of the American network of the same name. It is owned by Paramount Networks Americas and was launched on 20 December 1996. Aside from airing Nick and Nick Jr. content ...

between June 17, and July 22, 2009. It aired in the other Latin American countries through Nickelodeon, with

Ecuavisa Ecuavisa is an Ecuadorian free-to-air television network that was launched on March 1, 1967, on Quito's channel 8 and Guayaquil's channel 2. It is one of the leading TV networks in the country. The channel has an international feed named Ecua ...

also airing it in Ecuador, Señal Colombia in Colombia, and

TV Brasil TV Brasil is a Brazilian public television network owned by Empresa Brasil de Comunicação. Its main headquarters are in Brasília, DF and Rio de Janeiro, RJ, with owned-and-operated stations in São Paulo, SP and in São Luís, MA, as w ...

in Brazil. Spanish-language network

¡Sorpresa! ¡Sorpresa! ("Surprise!" in Spanish) is an American Spanish-language children's television channel. The channel is currently available for the United States and Puerto Rico on Charter Spectrum, Claro Puerto Rico, Cox Communications, Frontier ...

broadcast the series on its back to school programming in the United States.

Reception

It was a success in Chile; its debuted had a 14.4 rating against 11.7 and 6.7 of ''Mekano'' and ''

Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company and later revived by Comedy Central, and then Hulu. The series follows Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1 ...

'' respectively. The complete first season had an average rating of 14.1. It was also popular in several countries of Latin America.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Karku 2007 telenovelas 2007 Chilean television series debuts 2009 Chilean television series endings Televisión Nacional de Chile telenovelas Nickelodeon telenovelas Children's telenovelas Teen telenovelas Television series about teenagers Televisión Nacional de Chile original programming Spanish-language Nickelodeon original programming