The only time Lambros Konstandaras played on television was “Off” from Sports Sunday

There are several series in which Yannis Bezos has been recognized. “Ekeines ki Ego” is in the top three, along with Happy Together and The Children of Greece. As for the first, it is Lambros Constantaras who could have made it himself.

More or less, most people know that he and I were not an original idea. The series, which aired on ANT1 for two seasons from 1996, was based on the series written by Kostas Pretenderis for Konstandaras and first shown 20 years earlier.

At that time, in 1976, there was no private television. There was only YENED. But it was clear that television would become the dominant medium and that cinema would die out. Understandably, the producers wanted to get all the big names. Lambros Konstandaras was one of them.

The imposing Lambros Konstandaras was convinced that he deserved to star in a series where he would play Lambros Doganos, an old man who would not stop chasing money and good time, without working much.
The series was a huge success, judging from the description in the book of Dimitris Konstandaras, Lambros’ son, where he describes that at one point he was with his wife and daughter in Skopelos and there was a queue in the streets, with vehicles and pedestrians. They head to two cafes on the island that have televisions so they can watch the series.

They and I have aired for a year and a half with 15-minute episodes, but this will be the first and last time Lambros Konstandaras will work on television. Because it would be the last time anyone would see her, since the next paradox occurred.

As if an invisible force did not want to leave these tapes so that the role would not be stigmatized and could return after 20 years. The technology of that time did not allow preservation of the archive, so the series was not written anywhere. Not even the first episode.

At that time, because there weren’t a lot of tapes, there was a tactic of writing something on something else. Thus, at ERT they decided that Sunday Sports, and to be precise, footage of football matches should be stored on the Them and Me tape.

All ERT somehow managed to save were scenes from the first episode, but they were never digitized, as the recording was of poor quality and in several places appeared in pure black rather than black and white, as was the cinematography of the time.
All that remains is a clip that was streamed into the time machine.

What is most interesting is that no one will be able to see Konstadara in the role of Dogano, but some interesting guests in the series. The most important of them is Raffaella Cara, the well-known Italian singer. Her presence there ensured that the episode was recorded by her associates, with the material being transported to Italy and kept somewhere within her personal belongings.

Apart from Konstandaras, other roles played by Titi Xinakis, Dimitris Nikolaidis, Effie Oikonomou, Rina Votsina, Giorgos Konstantis and Tonis Yakovakis are also not stigmatized, while in the series Lambros’ sister, Mitsis, and Nikos Rizos, among many others.

They left the roles vacant, to be usurped by their descendants, the later Tasos Kostis, Lucia Pistioula, Niki Seriti, Valeria Koroupis, Panos Hatjikotsilis and Sotiris Skandzikas.

However, looking at the few preserved shots, even the look of today or even the 1990s, fortunately not much has been preserved, because the comparison between Constantara and Piso in this role clearly puts the latter in the foreground.

menhouse.gr