User Reviews

It's approaching 20 years since I last saw this series, but it still resides quite clearly within my mind.

I should point out that I have only seen the poorly (and I mean really poorly) dubbed English version of this German children's programme, but if you can ignore the poorly cast vocals then you will find what I still think is one of the more interesting kids series produced.

In essence it's a story of a boy who 'swaps' his laugh for the ability to win any bet that he makes. The deal is done with a strange chap called the Baron who then has to ensure that all the bets the kid makes come true.

Most memorable for me is one of the first bets, where the kid bets that it will rain oranges; and low and behold a massive crate of oranges topples over (possibly on the top of a crane?) and thus it does indeed rain oranges!! I'm sure it has dated dreadfully (it wasn't exactly fresh when I first saw it as a child), but I still feel that it is an interesting premise for a kids programme and was handled in a reasonably sophisticated manner. Hopefully it's still being shown in some East-European country; I suspect it was one of those shows funded by a number of European TV producers and then dubbed into about 30 languages.

If you get the opportunity to watch it then I'd advise that you do, even if it is just to laugh at me treating a piece of televisual garbage with such reverence!!

"Timm Thaler" is a West German television mini series that premiered during the 1979 holidays and delivered one episode per day until early January 1980. Each episode runs for roughly 23 minutes, so the entire thing is approximately five hours long and it is very much possible to watch it in one sitting. But as the story behind this one is pretty big as you can see from the title of my review, maybe such a massive runtime was needed to make it work. Or have a shot at making it work? We'll get to that later. The script here is by Thouet and Pfaue and they adapted the original work by James Krüss. I must say that I have never read the book here, so no idea if my general dislike comes from the book already or just the adaptation. Anyway, pretty recently they made a new movie about Timm Thaler and it came to theaters relatively successfully and also managed a nomination at the German Film Awards. And I enjoyed that one. This mini series here not so much though. I would not say it has aged particularly well and I am a bit surprised it is still seen as a bit of a classic by some today. Not sure if people who saw it 35 years ago would agree, but I somehow don't feel I would have liked it back then already. The title character is of course played by Thomas Ohrner who want on to have a long-running career afterward. Still does today. The director is Sigi Rothemund, but if you look at his body of work (Cobra 11, Donna Leon, Gottschalk/Krüger film), it is tough be excited about this 13-part project here that he made relatively early in his career.

And the outcome was as expected. It is all about Timm's heartfelt laugh, but every time he laughs honestly (and also when other characters laugh) it feels really fake and for the sake of it and even weird at times and never as touching or from the heart as it should be. Just over the top instead. And there are more problem with the story. While the supporting characters are somewhat memorable thanks to their visual side, their physicality, their costumes and also their quirks, they are never memorable for depth or the way they were written and the impact they have on the story (in a good way). Besides, several supporting characters randomly appear and disappear, so they could include new ones that did equally little. One example would be a major supporting character just randomly being moved to the desert where she drives around for 2-3 episodes. It really is a shame. The two main antagonists played by Frank and Lauffen did a pretty decent job and elevated all the bland good character somehow. And I also liked that very early on (first episode) they took a really brave move and let the main character's father die. Oh well, I guess the original writer did, so I can't even credit the script writers for this. Overall, the good and memorable is just not enough here. I have to give this fairly well-known mini series about the boy who would win all the bets a thumbs-down. Not recommended and I must say that I also thought I would like Ohrner and his performance more than I eventually did. Mediocrity all around and there are many flaws with this one. Watch something else instead. Or switch it off after the really catchy tune from the title, which is the best (maybe only good) thing here.