Cris Morena
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
 |
This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. You can assist by editing it now. A how-to guide is available. (November 2007) |
 |
This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (May 2007) |
Cris Morena (August 23, 1956) is an actress, host, producer, composer and writer from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
She started her career as a model and started working as a composer on the 80s. During the 80s she was also one of the most popular actresses in Argentina and had one of the leading roles on the countries' most popular show, Amigos son los Amigos. In 1991, she became the host and the producer of the youth-oriented game show Jugate Conmigo, which was extremely popular. She decided to stop being a TV personality in 1995 and since then works as a full-time producer and composer. Her shows are mostly targeted to kids and teenagers and she is one of the most successful producers in the country, with most of her shows being incredibly profitable franchises and international hits.
Her current projects are Casi Angeles, a teen-oriented soap, and ByB, a primetime sitcom.
Morena also has "discovered" some of the most popular actors in Argentina and Latin America including Michel Brown, Romina Gaetani, Celeste Cid, Luisana Lopilato, Camila Bordonaba, Benjamin Rojas, Felipe Colombo, Agustina Cherri, Marcela Kloosterboer, Luciano Castro, el Chino Fernandez, Agustina Lecouna, Manuela Pal, Octavio Borro, Jazmín Stuart, Dolores Fonzi, Romina Yan, Tomas Fonzi, among others.
Contents |
[edit] Life and show business career
Cris Morena was born Maria Cristina de Giacomi in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is the youngest of four sibilings and she studied at a religious school. Her father was an engineer while her mother was a sociologist. They were strict but, according to her, she used to lie to them about where she was going, etc.
Her neighbor was an important photographer and when she was 17 he asked her if she was interested in being a model. She accepted and eventually became the face of Lee Jeans in the country. She was later selected as one of the hosts of teen show Vol Tops, where she met Gustavo Yankelevich, which she ended up marrying in December 1974. They were married for 24 years and had a daughter, Romina, an actress, and Tomás, a director, who graduated from USC. Both worked with their parents: Romina was a cast member of Jugate Conmigo from 91 to 93 and had the leading roles in Quereme (1994), Chiquititas (1995-1998), Chiquititas: La Pelicula (2001), Amor Mio (2005) and ByB (2008), all productions from her mother. She also did the soap Abre tus Ojos (2003) and hosted the Latin-American version of Playhouse Disney (2002-2004), both produced by her father's company RGB. She started as model when she was 17 years old and was the face for Lee jeans for some time. Tomás directed the movies Bandana: Vivir Intentando (produced by his father company, RGB), Erreway: Cuatro Caminos (a co-production between Cris Morena and RGB) and episodes of Amor Mio and ByB.
In 1980, after studying music for several years, she became a composer. Since then, she became the composer who made the most money out of royalties and sales in Argentina's history.
Gustavo's grandparent was the responsible for bringing TV to Argentina and Gustavo himself played an extremely important role in Argentina's TV history, being the director of Telefe during its most successful years, from the late 80s to 2000, where he was the responsible of several huge hits, including Videomatch and Susana Gimenez, Argentina's most popular shows even to this days. During his time on the channel, Cris (under her pen-name Cristina de Giacomi and always alongside her writing partner, Carlos Nilson) was responsible for the music on almost all of the channel's youth-oriented shows (besides her owns, Chiquititas, Verano del 98 and Jugate Conmigo, others like Cebollitas, Brigada Cola, Flavia Palmiero, Dibu), music on the channel's promos besides composing for variety shows (Ritmo de la Noche, Videomatch) and popular artists.
Besides a composer and a producer, Morena was also a established actress. She started acting on underground theater and got the main roles on Dulce Fugitiva, where she played Laura Moreno (since then, she adopted Cris Morena as her artistic name). Her career had to be interrupted during Argentina's recession. Gustavo wasn't a powerful TV executive then and they went through a financial crisis and, to earn some money, she started doing children's clothes.
After the recession was over, she resumed her career as an actress with a series of roles on Olmedo and Porcel movies. Then, she had a role on Mesa de Noticias, a comedy that soon became Argentina's most popular show. Then, she also had a starring role in Amigo son los Amigos which even topped Mesa de Noticias popularity.
[edit] Jugáte Conmigo
After two very important and memorable roles on television, Cris decided to produce a show called Jugate Conmigo. She would host the show alongside four handsome young boys and four pretty girls (including her own daughter, Romina). The teenager hosts would also sing a bunch of songs with lyrics related to teen life (gossips, love, kisses, first times, friends, etc.) all composed by her with her writing partner, Carlos Nilson. Besides singing and dancing, the show would revolve around games played by the hosts and by the live audience so they could win prizes.
The show, aired every weekday at 6 PM, became a huge phenomenon among the young audience. Annually, an album with the songs performed at the show was released and they would usually top the annual ranking of best-selling albums. In 1992, the whole cast did a series of live performances in Estádio Obras.
In 1993 the teen hosts said goodbye to the show and were replaced by a new bunch for the 4th seasons, which debuted in March 94. The ratings dipped but the show continued to be a huge hit and the albums and related products were still strong sellers. The cast also did a new series of concerts at Teatro Gran Rex.
Cris had her last TV role in 1994: alongside the teens from the first three seasons of Jugate, she starred the primetime soap Quereme, TELEFE's bet for the summer. The soap didn't performed as well as the channel hoped and was canceled. Since then, Cris had never acted again.
For the fourth season, besides a new cast, the show also tried to spice things up with a soap aired during the program. Called Life College and produced by Raul Lecouna (which would soon become the producer of two of Argentina's most popular soaps ever, Perla Negra and Muñeca Brava), it was about teenagers living on an elite boarding school.
The show wasn't renewed for a fifth season and instead got a complete makeover. It became weekly, being aired every Sunday, instead of daily and had the name changed to Jugate con Todo (1995). The show wasn't well-received and it was canceled a few months after its debut. After retiring as an actress in 1994, she also decided to give up as host and since Jugate con Todo she became a full-time producer and composer.
[edit] Chiquititas
Chiquititas was a kids-oriented soap opera, aired every weekday at 6 P.M. from 1995 to 2000 and weekly in 2001. It is one of the most popular franchises ever on Argentina's television and was what consolidated Cris as a renowned and powerful producer.
The soap was about a girls orphanage, Rincon de Luz, localized in Buenos Aires and all their dramas, first loves, etc. while following the typical Latin melodrama storylines. The 'leader' of the girls was Mili (played by Agustina Cherri). But the leading lady was Belén, played as Romina Yan, a social worker who eventually became the director of the orphanage. Villains for the first three seasons was Carmen, a very cruel woman who was one of the owners of the orphanage.
The title of the show is Chiquititas (Tiny Girls. The official English title is Tiny Angels) and the orphanage was initially girls only, which means the main focus was on the girls. But during the second season, boys were introduced and by the thid season the number of boys were the same as girls and they both had the same number of storylines going on.
The end of the third season was shot on Disney and one important character, Mili, said goodbye to the show and went on to star on Verano del 98, a teen soap developed also by Cris.
During the third season (1997) Rincon de Luz orphanage was closed and re-opened on a new house. In the fourth season (1998), the show got a complete makeover, including a new logo. Starring alongside Romina Yan was Facundo Arana, who played her romantic partner. The season, which was the highest rated season of Chiquititas during its 7 year run, was incredibly successful and Arana went on to become Argentina's most popular leading actor and one of the biggest names in the country.
Like Jugate Conmigo, Chiquititas released a new album every year with a new set of songs which were included in the show via videoclips. All albums were huge sellers and La Musica de Chiquititas vol. 4 (released in 1998) is one of the best-selling albums ever in Argentina.
After reaching their peak in 1998 creating even bigger hype among kids and teenagers, Romina Yan, Facundo Arana and a good chunk of the young cast were ready to leave the show. The 1998 season finale was the end of a cycle, with Belen (Yan) and Manuel (Arana) adopting all kids and with Belen narrating what happened to every chufo (how the kids were called) in the future. The last scene had they all on a huge ship in the middle of the sea singing the song En el Comienzo.
In 1999, the show started over with a whole new setting (Now Rincon de Luz is an orphanage located in a farm and also a mansion located next to it) and a whole bunch of actors, besides some faces from previous seasons playing all new characters. Grecia Colmonares was the new leading lady and she starred as Ana. Marcela Klobustuer played Candela, the star among the young cast. To attract an older audience, a whole cast of teenagers were added, with its all storylines.
At the season 5 finale the orphanage is burned down by the villain and some kids manage to escape and, following a star, they end up at the now abandoned original Rincon de Luz orphanage (the one used in the third and fourth seasons), the setting of the 6th season which starred Romina Gaetani as Luz.
2001 was a bittersweet year for Chiquititas' fans. For a side, Argentina was going through a huge crisis and the TV channels were also affected. Because of that, Telefe decided to cut the budget for the show, which wasn't accepted by Cris Morena. But since season 6 ended with a cliffhanger and the first few episodes were already shot, production was resumed and the show became weekly and was shortened from its usually three digits episode orders from just 20. But even if the new season was severely shortened and it took a long time to finally debut on Telefe (Chiquititas new season usually premiered in March and the 7th season only saw the light in June). But it was also a very good year, full of Chiquititas: Agustina Cherri was back on the show as Mili, besides the new episodes on Sundays special retrospective episodes were aired daily on the show's usually timeslot (Weekdays, 6 PM), a movie version starring Romina Yan and Facundo Arana (stars of the show most popular season, the 4th) was released in July (winter vacations in Argentina) and the usual musical was on Teatro Gran Rex from June to September, including a special presence by Romina Yan.
Besides the show and the albums, Chiquititas was a huge franchise that spawned over 300 products: monthly magazine, clothing line, cosmetics, toys, among many other things.
Cris was also a huge admirer of Broadway musicals and decided to bring Chiquititas as a live musical. From 1996 to 2001, June to September, the complete cast of the show presented a huge live presentation at Argentina's biggest theater, Teatro Gran Rex, located in Buenos Aires.. During the month of July, winter vacations in Argentina, two shows were presented daily and the demand for tickets was so high in 98 a third daily concert was added. While the storylines for the live version of Chiquititas were extremely simple and almost non-existent, the show was hugely impressive with its Broadway-like cenographies, wardrobes and incredible special effects. Most concerts were sold out and it was the top grossing live event in Argentina every year, from 96 to 2001.
[edit] Chiquitias around the world
In 1997, Brazil's number-2 net, SBT, made a deal with Telefe to produce its own version of Chiquititas. The show had an all-Brazilian cast but was shot in Buenos Aires, at the same studios were the original version was shot. Flavia Monteiro was casted as Carolina (Brazil's equivalent to Belen) and Fernanda Souza was Mili.
Right from the beginning, the show became a huge sensation among kids, becoming SBT most popular show. The cast caused mass hysteria on their trips to São Paulo to promote the soap and the albums sold in huge quantity (the first album sold over 500,000 copies while the 2nd album was even more successful, selling 1 million copies). Like in Argentina, the show spawned a huge quantity of licensed products and was the debut of some of Brazil's most popular young actors including Fernanda Souza, Carla Diaz, Kayky and Stephany Brito, Bruno Gagliasso, Debora Falabella, Marcus Pasquim, Bianca Renaldi etc.
Among the differences of the Brazilian and Argentina's version: Boys were introduced on the first season instead of the second and became important characters in the second instead of the third. The new logo and graphics were used from the 2nd season (which aired in 98 in Brazil) instead of the 4th season (also aired in 98 in Argentina). The first season was aired in 97, the second season in 98 while the third and fourth seasons were both shortened and aired in the same year, 99. While the 4th season in Argentina (aired in 1998) was the end of a cycle and the 5th season (1999) was a start of a new one, with brand new characters and setting, in Brazil all characters were maintained and only the setting changed, with Carolina and the young cast going to the farm. Plus, the fifth season was the last one in Brazil and the sixth season was never remade with Brazilian actors, but the original episodes aired on SBT in 2007. The seventh season remains unseen in the country.
Chiquititas was the center of a bidding war among Mexico's number 1 net, Televisa, and TV Azteca. The latter ended up winning the rights to produce the show and, like the Brazilian version, sent the Mexican cast to Buenos Aires to shoot the first season. But different than Brazil, where the show became a huge hit, it flopped.
Deals were also made with Antena 3 in Spain and with American producers, but the versions never materialized.
[edit] Verano del 98
While Chiquititas was a massive hit among children and tweens, Telefe decided to created a show targeting teenagers. Gustavo Yanklevich asked for Cris to develop the show, about a group of teens living in a small city called Puerto Esperanza. Cherri, who starred as Mili in Chiquititas, was chose as the main actress and Patricia Maldonado, the screenwriter of Chiquititas, also did the scripts of the first few episodes.
The show was intended to be aired exclusively during the summer (hence the title, translated as Summer of 98) but it was so successful, it went on for three years (gaining the tagline 'Verano Eterno', Eternal Summer, later on) but Cris decided to dedicate herself exclusively to Chiquititas, so she only produced half of the first season. However, she, alongside Carlos Nilson, was the composer of the three albums the show spawned.
While it was a big hit in ratings, the show attracted lots of polemics. First, it was accused of plagiarizing the American TV show Dawson's Creek (Verano del 98 premiered a few days before the American show). This was later explained by Gustavo Yanklevich who said he saw a screening of Dawson's Creek pilot months before the original airing and because the show took so long to premier, he thought the drama wasn't picked up by the TV network. He liked the pilot so much that he asked Cris and the production team to develop a similar storyline. Later, The WB finally debuted the show. Telefe and Sony (Dawson's Creek producer company) reached an amicable agreement when Sony was gave the right to distribute Verano around the world.
Another huge polemic: Verano del 98 had huge focus on sex with taboo themes like masturbation being treated with lots of sex scenes among the young teenagers, aged from 14 to 17 years old. This was resolved by changing the time-slot of the show: it was moved from its 7 PM slot (following kids soap Chiquititas) to 10 PM, where it was still a big hit. For its third season, the show came back to its original timeslot.
Verano spawned three multi-platinum albums and was the debut of many respected and established actors including Florencia Bertotti, Guido Kazka, Nancy Duplaa, Marcela Kloosterboer, Juan Gil Navarro, Fernan Miras, Florencia Peña and Thomas and Dolores Fonzi.
Plans for a Brazilian version of Verano were made but it never materialized.
[edit] New beginnings
Cris decided to end her contract with Telefe, after disagreeing with the way the show was promoted, the budget cut and after a fight with the channel's new director, Vilarruel.
She starred developing a new show about a group of teenagers living on a elite boarding school, their problems with their families, their relationship with their friends and lovers, the discover of their sexuality, etc.
Felipe Colombo, Camila Bordonaba, Luisana Lopilato and Benjamin Rojas, which were highly popular during Chiquititas' last three seasons, were chosen as the four leading teens of Rebelde Way (Rebels Way, with Rebelde meaning rebels, stubborn, problematic, etc.)
Since she was bringing a big staff with her from Chiquititas, she created her own independent company, Cris Morena Group, to produce the show.
After offers from Canal 13 and Canal 9, the show almost ended up without a timeslot on both channels and without the necessary budget but was saved when Argentinean-Israeli producer Yair Dori decided to invest heavily on the project, after the huge phenomenon Chiquititas became among youngsters in Israel and the big acceptance of Argentina's (and Latin) telenovelas in the country.
It was finally decided the show would premier on Canal 9 and it would be aired every weekday at 8 P.M. Soon after its debut, the show became the channel's highest-rated show and became a huge phenomenon. It spawned a band, Erreway, formed by the four protagonists. Erreway first album, Señales, was the third best-selling album of 2002. Curiously, the number 1 and 2 best-selling albums were the second album by girl group Bandana and the first by boyband Mambru, winners of, respectively, the first and the second edition of the reality show Popstars. In Argentina, the reality was produced by RGB and both bands were also managed by the production company, owned by Gustavo Yankalevich, Cris' ex-husband. Cris herself directed Bandana first live concert at Teatro Gran Rex in 2001.
After the huge reception of the show first season, it was renewed and the group started touring Argentina and selling out arenas around the country and in other South American countries like Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru.
In the middle of Rebelde Way second season, Argentina still hadn't covered from the crisis and Canal 9 was having some big financial troubles and couldn't finance the show anymore. So they did something never-before-seen: the show changed from Canal 9 to America, Argentina's less watched private channel, in the middle of the second season alongside another CMG production, Rincon de Luz. The transition meant the show's set had to be rebuilt and that the show would be off-air for one month. After its absence, the ratings, who were already lower, started dropping more and more and the show final weeks had terrible ratings.
While Rebelde Way and the spawned band Erreway were undeniably popular in Argentina, they were even more big in Israel, where the show benefited from the hype surrounding Chiquititas. Rebelde Way soon became the most-watched show among kids and teenagers in the country, the group was contracted by several companies, from McDonald's to Swatch, to promote their products and their concerts in Tel Aviv were attended by over 50,000 people. They were treated by newspapers as if they were the Rolling Stones.
Yair Dori was completely satisfied with Rebelde Way and wanted to do a third season but Cris wasn't so sure and wanted to move, so she decided not to renew it, even though a lot of money was being offered. She started working on her new production, Floricienta.
[edit] Floricienta
Floricienta (a mix of Flor, the main character, with Cenicienta, Spanish for "Cinderella") was the story of Florencia, a very fun and caring girl who became the baby-sitter for the Fitzwalden brothers.
Besides the name, Floricienta didn't have much similarities between the usual "good girl versus bad girl to get the prince," the fact that both are fairy-tales (Floricienta was billed as 21st Century Fairytale), the fact that both are charismatic and orphans and that both have the shoes as their trademark. Floricienta logo is her Converse-style sneakers and she's always wearing them and during the first episode, she forgets them at Federico's (the "prince") house.
Floricienta was critically-acclaimed (the other Cris shows were despised by critics) thanks to its fun storyline and dialogues, creative editing and post-production and the charisma of the main actress, Florencia Bertotti, and became the biggest licensing brand in Argentina in 2004 and 2005, with all the merchandise from the show selling like hot-cakes.
Floricienta started with a good 12 points in its first episode and by the end of the first season episode (with the death of Federico, Flor's love) the show achieved ratings of over 30 points with the death of Federico at the end of the first season, being the biggest Cris Morena hit since the 4th season of Chiquititas in 98. After the huge twist in the end of the first season, many fans of Federico didn't liked how the story went after his death and drifted away from the show. The ratings for the second season suffered because of that. The TV show ended with Floricienta marriage in front of a huge live audience and the ending was also a huge hit, with 25 points (Ratings in Latin-America are measured by points).
Floricienta was maybe bigger than Chiquititas and the concerts were so hard to get tickets that Floricienta had to do two concerts in Estadio Velez (capacity: 40,000) and 10 concerts at Luna Park (capacity: 8,000), besides concerts in Rosario and Mar del Plata. The two Floricienta albums were also very successful with the first album being the best-seller album in Argentina in 2004 and the second repeating this in 2005.
Floricienta was also a huge phenomenon in most of Latin-America where it was aired by broadcast channels and at the Disney Channel. The show was also very big in Hungary. The cast of the show had sold-out concerts in huge stadium across Latin America (including Mexico, where the original version, only aired at cable, was more popular than the local one, aired at terrestrial station) and in Tel-Aviv, in Israel. Floricienta was the biggest kids show in the continent in 2004-2005 and a third season wasn't made because the star of the show, the charismatic Florencia Bertotti, didn't wanted to renew her contract.
Over 400 products with Floricienta name on it were released, from food to toys.
In 2004, a Brazilian version was produced, named Floricienta. It doubled the ratings of Bandeirante at its timeslot, over 40 products were released and two CDs were released and received platinum certification.
In 2005, a Portuguese version was also aired at SIC and was a massive hit. The first CD released is one of the best-selling CDs ever in Portugal and over 150 products were released at the country. Because of the massive success of the show, SIC picked the rights to other three Cris Morena shows.
A version from Chile (also called Floribella) was also produced with great acceptance and the Mexican version (Lola...Érase una vez) also did well. There was also a Colombian version and the rights were bought for Greece, Russia, among other countries.
[edit] Chiquititas comeback
In 2003, Cris Morena decided to do a new season of Chiquititas. Because the rights of the Chiquititas name was propriety of Telefe, the new season was called Rincon de Luz (the name of the orphanage) and debuted together with Rebelde Way's second season in Canal 9.
It starred Guido Kazka (which had worked in three seasons of Chiquititas and Verano del 98) and Argentina's most popular singer, Soledad Pastorutti. Even with Soledad as the main actress, the show wasn't very popular in ratings and the change in the middle of the year for America because of Canal 9's crisis didn't helped either. Soledad leaved the show before the ending.
But while its viewership was low, the show spawned a magazine and a CD that received gold certification. And in Israel, the show was a huge hit and the cast did a series of concerts in Tel Aviv. So while the series came close to being Cris's first flop, the international success saved the show from it. In 2006, cable channel Boomerang (owned by Time Warner) bought the rights of the show to air it on the whole Latin America.
In 2006, Cris finally went back exclusively to Telefe after going through every other TV station in Argentina (Canal 9 and America for Rincon de Luz and Rebelde Way and Canal 13 for Floricienta). For the comeback, Cris decided to produce a new season of Chiquititas with Jorgelina Aruzzi as the main character.
While the show was a hit, achieving platinum certification with the album, spawning over 200 products and winning its time-slot, the show didn't reach Floricienta's level. The licensed products didn't sold as much and while Floricienta second album was the best-selling album of 2006, Chiquitita's album was only the 6th. The Teatro Gran Rex musical also didn't sold out as fast and while it had a big profit, it wasn't the #1 live show of the year, losing the position for the Disney Princess on Ice at Luna Park.
But even if the show hasn't achieved the success of Floricienta, Telefe and Cris Morena Group decided they would produce a second season with a new cast and new main actors. The second season was scrapped at the last minute and it was decided Cris would produce an all-new show for Telefe.
The Chiquititas: 24 Horas album, released in 2006, was the last collaboration of Carlos Nilson with Cris. Both had worked together for over 20 years and they had produced all Jugate Conmigo, Chiquititas and Floricienta albums and the majority of the Erreway songs. They also had wrote together for over 30 artists.
Rights for the format were offered to Brazilian channel SBT who declined because they already had Rebelde. Bandeirantes, the channel who had aired Floribella, bought the rights but the version was never produced.
In 2008, SIC premiered the Portuguese version that didn't did as well on ratings as its predecessor, Floribella. After struggling, the show changed time-slot and the audience increased drastically. Lots of licensed products were released and the CD also did well in sales.
In 2004, SBT decided to rerun the Brazilian version of Chiquititas. The reruns were huge hits and achieved high numbers but SBT had legal problems and stopped airing them. But SBT perceived there was still appetite for Chiquititas franchise, which was a huge hit in the country in the late 90s, and bought the rights for the 6th season. In 2007, the 6th season started airing and it increased rating at its timeslot. Stamp albums, dolls, a CD and other products were released.
In 2008, the 2006 version of Chiquititas will start airing on SBT.
[edit] 2005
Besides the second season of Floricienta, Cris finally started producing Amor Mio, an adult sitcom she started developing with her daughter, Romina Yan in 2002. The show was aired by Telefe on prime time and it was a huge hit, which helped Cris and the channel to finally resolve their differences. Cris signed an exclusivity contract with Telefe and from 2006 she only produced for the channels, like in the 90s.
Amor Mio ended prematurely because of Romina Yan's pregnancy. It also starred Damian Santos.
Amor Mio was adapted for Mexico's Televisa and for Europe. The Mexican version is shot in Argentina (similar to Chiquititas Brasil).
[edit] 2006
Cris had now an exclusivity contract with Telefe and it would produce two shows, Chiquititas for the afternoon slot and Alma Pirata for primetime.
Alma Pirata was an action adventure series with the hottest young actors, including Luisana Lopilato and her then boyfriend Mariano Martinez (which were object of huge media attention at the time), Benjamin Rojas, Isabel Macedo, among others.
Alma Pirata debuted on Telefe on the end of March with the difficult mission of beating Sos Mi Vida from Canal 13 in ratings. It couldn't do it and in June it was moved for the 7 P.M. timeslot. Because of the change, Mariano Martinez lived the cast and was replaced by Nicolas Vasquez. The show slowly started climbing and finally the show increased Telefe's 7 PM timeslot and it ended with 25 points according to Ibope.
[edit] Casi Angeles
In March 2007, Cris' new kids and teen oriented show, Casi Angeles, starring Emilia Attias and Nicola Vasquez, finally premiered on Telefe after a big campaign. Mariana Esposito, Peter Lanzani, Maria Eugenia Suarez, Nico Riero and Gaston Dalmau also starred and together they were the Teen Angels, the band that spawned from the show.
The show spawned over 200 products and the musical at Gran Rex, from June to September, was also a huge hit, attracting over 160.000 people.
It was the first youth-oriented show, Cris didn't collaborated with Carlos Nilson. Carlos instead produced the Patito Feo album, which was the best-selling album of the year and achieve 4 platinum certification (Casi Angeles only achieved one platinum certification).
Finally, Casi Angeles' season finale reached 16 points in rating while Patito's did 14 points. Casi Angeles will comeback for a second season in March 2008. Patito Feo will also comeback on Canal 13 in April.
[edit] 2008
Besides the second season of Casi Angeles, Cris Morena Group had another release: the musical sitcom Bella y Bestia Son (called simply ByB).
The show is about Bella and Benny, two completely different neighbors. He is a rocker, immature and has three daughters. She is a classical ballet dancer, extremely perfectionist and organized and has three sons.
ByB started being developed in 2006 and the production starred in the middle of 2007 but the show only debuted on Telefe in the beginning of 2008. The show started slow and its viewership numbers were consistent but extremely disappointing, with about 10 or 11 points daily. Since the end of March, when the show was sandwiched between two new hit shows, the ratings increased to over 15 points daily and it maintained the good numbers even after changing the time-slot, being aired before the two shows.
[edit] Her productions
Jugate Conmigo Aired from 1991-1994, every weekday at 6 P.M on Telefe.
Jugate con Todos Aired in 1995, Sundays at 7 P.M on Telefe.
Chiquititas Aired from August/95 to November/2000 every weekday at 6 P.M. on Telefe. Aired in 2001 every Sunday at 6 P.M. on Telefe.
Chiquititas: La Historia Aired from March/2001 to 2002 every weekday at 6 P.M. on Telefe.
Rebelde Way Aired from May/2002 to July/2003 every weekday at 8 P.M. on Canal 9 Aired from August/2003 to December/2003 every weekday at 8 P.M. on América TV
Rincon de Luz Aired from March/2003 to July/2003 every weekday at 6 P.M. on Canal 9 Aired from August/2003 on América TV
Floricienta Aired from March/2004 to August/2004 every weekday at 6 P.M. on Canal 13 Aired from August/2004 to November/2005 every weekday at 7 P.M. on Canal 13
Amor Mio Aired from June/2005 to November/2005 every weekday at 9 P.M. on Telefe
Chiquititas Aired from April/2006 to November/2006 every weekday at 5:30 P.M. on Telefe
Alma Pirata Aired from March/2006 to June/2006 every weekday at 8 P.M. on Telefe Aired from June/2006 to November/2006 every weekday at 7 P.M. on Telefe
Casi Angeles Aired from March/2007 every weekday at 6 P.M. on Telefe
Bella y Bestia Son Aired from February/2008 every weekday at 8 P.M. on Telefe
Perla Negara 2 Aired from May/2008 every weekday at 11 P.M. on Canal 13 And Venevision
The Amores Aired from May/2008 every weekday at 11 P.M. on Canal 13 Aired from July/2008 every weekday at 6 P.M. on Telefe
Rebelde Way was Cris Morena's most successful telenovela ever. And you didn't mention anything about it!!
[edit] Trivia
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Cris Morena composed the songs for Playhouse Disney Latin-America and Brasil.
- Romina Yan, Cris' daughter, starred in five Cris Morena productions: Jugate Conmigo, Quereme, Chiquititas, Amor Mio and Chiquititas, la Pelicula. She also presented Playhouse Disney and a soap produced by her father, Tus Ojos.
- Tomas Yanklevich, Cris' son, wrote the Erreway and Bandana movies and Amor Mio.
- Cris Morena produced Bandana's first concert at Gran Rex as a favor to her ex-husband.
- Cris is the composer with most titles registered in Argentina. Besides composing for her own production, she also wrote songs for many other Argentina's children shows (Mi Familia es un Dibujo, Cebollitas, Flavia Palmiero), variety shows (Videomatch, Ritmo de La Noche) and even for respected singers. She almost always writes with her partner, Carlos (Rocky) Nilson and she was nominated for a Grammy Latino with the Floricienta albums.
