Nico Mastorakis

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Nico Mastorakis (born 28 April 1941 in Athens, Greece) is a Greek filmmaker, director and radio producer.

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[edit] Early career

Mastorakis was involved in the creation of Greek television in the late 1960s. From 1968 until 1974, while Greece was under the Regime of the Colonels, he produced and presented numerous entertainment shows in the army-owned YENED TV station. While the station's primary goal was to propagandize for the army, his shows were mostly apolitical fare, such as game shows and celebrity interviews, including a Greek version of This Is Your Life, and he was among the most popular TV personalities of the time.

[edit] Controversy

In the aftermath of the 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising, the regime tried to use Mastorakis' popularity to repair its public image. An interview was set up and broadcast, during which he interviewed, in prison, a number of students who had been arrested during the events. The students gave an account of the events that perfectly matched the Army's propaganda message, namely that the student protests had been non-political, and that the confrontation with the police was instigated by non-student communist and anarchist agitators. The interview backfired as the audience sympathized with the young, tired and sad-faced students, and saw though their obviously dictated answers.

After the fall of the regime in 1974, the students were released from prison and stated that they had been beaten and threatened with legal and extra-legal punishment unless they cooperated in the interview. Mastorakis himself claimed that he had been coerced into making the show, but his popularity had evaporated, and the new management of the Greek TV stations wanted nothing to do with him.

He left the country, and made a number of movies in the United States. He is mostly famous for his B movies wherein he employs blatant nudity and off-the-wall cinematography in order to captivate lowbrow audiences. Several of his films have since become certified cult classics.

[edit] Return to Greek TV

After private ownership of television stations was permitted in Greece in the 1990s, he returned to the country and was essential in the creation of the ANTENNA TV and later the Star TV stations. He remains widely discredited for his support of the Colonel's regime; he specializes in game and gossip shows that appeal to an audience that cares little about politics.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Legacy

In the 2005 TV comedy series Loufa kai parallagi, which satirizes life in YENED during the Regime, a character named "Mastronikos" is portrayed as a loud wide-eyed Greek American always trying to imitate American television, with unintentionally comedic results.

[edit] External links


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