Al Fondo Hay Sitio

Al Fondo hay Sitio
There's Room in the Back
Genre Comedy
Drama
Created by Efraín Aguilar
Gigio Aranada
Written by Gigio Aranda
Directed by Toño Vega
Opening theme Al fondo hay sitio (Tommy Portugal)
Ending theme Al fondo hay sitio (Tommy Portugal)
Composer(s) Tommy Portugal
Country of origin Peru
Original language(s) Spanish
No. of seasons 6 (Current)
No. of episodes 1093 (on air)
Production
Executive producer(s) Efraín Aguilar
Location(s) Lince District, Lima
 Peru
Running time 42-45 minutes
Monday to Friday at 20:00 PET (UTC-5)
Broadcast
Original channel América Televisión
Telemundo(Q1 2013 60 episodes only)
Picture format (HDTV) (1080i) - (16:9)
(SDTV) (480i) - (4:3) (early seasons)
Audio format Stereophonic sound
Original run March 30, 2009 – present
Chronology
Preceded by Así es la Vida
Puro Corazón
Followed by N/A

Al fondo hay sitio (Spanish: There's Room in the Back) is a Peruvian TV series created in 2008-2009 by Efraín Aguilar. It deals with the problems of social differences and economic status. It is one of the most popular shows in Peru and is now being shown in Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Plot

Season 1

One of the most exclusive areas of Lima, "Las Lomas", is shaken up by the arrival of the Gonzales family from Huamanga, Ayacucho. The family settled in a half-built house they inherited. Their peasant traditions infuriate the neighbors, especially the family living opposite them, the Maldinis. The Maldinis are the richest family in all of Las Lomas, however, they still cannot find a way to get rid of the newcomers. Amid this confrontation, the Ferrands, another neighboring family, befriend the newcomers.

Fernanda De Las Casas, daughter of the Maldinis, falls in love with one of the Gonzales, Joel, and they begin a relationship. The two families do not accept it due to their socio-economic differences. After they escape together, the family puts Joel in jail and sends Fernanda to Boston. In Boston, she falls in love with another man, Mike, who is wealthy and returns with her to Lima. Meanwhile, Grace (Joel's sister) falls in love with Fernanda's brother Nicolas, who she is close friends with. However, he has a girlfriend called Cayetana Bogani; a spoiled and wealthy girl who mistreats Grace because of her lack of wealth. Meanwhile, Cayetana's brother Gianfranco falls in love with Grace and is determined to win her love. At the same time, Fernanda, Mike, Nicolás, and Cayetana try to set Mia (Fernanda's best friend) up with Gianfranco.

Miguel Ignacio De Las Casas divorces Isabella Picasso because she finds out that he is cheating on her with his secretary. During the divorce process, Isabella falls in love with her lawyer Mariano Pendavis (the former fiancé of Francesca). However, he has a girlfriend and is shocked when he finds out that Isabella is in love with him. This leads to Isabella taking a holiday in Abu Dhabi, trying to follow in the footsteps of the Sex and the City story, and falls in love with somebody called Leonardo. She thinks he is perfect, but he is hiding a secret involving Claudia (the secretary of "Constructora De Las Casas"). Meanwhile, Miguel Ignacio refuses to sign the divorce papers, and is then fired from his position as General Manager when he is caught cheating on Isabella with his maid Gladys. Francesca (the owner of "Constructora De Las Casas") then hires Mike as General Manager. Nicolás mishears the conversation between Francesca and Peter (the butler) about the position and assumes that they are going to give the position to him. When he finds out that the position is for Mike, he is infuriated and leaves the house.

Season 2

When Peter discovers that Claudia is manipulating Mike and convinces him to leave Fernanda, Claudia kidnaps Peter, shoots him in the chest and leaves him for dead. Claudia attempts to flee the country with money embezzled from the company but is spotted by Mike at the airport, who is also leaving after his attempts to win back Fernanda fail. Having heard of Peter's plight, Mike prevents Claudia from boarding the plane and she is subsequently arrested. While Peter is recovering in the hospital, Francesca overhears Peter in his sleep and under the effects of anesthesia saying that he has always loved her.

Peter recovers only to find out his secret love is well known by everybody and Francesca does not share the same feeling. Soon everybody finds out because Gilberto, Nelly's husband, accidentally tells her. Determined to make Francesca look bad, she tells the whole family. At the same time, Grace and the newly changed Cayetana are planning Gianfranco's (Grace's boyfriend of whom she is convinced will make her forget about Nicolas) birthday which is sought out to be huge. While Cayetana seems to have changed, she plans the party as a trap for Grace and Nicolas (who returns to being her boyfriend after learning that she "changed"). It was when dancing that she reveals Grace's love for Nicolas and proceeds to pours a large amount of mud on them, embarrassing them in front of all the high society guests at the party. Grace then breaks up with Gianfranco knowing that she can never forget about Nicolas.

Meanwhile, Mike succeeds in winning back Fernanda because she thinks it is over and decides he was the best thing that happened to her. Joel is also starting to reconstruct his love life because his co-worker Andrea is in love with him. He, on the other hand, is convinced that she is almost like a guy friend to him and that there will be nothing more. After learning that, Andrea tells him and Joel finally returns her love. Even though she really loves him, she is insecure and is afraid that Joel will go running back to Fernanda.

One day Claudia calls Mike, and makes him believe that she had a mental breakdown which led her to commit her crime. At first, Mike does not believe in her, but at the end he starts visiting her. Unfortunately it is all a trap because somebody that Claudia knows takes a picture of Mike and Claudia kissing. Then Claudia sends that picture to Fernanda and Francesca causing the breakup of Mike's relationship with Fernanda for the second time and after that Mike leaves Lima. Meanwhile Miguel Ignacio, falls in love with Gladys and they start a project by selling juanes. With a lot of effort they are able to open a restaurant called "¡Ay, La Gladys!" (Lit. Oh Gladys!). But he has to face a problem: Regaining the love of his children who are ashamed of their father. After finding out that his father is poor and is working in a market with Gladys, Nicolas learns to accept it. Fernanda, however, does not. After regaining the love of his daughter, Miguel Ignacio's restaurant is burned down and he loses everything. Later, viewers learn that the fire was caused by Claudia's friend from prison. After losing the restaurant Miguel Ignacio, overwhelmed by the debts, decides to escape by leaving Gladys.

While Miguel Ignacio is trying to escape, he receives a call from Claudia and finds out that she was the one who orchestrated the destruction of his restaurant. After realizing that he is helpless Miguel Ignacio decides to join Claudia. After his bold decision, Claudia tells him how to accomplish what he wants more than anything in the world - to get back at Francesca. She tells him a secret and Miguel Ignacio uses it to blackmail Francesca into giving him back his old job as General Manager. Meanwhile, Luciana, Raul and Susu's daughter return for Raul and Charo's wedding. Grace feels threatened because Nicolas and Luciana used to be a couple. When a rumor is spread by Isabella and Susu that Nicolas and Luciana are back as a couple, Grace furiously tells Nicolas everything she feels for him. After days without talking, Nicolas realizes that he loves Grace and that they should not be friends, but should date instead. After sharing a kiss with Grace, he leaves for her mother's wedding. On his way there, he almost crashes into a truck.

Charo marries Raul in Las Lomas, and Isabella does the same with Leonardo in a hotel in Paracas. He dedicates a song to Isabella, to which they dance. When everything is over he reads a message that Claudia gave him and throws it into the water, revealing he is the brother of Claudia. Back at Las Lomas, everything seems to go well until an unexpected guest (Lucho Gonzales) arrives at the Gonzales' house, leaving everyone in shock and making Charo faint.

Francesca, overwhelmed by the blackmailing of Miguel Ignacio, leaves the hotel with Peter following. When they are in the car, she starts to cry and reveals her secret to Peter: Isabella is not her daughter.

Season 3

The first episode describes how Charo and Lucho's marriage was like 22 years ago, and what happens afterwards. Miguel Ignacio gains back his original post at the construction management office and calls Gladys, rekindling their relationship.

Days later, Charo decides to board a plane with Raul for a getaway, but she ends up deserting him and heads back home, as she feels that she is abandoning her children. Later, she finds Raul and tells him that she wants to leave with him, but he rejects her as he felt hurt after she had deserted him. They both get divored, as conflicting relationships arise with Lucho's presence. Later, Raul meets Renata Newman, whom he starts a relationship with to forget about Charo. Charo, in return, goes back to being Lucho's wife, without knowing that he hides a secret from her.

Pepe, Tito, and Joel go to Rio de Janeiro, due to a website they joined. Later, Fernanda (out of jealousy towards the relationship that Joel has with another girl named Andrea) makes a blown-up picture of Joel making out with a girl he met in Rio. Consequently, Andrea breaks up with him. Claudia Zapata is released from prison, with every intention to make the people who hurt her pay.

In an act of vengeance, Isabella, along with Francesca and Peter, smothers Doña Nelly with paint. In retaliation, Nelly says that Isabella is not Francesca's real daughter in front of her, giving Francesca a panic attack, most of all because Isabella calls up her mysterious sister, Rafaella, to tell her the truth. Rafaella tells Isabella that she is neither the daughter of Francesca Maldini nor of Bruno Picasso, but they both love her as if she were their real daughter.

Claudia makes friends with Grace Gonzales, but later Grace realizes that Claudia was only trying to manipulate her. Peter, the Maldini's butler, later sees Claudia and Leonardo, Isabella's new husband, talking. This is something that makes him suspicious. Peter then leaves the Maldini house to go live in the Gonzales' due to "Madam" (his name for Francesca) and her mistrust of him. He then returns to his old post because Tito's mother, Maria Juana Smith, was harassing him, and because he knew that Francesca wouldn't really pay any attention to him.

Fernanda gets back together with Joel, a fact that infuriates Andrea and Lucas, Fernanda's ex-boyfriend, and both Andrea and Lucas wish to get revenge on Joel. Margarita, Grace's best friend, takes advantage of the whole situation and attempts to seduce Lucas, and they later become a couple.

Later in the series, Lucho's secret is revealed. On the day of the wedding in which he remarries Charo, three uninvited guests, a woman and her children, show up. The woman is revealed to be Lucho's lover, Reyna Pachas (Tatiana Astengo), whom Lucho met at a bar. Her children are twenty-year-old Shirley, a cute but superficial girl with a mean personality, and sixteen-year-old Jhonny, a kind and hard-working boy with a disciplined lifestyle. Everyone is completely shocked at the news, and the surprise eventually turns into rage, as the whole family is furious upon finding out that the reason why Lucho was gone for so long was because he was spending time with his "other" family. The wedding soon turns into a nightmare for everyone. It sparks much jealousy between the two families, especially in Grace and Shirley, as Grace and Shirley were both fully convinced that they were "daddy's little princess". When Shirley begins to sob about her father loving her other sister more, Lucho assures Shirley that she is the daughter most dear to him, a fact that Grace overhears, breaking her heart.

When Shirley and Jhonny are kicked out momentarily from the house while everyone inside fights, Nicolas catches Shirley's eye, and she falls madly in love with him. She has no idea that Nico was Grace's ex-boyfriend, but when she does find out, she doesn't let that stop her. She does everything she can to make him love her back, without noticing that Nico is uncomfortable with her smothering affection for him. Like daughter, like mother, Reyna also tries to seduce Miguel Ignacio, who has gotten back with Gladys and is expecting a baby boy. Gladys, feeling that she is unable to compete with Reyna, becomes jealous and resentful. When Gladys starts to accuse Miguel Ignacio that something is going on between him and Reyna, he fires Reyna's son Jhonny who was working for him as a janitor. When Reyna gets the news she tries to seduce Miguel into giving the job back to her son. She brings him a plate of sopa seca (a coastal dish popular in Ica, where Reyna hails from) but when she comes clear the table she breaks down and starts to cry. She tells Miguel that she does not know what she is going to do because of what Lucho did to her.

Miguel Ignacio, not knowing what to do, tells her that he will give her son his job back plus a rise and promotion. When she heard this she jumps up and hugs him resulting in Reyna giving Miguel Ignacio a kiss.

Cast

Product promotions

References

  1. ↑ http://www.pe.promogana.net/2010/09/al-fondo-hay-sitio-con-peru-cola-y.html
  2. ↑ http://www.pe.promogana.net/2010/11/frugos-kards-al-fondo-hay-sitio.html