El Último Matrimonio Feliz

Infobox Television Soap Opera
show_name = El Último Matrimonio Feliz (The Last Happy Marriage)


caption =
alternate_titles =
genre = Telenovela
creator = Adriana Suarez & Pedro Rozo
senior_cast_members =
country = COL
num_episodes =
executive_producer = Silvana Orlandelli
head_writer =
distributor = RCN
run_time = 20-25 minutes
network = Canal RCN
first_aired = January 21, 2008
last_aired =
official_website = http://www.canalrcn.com/telenovelas/index.php/el-ultimo-matrimonio-feliz-/
imdb_id = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1183619/
tv_com_id =

"El Ultimo Matrimonio Feliz" ("The Last Happy Marriage") is a Colombian telenovela aired since January 21, 2008 on Colombian network RCN. It has a unique format among the current aired telenovelas in Colombia because of its ensemble cast. The telenovela is in top three of the most viewed shows in Colombia on the first half of 2008 season.

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The best saleswoman in Colombian real state company "Grupo Inmobiliario" Antonia Palacios is overloaded of work by his boss Manuel Gomez (Jorge Cao), so she has no time for her husband Patricio and her teenage daughter Adelaida. After Adelaida is run over by a car, pretty much because Antonia had no time to pick her up, Antonia decides to establish her own company: "En Casa". The secretary of Antonia, Margot Alvarez, and Manuel in Grupo Inmobiliario decides to join Antonia because Manuel uses to mistreat her, while in her house he has to take care of her two teenage children, Cesar David and Jenny alone because her husband, Armando, has left her for a younger woman.

Antonia tells her hairdresser that she is hiring for her new company, and there she meets Barbara Mantilla (Valerie Dominguez) who is desperate to find a job to get rid of her abusing husband, Jesus, and her mean mother-in-law, Matilde. Matilde hates Barbara because she actually realizes Barbara does not love her son, but instead of helping her to leave, she is decided to make Barbara look bad in front of her son, which usually ends in Barbara being hit by Jesus. Despite Barbara having no experience in real state, Antonia decides to hire her, because her new company is women/family oriented.

The last apartment that Antonia sold for Grupo Inmobiliario was bought by a just married couple: Paulina and Carlos. Paulina is an excellent business woman and when she competes with her husband for a promotion in the company where they both work, her husband gets the job and she is fired. Paulina blames Carlos, because she is sure she deserved the job, and she can not get through it, and she starts to feel hate for Carlos. When Paulina learns that Antonia is hiring for her new company, Paulina offers her services as an accountant and saleswoman. Antonia, of course, hires her.

Manuel can not bear the lost of her best saleswoman and he is sure Antonia has betrayed him, so with the help of his salesman and confident Emilio resolve to destroy Antonia's company. Emilio hates Antonia because she is successful and a winner, while he is just a shadow of Manuel and a very poor salesman. Manuel knows Emilio is not a good person but since he knows his dirtiest secret he does not dare touching him. Manuel's dirtiest secret is that his wife Camila is not coming from a rich family, but a small town and that she is the daughter of a hooker, who sold her to Manuel while she was still a minor. Camila is always disrespected by Manuel and her son, Sebastian, who is exactly like his father. Camila seems to be an accessory for Manuel, when he goes to parties and events, and she is not even allowed to study to finish her high school.

Emilio also tricks Yorley, a low income woman who works as a maid, and her husband Mario by buying their house at a lower price. Yorley initially thinks Antonia is the real responsible for the deceiving, and she even insults her, but when Yorley realizes that Emilio was the real liar, she apologizes with Antonia, who hires her for the morning shift in "En Casa" as a maid, while keeping a job at Harold's business as a maid too.

Antonia completes her stuff with two workers to fix the houses: Alcides and Wilmer. Alcides is a nice handsome man who hides her real sexual orientation to everybody else, while Wilmer is a chauvinistic man who thinks that men rule.

Later Antonia is diagnosed with breast cancer, but since her breast is an important part of the sexual game with his husband, she decides not to tell Patricio the truth, this attitude starts to fracture their marriage. Patricio starts a friendship with Barbara, who thinks he is the perfect man, this makes Barbara's husband really jealous and she is hit and raped by him. Barbara ultimately decides to leave her husband and alert the police so he can not approach her.

Mario leaves Yorley to work in a mine far away, this fractures their relationship more when Antonia's friend and client Bernardo Torres starts to feel love for Yorley and her reaction is the same, Yorley's daughter Olivia does not agree with this relationship and she does not fake her hate for Torres, this hate is exacerbated by a guy who attempted to rape Olivia who tells him her parents will not be together again.

Camila can not bear her situation with Manuel so she leaves him and reunites with her brother Faber and her niece, Camila is helped by Patricio's friend Esther Pimiento, a family lawyer, who starts the divorce not only for Camila, but for Barbara and Paulina.

The situation between Manuel and Antonia gets worse when their children Sebastian and Adelaida start a relationship. Alcides falls for Harold who has been used by Daniel just to get money from him. The situation gets more complicated when Angela, Harold's assistant, falls for Alcides ignoring he is gay.

Reception

Despite the previous promotional campaign for the telenovela not being as strong as previous telenovelas in its time slot as Fernando Gaitan's Hasta que la Plata nos Separe ('Til Money Do Us Apart), Pura Sangre (Pure Blood) or the newest RCN telenovela Novia Para Dos (A Girlfriend for Two Men) it reached quickly a high position in the most watched TV shows in Colombia keeping the audience from its leading Pura Sangre.

El Último Matrimonio Feliz (The Last Happy Marriage) is actually one of the most watched TV shows on RCN network. From its premier in January 21 2008 to March 26 2008 it was the second most watched TV show in Colombia just behind its leading: dramatic and suspense telenovela Pura Sangre (Pure Blood). After Pura Sangre's finale, El Último Matrimonio Feliz fell to the third position on most watched TV shows in Colombia, but instead became the most watched TV show on RCN prime time.

El Último Matrimonio Feliz' new leading Novia Para Dos (A Girlfriend for Two Men) has not reached the high ratings Pura Sangre had and the competitor channel's Caracol TV strategy splitting its most successful telenovela in years in two parts placing another telenovela between the two parts has led to El Último Matrimonio Feliz to lose its original position on most watched TV shows in Colombia.

Nevertheless, the reinforcement of the prime time schedule in RCN network in the first half of May 2008 with action-policial procedure-oriented telenovela Los Protegidos (The Protected) has made all the telenovelas in RCN network including El Último Matrimonio Feliz to get the highest positions in a role, so El Último Matrimonio Feliz usually is getting the first, second or third place in the top of most watched shows in Colombia.

The characters have been accepted extraordinarily well by the audience, not only women but men because of its very real thematic and the high grade of identification between the public and the characters. The quality of the story based on Colombian women's issues got a very much better reception than adapted version of Desperate Housewives (Amas de Casas Desesperadas) previously broadcast on the same time slot which became sort of a mistake for RCN network.

Rating

June, 2008 #2

May, 2008 #2

February, 2008 #2

Schedule

Since August, 2008 this is the current schedule in RCN prime time, El Último Matrimonio Feliz is aired Monday/Friday at 9:50 p.m.

Cast

Alejandra Borrero as Antonia Palacios

Ricardo Velez as patricio González

Valerie Dominguez Tarud as Bárbara Mantilla

Elkin Diaz as Jesus Espinosa

Carmenza Gomez as Margot Alvarez

Diego Velez as Armando Salgar

Coraima Torres as Camila Andrade

Jorge Cao as Manuel Gomez

Yuly Ferrera as Yorley Zuñiga

Kike Mendoza as Mario Herrera

Cristina Campuzano as Paulina Florez

Juan Pablo Espinosa as Carlos Garcia

Biassini Segura as Cesar Salgar

Fabio Rubiano as Emilio Angel

Marianella Quintero as Jenny Salgar

Jose Luis Paniagua as Harold Peralta

Cecilia Navia as Angela Murcia

Marlon Moreno as Bernardo Torres

Catherine Mira as Mireya León

Alina Lozano as Esther Pimiento

Juan Manuel Gonzales as Sebastian Gomez

Carlos Hurtado as Wimer Moya

David Galindo as Alcides Niño

Gloria Gomez as Matilde Lozano

Marcelo Dos Santos as Andrés Salamanca

Felipe Calero as Daniel

María Isabel Bernal as Olivia Herrera

Lina Balbuena as Adelaida Gonzáles

Bianca Arango as Jessica