- Frank Elstner
Frank Elstner, full name Tim Maria Franz Elstner (b.
19 April 1942 inLinz ,Austria ) is aGerman television presenter.Elstner went to school in
Rastatt inGermany and gained his first experience in broadcasting as a child when he acted in radio plays for the station then known as Südwestfunk, now asSüdwestrundfunk , which served theRhineland Palatinate and southernBaden-Württemberg .He first became famous as a presenter (and later as the programme director) for the German radio broadcasting programme on Radio Luxembourg (until
1983 ). He started out in television with shows such as "Spiel ohne Grenzen" (Game With No Limits; the same as "It's a Knockout ") and "Die Montagsmaler" (The Monday Sketchers, a game similar toPictionary ).In
1981 he invented the showWetten, dass..? ("Wanna bet..?") which became extremely popular and is still one of the most successful shows in Europe. That year, Elstner was presented with a Bambi, the German television and media prize. In Britain it was copied asYou Bet! and ran from1988 to1997 . Elstner presented the German show himself until1987 , appearing 39 times altogether, before handing it over toThomas Gottschalk .Elstner worked for
ZDF television company for many years but moved to RTL when viewing figures dropped. Here, he presented the German version of the quiz showJeopardy! . He also has his own company, "Elstnertainment", which develops new ideas for TV shows and sells them to both public service and private television companies.Today Elstner mainly works for Südwestrundfunk (SWR) again (formed from the old "Südwestfunk" and
Süddeutscher Rundfunk , presenting thetalk show "Menschen der Woche". Since28 September 2002 he has worked for ARD as the presenter of the Saturday evening show "Verstehen Sie Spaß?", the German equivalent ofCandid Camera , following on fromCherno Jobatey . Until the start of2005 he also presented the show "Einfach Millionär" (Simply A Millionnaire) run by the ARD television lottery; today he still announces the weekly winners of the ARD television lottery.In
2006 Frank Elstner was listed in theRose d'Or Hall of Fame , on the 25th anniversary of his greatest success, "Wetten, dass..?". The same year he went on a 517-kilometrepilgrimage along theWay of St James , inspired by fellow television presenterHape Kerkeling 's pilgrimage diary "Ich bin dann mal weg" ("I'm off for a bit, then").Since
12 September 2006 Frank Elstner has presented the quiz show "Die Besten im Südwesten" (The Best in the Southwest) on the SWR. He also presents the ARD show "Die große Show der Naturwunder" (The Biggest Natural Wonders Show), along with Ranga Yogeshwar.Frank Elstner is married, has five children, is a
vegetarian and wears anocular prosthetic as he suffers frommicrophthalmia .ource
:"Much of this article is translated from the German wikipedia article of December 30th 2006"
ee also
*
German television comedy
*Wetten, dass..? External links
* [http://www.frank-elstner.de/ Frank Elstner's website (German)]
* [http://www.swr.de/die-besten-im-suedwesten/ "Die Besten im Südwesten" (German)]
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