Das Traumschiff

Das Traumschiff
Genre	Soap opera
Starring	Heinz Weiss Siegfried Rauch
Country of origin	West Germany (1981-1990) Germany (1990-present)
No. of episodes	70 +
Production
Executive producer(s)	Wolfgang Rademann
Release
Original network	ZDF
Original release	1981
Website

Das Traumschiff ("The Dream Ship") is a West German-German television series by ZDF. The series, about a cruise ship that travels to places around the world, debuted in 1981 and became one of the most-watched television shows in Germany. A total of 69 episodes have been produced as of 2013. It was primarily filmed and set aboard the MS Deutschland cruise ship as it sailed to tourist destinations around the world. The destinations depicted are usually the result of product placement. In 2015 the depicted ship was switched to the MS Amadea. Television producer is Wolfgang Rademann.

In 2007 a Variety magazine article described the series as a '"Love Boat"-like cruise liner skein.'

The series repeated some clichés that had already successfully been used in Heinz Rühmann's feature film The Captain, which had been based on Richard Gordon's novel "The Captain's Table".

The premise of the series resembled the American TV series Hotel, only that it would show a hotel on sea and moreover occasionally impressions of different exotic countries (or at least their harbours). It presented a place where all kinds of people appeared as guests and could hereby show a variety of extraordinary characters, fates, schemes and relationships. Guests either brought their problems with them or just got into trouble by encountering folks they wouldn't have met under normal circumstances. Still everything would lead to a happy-end in each episode.

Captain Heinz Hansen was played by Heinz Weiss who in younger years had been successful on the silver screen as Jerry Cotton's best friend and colleague Phil Decker. When Weiss left the character of Hansen was replaced by Captain Jakob Paulsen, played by Siegfried Rauch.

...
Wikipedia