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Remembering MR. TV

Mike Buongiorno has passed on leaving the stage forever. The most popular host of Italian TV shows was an Italian-American Newyorker who moved to Italy. During WWII he became a partisan, was captured, imprisoned and deported to Germany. Mike returned to the US in 1946 and worked for “The Italian-American Progress” but, in 1953, he was back in Italy again. In his parents’ old country his popularity exploded obtaining a success without equal with his Italian version of “The 64,000 dollars Question”, “Lascia o Raddoppia” that started a real quiz mania in Italy.

Italians were coming out from the nightmare of the war and with strong will and determination had started to rebuild their country enjoying the arrival of black and white television of which the young Newyorker became the king because of his trendy quiz show. It was the beginning of a new era, those were the years of “Lascia o Raddoppia?” and of its sharp, fascinating, very professional TV host. Buongiorno’s show was so important that created new protagonists of television. Some of them were his “vallette”, the nice ladies who were at his side and helped him out with the show. “Lascia o Raddoppia?” its quizzes and its very knowledgeable and eccentric contestants kept people stuck at home and in the bars around the huge box with the shining tube inside. Even in the movie theatres, that did not want to be left deserted, on the day of the show the projection was interrupted and the spectators were able to follow Mike’s program on a TV set without which they would have probably decided to stay at home.

This immense success was followed very soon by others. In 1959 Mike returned with “Campanile Sera”, in 1963 he was the host of “The Sanremo Italian Music Festival” of which, for his ever growing popularity, he was in charge for other ten editions. The “Quiz King” was the master of his profession and only very few other colleagues like Corrado and Pippo Baudo challenged his unquestionable, superior leadership.

In the seventies Buongiorno moved to the Mediaset commercial television owned by the actual Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, conducting many other shows that he had planned personally and he received recognitions for the important contributions given to the shaping of the Italian cultural landscape.

Mike, as he was called with affection by the Italians, had launched television, had contributed to its huge development, and entering day after day into the Italian houses from the Alps down to Sicily had become more than just an important protagonist of the media, he had turned rather into a friend and a real member of each family. “Mr. TV” gave probably the greatest contribution to the process of reconciliation and friendship between Italy and the United States. He will be always remembered not only for his trademark greeting: "Allegria!", "Cheers!” but also for his genius. The most popular American of Italy had understood, in fact, that  after the war Italians were fascinated by their new ally beyond the Atlantic and he brought to them a piece of the American way of life, a new kind of entertainment and the fun of its exciting TV shows.