“Time in the Picture” creator Teddy Podgorski has died

Former general manager of the club ORF, Squidward “Teddy” PodgorskiHe died on Saturday night at the age of 88. The Viennese journalist, author, actor and director was a colorful figure in the local media and cultural scene. He shaped it ORF With many programs he invented or made possible. These programs include “Time in the Picture,” “Federal State Today,” “Seitenblicke” or ethnic group programs, and “Universum.” Also this 3sat-The commitment is up to him.

Away from the ORF Podgorski was approached as the “frog” of the operetta and director Josefstadt. ORFCEO Roland Weissmann praised Podgorski as a “tireless source of inspiration and ideas.”

Judah Thaddeus Podgorski was born on July 19, 1935 in Vienna, the son of an automobile mechanic. After graduating from Admont Stiftsgymnasium, he studied in Vienna and tried his skills on various theatrical stages. In 1953, he began as a newscaster and correspondent for the Austrian-American Radio Rot-Weiß-Rot, doing pioneering work.

Relative radio

In 1955 he transferred to the newly established service of the organization ORF-Television Shortly thereafter, he was subjected to his first (short) expulsion due to a documentary criticizing the Shah. However, he soon became chief editor of the Zeit im Bild newspaper. Podgorski was able to talk about the relative radio of that time with great arrogance. “when I was in ORF When I started, red and black were Egyptian priesthood. “They were untouchable,” he once said in an interview with the Courier newspaper. He joked that “every red cleaning lady should match with a black woman” and mocked “the press on its knees.”

He was promoted to the position of chief correspondent

In 1967, he was appointed then ORF– General Manager Gerd Bacher has been promoted to the position of Chief Correspondent. He soon lost his job again – over the last sentence in a report on the contrasting worlds of Salzburg during the festival season at the end of the 1960s: “The hippies smoke their joints and the countrymen sit in the theatre.”

Then Bacher said: “I don't need Bert Brecht in the current service.” Because firing was not possible, “I became the first white elephant on the job.” ORFPodgorski said. When he was bored, he invented “Panorama,” “Jolly Joker,” and “Cenzit.”

In 1972, the amateur boxer, racing driver and avid pilot became a television sports director and designer of programs such as “Sportpanorama”.

Artistic line

In between, his artistic streak came to the fore again and again, for example as an actor in the role of Gestapo agent Pfalzner in “The Bockerer” or as the author of his three publications “Muhammad Ali”, “Muscles on Paper” and “Muscles on Paper”. Olympic book “Innsbruck and Montreal”.

In 1986, Podgurski, who had never been a member of any party, became general director. He filed an application “for sporting reasons” against Bacher, which prevented him from becoming director of FS1 and thus alienating the SPÖ government. Podgurski subsequently appointed Gerhard Zeller, Fred Sinawatz's press spokesman, as general secretary ORF – The beginning of his international career. However, Podgurski's case was damaged by the Losona case because he allowed himself to participate “with extreme negligence” in the CUM association, of which Udo Proksch was president.

Awarded several times

We docked later Hello TV in. From 2010 onwards, there was “In Conversation with Teddy Podgorski”, for which the atmosphere of his legendary restaurant Gotrof was specially recreated. Later he became increasingly disillusioned with television. It is “fossilized and outdated.”

Podgorski has received numerous awards for his achievements, including the Camera d'Or, Rummy, and Bambi. He also received the Grand Medal of Honor from the Republic.