Verano azul

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Verano azul (Blue Summer)
Genre	Comedy-drama, Teen drama
Created by	Antonio Mercero
Starring	Antonio Ferrandis Miguel Joven Pilar Torres Juan José Artero José Luis Fernández Miguel Ángel Valero Gerardo Garrido Cristina Torres María Garralón
Country of origin	Spain
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	19
Production
Producer(s)	Eduardo Esquide
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	TVE1
Original run	October 11, 1981 – February 14, 1982
External links
IMDb profile

Verano azul (Blue Summer) was a famous Spanish television show from 1981 directed by Antonio Mercero. It tells of the adventures of a group of youngsters between ages 9 and 17, while on summer vacation in Nerja, a small town on the Mediterranean Costa del Sol, Andalusia, in Southern Spain. The series, with 19 episodes that drew up to 20 million viewers in Spain, has been rerunned almost every summer since then and has left a deep impact on several generations and has become part of Spain's common memory. It was also broadcasted in Latin America, Portugal, France and some Slavic countries like Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

It was produced by the Spanish state broadcaster TVE (which was also the only television network available in Spain until 1983), and it was originally broadcast on its then main channel TVE1 from October 11, 1981 to February 14, 1982.

[edit] Characters

The main characters include the children and teenagers Bea (Pilar Torres), Desi (Cristina Torres), Javi (Juanjo Artero), Pancho (José Luis Fernández), Quique (Gerardo Garrido), Piraña (Miguel Ángel Valero), and Tito (Miguel Joven), as well as two adults, the retired sailor Chanquete (Antonio Ferrandis) and the painter Julia (María Garralón).

[edit] Cultural Significance

For Bulgarians and Poles born in the mid-1970s or early 1980s, "Verano Azul" introduced certain serious teen themes that were otherwise never seen on TV under the socialist system, such as the hippie lifestyle, parental divorce, or even the death of close friends, among others. It was one of the very few youth-oriented TV shows behind the Iron Curtain which with a freedom atmosphere contrasted with the usual ideological indoctrination there then. Even in the 2000s, chance encounters between Spaniards and Bulgarians erupt in happy shouting at the mention of "Verano Azul".