Íris Abravanel: “And SBT is the most important thing in your life, isn’t it?”
Silvio: “Certain answer. You realized the Dream of Home Ownership. Of Channel Ownership!”
Íris: “Ah, so if that’s how you think… Go fuck SBT!”
O Rei da TV is a Star+ original series created by Marcus Baldini, André Barcinski and Ricardo Grynszpan, with the first season released on October 19, 2022 and the second on March 29, 2023. The cast is composed, among others, by José Rubens Chachá/Mariano Mattos/Guilherme Reis (Silvio Santos), Leona Cavalli (Íris Abravanel), Paulo Nigro (Gugu Liberato), Celso Frateschi/João Campos (Rossi), Cassia Damasceno/Larissa Nunes (Cleusa), Emilio de Mello/Leandro Ramos (Stanislaw Machado), Claudio Márcio (Roque), Roberta Gualda (Cidinha Abravanel) and Giselle Itié (Michelly Vega).
The work portrays the life of Silvio Santos, one of the greatest television presenters in Brazil, in addition to owning SBT, which for a long time was the second largest television network in Brazil, behind only Rede Globo (currently is third, behind RecordTV). The first season tells the story of Silvio from 1945 to 1988, focusing on his vocal cord edema, which threatens to end his career as an auditorium entertainer. The second season runs from 1989 to 2010 and covers Silvio's failed candidacy for the Presidency of Brazil, his kidnapping and that of his daughter Patrícia, as well as the fraud at Banco PanAmericano.
Although Silvio Santos is a real person, the miniseries was criticized for making several research errors about Silvio's life, in addition to inventing situations that did not exist and painting Silvio as a vain, spiteful and vindictive being, although it does not paint him as a monster complete.
Let's see the tropes you'll earn if you're strictly up to date on tuition:
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Silvio Santos, who is treated like a demigod in Brazil, is a much more complex figure in the miniseries: he is spiteful and vindictive, hates Rossi Oliveira, is jealous of Gugu, deceives colleagues and bribes enemies, practices fraud at Baú da Felicidade, is racist with Cleusa, curses his enemies, hides his first wife from the public (and this is true) and allegedly cheats on his second wife with a Mexican actress.
- Gugu, after being passed over by Silvio, takes revenge on him by signing a contract with Rede Globo, but in real life, the contract was closed several months before Silvio's throat problem, so Gugu didn't do it for revenge.
- Rossi Oliveira (inspired by Boni) hates Silvio Santos and does everything possible to disturb him on Rede Globo.
- Stanislaw Machado (vaguely inspired by Dermeval Gonçalves), after being fired, spits on Silvio Santos' poster when leaving SBT.
