The television in Greece

Development and highlights of the Greek television

Television was born in Greece in 1966 one year before the 7 years military junta. There were only two channels, ERT and YENED (the army forces channel). Most of the programs during this time until the seventies were imported mostly from the USA serials like Peyton Place, Bonanza, Combat and others and also some UK series like The Avengers, The Man from Uncle, and the  Coronation Street. It had a few hours of broadcasting and was started and finished with the national anthem .  

The first popular Greek TV series and dramas where made during the beginning of the seventies The actors, producers and directors were also in the film industry and they brought their experience of this medium into television. Some popular family serials were "Lunar Park", "I Geitonia mas" (Our Neighborhood) with the unforgettable Greek comedian Dionyssis Papagianopoulos, and "Agnostos Polemos"(the uknown war) a military soap opera about the world war 2 in Greece. In 1973 comes the first real good serial "Emporoi ton Ethnon"( Nation's Merchants) based on the book of Alexandros Papadiamantis with the direction of Costas Ferris (the director of the famous movie Rembetiko) and some famous Greek actors like Andreas Barkoulis and Maria Alkaiou.

There where also some music shows with presenters such as Alkis Steas, Giorgos Oikononomidis and Nikos Mastorakis. After the junta period and until the first private Greek channels, the state television continued to develop and in 1974 the serial "O Hristos Xanastavronetai " was made.This serial was based on the book 'Christ is Recrucified' by Nikos Kazantzakis the author of Zorba the Greek.