Misplaced Pages

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Medicopter 117 – Jedes Leben zählt" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (September 2011) Click for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Medicopter 117 – Jedes Leben zählt}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.

Medicopter 117 – Jedes Leben zählt
Logo
Theme music composer	Sylvester Levay
Country of origin	Germany Austria
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	Pilot Movie + 81 Episodes
Original release
Release	12 January 1998 (1998-01-12) – 28 June 2002 (2002-06-28)

"Medicopter 117 – Jedes Leben zählt“ (English: Medicopter 117 – Every life counts) is a German language television series that RTL and ORF broadcast. Medicopter 117 has seven seasons in 81 episodes and a pilot movie.

Medicopter 117 started in Germany and Austria on 12 January 1998 with the pilot movie “Der Kronzeuge”. Over 6.67 million people watched the series in Germany. The series ended in 2002.

Broadcasters

 Germany RTL

 Austria ORF 1

 Hungary RTL KLUB

 Czech Republic TV PRIMA

 Slovakia JEDNOTKA

 Poland TVN

 Ukraine NTN

 Lithuania TV3

 Latvia TV3

 Estonia TV3

 Russia REN TV

 Romania AXN

 Bulgaria DIEMA

 France TF1

 Belgium RTL TVI

 Netherlands RTL 4

 Spain CUATRO

 United Kingdom CHANNEL 5

 Canada SÉRIES+

 Iran TV5

Description

The Medicopter 117 is a fictitious rescue helicopter somewhere in the German Alps whose crews rescue people in danger.

The most expensive episode was the last episode in the first season. In the episode “Der Absturz”, a helicopter crashes in the mountains after a collision with a cable car rope. The crash sequence took one minute and cost 1 million DM to film.

The episode "Geisterflieger" (Insecticide) was originally set to air on 11 September 2001. This episode was supposed to be the first one of season four. Because of the episode's parallels to the attacks of 9/11, it was broadcast on a later date.

But the producers broadcast "Geisterflieger" on 17 September 2002 because its plot was crucial for the entire series. The paramedic Enrico Contini had his first appearance there. Some of the plotlines had to be refilmed because some of the former characters were gone and new ones had appeared in the series. So there are two different versions of this episode. The fourth season began with the episode "Rettet Susi" (Save Susi) on 18 September 2001.

From 2008 to 2012, all the Medicopter 117 seasons were released on DVD.

The series aired in several countries with the original German audio, but with English subtitles. It ran in United Kingdom on Channel 5.

Helicopters

The Medicopter 117 is a BK 117 made by the German helicopter manufacturer Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm. The BK 117 has a special color scheme in red and yellow.

Medicopter 117 used two helicopters. The producers borrowed the first helicopter (registration D-HECE) from the DRF (Deutsche Rettungsflugwacht). When they did not use the D-HECE for the series, it flew real rescue missions at DRF locations. The DRF had ended its cooperation by the beginning of the fifth season. Later, the D-HECE was painted in the DRF colors (red and white).

The second helicopter (registration D-HEOE) was a former police helicopter in Baden-Württemberg. After its Medicopter career, the D-HEOE flew rescue missions for different operators like DRF, IFA (Internationale Flugambulanz) and the Austrian operator Flymed. This helicopter was used for sightseeing flights a few times. Today, the D-HEOE serves as an offshore helicopter in the North Sea.

List of episodes

Cancellation

Shortly after the end of the 7th season, RTL announced that it would no longer invest into making the series. The reason they gave was that ″We showed everything there was to show, normal rescues, rescues on ships, rescues in the mountains, rescues from helicopter to helicopter, rescues on motorway bridges and many, many dramatic scenes. Over time, this would all just become similar or even repeat itself. That's why we're forced to stay with 82 episodes in 7 seasons.″ (RTL press release)

See also

• List of German television series

External links

• Medicopter 117 – Jedes Leben zählt at IMDb 

• 1998 German television series debuts
• 2007 German television series endings
• 1998 Austrian television series debuts
• 1990s Austrian television series
• 2000s Austrian television series
• Aviation television series
• German-language television shows
• RTL (German TV channel) original programming
• ORF (broadcaster) original programming