Mario Kreutzberger

In his one-and-a-half-hour interview, Mario Kreutzberger discusses moving to the United States from his native Chile as a boy to study men's tailoring -- a career his father wished him to pursue. He recalls, upon arriving in New York City, being immediately fascinated with television: "a radio you could watch." He describes being influenced by the American television hosts Steve Allen, Jack Paar, and Johnny Carson and details abandoning his first career to try to get Chile's Canal 13 to give him a chance as an on-air host. He recalls his first Sunday show, which was soon canceled, and outlines the creation of a new, eight-hour live show on Saturdays, called Sabados Gigantes ("Giant Saturdays"), which he hosted under the pseudonym "Don Francisco." He discusses the show's certification by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running variety show on television in 2003, with the show's premiere in 1962, and how in almost 50 years of hosting, Kreutzberger only missed one Saturday show -- when his mother passed away. He talks about moving the show from Chile to Miami, making it the first regular Spanish-language show broadcast nationally in the U.S., and why he changed the name of the show to Sabado Gigante. Kreutzberger also discusses Teleton, a charity telethon for children with physical disabilities, talks about the production schedule of Sabado Gigante, speaks of various stars who got their start on the show, and articulates the program's legacy. Claudio Tona conducted the interview on July 20, 2011 in Miami, FL.