Cuéntame cómo pasó, usually shortened to Cuéntame and also known in English as Remember When, is a Spanish prime-time television historical drama series that originally ran on La 1 of Televisión Española for twenty-three seasons, from 13 September 2001 to 29 November 2023. It recounts the experiences of a middle-class family, the Alcántaras, during the years of Francisco Franco's rule, the transition to democracy, and the current democracy.
Cuéntame cómo pasó, usually shortened to Cuéntame and also known in English as Remember When, is a Spanish prime-time television historical drama series that originally ran on La 1 of Televisión Española for twenty-three seasons, from 13 September 2001 to 29 November 2023. It recounts the experiences of a middle-class family, the Alcántaras, during the years of Francisco Franco's rule, the transition to democracy, and the current democracy.
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Cuéntame cómo pasó (transl. Tell me how it happened), usually shortened to Cuéntame and also known in English as Remember When, is a Spanish prime-time television historical drama series that originally ran on La 1 of Televisión Española for twenty-three seasons, from 13 September 2001 to 29 November 2023. It recounts the experiences of a middle-class family, the Alcántaras (Spanish: Los Alcántara), during the years of Francisco Franco's rule, the transition to democracy, and the current democracy.
Cuéntame cómo pasó received critical acclaim throughout most of its run and received numerous national and international awards, making it the most awarded series in the history of Spanish television. With twenty-three seasons, 413 episodes and nine unnumbered special episodes it is also the longest running scripted primetime Spanish series in the history of television. It was the most expensive Spanish series to produce for many seasons, and taking into account its total cost, it is the costliest Spanish series of all time.
With a stable cast led by Imanol Arias and Ana Duato as Antonio Alcántara and Mercedes Fernández, more than three thousand performers have appeared in the series. It has also spawned foreign adaptations in Italy, Portugal, Argentina, and Greece.
Production team
Cuéntame cómo pasó was a production of Televisión Española and Grupo Ganga, and had the participation of Amazon Prime Video in its last four seasons. Miguel Ángel Bernardeau was the executive producer of the series for its entirety. Each episode was entrusted to one or two scriptwriters, unlike what was common in Spain where a group of scriptwriters used to work on an episode at the same time. More than thirty writers had contributed to the series. The most prolific were Eduardo Ladrón de Guevara, Sonia Sánchez, Jacobo Delgado, Alberto Macías, Ignacio del Moral, Patrick Buckley, and Joaquín Oristrell. Other writers who have written some of the episodes include Curro Royo, Ángeles González-Sinde, Cecilia Bartolomé, and Yolanda García Serrano.
The series's most prolific directors were Agustín Crespi and Antonio Cano. Other directors who have directed some of the episodes include Óscar Aibar, Tito Fernández, Sergio Cabrera, Antonio Cuadri, Manuel Gómez Pereira, Gracia Querejeta, and Ignacio Mercero. The series cinematographer was Tote Trenas.
Casting
Since the first moment the producers were clear about Imanol Arias for the role of Antonio, the father of the family. The role of Mercedes, the mother of the family, was initially intended for Adriana Ozores, but Ana Duato (who was going to play the role of a visiting cousin), finally ended up with the role. María Galiana was selected for the role of Herminia, the grandmother, when the producer saw her in the 1999 film Alone. To choose the three children they did a casting, with the selection of the youngest being the most difficult of them. They chose Irene Visedo to play Inés, Pablo Rivero to play Toni, and Ricardo Gómez to play Carlos. For
Cuéntame cómo pasó was conceived by producer Miguel Ángel Bernardeau with the idea of reviewing the near past from the present. He was joined by Eduardo Ladrón de Guevara and Patrick Buckley to write the first scripts and the series bible in 1993. They offered the project to all the television networks in Spain for eight years, which continually rejected it because it talked about Francoism, until Televisión Española (TVE) finally picked it up. To produce the series for TVE they created the production company Grupo Ganga.
The first episode was broadcast on 13 September 2001. The series begins in April 1968 with the arrival of television to the house of the Alcántaras just in time to watch the victory of Massiel at the Eurovision Song Contest. The story reflects the changes in Spain from that day on recounting the family's experiences and the impact that television had. Through situations, characters, and attitudes of the era, the series evokes a wistful reminiscence of those times. The Alcántaras' story is narrated in flashback from an indefinite present. The narration sometimes goes back even further to show the youth of the characters. Season twenty-one is the first and only time the series shows that present, with the characters facing 1992 and their thirty years older selves facing COVID-19 pandemic alternately.
Initially the series was to be titled Nuestro Ayer, but it finally was titled Cuéntame. This name comes from the 1960s well-known song used as the series opening theme. In March 2002, during the first season, the title was changed to Cuéntame cómo pasó because Cuéntame was already registered.
The series also celebrates the first twenty-five years since Spain's transition to democracy, and its didactic spirit is clearly evident in some of the episodes. In themed special episodes it includes documentary interviews with historical figures of the era speaking about how they experienced important historic events like the assassination of then Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco or the death of Francisco Franco.
It was the most expensive Spanish series to produce during much of its run. The most expensive season was season thirteen, which cost €903,440 on average per episode, followed by season twelve (€852,989), and season fourteen (€830,286). The 280 numbered episodes from episode fifteen of season eight to the end of the series had a cost of just over €730,000 on average per episode, with a total cost of €204,711,125. The 27% of that total cost (some €54.9 million) was dedicated to paying the cast, and another 26% was dedicated to paying the technical staff. Taking into account its total cost, it is the Spanish series that has cost the most of all time.
In March 2020, TVE and Grupo Ganga announced that, after its twentieth season, it would be renewed for two more seasons, with the storyline moving firmly into the 1990s. On 16 February 2023, TVE green-lighted the production of season twenty-three that closed the series with the storyline ending in 2001.