La vida de Rita explained

Genre:	Comedy
Runtime:	70 min (approx.)
Director:	Manuel Iborra
Starring:	Verónica Forqué Juan Echanove Pepón Nieto María Vázquez Macarena Gómez
Country:	Spain
Language:	Spanish
Network:	La 1 La 2
Num Seasons:	1
Num Episodes:	13
Company:	Tesauro

La vida de Rita is a Spanish comedy television series. Written and directed by Manuel Iborra, it stars Verónica Forqué, Juan Echanove and Pepón Nieto. It aired on Televisión Española (La 1 and La 2) in 2003.

Premise

Rita (Verónica Forqué), Samuel (Juan Echanove) and Cucho (Pepón Nieto) own a bar where the rest of the characters hang out.^[1]

Cast

Main

• Verónica Forqué as Rita, a separated woman with two daughters, co-owner of a bar-restaurant-billiard club.
• Juan Echanove as Samuel, Rita's business associate, infatuated by Rita, a mediocre cook.
• Pepón Nieto as Cucho, Rita's business associate, Samuel's brother, unbearable and chronically aggressive.
• María Vázquez as Berta, Rita's biological daughter.^[2]
• Macarena Gómez as Leonor, Rita's adopted daughter.^[3]
• Agustín González as Fernando, Samuel and Cucho's father.
• Sandra Blázquez as Rosarito, Cucho's daughter.^[4]

Guest

• Antonio Resines.
• Pilar Bardem.^[5]

Production and release

Written and directed by Manuel Iborra,^[6] the series meant the return of Verónica Forqué to Televisión Española (TVE) after Pepa y Pepe, also directed by Iborra. The series was produced by Tesauro.^[7] It consisted of 13 episodes with a running time of roughly 70 minutes.

The series premiered on 7 January 2003 in prime time, earning good viewership figures (4,183,000 viewers and a 23.7% share).^[8] However, the interest of the viewers rapidly waned and TVE cancelled the series after the 5th episode,^[9] aired on 4 February 2003. 8 episodes were left unaired in the original run.

About two hundred of TVE Catalunya workers denounced the replacement of the series for a documentary about bioterrorism as an alleged part of government propaganda efforts in favour of the Iraq War, voicing their "rejection of the policy of intoxication and manipulation of information that RTVE is carrying out with regard to the Iraq conflict".^[10]

The full series aired in the northern hemisphere summer of 2003 on La 2.^{[11] [12]} As of 2021, the series was not available in the RTVE's online catalogue.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Verónica Forqué vuelve a la comedia con ´La vida de Rita´. Diario de Córdoba. 7 January 2003. Luis. Sanchís.
2. News: TVE y Antena 3 renuevan la ficción con dos series en clave de comedia. El País. 7 January 2003. Isabel. Gallo.
3. News: 'La vida de Rita' mezcla risa y amargura'. El País. 19 August 2002.
4. Web site: Verónica Forqué, Pepón Nieto y Juan Echanove comienzan a grabar "La vida de Rita". Vertele!. eldiario.es. 11 June 2002.
5. Web site: "La vida de Rita" recupera para TVE al tándem Forqué-Iborra. ABC. 3 January 2003.
6. Web site: Pepón Nieto: "Lo hemos pasado muy bien y eso se comunica". Diario de León. Chusa L.. Monjas. 29 December 2002.
7. Book: Gómez Rodríguez, Gema María. La realidad en la ficción: Las preocupaciones de los españoles en las series de televisión (1990-2010). 2019. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. 480.
8. News: Los espectadores dan la espalda a los estrenos de la temporada. Isabel. Gallo. 7 February 2003. El País.
9. Web site: Ocho series españolas que merecieron mejor suerte. Espinof. 20 November 2014.
10. Web site: Unos 200 trabajadores de TVE Catalunya se concentran para denunciar "manipulación informativa". La Vanguardia. 12 March 2003.
11. Web site: La 2 repone ´La vida de Rita´. El Periódico Extremadura. 21 June 2003.
12. Web site: La trayectoria de Macarena Gómez en televisión, más allá de 'La que se avecina'. Detrás de la tele. 2 February 2021.