Jorge Salvador Carulla (Barcelona, 1963) is one of those living legends of television; Of those that they don’t like to tell them either. From his head and milestones arose as ‘to the attack’ and ‘first Videos’, and the ineffable late Night par excellence ‘Martian chronicles’. But his most durable professional relationship unites Pablo Motos. Together formed in 2008 producer 7 and actionresponsible for successes such as ‘Camino home’, ‘The Challenge’, and now 19 years ago, ‘El Hormiguero’. He receives us in his office on the other side of the set, with the walls full of ideas and planning of the programs, and hundreds of prizes and dolls of the ants.
From 7 and action, why have they not touched fiction?
Normally when there are different departments in a producer, fiction and entertainment have nothing to do. And when one of entertainment wants to make fiction or vice versa, it usually does not work. We made a series with Movistar, with Joaquín Reyes and Ernesto Sevilla, ‘Chapter 0’, which is the only opportunity we have had and I think it was hilarious and we left it there. Honestly, it’s not our world.
It has the money, the opportunity and the company, and can put an entire department to it.
For what, if I don’t know. This producer is of a medium size, but we like to be in the project. Right now we are doing a project called ‘Image Hunters’ where I have traveled to what we are doing; With ‘Way home’ with Albert Espinosa, I was all the programs there; I am in all the “challenges” and I try to be in all “anthors.” So, what we want what it is, do you invoice a lot or do the things that we believe can look good? Our life has it very well resolved and I don’t need to bill anymore. I want to do projects in which he creates. And, for example, in a series you can lose money. In an entertainment program no. It looks like a bullshit and it is not. We could have six open projects at the same time, and some work and others do not. But I can show you that of the seven things in the end only two work, and those because the executive producer, who really commands, is involved in those two and not in the others.
It is difficult to find what your first media work was.
I start directly on a pirate radio by Sitges. I was doing the mili and my mother tells me one day, “Hey, there is a new radio in Sitges. I know the owner, do you want to meet him? He is in a garage.” I went there one afternoon and the one who was clicking, who was the owner, tells me “Hey, I have a problem, I have run out of tobacco, do you mind staying? I go to the town and come back, it will take 20 minutes. I put a live album that lasts 25 minutes. If you finish, you put this other album.” And he left and did not return until two hours. I was sweating every time I saw that the album was over. That giving the other dish to change, changed my life. The next day I went to the radio in the afternoon with my albums.
Were they yours or their parents?
Those that I had. I really like jazz. The most important thing is that I left a university career, a second from ESADE, after a month. And I went to work at a pirate radio from Sitges.
In the end it is true that the big ones begin in a garage …
In a garage that still exists. And from there the step to professional. The Civil Guard came to see where we were to stop, because that was illegal. It was issued by a frequency, 104.3 of the FM. That was the same as in Barcelona Antena 3 of Radio, which had just begun. Year 83. To the director of Antena 3 of Radio one day they say “hey, that you know that in your frequency in Sitges you do not hear you. There is a pirate radio that steps on you yours.” The uncle, on Sunday who was free, takes the car, puts the radio, goes from Barcelona to Sitges, 35 kilometers, and the one that arrives at the Garraf, which is a mountain, sees that antenna 3 disappears and one thing that he does not know appears. He gets there and says “Children of a bitch, it is true that they are piage me here.” On the radio we were Alfonso Arús and I doing a program and the uncle said, “Ostia, they are good, these bastards.” Signed us and we ended up working on Antena 3 Radio.
You could have stayed on the radio, why television?
One of the things we started to do on radio, with Arús, was a day that we were watching a Barça football match and we laughed a lot. At that time it was a disastrous Barça. It was just the year before Cruyff arrived, and the final of the Cup that Barça won, we fell out of laughter and we said this we have to do it on the radio. We went to a simple radio, but that was heard well, in Barcelona, which is called Radio Club 25. We buy two hours of radio and then we look for life for advertising. And so that program called ‘Força Barça’ began, it lasted many years and they still remind me. Barça in humor, with special effects, with imitations, with discouragement. It worked so well that it went on in the 2 of TVE, from there it passed to TV3 and from there it was growing to Antena 3, a version called ‘the attack’, where there was a small section called ‘football is like that’. ‘At attack’ is the version of what we do before. And so we start on TV.
He stayed with TV.
I combined many years and radio. At that time we made a radio program every morning called ‘Arús with milk’, which lasted eight or nine years. It was the first humor morning and we combined with that. We made ‘First Videos’, ‘to the attack’. And in the end we ended up doing “Forza Barça.”
What did you see in your time?
They let me see everything and I was a fan of ‘Un, two, three …’. I remember that when in summer we went to a town in the Pyrenees, that at home there was no TV, when I had to be seven years old, they left me alone in the town bar on Fridays to see ‘a, two, three …’.
Why have you not tried to recover the ‘Un, two, three …’?
I am going to tell you something that we have never explained. We made a special of ‘Un, two, three …’ in ‘El Hormiguero’. 14 or 15 years ago. It was spectacular. With Mayra as a presenter, she entered Chicho, we had Pilar Rubio. I made anxut. And I think Chicho’s son came to the program and I raised it: the possibility of doing so; And he didn’t want. I said, we had just made ‘a, two, three …’ renewed, and I found it in the festval in an elevator and I said “you were wrong, because you have tried. You have finished killing him.” We would have made a ‘one, two, three …’ very good. At that time Antena 3 asked us for something for Fridays, it would have been repera, but did not want to.
What has an idea to get the attention of 7 and action?
I would tell you that we do not see external formats. People come to me and it comes to me with a role and says “Look, take. I want you to look at this.” I return it right away. All we do is our own creation and it is our way of working. What we try, which has a characteristic, is a pure entertainment program, and if it can be, family entertainment, which can sometimes be more or less white. But that is our line and everything that goes there. For many years I have been the only father in this producer, now they are already many. It is important to be proud of what you do and that you see it at home and that you can see a family program.
Is there a magical formula for a triumph program?
What you do on television, especially when you are going to judge you is the first year. If you have survived two years, you have many possibilities to continue. This is TV and the great moment is the start; The first months, the first year. There you can do the best television program, but if there is something that is much superior to you, for many reasons, by budget or because it has been a scandal, or because you do not survive. With what this success depends on what others do, especially at the beginning. Once you have started, it is already the one who drives the ship and you can be deriving it to one side or another, but at first not.
He was nervous in those early years.
Every year we are nervous. Every year there is something, every year we have a new competition. Because there is a time when when ‘El Hormiguero’ begins, Paul and I play our life: I leave Gestmusic, Paul leaves the radio and we played the money. We play our houses and heritage. You say how I shit it here, I have shown it well. Of course you are nervous, but you trust and also believe that what you do.
Why does ‘the challenge’, ‘Way home’ and ‘El Hormiguero’ work?
On the one hand the fate of the presenters. It is vital. We design the format and thanks to the presenter that throws forward. Roberto is perfect. I have suffered ‘El Hormiguero’ worldwide: Chile, Brazil, Portugal, Mexico, with other presenters. I have the experience of having made ‘El Hormiguero’ without Pablo and it is not the same. Now I could tell you about family entertainment, but I’m going to a very rare place: we create in the programs a level of trust with the guest that is very special and that makes them in an environment in which they are very comfortable in formats that are totally different. In ‘El Hormiguero’ we have had guests that you could ask about something movie. But it won’t come back. At first, we did not take care of the guest in ‘El Hormiguero’ and now yes. The result: a guest comes 20 times; Will Smith has come seven and Tom Cruise six.
What is the best late night?
‘Martian chronicles’. I was in all the programs, from the two pilots until the end of. In addition, without discussion. But today you can’t look at ‘Martian chronicles’ from the point of view that was seen in the year 97.
What is the biggest reward: money for producing successful television programs, or getting home and seeing that people watch their spaces on TV?
What I like, is to see your TV spaces and don’t lose money.
Do you think it is necessary to renew ‘El Hormiguero’?
There is that television law that if something works, do not touch it. From year 1 to 19, it has nothing to do. I would talk about dozens of changes; Things that have been done and others that have stopped being done.
