Of all the Spring Festival Galas in the 1990s, which one left the deepest impression on you?

1994? 1998? Or 1999?

Although benevolent people have different opinions, official data tells us that the 1998 Spring Festival Gala became the most watched Spring Festival Gala in the 1990s with a comprehensive ratings of 61.8.

The author has several impressions of this Spring Festival Gala: the stage is gorgeous, many songs, many singers, including Andy Lau, the cross talk sketches seem to be quite average, and the song "Meet Me" "Nine Nine Eight".

The 1998 Spring Festival Gala was held for the first time in the newly built CCTV No. 1 Studio Hall.

If you look at it from today's perspective, CCTV Studio No. 1 is undoubtedly a bit old and a bit small, but in 1998 it was a leap forward. Many cast and crew members were a little confused as soon as they entered the hall. Zhao Benshan said that in the past when performing skits, you could just talk, but now you have to shout.

Although the expansion of the venue and stage made the actors and hosts a little uncomfortable, for the audience, the entire stage looked more spectacular and gorgeous, with a grand CCTV style.

The chief director of the 1998 Spring Festival Gala was Meng Xin. This short and good-looking woman from the Northeast served as the director of the Spring Festival Gala for the first time. She once admitted that as long as she is a TV director who works on artistic programs, not having done the Spring Festival Gala is like missing the pinnacle of her career. Therefore, she is determined to win this Spring Festival Gala and is full of confidence.

Meng Xin's confidence comes from her rich TV and party experience, and she also has her own "direct team."

Meng Xin took charge of two major columns on CCTV before the 1998 Spring Festival Gala, one was "East, West, South, North, Middle" and the other was "China Music Television". Through these two columns, she already had her own Style and own team.

For example, in the Spring Festival Gala host team, in addition to the unbeatable Zhao Zhongxiang and Ni Ping, the other four are Zhu Jun, Zhou Tao, Wang Xuechun and Yaning. Among them, Zhu Jun and Yaning have both served as hosts under Meng Xin, so she is the host. old team.

What’s interesting is that at the opening stage of the Spring Festival Gala, these four hosts also used the "East, West, South, North, Middle" style opening. Each person stood in one direction of the hall, representing the four directions.

The biggest impact Meng Xin brought to the 1998 Spring Festival Gala was the many, many songs. Now when talking about the 1998 Spring Festival Gala, people will think of the songs and singers one after another. Therefore, in 1998 The Spring Festival Gala is also known as the "Feast of Good Songs".

For such a Spring Festival Gala, which is famous for its songs, Director Meng Xin once said frankly that she was very pleased and even a little proud. After all, this is her best field and her favorite style. .

We can even see from the 1998 Spring Festival Gala what Meng Xin’s trump card program "The Same Song" will look like. Meng Xin led it and Yaning hosted it. There were endless good songs and singers. We can even compare the 1998 The Spring Festival Gala was regarded as a preview of "The Same Song".

Of course, having too many songs and singers is not all an advantage. Many songs are too simple and casual, such as Huofeng's "Big Sedan", which was originally a very distinctive song. Due to the limitations of factors, Huofeng could only solve the problem simply in a very short period of time.

Another example is the problem of the combination of singers and songs. Many singers cannot sing their own masterpieces alone, and other singers must be added to each song.

The most amazing thing is Gao Feng. He and Jiang Tao sang Jiang Tao's masterpiece "The Foolish Old Man Moves the Mountains", but his own masterpiece "Great China" was sung by Andy Lau, Mao Ning and Zhang Xinzhe.

The "misalignment" between Gao Feng and "Greater China" is probably the author's biggest criticism of the Spring Festival Gala, but even if Gao Feng is unhappy, Andy Lau is also unhappy. Given his status, he cannot sing his own songs. He had to sing a song and sing a duet with other people, which was unimaginable before and after, but Andy Lau still sang.

The reason is that Director Meng Xin set a theme for the 1998 Spring Festival Gala, which was to welcome the return of Hong Kong. The content about Hong Kong's return was an important element in the party, so he used singers from the three places to sing "The Great Reunion". The significance of "China" convinced Liu Tianwang.

However, if the songs of the 1998 Spring Festival Gala were only quantity but not quality, it would not have left such a deep impression on everyone. How can a party be considered a success? Having an iconic program is one of them Important considerations.

Looking back at the Spring Festival Gala over the past few decades, Director Meng Xin has been the most successful in establishing the iconic program of the Spring Festival Gala.

The reason is very simple. No matter how beautiful and majestic "Avalokitesvara" is, many people can't immediately tell which Spring Festival Gala it was as the iconic program, but the 1998 Spring Festival Gala can, because The iconic program of this Spring Festival Gala is called "Meet in 1998".

Creating the song "Meet Me in 1998" is the most important thing for Director Meng Xin. The lyrics alone have been changed in more than 20 drafts. There have been many customized songs in previous Spring Festival Galas, but like "Meet in 1998" How come so little effort was put into this song?

Director Meng Xin also put a lot of effort into selecting the singer. She must be a diva-level singer from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. Na Ying from the mainland is of course no problem, and the singer representing Hong Kong and Taiwan Faye Wong (Although Faye Wong is from Beijing, she became famous in Hong Kong and Taiwan) is not easy to handle.

Faye Wong is a very unique artist. Asking her to sing a new song, a custom-made song for the party, and to share it with others seems difficult for her to accept as she is so popular. In order to convince Faye Wong, director Meng Xin made great efforts, and of course the results were excellent.

However, the author still wants to complain about something. Director Meng Xin once said that Faye Wong’s makeup that night was the most popular in Hong Kong at that time. Is this true? Is Nezha hair and blush a popular style in 1998? Well, it’s like a mountain apart, and the taste in the fashion world is hard for ordinary people to get.

The voices of Faye Wong and Na Ying are quite different, so it was quite difficult for them to rehearse. Fortunately, everyone has professionalism and professionalism, and the final effect speaks for itself.

Even if the song and singer were settled, "Meet Me in 1998" was not so smooth. Some people at CCTV have been opposing the song. One of the reasons is that it took so much effort to create a "Meet Me in 1998" song. "1998", then you can't sing it in 1999. Does that make sense?

Director Meng Xin's rebuttal was very powerful: "Isn't Luo Dayou's "Love Song 1990" still being sung now?"

A few days before the Spring Festival Gala, something went wrong again. "Meet in 1998" was suddenly picked up. Director Meng Xin was not needed this time. Na Ying directly called Yang Weiguang, the director of CCTV. With Yang Weiguang's intervention, the song finally passed the test without any danger.

In terms of stage design, Director Meng Xin is also very thoughtful. She abandoned the bright red commonly used in the Spring Festival Gala and turned the background of "Meet 1998" into blue. She abandoned the large backup dancers and only used Two hazy dancers serve as a backdrop. The entire stage was blue, and blue represents dreams. Everyone followed the beautiful melody of "Meet in 1998" and imagined 1998.

The author even speculated that when "Meet in 1998" takes the stage Before, the series of hasty song medleys seemed to be foreshadowing "Meet in 1998", making the audience suddenly calm their eyes and hearts in the lively and noisy atmosphere.

Finally, the effect of "Meet in 1998" is perfect!

Human energy is always limited. When songs became the main program of the 1998 Spring Festival Gala, the language program, another highlight of the Spring Festival Gala, was naturally a bit embarrassing.

The number of language programs in the 1998 Spring Festival Gala was quite large, but the quality was hardly outstanding. Only two of them could be considered quite good.

Niu Qun and Feng Gong’s "Sit back and enjoy the success" has a very good live effect, but its concept is similar to "Sit back and talk", relying on frequent twists and slaps in the face to please the audience. It can only be said that the two of them are booming. After ten years some creativity dries up. After the Spring Festival Gala, Ma Ji also criticized the cross talk between the two of them, including the practice of pulling a foreign car on stage.

The iron triangle of Zhao Benshan, Fan Wei and Gao Xiumin made their first show in the Spring Festival Gala. It should be said that this sketch is the best in Zhao Benshan's series of works, with high intentions and good structure, although it is not as good as the "Fooling Trilogy" It's funny, but the overall artistic level is above it.

The combination of Zhao Lirong, Gong Hanlin and Huang Hong, Song Dandan obviously felt a little weak. Teacher Zhao Lirong was in poor health and old, and it was difficult for them to cope with the high-intensity and high-pressure rehearsals of the Spring Festival Gala.

The Guo Da Cai Ming Group simply went to sing. This was also a helpless choice in the context of the 1998 Spring Festival Gala feast of good songs.

If the above language programs performed normally but could not compete with the glory of "Meet 1998", then the following two language programs became the unlucky eggs of the 1998 Spring Festival Gala.

Shi Shengjie and Sun Chen’s cross talk "My Deskmate" was originally called "Old Classmate". This cross talk takes about 16 minutes and 30 seconds to complete. Their performance order is the seventh from last before the clock strikes zero.

But on the day of the performance, due to the serious timeout of the previous program, a program would definitely need to be canceled temporarily to continue normally, which is very cruel for any actor.

In this case, the director team focused on Shi Shengjie and Sun Chen. Their idea was that cross talk is a language program after all, not as compact as a song, and the time can be compressed appropriately. Shi Shengjie asked, how much time needs to be compressed? How much longer can I act?

The answer given by the director team is 6 minutes and 20 seconds, which means that Shi Shengjie and Sun Chen have to remove 10 minutes of the 16 minutes and 30 seconds of cross talk without letting the audience notice it. This is not only difficult Big and obviously unfair to both of them.

But Shi Shengjie still agreed. He and Sun Chen just talked about a short cross talk, and the director team completed the last step in the countdown, which was commendable.

Such a sacrifice is huge for Shi Shengjie and Sun Chen. Many viewers can’t even remember that they actually had a Spring Festival Gala show, but Shi Shengjie said that saving the situation is like putting out a fire. It is the professional ethics of being an artist.

Although the sacrifices of Shi Shengjie and Sun Chen were passive, there was still room for discussion. Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao, who attended the Spring Festival Gala for the last time, faced problems that they had no solution for.

"The Prince and the Postman" is a script that Chen Peisi has been optimistic about since 1991. The original version comes from Yan Su's work "The Games of All Nations". However, Chen Peisi has never been satisfied with the adaptation, which led to the script being revised again and again. In the end, it took six or seven years to delay the Spring Festival Gala.

To be honest, the author believes that "The Prince and the Postman" has a problem compared with Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao's previous works, that is, it is divorced from life and it is difficult for the audience to resonate with the sketch.

This is also the result of Chen Peisi’s hope for innovation and breakthrough. He is always unwilling to stay in his comfort zone, so we saw that he made many innovations in sketches in the 1990s, such as outdoor sketches such as "Run the Market". He also likes to play with high technology, video interaction and the Internet. This spirit of innovation and breakthrough is worthy of appreciation.

When he finally created "The Prince and the Postman", Chen Peisi made some changes based on the conditions of CCTV's No. 1 Studio. For example, the segment of running around the studio was tailor-made for this Spring Festival Gala. , and at the same time, he also proposed some high-tech means to assist the performance, but unfortunately it was not recognized by CCTV.

Maybe there were some communication problems in some aspects, which eventually led to a lot of problems during the performance of the sketch "The Prince and the Postman", which made people have to suspect that Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao may have been " "trap".

Zhu Shimao’s microphone failed during his performance. Judging from the TV effect, Zhu Shimao's voice became quieter in the second half of the skit, but in fact he was shouting. Because his microphone had no sound, he could only increase the volume to "rub" Chen Peisi's microphone. , which resulted in some distortion in his performance.

The sound effects suddenly disappeared at two key moments on the scene. One was the sound of the starting gun before Chen Peisi ran, and the other was the sound of the audience cheering after he won the championship. These two well-designed links There was no problem during the rehearsal, but something went wrong during the live broadcast, which could not but arouse the dissatisfaction of Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao. Therefore, the two of them went to court with CCTV in the following year and explained one thing: freezing three feet is not a day's cold.

Despite frequent on-site situations, "The Prince and the Postman" still won the first prize in the sketch category. I have to say that the audience's eyes were still sharp. It's just that this sketch also became Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao's swan song in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Later, director Ha Wen invited Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao twice during the Spring Festival Gala, but they both declined. The withdrawal of this golden pair also made Zhao Benshan the king of sketches in the 1999 Spring Festival Gala.

Even though language programs failed to become the mainstay of the Spring Festival Gala, the 1998 Spring Festival Gala was still a success, because the characteristics of this Spring Festival Gala were distinctive, the programs were exciting, and its masterpieces were worthy of the title. It’s a pity that Director Meng Xin’s three consecutive bids for the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in the next three years ended in failure.

However, it didn’t take long for Meng Xin’s masterpiece “The Same Song” to be released online. Through this smash-hit column, we can more or less regain the shadow of the 1998 Spring Festival Gala.