Trivia for
Der 90. Geburtstag oder Dinner for One (1963) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

• Shown on new years eve in many countries, including Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Austria. In Norway however it's shown the 23rd of December instead of new years eve.
  
  
• Freddie Frinton didn't originally like the sketch at all, and almost refused to do it. But after seeing it several times he agreed to adopt it and make it his own. It was recorded in Hamburg's 'Theater am Besenbinderhof' on 8 July 1963. It was recorded in English as Freddie Frinton refused to do it in German due to his long-standing hate of Germany because of WW2. To this day Germany still shows the original English version in respect of Freddie Frinton (making it one of the only shows presented that way on German TV).
  
  
• The infamous tiger which the butler stumbles over several times wasn't originally in the sketch. It was added by request of a local mayor in a town the show was being played in. When Freddie Frinton stumbled over it by accident during a show it produced such a laughter among the audience that they decided to keep the tiger and make it a part of the show.
  
  
• While both the actors in the sketch and dialogue are in English, the UK remains one of the few countries in Europe where the sketch is totally unknown. It's never been shown on TV in Britain.
  
  
• The Dinner for One sketch was originally written by Lauri Wylie, born Morris Laurence Samuelson, and premiered at Duke of York's Theatre in London in 1948. It was performed on Broadway in 1953 as part of John Murray Anderson's ALMANAC revue with Hermione Gingold as the lady and Billy De Wolfe as the butler. When Englishman Freddie Frinton began performing it on various English stages the role of the lady was played by a young actress called Audrey Maye. When she decided to leave the circuit she suggested her mother May Warden for the part, and it was in that version that the sketch became most famous and was filmed for television.
  
  
• It was when German TV personality Peter Frankenfeld and his producer Heinz Dunkhase visited The Winter Gardens in Blackpool, England, in 1963 that they saw the sketch and persuaded Frinton and Warden to come to Germany to perform it for their television program on NDR.
  
  
• Has aired on Swedish television (SVT) every New Year's Eve since 1976.
  
  
• This owns the Guinness Book of Records entry for one single show with the most reruns.
  
  
• In 1999 the NDR created a computer colorized version and showed it on that year's New Year's Eve. This resulted in massive protests from many fans demanding the original version to be shown.
  
  
• Until 1988 the original NDR version featured a grammatical error in the introduction by narrator Heinz Piper. He quoted Frinton with "Same procedure than last year?" and Warden with "Same procedure than every year!". It was then replaced with the correct "Same procedure as every year" from a rehearsal recording.
  
  
• In a Hamburg shopping arcade the sketch is performed live every year.
  
  
• At first, the program was only used as a filler on German TV. It was shown four times between 1963 and 1972 before it finally got its now famous regular airing on New Years Eve in 1972. It is so popular in Germany that it is shown multiple times on New Years Eve so that everybody can watch it, when it best fits their schedule. In 2003 it aired a total of 19 times on different stations in Germany.
  
  

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