Ingrid Steeger and Iris Berben are Kiki and Chantal, 'Two Heavenly Daughters' in this 1978 comedy series from the WDR. Former strippers at the Bum-Bum Bar, the pair of them inherited a 1950's cargo plane and took over management at Der Donnerflug. Their business operates from an Airport café manned by Tino Riva (Klaus Dahlen), who also serves as pilot, and his Italian mother (Winni Riva), who usually stays in the kitchen. Still, the two girls never seem to make enough money to pay their landlady, Frau Krause (Herta Worell). This back-story is explained in narration at the start of the first episode, accompanied by 'flashback' footage that is actually mostly taken from episode six.
Produced by the team that created 'Klimbim'. the German version of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, director Michael Pfleghar got to shoot on film and work with a sizable budget (for the time) and he clearly had fun making the most of it. Although the humor does not always work (German gags are a acquired taste anyway) and the special effects look dated, it is obvious a sizable amount of Deutchmarks was spend shooting on location and transporting that old wreck of a plane (basically one of the stars of the show) everywhere. The plot lines range from haunted house horror, a would be Spaghetti Western and a prince and the pauper story (featuring dual roles for Steeger) and occasionally feature slapstick fights that would be considered too violent for today's audience. Still, the series is considered a classic on the WDR, on which it is still repeated regularly.
Of course a big reason for it's popularity then and now is former Sexploitation star Ingrid Steeger. With her in the lead, the show came with a build in audience of young males eager to see how long it took for Ingred to drop her top (which she obligingly does in three out of six episodes). But while Ingrid draws most attention as the nearsighted but too vain to wear her glasses dumb blonde Kiki, it is brunette Iris Berben who actually looks and acts better as the husky voiced straight girl Chantal. It also doesn't help that Steeger sports a very weird perm (could be a wig) for the entire series. Big fat Klaus Dahlen offers amiable support, as does a group of regulars appearing in several different roles over the course of the series as well as guest stars such as Theo Lingen, Ferdy Mayne and Barbara Valentin. However, the running gag with the two airport control men who's windows get shattered by Tino's flying skills each week does become a bit grating after a while.
The repeats (and DVD release) differ from the original broadcasts, when "Zwei Himlische Töchter" was part of the comedy variety show "Die Gimmicks". Set in a nightclub, each hour long installment of "ZHT" would be introduced to the audience (which you can still hear laughing in a canned sort of way during Chantal & Kiki's misadventures). And at the end of their adventure, Iris & Ingrid would show up on stage to introduce the next episode (only this last part is retained). Seen together, "Zwei Himlische Töchter Und Die Gimmicks" amounted to an hour and a half of entertainment.
8 out of 10
