The Ludolfs: Four brothers running a junkyard their father established. He and their mother, both who are are held in highest esteem by the four, died years ago, so the four have to look out for themselves. The catch: This series is not scripted. The protagonists are not actors. They are in the series exactly who they are in real life, and their heart and being unbelievably lovable is felt during every minute of an episode. These are good people and I enjoy watching their daily lives immensely.
Peter is the head of family: He cooks and looks after his two more active brothers Manfred and Uwe who more often than not get carried away by childish play in the middle of work (though Manfred insists that disassembling cars is not work but in fact fun in itself!). The fourth of the lot, Horst-Günter, is calm and sometimes even reclusive. He rather spends his days smoking and drinking coffee in the junkyard's kitchen than going out and having fun with his brothers.
And oh do they have fun! Be it car crashes, races at the Hockenheimring, races at the local airfield (often using special old cars that can e.g. go backwards as fast as forwards), combining different cars to one new model or just having plain stupid fun with water pistols around the car wrecks - the three vivid brothers Peter, Manfred and Uwe have done it. And they are always on the lookout for new adventures, though in the later seasons it seems scripted at times (well, the economic depression can be felt by junkyard owners, too, so I'm going to suspend my disbelief in those situations).
I feel that Peter is the center of the show: For one he manages the depot all by himself, making him invaluable to this junk business. No one else may take parts from the large piles he has built! There are no shelves, no drawers and absolutely no markings in the warehouse. When a customer calls and asks for a certain part, Peter can almost always tell if it's in his sacred depot or not. Therefore his brothers call him the "computer". Furthermore he often displays hilarious philosophical qualities, for example when he compares his beloved pasta to life itself. And no, no 42 jokes there because the brothers are all down-to-earth and more or less John Q. Publics!
If you know some German I must recommend you watch at least one episode of "Die Ludolfs" or even go see the movie where they journey to Italy! These four brothers are some of the most inherently cheerful people I have ever seen on TV - and they are not acting their parts, they are absolutely one hundred per cent authentic! Watch it!
