“Oggi vi invito a casa mia". Raffaella Carrà e il salotto televisivo del mezzogiorno

Among the many perspectives from which Raffaella Carrà could be observed to understand her relevance in the history of Italian television, one of the most significant is the TV show “Pronto, Raffaella?” (Raiuno, 1983-1985). In 1983, Carrà - together with the Italian TV authors Lionella Carel, Irene Ghergo, Giancarlo Magalli and the director Gianni Boncompagni – decided to leave the big Saturday evening TV shows of which she had been the protagonist for years (such as Canzonissima, 1969-1971; Milleluci, 1974; Ma che sera, 1978; Fantastico 3, 1982) with the aim to occupy the midday schedule slot, which was totally unexplored until then, but potentially rich in strategic and creative opportunities. The style, content, rhythm and direction choices that characterized the birth of her new program marked an essential watershed: in the history of Italian television, Pronto, Raffaella? Represents a turning point, despite Carrà hosting the show only for two years, subsequently giving way to other television personalities. Our paper explores the socio-cultural background within which the TV show Pronto, Raffaella? takes place with the aim of highlighting the cultural, productive and strategic reasons underlying the creation of one of the most iconic and meaningful TV shows in the lively Italian television in the early Eighties. In parallel, our paper aims to bring out the complexity (and contradictions) in Raffaella Carrà’s television personality: a conscious and brave protagonist, skilled in juggling the folds of those turbulent years, able of contributing to guide Italian television from the age of scarcity to the age of availability (Ellis, 2000) through the invention of a new language, a style and a narrative genre that will characterize the Italian television schedules for the following decades.