Gato Fedorento - History

History

The four authors of the program met at the Portuguese comedy company Produções Fictícias ("Fictitious Productions") and worked with comedians like Herman José (in HermanSIC) and later with Maria Rueff (in O Programa da Maria).

The history of Gato Fedorento itself started in April 2003, when the four authors got together again to create a weblog (still available, but now updated on an irregular basis). When they were deciding how to name it, they chose to do so after the song "Smelly Cat", from the soundtrack of Friends, which translates as "Gato Fedorento" in Portuguese (Zé Diogo Quintela, one of the authors, once jokingly said that he thought that "Smelly Cat" meant "Cadeira Rançosa", Portuguese for "Rancid Chair").

After some time, Ricardo Araújo Pereira and Zé Diogo Quintela were invited to make some gags for the show O Perfeito Anormal (The Perfect Dork). Their success in that role led the then director of SIC Radical, Francisco Penim, to invite them to create their own show. They were joined with Tiago Dores and Miguel Góis and started the show.

The group has released a DVD with the "Fonseca" season and performed live all over Portugal, with great huge success. In late 2005 they released another DVD with the "Meireles" season. The first three seasons still air on SIC Radical, as reruns. However, the group is no longer affiliated with this TV station, due to a contractual disagreement with SIC.

In an interview for a foreign media magazine, Gato Fedorento member Zé Diogo Quintela admitted that the ultimate reason for starting the show was the authors' expectations of having sex with the attractive female extras that frequently perform supporting roles. He also added that the group has not been particularly successful in this regard.

Months later the fourth season, "Lopes da Silva", premiered 24 March 2006 on RTP with moderate success.

Since 29 October 2006, the group started Diz que é uma Espécie de Magazine (lit. They Say It's Some Kind of Talk-Show), a talkshow-like program with live audience where they show sketches which mock the hot topics of the week. They invite a different musical artist every week to perform a song markedly different from the artist's regular musical style.

The four authors also usually write for and star in commercials for PT Comunicações, and made comedy sketches for RTP's 50th birthday party, where they are shown introducing RTP studios and being insulted by some famous people of the channel.

The first season of Diz que é uma Espécie de Magazine ended in 3 June 2007 and the authors of Gato Fedorento have announced that they would return with a new season in September of the same year. The series ended with the "37th Gala of Depressive Little Treasures" (Depressive Little Treasures are videoclips making fun of unedited bloopers, mistakes or shows with a specific theme in Portuguese television, with lack of dignity).

The second season lasted from September to December 2007 and their most famous sketches are from this season (for example, the Scolari imitations). The season ended with an unusual episode: usually there is only one "Depressive Treasure", but in this episode there were three, two of them showing the depressive moments of Gato Fedorento; the third Treasure featured (for the first time) unbroadcast taped sequences (the Bloopers), of an RTP Journalist named José Ladeiras and the author of those bloopers actually came to the set. Gato Fedorento usually invites singers who perform songs written by the show authors themselves, but this time the singers were the four authors, dressed as a lookalike of Sporting Portugal coach Paulo Bento, and performing a song satirizing his way of talking.

After the former RTP program director Nuno Santos left RTP, he replaced Francisco Penim in SIC, and one of Nuno Santos first decisions as new program director in SIC was to re-negotiate a return of Gato Fedorento to SIC. Ironically it was Nuno Santos who first contracted Gato Fedorento to RTP when the quartet left SIC due to a contractual disagreement.