Julia Otero remembers her "teacher" Sergi Schaaff: "I had been rejected in two castings, and he told me: those directors are blind"

• Obituary The creator of 'Saber y Ganar' dies

I learned of Sergi Schaaff's death this morning, very early in the morning, when his daughter Anaís called me and we cried together.

I hadn't seen him for some time.

Since my treatment, since my cancer, I had not spoken to him again.

.

It is very difficult to paint a picture of someone who did so much and covered so much.

If I had to define him, I would say that he was a man with a fine humor, a fine irony,

.

He was a great program director, a tireless creator, a deeply cultured man, as television program directors used to be.

For me, he is on the same level as

.

They are the two great teachers of public television in our country.

He was a great creator, a wonderful program director.

He was a man with a fine humor, a fine irony, tireless, creative to the core.

His contribution to television, to Televisión Española, was enormous.

During his time as head of TVE programs in Sant Cugat, he turned that production center into

who were first tested here, on the Catalan circuit, and then jumped to the state level.

There was a time, during a good part of his tenure, when TVE's

for all of Spain was packed with programs that came out of the San Cugat laboratory.

I'm going to leave some, but I remember

,

money ,

,

,

,

,

...

Sergi was

.

Even in the apparently lightest and lightest program there were always a few cultural droplets that were fundamental to him.

That the entertainment was not stupefying, that it was always worthy.

He and Chicho Ibáñez Serrador are the two great teachers of public television in our country.

Of course, it is responsible for the revitalization of the entire audiovisual industry in Catalonia.

Many of the professionals who later went to Madrid to work were able to do so from Barcelona before.

.

He was also

, and for him the radio was a quarry.

He listened to the radio a lot, and when we young people arrived, he would observe, let a few years go by and we would all end up doing

in the center of Sant Cugat.

Thus he convinced, for example,

to make television;

he convinced

to do a program, because before they simply sang;

He convinced his great friend

, who was a neighbor and a close friend of him, to make the leap.

Of course, he discovered

,

... He left many on the list, sure.

There are so many of us who owe it to him all our way, all our trajectory on television

I did a couple of

, like so many other colleagues on the radio, and they didn't choose me.

I remember that one day she called me and said:

.

arose

, because he had decided that I was a good candidate to present his new format.

Then

also arrived , too, of which he was the creator and director.

There are so many of us who owe it all our way, our entire career on television.

You have to be deeply grateful, and I am.

, to whom I was also united by a deep and sincere friendship and the privilege of being my teacher.

From Sergi Schaaff I have learned everything I know about television.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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• Julia Otero