“What am I most proud of? Lightning, without a doubt»: Gianni Minà has said this many times in interviews in recent years, with a touch of bitterness that would never leave him until his death. Yes, in the hour of celebration we forget that the great journalist often complained about having been “cleansed” by Rai, for whom he had fought all his life and by whom he had been hired “after 17 years of precariousness”, eh He liked it not without pride to recall because obviously never to be recommended, as often happened in via Mazzini.
And Blitz from 1981 to 1984 was therefore the culmination of a career: heir of the Other Sunday and forerunner of those who believe that football was the other side of the moon, free, almost anarchic, compared to the very popular and baudiana Domenica In. Minà experimented with this five-hour format, entering and exiting the studio like no one had done before, with location shots in the Piccolo Teatro with Strehler and his actors, or in front of Gigi Proietti’s Circus Theater. And inside with the cream of Italian and international cinema (but not only): Eduardo De Filippo, Fabrizio De André, Adriano Celentano, Gian Maria Volonté, Ugo Tognazzi, Carmelo Bene, Pino Daniele, Ornella Muti, Gigi Proietti, Enzo Jannacci, Vasco Red. And the themed episodes with the Brazilian musicians Toquinho (who duetted with Falcao), Jobim, Joao Gilberto and Chico Buarque. Or a fashion special with Krizia, Gianfranco Ferrè, the Versaces, Ottavio Missoni. And another dream with Claudia Cardinale, Federico Fellini, Giulietta Masina, Sergio Leone, Ennio Morricone and Robert De Niro. In addition to the legendary duets between Benigni and Troisi.
But such a beautiful thing could not last: in 1984, while dating Stella Pende, Leopoldo Mastelloni, a well-known actor, openly gay, was annoyed by some homophobic tirades from viewers and insulted live. Unlike in the talent era, where these incidents happen every other day, it caused a huge scandal at the time. Parliamentary questions, Mastelloni brought to justice (and never seen at Rai since), Stella Pende suspended for a long time. But Gianni Minà also footed the bill, because at the end of the year Blitz closed its doors despite the good public success (and the enormous applause of the critics). A KO that Gianni would never recover from in terms of television: Apart from a short season with Domenica Sportiva, he would no longer have any primetime programs, only to finally disappear from public broadcasters at the end of the 90s, also because not too much very much in keeping with the political climate of the time. He would have consoled himself with historical documentaries (Maradona, Fidel, etc.), but that bitterness at having been betrayed by his mother Rai would never have left him.