He invented talk shows. But that’s not all: he made the history of radio and television. Maurizio Costanzo died today in Rome at the age of 84, but he will never abandon us. Not only for an immense number of broadcasts and interviews that he leaves us – an extraordinary and vast archive – but also because today’s television and radio are in some way his “daughters”, daughters of his talk shows, its broadcasts.
Maurizio Costanzo was the first, on the stage of the Parioli Theater, to make the public, the “not famous” protagonists, somehow anticipating social networks by many years. On many occasions simple viewers who sent a letter to the editorial staff brought their ideas, their fears, their problems, their complaints into the late evening on Canale 5. The “Maurizio Costanzo Show” was the place where a significant part of Italian public opinion was formed, where politicians went on stage to be interviewed by the host, but also to discuss with citizens.
There are countless characters born on the Parioli stage: Enzo Iacchetti, Dario Vergassola, Valerio Mastandrea, Afef Jnifen, Gioele Dix, Ricky Memphis, Giobbe Covatta, Platinette and – of course – Vittorio Sgarbi.
The Palco del Parioli had somehow become the place of the daily story of an Italy that was changing, that became more narcissistic and more mature, that fought the aggression of the Mafia on the State and that discovered new civil rights, that passed from the first to the second republic, through the scandals of Tangentopoli, also showing the public the private part of the new powerful who entered the collective imagination. A new account of politics that began with the birth of the second republic in 1994.
But Maurizio Costanzo was much more than just the “Maurizio Costanzo Show”. A committed journalist, his broadcasts against the Mafia together with Michele Santoro have marked the history of the small screen. In the eyes remains the image of the conductor of Canale 5 who sets fire to the shirt with the words “Mafia”, “Shall we burn it?” He asks as the audience begins to applaud. Among the great supporters of Giovanni Falcone, often a guest on his broadcasts, the fight against the mafia probably cost Costanzo and his wife Maria De Filippi an attack, when a bomb exploded in Via Fauro, a street located on the route taken every day by their car returning home from the Parioli Theater.
Master in alternating high and low, perfect connoisseur of television times, king of interviews, Costanzo has also invented, together with Paolo Villaggio, the character of Fracchia. Lyricist of unforgettable songs – “Se telephoning” first of all – the conductor has demonstrated great eclecticism throughout his career, managing to be a modern communicator in every field, from television to printed paper, passing through the artistic direction of the Parioli theater and of Canale 5. Certainly he was also a voracious protagonist of Italian communication, which cost him many criticisms from those who accused him of managing too much media power.
With Enrico Mentana he was one of the most famous characters to oppose the idea that Silvio Berlusconi “descended into politics”; his belief was that this could not only harm the company, but also that the “freedom” that all the Mediaset networks had enjoyed up to that moment could be reduced or discredited in the eyes of the public. He always managed to avoid any type of criticism from this point of view, keeping his freedom and credibility intact in the eyes of the public, despite the fact that some “internal” attacks on the company were not lacking during the hottest years of the adventure of the his editor in politics.