Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein

"Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein" was filmed twice, and both versions had no chance to match the book by Johannes Mario Simmel.

Although several Simmel books were successfully filmed in the 70's, the makers were out of luck this time. For some reasons, many of the characters are only a cartoon of themselves. The impudent methods of the main character, Thomas Lieven were funny and thrilling, but Simmel's favourite issues, like the relativity of good and bad, were lost somehow. Moreover, some sequels had to be stretched to fit the time window.

The TV series of 1980 contains only half the book. The sequel never was filmed. Perhaps the producers and actors were not too happy with the result of their work?