The Evening Sun

The Evening Sun
Created by	Dániel Sándor Máđen Gulseth
Directed by	Phil Mathre
Starring	Máđen Gulseth Hector Pomeroy Ápmot Speaidna Jonathan Lystad Ester Erstad Gáddjá Sárra Ellen Kaila
Narrated by	Béla Hadjú
Music by	Tímea Gáspar Viktor Nagy
Country of origin	Entropan
Original language(s)	Šebukel
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	13
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Retroactivity
Release
Original network	FMS En
Original release	11 February 1994 (1994-02-11) – 26 May 1995 (1995-05-26)
Chronology
Related shows	The World at One On the Edge

The Evening Sun (Šebukel: A Esti Nap) is an Entropanian public horror-comedy television show that parodies television news and current affairs programs, broadcast from 11 February 1994 and 26 May 1995 on FMS En in two series, with an additional special episode broadcast unexpectedly in the second. It gained notoriety in Entropan for its extreme parodies of sensationalist news broadcasting, eliciting significant controversy and eventually leading to FMS refusing to renew it for a third series. The series was co-created by Dániel Sándor, and Máđen Gulseth, and is composed of half-hour episodes usually covering two or three stories.

Format

Each episode is presented as a mock live news bulletin, with each episode revolving around a few fictitious live news stories which the team would respond to with a quick moving on-the-ground crew. Much of the programme's humour derives from its bombastic and sensationalist style of reporting, which often sees the news crew deliberately inflame situations to make them more fit for reporting. Most episodes have elements of public horror, including seriously presented interruptions to the program such as the announcement of global apocalypse, studio shootings, and coups.

Each episode is brought to an interrupted ending with just enough time to quickly overview the following day's newspapers, printed with absurd headlines such as "Fire safety 'decapitated', warns Paleocacherian minister", or "Bombed dog bills spider plea", and a final video previewing the next programme on the network, which is usually a humourous spoof of Entropanian shows such as Call Me or Detached. Each episode ends in a familiar style for news reports, with the camera panning out as the studio lights dim on Ánte, who, instead of shuffling his papers in a clichéd newsreader style, collapses onto the floor in varying manners.

Main characters

• Ansealbma Ánte (Máđen Gulseth) - the newsreader. He is confrontational and aggressive, an overzealous and sensationalist newsreader who gleefully sparks conflict and advises other members of the news team on how to further escalate situations. He is shown as an entirely amoral character, who goes to any lengths to form good news stories.
• Ánderijá Tobejas (Ápmot Speaidna) - live reporter. Head of the show's fast-moving on-the-ground news team in series one, Tobejas is an underqualified and aggressive reporter who often exaggerates and sensationalises stories he covers. He appears in every episode, with episodes cutting to him at intermittent points to provide updates on a developing situation that serves as a single thread running through each episode. Tobejas often directly escalated situations himself; examples include him having detailed knowledge about how a fire at a concert held by fictional band Splithar (a band which Tobejas openly expresses personal resentment towards) right after the fire starts, and convincing the head of a far-right political party to launch a coup. In episode 6 of series one, Tobejas has a psychotic break, being convinced that the domestic news team were planning to kill him. In response to this perceived threat, he takes the on-the-ground team hostage, and provides updates on the situation throughout the episode, leading to his apparent suicide.
• Áttan Ello (Ápmot Speaidna) - live reporter. Played by the same actor as Ánderijá Tobejas, Ello heads the show's on-the-ground news team in series two. Throughout the series, it becomes apparent that Ello may be Tobejas, up to mannerisms in speech and personality, although this possibility is never elaborated on.
• Ivett Balázs (Ester Erstad) - political correspondent. Balázs is a middle-class urban New Liberal who displays significant bias towards the ruling government, downplaying scandals through use of meaningless political terminology and diverting focus towards unrelated, highly negatively framed, and less severe stories of opposition political parties, in a satire of the purported bias of publicly funded channels towards the ruling administration at the time. Balázs is permanently stationed outside the National Assembly, and often chases down MPs to frame them in political scandals.
• Zita Vincze (Ellen Kaila) - business correspondent. As satire of the incomprehensible nature of business news to the layperson, Vincze talks nonsensically about the world of business, padding out her reports with meaningless jargon ("Exchange remained adequate until trading won"). She employs odd syntaxes, reciting strangely arranged sentences in a semi-robotic deadpan fashion (often smirking at arbitrary points in the monologue), and frequently mentions other members of the team at seemingly random points during her reports. During her reports, a news ticker scrolls across the bottom, displaying meaningless symbols. After Ellen Kaila's death during the filming of the fifth episode of series two, the character was retired.
• Jean-Charles Lecocq (Hector Pomeroy) - correspondent in Quebecshire. Speaking with an exaggerated Quebecshirite accent, Lecocq is part of the on-the-ground news team reporting on seemingly fabricated stories detailing extreme caricatures of Quebecshirite culture and politics. All of his reports make use of convoluted puns, fake Quebecshirite phrases (e.g "L'insalubrité du document"), and immoral acts performed in pursuit of on-the-ground news stories, taking advantage of his authoritative tone to amplify misconceptions about Quebecshirite culture to excuse them. Examples include shooting Quebecshirite Grandmaster André Bellerose after reporting on a failed assassination attempt and reassuring viewers that "it is a great dishonour in Quebecshirite culture to be shot but not killed", and mistranslating an interview with fictional pop singer Cyrille Delisle to make it appear that he was planning on opening an oil refinery.
• Álet Bloom (Gáddjá Sárra) - environmental correspondent. Bloom presents the Miljømatikk (Enviromatic) slot, which intercuts the program at inappropriate times to present various disconnected news stories vaguely relating to the environment. Her stories include a large hand slowly emerging from the South Pole, a disease covering seagulls in spaghetti, and an ancient subterranean civilisation being scheduled for demolition by the Ándréjad Federate Rural Council due to complaints by local residents.
• Edvin Eggebraaten (Jonathan Lystad) - economics correspondent. Eggebraaten has no understanding of economics, and often relays explicitly false claims, but does so in an authoritative manner, giving those claims legitimacy. He overcomplicates simple stories, with meaningless graphs such as the "Trade Scale" and the "International Flow of Money", often with the intent of making interviewees look incompetent. Examples of his reporting include an elaborate false claim that a Paleocacherian firm lied about the number of workers employed at its largest factory, and an effort to convince the finance minister of Monsilva that the country was on the verge of defaulting on its debt.

Cast and crew

Cast

• Máđen Gulseth as Ansealbma Ánte, George Oddvarsson, Beaivi Ártne, other roles
• Ápmot Speaidna as Ánderijá Tobejas, Áttan Ello, Villiam Luoma, and Viktor Kelemen, other roles
• Ester Erstad as Ivett Balázs, Yvette Soyer, Rachel Marks, Julie Tremblay, Margaret Sandahl, other roles
• Ellen Kaila as Zita Vincze, Mia Saether, Gealá Ásllat, other roles
• Jonathan Lystad as Edvin Eggebraaten, Bavvál Rásmos, other roles
• Hector Pomeroy as Jean-Charles Lecoq, Bogdan Simeonescu, Ferenc Gál, Levente Sípos, other roles
• Gáddjá Sárra as Álet Bloom, Annamária Barnier, Lydia Scott, other roles

The Evening Sun also features appearances by show co-creator Dániel Sándor, and by members of the crew.

Crew

• Máđen Gulseth - writing, production
• Dániel Sándor - writing, production
• Élise Duclos - writing, production
• Véronique Ponce - writing
• Jesper Blix - additional material
• Arild Smestad - additional material
• Vivi Heinsohn - additional material
• Lajos Kis - additional material
• Tímea Gáspar - music, additional material
• Viktor Nagy - music
• Phil Mathre - production

Episodes

Series 1 (1994)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	1	"Series 1 – Episode 1"	Máđen Gulseth	Máđen Gulseth & Dániel Sándor	11 February 1994 (1994-02-11)
Features reports on government-subsidised courses on queuing etiquette, the Monsilvan debt crisis, library cults, and an interview with famous Quebecshirite pop musician Cyrille Delisle. Ánderijá Tobejas reports throughout the episode on an ongoing hostage situation in Maledonian Central Station by a group he seems too familiar with, and Ivett Balázs reports on Antal Szilveszter eating a bacon sandwich inappropriately.
2	2	"Series 1 – Episode 2"	Máđen Gulseth	Máđen Gulseth, Dániel Sándor & Élise Duclos	18 February 1994 (1994-02-18)
Features reports on a standoff between police and a man with an excessive amount of garden gnomes, a government program of "daylight savings rationing" to conserve energy, a moose cult in northern Quebecshire, the government's new "community listening" initiative, and torturous charity game show The Chamber. Ánderijá Tobejas reports throughout the episode on an upcoming major infrastructural collapse in outer Sáefi.
3	3	"Series 1 – Episode 3"	Máđen Gulseth	Máđen Gulseth, Dániel Sándor, Véronique Ponce, & Élise Duclos	25 February 1994 (1994-02-25)
Features reports on the National Assembly's new "MP of the Month" programme, an emergency referendum on the colour of Benno Tanne's tie, an entirely blank exhibit at the Modern Art Museum, and near-death experiences. Ánderijá Tobejas reports throughout the episode on a fire at a concert held by the band Splithar, and Ivett Balázs reports on a gas leak in the Foreign Affairs Committee.
4	4	"Series 1 – Episode 4"	Máđen Gulseth	Máđen Gulseth, Dániel Sándor & Véronique Ponce	4 March 1994 (1994-03-04)
Features reports on suspicions that Entropanian police officers are eating their suspects, the widespread use of psychadelics in the Ministry of Social Affairs, and a new government initiative to make available "tap your own phone" kits to improve governmental transparency. Edvin Eggebraaten reports on an economic crisis at a Maledonian library, and Ánderijá Tobejas reports throughout the episode on an ongoing coup that he seemed to have initiated, which spills into the studio as it is overtaken by the party responsible.
5	5	"Series 1 – Episode 5"	Máđen Gulseth	Máđen Gulseth, Dániel Sándor, Élise Duclos & Véronique Ponce	11 March 1994 (1994-03-11)
Features reports on a department of the Ministry of Telecommunications firing more workers than it has, a roundup of international news, the opening of a high-speed railway to nowhere in particular, and Cooperative Wholesale selling "invisible produce"; a conceptual food that is sold by weight but can't actually be seen. Ánderijá Tobejas reports throughout the episode on the 'worst blizzard in history', and Ivatt Bálazs reports on everything but fraud allegations against the Minister of Social Affairs.
6	6	"Series 1 – Episode 6"	Máđen Gulseth	Máđen Gulseth, Dániel Sándor, Élise Duclos & Véronique Ponce	18 March 1994 (1994-03-18)
Features reports on the temporary closure of the 'Flesh Pit National Park', the Minister of Citizenship's resignation, and Ivett Balázs' slow news day. The primary plot of the episode revolves around Ánderijá Tobejas, who, while reporting on a car accident in Holan, suffers a psychotic break and holds the rest of the crew hostage, eventually resulting in his own suicide.