A fundamental figure in the journalistic and production structure of Argentine television, his contribution marked an innovative record installing new and impressive proposals for the small screen of the 60s and 70s. Indeed, today the 90th anniversary of the birth of Nicolás “Pipo” Mancera will be remembered, as a way of paying tribute to those who, like Pipo, dared to express great challenges, combining the information and the interview with the show.
His biggest hit was “Sábados circulares,” which aired from 1962 to 1974, a six-hour program with entertainment, reports and music. There were 664 shipments that marked the national television and where Pipo introduced the television format called “omnibus”.
He made escapism tests, lion dressage and the first “surprise cameras” on Argentine television. He received -and led long reports- in his program the most famous characters of the time, such as Marcello Mastroianni, Sean Connery, Alain Delon, Sophia Loren, María Félix, Simone Signoret, Pelé, among others, and there Sandro, Serrat, Palito Ortega, Joan Manuel Serrat, Raphael and all the international singers who performed in Argentina.
In his program they made their television debut as singers Palito Ortega, Sergio Denis, Leonardo Favio and Sandro with Los de Fuego in 1964, a performance for which he was reprimanded by the censorship due to the pelvic movements of the unforgettable Gitano in the best style of his admired Elvis Presley.
In addition, it relaunched to the television medium great figures of the show such as Libertad Lamarque, Tita Merello, Lolita Torres and Niní Marshall and, also, the members of the Clan Club, who found their space from which every Saturday they projected their songs.
In 1967, during his moment of greatest popularity, he had the highest audience rating on Argentine television with the marriage of Palito Ortega and Evangelina Salazar. On the other hand, in 1969 it transmitted via satellite the Venice Festival. Meanwhile, he was one of the first journalists (together with Tito Biondi, recently deceased) to interview Diego Armando Maradona, in 1971, when he was 10 years old. It should be remembered that in 2007 he relaunched his traditional program on Crónica TV, then owned by Héctor Ricardo García. Mancera died on August 29, 2011 due to the complication of a cardiorespiratory crisis.
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