Hotel Cæsar

Hotel Cæsar is a Norwegian soap opera that aired on TV 2 from 24 October 1998 until 14 December 2017. From the start in 1998, the show was broadcast Monday to Friday, except during the autumn of 2006, where the show was broadcast Monday to Thursday only, and from 2010 until 15 December 2016, the show was again broadcast Monday to Thursday on TV 2. From 2 January 2017, the show started being broadcast online only, through TV 2's web player TV 2 Sumo. The show was cancelled later in 2017, and the last episode was published on TV 2 Sumo 14 December 2017. It was created by Swedish duo Peter Emanuel Falck and Christian Wikander. The show consists of a total of 3,123 episodes, making it the longest running drama in television in Scandinavia. Hotel Cæsar is the second longest running drama in television in the Nordics after Finnish soap opera Salatut elämät (1999–).

Plot
The storylines are centered around a fictional hotel in Oslo, its employees, and the Anker-Hansen family. CEO and widower Georg Anker-Hansen (Toralv Maurstad) was one of the central figures in the series, and his romance with escort girl Ninni Krogstad (Henriette Lien) was the main story. After Georg died of incurable pancreatic cancer, Ninni inherited the entire corporation, leading to major conflicts with Georg's dominating mother, Astrid (Sossen Krohg), and his children, Juni (Anette Hoff), Jens August (Kim Kolstad), and Julie (Elin Sogn).

The series was mostly inspired by the history of Janni Spies, who married the much older Danish tourism king Simon Spies and inherited millions when he died. It gave the idea to hotel owner Georg Anker-Hansen and escort girl Ninni Krogstad.

Georg's daughter Juni, due to her alcoholism, was also a central character in the beginning and received great attention in Norwegian media. The show gained even more attention when half-siblings Jens-August (Kim Kolstad) and Charlotte Iversen (Kristin Frogner) began a relationship without knowing that they were siblings.

Later, the series focused on controversial topics such as racism, kidnapping, rape, abortion, trafficking, drugs, pyromania, homosexuality, murder, and more.

In episode No. 1000 of the series, which aired in autumn 2004, Toralv Maurstad made a guest appearance as Georg in some of the characters' dreams.

In January 2006, the series changed its genre and appeared as a more innovative and modern soap with more action, humor, sex, violence, and drama. The show received massive media publicity due to its controversial content and early prime time. However, after the sudden change, viewing rates decreased, and as of January 2007, the show gradually returned to its old style.

Years later, it was discovered that Georg's deceased wife, Ingeborg Anker-Hansen, had an affair with Harald Hilldring, which resulted in the birth of Julie Anker-Hansen, who was the artist and outsider of the family. Julie learned about this through her mother's diaries. She also claimed that Georg was responsible for her mother's illness and, among her siblings, was the one who had the smallest problem opposing her family's opinions.

At the start of the series, Jens August came out of prison after serving time for killing a young man who was driving under the influence of alcohol. He also had a past with his father's new girlfriend, Ninni, and their relationship was always tense.

In the summer cliffhanger of 2007, Jens August returned to the series after being deserted on an island for two years. The plane was sabotaged by an assassin sent by Scott Wallace, the brother of Rolv Espevoll, who was introduced to the Anker-Hansens in 1998. Rolv had a brief affair with Juni during his four years of working at the hotel. In 2002, he was set up for a murder, found guilty, and sent to prison. He was released in 2006 and, within a short time, with his brother Scott, kicked out the Anker-Hansens from the hotel and their own concern. Throughout the few months they were in charge, Scott and Rolv developed a tense and hateful relationship. After some tense weeks, Scott wanted to get rid of Rolv and planted a bag of cocaine in his hotel room. Since Rolv had recently been released from jail, this was a crucial move from Scott. After an anonymous call by him to the police, Rolv was arrested and was most likely to be convicted for drug dealing. Rolv figured out that Scott was behind it all. On the day of his trial, he ran off from the court. He visited Juni at Ankerseteren, gagged her, stole a rifle, and ran down to the hotel, where he started shooting in the lobby. He killed 20 people, including two people who were also holding weapons. Daphne wanted revenge from her ex for leaving her. When she pointed the gun at him, Rolv waited behind and shot her. The other one wielding a weapon was Julian, who was threatening his girlfriend, Benedicte, who he had molested recently. Rolv ran into Julian and Benedicte when Julian was about to shoot her. In a cheeky manner, Rolv pointed the rifle at Julian, asking him to apologize to Benedicte for treating her badly. Nevertheless, Rolv shot Julian, who died instantly. Ironically, then Rolv saved two people from getting killed. He then went up to the office, where he pushed Scott out onto the roof and talked straight out about everything he hated about him. Scott was already shot in his arm and was unable to defend himself. Rolv ended up killing himself in the end.

In November 2007, Juni Anker-Hansen and Jens August Anker-Hansen were about to sell Virtual Window, a project developed by businesswoman Nadia Selam-Tefari, who worked at Cæsar. Juni's boyfriend at the moment, Magnus Falsen, presented the Virtual Window to his lodge, Vox Populi, which seemed positive about the project.

Many new main characters arrived in 2008, including Gaute Ormåsen, who came in 2nd in the Norwegian Idol in 2003. He played the role of the musician and bartender Marius Nordheim. Per Christian Ellefsen joined the cast as the businessman Tom Ivar Johansen. In addition, viewers were introduced to his two daughters, Cecilie and Cathrine.

In November 2008, Tom Ivar died of bone cancer in addition to a fall from the main staircase at Hotel Caesar, after accidentally being pushed down by his daughter Cathrine. Cathrine admitted when Tom Ivar was comatose that she hoped he would die. Cathrine felt that she was always his second daughter after Cecilie, whom he admired and loved openly.

In April 2009, Victoria Lunde, Juni's daughter, returned to the series after spending many years in Belgium. She had become an alcoholic, likely inheriting the condition from her mother. Initially, Victoria kept this hidden, but after several incidents throughout the fall of 2009, Juni realized that her daughter needed help.

In the spring of 2009, Cathrine broke away from the Anker-Hansen Group and started her own hotel chain, the Black Diamond. Jens August joined her after having a serious conflict with his family. However, he later returned to his family.

In October 2009, Jens August's wife, Liv, died when she was hit by a car. Weeks later, she appeared in Jens August's "visions." Juni's ex-husband and Victoria's father, Ragnar Lunde, also had a guest role in the autumn of 2009. He had married an Asian woman and converted to Buddhism. When he left, Victoria joined him to go to rehab in Brussels, Belgium.

In November of the same year, Jens August and Ninni's son, Georg Jr., or "Goggen," returned to Norway after being sent to boarding school in Switzerland at a young age. He later started a relationship with Runa Jørgensen, the step-daughter of his own uncle, Svein. Svein was Ninni's brother and had a rocky relationship with Goggen at the time.

In February 2010, Astrid's centenary was celebrated in the 2000th episode of the show. At the end of this episode, Astrid had a stroke, and it turned out that she had a cerebral hemorrhage. She survived, but lost her ability to speak. However, Astrid died a month later.

That spring, Juni found out that Ingeborg was not her mother, as she had thought over the years. Her real mother was her former nanny, Dagny Dallimore (who came into the series in late 2009). Before Juni was born, her family thought Ingeborg was unable to have a child. Therefore, Dagny agreed to carry Georg's baby. Astrid, Ingeborg, and Georg set it up to make Juni think she was Ingeborg's daughter. Dagny was allowed to continue meeting her daughter as her nanny. But when Astrid and Ingeborg thought Juni and Dagny were too close, they blackmailed Dagny into leaving the country. She moved to Australia, where she married a priest and had another daughter, Rose. Dagny told Juni about this. She also told Juni that Rose had a rough patch in her life and had broken off all contact with Dagny. Juni decided to go to Australia to find her. Meanwhile, Junis daughter, Victoria, had completed her treatment in Brussels and returned to Oslo in April 2010.

That spring, Cathrine's hotel chain, Black Diamond, went bankrupt as a result of the chain's investor, Elliot Hiltun, being arrested for economic crimes, resulting in all their financial assets being frozen.

In the 2010 season finale, a huge fire broke out during a family dinner at Ankerseteren. Three people, Dagny, Ragnhild, and Cecilie, were killed in the fire

Cast

Current cast

Comings and Goings

Former cast members

References

External links
TV 2's Hotel Cæsar site
TV 2's Hotel Cæsar forum

1998 Norwegian television series debuts
1998 establishments in Norway
Norwegian television soap operas
TV 2 (Norway) original programming
1990s Norwegian television series
Television series set in hotels