Skip to content
1981
Greek Stardom and Celebrity: Histories and Methods
  • ISSN: 2052-3971
  • E-ISSN: 2052-398X

Abstract

In 1980s Greece, the spread of home video technology catalysed the emergence of a prolific direct-to-video industry that reconfigured media production and audience engagement outside the traditional film and television industries. This article explores the careers of Stamatis Gardelis and Michalis Mosios, two male stars representative of the VHS era, whose personas became sites for negotiating masculinity, class and ethnocultural identity within a shifting sociopolitical landscape. Gardelis, an emerging young actor, transitioned into VHS romantic comedies and embodied a form of masculinity marked by emotional awkwardness and ironic detachment. Mosios, in contrast, achieved stardom through his portrayal of Tamtakos, a Roma comic figure whose exaggerated performance style oscillated between ethnic affirmation and ironic self-parody. The article draws on star studies, cultural theory and media historiography to examine how direct-to-video productions cultivated their own affective economies of recognition. Far from being a degraded cultural form, Greek VHS films generated distinct modes of stardom rooted in repetition, familiarity and social proximity. The analysis offers a critical lens into how popular media can articulate broader tensions around modernity, marginality and belonging.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jgmc_00117_1
2026-02-11
2026-04-20

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Ahmed, Sara (2004), The Cultural Politics of Emotion, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Anon. (1987), ‘Video News’, Eikones TV, 22 February, p. 187.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Athanasatou, Ioanna (2001), Ellinikos kinimatografos 1950–1967: Laiki mnimi kai ideologia (‘Greek cinema 1950–1967: Folk memory and ideology’), Athens: Finatec.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Clogg, Richard (2002), A Concise History of Greece, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Connell, Raewyn W. (2005), Masculinities, Cambridge: Polity Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Cubitt, Sean (1991), Timeshift: On Video Culture, London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Daskalopoulos, Haris (1985), ‘Tileoptika prosopa: Stamatis Gardelis. Epanerchetai sti mikri othoni…’ (‘TV people: Stamatis Gardelis. Back on the small screen …’), Domino, 24 December, p. 15.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Dyer, Richard ([1979] 1998), Stars, London: British Film Institute.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Dyer, Richard ([1986] 2004), Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society, 2nd ed., Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Dyer, Richard (1997), White, London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Eleftheriotis, Dimitris (1995), ‘Questioning totalities: Constructions of masculinity in the popular Greek cinema of the 1960s’, Screen, 36:3, pp. 23342, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/36.3.233.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Ellis, John (1992), Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Video, London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. ERT (2023), ‘O Stamatis Gardelis ston kanape tou “Studio 4”’ (‘Stamatis Gardelis on the couch of “Studio 4”’), YouTube, 23 June, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB6j4w4eKUA. Accessed 14 October 2024.
  14. Ganley, Gladys D. and Ganley, Oswald H. (1987), Global Political Fallout: The First Decade of the VCR 1976–1985, Cambridge, MA: Program on Information Resources Policy.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Gkizelis, Grigoris, Kaftantzoglou, Roxani, Teperoglou, Afroditi and Filias, Vasilis (1984), Paradosi kai neoterikotita stis politistikes drastiriotites tis ellinikis oikogeneias: Metavallomena schimata (‘Tradition and modernity in the cultural life of Greek families: Shifting structures’), Athens: EKKE.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Gledhill, Christine (1991), ‘Introduction’, in C. Gledhill (ed.), Stardom: Industry of Desire, London and New York: Routledge, pp. xixix.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Hall, Stuart (1997), Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, London: Sage Publishing.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Karadimitriou, Achilleas (2018), ‘Elliniki dimosia tileorasi kai politiki tileoptikis ekrois’ (‘Greek public television and the politics of televisual output’), in V. Vamvakas and G. Paschalidis (eds), 50 chronia elliniki tileorasi (‘50 years of Greek television’), Thessaloniki: Epikentro, pp. 1133.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Karapostolis, Vasilis (1987), Symbiosi kai epikoinonia stin Ellada (‘Symbiosis and communication in Greece’), Athens: Exantas.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Kasimati, Koula (1998), Erevna gia ta koinonika charaktiristika tis apascholisis – Meleti 1: I epilogi tou epaggelmatos – Theoritikes anafores kai empeiriki dierevnisi (‘Research on the social characteristics of employment – Study 1: The choice of occupation – Theoretical references and empirical investigation’), Athens: EKKE.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Kassaveti, Orsalia-Eleni (2014), I elliniki vinteotainia (1985–1990): eidologikes, koinonikes kai politismikes diastaseis (‘The Greek direct-to-Video Film 1985–1990: Generic, social and cultural aspects’), Athens: Asini.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Kassaveti, Orsalia-Eleni (2017), ‘O sosialistikos examerikanismos tis ellinikis kratikis tileorasis kata tin periodo tis Allagis: I epochi tis sapounoperas kai tis komodias-parodias (1981–1989)’ (‘The socialist Americanization of Greek state television during the “Change” era: The age of the soap opera and parody-comedy [1981–1989]’), in V. Vamvakas and A. Gazi (eds), Amerikanikes tileoptikes seires stin Ellada (1966–2015): Dimofilis koultoura kai psychokoinoniki dynamiki (‘American television series in Greece [1966–2015]: Popular culture and psychosocial dynamics’), Athens: Papazisi, pp. 14180.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Kassaveti, Orsalia-Eleni (2018), ‘Apo to fotoreportaz sti video-anaparastasi: O optikos ithikos panikos gyro apo tin toxikomania sti dekatia tou 1980’ (‘From photojournalism to video representation: The visual moral panic surrounding drug addiction in the 1980s’), in K. Katsapis (ed.), Oi apeitharhoi (‘The disobedient’), Athens: Okto, pp. 12145.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Kassaveti, Ursula-Helen (2023), ‘Visual folklore in 1960s Greek popular cinema: Athens at the threshold of tradition and modernity’, Гласник Етнографског института САНУ (Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnography SANU), 71:2, pp. 1936, https://doi.org/10.2298/GEI2302019K.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Lydaki, Anna (1997), Balame kai Roma: Oi Tsinganoi ton Ano Liosion (‘Balame and Roma: The gypsies of Ano Liossia’), Athens: Kastaniotis.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. McDonald, Paul (2012), Hollywood Stardom, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Maragkopoulou-Giotopoulou, Anna (1983), Feminismos kai nomothesia (‘Feminism and legislation’), Athens: Sakoulas.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Marlow, Eugene and Secunda, Eugene (1991), Shifting Time and Space: The Story of Videotape, New York: Praeger.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Martin, Daniel (2007), Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Mousourou, Loukia M. (1985), Oikogeneia kai paidi stin Athina (‘Family and child in Athens’), Athens: Vivliopoleion tis Estias.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Papadimitriou, Lydia (2009), ‘Stars of the 1960s Greek musical: Aliki Vougiouklaki and Rena Vlachopoulou’, in T. Soila (ed.), Stellar Encounters: Stardom in Popular European Cinema, London: John Libbey, pp. 20716.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Papadogiannis, Nikolaos (2019), Militant around the Clock? Left-Wing Youth Politics, Leisure and Sexuality in Post-Dictatorship Greece (1974–1981), New York: Berghahn Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Papathanasopoulos, Stelios (2000), I tileorasi kai to koino tis (‘Television and its audience’), Athens: Kastaniotis.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Papathanasopoulos, Stelios (2005), I tileorasi ston 21o aiona (‘Television in the 21st century’), Athens: Kastaniotis.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Paschalidis, Grigoris (2005), ‘I elliniki tileorasi’ (‘Greek television’), in N. Vernikos, S. Daskalopoulou and F. Bantimaroudis (eds), Politistikes viomihanies: Diadikasies, ypiresies, agatha (‘Cultural industries: Processes, services, goods’), Athens: Kritiki, pp. 173200.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Shingler, Martin (2012), Star Studies: A Critical Guide, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Spourdalakis, Michalis (1988), PASOK: Domi, esokommatikes kriseis kai sygkentrosi eksousias (‘PASOK: Structure, intra-party crises, and concentration of power’), Athens: Exantas.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Tsoukalas, Konstantinos (1986), Kratos, koinonia, ergasia sti metapolemiki Ellada (‘State, society, work in postwar Greece’), Athens: Themelio.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Tsoukalas, Konstantinos (1996), Taxidi sto logo kai tin istoria, vol. II (‘Journey into discourse and history’), Athens: Plethron.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Tzathas, Dimitris and Papadopoulos, Nikos (1987), ‘Sta video i Ellada… anastenazei’ (‘Greece sighs with the video boom’), Ta Nea, 12 January, pp. 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Vamvakas, Vasilis (2017), ‘I parallili pragmatikotita: Synthikes paragnorisis kai anagnorisis tis amerikanikis tileoptikis mythoplasias stin Ellada’ (‘The parallel reality: Conditions of misrecognition and recognition of American television fiction in Greece’), in V. Vamvakas and A. Gazi (eds), Amerikanikes tileoptikes seires stin Ellada (1966–2015): Dimofilis koultoura kai psychokoinoniki dynamiki (‘American television series in Greece [1966–2015]: Popular culture and psychosocial dynamics’), Athens: Papazisi, pp. 31162.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Zaharopoulos, Thimios and Paraschos, Manny E. (1993), Mass Media in Greece: Power, Politics, and Privatization, Westport, CT: Praeger.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Kassaveti, Ursula-Helen (2016), ‘Audio-visual consumption in the Greek VHS era: Social mobility, privatization and the VCR audiences in the 1980s’, in K. Kornetis, E. Kotsovili and N. Papadogiannis (eds), Consumption and Gender in Southern Europe since the Long 1960s, London: Bloomsbury, pp. 24156.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Papapavlou, Maria and Oikonomou-Kopasi, Eleni D. (2002), ‘Tsinganoi kai tsinganologia: Logoi peri eterotitas’ (‘Gypsies and gypsiology: Discourses on otherness’), in A. Economou (ed.), Oi Roma stin Ellada (‘The Roma in Greece’), Athens: Elliniki Etaireia Ethnologias, pp. 924.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jgmc_00117_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/jgmc_00117_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): 1980s Greece; direct-to-video film; ethnicity; gender; metapolitefsi; otherness
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test