'''Don Francisco''' is the artistic name of a Chilean [[television]] host. ''Mario Kreutzberger'' (his real name) was born in [[Chile]] to a [[Germany|German]] [[Jew]]ish family. His parents had fled to Chile escaping from [[Nazi]] persecution.
As a youth, he traveled to [[New York]] to study to be a [[tailor]], but he spent most of the time watching TV. Back in Chile, where TV was just beginingbeginning, Don Francisco started a tv show in [[1962]], and he named it ''[[Sabados Gigantes]]''. In it, he adapted many of the formulas he had seen in American TV to the Chilean public. The show became an instant hit that has lasted 40 years as the #1 viewed show in Chile. In [[1985]], the show began to be produced in [[Miami, Florida]], with the same formula used in Chile, with the slightly different name of ''Sabado Gigante''. Don Francisco immediately became a household name among [[Latino]] families across the [[United States]], and in the following five years, television networks from all over [[Latin America]] started buying the show. [[Spain]] also became a show customer during that period, and with that, 99 percent of [[Spanish language]] speaking people knew who Don Francisco was. For a few year, he continued flying weekly to Chile to tape the Chilean ''Sabados Gigantes'', and back to Miami to do the international show.
His is a four hour long variety show, including contests, comedy, interviews and a ''traveling camera'' section. The traveling camera section, or ''Camara Viajera'' (originally ''La Pelicula Extranjera'', The foreign film), has taken Don Francisco to over 185 countries world-wide, many of them more than once.
