8.4 /10 1 Votes
Genre Sitcom Theme music composer Nurit Hirsch First episode date 7 February 1983 Program creator Ephraim Sidon Cast Yehoram Gaon, Hanna Maron | 8.4/10 IMDb Directed by Yitzchak Shauli Country of origin Israel Final episode date 24 May 1986 Number of seasons 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Created by Ephraim Sidon
B. Michael Starring Hanna Meron
Yoram Gaon
Liora Rivlin
Tiki Dayan
Ilan Dar
Muli Segev
Moshe Gershoni
Natalie Meirovitch
Galia Kedem Network Israeli Educational Television Similar Zehu Ze!, Rega im Dodley, Parpar Nechmad, Inyan Shel Zman, Bli Sodot | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Krovim Krovim (Hebrew: קְרוֹבִים קְרוֹבִים; lit. Close Relatives) is an Israeli television sitcom created by Ephraim Sidon and B. Michael. The series which originally aired on the Israeli Educational Television channel in the years 1983 - 1986 is known as the first Israeli sitcom.
Contents
- Synopsis
- Main characters
- Recurring characters
- History
- Broadcast History
- Reunion episode production
- DVD
- References
The series focuses on an extended Israeli family which shares a residential apartment building in the center of Tel Aviv.
The opening tune of the series was composed by Nurit Hirsch.
Synopsis
The series focuses on an extended Israeli family which lives in three apartments iresidential apartment building in the center of Tel Aviv. Ilan and Tiki, and their daughter Galia live on the third floor, Yoram (Tiki's brother) and Liora live on the second floor with their three children - Eviatar, Efrat and Molly. Hannah, who is Yoram and Tiki's aunt, live on the first floor.
The series dealt mainly with a variety of topics from everyday life situations of typical middle class urban secular Israeli families in Israel in the 1980s, such as School plays, IDF Flight course, Vegetarianism, Astrology, elections for the board of the Condominium, dealing with burglary, celebrating birthdays, and other satirical and social topics such as inflation, Israel–United States relations, hiring an Israeli Arab house keeper, Mizrahim-Ashkenazim relations, Intermarriages, etc.
Main characters
Most of the characters in the series were called by the first names of the actors. In addition, it was decided that the main characters won't have last names.
Recurring characters
History
The original idea was to produce a comedy TV series for the Israeli Educational Television channel which would deal with parental-children relationships. The original proposed name for the production during its pre-production stages was "The Family" (המשפחה). In an interview with Modi Bar-On, the director of the series Yitzhak Shauli stated that when he and the producer of the show Risha Tierman decided originally to produce an Israeli sitcom, they both traveled to the United States where they watched the filming of the American sitcom "Three's Company" in order to learn about the directing process and the production process of a successful sitcom. Shauli stated that their experience in the U.S. raised concerns that the conditions available to them in Israel are not sufficient, nevertheless they decided to try and produce an Israeli sitcom anyway.
The address of the building, which appears in the show as "Vitek 9", is in fact fictitious. The building which is shown in the opening sequence of the series and in which most of the plot allegedly takes place, is actually a building located on the crossroad between the Rothschild Boulevard and the Hasmonean street in Tel Aviv. The name "Vitek" stems from the name of the husband of the series' producer, Risha Tierman, who died a few months before the start of the production. The number 9 was chosen because the building focuses on 9 family members (Hanna, Yoram, Leora, Eviatar, Efrat, Molly, Tiki, Ilan and Galia). Although it is a simple and modest building, it later on became a famous landmark due to the immense popularity the series gained in the mid 1980s in Israel.
Broadcast History
Although the series was produced by the Israeli Educational Television, it originally aired during the evening hours of the Israeli Channel 1 (on behalf of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority) and between February until May 1983 (first season), 1984 (second season) and 1986 (third season) and in re-runs between July to October during the afternoons.
Since the original air broadcast of the series, the series was aired in reruns quite often, mainly on the Israeli channel 23.
Reunion episode production
During the early 2000s Yoram Gaon was interviewed in an Israeli Radio show in which he was asked why a reunion episode for the series has not been produced yet. As a result, the hosts of this Radio show began subsequently a radio campaign aimed at getting support for the production of such an episode and soon afterwards the radio station reported that there are intensions of producing a reunion episode for the series. Most of the original main cast agreed to participate in the production. Efraim Sidon expressed his support while writing a script that would corresponds to the 2000s. Yafa Vigaodcaki, the CEO of the Israeli Educational Television (which retains the rights to the series) agreed and the Discount Bank agreed to finance the production. The reunion episode was named "Hamatzav Tzav" was filmed in the studios of the Israeli Educational Television on November 11, 2004 in front of an audience, and was broadcast in the Israeli Channel 2 on 24 March 2005.
The reunion episode featured Tom Gal who played Nevo, Eviatar's son and Sivan Sasson, who played Galia (Galia Kedem retired from acting). Muli Segev refused to participate in the production.
DVD
On 7 June 2009 the first DVD Box Set of the series became available containing all 37 episodes, the reunion episode, as well as a documentary film chronicling the production of the reunion episodes.