Mot i brøstet

Cast

Plot

The series depicts Karl, Nils and Henry, three friends who live together in a house owned by Karl in the suburbs of Oslo. In the first episode, Karl gets fired from his job and subsequently divorced. Soon Nils, one of Karl's old colleagues, moves in with him, before Henry, a door-to-door salesman, completes the trio.

Seasons 1–3

The show begins as Karl, economist and accountant, is fired from his job and subsequently divorced by his greedy wife. Threatened with losing his house, he reluctantly agrees to have a former colleague, Nils, as well as an elderly travelling salesman, Henry, move in with him in order for him to be able keep his home. Soon they discover that they are three very different people with three very different personalities, causing much comical foil as they all attempt to gain easy money in different ways.

The first three seasons of the show focused on single-episode stories, like most sitcoms, usually involving a plot to get rich in a hurry with disastrous results. It also had a large number of celebrity guest appearances, often closely related to the schemes attempted by the main characters.

The season also saw the introduction of many recurring characters, such as Elna, Nils' mother, and Målfrid, Karl's girlfriend.

Seasons 4–6

After three seasons, the show began to develop into large plot lines, and during season 4, Målfrid moved in with Karl. Other storylines included Henry's illnesses (which were actually written in to explain the absences caused by actor Arve Opsahls actual illnesses), and Nils getting both a new job and a girlfriend. The "get-rich-quick"-themes that had dominated the early series were soon replaced by episodes relating to daily life, such as redecorating, fixing the roof and celebrating the holidays. Also, the amount of double episodes increased, with larger stories such as celebrating Henrys 75th birthday, or the gang going on a cruise holiday.

As the show by this time had become the most successful series in Norway ever, the amount of episodes increased from 13 to 26 episodes per season, to satisfy the increased demand for episodes by viewers. At its peak, the show had more viewers than any other show on Norwegian TV for every episode.

Seasons 7–8

By season 7, the show had progressed to a more broad comedy series, with serious storylines in addition to the usual comical plots. Most notable of these were the season 7 plot of Henry becoming an alcoholic, which one of the writers based on one of his friends struggle with alcohol. It also dealt with Trine going to Paris for six months to work as an au pair (written to explain actress Hilde Lyrån's absence due to pregnancy) and Nils losing his job when his new boss doesn't like him.

As the show entered its eight season, it was announced that it would be the last one. While no reasons for the end were explained at the time, Sven Nordin, who played Nils, later told interviewers that his decision to leave the show was the main reason for the cancellation, but it was decided to end the series without assigning blame to avoid any discomfort among the cast and crew.

Series finale

In the final episodes of the season 8, Nils and Trine find out that they are expecting children and begins looking for a place of their own. Wanting her grandchildren to have a grandfather, Elna marries Henry (with some reluctance from the groom), and subsequently gives her apartment to Nils and Trine, after finding out that she inherited a house in Spain. She and Henry then move to the house, where they open up a restaurant.

Meanwhile, Målfrid is contemplating moving to Africa, after being offered a job and scholarship there, much to Karls dismay. While this story was not resolved on-screen, it is later revealed that Målfrid took the offer and moved to Africa, after growing tired with Karls reluctance to develop their relationship.

In 1999 a straight-to-video movie entitled Tusenårsfesten ('The Millennium Party') was released, bringing together the main characters from both Mot i brøstet and Karl & Co (with the exception of Trine). It explained how Nils and Trine now had four children, triplet boys and a girl, and still lived in Elna's old apartment. Henry and Elna were still in Spain, running their Norwegian restaurant, while Målfrid had gotten engaged to an African doctor in her new job. It had its TV premiere on TV 2 in 2001, and was re-released on DVD in 2007, albeit both of these in a heavily edited form, which has caused the VHS tapes of the original cut to become highly attractive to fans.

Episodes

A total of 141 episodes were made between 1993 and 1997, spanning eight seasons. Since finishing its first run, the show has been repeated many times on both TV2 and its sub-channels.

DVD releases

The first five seasons of Mot i Brøstet were released on DVD on 30 June 2007, with the final three seasons being released on 19 October 2007. The DVDs were made from the archival videotape copies of each episode, which meant that some of the early episodes suffered from quality loss, as they had been played a number of times during repeats.