Pat & Mat

When I was little and I watched a movie that was scary, I always watched a few episodes before going to bed. And when I was sick and had Covid, it was the only thing that I could watch because it's simple and not too busy.

As a kid I would always watchs these 2 completely destroy there house because of a problem that could be solved easily, and even now a lot of the episodes are very fun and nostalgic.

The 70's - 90's slapstick comedy is mostly a one of a kind. Each episode has it's own charm and has it's own form of humor to it, and it's honestly fascinating how great friends they are, how they are never mad at each other and how they can find a solution to any problem.

Rewatching all 129 episodes (including the including the unreleased one "Playing Cards") these 2 eggs have thought me something. It's to be always satisfied with your work, and to never give up on problems.

Season ratings: Season 1 (1979) - 10 Season 2 (1980) - 10 Season 3 (1989) - 10 Season 4 (2002) - 10 Season 5 (2009) - 10 Season 6 (2018) - 9 Season 7 (2018) - 9 Season 8 (2019) - 10 Favorite episodes: Wallpaper, Picnic, Key, Strawberries & Vending Machine.

In addition to that rather excellent summary, Pat & Mat are very well known in the Netherlands as 'Buurman & Buurman' (Neighbour & neighbor). At first they were broad casted in their original format (without speech), 49 episodes were re-broad casted in the early nineties overdubbed with ad-hoc voices provided by Dutch actors Simon van Leeuwen and Kees Prins. This added in no small way to the humor of the original series. For nostalgic purposes the original Czech title 'Aje to' ('that's all') was turned in to their payoff at the end of each episode.

The series has had a an amazing number of reruns. Buurman and Buurman still has numerous fan clubs on the internet. And in 2007 'Buurman & Buurman' was voted the most popular item in the fully packed Sunday morning show Villa Achterwerk, the best-watched children's program of the time. DVD's of all seasons are readily available and just now (march 2009) a 6-dvd-box with all 63 episodes is in the sjop.

To me the most amazing accomplishment of the series is, it appeals to all ages, which is quite uncommon for animation. I ran into a party in a dorm once, where Buurman and Buurman had a continuous run. And now i'm watching it with my kids, 3 and 10 years old, who love it as much as their dad.

The humor is very slapstick, and most of the fun is in anticipating the mayhem which is always a bit more over the top than you expect. Obviously the overall look of the earlier episodes is quite 'eastern Europe', and it's great this campy look has survived in the later series.

This American was introduced to these Czech characters by her Korean students. It doesn't transcend culture much more than that!

As a die-hard Buster Keaton fan I was hooked in an instant. The relationship between Pat and Mat is as warm, mischievous, and trouble-prone as between the characters Buster created on screen with his mentor, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Pat and Mat are friends and neighbors for whom the most ordinary of tasks, such as opening a can of goulash, trigger cascades of mishaps. Like Keaton, Mat and Pat somehow always manage to land on their feet in the end, even if they never achieve their original goals.

The gags themselves are so purely and perfectly Keatonesque that I feel as if The Great Stone Face himself must have somehow passed a bit of his elfin, tinkering spirit to Lubomir Benes and his team to nurture, play with, and make truly their own. The granddaddy of silent comedy would be proud indeed to see where Pat and Mat have taken the art form, to delightful new heights.

Pat and Mat will entertain adults and children in equal measure, and like Keaton's work, will remain fresh and funny for generations.

I never thought I would see somthing that came straight from the heavans. I was wrong. Before I saw this show I was a Athiest. Now I go to church and thank god for this gift. This show is so perfect that no mere mortals can watch it. Only beings with a IQ of 600 can truly understand this show and its meaning. I believe this is the best show in existance and nothing will surpass this gift from the gods.