Szomszédok

Szomszédok (Neighbours) was a

The plot revolves around the everyday lives of three families who move to a newly built housing estate in the Gazdagrét (literally "Rich meadow") neighbourhood of Budapest. The Vágási family consists of a young couple, who move from the apartment of a relative into their own apartment. The Takács family is a pensioner couple, whose detached house had to be demolished because of the construction of the M0 motorway. They move in with their granddaughter, Alma. The Mágenheims consist of a middle-aged couple, a doctor husband, a cosmetician wife, and their teenage daughter. The series features other people living in the block of flats, as well.

Background and analysis

The series was a

Szomszédok is often considered a period piece of sorts,[1]^[2] that covers the last few years of the communist era, the rendszerváltás (democratic transition), and nearly a decade of the new market economy in Hungary thereafter.

The series often dealt with the important topics and issues of the day, which affected the lives of everyday people in Hungary. These included politics, the ongoing economical liberalization, and topics such as

Szomszédok featured the first gay character in Hungarian broadcast media, a male hairdresser depicted as a flamboyant, over-the-top gay man, appearing in a smaller, comical recurring role from 1990 to 1993, portrayed by comic actor Imre Bajor, for whom the character brought nationwide popularity.^[4]

Filming locations

The main filming location of the series was at Csiki-hegyek Street 1, where the production team first rented and then bought a whole floor.^[3] Alma's cafe was located at the corner of Alkotás Street és Tartsay Vilmos Street in the District XII.^[5]

Reruns

After some time off the air, Szomszédok was rerun on M1 (Hungary's terrestrial broadcast public television channel) until 13 March 2015. The rerun was initially narrated by computer text inserts, mainly to guide those too young to remember the late communist era (e.g. how much bread cost that time or what significance a particular public figure in mention had at the time).^[6] The original cast and director of the series publicly protested against this practice and the information text bubbles were discontinued after a few episodes. Reruns of this programme is now shown on its sister channel, the classic channel M3.

Nowadays, it has only a fraction of its original viewership, as its role has been taken over by