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Learn more about Pat and Mat - A je to!
Pat & Mat is a Czech stop-motion animated series featuring two handymen, Pat and Mat (Czech for "Stalemate" and "Checkmate", respectively). It was created by Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek.
The two characters first appeared in a 1976 short film entitled Kuťáci (The Tinkers). Later, the characters appeared in more shorts, making their own TV series called ... A je to! (... And it's done!), where they got their final look. The two handymen got their names Pat and Mat in 1989, and this became the name of the show.
While creating the two characters, the authors had in mind especially entertainment for adults, but the show became popular with all audiences. However, in former Czechoslovakia, the first 35 episodes of the series could have been produced as children's TV programme only, in the short's format of 7 minutes.
The show became popular throughout the world, being aired in nations that include Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia), Sweden, Syria, Iraq, Poland, Yugoslavia, Iceland, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, Finland, Netherlands, Croatia, Japan, Norway, Spain, Iran, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Jordan, South Africa, South Korea.
In 1990, shortly after Czechoslovakia became open (and later the Czech and Slovak republics), Lubomír Beneš (who died in 1995) founded his own AIF Studio in Prague (production) and Zürich (marketing, sales, financing), where he and his team produced 14 more episodes, and introduced all 49 of them to the international market.
The show features the two characters facing mostly self-made problems, trying to solve them using any possible and impossible tools and construction gadgets. This leads to even more problems and yet, eventually, the two manage to get a working result with a mostly surprising solution.
According to the authors, it is the manual ineptitude that inspires the stories. The humour is not the only feature of the show, another feature is having an optimistic approach towards life. The two characters always get into problematic situations, but they never give up until they solve the problem in imaginative ways.
The show is also memorable for its soundtrack, composed by Petr Skoumal, of which the main parts consist of the theme song and a harmonica tune.
The show was concluded in 2004. The 78th episode, "The Strawberries" (2003), became the final episode released on DVD.
The two characters first appeared in a 1976 short film entitled Kuťáci (The Tinkers). Later, the characters appeared in more shorts, making their own TV series called ... A je to! (... And it's done!), where they got their final look. The two handymen got their names Pat and Mat in 1989, and this became the name of the show.
While creating the two characters, the authors had in mind especially entertainment for adults, but the show became popular with all audiences. However, in former Czechoslovakia, the first 35 episodes of the series could have been produced as children's TV programme only, in the short's format of 7 minutes.
The show became popular throughout the world, being aired in nations that include Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia), Sweden, Syria, Iraq, Poland, Yugoslavia, Iceland, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, Finland, Netherlands, Croatia, Japan, Norway, Spain, Iran, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Jordan, South Africa, South Korea.
In 1990, shortly after Czechoslovakia became open (and later the Czech and Slovak republics), Lubomír Beneš (who died in 1995) founded his own AIF Studio in Prague (production) and Zürich (marketing, sales, financing), where he and his team produced 14 more episodes, and introduced all 49 of them to the international market.
The show features the two characters facing mostly self-made problems, trying to solve them using any possible and impossible tools and construction gadgets. This leads to even more problems and yet, eventually, the two manage to get a working result with a mostly surprising solution.
According to the authors, it is the manual ineptitude that inspires the stories. The humour is not the only feature of the show, another feature is having an optimistic approach towards life. The two characters always get into problematic situations, but they never give up until they solve the problem in imaginative ways.
The show is also memorable for its soundtrack, composed by Petr Skoumal, of which the main parts consist of the theme song and a harmonica tune.
The show was concluded in 2004. The 78th episode, "The Strawberries" (2003), became the final episode released on DVD.
