Happy Together (Russian TV series)


Happy Together is a Russian TV series that was broadcast on TNT from 2006 through 2013. It is a remake of an American TV series Married... with Children.

Information

Instead of living in a house, the Bukins live in a box on the top floor of a small building, and the Stepanovs/Polenos live in the box in front of theirs. Prior to the series' beginning, the Bukins could buy off a part of the building's attic for extra rooms, so apart from the lack of a cellar, the lack of a backdoor, a garage in a separate building instead of being adjacent to the house, and a balcony used instead of the yard, the layout of Bukins' flat looks like the Bundys' house. The apartment is in a mess from some fixes in the house which were never finished, and in the show's early episodes an unfortunately placed construction site outside allowed people to go in and out the Bukins' apartment by the balcony.
As a major change, instead of disappearing like Seven after a few episodes, Sema stays with the Bukins until the end of the series, and the often bizarre explanations for his absence from events the whole family should attend became a running gag. Also, the family dog Baron doesn't die and reincarnate, he remains the same until the end of the series. The episode Requiem For The Dead Briard was however adapted, with Baron being sold to a rich person by Sema instead of dying.
In April 2008, the producers announced all episodes of Married... With Children have been adapted as Schastlivy Vmeste and an online contest was started where fans could submit new ideas for episodes. Starting from the 31 December 2009, the show resumed its run with an initial order of 60 new episodes, the order might be doubled based on the viewers' response. According to the episodes' opening credits, some of the new episodes are co-written by original Married... With Children writers, mostly Richard Gurman and Katherine Green.
The series was cancelled in 2013.

Characters