Lud, zbunjen, normalan


Lud, zbunjen, normalan is a Bosnian television comedy series that began airing in 2007. Since its debut, it has also been shown in Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia.
The series spans 12 seasons with a planned 300 episodes, aired from 2007 through 2020.

Synopsis

The show stars three generations of the Fazlinović family, all living in an apartment in Sarajevo. The oldest of the family is Izet Fazlinović. Izet has a son Faruk, who in turn has a son Damir. In season four, Damir's son Džebra is born. The show's title refers to the three main characters, with Izet being Lud, Faruk being Zbunjen and Damir being Normalan. The show's plot revolves around humorous situations involving the Fazlinović clan, their friends and co-workers.
Later on in the series, Faruk leaves for Sweden, after which Damir's son Džebra, a student, becomes the normal one in the family. Izet stays crazy, while Damir is both crazy and confused.

Development

The first episode of Lud, zbunjen, normalan aired on 2 September 2007. The first five episodes were produced as a pilot for Bosnian public broadcaster FTV, but then Croatian commercial TV station Nova TV joined to produce the show, then the crew was ready to begin production. Beside producer Davor Pušić and Mirsad Herović, very important production whole in process of making had Jasmin Duraković, who was at that time general manager of FTV. He made the decision for the beginning of production and made a cast with Mustafa Nadarević and Senad Bašić. Another important player for this project was Siniša Svilan, who was the director of the programme. Nova TV, who commissioned TV rights for the Croatian territory and provided production to make the first season. The first season had 40 episodes, the second had 32 episodes, and seasons three and four each had 24 episodes. The fifth season, which aired in 2012, had 16 episodes and the season six had 9 episodes before the series was canceled by FTV.
A seventh season was announced though, and began airing on 3 November 2014.
In 2015, the Bosnian broadcaster changed to the commercial television Face TV and started broadcasting the 7th season regularly from 4 April 2015 at 8:00 PM.
In 2016, series screenwriter Feđa Isović stated that after 264 episodes, the series was supposed to end, but in 2018, Isović announced that a new 36 episodes were planned to be made. The 265th episode aired on 17 February 2020 on Nova BH, with Bašić leaving the series.
In April 2020,the screenwriter Feđa Isović announced that the series will continue after 300 episodes with at least 3 seasons planned.

Episodes

264 episodes were filmed, but in 2018 it was announced that a new season with 36 more episodes was to air sometime in 2020, although one of the three main characters, Faruk, portrayed by Senad Bašić in all the previous series, won't be present in those new episodes. The 265th episode of the series aired on 17 February 2020.

Cast and characters

Lud zbunjen normalan employs an ensemble cast. Three generations, later on four, of the Fazlinović family all live in a Sarajevo apartment. The oldest of the family is Izet Fazlinović. Izet has a son Faruk who has a son Damir and he has a son Džebra. The show's title referred to the three main characters, with Izet being Lud, Faruk being Zbunjen and Damir being Normalan. The show's plot revolves around humorous situations involving the Fazlinović clan, their friends and co-workers. Later on in the series, Faruk leaves for Sweden and Džebra joins Izet and Damir as one of the three protagonists, becoming the normal one in the family. Izet stays crazy, while Damir becomes both crazy and confused.
The series also featured a number of guest stars. The series featured Enis Bešlagić as Đenis Đenis, a rockstar; Samir Fazlinović, Izet's nephew from his late brother, played by Emir Hadžihafizbegović, who later was promoted to a regular on the show.
Popular balkan singers that had a guest appearance on the show are:
Al' Dino, a recording artist; Sejo Sexon, member of the rock group "Zabranjeno Pušenje", who is good friends with Faruk; Tifa ; Nagib who came to Faruk to record a song and Nina Badrić, came to Izet to record a song.

Protagonists

Episodes 76 and 77 drew some controversy from the Muslim community and some other organizations that are not entirely Muslim. One of the themes of the episode 76 was about Mahmut, a pious Muslim singer, who came to Faruk's studio to record a few religious songs and him almost eating English ham which was made in 1931 and which was passed as turkey. In episode 77, Izet and Đuro were trying to get a cow, but they got a pig, which died in a trunk of Izet's car. When Đuro told Izet about his new plan how to get money, Izet replied "When you have a plan, we finish on the pig's funeral!".

Cancellation

On 7 April 2013, FTV announced that Lud, zbunjen, normalan was canceled due to financial issues. In what was the last episode, Izet, Faruk and Damir were on an airplane to Stockholm. The plane crashed and it was believed that they were dead. However, three passengers who were booked missed the flight and these three were suspected to be Izet, Faruk and Damir. Ultimately, the series continued in November 2014.