The family consists of Géza, the father, a comical and inept figure similar to Homer Simpson, his wife Paula who actually dominates family affairs, pubertal daughter Kriszta and 12-14-year-old son Aladár, a child prodigy. The cat Maffia and a dog, Blöki accompany the family. Dr. Máris, their cynical neighbour, is regularly and unvoluntarily involved in disasters surrounding the family. The name "Mézga" means glue, mucilage or tree gum in Hungarian and was renamed as rodina Smolíkova in Czech, which is a surname used also in fairy tales, La famiglia Mezil in Italian, Familie Metzger in German, which means butcher,Семейство Мейзга in Bulgarian, Família Mézga/Mesga in Portuguese, and Miazgovci in Slovak. In Dutch however, they were quite generically named De familie Sanders; which has no further meaning.
The Series
The Mézga family
The first series was shot during 1968/1969 under the name Üzenet a jövőből – A Mézga család különös kalandjai. The family makes contact with MZ/X, their descendant from the 30th century, with whom child prodigy Aladár made a contact. MZ/X sends them, through the time, various hypermodern gadgets which invariably result in a disaster. Episodes usually end with Paula's catch phrase "Why didn't I marry Pisti Hufnágel?", implying that she often regrets she chose Géza over another suitor. In the third series she finally accepts that Hufnágel is not what she imagined him to be. The series were named Odkaz budoucnosti aneb Podivuhodná dobrodružství rodiny Smolíkovy in Czech, Messaggi dal futuro in Italian, Heißer Draht ins Jenseits – Phantastische Abenteuer der Familie Mézga in German, Невероятните приключения на Семейство Мейзга: Послания от Бъдещето in Bulgarian and Miazgovci I in Slovak.
The next series was shot in 1972 under the title Mézga Aladár különös kalandjai. Every night Aladár visits a different inhabited planet using an inflatable interstellar spaceship named Gulliverkli. The name of his ship is a pun on. In this series, Blöki can talk, as Aladár has taught him to speak, so he would make a suitable assistant for space travel. The series satirised various human and societal vices; for this reason two episodes were not allowed to be shown in communist Czechoslovakia. The series were named Podivuhodná dobrodružství Vladimíra Smolíka in Czech, L’astronave in Italian, Adolars phantastische Abenteuer in East Germany, Archibald, der Weltraumtrotter in West Germany, Семейство Мейзга: Невероятните приключения на Аладар in Bulgarian, Miazgovci II in Slovak.
The Mézga Family on Holiday
The third series was shot in 1978 under name Vakáción a Mézga család. Pisti Hufnágel, a character mentioned a few times in the first series, the first love of Paula and her ideal, invites the family to spend holidays in Australia. A spare ticket is given to the neighbour - Dr. Ottokár Máris. It turns out that Hufnágel is a swindler and the Mézgas are left abandoned and penniless. Their effort to get home flings them into the most strange places, including South Pole, and into bizarre situations. Pisti Hufnágel secretly follows them and always turns their hopes into catastrophe. Only when they finally arrive at home and find out their flat completely ransacked by Hufnágel does Paula lose her faith in her ideal. Unlike the first two series, which consisted of one-story episodes, this series is a single story arc. The series were named Podivuhodné prázdniny rodiny Smolíkovy in Czech, Le vacanze della famiglia Mezil in Italian, Die Abenteuer der Familie Metzger in German, Семейство Мейзга във ваканция in Bulgarian, Miazgovci na cestách in Slovak, De familie Sanders is anders in Dutch, and La Familia Mezga in Spanish.
New series
During 2005, the Ex-Ist studio prepared a new series where the family gets acquainted with computers and the Internet. However, the show was later cancelled due to a lack of funding, as the economic situation in Hungary grew worse.
