Sirkuspelle Hermanni (1978-1988)
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Premiere:
August 29, 1978
# of Seasons: 10
# of Episodes: 80
Finale:
April 20, 1988
Original Title:
Sirkuspelle Hermanni
Production Companies:
YLE
Countries:
FI
Pelle Hermanni is a Finnish children's TV show shown on YLE TV2 in the Pikku Kakkonen children's program. The show's main character is Pelle Hermanni, a clown who lives in his own trailer at a circus trailer park. He was played by Veijo Pasanen, cousin of director and inventor Pertti "Spede" Pasanen. There is no major continuing plot, instead the episodes consist of Hermanni talking about his life and daily events in a funny, clownish, somewhat childish way. His comedic antics are further increased by the comically misproportioned props and his way of fumbling over difficult words. Hermanni would often ask questions from his children audience, and then pretend to actually hear what they answered, saying such things like "Right, Annika there knew the answer!" In by far the most of the episodes, Hermanni is the only human actor shown. Other characters include Vekkari, Hermanni's large alarm clock which starts ringing when Hermanni least wants, and Kepakko, a wooden teacher's staff who feels intellectually superior to Hermanni and often insults him by laughing at him. Hermanni is especially fond of his dear old mother and the pancakes with strawberries she makes, and he often phones her to see how she's doing. Hermanni's telephone is a large, complex contraption with its own video communications screen. Because the show predates actually feasible real-world video communication by more than a decade, this only adds to the comedy.