History Animation / MezgaCsalad

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Máris switches between being an antagonist

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In the third series, a truck has the BlandNameProduct "Popsi" (a spoof of Pepsi) written on its side. The word means "butt" in Hungarian.

** In the jungles of Africa, the Mézgas get stuck in a car when they get surrounded by a whole troop of hostile gorillas.

Three series have been produced, in 1968-69, 1974 and 1978, respectively, with vastly different plotlines. In the first series, '''''Üzenet a jövőből: A Mézga család különös kalandjai''''' (''Message from the Future: The Strange Adventures of the Mézga Family''), Aladár contats MZ/X on his radio. OnceAnEpisode, Géza and Aladár try to avoid doing the chores they get from Paula by asking help from their future relative. HilarityEnsues. In the second series, '''''Mézga Aladár különös kalandjai''''' (''The Strange Adventures of Aladár Mézga''), Aladár builds a spaceship and visits various [[PlanetOfHats Planets of Hats]], accompanied by [[CanineCompanion Blöki]]. In the third and final series, '''''Vakáción a Mézga család''''' (''The Mézgas on a Vacation''), the Mézgas and Máris (as a translator, ostensibly per the invitation as "the nurse" for the kids) go to [[LandDownUnder Australia]] to meet Paula's former fiancée, the ConArtist Pisti Hufnágel, and the family ends up on a WorldTour looking for him/escaping from various circumstances. The last series notably lacks the sci-fi elements of the first two.

* TheGhost: Pisti Hufnágel. Beginning as a RunningGag in the first series, Paula often wishes she'd married him instead of Géza; in the third series he bets a more prominent role, as he kicks off the plot by inviting the family to Australia.

* EveryEpisodeEnding: Paula saying that she should have married Pisti Hufnágel.

** Paula lamenting that she married Géza instead of Pisti Hufnágel.

* BrokenPedestal: Paula really grows to hate Hufnágel Pisti after all they go through (being stuck sleeping in huge pipes in Australia is only the first of their ordeals) due to his invitation. [[spoiler:In the last episode, upon learning that Pisti stole ''all of their worldly possessions'' while they were away, she prays to God to help her forget even his name.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Upon returning to their home in Hungary, the Mézgas learn that Pisti Hufnágel moved into their apartment while they were away, and stole all of their possessions apart from a few dirty matresses.]]

* WorldTour: The third series, in which the Mézgas travel to Australia to meet Paula's acquaintance and old flame, Pisti Hufnágel, and end up traveling from place to place until they get back to Hungary.

* BrokenPedestal: Paula really grows to hate Hufnágel Pisti after all they go through (being stuck sleeping in huge pipes in Australia is only the first of their ordeals) due to his invitation.

* {{Zeerust}}: The 30th century MZ/X lives in.

* StockDinosaurs: When Aladár travels back to the stone age, he encounters a standard wooly mammoth and sabre-toothed cat, as well as two tribes of FrazettaMan-like cavemen. He also meets a ''Megaloceros'' ("irish elk"), which is one of the more obscure ice age mammals. [[ShownTheirWork Fortunately]], there are no dinosaurs.

** In the jungles of Africa, the Mézgas get stuck in a car when they get surrounded by a whole troop of gorillas.

Three series have been produced, in 1968-69, 1974 and 1978, respectively, with vastly different plotlines. In the first series, '''''Üzenet a jövőből: A Mézga család különös kalandjai''''' (''Message from the Future: The Strange Adventures of the Mézga Family''), Aladár contats MZ/X on his radio. OnceAnEpisode, Géza and Aladár try to avoid doing the chores they get from Paula by asking help from their future relative. HilarityEnsues. In the second series, '''''Mézga Aladár különös kalandjai''''' (''The Strange Adventures of Aladár Mézga''), Aladár builds a spaceship and visits various [[PlanetOfHats Planets of Hats]], accompanied by [[CanineCompanion Blöki]]. In the third and final series, '''''Vakáción a Mézga család''''' (''The Mézgas on a Vacation''), the Mézgas and Máris go to [[LandDownUnder Australia]] to meet Paula's former fiancée, the ConArtist Pisti Hufnágel, and the family ends up on a WorldTour. The last series notably lacks the sci-fi elements of the first two.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Despite being a major character in the second series, Blöki does not appear in the third.

* SoundtrackDissonance: The opening theme is an upbeat song about how wonderful it is to travel around the world. It's accompanied by the Mézga family struggling through various landscapes against unpleasant weather and hostile animals.

* ABoyAndHisX: Aladár and Blöki, especially in the second series. Aladár, the OnlySaneMan of his family, feels that the dog is the only family member who understands him, and he takes Blöki with him to his trips in outer space.

* CanineCompanion: Blöki, to Aladár.

* DirtyCop: The police chief the Mézgas encounter in America is also a mob boss.

* WriteBackToTheFuture: The show's premise is built around this trope. Aladár and MZ/X live a thousand years away from each other, but are able to communicate with a radio.

* EmbarrassingFirstName: Máris's first name is only revealed in the final episode of the third series. [[spoiler: It is Ottokár.]]

!!This show provides examples of:

%%* ABoyAndHisX: Aladár and Blöki, especially in the second series. %% Add more context to describe their relationship and what effect it has on them. %%

* BumblingDad: Géza.

* ChildProdigy / TeenGenius: Aladár starts as 12 in the first series, and appears to be somewhat older in the second.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Despite being a major character in the second series, Blöki does not appear in the third.

* DemotedToExtra: Géza, Paula and Kriszta in the second series, which stars Aladár and Blöki.
* TheDitz: Kriszta.
* DomCom: The first series is essentially a DomCom with sci-fi elements. In the second series the family is OutOfFocus.
* DomesticApplianceDisaster: Many episodes of the first series are about Geza and Aladar trying to avoid their mundane chores with household appliances from the future that are bound to go wrong.

* FrazettaMan: Aladár encounters two tribes of them when he accidentally travels 500,000 years back in time: the rowdy ''Pithecanthropus'', and the WickedCultured ''Hooliganthropus''.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In the third series, a truck has the BlandNameProduct "Popsi" (a spoof of Pepsi) written on its side. The word means "butt" in Hungarian.
* GirlishPigtails: Kriszta, in all three series.

* MsFanservice: Kriszta is redesigned in the third series so that she looks slightly older and more curvy, and she spends a considerable amount of the series in swimsuits. It's a vacation after all.

* PlanetOfHats: All the planets Aladár visits in the second series are themed around something, such as one for robots where humans are slaves and tools, one underwater world, one where music reigns supreme, one structured like a crime novel...
* PreviouslyOn: In the third series, each episode starts with a narrator telling a short, rhyming recap of what happened so far.

** In the second series, Paula and Géza wondering what is wrong with Aladár, then deciding there can be no reason as he is in his room like a grounded kid is supposed to be.
* SequelGoesForeign: In the third series the Mézgas leave Hungary and travel around the world.

* StrictlyFormula:
** All episodes in the first series had the following plotline: Géza or one of his family members has a trivial problem; Géza asks for a device from the future to solve it; the device arrives breaking the windowpane, is activated then goes wrong and chaos ensues until it is destroyed, at which point Paula wonders why she didn't marry her teenage crush.
** For that matter, all episodes in the second series start with Aladár, who is supposed to be grounded due to terrible grades, slipping off in his spaceship, arriving at a PlanetOfHats, getting into a conondrum, making it home by sunrise, and his parents wondering what is so weird about the kid when he doesn't go anywhere.

* TelevisionSerial: Unlike the first two series that have [[StrictlyFormula rather formulatic]], self-contained episodes, the third series has a serialized narrative.
* TimeTravel: In one episode, MZ/X sends the Mézgas back to the Middle Ages. In another one, Aladár accidentally travels back 500,000 years, to the stone age.
* WorldTour: The third series, in which the Mézgas travel to Australia to meet Paula's acquaintance and old flame, Pisti Hufnágel, and end up traveling from place to place until they get back to Hungary.
* YouthfulFreckles: Kriszta.
* {{Zeerust}}: The 30th century MZ/X lives in.

* ABoyAndHisX: Aladár and Blöki, especially in the second series.

Created mainly for adult audiences, the show was very popular in Hungary for its witty plot and unique, surreal humour. It has been dubbed to German, Slovakian, Czech and Italian. A fourth series, ''A Mézga család és a (sz)ámítógép'' (''The Mézgas and the computer''), got into production in 2005, but ended up in DevelopmentHell due to financial problems.

Created mainly for adult audiences, the show was very popular in Hungary for its witty plot and unique, surreal humour. It has been dubbed to German, Slovakian, Czech and Italian.

* StockDinosaurs: When Aladár travels back to the stone age, he encounters a standard wooly mammoth and sabre-toothed cat, as well as two tribes of FrazettaMan-like cavemen. He also meets a ''Megaloceros'' ("irish elk"), which is one of the more obscure ice age mammals.

* WorldTour: The third series.

* StrictlyFormula: All episodes in the first series had the following plotline: Géza or one of his family members has a trivial problem; Géza asks for a device from the future to solve it; the device arrives breaking the windowpane, is activated then goes wrong and chaos ensues until it is destroyed, at which point Paula wonders why she didn't marry her teenage crush.

* TimeTravel: In one episode, MZ/X sends the Mézgas back to the Middle Ages.

* PlanetOfHats: All the planets Aladár visits in the second series are themed around something.