Barátok közt

Barátok közt (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈbɒraːtok ˈkøst], in English: Among Friends) was a Hungarian television soap opera aired on RTL Klub. Its premiere was on 26 October 1998 and its finale was on 17 July 2021.

Barátok közt
Genre	Soap opera
Created by	István Márton Tamás Aradi István Labancz Miklós Varga
Starring	Izabella Varga Edit Ábrahám Csaba Tihanyi-Tóth András Várkonyi Károly Rékasi Zoltán Szőke
Opening theme	Új élet vár
Country of origin	Hungary
Original language	Hungarian
No. of seasons	23
No. of episodes	10,456
Production
Producer	Ilona Ondruss
Running time	15 minutes
Production company	Grundy Television
Original release
Network	RTL Klub
Release	26 October 1998 (1998-10-26) – 17 July 2021 (2021-07-17)

Through its entire run, it had been screened as two episodes on every weekday. Since its premiere, Barátok közt was the most watched regular programme domestically in Hungary, with around 1.2 million viewers per night.

On 30 November 2020, in the wake of declining ratings, RTL Klub announced that the winter 2021 season would be the final season, bringing to an end the soap after 23 seasons and more than 10 000 episodes. The soap ended with a grand finale which aired in prime time, instead of its usual early evening slot, and ran for 40 minutes.^[1]

Synopsis

The series takes place on the fictional Mátyás király tér (King Matthias Square) in Budapest. Barátok közt is about the life of the people living here, about the Berényi family and their family business. In the first episode the oldest one of the Berényi brothers, Zoltán Berényi dies and leaves his company to his wife, Claudia Berényi, his two brothers, Miklós and András Berényi (died in 2012), Miklós’ wife, Nóra Balogh (divorced in 2002,2005 and 2009 too),András's (future ex) wife, Zsuzsa Berényi, his friend, László Novák, and his life partner, Gabriella Juhász (broke up in 1999,together again between 2011 and 2012). ^[2][3]

Most of the characters are well known in Hungary, like Zsolt Bartha, or Magdolna Kertész, whose death in 2009 was among the greatest news in the country.^[4]