“Honey years” were the first Polish series filmed live with audience participation. The next episodes of the sitcom based on the license of the American hit “The Honeymooners” were shot every Monday at the Jewish Theater in Warsaw. A total of 131 episodes of “Honey Years” and 17 episodes of “Całkiem nowy miodowe lata”, i.e. a continuation of the cult sitcom, were produced.
The production presented the story of two friendly married couples, Karol and Alina and Tadeusz and Danka, living in a tenement house at 33 Wolska Street in Warsaw’s Wola district. The series was nominated for the Telekamery “Tele Tygodnia” award six times, but it never won the coveted statuette. However, he triumphed at the Festival of Good Humor in Gdańsk, where he twice received the main prize – the Blue Bowler. The initial episodes of the series were watched by 7 million viewers. The last episode was watched by over 5.7 million people.
The series brought popularity or strengthened the position of many actors. We could see Cezary Żak and Artur Barciś in the main roles. They played their wives Agnieszka Pilaszewska and Dorota Chotecka. In the 94th episode, Katarzyna Żak quite unexpectedly joined the cast and became the new Alina.
The viewers were not entirely happy with this change… How did the actors explain this change? Their statements are definitely not consistent.
Neither the creators of the series nor the actors playing the main roles talked about why such an exchange took place for a long time. Only vague messages reached the media. Agnieszka Pilaszewska also spoke, suggesting that she had not given up the role that made her popular.
“I didn’t give up playing in Honey Years. To think otherwise is naive. Let’s not go back to that, because it won’t get us anywhere. This happened 25 years ago. We are in good relations with Cezary Żak,” she said in an interview with Plejada.
Some time ago, Norka, who played Tadeusz, presented a completely different situation Artur Barciś. In his social media, he argued that Katarzyna Żak appeared in the series because someone had to play the role of Alina. Cezary Żak, who was later accused of “inducing” his wife into the series, did not encourage the creators to make such a move.
“I will repeat for the thousandth time that IT’S NOT TRUE. Mr. Żak was against it. Polsat simply decided that it would be funny if Cezary’s wife played Karol’s wife (since there was no other option), because, coincidentally, she was also an actress.” – assured Barciś.
The actor also added that Agnieszka Pilaszewska actually said goodbye to the production at her own request, and he was happy with this turn of events.
“Continuing the series with Agnieszka Pilaszewska was impossible (which I don’t want to write about). (…) It turned out as it turned out, but I still think that Kasia acted very heroically in taking up the challenge. Without taking anything away from the talent of the ‘first Alinka’ , has a very difficult character, so the second one was better to work with.” – he said.