The series We all have to go to school celebrates 40 years

While today series are sewn literally like a hot needle, in the case of We all have to go to school, the road to the first flap was very long. The author of the script, Markéta Zinnerová (81), who was already loved by the audience thanks to the series Tajemstvi prúteného košek, prepared it for almost two years. She wrote the script for twenty months, and the fates of teachers, pupils and parents, who are united by one large elementary school, took her 1,300 pages.

Who is the father?

The thirteen-part television series began in the early 1980s. The author wanted the series to be filmed by Marie Poledňáková (†81), who has proven herself with the children’s films How to Get Dad to the Correctional Facility or S teb me bavi svět. But it was during the filming of the last-named comedy that she did not get along with the management of Czechoslovak Television because of money, so Ludvík Ráža (†71) took over the school series.

It was filmed in Prague and Liberec for more than two years. The creators offered the role of eighth grader Luboš Oliva to Tomáš Holé (†21), but the child superstar was already up to his neck in acting and refused. Another difficulty was caused by the state of health of Vladimír Menšík (†58), who was literally wasting away before his eyes and was often taken to the square directly from the hospital.

The series was broadcast for the first time from April to June 1984, and the most popular character among viewers was the novice cantor Michal Karfík, played by Miroslav Vladyka (64). The screenwriter wrote the character after her beloved mathematics teacher at the Liberec grammar school.

In the series, Karfík established a love relationship with the new pioneering leader Jana Vychodilová, played by Veronika Žilková (62). When, shortly after the broadcast of the series, the actress actually gave birth to her daughter Agatha, she had to explain to all the curious that Vladyka was not the real father of the child.

160 CZK per shooting day

The biggest acting aces appeared in the series. Among them were Jiřina Bohdalová (92), Jiří Bartoška (76), Jiří Sovák (†79), Jana Šulcová (†76) and Dana Medřická (†62). She played the role of the teacher Zmatlíková, but died during filming. Director Ludvík Ráža nevertheless decided to keep the already filmed scenes in the series. “She was a rare woman and actress, like so many others. When I was rewriting the script after her death, I cried,” Zinnerová admitted.

In addition to one acting star dying out during filming, many others were born. Among others, for example, Veronika Žilková. For the actress, the series We all have to go to school was an imaginary springboard.

“It was my second TV job, I was only in my first year. In the morning I was sick from nerves, the director Ráža was strict and I was a hoof. I actually experienced two love relationships, with Mirek Vladyka and Lexa Pyšek (67), and I was terribly ashamed. I can totally see myself standing under a waterfall in a bathing suit, body painting me all over. It went on for a year and I was ashamed for the whole year,” Žilková recalled.

The actress also revealed how much she collected for her role. “For almost a year’s work, I earned thirteen thousand as the main female role, I received one hundred and sixty kroner per shooting day,” she said.

Be quiet at last!

Gabriela Vránová (†78), who was given the role of mentally unstable teacher Hedvika Hajská, was looking forward to the broadcast of the series with concern. The actress came from a family of teachers, she held this profession in high esteem, and the actions of the serial character were against her grain. But in the end, she was glad that she accepted the role. “When the series appeared on television, I received hundreds of letters from teachers who literally ran away from their jobs because of similarly damaged nerves, and the series helped them cope with it,” revealed the actress.

For the author, the inspiration for the character of Hedvika Hajska was her son Pavle’s teacher, who had a similar problem. The screenwriter won the admiration of child psychologists as well. For how she was able to understand the issue between children and adults. And that includes the problem of how the parents are supposed to tell the child that they are adopted. “This series is about mutual understanding. When the big ones understand the little ones and can perceive other stories than just their own, then the world can be a better place. I admire more and more what the director Ráža and the actors were able to do with the story,” said Zinnerová.

Jana Šulcová (†76), who played the mother of first-grader Jirka Oliva, also recalled the filming. “At that time, I had small children, and at six in the morning a taxi arrived from Barrandov with Milan Šimáček (51), my film child, in it. He was like a jackhammer, talking and talking. I tell him: If you keep quiet except for Barrandov, I’ll buy you a bag of candies. After arriving, however, it started again. I tell him: Don’t crawl on me, I’m not your mother, but then I see his eyes, I smile and say: Come and cuddle,” she recalled.

Milan Šimačka’s red hair had to be filmed to make him look even cuter. Jirka was originally supposed to be played by Pino Foris (53), the current husband of Monika Kvasničková (54), who in the series plays the daughter of Hajska’s teacher, the eight-year-old Alena. But the school did not release him because he was, according to his own words, a rascal.

Slumped behind the counter

While all the actors from the series praise their roles, the director and the screenwriter, Jiřina Švorcová (†83), who took on the role of deputy director, did not remember the project We all have to go to school fondly. “The character of the representative was just a libation without her own destiny and character, there was nothing to play for,” Švorcová said in her book. “That’s when I felt what it means for an actor to lose self-confidence and security, without which you can’t calmly get on stage or in front of the camera. While filming, I felt like I was naked in the midst of thorns.’

Miroslav Vladyka, Věra Galatíková, Jiřina Švorcová and Libuše Havelková in the series We all have to go to school (1984)

The truth remains that, just like the star of the series Woman behind the counter, other actors also had different ideas about the series We all have to go to school and the subsequent life after it. It is mainly about child stars. None of them continued their acting career. Although some tried, no one managed to break out of the box of a small schoolboy and all ended up finding regular jobs.

For example, Milan Šimáček appeared in front of the camera for the last time in 1989 in the TV movie Útěk ze serial. Due to a “lack of talent” he was not admitted to the conservatory, he trained as a car mechanic and worked at Dopravní podniku Praha before entering the military service. After returning to civilian life, he ran a Prague grocery store with his mother for nine years and works as a data technician in a private company.

The magical and often very depressing music of Petr Hapka (†70) also accompanies the series We all have to go to school. If the composer was a genius in anything, it was in the fact that he was able to express an idea even without words. “I had no brief, just the first part of the script. That’s why I drew on my own memories of elementary school,” the composer described years later.

However, as soon as Petr Hapka’s serial ringtone ended, the audience returned to the real world to their concerns. A number of parents pondered, for example, where to get school supplies for their children. In the stationery shops of the time, which were also called narpa (national paper shops) from the 1950s, there was a permanent shortage of metal circles, sharpeners and fountain pens. While today there is a rush in stationery stores, especially at the beginning of the school year, in the past, queues formed there, especially as soon as there were shortages of goods on the shelves. It was gone even faster.