Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter

Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter is a 1973-75 Swedish TV-series for children, hosted by Magnus Härenstam, Brasse Brännström and Eva Remaeus. The TV-series included songs and sketches with education about letters, numbers, positions, etc. Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter was broadcast first on 19 November 1973 on TV2 by Sveriges Television and it was also broadcast as Sveriges Television's Christmas calendar. Fem myror is available for purchase on VHS and DVD and there are also PC games. The animated number segments by Owe Gustafson were later exported to the American television series Sesame Street, and the Israeli counterpart Rechov Sumsum.

About the TV-series

When the series premiered its first run from November 19th 1973 to February 8th 1974, it was mostly about numbers, and there were 2 puppet characters named Knysten and Fräs, the set used in the sketches with Magnus, Brasse and Eva in the first 15 episodes was a simple white background, the first run reran in March 1977 under the name "Fem små myror är fler är fler än fyra elefanter" with the Knysten and Fräs sketches either omitted or replaced with a animated story drawn and animated by Kjell Ivan Anderson and narrated by Tomas Löfdahl
Letters came along in 1975, and Knysten and Fräs have been replaced by animated stories drawn and animated by Kjell Ivan Anderson and narrated by Tomas Löfdahl, the numbers from the previous run remained for rest of the series, the set used in the sketches with Magnus, Brasse and Eva are multi-coloured background, boarder and ground, the last episode aired on May 24th 1975
On boxing day 1976, the christmas special "Fem Myrors Julshow" premiered with the letters F and the number 2, new christmas themed sketches were filmed for this episode, this is the first time that animated stories drawn and animated by Kjell Ivan Anderson features the three friends Vera, Ellen and Cecilia narrated by Monica Zetterlund were made, more would later be made in the 1977 Sveriges Television's Christmas calendar, "Fem Myrors Julshow" reran on christmas day 1982
Besides entertaining children, Magnus, Brasse and Eva wanted to make children interested in letters and numbers and every program had 1 letter and 1 number as a theme.
The animations later in the TV-series, Monica Zetterlund, Tomas Löfdahl and an unknown child actor were voice-overs. Fem myror was produced by Bengt Linné & Lasse Haglund, the music was written by Bengt Ernryd and the lyrics were written by Magnus & Brasse. The animations were made by Owe Gustafson.
Fem myror also includes sketches, such as Brasse's fun box, where Brasse presents 4 animals of which 1 doesn't belong with the others and should be removed. Magnus and Eva have to guess but Brasse always thinks they're wrong; the purpose of this sketch is to teach children that one thing may have more than one property.
1977 Fem myror was broadcast as SVT's Sveriges Television's Christmas calendar with 97 brand new sketches along with 26 sketches reused from the second run from 1975. Normally julkalendern is broadcast December 1-24, but because Fem myror had one program for every letter in the Swedish alphabet, it was broadcast from 27 November and then as such, it was able to have shows for all the 28 letters until December 24., the 1977 Sveriges Television's Christmas calendar later reran from September 1978 to April 1979 without the hatch opening sketches and with 13 more sketches reused from the second run from 1975, 2006 Fem myror was voted 'Best children's TV-series' at Folktoppen with more than 50% of the votes., the 1977 Sveriges Television's Christmas calendar is up on SVT Play and it is the only version of the series that is available on SVT Play since the rest of the versions aren't publicly available on SVT Play due to copyright even though Sveriges Television owns the series

1984-1985 rerun edits

From August 1984 to June 1985, the series had 40-episode long rerun edits compiling the sketches and animations from 1973-1977, this is the version that had reruns on SVT1 from October 6th 1990 to January 13th 1991, January 16th 1993 to January 29th 1994, January 11th 1997 to January 10th 1998 on Bolibompa, January 13th 2001 to December 24th 2001 on morning Bolibompas at 8am, August 26th 2007 to June 22nd 2008 at 6pm on Bolibompa and even simulcasting with SVT Barn and June 30th 2012 to April 14th 2013 on SVT Barn on Bolibompa
When the last cast member of the series Magnus Härenstam passed away on June 13th 2015, SVT1 reran the third episode and the ninth episode of the 1984-1985 40-episode long rerun edits to represent Magnus Härenstam's name, both episodes reran on June 21st and 22nd 2015
Although not receiving any reruns on TV after June 22nd 2015, the series would be on SVT Play in the form of the 1984-1985 rerun edits and 20 from December 11th 2015 to June 9th 2016 and May 12th 2017 to November 8th 2017

Cast

Magnus Härenstam as Magnus
Brasse Brännström as Brasse
Eva Remaeus as Eva
Tomas Löfdahl as narrator
Monica Zetterlund as narrator
John Harryson as Knysten
Helena Brodin as Fräs
Dennis Smith as Knysten's puppeteer
Annty Landherr as Fräs' puppeteer
Home media releases
Around 1982 and 1983, Warner Home Video released 8 volumes of the series compiling sketches from 1973-1977 which would later be re-released by Kanal 10 in 1993
The first 8 volumes would later be compiled into 3 2-3-hour long tapes released by Kanal 10 and Carlton Home Entertainment Sweden in 1995
1997 would see the release of "Mest om Siffror" released by Independent Video
In 2000, Independent Video would re-released the 3 tapes released by Kanal 10 and Carlton Home Entertainment Sweden and rediting them by either removing or adding new sketches, they would later be released on DVD in 2001 by Vision Park Video and Pan Vision
A 4-dvd boxset containing the 3 DVD releases and an extra disc containing a compilation of sketches from the 1977 Sveriges Television's Christmas calendar in 2008, and later reissued by SF Studios in 2014
Episodes

CD releases