It was a Danish television series that aired from 1978 and 1982. In the imaginary town of Korsbaek, Denmark, between 1929 and1947, the story takes place. Various characters from various social classes populate the show, but the focus is on the competition between the families of two prominent local businessmen: banker Hans Christian Varns and social ascetic Mads Skjern. Monopoly's localized version, Matador, was also the series' tentative English title. A "matador," a business tycoon in modern Danish parlance, is also used to define the show's protagonist, Mads Skjern, and his ingenuity as a self-made entrepreneur. Erik Balling, a renowned Danish filmmaker, was entrusted with the direction of Matador, an idea hatched by author Lise Nrgaard, who collaborated with Karen Smith, Jens Louis Petersen, and Paul Hammerich on the bulk of the episodes. Danish television drama has long been a staple of Danmarks Radio's public service broadcasts, and this series is regarded as a crowning achievement of that work. The series has become part of the modern self-understanding of Danes, in part because of its successful mix of melodrama and a distinct warm Danish humour in the depiction of characters, which were portrayed by a wide range of the most popular Danish actors at the time; but also not least because of its accurate portrayal of a turbulent Denmark from around the start of the Great Depression and through Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark in World War II;
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