The Three Friends and Jerry

The Three Friends and Jerry
The main cast of The Three Friends and Jerry. From left to right: Frank, Eric, Thomas, Jerry, Linda, Mimmi, and Tess.
Also known as	Three Friends and Jerry The Three Friends and Jerry Show
Genre	Sitcom Animation
Created by	Magnus Carlsson
Composer	Danny Chang
Country of origin	Sweden Germany United Kingdom
Original languages	English Swedish German
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	39 (90 segments including 1 special)[1]
Production
Executive producers	Matt Fleckenstein Michael Feldman
Running time	22–25 minutes
Production companies	Happy Life TMO Film GmbH
Distributor	HIT Entertainment (Worldwide, except Germany and Scandinavia) Wavery Entertainment B.V. (Germany)
Release
Original network	SVT (Sweden) KIKA (Germany) Nickelodeon
Picture format	PAL
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	February 1, 1998 (1998-02-01) – 1999 (1999)

The Three Friends and Jerry (Swedish: De tre vännerna och Jerry) is a Swedish-German-British animated television series. The series was created by Magnus Carlsson^[2] and produced by Happy Life and TMO Film GmbH in association with Nickelodeon UK and Nickelodeon Germany.

Plot[]

Jerry is the new kid in town who does not fit with any of his classmates. This series shows his best attempts to try to be liked by the 'Three Friends' - Thomas, Eric, and their leader Frank - who do not want him to be part of their group but still let him hang out with them as long as he helps them with their problems. They also fall in love for a group of the girls in town, who refuse to date them and refer to them as Punks. Apart from school, the group have to contend with parents, and their own conflicts.

Setting[]

The setting location of the series is left unclear. But the houses and architecture depicted in the series are European or Eurocentric-like, suggesting a location in Europe. The creators of the series likely took inspiration from the architecture of Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom, since the series was a Swedish/German/British co-production.

Characters[]

Main[]

• Jerry - the new kid in town, a short blonde-haired boy with buck tooth and wearing a yellow T-shirt. Jerry is a calm and bright boy with head full of ideas. He wants to join the eponymous Three Friends, but usually meets with disapproval of their leader - Frank - of whom he is the polar opposite. Despite his inventiveness, his plans rarely succeed. Besides, Jerry is the only child of the PE Teacher and won two beauty contests as a baby due being mistaken for a girl for his cute appearance. He is based on a real childhood friend of Magnus who is also named Jerry.
• Frank - the leader of the group, a bald-headed boy who wears a blue T-shirt with a yellow number 1. The polar opposite to Jerry, Frank is a nervous and cunning child who hardly bears to be beaten. Due to his appearance he is considered the ugliest boy of the school. He ineffectively tries to win the heart of the most popular girl in the school – Linda – despite the fact they are actually cousins. He doesn't like Jerry and his ideas, thus he doesn't want to let him join the group. However, when he agrees, something usually fails and Frank rejects Jerry again. Just like the other three, he dislikes school and incredibly fears Jerry's father.
• Thomas - a boy with a red hoodie, never seen without his big green cap. He is dominated by Frank and usually takes his side in arguments or debates. Despite hanging with Frank, Thomas has actually liked of an artist, He needs to hide is artistic nature in fear of being laughed and humiliated. In the later episodes it is revealed that he and Jerry caught Mimmi's eye. He is based on Magnus himself when he was younger.
• Eric - a boy with a long blonde hair and a green T-shirt. A football maniac and the best player of the school. Just like Thomas, Eric is dominated by Frank. However, he is the only person in the group that Frank usually agrees with. In the later episodes it is revealed that with him.
• Linda - the most popular girl in the school, Frank's cousin to whom he is unluckily attracted. Linda is interested in boys older than her and hates her peers. Just like her cousin she is very knowing and likes to treat men as her friends, what sometimes happens to Frank and the others. Linda dominated two other girls - Tess and Mimmi - who always take her side. She considers being related to Frank as injustice.
• Mimmi - a small Asian girl and the adopted daughter of Roy Johnson and is Linda's and Tess' friend. She and wears a blue dress with a smiley face symbol. Mimmi considers her wealth as her main asset, however, she is dominated by Linda and blindly follows her. She finds Jerry and Thomas as attractive. When she was a baby, she lost a beauty contest to Jerry, who was mistaken as a girl by Oscar, which leads to Oscar's social degradation.
• Tess - she is Tony's sister and Linda's friend. She has short blonde hair. She wears a white midriff shirt, purple skirt, and green shoes. and keeps that secret from Linda and Mimmi.

Secondary characters[]

• PE Teacher - Jerry's choleric father and the person the group is feared of most. He is very angry with three friends and his son, but he has a good heart and intentions. He has red hair and an athletic and muscular body. He loves to do exercises. Lives in a one-floor house with his wife and son.
• Jerry's mother - PE Teacher's wife. She has a caring and calm personality. Jerry inherited his looks and personality from her.
• Roy Johnson - the wealthiest person in the town, he is Mimmi's adopted father and a boss of the shop at Carlsonville.
• Monica - an attractive brown-haired girl that works at Roy's shop. She is also Tony's girlfriend.
• Tony - a heavy metal guitarist, Tess' 16-years-old brother and Monica's boyfriend.
• Teacher - she teaches Jerry's class. The three friends and Jerry try to send her into space so they will not have any lessons.
• Dick Priest - he keeps an eye on the town where everything is fine. As a priest, he works in the church. Despite campaigning against everything immoral, he is revealed to be a fan of death metal music and horror movies.
• Mr and Mrs. Ingrid Bertwhistle - they are Jerry's neighbors. Mr. Bertwhistle is a grumpy man that loves beer and wants to contact the extraterrestrials. He is liked by the boys to some degree, however he does not fare well with Jerry's Dad, who considers him as a lazy drunkard. His father possesses a missile in his room.
• Oscar - a local bum and drunkard everybody in the town is afraid of. Several years ago he was a wealthy and respected person. Everything changed when being a baby beauty contest juror he mistakenly gave the first place to Jerry, while Roy Johnson previously bribed him to make his daughter Mimmi win. After losing his wealth he lives in an old shack.

Production[]

An interview in late 2020, Magnus revealed many things about the development of the series.^[3] Magnus drew the characters around 1993 or 1994, he later made a short pilot in 1995 starring the characters doing adult things such as drinking and smoking, he then decided to pitch it to Comedy Central for a full series, however it was not picked up due to being extremely similar to another show they picked up around the same time, which would become South Park. He then decided to make the show more family-friendly, with him basing the three friends and Jerry on an actual group of friends he had growing up with Thomas being based on himself and Jerry being based on an actual friend named Jerry he knew growing up. He also based Jerry's father on Jerry's actual father, alongside basing Linda, Mimmi and Tess being based on girls he knew growing up.

The main characters's long foreheads were inspired by the film “Coneheads”.

He also initially wanted the theme song to be a reggae song but it was changed.

Broadcast[]

The series originally broadcast in the United Kingdom on Nickelodeon and Nicktoons, with reruns remaining until 2010, mainly to fulfill European content guidelines.

In Germany, the series was planned to air on Nickelodeon Germany, but as the latter's original incarnation shut down after this show premiered, the series would instead air on KIKA.^[4] The series later reran on Fox Kids/Jetix/Disney XD until late-2009, and ProSieben MAXX from 2013 to 2014^[5])

In the USA, the show initially aired from 1998 to 2001 on Fox Family Channel,^[6] it also aired on Sprout for a time from 2005 to 2006.

In Canada, the series aired on YTV,^[7] and in Australia, it aired on Nickelodeon.^[8] It also aired on Fox Kids and Jetix internationally, NCRV in the Netherlands,^[9] Nickelodeon & Boing in Spain, 2x2 in Russia, Premiere Austria in Austria,^[10] and Arutz HaYeladim in Israel.

Segments[]

References[]

External links[]

• The Three Friends and Jerry at IMDb
• PBS article about Three Friends and Jerry joining Sprout on Demand
• The Three Friends... And Jerry on TheTVDB