Pan Tau (Czech for "Mr. Tau") is a character created for a children's television series. There were 33 episodes in 3 series made by the Czechoslovak Television (ČST) in cooperation with Barrandov Studios and the West German TV network Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). A pilot film was shot in 1966, and 33 episodes were made from 1970 until 1979. The project ended with a feature film in 1988. The protagonist Pan Tau, who generally didn't speak and communicated through pantomime, was played by Otto Šimánek (1925–1992). The series was written by Ota Hofman and directed by Jindřich Polák. The plot of each episode was generally comical but contained some kind of problem for a child, and here Pan Tau found the way to solve the problem. Pan Tau always had a gentle expression and a friendly smile, he was elegantly dressed in a stroller, with an umbrella and a white carnation in the lapel. Foremost, he was famous for his magic bowler hat. By tapping on his hat, Pan Tau was able to change his appearance into a puppet, to conjure up miscellaneous objects or to do other magic. His most characteristic behaviour is that he would help children who were experiencing some sort of difficulties in-between their dreams and reality, like finding a place for skiing, settling family problems on Christmas, and even give a boy a good time at a fair when he is supposed to have piano lessons. To adults, he usually remained invisible. Although Czechoslovakia then was under a Communist regime, this never was very obvious for the viewers. Pan Tau was a popular children's program in several countries at both sides of the Iron Curtain (such as in both West and East Germany and also in the Scandinavian countries), which also appealed to the adult viewers to a certain degree. Theodor Pištěk designed the costumes for the series. Ten years after the end of the series, Šimánek again appeared as Pan Tau in a 1988 cinema film. He was also featured in the German singer Nena's 1990 music video for Du bist überall ("You Are Everywhere", from her Wunder gescheh'n studio album), which was shot in Prague. In 2020 a reboot with Matt Edwards as Pan Tau produced by German broadcaster ARD was broadcast.

Series overview

Pan Tau and First Adventure

Plot summary

Pan Tau makes his first appearance helping a young boy, who is reluctantly attending piano lessons, to overcome his boredom.

Cast

First series

Plot summary

Cast

Second Series

Plot summary

Pan Tau meets dysfunctional family Urban and decides to bring back Alfonz, Father Urban's brother (and a dead lookalike of Pan Tau), from a lonely island Alfonz has fled to in his adventurous youth for a Robinson-like life.

Cast

Third Series

Plot summary

Cast

Episodes

First series

Second series

Third Series

Third Series (7 episodes) was cut into two films - Poplach v oblacích (Czech - Alarm in the clouds, 1 - 3 episodes and episode 4 miss) and Od zítřka nečaruji (From tomorrow I'm so not using magic, 5 - 7 episodes)

Trivia