The Dudesons

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The Dudesons is a Finnish television series, which originally started in January 2001 under the Finnish name Extreme Duudsonit. A combination of extreme stunts, comedy and reality, the show has become the most widespread Finnish TV-series of all time. The show follows the every day life of four best friends, who have a tendency for chaos and perilous situations.

History

The Dudesons consists of four members: Jukka Hilden (b. 1980), Jarno "Jarppi" Leppälä (b. 1979), Jarno Laasala (b. 1979) and Hannu-Pekka "HP" Parviainen (b. 1981). They were all born in the small city of Seinäjoki, Finland, and Jukka, Jarppi and Jarno became good friends since attending elementary school together.^[1]

The teenage Dudesons were heavy practitioners of snowboarding, skateboarding and downhill mountain biking. In the early 1990s, when Jarno got his first video camera, the group started shooting videos of their hobbies which eventually led to filming a variety of pranks and extreme stunts. They created VHS tapes which were filmed and edited by Jarno and subsequently sold them around until their reputation started to grow in Seinäjoki.

Original Finnish TV series

In January 2000, Jarno found work as an editor for a small cable TV-channel MoonTV. He saw a possibility to make his own show out of all the stunts the Dudesons had filmed. After finishing high school, the Dudesons set up their own production company called Rabbit Films. The group immediately began shooting a self-financed pilot episode for their own show.

This pilot was finished in August 2000, and the channel immediately green lighted the first season, titled as "Extreme Duudsonit". The episodes started showing in January 2001, and the series became the most popular show on MoonTV. In September 2001, the Dudesons moved from MoonTV to Nelonen, the 2nd biggest commercial network in Finland.^{[weasel words]}

2002 saw the coming of the 2nd season of the Extreme Duudsonit, and the same year The Dudesons were also elected as The Media Persons Of The Year by the readers of Finland’s most popular youth magazine Suosikki.

The 3rd and 4th seasons of Extreme Duudsonit ran respectively in 2003 and 2004. The 4th season saw the introduction of the 5th member of the Dudesons, a male pet pig named Britney (he was originally called Satan but they thought he was a she so changed his name to Britney, only to find out later that he was in fact a male pig), who has since then remained as an important character in The Dudesons TV-series. As the series progressed, it moved away from just being a stunt-based show and evolved into more of a varied reality comedy show.

Recurring stunts and segments on the English spoken version of the Dudesons includes: the "Human Dartboard", playing pranks on "Mr Hitler" and a vast array of other stunts "that absolute disregard for [their] own safety."

International career

In 2003, The Dudesons made a decision to start making English-language material in order to find international distribution. Their following series, Duudsoni Elämää, was shot both in Finnish and English. The material was then edited both into Finnish-language series, and English language series. The Finnish series ran in 2004, while the English series had its international debut at Australian Channel V in February 2006. The American debut was on SpikeTV on July 6, 2006.

By September 2007, The Dudesons Season 1 had been shown in 22 countries around the world, making it the most wide spread, Finnish TV-series of all time.^{[citation needed]}

The second season began in Australia on May 20, 2008 on Channel V. Subsequent episodes will air every Tuesday.^[2]

Season 1: 2006

Season 2: 2008

Season 3: 2009

Season 4: 2010

The Dudesons Movie

The international launch of The Dudesons TV-series was supported by the full length feature film The Dudesons Movie, which was released theatrically in Finland on March 31, 2005, and straight to DVD in a dozen other countries. The movie was released in the USA on July 11, 2006, by Warner Rhino. Despite mixed reviews from Finnish mainstream critics, the movie won the "Audience's Favourite Movie" at Jussi Awards, the Finnish equivalent of Oscars, with 47% of votes.

Other appearances

The Dudesons are good friends^[3] with American extreme stars Bam Margera and Steve-O and have made three appearances in the popular MTV series Viva La Bam. They also play supporting roles in Margera’s feature film Minghags and Bam Margera Presents: Where The #$&% Is Santa?. Margera and Steve-O on the other hand make numerous appearances on The Dudesons TV series.

The British extreme stunts TV series World of Stupid also did a half hour special on The Dudesons.

Jukka Hilden made an appearance in the Season 2 opener of MTV's Nitro Circus.

References

External links

• The Dudesons Official Website in English
• The Dudesons at the Internet Movie Database
• The Dudesons at the Internet Movie Database
• The Dudesons at TV.com
• Extreme Duudsonit (The Dudesons) Official Website in Finnish
• The Dudesons Game: Bonebreaker!
• Interview with Jarppi on MazeWorldWide.com

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