{{unreferenced, date=June 2012
''Tabu'' was an eight-part, Finnish
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...
program produced and shown between 1986 and 1987. The series was produced for
MTV3
MTV3 ( fi, MTV Kolme, sv, MTV Tre) is a Finnish commercial television station. It had the biggest audience share of all Finnish TV channels until Yle TV1 (from Yle) took the lead. The letters MTV stand for Mainos-TV (literally "Advertisement ...
by professional Helsinki actor-company Ryhmäteatteri.
The series had a troubled production history, suffering from low ratings and creative disagreements with Mainostelevisio. The series also departed from established skit-comedy shows of past with skits lasting up to several minutes, featuring multifaceted characters and frequently acts of violence, swearing, innuendo and other disturbing or chaotic material. MTV3 felt that Ryhmäteatteri had not produced the type of show they had hoped for which eventually led to censoring of swearwords from several episodes.
Despite its troubles, Tabu eventually won
Venla
{{Unreferenced, date=December 2020
Venla was a Finnish television award. It was awarded annually between 1982 and 2010, after which it was replaced by the Golden Venla gala and award.
The drama and entertainment judges award prizes in eleven categ ...
awards in both 1986 and 1987, has enjoyed reruns on both MTV3 and
SubTV
MTV Sub (formerly TVTV!, Subtv and Sub) is a Finnish TV channel owned by MTV Oy. The previous owner Alma Media sold Sub and its sister channels (MTV3, C More Max, MTV Ava Radio Nova and Sävelradio) to Swedish Bonnier and Proventus in 2005.
P ...
as well as had a full DVD release.
The show was also an important early step for actors
Aake Kalliala
Aarne "Aake" Kalliala (born 5 October 1950, Heinola) is a Finnish actor. He is best known for appearing on comedy-sketch shows such as ''Pulttibois'' (with Pirkka-Pekka Petelius).
Partial filmography
* ''Hamlet Goes Business'' (''Hamlet liikemaail ...
and
Pirkka-Pekka Petelius
Pirkka-Pekka Petelius (born 31 May 1953) is a Finnish actor, Film director, director, Film producer, producer, screenwriter and politician. He has also released six records as a singer. He is a member of the Green League and was elected to the Pa ...
working for MTV3, as they had previously worked for their competitor
YLE
Yleisradio Oy (Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founde ...
and would go on create the break-out sketch show
Pulttibois
Pulttibois (Finglish for "Bolt Boys"; also a play on words of ''pultti pois'' - "to have a screw loose") was a popular Finnish sketch comedy television show that premiered on MTV3 in 1989 and which starred a two-man cast of comedic actors - Pir ...
two years later.
Finnish television sketch shows