Si Unyil

Unyil or Si Unyil is a longtime Indonesian children's television series, started in 1981 on the TVRI, the Indonesian national television company, for 12 years. The Unyil show, which regularly ran every Sunday morning, told a story about the eponymous main character whose typical Indonesian family lives in a rural area in the fictional Sukamaju Village. He lives with his dad, mom, and cousin. Along its 10 years show, the main characters never grew up and was "stuck" in the third grade. His best friends are Usro and Ucrit, while his (sometime) enemies are Endut and Cuplis.

In April 1981, Si Unyil appeared for the first time on the television screen.^[1] Within short time, the show that was broadcast by the only Indonesian television company at that time and state-owned TVRI, became a close friend to Indonesian children. Although it was meant to entertain children, the story of Si Unyil contained hidden messages of patriotism, nationalism, health, environment, armed forces, family planning, art and culture. There were, of course, children fantasy, such as folk stories, fables and fairy tales.

All characters in the Si Unyil are hand puppets with the physical appearances of ordinary Indonesian faces. Traditional touch is strongly apparent in the show, from the suit of every characters to the stories that dealing with everyday life. Characters are divided into "good" and "bad" ones, where a group of three young children (Unyil and his two friends) as good, while three other children as bad boys. Conflicts often arouse between the two groups with the ending always with a message to become a good children.

To enhance the story and to be more entertaining, two antagonistic characters were introduced. They are the short-tempered thick mustached Pak Raden and the lazy Pak Ogah. Although the two antagonistic characters were supposed to be unsympathetic ones, they were more popular than other characters. Pak Raden represents a hard working man with a rugged face and strong Javanese background who always wears a traditional Javanese suit. The popularity of Pak Raden came when he became funny and was wrong all the time despite of that he insisted strongly at the beginning that he was right. Pak Ogah, on the other hand, represents a lazy person who does not want to work but only to ask money when people asking for his help. He usually accompanied by his sidekick Ableh.

Recently, the show has been revived with a new concept. It is shown in Trans7, a commercial broadcasting station, as Laptop Si Unyil (at Monday to Friday) and "Catatan Harian Si Unyil" (at Saturday and Sunday) which focuses on technology, science, and culture.

References

See also

• Cinema of Indonesia
• Si Unyil on IMDb