Founder of KVN. History of creation, leading and best KVN teams

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

KVN today is not only an abbreviation of a popular TV show. This is a game that connects several generations and a huge number of representatives of different countries and cultures. After the next birthday of the club, let's remember the history of KVN, the founders and how it all began.

In the beginning it was BBB

Although the official history of KVN dates back to 1961, the basis of the popular program was laid a little earlier. In 1957, on the eve of the World Festival of Youth and Students, the center of which Moscow was chosen, at the Komsomol meeting it was decided to introduce the humorous program "An Evening of Merry Questions" into the television program. It is worth noting that the prototype of this program was the Czechoslovak TV show "Guess, Guess, Fortune Teller". The creators of this game were Sergei Muratov, Albert Axelrod and Mikhail Yakovlev, and the composer Nikita Bogoslovsky and the aspiring actress Margarita Lifanova were chosen as the hosts of the program.

The format of the TV show "Evening of funny questions" was significantly different from KVN, to which we are accustomed. First of all, the game was released only inlive, and its participants were directly the audience. Unfortunately, despite its great popularity, the program went on the air only three times, due to an overlay on the air, the project was canceled.

The birth of a club of cheerful and resourceful

Only four years after the closing of the "Evening of funny questions" program, the idea of creating a humorous TV game "Club of cheerful and resourceful" (or simply KVN) was born. The authors of the games of the humorous club were the same people who were engaged in the games of BBB. "An evening of funny questions" was closed due to overlap with the audience, who wished to participate in the program. In this regard, the founder of KVN Sergey Muratov decided to make the game purely television. Yes, and the name KVN came in handy: in those days, this was the name of the KVN-49 TV brand. It was at this time that the format of the wit competition between different teams, familiar to us from childhood, was laid.

The debut of the new TV show took place in November 1961, and Albert Axelrod and Svetlana Zhiltsova turned out to be the hosts of KVN some time after the start of the broadcast of the games.

Participants of the club's first games

Unlike the current teams, the first members of the club were students of institutes and universities. In the debut game, the participants were teams from MISI (Moscow Institute of Civil Engineering) and the Institute of Foreign Languages. The first programs were broadcast live in the same way as the "Evening of Funny Questions" program had once been. And although the script as suchInitially, there were no contests, and part of the contests was invented on the go, and the rules were improved in the process, the popularity of KVN grew at an amazing rate.

The KVN movement quickly spread throughout the country. Games began to be held not only among students, but also among schoolchildren and vacationers in pioneer camps, at enterprises. Teams had to go through a serious selection process to get into the game that was shown on TV, which could only be overcome by the best of the best.

KVN host - Alexander Maslyakov

Until 1964, Albert Axelrod was the main host of the TV show, but he left the TV project along with other founders - Sergei Muratov and Mikhail Yakovlev. Instead of Axelrod, Alexander Maslyakov, a student of the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers, was appointed to the position of game manager, who to this day is the leader of the club's major league games.

However, the program was not destined to be on television for a long time. The players were often ironic about the ideology of the Soviet regime, so the records of the club's games began to be censored. Over time, censorship became more severe, and sometimes even reached the point of absurdity. So, KVN participants could not go on stage with a beard - the censors saw this as a mockery of Karl Marx. And in 1971, due to the overly sharp jokes of the teams, the program was closed by decision of the head of the central television, Sergei Lapin.

We start KVN

Thanks to the efforts of one of the participantsthe first KVN telecast was aired again. The new founder of KVN Andrey Menshikov, the captain of the MISI team, left the format of the program and the presenter (Alexander Maslyakova). But there were some innovations: an invited jury appeared (in the first editions, these were the founders of the game), new contests and a scoring system. Among other things, the show host had to take on the role of editor.

So, in 1986, the country's television screens showed the first game of the revived club of the cheerful and resourceful. It was at this moment that the club's anthem "We start KVN" appeared, and past games began with a song performed by Oleg Anofriev.

The TV show took only a few episodes to reach the same level of popularity as previous projects. The Kvnov movement has also revived, moreover, it has spread not only in Russia, but also in some countries of Western Europe and in the United States of America.

KVN today

Today, KVN is one of the highest rated television programs. Kvnov games are held not only in schools and universities, but also in various enterprises. This humorous club unites participants not only from Russia and neighboring countries, but also from many European countries. Since the return of the game to TV screens, more than 100 different teams have taken part in the major leagues alone.

And although the rules of the game can change even during the competition, regardless of the level of the league (including in the major league of KVN), there are several basic, mandatory conditions. Firstly, KVN is a team game, one participant will not be released onto the stage. The team must have a captain or front-man representing it at the captains' competition, if such is included in the program. Secondly, teams are tested for their ability to joke in several competitions, for example, it can be a warm-up, homework or biathlon. Moreover, each game has a thematic title that sets the direction.

On television now you can see the games of the major league, premieres, international and releases of children's KVN.

The most famous KVN players

In the very first KVN games, which took place from 1961 to 1971, the participants were such celebrities as Boris Burda, Mikhail Zadornov, Gennady Khazanov, Leonid Yakubovich and Yuly Gusman (who has long been a permanent member of the jury of major league games).

In addition, almost all the founders of the popular comedy TV project "Comedy Club" left KVN. So, Garik Martirosyan led the New Armenians team, Mikhail Galustyan - "Burnt by the Sun", in which Alexander Revva also performed, Semyon Slepakov - the team of the city of Pyatigorsk, Pavel Volya and Timur Rodriguez were members of the Valeon Dasson team.

In addition, over the years, Alexey Kortnev, Vadim Samoilov, Alexander Pushnoy, Pelageya, Alexander Gudkov, Vadim Galygin, Ekaterina Varnava and many other KVN players who became famous took part in the games of the club.

KVN team "Ural dumplings" releasesthe show of the same name, in which, as in KVN, Andrey Rozhkov, Dmitry Sokolov, Dmitry Brikotkin, Maxim Yaritsa participate. The first team that continued to joke on television in their own show was the "Odessa Gentlemen", by the way, with their light hand, or rather, a joke uttered in one of the games, Alexander Vasilyevich Maslyakov was proclaimed president of the club of cheerful and resourceful.

The best KVN teams. What are they?

To earn the title of the best KVN team, the participants needed to win the major league games. Over the long history of the TV show, the cup of winners has received many teams, each of them can be called the best.

In different years, the best were the participants of one of the most titled teams "Children of Lieutenant Schmidt", the national team of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, the Tomsk team "Maximum", "County Town", "Juice", "Triod and Diode", " UNION", "Asia MIX" and many others.

Who was on the jury of the major league of KVN?

Celebrities are invited to the KVN jury - show business stars, former KVN participants, producers, actors or TV presenters. And although the composition of judges changes regularly, it is never less than 5 people. So, let's remember the most eminent members of the refereeing team of the club.

Throughout the history of the KVN game, a huge number of celebrities have been judges. So, the founder of KVN Andrey Menshikov was present at the first games as a member of the jury. As mentioned earlier, a permanent member of the jury of major league games -Julius Gusman. It has been assessing the ability of participants to joke for over 30 years. Konstantin Ernst, chairman of the judging panel of the major league game, is present at almost all games of this level. Permanent members of the jury also include Leonid Yakubovich, Ekaterina Strizhenova, Valdis Pelsh and Mikhail Galustyan.

In addition, at various times, media personalities participated and continue to participate as members of the jury of the major league in KVN: Alexander Abdulov, Igor Vernik, Semyon Slepakov, Vladislav Tretiak, Ivan Urgant, Andrey Malakhov, Pelageya, Leonid Yarmolnik, Andrey Mironov, Vladislav Listyev, Larisa Guzeeva and many others.