At a time when television offers so many artificial variations of "reality" shows, it was heartening to see the impact of a recent real-life documentary series aired on Czech Television — and in some ways, heartbreaking.

In 1981, documentary filmmaker Helena Třeštíková began filming six Czech couples, tracking them for a five-year period beginning with their weddings. The resulting series, Manželské etudy ("Marital Studies"), aired in 1987 to much acclaim.

In 1999, Třeštíková revisited the couples for another five-year period to produce a sequel (Marital Studies: 20 Years Later). The second series was shown weekly in tandem with the first, starting Jan. 1 this year. Each two-hour segment was devoted to one couple.

The response was remarkable. "The documentaries are among the most successful programs ever featured on public television," says Martin Krafl, spokesman for Czech Television. One tragic story even triggered an outpouring of sympathy and donations.

No hidden cameras

Třeštíková began her Marital Studies project shortly after finishing her studies at FAMU. Even then, her desire to capture moments in time — evident in subsequent work such as The Sweet Century (1997) and Hitler, Stalin and I (2003) — was clear.

"A documentary should offer the future a picture of a certain time period," she says.

The couples represent a cross-section of Czech society: Half are now divorced, which mirrors the country's divorce rate of 50 percent. Even though there was no way to predict what would happen, illustrating the causes and effects of divorce was one of Třeštíková's intentions.

"We decided to try the same process as experts who map these sociological and psychological phenomena — they monitor something or someone for a period of time," she says. "We wanted to try that out in a documentary film."

She chose her subjects from the 1980 marriage registry of Prague's Old Town Hall. All of them agreed to be filmed during good times and bad. "I told them at the very start that we'd like to shoot not only the happy moments in life, like their wedding — when, after all, people trust that only happy days are ahead — but also moments that will not be as optimistic," Třeštíková says.

Pavel Halamka, 46, now the manager of the Harlekýn pool hall in Prague 2, recalls the conversation he had with his wife about deciding to take part in the project. "We decided we would always speak the truth, that we wouldn't hide anything," he says. "So today, I see the documentary as part of my life."

Třeštíková visited the couples at regular intervals, starting with their wedding preparations and then following up several weeks after the wedding, then every six months or so. Because the public television budget was so low, the crew often had to film all six couples in one day. In contrast to the invasive tendencies of contemporary so-called reality television, Třeštíková never believed in hidden cameras. As it turned out, she didn't need any.

"She has this gift of a person who wins your confidence," Halamka says. "After a while, you find yourself opening up to her and saying things that maybe you wouldn't say otherwise."

And Třeštíková managed to be unobtrusive. Halamka's son Dominik, 24, says he barely remembers the shooting and interviews as anything more than an occasional part of a happy family life.

A special bond

The Halamkas have one of the more positive stories — they're still married. Other stories were filled with frustration, despair and sorrow.

Marcela Haverlandová married Jiří at age 18 and gave birth to a daughter, Ivana, soon thereafter. After living in a one-room flat with eight members of Jiří's extended family, the couple divorced within a year and Haverlandová went on to raise her daughter single-handedly.

The father, Jiří, does not appear in the documentary's second part. Haverlandová alleged that he raped Ivana when she was 8, after which she and her daughter broke off contact with him. (Jiří subsequently announced he was filing slander charges.) Tragically, the daughter was killed by a train in December 2005.

The wave of sympathy that poured in from viewers — roughly 1 million people watched the series — astounded Haverlandová and Třeštíková. Czech Television started receiving calls immediately after the broadcast from people offering to help. Mladá fronta Dnes, along with the television station and a Web site set up specifically to help Haverlandová, provided bank account information to facilitate donations. Haverlandová was also flooded with letters, flowers and phone calls.

"Everything in her life ended up in a very bad way — one misfortune came after another," Třeštíková told Mladá fronta Dnes. "Today, for the very first time, she no longer feels alone."

Public reaction to the series amazed other participants as well. Halamka says he received 20 to 30 e-mails from people who have led lives similar to his family's, and are glad to see others living in full.

Furniture store owner Václav Strnad says he was "surprised" by people's reactions to his and his wife Ivana's segment. People began stopping by his shop on Vinohradská street just to shake his hand and say they appreciated the project.

The couples all met together for the first time in 1986, for a screening of the series. A party in December 2005 marked the project's wrap-up, and Halamka hosted a party at Harlekýn in early February. "At least one person from each couple came," he says. "The wonderful thing is that I knew them, I could never forget them. We sat down and talked about our lives, our problems, and it was great."