Format
The show was shot before a live audience, but instead of using a studio scenario, the producers decided to use a theatre in São Paulo, the Procópio Ferreira Theater. The program was shot there every Tuesday afternoon, but the theater was still receiving regular plays and spectacles, and the set had to be disassembled at the end of every shooting and then reassembled the following week, for the next shooting. The people involved in the show called it "the marathon of continuity", since every item of the family's apartment had to be in exactly the same place that it was in the previous episodes.
The show was never shot on location, and it had only one set: the living room of an apartment in São Paulo, in the neighborhood called Largo do Arouche. From the living room, the characters could exit through various doors or passages, supposedly leading to the building's hallway, a bathroom, the kitchen, a bedroom (Cassandra's), and an imaginary vestibule (never seen) with access to two other bedrooms (Vavá's and Caco's and Magda's), but there were no sets for those places, and all the action took place in the living room alone. The producers attempted to inject new life on the show by changing this set once. In 2000, eight episodes were shot that took place in a fictional family-owned cafe, the "Arouche's Place", but the change was not well received by the audiences, and poor ratings forced the return of the apartment set. This was done in such a hurry that one of the episodes that took place in the Cafe was dropped and left unaired. Upon the return to the apartment, the writers decided that the Cafe had exploded in unclear circumstances, probably as part of an insurance fraud scheme.
The atmosphere of the show was very different from the usual U.S. sitcoms in the sense that it was extremely informal. The actors often acknowledged the presence of the audience, sometimes even interacting with them. It was also relatively common for the actors to stall a scene because they were having difficulties remembering their lines or because they started laughing with the situations being portrayed. Only the longer, or more "complicated" mistakes were edited off the show, but most of the little things (as above described) were left in. So even though the show was taped, it had a "live feel" to it. For the second half of the show's run, the mistakes that had been edited out started being shown in a special feature that followed the end of each episode (curse words were beeped out).
Only one episode of the show was actually broadcast live: it was the premiere of the third season, in 1998. Since there would be no way to edit out mistakes and exaggerations, the actors were asked to keep improvisation to a minimum, and avoid at all costs curse words. It was treated as a gala event by the network, who invited a VIP audience to it. The story of the episode was created so that the actors could be dressed up during the performance (the characters were to attend a formal event). At the beginning of each segment, the network had reporters interview cast members and VIP guests at a red-carpet-like area in the theater.
In a further acknowledgment of its surroundings, every episode of the program ended with curtains down, just like a play. Then, the curtains would rise again and the cast would return to center stage and accept a standing ovation from the audience (as it would be done in a play). All that was kept in the taped episodes.
The show had many Brazilian special guests appear, such as actors Danielle Winits, José Wilker and Dercy Gonçalves, singers Rita Lee and Elba Ramalho and entertainer Angélica, among others.
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