Every Monday night in 1976 everybody would scurry home and remain glued for half an hour in front of their black-and-white television sets to watch the latest episode of F'Bahar Wiehed on Xandir Malta.
Now, 26 years on, Net TV is hoping to rekindle the same magic by reproducing the series in colour and keeping the original two main actors - Lino Grech as Pinu il-Pastizzar and Gemma Portelli as the notorious Goma.
Penned by Lino Grech himself in 1971 for Rediffusion, F'Bahar Wiehed eventually went on to become the first teleserial to appear on Xandir Malta in Maltese.
"I had written it as a series for radio and it was only at the urging of my friend Lino Farrugia that we had it screened on television," Mr Grech said in an interview.
The drama had gone on to become so popular that Fr Angelo Seychell wrote in Familja Kana in January 1977 that "F'Bahar Wiehed is an X-ray of society and the Maltese family".
"This drama paints a picture of the good, the bad and the ugly of Malta - the 'dear' nagging between a married couple, blunt words, genuine feelings, evil, turned-up noses and simplicity," Fr Seychell had said.
Mr Grech said he had been inspired to write this drama after witnessing the open distinction between classes in certain circles.
"I used to live in Sliema where society was split into two - those tal-Lazy Corner or those tal-puliti. While the former would gossip openly on the doorstep, the latter would pretend it was above such low behaviour and instead gossiped on the phone, hidden away from the vigilant eyes of neighbours," he recalled.
"These traits in society inspired me. But first and foremost I wanted to entertain the audience, so I created Goma's character who was blunt, happy-go-lucky, yet stubborn," he said.
Mr Grech said that Goma had become such a household name that if someone was making silly remarks in Parliament they would be told to "stop speaking like Goma".
Goma was married to Pinu, a shrewd man of the same class. The story takes on an interesting, and comic twist when their daughter Mary (played in the Seventies by Inez Farrugia) became a teacher and falls in love with a lawyer and son of a former magistrate.
You can imagine the mayhem that followed and the dilemma the magistrate's family faced when their son defies their wishes and decides to marry a girl from a lower class family.
Net TV head of productions Charles Stroud believes that the drama is still very relevant to today's society, because though the class distinction was not so evident, it still existed.
Mr Stroud said that Mr Grech had had to rewrite the drama to make up 26 episodes of 40 minutes each and it was also slightly adapted to reflect today's lifestyle.
"The plot is still the same and I believe it has all the right ingredients to be a winner. It has a love story, it's a comedy, yet also a tragedy, injected with corruption and jealousy," he said.
Shooting of the series, which will be launched on Net TV in October and run until March, starts this week.
"It was not easy to cast and find good actors because many were already caught up doing other shows, but we are very happy with our final choice," Mr Stroud said.
The new cast includes Moira Muscat, Fabian Scerri De Carlo, Monica Attard, Ronald Saliba, Maroushka Bugeja, Joe Galea, Tony Busuttil, Teresa Gauci and Antonella Galea Lofreda.