 Fantozzi was created in 1968 out of a television program, "Quelli della domenica", in which Villaggio played a stereotypically unlucky Italian salaryman, named "Giandomenico Fracchia" (who, on the success of the Fantozzi saga, will later have his own cinematographic duology in the 1980s, composed of "Fracchia la belva umana" and "Fracchia contro Dracula").The first collection, "Fantozzi", was published in 1971, and introduced a hapless accountant, fighting with the vices, the tortures and the changes in Italian society.He is an extravagant exaggeration of customs and habits of Italy's lower middle class.