Bassie and Adriaan
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Bassie and Adriaan are a popular clown and acrobat duo who featured in their own television series, taped between 1976 and 1994 and (as of 2004) still aired in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium) television. Before Bassie and Adriaan went on television they were a successful acrobatic duo who performed in many Dutch circuses. The television series consistently feature the duo, from time to time assisted by a parrot called Tweety, a dog called Lara or a small robot named Robin. Mostly aired on public television by broadcaster TROS, the series then switched to commercial broadcasters such as Kindernet and later on the Dutch version of the American children's channel Nickelodeon.
The plots of the ten-to-thirteen-episodes-long series center around the duo getting involved in a criminal sceme by not-so-intelligent bad guys. Bassie and Adriaan are then falsely accused and spend the rest of the series tracking down the criminals and turning them over to the police. In many episodes their adventures lead them to exotic places in the south of Europe, mostly in Spain, the Canary Islands and Greece. Well-known crooks in the series are "B1", a mafia-like character, "B2", a nearly deaf and slow-moving criminal, "Handige Harry", a producer of dud bombs, "Vlugge Japie", a famous jewelery thief, and "de Baron", the evil mastermind of the gang.
Bassie and Adriaan are still very popular although Adriaan (Aad van Toor) has ended his public appearances because of his battle against cancer. Bassie (Bas van Toor) still performs jokes, but has been forced to do it in a one-man show. Adriaan was for a time replaced by a female magician, but children did not accept her and a personal feud between her and Bassie ended the tour before it even started. Bassie and Adriaan turned their successful television series into a profitable company, selling products ranging from comic books to DVD's.
The following series were aired on Dutch public television:
- 1976: Bassie en Adriaan en "de Plaaggeest" ("The canker spirit")
- 1978: Bassie en Adriaan en "het geheim van de sleutel" ("The secret of the key")
- 1979: Bassie en Adriaan en "de diamant" ("The diamond")
- 1982: Bassie en Adriaan en "de huilende professor" ("The crying professor")
- 1985: Bassie en Adriaan en "het geheim van de schatkaart" ("The secret of the treasure map")
- 1987: Bassie en Adriaan en "de verdwenen kroon" ("The crown that disappeared")
- 1989: Bassie en Adriaan en "de verzonken stad" ("The lost city")
- 1992: Bassie en Adriaan en "de geheimzinnige opdracht" ("The secret assignment")
- 1994: Bassie en Adriaan en "de reis vol verrassingen" ("The trip full of surprises")
- 1994: Bassie en Adriaan en "liedjes uit grootmoeders tijd" ("Songs from yesterday")
External link
Homepage of Bassie and Adriaan (in Dutch) (http://www.bassie-adriaan.nl)