Ontbijt Piet! (lost Dutch Sinterklaas live-action TV series; 2007-2008)
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Rein Hofman & Eva van der Gucht as Ontbijtpiet & Smulpiet.
Status: Lost
Ontbijt Piet! (English: Breakfast Pete!) is a Dutch educational Sinterklaas-themed live-action series produced by Endemol & broadcasted by Nickelodeon in the Netherlands. It features characters based on the legend of Zwarte Piet ('Black Pete', the mischievous assistant of Sinterklaas [Dutch Santa Claus]) and ran for 2 seasons between late November and early December in 2007-2008. Notably, the main characters are portrayed - as is traditional for Zwarte Piet - by white actors in full blackface. Likely thanks to this controversial choice, all episodes of the show are currently lost.
Production
The show was partially sponsored by Dutch supermarket chain PLUS[1] and made to encourage children to eat a healthy breakfast, after studies showed that only one in seven of the country's children did so.[2] It starred Rein Hofman as Ontbijtpiet, Eva van der Gucht as Smulpiet and Bram van der Vlugt as Sinterklaas a.k.a Saint Nicholas. [3]
Season 1 is presented as a story-oriented show while Season 2 takes the form of a news program. The overarching premise is that all of Sinterklaas' Pieten (Dutch plural of Piet; roughly akin to Santa's elves) have become slow and error-prone in their preparations for the upcoming holiday, thanks to eating unhealthily. Distressed over the delays, Sinterklaas commissions Ontbijtpiet to gather tips from human children on what makes for a good breakfast; these are implemented back at the Pieten's workshop by the cook Smulpiet - with mixed results, as Ontbijtpiet doesn't always choose the most nutritious recipes.
Availability
28 episodes are confirmed to have been made, along with two music videos by DJ Nicky called "Jump de hele dag" ("Jump All Day Long") - one containing Zwarte Piet[4], the other with him removed in order to release it outside of the festive season[5]. Both versions of the song have been officially released as a single.[6][7]
Ontbijt Piet! itself, however, has not resurfaced in any format, official or otherwise. Given that the blackface tradition underpinning it has since become the subject of fierce international controversy, both the show and associated media appear to be in the process of being quietly buried.
Gallery
The logo for the show.
Screenshot from of one of the Season 2 episodes. .
The website for the show.
Screenshot from a Ontbijt Piet flash game. (Found on a archive of the Dutch Nickelodeon website.
See Also
External Link
- Dutch Wikipedia page about the show. Retrieved 05 Nov '19
References
- ↑ Archived regional news article about supermarket promotion for "sjoelstenen" (shuffleboard pucks) related to the Ontbijtpiet show. Promotion ran through November 12th until December 8th, 2007. Retrieved 01 May '22, Archived 11 Aug '07
- ↑ News article about the show. Retrieved 05 Nov '19
- ↑ Dutch article that has information on the show. Retrieved 05 Nov '19
- ↑ YouTube re-upload of the original music video with Ontbijtpiet Retrieved 01 May '22, Uploaded 04 Feb '08
- ↑ Official music video YouTube upload without Ontbijtpiet Retrieved 01 May '22, Uploaded 07 Apr '08
- ↑ Official YouTube Music release of the Ontbijtpiet version of the song. Retrieved 01 May '22, Uploaded 15 Sep '15, Officially Released 26 Nov '07
- ↑ Jump De Hele Dag single release on Spotify, both Ontbijtpiet and regular versions available to listen. Retrieved 01 May '22