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 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. It stars Rein Hofman as Ontbijtpiet, Eva van der Gucht as Smulpiet and Bram van der Vlugt as Sinterklaas a.k.a Saint Nicholas.^[1]

The show was partially sponsored by a Dutch supermarket chain 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] In total, around 28 episodes were made. The overarching premise was that all of Sinterklass' Piets (roughly akin to Santa's elves) had 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 Piets' workshop with mixed results, as he doesn't always choose the most nutritious recipes.

28 episodes are confirmed to have been made, but as of this writing, none have resurfaced, and there seems to be little if any interest in doing so. Given the characters are portrayed - as is traditional for Zwarte Piet - by white actors in blackface, a tradition that has since become the subject of fierce international controversy, they are not likely to be re-released in any official format.

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.