''De Bereboot'' (The Bear Boat) is a Dutch children's

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

programme from the 1970s written by

Lo Hartog van Banda Lodewijk Hartog van Banda (4 November 1916, in The Hague – 2 February 2006, in The Hague) was a Dutch comics writer.NOS (October 2, 1976 - April 29, 1977) and

AVRO AVRO, short for Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep ("General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), was a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system. It was the first public broad ...

(October 1, 1977 - September 30, 1978).

Cast

Leading characters

*Kapitein Brom (Captain Grouch); a brown tough bear with white whiskers. *Maatje (Buddy), a young panda who has a solution for every problem. *Brilbear (Spectacle Bear), a yellow touchy bear with grey sideburns and a white boilersuit. His catchphrase, ''"technisch gesproken"'' translates as "technically speaking!".

Supporting characters

* Neel; landlady of resident pub Het Zeemanshuis (The Sailor's Home). She's a cow in the literary sense; she fancies the captain and loves to give him cuddle names. * Kokki; the pub's Italian chef. Everytime something goes wrong he says "Santa Hoopla". * Jimmy Bril (Jimmy Specs); a pop singer. * Professor Knobbel (Dr. Knob); a mad genius whose gadgets don't work properly. * Fred de Kei (Fred Rock); a business-pig who wastes no chance to make money. He wears a black top hat and always has a cigar in his mouth. * Teun; a farmer whose eggs are transported by the bears. * Guus Hap (Gus Bite); an ostrich who eats anything within eyesight to return it as a real surprise-egg. * Alida; a seasnake who insists on being addressed as a lady. The captain always regards her wish. * Lorrelies; a mermaid who gets easily insulted by Brilbeer's refusal to eat her seafood. * Juf (Miss); a strict school-teacher. She moved to Stupid Toddler's Island (Dutch; ''Dommedreumesseneiland'') which was in serious need of education.

Plot

The three bears enter the pub and start a conversation with Neel; halfway subject switches to one of their adventures which often took place on the silliest of theme-isles such as Stupid Toddler's Island, Cake Island (Dutch: ''Taarteiland'') or Hat Island (Dutch: ''Peteiland'') . These adventures were serialised over the course two to five episodes to fit the five-minute time-slot.

Side-project

During their

days the bears also hosted the Wednesday afternoon show ''Berebios'' (Bear's Flicks) at the local cinema where Fred sold the tickets. Apart from their own adventures they also aired Dutch-dubbed cartoons (from

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

, ''

The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 bande dessinée#Formats, ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one ...

'', and their

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

n peer ''

Rasmus Klump ''Rasmus Klump'' (translates to ''Rasmus Lump'' or ''Erasmus Lump'') is a Danish comic strip series for children created in 1951 by the Danish wife-and-husband team Carla and Vilhelm Hansen. The series was translated into a number of foreign langu ...

''). After ''De Bereboot'' was cancelled, the Wednesday slot changed its name into Kinderbios (Kid's Flicks) and remained for about a decade.

Merchandise and popularity resurgence

The images of Brom, Maatje and Brilbeer appeared on merchandise ranging from erasers to balloons; the latter even guesting in one of the episodes. A six -track sampler-EP was sold at a chainstore-supermarket in preparation of the full-length albums. In 1991, nine year after re-runs of the first season, ''De Bereboot'' was introduced to the new generation; this time on

TROS Tros or TROS may refer to: * 18281 Tros, an asteroid * Transformer read-only storage, a type of read-only memory * TROS, a Dutch broadcasting union, originally an acronym for Televisie Radio Omroep Stichting * Tros (mythology), a figure in Greek ...

. The original theme-tune was replaced with the one used for the

-season and the episodes were slotted together as one. Later children's channel

Kindernet Kindernet (as Nickelodeon Kindernet from 2011 to 2013) was a Dutch television network that aired classic and modern children's television series from the 1980s onward. Two iterations of the network have been broadcast; the original lasted from 19 ...

(now

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

) took over with more success; by 2000 new merchandise was available including double VHS-tapes. It was also adapted into a comic strip by Ton Beek for the magazine ''

Bobo Bobo may refer to: Animals and plants * Bobo (gorilla) a popular gorilla at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle from 1953 to 1968 * Bobo, Vietnamese name for Job's tears, a plant of south-east Asia Entertainment, arts and media * ''Bobo'' (maga ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bereboot 1976 Dutch television series debuts Dutch children's television series Television series about bears Fictional ships Television shows adapted into comics Dutch television shows featuring puppetry 1970s Dutch television series