Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden – Good times, Bad times. It is a seminal soap opera on Dutch television, which is based on the Australian “The Restless Years”. The first episode of GTST, as it is also called, was broadcast on October 1, 1990 on TV Channel RTL 4. It was the first soap opera in continental Europe, following the successful examples in England (like Coronation Street) and the United States (for example As the World Turns). It became a huge success. From 1991 to 1995, GTST was nominated for the Gouden Televizier Ring, an important TV award, and won it in 1995, too!

What’s on TV? (Image by Pawel Kadysz at Stocksnap.io)

Since its inception, the show has had a new season every year, after the summer break. At the end of August, GTST Live is held, an event where fans can meet the actors, get a peek behind the scenes, and see the first episode of the newest season before it is broadcast.

Here is the (first part of) the very first episode of the show of October 1, 1990:

So what is GTST all about?

Just like The Restless Years, the first four seasons were about some young people that just graduated, and all have their own issues and stories when it comes to love, career, success and failure. As the title says, the viewer goes together with them through the good and the bad times. The focus changed several times. After the fourth season, the focus changed towards the Alberts family, because most actors in the show were members of that family.

How popular is it?

As I said before, GTST is the most popular soap opera in the Netherlands, with consistently an average 2 million viewers. Even after 25 seasons. The 2500th episode, aired on March 23, 2003, was the most watched episode of all time, with 2.7 million viewers! That is a huge number, considering that the Netherlands only counted 16 million people at that time.

However, in 2008, the show hit bottom, when it could barely attract 1 million viewers. A refresh was needed, and an entire new family was introduced, the Huygens family, and in 2010, the Bouwhuis family, after the Huygens had to leave the fictional town Meerdijk, where GTST takes place.

The producers of the soap opera suspected that the viewers could no longer connect to the personages in GTST, and therefore made the drama more realistic – and that worked! In 2012, the show has had its the best ratings since six years.

The Anniversary

As it is the 25th anniversary of the show, you can win some nice prizes if you vote on your favorite fragment of the past 25 years here.

The show has passed the 5200th episode, and there are many to follow!

And, finally, here is the promo for the now running, 26th season:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XttV6G6zfFk

Adaptation

In Germany, the concept was copied in 1992, with the literally translated title Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten. It is very popular as well, and already passed 5800 episodes, because it does not have a summer break.

Anyway, what do you think? Do you like soap operas? Do you have such soap operas in your country as well?