Famous Children’s Dutch TV Show is Coming Back Posted by Karoly Molina on Nov 8, 2017 in Culture
The TV show Fabeltjeskrant or The Daily Fable as it was called in the UK brings back childhood memories to many. It was recently announced that a remake of the show will be televised once again.
Photo taken by Paul Townsend found on Flickr.com with license CC BY-ND 2.0
De Fabeltjeskrant was first aired in 1969 and was created by Lee Valkenier. The tv show was aired until 1996 in the Netherlands, and translations of the show were televised in France, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the UK, Peru and Mexico. In 2005, the show received the award of Best Kinderprogramma Aller Tijden of the 20th century.
While the show has seen many adaptations throughout the years including a comic strip, a film version and a musical, none have been as successful as the show as.
The name of the show, De Fabeltjeskrant, literally translates to the newspaper of little fables or stories. The narrator is an owl who reads to the children stories from his newspaper. The story is acted out by the rest of the characters who are all puppets.
The characters of the show were all referred to by their animal name. The following are some of the characters:
- Meneer de Uil is the owl who narrated the show
- Bor de Wolf is a wolf and father of Borita
- Chico Lama came to live in the Grote Dierenbos together with Zaza Zebra and Mister Maraboe (a large African stork).
- Meneer de Raaf who was a raven
- Lowieke de Vos is a fox
- Piet de Pad who is a toad
- Meindert het Paard who is a horse
- Ed en Willem Bever were the beaver brothers
- Stoffel de Schildpad was the turtle
The new show will not have puppets but rather will be a cartoon animation. Fifty episodes of 7 minutes each plus a 30 minute introduction for the new viewers. You can read more about the remake in this article in nrc.nl.
The following is one of the episodes of De Fabeltjeskrant. For those still learning Dutch, keep in mind that these are puppets so there are no facial expressions or mouth movements to help you. This is a pure listening activity (similar to talking on the phone).
Did you watch this TV show in your childhood?
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About the Author: Karoly Molina
Since I was a little girl, I was fascinated with languages and writing. I speak English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and a little bit of French. I am a writer, reader, language teacher, traveler, and a food lover! I now live in The Netherlands with my husband Riccardo, our cat Mona, and our dog Lisa, and the experience has been phenomenal. The Dutch culture is an exciting sometimes topsy-turvy world that I am happily exploring!