abstract
| - The 35-minute pilot was produced by broadcasting organization VARA in 1974 and disappeared in the archives because broadcasters NOS and BRT joined forces to make Sesamstraat; the pilot aired for the first time on January 4th 1996 in honor of Sesamstraat's 20th anniversary, complete with commentary subtitles. The pilot stars Ruud Jans and Saskia van Schaik, showing a little girl named Nicole Barbiers around her new neighborhood. She gets to meet the strange shopkeeper Mr. Brouwer, played by Alexander Pola, and the letter vendor, played by Adèle Bloemendaal. The street scenes were shot on location in the north of Amsterdam. The Muppet voices are performed by Frans van Dusschoten and Ger Smit, who were famous for their voicework on the popular Dutch puppet series De Fabeltjeskrant. In the actual series, they were replaced by Paul Haenen, Wim T. Schippers and others. Frans van Dusschoten also performed the Dutch voice of Gobo Fraggle. Most of the Muppet clips in the pilot (from 1969 and 1970) are quite scarce, and blended in with the street story: Grompie (the early Grover) lived next door to Ruud and Saskia, and even Bert and Ernie had their names displayed on a door. There are no Dutch Muppets in the pilot. Instead, the Questor puppets of Ernie and Cookie Monster appear with the Dutch cast. The pilot episode seems to be brought by the letter T and the number 20. The idea of 'one letter/number per episode' was dropped in Sesamstraat.
|