Good Times, Bad Times (soap)
| Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | Soap opera |
| Created by | Reg Watson |
| Written by | Rohan Gottschalk (Head writer) |
| Starring | Present cast |
| No. of seasons | 27 |
| No. of episodes | 5575 (as of 28 April 2017) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Peter Römer |
| Running time | 23 min. w/o commercials 30 min. w/ commercials |
| Distributor | Endemol |
| Release | |
| Original network | RTL4 |
| Original release | October 1, 1990 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Goede tijden, slechte tijden (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌ ɣudə ˈtɛidən ˌslɛxtə ˈtɛidən], English: Good times, bad times), also known as GTST or simply Goede Tijden, is the longest-running Dutch soap opera, which began on 1 October 1990 on RTL4. The programme was the first daily soap in the Netherlands. The soap is produced by Joop van den Ende and to date over 5,000 episodes have been broadcast. It was inspired by the Australian soap The Restless Years, although it started following its own course during the third season. GTST is broadcast Monday to Friday at 20:00. Around 1.5 million viewers watch each episode. It is the highest rated soap opera in the Netherlands.
The soap mainly revolves around the lives of the families Alberts, Sanders, De Jong, Van Houten and Bouwhuis. It all takes place in the fictional town of Meerdijk. Like any other soap, marriage, divorce, kidnapping and business are a few of the ingredients of GTST, although in recent years, GTST has become known for writing and producing more controversial storylines. GTST is also known for having a summer break each year, ending a season sometime in June with a cliffhanger, only to resume three months later in September. Although the early cliffhangers often revolved around family drama, later cliffhangers have often revolved around disasters and unexpected twists.
Many former actors who once were part of the cast are now well known in the Netherlands and Europe, such as Katja Schuurman, Reinout Oerlemans and Antonie Kamerling (who, in spite of a successful career as an actor, committed suicide in 2010 suffering from chronic depression).
In 2016 the show got a spin-off called Nieuwe Tijden (English: New Times) which follows some of the younger characters from GTST and some new characters.
Businessman Frits van Houten was introduced in the second season and the residents of Meerdijk soon found he was a ruthless man who was willing to go very far to get what he wanted. He didn't have any friends, but the women seemed to throw themselves at his feet, resulting in many affairs and one-night stands, although he only married one, his true love Dian Alberts. Throughout the years, Frits had received many death threats, but he never took them seriously. One night, he was at his house taking a bath when a person unknown to the audience showed up. After Frits spoke a few lines, indicating he knew whoever it was, he or she removed his TV from the table and threw it into Frits' bathtub, electrocuting and killing him instantly. He still had a glass of champagne in his hand which he crushed while being electrocuted. This has remained the most significant scene from GTST. The murderer was revealed to be his secretary and once one-night stand Hannie van der Kroeft, who had been infuriated by his behavior towards her. However, more than ten years later, it was discovered by Frits' now adult daughter and son that Frits had a twin brother, who was the one who killed Frits that night.
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Wikipedia