Series / Samson En Gert

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Samson en Gert (Dutch for "Samson and Gert") or (Fred et Samson in Walloon) is a hugely popular Flemish children's program that ran from 1990 until 2005. A movie was made in 2008, along with a Christmas special. In 2010, a 20 year anniversary special was made. In 2014 and 2017, respectively, two spin-off winter and summer series were produced.

The show revolves around Samson, a talking bobtail, and his owner, Gert. Samson is a hand puppet who usually sits inside his dog basket. He is a very naive, but well meaning character who frequently mispronounces words and has to be corrected by Gert or the other humans in the room. The show relies heavily on Catchphrase jokes.

Samson and Gert are frequently visited by friends, usually in function to the plot. Some characters (like neighbour Joop Mengelmoes and Jeannine de Bolle, the mother of Octaaf) were only present in early seasons and then replaced by new characters. Other former invisible characters were later played by actual people. The most prominent characters over the course of the show's lifespan are Alberto, a barber who enjoys singing opera; the mayor of the town, who is interested in toy airplanes; the mayor's hyperactive secretary Van Leemhuyzen and Octaaf de Bolle, the selfimportant owner of a grocery store and hobby gymnast. Every episode closes with a moral and a "Everybody Laughs" Ending.

The program quickly became an enormous success, which was increased once the show was broadcast in the Netherlands. It was also dubbed in French. It became a huge Cash-Cow Franchise with aggressive merchandising which spawned Studio100, one of the largest European entertainment companies. Samson's name has lead to comic strips, bread, clothing, toys, a magazine, films, Christmas shows, CDs, DVDs and even an amusement park ^note  Actually several amusement parks such as Plopsaland, Plopsa Indoor Hassalt, Plopsa Coo, and Plopsa Indoor Covert .

Beginning in 2008, a Walloon version of the show known as Fred et Samson begun airing in the French regions of Belgium alongside newer actors playing the actors. Similar to the original Flemish version, the Walloon actors also make live appearances at various stage shows.

On November 2019, Gert announced that he was leaving the series. Studio 100 decided to create a special farewell song sung by the titular duo. In December 2019, Samson got a new companion named "Marie" and the show was retitled "Samson & Marie".

This series provides example of:

• Accentuate the Negative: Whenever Mrs. Jeannine's son Octaaf does something wrong, she claims he got that from his father's side. Whenever he does something right, she claims he got it from her.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Used in a few episodes, most notably Burgemeester dronken and Chateau De Bolle.
• Always Camp: Alberto is a flamboyant hairdresser who enjoys singing. Come on now...
• And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Many plots feature one or more characters cheating, pretending to be someone else or being dishonest. They always get their comeuppance in the end.
• Antiquated Linguistics: Samson has a habit of mispronouncing difficult words, which often leads to him changing them into other existing words with different meanings.
• Ascended Extra: The mayor's secretary Eugène Van Leemhuyzen was originally an unseen character, but he was eventually introduced as a regular cast member in 1998.
• Ate It All: A regular plot device whenever the greedy Alberto comes to visit Samson and Gert, only to end up in their pantry. It is also the subject of one of the franchise's most famous songs.
• Big Eater: Alberto can be bribed into doing anything if you promise him something to eat in return.
• Big Fun: Alberto's obesity is regularly made fun of in the series.
• Black-and-White Morality: Samson is always nice, honest and morally incorruptible. The other characters, including Gert, aren't afraid to cheat now and then though.
• Butt-Monkey: Usually the character who cheats receives his comeuppance in the end of every episode.
• Catchphrase: Every character has at least a few. The most notable are listed here:
  • A Running Gag in the series is the fact that Samson and Gert's doorbell doesn't work, which means that everyone who comes to visit them, has to knock on the door. When they are let in, they always excuse themselves by the quote: "Ik moest kloppen want de bel doet het niet."^note I had to knock, because the doorbell doesn't work The catchphrase has also made it into a song.
  • Albert Vermeersch obliges people to call him by his stage name Alberto Vermicelli. Whenever someone calls him by his real name, he shouts: "Ten eerste is 't Alberto! En ten tweede...''^note "Firstly, it's Alberto! And secondly..." Interestingly, the only person who can call him by his real name without being snapped at, is his mother.
  • Octaaf De Bolle is a braggart who constantly claims being good at anything by saying: "Dat is toevallig één van mijn specialiteiten. Mijn Miranda zegt dat ook altijd: "Pa", zegt ze, "zoals jij kunt (...)", ja, zo (...) ik hè."^note "Coincidentally, that's one of my specialities. My Miranda always says that too: "Dad", she says, "as you can (...)", yes, so I (...).". Usually, it's not.
  • The mayor's speeches always follow the exact same formula: "Aan allen die gekomen zijn, proficiat. Aan allen die niet gekomen zijn, ook proficiat."^note "To all who have come, congratulations. To all who haven't come, also congratulations."
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The series has a habit of never properly writing characters who leave the series out, but rather leaves them Out of Focus without a proper explanation as to why they never appear again. Disappeared characters like Miranda, Jeannine, Octaaf and Frieda Kroket still got mentioned in the dialogue now and then, which essentially demoted them to The Ghost. Some characters, however, were simply forgotten about.
  • The most blatant example was Joop Mengelmoes, Samson en Gert's first neighbour, who left the series in 1992 and wasn't talked about anymore in-universe until 2017, when the Joop's brother Jaap Mengelmoes was introduced as a new character.
• Continuity Cavalcade: Het allerlaatste liedje, the very last song released by Samson and Gert before Gert ended his tenure on the franchise, was this. As it coincided with the 30th birthday of the franchise, it was packed with references to and footage from many different songs, characters, live shows and episodes from across these three decades.
• Crossover: The song ''Droom'', which was released in celebration of the franchise's 20th birthday, features various characters from different Studio 100 franchises, such as Piet Piraat, Kabouter Plop, K3, Bumba and Mega Mindy.
  • The franchcise has also done two crossovers with the popular Flemish sitcom FC De Kampioenen. The episode De poetsvrouw features a guest appearance of the character Carmen Waterslaeghers, played by Loes Van den Heuvel. The video clip of the song Wij willen voetballen also features several extras from "FC De Kampioenen", including the character of Pol De Tremmerie played by Ben Rottiers.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Samson & Gert originated as a duo act during the annoucing of the children's programming on the Flemish public television and only gradually evolved into the sitcom-esque tv show it is most well-known as. The character of Samson was introduced in 1989 as a sidekick to announcer Gert Verhulst, but quickly proved so popular that after less than a year, the duo got a television show on its own. In it's original format though, the show essentially functioned as an entire Kids' Block during which Samson and Gert would talk directly to the viewers and organize phone-in contests, collect fanmail and announce various cartoon shows that were formerly transmitted as standalone programmes. The stories about Samson and Gert themselves were originally created as a simple Framing Device to connect the various segments together. As the show grew in popularity, these stories would become the main attraction of the show, and the Breaking the Fourth Wall segments would gradually be phased out, or integrated in such a way that they could easily be cut out of later reruns. It wasn't until the late 90's that the announcing segments were dropped alltogether.
• End-of-Series Awareness: The song released for the 30th anniversary of the franchise, titled "Het allerlaatste liedje", served as an official farewell song from the titular duo as Gert Verhulst had announced that he would retire from the franchise. Verhulst passed down the role of human companion to Samson to his real-life daughter Marie, and as such, the franchise currently lives on as Samson & Marie.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Most of the main characters have been found guilty of this in several episodes.
• Furry Confusion: Although Samson has been in contact with lots of real animals through the years, there has never appeared another dog alongside him, seemingly as to avoid confusion over the fact that Samson is able to talk, which no one in-universe seems to consider as something unusual. The only other dog that appears in the franchise is Samson's girlfriend Bobien, but she is never physically seen (apart from a non-speaking cameo in a music video), and is otherwise implied to be some kind of a female version of Samson.
• The Ghost: Gert's girlfriend Marleneke is often spoken about and alluded to, but never shows up in person. In fact, the series features many examples of this trope, including Gert's rich rival Jean-Louis Michel, Alberto's mother, the mayor's houskeeper and local snack bar owner Fred Kroket.
  • Octaaf De Bolle, his daughter Miranda and his mother Jeannine all became this when their actors respectively left the show.
  • Van Leemhuyzen originally was this before he became a regular cast member.
  • Marlene slightly subverted this trope on three ocassions: In the episode E.H.B.O, her voice was heard from behind the window. The character also appeared physically in the movie Hotel op stelten and the 20th anniversary special Het verrassingsfeest, but in both cases, her face was kept out of view.
• Human Mail: In the episode Reisbureau Octaaf, Octaaf De Bolle opens a travel agency that offers cheap holidays archieved by sending his customers by post to their destination. The method is tested by having Alberto bring Samson and Gert in a box from the town hall to their home. Hilarity Ensues.
• Limited Wardrobe: All of the main characters wear the same outfit in every episode, or at least variations on the same type of clothing. Only Gert had an Unlimited Wardrobe when the series started, but around 1996, he also donned a fixed clothing style consisting of a blue jeans and a red shirt.
• Long Runner: The franchise originated in 1989 and new episodes were consistently produced until 2005. The franchise has, however, lived on in its regular live performances which are held to this day, and the yearly release of new songs. In the meantime, the franchise also produced a movie called Hotel op Stelten, two special episodes and two spinoff series.
• Misplaced Wildlife: The lyrics of the song Met de jeep door het oerwoud describe animals from the African savannah like giraffes, hyenas and lions as living in the jungle.
• Never Wake Up a Sleepwalker: Alberto uses this trope in the episode Alberto Slaapwandelaar as a way to steal food while pretending to be sleepwalking.
• Only Sane Man: Most of the characters have childish traits to them, with Gert regularly acting as the most responsible of the cast.
• Parental Bonus: Not so much in the television series, but the live shows have always tended to include little gags that are meant to amuse the parents that accompany the children in the audience. The occurance of these gags seems to have increased in later years, mostly from those of the late 2010's on, in which the cast and crew began to deliberately sneak in content that explicitly isn't targeted at children (mostly subtle double entendres and self-referential jokes). This tendency can be explained by the fact that by this point, many parents who take their children to the live shows had grown up with the franchise themselves during the 1990's, and the cast and crew are very much aware of this.
  • The parental bonuses were taken up to eleven in the series of farewell concerts of Samson & Gert in 2019 and 2022, of which some evenings were specifically targeted at nostalgic adults.
• Pie in the Face: A gag that is used in numerous episodes.
• Pirate Song: Samson and Gert's famous song Piraten-potpourri is a perfect example of the trope.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Around 2017, Koen Crucke, the actor who plays Alberto, had lost so much weight that his character's trademark gluttony wouldn't be believable anymore. To solve this, it was told in the series that Alberto, while on holiday, had been lost in the jungle without food for weeks before finding the way to his hotel.
• Running Gag: The franchise features several:
  • The fact that Samson and Gert's doorbell doesn't work, which means that everyone who comes to visit them, has to knock on the door. When they are let in, they always excuse themselves by the quote: "Ik moest kloppen want de bel doet het niet."^note I had to knock, because the doorbell doesn't work The catchphrase has also made it into a song.
    • Additionally, the knocking on the door frequently uses to happen right about when someone is in the middle of a sentence, causing confusion in the conversation.
  • In early episodes, Samson and Gert would frequently be called up by local snack bar owner Fred Kroket on the most inappropriate moments, only to be asked if they would be interested in buying mayonnaise and pickles. Not even in five-liter jars.
• Sick Episode: The episode Gert is ziek features a bedridden Gert. It's one of the rare times Gert's bedroom is seen in the series.
• Slice of Life: The tv series follows the daily life of Samson & Gert and their constant disturbance by their silly friends.
• The Smurfette Principle: Although the series has featured three different main female characters over the course of its run, there has never been more than one at the same time. The first female character was Octaaf's daughter Miranda, who only appeared in 1993. The second was Octaaf's mother Jeannine from 1994 to 1999, and the third one was snackbar-owner Frieda Kroket from 2000 to 2003.
  • Other female characters have been featured as guest characters throughout the series's run. The most prominent of them was Sofie, the mayor's niece, who starred in a few episodes from 1995 and 1996.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The location and name the town where the series takes place are never revealed, as it is only referred to as "Ons Dorp", which translates literally to "Our Village". Gert Verhulst once joked during a radio interview that "Ons Dorp" actually is the name of the village in the series.