Some twenty years ago Wim T. Schippers said that one season worth of episodes is hardly enough to suitably develop his characters. Especially when each installment is filled to the brim with them in the first place. Case in point: he felt there was still more to do for most of the characters from 1981's De Lachende Scheerkwast when that series was canceled after 12 episodes. That's why most of them reappeared two years later in Opzoek naar Yolanda, which only ran for half the length of the Scheerkwast.
Naturally whenever one or more of said characters are reunited, they can' t help but mention a lot of background information. And some of these connections go back to the 1977 series "Het Is Weer Zo Laat". But unlike the Scheerkwast, Yolanda manages to feel like a complete story with a beginning, a middle and an end thanks to main character Rik Rollinga (Kenneth Herdigein). He manages to act as a straight men to all the crazy supporting characters while remaining to search for the titular Yolanda.
It was Schipper's long time partner in crime/producer Ellen Jens who offered the then 25 year old Herdigein this, his first leading role. As Rik, he falls in love at first sight whith a girl at the Baarn train station and immediately embarks on a quest to find her. Not knowing her name (they never even spoke), he decides to call her Yolanda for the time being. Of course he might as well have called her McGuffin, for when he finally finds her at the end of episode 6, it leads to disappointment on his part. The ending may be bitter sweet but really what else could he have expected from such a foolish quest.
Along the way, we find out Otto Drissen (Dick van der Toorn) has completed his studies in the States. While trying to help Rik find Yolanda, Otto loses his American girl Grace instead. In other news, Sjef van Oekel, Gé Braadlee & Jan Vos more or less pick up their old love triangle (as played by Dolf Brouwers, Mimi Kok & Clous van Mechelen) while Henk J. Pal (Cees Schouwenaar) runs a brand new restaurant. Rein Schaambergen, P.I. (Lex de Regt) takes on the case of the missing Yolanda, but is unable to find his own estranged wife Ria (Mies de Heer). Naturally Rik finds both Grace and Ria, for whenever you set out to find something, you will first encounter other missing objects along the way.
In the middle of this, café owner Boy Bensdorp (Rob van Houten) is getting married to his waitress Elsje de Wit (Janine van Elzakker). This despite the fact that the two characters didn't really interact in the previous series. And on top of that there are also a lot of new characters, some of whom don't have anything to do with anybody at all. Case in point: Pollo Hamburger as an exhibitionist (revealed to be called Volkert Spitbergen only during the opening credits). He performs an achingly funny song that recounts how his lifelong obsession with not wearing trousers began. For a Schipper's series wouldn't be complete without at least one original song in every episode.
And of course there was Schippers himself as Jaqcues Plafond, who had begun broadcasting his weekly radio show 'Ronflonflon avec Jaqcues Plafond'(which also featured Jan Vos) only a few weeks before Yolanda debuted on TV. Two years later Plafond would get his own TV series, which unfortunately was more like the chaotic Scheerkwas than the streamlined Yolanda. Naturally it again featured a lot of the same thespians, but this time around most of them were playing new, different characters. One notable exception was Brouwers' Sjef van Oekel, for whom Yolanda marked his final appearance in Schipper's TV world (though Wim T. kept on putting words into his mouth as a comic book character).
7 out of 10
Naturally whenever one or more of said characters are reunited, they can' t help but mention a lot of background information. And some of these connections go back to the 1977 series "Het Is Weer Zo Laat". But unlike the Scheerkwast, Yolanda manages to feel like a complete story with a beginning, a middle and an end thanks to main character Rik Rollinga (Kenneth Herdigein). He manages to act as a straight men to all the crazy supporting characters while remaining to search for the titular Yolanda.
It was Schipper's long time partner in crime/producer Ellen Jens who offered the then 25 year old Herdigein this, his first leading role. As Rik, he falls in love at first sight whith a girl at the Baarn train station and immediately embarks on a quest to find her. Not knowing her name (they never even spoke), he decides to call her Yolanda for the time being. Of course he might as well have called her McGuffin, for when he finally finds her at the end of episode 6, it leads to disappointment on his part. The ending may be bitter sweet but really what else could he have expected from such a foolish quest.
Along the way, we find out Otto Drissen (Dick van der Toorn) has completed his studies in the States. While trying to help Rik find Yolanda, Otto loses his American girl Grace instead. In other news, Sjef van Oekel, Gé Braadlee & Jan Vos more or less pick up their old love triangle (as played by Dolf Brouwers, Mimi Kok & Clous van Mechelen) while Henk J. Pal (Cees Schouwenaar) runs a brand new restaurant. Rein Schaambergen, P.I. (Lex de Regt) takes on the case of the missing Yolanda, but is unable to find his own estranged wife Ria (Mies de Heer). Naturally Rik finds both Grace and Ria, for whenever you set out to find something, you will first encounter other missing objects along the way.
In the middle of this, café owner Boy Bensdorp (Rob van Houten) is getting married to his waitress Elsje de Wit (Janine van Elzakker). This despite the fact that the two characters didn't really interact in the previous series. And on top of that there are also a lot of new characters, some of whom don't have anything to do with anybody at all. Case in point: Pollo Hamburger as an exhibitionist (revealed to be called Volkert Spitbergen only during the opening credits). He performs an achingly funny song that recounts how his lifelong obsession with not wearing trousers began. For a Schipper's series wouldn't be complete without at least one original song in every episode.
And of course there was Schippers himself as Jaqcues Plafond, who had begun broadcasting his weekly radio show 'Ronflonflon avec Jaqcues Plafond'(which also featured Jan Vos) only a few weeks before Yolanda debuted on TV. Two years later Plafond would get his own TV series, which unfortunately was more like the chaotic Scheerkwas than the streamlined Yolanda. Naturally it again featured a lot of the same thespians, but this time around most of them were playing new, different characters. One notable exception was Brouwers' Sjef van Oekel, for whom Yolanda marked his final appearance in Schipper's TV world (though Wim T. kept on putting words into his mouth as a comic book character).
7 out of 10
