In 1983 the Video Casette Recorder was popping up in more and more households, despite the fact that these machines were still very expensive at the time. And of course with the player also came the first prerecorded cassette tapes with films, concerts and, such as the case here quizzes with which the buyer/viewer could win up to 25.000 guilders in prizes, including... another VCR.
So, for only 49 guilders and 50 cents (!), which according to the advertisement was only slightly more expensive than a blanc tape in 1983, VSR owners could buy this "Tele Thuis Show" sponsored by Ter Meulen store in Rotterdam and starring Holland's most popular comedian André van Duin. And besides an hours worth of comedy and competitions, the tape also featured the 1968 Brigitte Bardot/Sean Connery Western Shalako.
André opens the show in front of a live studio audience with a sing a long song promoting Ter Meulen, then shows a couple of sketches starring himself as members of the Ter Meulen staff. You see, the entire tape is basically one long commercial for the store that sponsored it and provided all the prizes. This was quite smart on their part as a law had just been passed in the Netherlands forbidding TV makers to use product placement outside of the commercial breaks. There are also a few physical competitions in which members of the audience compete against each other and musical interludes by Lori Spee and Rob de Nijs (who was plugging his own concert tape).
André was assisted in the comedy department not by his usual straight man Frans van Dusschoten but by the cheaper alternative Hans Leendertse, who was about the same hight and posture as Frans and posed as Ter Meulen operative Van Meulen throughout the proceedings. Van Duin also keeps on referring to the Ter Meulen catalog, pronounced 'Kantalogus' by him as part of a rather tedious running gag.
Near the end of the show the viewers finally got their chance to win some Ter Meulen prises by filling in a form and completing a catchphrase. Naturally there was a deadline to this competition: the form had to be returned to T.M. by the first of May (1983). After that the tape just started collecting dust next to the big bulky VSR player, unless the buyer felt the mood to watch Sean and Brigitte play Cowboy in Shalako. Nowadays he tape is probably still sought after by Van Duin collectors and collectors as a nice little oddity from another era. Of course once they've found it, the next quest will be to find a suitable VHS player on which to watch it.
7 out of 10
So, for only 49 guilders and 50 cents (!), which according to the advertisement was only slightly more expensive than a blanc tape in 1983, VSR owners could buy this "Tele Thuis Show" sponsored by Ter Meulen store in Rotterdam and starring Holland's most popular comedian André van Duin. And besides an hours worth of comedy and competitions, the tape also featured the 1968 Brigitte Bardot/Sean Connery Western Shalako.
André opens the show in front of a live studio audience with a sing a long song promoting Ter Meulen, then shows a couple of sketches starring himself as members of the Ter Meulen staff. You see, the entire tape is basically one long commercial for the store that sponsored it and provided all the prizes. This was quite smart on their part as a law had just been passed in the Netherlands forbidding TV makers to use product placement outside of the commercial breaks. There are also a few physical competitions in which members of the audience compete against each other and musical interludes by Lori Spee and Rob de Nijs (who was plugging his own concert tape).
André was assisted in the comedy department not by his usual straight man Frans van Dusschoten but by the cheaper alternative Hans Leendertse, who was about the same hight and posture as Frans and posed as Ter Meulen operative Van Meulen throughout the proceedings. Van Duin also keeps on referring to the Ter Meulen catalog, pronounced 'Kantalogus' by him as part of a rather tedious running gag.
Near the end of the show the viewers finally got their chance to win some Ter Meulen prises by filling in a form and completing a catchphrase. Naturally there was a deadline to this competition: the form had to be returned to T.M. by the first of May (1983). After that the tape just started collecting dust next to the big bulky VSR player, unless the buyer felt the mood to watch Sean and Brigitte play Cowboy in Shalako. Nowadays he tape is probably still sought after by Van Duin collectors and collectors as a nice little oddity from another era. Of course once they've found it, the next quest will be to find a suitable VHS player on which to watch it.
7 out of 10
