Goede tijden, slechte tijden

Goede tijden, slechte tijden
Genre	Soap opera
Created by	Reg Watson
Based on	The Restless Years
Written by	Rohan Gottschalk (Head writer)
Starring	Present cast
No. of seasons	35
No. of episodes	6,987
Production
Executive producer	Peter Römer
Running time	23 min. w/o commercials 30 min. w/ commercials
Production companies	Endemol Grundy
Original release
Network	RTL 4
Release	1 October 1990 (1990-10-01) – present

Goede tijden, slechte tijden (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɣudə ˈtɛidə(n) ˈslɛxtə ˈtɛidə(n)], lit. '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 (every workday) soap in the Netherlands and Europe. The soap is produced by Joop van den Ende and to date over 6,900 episodes have been broadcast. It was initially based on the Australian soap The Restless Years, however it switched to original scripts during the third season and onwards. GTST is broadcast Monday to Friday at 20:00, and became available on demand via streaming platform Videoland from 2015.

At its peak, the show drew around 1.5 million viewers daily, in a country of just over 15 million people at the time. In 2022 the show was still watched by over 1 million people, with around 800.000 watching it on TV and an additional 300.000 viewers on Videoland. In 2024 it nearly reached a million viewers. After 33 years, it remains 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 is set in the fictional town of Meerdijk. As in 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, including Katja Schuurman, Reinout Oerlemans, Georgina Verbaan, Antonie Kamerling, Erik de Vogel, Caroline De Bruijn, Bartho Braat, Inge Schrama and Melissa Drost.

In 2014, there was a gay marriage in the soap opera; this was the first time this happened in a Dutch TV show.

In 2016, the show gained a spin-off called Nieuwe Tijden (English: New Times), which follows some of the younger characters from GTST and some new characters as they go off to college. Nieuwe Tijden was cancelled in 2018.

Summary of seasons

Season	Broadcasting dates	Episode numbers	No. of episodes	On DVD	On Videoland
1	October 1, 1990 - June 28, 1991	1 - 195	195	28 September 2006	✓
				Republished 20 September 2011
2	September 16, 1991 - May 29, 1992	196 - 380	185	12 September 201	✓
				Republished 20 September 2011
3	September 21, 1992 - May 28, 1993	381 - 560	180	7 December 2010	✓
4	August 30, 1993 - May 20, 1994	561 - 750	190	20 September 2011	✓
5	August 29, 1994 - May 26, 1995	751 - 945	195	15 November 2011	✓
6	August 28, 1995 - May 31, 1996	946 - 1145	200	21 August 2012	✓
7	August 26, 1996 - May 30, 1997	1146 - 1345	200	4 December 2012	✓
8	September 1, 1997 - May 29, 1998	1346 - 1540	195	23 April 2013	✓
9	August 31, 1998 - May 28, 1999	1541 - 1735	195	20 August 2013	✓
10	September 6, 1999 - June 9, 2000	1736 - 1935	200	25 March 2014	✓
11	September 4, 2000 - June 1, 2001	1936 - 2130	195	17 June 2014	✓
12	August 27, 2001 - June 28, 2002	2131 - 2350	220	19 August 2014	✓
13	September 2, 2002 - June 27, 2003	2351 - 2565	215	21 July 2015	✓
14	September 1, 2003 - June 25, 2004	2566 - 2780	215	20 October 2016	-
15	August 30, 2004 - June 24, 2005	2781 - 2995	215	14 February 2017	-
16	August 29, 2005 - June 23, 2006	2996 - 3210	215	15 August 2017	-
17	August 28, 2006 - June 29, 2007	3211 - 3430	220	14 November 2017	-
18	August 27, 2007 - June 20, 2008	3431 - 3645	215	30 May 2018	-
19	August 25, 2008 - July 3, 2009	3646 - 3870	225	21 August 2018	-
20	September 7, 2009 - July 2, 2010	3871 - 4085	215	16 October 2012	-
21	September 6, 2010 - July 8, 2011	4086 - 4305	220	19 November 2013	-
22	September 5, 2011 - July 6, 2012	4306 - 4525	220	13 November 2018	-
23	September 3, 2012 - July 5, 2013	4526 - 4745	220	26 March 2019	-
24	September 2, 2013 - July 4, 2014	4746 - 4965	220	18 June 2019	-
25	September 1, 2014 - July 3, 2015	4966 - 5185	220	22 September 2020	-
26	August 31, 2015 - July 1, 2016	5186 - 5405	220	8 December 2020	-
27	September 5, 2016 - July 7, 2017	5406 - 5625	220	TBA	-
28	September 4, 2017 - July 6, 2018	5626 - 5845	220	TBA	-
29	September 3, 2018 - July 5, 2019	5846 - 6065	220	TBA	-
30	August 26, 2019 - May 28, 2020	6066 - 6255	190	TBA	-
31	August 31, 2020 - July 8, 2021	6256 - 6435	180	TBA	✓ (single 2021)
32	August 30, 2021 - July 7, 2022	6436 - 6615	180	-	✓
33	August 29, 2022 - June 1, 2023	6616 - 6775	160	-	✓
34	August 28, 2023 - May 30, 2024	6776 - 6935	160	-	✓

Cast

Present characters

Actor	Character	Duration
Juliette van Ardenne	Amber de Wilde	2011
	Rosie	2024–
Jada Blagrove	Naomi Rosalia	2023–present
Kees Boot	Luuk Bos	2022–present
Sophie Bouquet	Merel Verduyn	2019–present
Barto Braat	Jef Alberts	1991–2019, 2021, 2024–present
Caroline De Bruijn	Janine Elschot	1992–present
	Sophia Sanders	2002–2003
Mingus Claessen	Troy Veerman	2024–present
Ingmar Conjarts	Steef Verduyn	2022–present
Everon Jackson Hooi	Bing Mauricius	2005–present
Noa Jacobus	Nola Sanders	2022–present
Cas Jansen	Julian Verduyn	1996–1999, 2019–present
Johnny Kraaijkamp	Henk Visser	2020–present
Jette van der Meij	Laura Visser–Selmhorst	1990–present
Bas Muijs	Stefano Sanders	1999–2005, 2009, 2014, 2020, 2022–present
Jasmine Sendar	Elisa Rosalia	2023–present
Ferri Somogyi	Rik de Jong	1995–2004, 2007–present
Babette van Veen	Linda Bos–Dekker	1990–1998, 2005–2006, 2015–present
Marly van der Velden	Nina Mauricius–Sanders	2005–present
Erik de Vogel	Ludo Sanders	1996–present
Bertrie Wierenga	Shanti de Jong–Vening	2019–present

Recurring cast

Actor	Character	Duration
Bart Peereboom	Marcel Boeve	2000–present
Dennis Honhoff	Barry Lansink	2009–present
Michael de Roos	Alex de Boer	2014–present
Various child actors	Manu Mauricius	2015–present
Various child actors	Max Mauricius	2018–present
Various child actors	Tom Verduyn	2021–present

Original cast members

Actor	Character	Duration
Antonie Kamerling	Peter Kelder	1990–1993, 1995
Reinout Oerlemans	Arnie Alberts (#1)	1990–1996
Joost Buitenweg	Rien Hoogendoorn	1990–1992
Frédérique Huydts	Annette van Thijn	1990–1992
Babette van Veen	Linda Dekker	1990–1998, 2005–2006, 2015–
Isa Hoes	Myriam van der Pol	1990–1994
Ingeborg Wieten	Suzanne Balk	1990–2000
Marlous Fluitsma	Helen Helmink (#1)	1990–1991
Rick Engelkes	Simon Dekker	1990–1994, 1997–1998, 2003
Jette van der Meij	Laura Alberts	1990–present
Wilbert Gieske	Robert Alberts	1990–2008, 2015–2016, 2019–2020
Wim Zomer	Daniel Daniel	1990–1999
Inge Ipenburg	Martine Hafkamp	1990–1994, 2003–2005, 2017
Hein van Beem	Nico Stenders	1990–1991
Antoinette van Belle	Stephanie Kreeft	1990–1994
Dieter Jansen	Jan van Ede	1990–1991
Djuna Hougee	Petra van Ede	1990–1991
Carola Gijsbers van Wijk	Wil de Smet	1990–1998

See also

• Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten, a German version
• List of longest-serving soap opera actors

External links

• Goede tijden, slechte tijden at IMDb
• Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden website (in Dutch)