Pipo de Clown (Cor Witschge) first appeared on Dutch Television in three preview episodes in 1958, which were followed by his first serialized adventure. Together with his wife Mamaloe (at this time played by Christel Adelaar) and daughter Petra (Petra Barnard) he lived up in a attic and worked at Circus Frivola for the greedy director (Willy Ruys). His co-worker and best friend was a clumsy Indian (though apparently not precisely native American) called Klukkluk (Herbert Joeks). So right from the start, writer Wim Meuldijk had all the elements that would define the series for 22 years in a neat package. Or so it seemed.
Since this is the premiere Pipo serial, naturally there are a lot of firsts. As noted, Pipo and Klukkluk still work for the 'Dikke Deur' at the start of the series, and it is actually Klukkluk who mispronounces the word 'Directeur' as such, though Pipo and the others soon begin using this nickname as well. Then the cowardly Indian receives a letter from his mother Ugh asking him to come home to Berezonië and lead his tribe. It turns out he's been carrying a map along with him for years, hidden in his one and only arrow. Pipo and Mamaloe decide to go along – on their first big trip abroad – which would inspire them to live a life on the road from then on.
Little Petra is left to stay with Auntie Anouska (who is a fortuneteller at a fancy fair) as she would be in most of the early Pipo adventures. The circus-folk convert the Director's trick airplane and use it to fly to Alpinolië, but find themselves followed by Dikke Deur in his own hired flyer. You see, he wants to take Klukkluk's place as Indian Chief and be pampered with cake and sweeties day and night.
From the hills of Alpinolië they have to pass through Calypsonië in order to get to the wild west country of Berezonië (Wim Meuldijk obviously loved making up silly country names). Our three heroes find help in the shape of a small boy guide, Carli. It is a recurring aspect of these early Pipo stories that they meet up with a small boy over the course of the tale (while poor Petra is out of the picture listening to other people's fortunes as told by her aunt).
Having survived many adventures along the way, all six characters finally arrive in Klukkluk's birthplace, where Mother Ugh and medicine man Moki-Pil have to decide which one of the travelers (Klukkluk or Dikke Deur) is the rightful heir. It is ironic that many of these story elements were used again in what would turn out to be Pipo's final television adventure, 1980's 'Pipo in West-Best'. In that story Klukkluk also has to find his way home after a twenty year absence, though this time it is situated in the 'reasonably wild west' instead of Berezonië. Mother Ugh and Moki-Pil also appear in the later series. It might even be possible that Ugh was portrayed by Riek Schagen on both occasions, though I cannot be certain of this as details on the 1958 cast list are sketchy.
A big difference between the first and last adventure however is that * SPOILER * Klukkluk stays to rule the Indian tribe in the 1958 series (only to return to Pipo's life during the 5 minute daily period that began in 1966) while in 1980 he decided to stick with Pipo's small circus, leaving his mother in charge instead. * END SPOILER * Another, more obvious fact is that the West-Best serial survived intact while the 1958 series was completely wiped from existence. Luckily I was able to track down Wim Meuldijk's abbreviated novelization to use as the basis for this comment.
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