F.C. De Kampioenen

F.C. De Kampioenen is your typical popular Flemish sitcom, and has been a consistent ratings topper in Belgium for the past ten years. The point of departure was originally the humorous struggles of an incompetent amateur football team, but throughout the years the storylines have more and more strayed from that idea, and now it's a rather silly and bland show, but still popular as ever.

And when I say popular, I mean really popular. Characters like "Carmen", "DDT", "Boma", "Pascale", have become institutions in Flemish television. The catchphrases launched in the show were soon uttered all over the country. The actors have appeared in countless radio commercials and promotional actions in the guise of their character. There is a popular comic strip based on the series, specifically aimed at young children (and in all honesty, the characters are slightly more credible in this format...). Two years ago a separate series of eight TV specials ran to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the show. Even the re-runs of old episodes nowadays are often the best-watched TV programme of the week!

The show had its peak seven to eight years ago, and nowadays it seems to be dragging on only because of its popularity. The current storylines are either outrageous or plain predictable (most are based on misunderstandings), and the characters are firmly encapsulated in their (often worn-out) stereotypes. We have the bossy and nosy matron, her servile husband, the persistent womanizer, the clumsy goalkeeper, the goody-two-shoes secretary, the bad guy who goes out of his way to annoy the main characters,... All are fortunately played by skilled actors, but the novelty value of the characters has long gone.

At the end of the day, an F.C. De Kampioenen episode remains amusing in its charming pretentionless simplicity, but compare it to a foreign comedy series with well-conceited storylines and actual character development, and it sinks like a brick.

FC de kampioenen is something that is very well known around Belgium (the flemish part) If you live here and haven't heard of them you live under a rock, simple. anyways, this series started in 1990, and we're now 2010...which is 20 years. that's rather long...the only thing that bothers me is that the newer ones aren't all too great (and IF you watch a recent one a base your opinion on that one it shouldn't be valid, because the older ones are 100x better) but that's probably because they're running out of ideas. They'll end in 2011, after airing season 21.

so if you start watching them, don't start with the recent ones. ;)

Could be quite weird hearing this but actually I'm an italian that moved to Belgium for personal reasons and so it's only a little time that I'm in fact exposed to flemish television. In the absolutely mostly family friendly tv programmation that is rather aimed to show countless hours of boring, repetitive sports or in fact sitcoms from the age when cellphones where still big as phone booths or yet to be invented in fact, "F.C. De Kampionen" is the perfect show to see for its simple mindlesness that cheers up the watcher with that tongue-in-cheek humour that once permeated also the kitchens with cheap wooden furniture, filled with the greasy air given by the fryer always on ,that were so familiar in the late 70s, early 80s. It seems that a lot of shows that are aired (or re-aired) in Belgium tend to be very harmless, pretty childish in order to avoid to hurt anyone's feelings, except of course the poorly made ethnic sterotypes that are oh sooo (not) funny and pretty outdated, especially when portrayed by actors of not the above said ethnicity. At least, some research wouldn't be a bad thing. Going back to "F.C. De Kampionen", when first aired seemed that was a huge hit scorer (early 90s), praised by tv critics and the target audiences. Nowadays the sitcom is the ultimate off season filler, with constant re-runs and spinoff movies every summer, with sporadic appareances even during winter. Actually the spinoff movies are being made as this review is written, in fact. It's cheap and quick fun,even if a bit stale. It's like the exact moment after a lunch at your grandma's, when you're feeling bloated and because you're momentarily impaired for anything intelligible, fart jokes seems the most comedic thing on Earth. The show doesn't contain any of the above as I said before, as is hand-confectioned for all ages and very prone to be the ultimate companion for senior viewers in retirement castles. The network that airs "F.C. De Kampionen" has been milking the brand with any sort of possible merchandising, from stickers, comic books to sausages and wurstels, avalaible in the unmissable "frituren" that can be spotted in the whole country, where your liver and pancreas will fight against your personal satisfaction for eating the ultimate, so savory kind of fast food. In the end, this show, even for its crescent curve of rotting away or sellout politics, it's perfect for entertaining the whole family with its bland script and harmless jokes. It's a neverending recurring portrait of the Belgium that once was, so it's interesting also in anthropological manner, for knowing and understanding better the society around.

FC de kampioenen is a Belgian sitcom about a couple of amateur soccer players who lose a lot because they suck.

FC de Kampioenen is truly a typical Belgian sitcom which really can't be compared with any American sitcoms. American sitcoms are mostly about speedy one-liners and well, humorous content, whereas the usually slow-paced Belgian sitcoms are mostly trying to give you that "you're always welcome"-feeling, using stereotype characters (dominant wives,the smart man, the drunk, the clumsy guy who breaks vases etc.) It does have one thing in common with most American sitcoms: it doesn't age very well, not only because of the poor jokes and story lines, but also because of the pathetic attempts to make the show "younger" by making the 50 year-old characters drink Red Bull and use cell phones and by bringing in a "rebellious" son (he grew to the age of 16 in 12 years), whose dialogues consist entirely of things along the lines of: "I don't want to visit grandma. I'm going to listen to rock music and share a beer with my equally rebellious girlfriend". Stereotypes indeed. I would still buy it if they showed more soccer, but they don't even do that anymore. Probably because the actors played like they had their shoes on backwards even when they were supposed to win.

But despite wretched, repetitive, and predictable, FC de Kampioenen is still a very popular sitcom that is being watched by 1,5 million people every week (even the countless reruns are still a success) and it will probably go on till the writers say it's enough. Like that will ever happen. FC de Kampioenen is a nice childhood memory that is being worn out way too long, but I can't blame them with the success they still have.

FC De Kampioenen's only reason for existence is it's local popularity. It has caused this sitcom to run for over 15 years (and still counting).

It deals about an amateur soccer team with the emphasis "amateur". Every storyline deals with the same subject: some misunderstanding that takes ridiculous (and predictable) proportions, to get resolved in the end.

The show's been running for over 15 years now, and the production probably decided not to change a winning team. Which means that the show has had minor changes over the course of years (besides a couple of actors getting replaced (they nearly all left by themselves rather than being thrown of the show)). The humor hasn't changed a bit over the years and it was already outdated when it first aired in the first place.

I guess you have to be Flemish to get this, and over 60 years old, to enjoy such an old fashioned TV show as this.