7de Laan's 'Oubaas' gets a makeover as actor-director Pierre van Pletzen resurfaces on kykNET soap Getroud met Rugby as a new character.

The tousled side-hair are gone. So is the moustache. 

Oubaas got a big makeover and looks strikingly different - as the actor and director Pierre van Pletzen is getting ready to make his appearance as a brand-new character in kykNET's (DStv 144) Afrikaans soap Getroud met Rugby from early 2018.

After he got unceremoniously fired in June by Danie Odendaal Productions producing the SABC's Afrikaans weekday soap 7de Laan on SABC2, Pierre van Pletzen was snapped up for his acting and directing services by several TV productions doing shows for rival pay-TV broadcaster M-Net's Afrikaans language kykNET channel.

This year Pierre van Pletzen started appearing in kykNET's comedy Phil 101 and the reality show Die Ooms se Band on VIA (DStv 147) while the number of his 7de Laan scenes earlier this year dramatically got downsized and dwindled until he got his marching orders.

Some of the other older 7de Laan actors who were also abruptly changed from permanent to on-call status, remain with the show.

Now the widely respected and veteran artist Pierre van Pletzen has found new professional life both on-screen and off - just like during his heydey on 7de Laan when he was allowed to do more than one job at the same production before the rules were unilaterally changed due to SABC mandated orders.

From 15 January Pierre van Pletzen will make his first appearance on-screen on kykNET's Afrikaans soap Getroud met Rugby as a new character.

The clean-shaven character - complete with gold chain around the neck - is light years removed from the curmudgeonly, bumbling, old-man jersey wearing caretaker of The Heights where Pierre played a character decades older than his real age.

Pierre van Pletzen - who said that he won't set a foot back on the 7de Laan set just after an awkward press statement from the show that said it was looking forward to the character returning in the future when the news of his exit was announced - told Beeld newspaper last week that he is shocked about the latest in absentia twist for the Oubaas character.

It has now been revealed in 7de Laan through other characters, that Oubaas has secretly been carrying on an extra-marital affair with another woman for years, something that Pierre van Pletzen said is a "slap in the face of Oubaas, for the public, and for me as an actor".

"Why would you suddenly change the most dependable character, who loved his wife for 17 and a half years, who praised her and ate her bad food, in a philanderer?"  

Besides his on-screen role in Getroud met Rugby, Pierre van Pletzen is also heading up the directing team at the new kykNET comedy, Die Kasteel (The Castle) with Josh Rous and Andre Odendaal. 

Episodes of Die Kasteel is currently being recorded at Sasani Studios in Johannesburg in front of a live studio audience as part of a 26-episode first season order.

Die Kasteel, also starting in January 2018 on kykNET is produced by Rous House Productions.

Starring Dorette Potgieter and Hannes Muller as former beauty queen Tina-Marie and her husband Eckard, a high society couple decides to turn their "castle" - their mansion in the posh suburb of Waterkloof - into a boutique hotel due to financial problems, where "Fawlty Towers" type shenanigans ensue as they try to run an accomodation establishment.

TREAT BOX. kykNET cleverly links its various Afrikaans programming on DStv to different sweet treats - see what show got what 'treat'-ment.

Recently M-Net's Afrikaans entertainment channels division kykNET Fedex-ed over a wonderful "Bederfboks" (treat box) ... inside filled to the brim with all kinds of treats and even hand sanitiser (Binnelanders!) related to various current and upcoming new programming across kykNET's channels.

I thought it was very clever and in 17 years of doing this, never got anything in terms of a press drop like this.

The various treats are mostly related to the various kykNET programming and kykNET's marketing and publicity people made effort and took the time to think of what goes with what.

Here's what's on kykNET and coming up on the channel in 2017 - and the type of treat that was very creatively linked to to it:

Binnelanders (hand sanitiser)
The weekday Afrikaans soap revolving around the personal and professional dramas of the characters at the Binneland Kliniek hospital in Pretoria.

Actuality shows (Jelly Tots Alphabet)
For the weekday stripped actuality show timeslot on kykNET, with different presenters and different subjects on different days of the week.


chatNOU! (Cadbury PS chocolate bar)
The weekday chat show on kykNET & Kie (DStv 145).


9 January Op Die Spel 20:30 (Jelly Tots Numbers)
Second season of the game show about Afrikaans spelling. Rian van Heerden is the host and Gerhard van Huyssteen is the language expert.

9 February Ons Sprokiesbruilof 20:00 (Sweetie Pi)
A new wedding show covering loving couples saying their "I do's" with presenter Sorina Erasmus.

14 February Die Boland Moorde II 20:00 (Cadbury 5Star chocolate bar)
a New second season of the Afrikaans crime series set in the Boland. Every episode is 90 minutes long with the team, now lead by Colonel Khumalo, tackling cases ranging from theatre deaths and internet radio stations to art exhibitions, students and drugs and candle lit dinners.

Stiam Bam and Brendon Daniels are liuetenants Andre Fourie and Shane Williams, members of the Boland Investigation Unit.


5 April Tyd met Aleit (Ferrero Rocher chocolate balls)


7 April Kunsvlyt (Cadbury Marvellous Creations chocolate bar)
A brand-new reality series revolving around arts and crafts. 10 contestants battle it out with scissors, paint brushes, glue, paper and paint to conjure up creative creations.


10 April Leef Jou Reis (Toblerone)
The magazine travel show with presenter Gerrie Pretorius is back for another new season.

10 April Phil 101 (Smarties)
A new Afrikaans comedy series set at the philosophy department of the Sentrale Universiteit van Suid-Afrika (Susa).
It follows the lives of Phillip Coetzee (Bennie Fourie) appointed as the new head of the philosophy department. With actors Frank Opperman, Pierre van Pletzen, Stiaan Smith, Sandra Vaughn and Elma Postma.


23 February kykNET Fiëstas (pack of Sparkles)
The annual awards show celebrating up-and-coming and established artists and productions at festivals.


30 March Save the Date (TV Bar)
kykNET is having a media day and press conference with TV critics and the press for a big announcement regarding the new rebranding of the various kykNET channel logos.


4 April La't Wiel (Rolo)
kykNET's Afrikaans motoring magazine show that's been on the air since 2004.

5 April Kokkedoortjie 20:00 (Rascals)
The new season of the local baking show, this time with kids showing their mettle behind the stove.
There are 13 half hour episodes in which 10 kids from across South Africa shows what they can do behind the stove.
Produced by Homebrew Films, Mari-Louis Guy and Nic van Wyk are the judges.

11 April Sara se Geheim 20:00 (Ghost Pops)
A new Afrikaans drama series with 26 episodes in which the past comes back to haunt the Cloete, Kiewiet and Vermeulen families.
While they all live worlds away, they're all linked by a secret that's 35 years old.  With actors June van Merch, David Minnaar, Lee-Ann van Rooi, Brendon Daniels. Marlo Minnaar and Nicola Hanekom.


16 April Taliep Petersen tribute (Caramel flavoured mint)
Not much is yet known about this special programming but it will clearly be a broadcast/event dedicated to the Afrikaans artist.