Spring (TV series)

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Spring
Country of origin	Belgium
Original language	Dutch
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	390
Original release
Network	Ketnet
Release	December 2, 2002 (2002-12-02) – March 28, 2008 (2008-03-28)

Spring was a Flemish television soap made by Studio 100 for children's channel Ketnet. Six seasons were taped between 2002 and 2007 during the summer period. By popular demand the series was regularly rerun from 2011 onwards.

The storylines are about group of young people finding themselves and the scene revolving around dance school Spring. The girls share an interest in dancing, fashion and photography. The boys are passionate about music. Love, friendship and competition are recurring themes, but in the end friendship conquers all.

• Spring is the dance school run by Maggy Lejeune; she teaches circa ten girls including Katrijn Van Asten, newcomer Chantal Goegebuer and Evi De Bie. They participate in a dance contest where Katrijn and Chantal compete as soloists.
• Spring is also the place where the band of the same name practises. The four original members are Evert Van Bellum (guitar), Pieter Van Asten (bass), Thomas Desmyter (drums) en Xavier Lejeune (keyboards), Maggy's wisecracking brother. Xavier appears to be unreliable and gets thrown out of the band on Evert's insistence. Xavier gets replaced by Evert's cousin Jonas who is also a successful DJ.
• Things go wrong when Katrijn meets her "dreamboy", Arne whom she starts a relationship with. Evert gets dismayed because he has a secret crush on Katrijn. Arne appears to be a drug dealer with cruel intentions; Jonas becomes one of his clients,thinking that pills are the solution to cope with his busy schedule.
• To make matters worse, Jonas nearly breaks up the band because he starts dating Thomas' ex-girlfriend Evi. Thomas reveals all when he announces his departure on radio. All ends well, Arne is banned from Spring, Thomas rejoins the band in time for their record contract, and the girls win the contest on account of a dual solo by Katrijn and Chantal.

• Pieter has a shortlived relationship with Chantal while a notorious spray painter comes to town. Jonas and Thomas have left Spring; the former has moved to Ibiza to continue his DJ career, while the latter has commitments at his father's garage. Their replacements are, respectively, keyboard player Tina "Tien" Smolders, and drummer/policeman David Vercauteren. David soon gets romanticaly involved with Katrijn; Evert is disheartened again but wishes them the best. The band also find a new manager (Luc) who might arrange them a deal to record a CD and shoot a music video.
• The girls audition for a music video by the popular band Fusion. Evi hopes to become the soloist after a year of hard work.
• Xavier and his mate Axel Dewinne have formed the band Woefer. They share their manager with Spring, but the problem is that Luc and the record company only have budget for one band. Spring compete with Woefer and add a female vocalist to the lineup; they choose Evi over Chantal and Katrijn.
• After her split from Pieter, Chantal goes on a rebound pretending to be in love with Axel. She joins Woefer, but leaves as soon as it transpires that the lyrics for their first song are stolen from Spring. Chantal gets in a depression because Evi and Katrijn are singled out as this year's soloists while Pieter is now dating Tien.
• Maggy jumps at the chance to dance in Paris; Laura is introduced as her stand-in but appears to be working for Marie-France, Chantal's mother. She is paid to persuade Katrijn to give up dancing and put Chantal forward as the new soloist. Maggy returns in time to prevent this scheme.
• Meanwhile, Xavier and Abel find out that Tien is the spray painter; they threaten to go the police unless Spring offer their latest song to Woefer. Spring make the right decision by going to the police themselves; Axel get arrested because he didn't pay his traffic fines while Woefer ends before it has even begun. The manager has good news for Spring; he grants them the opportunity to record a CD and shoor a music video. The girls have passed the audition and dance in Fusion's new video.

• Everyone is busy pursuing their own projects; Evi cuts off her dreadlocks and retires from dancing to study Eastern philosophy in London, Maggy spends a few days in Paris, Katrijn wants to be a professional dancer while Evert wants to continue as a singer-songwriter. Pieter signs up for motorcycling races, and Tien is taking driving lessons. Their individual dreams seem to fall apart when Katrijn's father, policwman Roger, brings them the sad news that Maggy died in a car accident on the way home. After Maggy's cremation, everyone agrees that she'd wanted them to follow their dreams.
• Xavier inherits money from Maggy; he buys himself a new guitar and an amplifier, and auditions for the popular death metal band Black Slash. He passes but has to apply a tattoo in order to obtain full membership, something that isn't his cup of tea. Xavier soon falls in love with new girl Roxanne Boisier who shares his dislike of tattoos. He happily decides against joining Black Slash.
• Manager Luc tells Spring that he arranged a venue for the recording of their anniversary concert. Roxanne is a great dancer and gets the chance to prove that on television.
• A tropical party is held at Spring; Xavier and Roxanne amaze everyone by kissing each other. The party gets spoiled by a notary who announces that Spring will be sold.
• Another thing that worries the girls and boys of Spring is the return of Arne. He has an appointment with Katrijn at the basketball court. Arne tells that he changed his says and that he only has good intentions; Roger confirms this. Xavier wants to take Roxanne to Thailand and buys scratch cards in order to win the money for the trip. At the auction, Spring is temporarily sold to Marie-France, but she wants to convert it into a photo studio. Xavier wins the lottery, but uses the money to buy Spring; by joining forces with new dance teacher Pia, he's able to outbid Marie-France and continue his sister's dream.
• The manager has taken Spring's music to London in an attempt to launch their career in the United Kingdom. All remains quiet till Evert hears an English version of Spring's theme song on the radio; he realises that Luc has sold their music.
• Pieter leaves the band to become a test driver in Australia, and thus travel the world. He finds a replacement in Jo De Klein, a painting artist by day, and gets treated to a farewell party.
• Chantal's expatriate father Christian pays a visit to Belgium; he asks his daughter to go back with him to Canada. Chantal doubts about the idea and prefers to stay in Belgium, which her father fully understands.
• A film director wants to tape a docusoap about Spring; Pia thinks it's a good idea because it also serves as free publicity for her dance school. Jo gets the band a new manager who seems to be more interested in Evert than in the whole band. Evert gets persuaded to go solo, but ultimately turns down the offer and chooses to stay with Spring. Roxanne competes with Katrijn for the solo spot; she loses and gets jealous.
• Luc Cortens returns to Spring in an attempt to cut a deal with Xavier; he pays him a large sum of money in return for Spring's latest. Xavier is not to be bribed and calls the police to arrest Luc.
• Jo gets evicted from his apartment; Arlette, Katrijn's mother, suggests that he moves in at Pieter's bedroom. Spring finally manage to get a venue for their anniversary concert; Pieter briefly returns for a surprise appearance with the band.

• Katrijn passes her first year at the ballet academy; everyone congratulates her except Rpxanne who's still bitter that she's not chosen as the face of Spring. Katrijn considers to quit dancing because there are too many egos involved and not enough friends. After some heavy arguments with her father Roger she moves in with Jo and starts drinking. By the time she comes to her senses, it's time to go home and make up.
• Jo's place seems to become a refuge for Van Astens; Roger spends some time with him, being disgusted at David's traineeship and Arlette's new job as an ombudsman. Roger is told to leave after letting Jo's pet spider Marie go; Marie returns but soon dies. Roger apologises for his behaviour and compensates Jo by giving him a snake. Meanwhile, Jo gets confronted with his ex-boyfriend Ben who walked out on him a few years ago. For Xavier, who takes painting lessons from Ben, it comes as a surprise that Jo is gay.
• Pia is on holiday; Xavier stages extra courses to earn more money for Spring but fails to paint the office as he was told to do in the first place. After Pia returns she gets a surprise visit from her father who owns the local theater casts a critical eye on his daughter's efforts. Pia is challenged to prepare the girls for a performance of Swan Lake at her father's theater, but she wants to make dancing fun again and asks the band to score the music. Pia is fully aware that her father won't accept this and asks everyone to keep him in the dark.
• Xavier and his father Francois, who runs the newsagent store, start their own pizza business and become fierce competition for Pizza Carlo where Evert works as a delivery boy. A pizza war ensues, and Evert loses himself to the extent that he's planting a smelly inflammable subject at Pizza Francois. The place burns down and Evert gets arrested by David, now a chief inspector, and colleague Karima in whom Evert is mutually interested. He gets released after Francois confesses that it was an insurance fraud to make up for the money lost.
• Meanwhile, Katrijn thinks that she's losing David; she stopps eating and faints while visiting David and Karima on the workfloor. According to the doctor she was close to getting anorexia. Katrijn ultimately decides to study photography.
• Chantal's father Christian comes to Belgium with business partner Roland and his son Bas. Chantal is initially unimpressed with Bas' geeky image but soon they get a relationship. Christian is voted Canadian businessman of the year, but there's little time to celebrate because the bridge that was built under his supervision has collapsed. Christian is held responsible and gets arrested to euphoric coverage in the Belgian press. Bas thinks that he did it which means the end of his releationship with Chantal. David finds evidence against Roland and arrests him; Roland confesses after hours of being questioned. Christian gets released and flies back to Canada; joined by Bas.
• Roxanne breaks up with Xavier and sings up for Marie-France's model-agency. She joins Tien on a trip to Milan for a photo-shoot. Upon arrival, Tien and Rpxanne gets some concerning phonecalls; Pia wants to cancel the Swan Lake-project because nobody seem to be interested in doing it. They decide to abandon the shoot and return to Belgium. Marie-France is very angry with Pia and wants threatens legal action.
• Christian permanently returns to Belgium and becomes a couple with Marie-France again.
• After weeks of practise, Spring finally perform Swan Lake. Pia's father likes it but is in for a surprise halfway; the band play a greatest hits medley Xavier making a guest appearance. Everyone has enjoyed the performance, including the Minister of Culture who grants the theater a financial boost.

The first half of season 5 ran from January till March 2007.

• Summer 2006; Chantal left the dance school and is replaced by Pia's niece Leen. Xavier sets his eyes on her and has drilled a hole in the bathroom. Leen and Katrijn get a text message from David and seek revenge. Xavier, ending up with shampoo in his eye, tries to get his own back but faces the wrath of an unlikely opponent.
• Roxeanne distances herself from the other dancers by working as an online teacher for Power.com. This webiste is run by Pia's other niece Stefanie who has more or less taken over the antagonist role from Marie-France.
• Jo, who devotes his spare time to boxing, is sidelined by his parents because he failed graduation; unless he passes his re-exams he no longer plays with Spring. Evert, worried that Spring will fall apart, puts more pressure on him; if Jo doesn't prepare now he'll be definitely out of the band. Struggling to get things right Jo resorts to buying the answers. The deal is captured on film meaning that he gets blackmailed into paying more money Jo, who passed by answering different questions, isn't taking it and calls the police.
• Tien's computer addiction catches up with her; she gets run down by a car and ends up with a bruised backside whilst her computer game is reduced to a jigsaw puzzle. Tien is furious when she finds out that the same person who brought her to hospital (Niek) did this to her. To make matters worse, she's fined for neglecting the traffic rules.
• David proposes to Katrijn but she turns him down because she takes a once-in-a-lifetime offer to study in the US.
• Roger meets a girl (Emma) who bears a striking resemblance to Katrijn. In fact, she's his daughter from a previous relation.
• Spring open for one-time Idols contestant Brahim, who's unable to perform after breaking his neck. With cancellation not an option they fulfill the difficult task of entertaining a non-Spring audience.
• Nele, who works as a messenger, is asked to join the girls and pretends she comes from a rich family living in a mansion. Roxeanne turns down an offer to replace Katrijn as auditioner for Dans Mondial, but soon changes her mind; she beats both Leen and Nele at the post, but Stefanie reminds her of her contractual obligations.
• Evert launches the online Radio Spring and cuts a deal with Power.com. They become front-page news but for all the wrong reasons: their unintended debut is cut short by a police raid. It turns out that Stefanie did all this to them, including the disappearance of the unsigned license papers. Evert swears revenge.
• Fed up with Roxeanne's comments, Nele decided to teach her a lesson and joins forces with Evert. They let Roxeanne wear a tracksuit advertising Radio Spring, for which she gets fired.
• Evert announces on Radio Spring that Power.com is giving away ten bicycles and manages to draw more viewers/listeners. His next move is inviting Latin pop singer Belle Perez for an acoustic session. Stefanie immediately regrets her deal.
• There's no love lost between Pia and her elder sister Liesbeth; Leen is fed up with their childish behaviour and locks them up till they've settled their differences.
• Niek and Tien find each other again on Power.com's dating site. Therefore, they are singled out to win 2500 euros and spend four days in the online room where they're subjected to Big Brother-style challenges. They lose after Niek gets confronted with his ex-girlfriend; not wanting to choose between her and Tien, he walks out.
• Evert wants to miss nothing of the event and sacrifices his relationship with Karima, particularly after accepting an invitation to meet a faithful listener who kept sending him text messages. Rita is anything but the blonde bombshell that Evert expected to see; she insists on going out for dinner.
• Emma is thrown out and takes over Jo's flat. Karima moves in with her while her place gets a makeover.
• A guy called Joost rents space at the dance school. He's burning CDs and gives Evert the latest hits for 'Radio Spring' if he promises to keep his mouth shut. Stefanie assumes that he's got another sponsor (and therefore breaching his contract) and phones to the studio for answers. Evert humiliates her by sharing this conversation with all his listeners. Confronted with this, Stefanie swears revenge and she's not the only one.
• Joost is not happy with the fact that 'Radio Spring' gives away free CDs and sabotages the broadcast. Evert successfully sets up a boobytrap but he can't press charges cause he'll be dragged along if Joost goes down. With lying to Karima not an option, Evert decides to tell the truth. Joost knocks him down and puts him on the back seat of a soon-to-be-demolished car. David and Karima arrive in time to save him.
• Roxeanne rejoins the crew after apologising for her rude behaviour. Unfortunately though, she has to share the next solo with Steven, Spring's first male dancer; the same guy who gave her a shower of paint at a fur shoot.
• Evert also has some apologies to make after the confiscation of Joost's CD's. The listeners forgive him and send him all their legal recordings.
• Xavier thinks that Steven is gay but changes his tune after being taken for a flight.
• Emma falls out with Karima over an undelivered love letter to David; entering a food store she's taken hostage. Everyone watches the online coverage, except Roxeanne who has bigger concerns on her mind (polishing her fingernails for example).
• Roger is brought to hospital after suffering a heart attack. It was his plan to sell homemade wafers to finance the skateboards he bought for street kids. The girls and boys of Spring step in to make it happen. Only Roxeanne manages to put off one customer by telling her that the wafers are a greasy source of diarrhoea.
• Roxeanne and Steven are forced to practise the tango, otherwise they both face ejection. Roxeanne seeks the opportunity to make Leen jealous.
• Tien accepts a lift from two guys; their red van matches the on-radio description of a getaway car used by escaped prisoners. She wastes no time in phoning the police, but the guys appear to be masons.
• Awakened from his coma, Roger remarries Arlette. Spring are the live band, Katrijn flies over as special guest, and Xavier stages a prank; he sends the couple a box of mice.
• Prank-time continues; the band members decide to teach Supercop David a lesson; they lure him to an abandoned place (the so-called location of a wedding gig) and scare the hell out of him. Xavier and Jorre step in at 'Radio Spring'; they get bored and lighten things up by announcing a bomb scare. Consequently, they spend the night behind bars.

The second half of season 5 began on 15 November 2007.

• Another new face joins the crew; Xavier takes a shine to Annick and tries to impress her by 'borrowing' Liesbeth's flash car. He brings it back in a damaged state but only gets a fair warning; instead Stefanie is held responsible because she neglected to take the keys out.
• It transpires that Annick once became Miss Diamond by covering the soles of Roxeanne's shoes in Vaseline. And now that they're linked to each other for the next performance Annick is more than happy to reprise this stunt. However, the truth comes out after Jo finds the jar in her bag. Annick will never dance in Spring again.
• After their embarrassing duck-out of the bungee jump, Evert, David and Jo compete for the title of Mr. Spring. One of the challenges is entertaining a Little Miss Hard-to-Please for 30 minutes. Jo becomes Mr. Spring because he didn't resort to bribing the judges (Tien and Emma).
• Power.com launches a love-themed chat store where a certain Angel supplies strong-minded answers. Thanks to Stefanie spreading breakup rumours, Angel appears to be Steven and consequently loses his job; he gets a slot at 'Radio Spring'.
• Niek gets chased by three bullies who offer protection for 50 Euro and a free car wash. They keep raising charges at recurring visits. Niek tries to keep up appearances but by giving them out-of-sync explanations Tien and Evert discover the truth. Together they set up a booby trap.
• 'Radio Spring' stages a talent contest which Evert is determined to win himself. During the first selection round he faces stiff competition from Niek, Xavier and a mysterious cowboy who gets insult after insult. It appears to be Jo in disguise. They end up as finalists but thanks to blind technician Stijn the listeners vote for Emma.
• The girls turn down an offer from the Society Club to dance as clowns, but when it transpires that Pia might accept a new job abroad they have a change of heart and do everything not to lose their teacher. The clown's act is a success and Pia appears to have no plans to leave. In fact, the letter that Leen was never allowed to read was addressed to a one-time pupil who dropped by to say thanks.
• Delivering a parcel, Nele discovers that Ladicom, who sponsor Power.com, are guilty of vivisection. Together with Steven, Leen and Jo (pursuing a holiday job as security guard) she rescues the mice. They also manage to extract an on-the-record confession.
• Niek takes part in an airbrush contest. He wins,(but no) thanks to his predecessor who won three times in a row.
• Xavier has a crush on French dancer Celine. Problem though is that he doesn't speak the language ("My worst subject at school"). David passes the right sentences through a microphone; everything works out fine till an interfering Evert puts on his prank hat. Xavier tries to make amends and even uses a Dutch-to-French dictionary to write a letter. Too late; Celine has returned to Paris but she sends him a reply.
• The band perform at a wedding. The bride appears to be Evert's ex-girlfriend from his pre-Spring days. Evert still has feelings for Lien and not wanting to lose her for good he manages to prevents her from going for the old married-in-haste-repent-at-leisure-routine.
• The girls audition for an online commercial for Power.com's new sponsor, but lose out to Roxeanne. It appears to be a dog food commercial.
• Tien and Niek learn that they've been painting stolen cars. They search for the thieves and end up taken in hostage. Jorre follows suit. Thanks to an overlooked mobile phone they manage to escape.
• Karima gets subjected to racist bullying and insists on leaving the country. Spring organise a march against intolerance and a phone-in, which are almost wasted efforts; Roger successfully persuades Karima to stay and make a stand like a real cop. Brahim records an anti-racism track with the boys and girls from Spring.

• January 2008; Pia is late; in fact, she doesn't turn up at all. Only her mobile phone is present. During her second phone call Pia explains that she made a last-minute trip to New York as a stand-in dancer. Liesbeth replaces her sister returns but Roxeanne disapproves, she wants a young female who knows how to teach rather than someone who makes a show of herself. But when Liesbeth offers her money for keeping up appearances she doesn't say no.
• Following an argument with Tien in Spain Niek returns as a single man. Jo, David and Evert cheer him up by staging a boys-only party at the garage. The girls find out and dress up in Roger's castoffs (Roxeanne: "So yesterday") to attend.
• Stefanie has a business meeting at a cafe with Renee Doornbosch; she blows it by telling off the waiter and mistaking Renee for a secretary. In other words, the deal is off.
• Jo takes Emma to boxing class where the latter takes up too much interest from his teacher Koen whom he fancies. The good news though is that he just wants to explore her talents. The bad news is that Koen's already got a boyfriend.
• Seeing his new love song dismissed as "not Spring enough", Evert decides to go solo. Jo takes over the vocals while Niek is drafted in on guitar. However, writing songs is another matter so Evert helps them out.
• Emma sees that Nele and Niek are made for each other and embarks on a matchmaker trip. She persuades David to help her out. It all backfires as both Niek and Nele go off her; Emma apologises on radio but finds herself exposed to critical slamming including from Niek. Jo suggests to fight it out on the set of the video for Spring's new song Ik Boks Door Het Leven (I Fight My Way Through Life); Niek then admits that he only wanted to teach Emma a lesson and accidentally knocks her down.
• Ego problems are Stefanie's; she puts herself in charge of solving the financial chaos that Pia left behind. Stefanie wants to turn Spring into a professional dance school but she's hiding behind a crumbling wall of lies; recruiting male dancers while she's looking for a male teacher and will that fabled performance ever see the light of day ? Juan is willing to do teaching experience but the affordable fees don't add up. In order to cough up the money Stefanie sets rules about bike parking and consuming drinks. Steven threatens to walk out for good. Leen is forced to choose between her love and Spring. Eventually no one leaves except Evert who commits himself to a series of workshops staged by producer Jean Carbonez. Roxeanne smells opportunity but ends up dismissing him as a pervert.
• Nele is deadly convinced that Juan is going to be her lover but he is well aware of his responsibilities. Instead she joins forces with Leen to host a new radio show, 'Seekers Finders'; one of the callers, Luc, is looking for a new place to shelter the inhabitants of the pet asylum.
• A man turns up who appears to be David's grandad. Magic Ferdinand lost his job at the circus because he has Alzheimer's disease which is hard for him to accept. He dies after his farewell show.
• Niek discovers that his own Dad bought the asylum's new site for business interests; Nicholas Senior is willing to succumb if Niek does his advertising bit.
• The tribute show for Ferdinand also serves as a fundraiser for the asylum. Evert collaborates as guitar-playing clown and Pia makes a surprise return.

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• Jelle Cleymans (Evert) played the starring role in a stage-adaptation of The Adventures of Tintin Prisoners of the Sun during the last Spring-season. He also appeared in the Thuis-soap series.
• Kobe Van Herwegen (David) became a Ketnet-presenter (Ketnet-wrapper) which gave him the opportunity to express his magician-skills.
• Veronique Leysen (Roxanne) went on to play in the amazone-themed Studio 100 production Amika; Marie-Claire, ringleader of the three-piece Z-Girls, was basically a continuation of Roxanne. Leysen had also been a Ketner-wrapper.
• Timo Descamps (Jo) played a South African emigre in Dutch school-series Spangas and had a role in the US movie Judas Kiss.