Bassie & Adriaan was a television program series focusing on the adventures and lives of a circus duo consisting of clown Bassie and acrobat Adriaan, played by real-life circus duo Bas and Aad van Toor.

Bas van Toor (born 1935) left school at an early age to pursue a number of odd-jobs.

The seeds for Bassie & Adriaan were sown in 1964 when the brothers did a clown act as part of Rudi Carrell's travelling circus.

During this period they befriended Siegfried & Roy, incorporated the wives into their act (The Four Crocksons) and staged children's matinees in Dutch, German and English while residing in Spain for nightclub-shows.

It was so successful that the brothers were invited to make their own series under the scrutiny of Joop van den Ende.

[6] Meanwhile, the brothers Van Toor also ended their long-term collaboration with producer Joop van den Ende after he left in his position of director at Circus Bassie & Adriaan, which left the brothers taking over the daily management of the business.

[10] In 1987, the first of their self-produced series, which consists of five seasons, was released: Het geheim van de schatkaart (The secret of the treasure map).

Its premiere on 9 January 1987 received a 7.6 and amassed to an audience share of 11%, outscoring other popular television programmes for adults.

The final show, planned for January 4, 2004, was to include a guest appearance by the three crooks, however the tour prematurely ended on July 31, 2003, as Aad van Toor was diagnosed with cancer.

In 2003, the Dutch branch of Nickelodeon bought the rights to show several seasons of Bassie & Adriaan series on their channel.

These reruns proved a success as it quickly became the channels most watched programme at the time, collecting almost half a million viewers per episode.

Aad van Toor hosted a special 24-hour marathon of episodes for the channel on New Year's Day 2004.

[13] In September 2014, the show's theme song "Hallo Vriendjes" became a viral internet sensation when Dutch teens and students challenged their international friends to sing along to the lyrics.