De kotmadam

- Season 7

(1997)

When the new academical year is about to start, several of the students suddenly phone to tell they won't return: Koen, Betty and Ria. Landlady Jeanne is worried about them, Jef about the loss of rent revenue unless they find new tenants urgently. When Odilon hears him boast he would be mad not to sell the house, he invites potential buyers. Meanwhile Jeff and Jo are busy looking for suitable new tenants, especially the floozy Bibby viz. agricultural engineering student Lus and future pharmacist Dieter, but then two regulars cancel their cancellations...

Lus accepts to mind a friend's pet- an adult boa constrictor! Dieter expects an unwanted female visitor, Daisy, but makes Jo believe he only pretends not to be interested, so he will take her off his hands. Jeanne hears a rumor -from Mimi- that her hypochondriac ma has a gigolo, but in fact it's the kind mister Martin Molenaers who brought her to hospital after swallowing a fish-bone, who she mistrusts however; searching what she thinks to be his loot from ma's flat, she frees the boa...

When Mimi tells her drugs are spreading like fire amongst all youngsters and suggests how to read the symptoms, Jeanne fears she sees signs with most of the students. Jo just returned from Amsterdam with a gin hangover; Dieter and most other students act sneaky with the contraband they stole all over town, as Lus insists giving these to Ria might turn her into a more regular, sociable student. Ironically the only foreign substance in the house in the 'sugar' Jeanne took from a carton of sweets Odilon was supposed to hand to one of his prisoners and serves with the ...

Confident Jo and careful Dieter make a double blind date- it turns out to be twins, and Kathleen is rather into shy gentleman Dieter, but Marleen sees nothing in cocky Jo and soon people start confusing the sisters. Jeff is furious that Odilon who misunderstood him released his whole catch at an angling competition; when the best friends seem to stay estranged over such a futility, Jeanne is determined to reconcile them, even if neither wants to. Man-eater Betty has dumped another lover and juggles her agenda to have two new ones simultaneously.

When Jeanne sees the homeless Louis scavenging in her garbage, she invites him in, but systematically 'delegates' all the work involved till the others are sick of both of them, except Lus, who tries to collect donations and dares Jo and Dieter who boasted about their superior skills after winning a monopoly game to play for real money so she can donate her winnings. Not knowing Louis has meanwhile got a room from a local social service, Jeff invites a bunch of acquaintances to play other homeless he invites to make her life hell; of course the secret isn't kept very ...

When Jeanne hears Mme. Hulpiau has been asked to find a classy student's room for a notary's son, she manages to get an appointment. Law student Ria wrote a poisonous reply in the newspaper to an article, but regrets it when she finds out the author's pa is her criminology professor. Since Odilon has to play billiards in his prisons team, he found Jeff a less competent partner, but didn't tell it's the chief of the tax service, so now they fear a murderous control, and Jeanne has only filed two of her five students! Their solution is to have the others play really ...

When Jeanne thinks her husband Jeff has lost all marital interest in her as he seems to drop everything for his latest floral project, orchids, she 'returns to her mother'. When the students notice their row, the boys take his side and the girls champion her feminist cause, both encouraging a hard line instead of giving in to their real desire for reconciliation despite the utter collapse of the housekeeping; meanwhile Jeanne sneaks back in on a girl's room. Still the opportunity for a party is too good to miss for the students...

When Jeanne hears from Mimi singer Isabella A has rented an apartment across her street and would be separating, she spies the room but blames the ignorant students. After Jeanne lectured her for being a troublemaker, Ria manipulates Jo to get a fight over his girlfriend Annick with Dieter and Betty with Lus over a letter from a common acquaintance. Once they realize her game, the four make up and concoct a vengeance using the bunny-cake Jeff had his gullible friend Odilon bring over, neither understanding what it is nor that it's for his own birthday.

Odilon asks Jo to help him prepare a comical act, but doesn't even understand ventriloquism isn't actually done by the doll so they prepare a tape. Jeanne has won a weekend for two in London, but Jeff doesn't want to go as it coincides with his billiards club's annual dinner, so he's tempted when Lus says friends of hers want to buy it; since he lacks the courage to face Jeanne, they come up with a staged radio message. Jeanne's urgent course English for absolute beginners improves only the student's happiness. When Odilon mixes up both tape recordings, a marital ...

When Jeanne hears about Mimi's new sauna and Jef's claims the price is ten times what it costs making one, she orders him to prove so. However when Odilon takes over the carpentry, he thinks it's for the pigeon-house Jef refused to host on that spot for the price-birds he can get cheap, so he alters the plans; but at the sale he can only buy eggs, which need to be hatched- a job for couch-potato Jef. Meanwhile Lus takes offense at a jocular remark by Jo about her cup size, leading to arbitration by Ria and then a fistfight.

Ria is furious when her mother sends a boy from their neighborhood 'because it's about time she got dating' and gets rid of him mercilessly. Jo needs a volunteer to practice for his dentists exams, but the only willing mouth is Ria's, which he prefers to see closed. When Jef receives instructions from Jeanne to spend his whole day off cleaning, while Odilon goes trough advertisements from cleaning ladies, he hopes to solve both problems by having his candidates do 'test cleaning' in his house, without telling any there are other applicants.

To Jo's fury, Betty and Lus have made and posted photocopies of a rather soggy love letter by his hand. When Jef and Odilon bring home a load of fresh-caught eel, Jo and Dieter spread them in the girls rooms, but without effect, so he plans a confetti-revenge. Meanwhile Jeanne, who heard from her accountant and Betty she needs more expenses to reduces taxes, decides to buy a fax machine, neither needing one nor knowing how to work it, worse- leaving Odilon near it, to start a messy chain of misunderstandings, just as a real coincidental mix-up thus.

When Jef needs an excuse to explain he lost the ridiculous helmet his mother-in-law gave him, and on her birthday, he can't think up anything more plausible then Odilon's rumor about alien abduction. Jeanne, whose sales are down dramatically since her competitor introduced a volume rebate, suddenly warms to the story when she notices it brings in customers; so does Jo when his latest flame proves to be a firm believer. Meanwhile Betty, who is tired being told she has it too easy with her generous wealthy parents, is determined to prove she can earn her own- as a make ...

After an article in the paper about a fire in another private students' home, Jeanne realizes it's time to invest in legally required fire-extinguishers etcetera. After a hefty quote from a professional Jef decides he needs to save enough to buy a humidifier for his plants hothouse, by doing the job with Odilon, who also agrees to send a colleague as fake fire inspector so Jeanne will buy their story, while Jeanne asked someone else to scare Jef into hiring a professional firm, and a real one responds to Ria's notification, but who is which one? Meanwhile Jo and Betty...

Ria sneezes at Betty for taking part in a silly radio quiz- until she hears the prize is a restaurant date with sexy pop star and TV presenter Koen Wauters. Jef has a shot at a fine second hand billiards table, but doesn't want to tell Jeanne in advance about the second veranda he'll have to build in their tiny garden. Odilon has a black eye from Franske, one of his 'good' prisoners who was just released, so when he and some friends turn up, Jeanne fears for worse violence.

There have been some outdoors recordings for the Flemish soaps "Familie" in the park, so city groundsman Jef was accidentally shot there; Betty is determined to get casted as an extra- a nun, if anyone believes it! Jef has a plant louse plague, so to distract himself he plays cards against the feared team of the sanitation service, and gets creamed for a small fortune, as even Odilon expected. To deceive Jeanne, he pretends to have played against a TV crew, but when his real 'mates' call she invites them... Meanwhile Lus claims to have found a cure against the lice, ...

Jef bets against his friendly rival Gerard about the angling competition, so he makes pharmacology student Dieter look for illicit substances in Gerard's fish food, and when that passes muster supply something he can spike it with so it will turn blue- an ideal tool to play pranks on the other students, but Jeanne mixes up the boxes... Betty's latest lover Louis-Philippe is a baron, which makes Jeanne's head spin enough to make the other students have a snack out of the baronial sight, and insists in vain she should keep his blue blood a secret; jealous Ria is ...

Lus want to put up her Rumanian pen-friend Ilya for the duration of a course he takes in Leuven, and Jo his female friend Nadia who just broke up with her big-spending boy-friend Stanny, but Jeanne doesn't allow guests off the opposite gender, so they decide to exchange visitors, passing Nadia for "Ilya's sister" Ilona and Ilya for Jo's nephew Jan. Since Jef desperately seeks a secret weapon (hence the Dutch title) having bet on his billiards club's annual soccer match against Gerard's anglers club, Jo -who misunderstood Lus calling him a Bucarest international, he's ...