Konsternasie Oppie Stasie is a South African television sitcom created and written by Paul Slabolepszy and produced by Imani Media that focuses on the ups and downs of an average South African 'everyman' (with global warming concerns) in the midst of a midlife crisis.
Set partly in Station Siyaya, a ficitious community TV station, the series revolves around the bumbling meteorologist Clive Wright and the people who share his apartment block with him.
Clive is never wrong when it comes to matters meteorological (in his modest opinion, at least). He is in his early/mid 40s and has established a 'profile' of sorts amongst the viewers over a considerable period of time.
Despite his many foibles, Clive's not a bade oke. We travel his eventful journey with him as he tip-toes, often stumbling, through the minefield of his life - at home, at work, at play.
Just when it appears he may be at last transcending his bumbling, quirky attitude with regard to those around him, he puts his foot in it... yet again. In the gauche department, Frasier has nothing on this guy.
Clive resides in a well-established apartment block (La Paloma) in the Killarney area, Johannesburg. He rents a room in the comfortable three bed roomed flat of his slightly older, go-getter sister Felicity (Heléne Lombard), who is married to a middle-aged, motor-dealer Afrikaner, Gys (AJ van der Merwe).
The fact that the man is addicted to the sports channel on TV does not go down well with the more cerebral tastes of our weatherman.
The domestic activities of the trio are supervised, as it were, by a no-nonsense, 3-day-a-week maid who lives on the premises.
The fact that super-efficient, mamma-on-a-mission Thabisile (Bongi Mtsweni) is also employed by several other tenants in the block, gives her the right – or so she believes - to consider herself Captain and Commander of the Good Ship La Paloma.
Konsternasie Oppie Stasie was created and written by Paul Slabolepzsy, executive produced by Bruce Townsend and directed by Bobby Heaney. Original music is by Robin Walsh.
The series is primarily in Afrikaans, English and Zulu, with subtitles. The working title of the show was "The Wright Stuff".
Main Characters
Character: Clive Wright
Played By: David Clatworthy
See Synopsis above for character description.
Character: Felicity Conradie
Played By: Heléne Lombard
Twice divorced, now married to Gys, Clive's blonde, bossy older sibling fancies herself as a businesswoman and presents herself as such to the world at large.
As owner/manager of a Beauty-cum-Hair Salon (perhaps not surprising, with the dubious name Beauty and the Best), her actual enterprise is something of a financial roller-coaster ride.
Ever-anxious to create the impression of being a respectable, upstanding citizen (independent from her husband), Felicity keeps her career very much apart. If we did not know her occupation, we could be forgiven for seeing her as something of a prude.
A fund-raiser for various charities, a member of the Heritage Foundation, a volunteer cook in the campaign Food for the Forlorn (a kind of Meals on Wheels for Street Children), she is a veritable pillar of the community.
Character: Gys Conradie
Played By: AJ van der Merwe
A loquacious, larger-than-life, sports-channel-surfer, married to Clive's sister, Felicity.
The owner of a successful motor dealership with a dreadful taste in the sartorial (and hair) stakes, he grew up on the farm, and – with his love of beer, braaivleis and the great outdoors – it shows.
Politically incorrect in a naïve, inoffensive (if that is at all possible) kind of way, he nonetheless loves the New South Africa (not surprising since his major clients are minibus taxi owners).
His fluency in Zulu (growing up in Kwa-Zulu Natal) is an added barb for the already self-conscious Vusi and a constant source of major embarrassment for the single language Clive.
Character: Thabisile
Played By: Bongi Mtsweni
This Domestic Worker is in the wrong job. She should be a headmistress, or the CEO of a dynamic company.
With an answer for everything (and 90% right every time), this thirty to fortyish woman knows each and every resident of La Paloma Apartments on a first name basis... and what's more, she knows what's going down at all times.
A veritable walking Fact File.
As well as being ‘Mother Confessor' to one and all (especially her ‘surrogate son', Vusi), she keeps the block looking like a 5 star hotel – and woe betide anyone who might litter the place, play music too loudly or party like there is no tomorrow.
Character: Amos Tshabalala
Played By: Molefi Monaisa
No longer a youngster, this University-educated, bookish, pipe-smoking individual whose intellectual ambitions were thwarted growing up under the apartheid regime, has worked his way up from being an in-studio Video Cameraman to a Controller, Producer and now – finally – to General Manager of Station Siyaya.
He looks forward to retirement – a concept that appears a very long time coming. It is made longer by the crises that crop up almost every day and test his mettle at every turn.
Character: Molly D'Oliveira
Played By: Jolene Martin-Morgan
Dedicated and capable, she is all one would want from a Floor Manager-cum-PA to Amos.
A so-called coloured ex-English major at Wits in her early 30's who grew up in Eldorado Park, she shares a love of literature with her boss, and is his ongoing ‘sounding board' when it comes to matters pertaining to the Studio.
Giving off the vibe of a ‘Plain Jane' with no desire for designer clothes or heavy make up, she hides her not inconsiderable appeal behind unfashionable spectacles... like she couldn't be bothered with unwanted advances from the opposite sex.
Too busy. Too focussed. Too sensible.
Character: Vusi Makhathini-Rutherford
Played By: Siphiwe Hlabangane
A young, up-and-coming accountant. Ex Hilton College whiz-kid.
Orphaned at a very young age and brought up by foster (white) parents in the affluent suburb of Hillcrest, Vusi is acutely embarrassed at not being able to speak Zulu, his supposed ‘mother tongue'.
Thabisile's attempts to teach him the language of his ancestors provides for much hilarity – especially when his pronunciation leaves a lot to be desired.
He is Clive's sometime golfing partner – a game the young Vusi believes will propel him ever higher up the corporate ladder.
Character: Jean-Pierre Marais
Played By: Brian Webber
Mr. Smooth in person. A dude who knows all the moves, and then some. A bore and regular pain-in-the-butt. The one guy in the series who makes our toes curl... with his clothes, his car and his ‘Celebrity Status' as TV newsreader.
Forever chatting up Molly, we know that he'll come short. In the long run – she'll give him the cold shoulder.
Character: Clayton La Toiya
Played By: Terence Bridgett
He runs a chic designer boutique that goes by the name Toi-Toiya.
A flambouyant, gossiping ex-Capetonian who is quite happy to tell you that he has designed clothing for the Stars of Tinseltown. He is nonetheless endearing and teases the ‘closet-homophobe' Thys whenever he gets the chance.
He has a soft spot for Clive and is forever advising the man on his wardrobe... an insult – he feels – to the name.
Character: Sanjay Ramjee
Played By: Huey Louw
A retired, wealthy tailor in his mid sixties. He is a widower and his children are all grown up. A son in Ipswich, England – another in Mumbai, and a daughter in Durban (far flung indeed).
He is a chronic ‘borrower' of household appliances, and an armchair cricket ‘expert' of note.
He plans his daily wardrobe by Clive's nightly weather forecasts and gets quite upset when Mr. Right gets it wrong (which is not infrequently).