Rien van Wijk is an influential Dutch director and producer, who is best known as the 'father' of Toppop.
He has had a major influence on the development of music on Dutch television. Furthermore, his characteristic, experimental style with the use of many image effects has been widely imitated; Until then, making television in the Netherlands was mainly a matter of 'recording' without any frills. Toppop was chosen by readers of Televizier at the beginning of this century as the best television program of the 20th century.