No matter what generation we belong to, the children’s shows from our childhood often seem better than those watched by our children. Too politically correct, not creative enough, less unifying, today’s children’s programs?
Simon Portelance and Guy A. St Cyr published this week Family Channel Generation, a veritable encyclopedia devoted to the mythical channel that will have marked all those who grew up in the 1990s. The authors, themselves pure products of Canal Famille, do not hide the fact that they regret the freedom of tone that we found in most of the shows that were broadcast there. However, they refuse to play the reactionaries. No, everything was not better before.
“There are things that were better, but it’s not true that everything was better. We have now developed expertise in production and on a technical level. It did not exist at the time of Canal Famille, where programs were produced with small budgets. On the other hand, it is true that there is a boldness that we find less today for fear of shocking, ”tempers Simon Portelance, incidentally a member of the humorous group Les Pile-Poils.
Already, at the time, Canal Famille shocked some chaste ears for the lightness of some of its original broadcasts. It must be said that when it was launched in the late 1980s, Canal Famille aimed to stand out from the youth programs of Radio-Canada and Radio-Québec, leaving the educational component to Master key to reconnect with the playful side of children’s programs of the 1960s, such as The green mouse Where The Ribouldingue.
But over the years, this freedom has shrunk, we learn in the book by Simon Portelance and Guy A. St Cyr. A show like TV-Piratewith Guy Jodoin and Christian Bégin, paid for it in the mid-1990s. Radio Hell have also become less incisive over the years.
“We have come to mix what is offensive and what is irreverent. It is true that the jokes on the size of Jean-Lou [Michel Charette dans Radio Enfer], we would not do them today. But we should, in a youth program, be able to dismiss a character who has said something stupid. But I have the impression that we don’t dare anymore because we don’t want to have any trouble, ”laments Simon Portelance, for whom this book represents three years of work.
Behind the scenes
He and his sidekick, Guy A. St Cyr, will have carried out some 250 interviews with former directors and star actors of Canal Famille. The result is a book full of anecdotes on the behind the scenes of certain cult shows. The two authors say they were embarrassed to tell the ribald jokes that we told each other on the set of Bibi and Genevieve. On the other hand, their book lifts the veil on the stormy relationship between the young actors Jessica Barker and Lorànt Deutsch at the end of the Intrepid.
We also learn that Telefilm Canada blamed In a galaxy near you a lack of “Canadian content”. This is how maple leafs were grafted onto the costumes of the crew members of the Romano Fafard and that the credits were changed to allude to Canada as the “first world power” in 2034. A snub to the federal government, when most actors were convinced sovereignists at the time.
Family Channel Generation also returns to the end of the channel, overtaken by the arrival of Télétoon in 1997. Canal Famille will then gradually abandon toddlers to devote itself to pre-teens, even teenagers. In this desire to change the target audience, Canal Famille became Vrak.TV in 2001. The teen channel will also have a good few years, before seeing its ratings decline due to the appearance of listening platforms. Vrak now targets a strictly adult audience with translated crime series and reality TV shows.
Young people are therefore more than ever abandoned to the platforms, where the supply of Quebec content is starving, a fortiori children’s shows. “We have somewhat abandoned youth television in the last 10-15 years. And it’s worse in the movies. Out of 30 Quebec films funded each year, there are sometimes none for children. What would it be like to have three children’s films a year? One for kids, one for tweens, one for teens. There could be a compulsory trip to school to see them. If young people are not introduced to Quebec cinema, how can we expect them to go and see the films of Denis Côté and Stéphane Lafleur when they are older? asks Guy A. St Cyr.
Keep your child’s heart
All is not so bad on Quebec youth television. Radio-Canada and Télé-Québec present these days their daily news for toddlers: Kilucru Island, with France Castel in the skin of a fairy of the woods and Marcel Leboeuf, who interprets a grumpy troll. “There was a time after Pass-Partout where children’s TV had to be very didactic. It was felt so much that it became cliché, and today there is greater freedom. It’s important that we have youth programs that are not just educational, and that appeal to children’s imaginations,” underlines Frédérick Wolfe, the author of Kilucru Island.
Frédérick Wolfe, who has worked on several series and children’s books, believes that Quebec television for elementary and preschoolers is doing quite well. But he acknowledges that the future is more uncertain for shows aimed at tweens and teens, who are more drawn to foreign content on the platforms. An observation that Simon Portelance and Guy A. St Cyr share.
“The problem in Quebec is that we have bet a lot in recent years on teen dramas that are very rooted in reality and have target audiences. There are no more split series like In a galaxy near you Where Radio Hell, which officially aimed at young people, but which could reach people from 7 to 77 years old because of the double meaning. We need funny and runny series that will be able to please the whole family, ”wishes Simon Portelance, eternal nostalgia for Canal Famille.