You dreamed, like Marie-Lyne Joncas, of rummaging in the evil pool of Zigotos ? Do you miss the days of the high-end “toilets” at the Griffe d’or gala at TVA?
You worshiped the music show Pop Express of Roch Denis like your parents loved Youth today by Pierre Lalonde? So, come to the warm living room of I was waiting for youthe new talk show infused with nostalgia from Véronique Cloutier and Jean-Sébastien Girard, the first two episodes of which – out of a total of eight – were posted on Tou.TV Extra.
This novelty, which resides at the intersection of JS Tendresse at 95.1 FM and Children of TVwill land on traditional Radio-Canada TV in spring 2025, for those who do not subscribe to the public broadcaster’s paid platform.
I was waiting for youit is first of all the classic hit by Daniel Hétu that Véro and Jean-Sébastien sing at the opening of each of their shows, as in the days of Garden party at TQS.
The copilots, two bibles of Quebec popular culture, take on the codes of this old-fashioned TV and re-appropriate them in an eclectic and entertaining format, which appeals to both boomers and millennials.
Because I was waiting for you casts a wide net. Like, from the 1960s to the early 2000s. And its spectrum sweeps TV, obviously, but also print magazines, advertising and social trends.
The first episode, devoted to fashion, is the better of the two. On a type tray Good evening good evening!Véronique Cloutier and Jean-Sébastien Girard welcome Marina Orsini, Jean Airoldi and Geneviève Brouillette. At age 14, Marina Orsini began her career as a model for Zellers and Miracle Mart catalogs. Backcombed toupee, exaggerated makeup and oversized shoulder pads, Marina Orsini’s archive photos perfectly encapsulate the stylistic excesses and colorful madness of the early 1980s.
Also a “top model”, Jean Airoldi posed, at the time, for commercial brochures for Bombardier snowmobiles, before beginning his career as a designer. Thank goodness Véro and JS bring out images from his famous “Look into my eyes” collection, a perfect polaroid of the mid-1990s, where the flamboyant outfits of dance music fans rubbed shoulders with the threadbare clothes of grunge trippers .
PHOTO FRANÇOIS DUFOUR, PROVIDED BY RADIO-CANADA
Marina Orsini and Jean Airoldi on the set of I was waiting for you
As for Geneviève Brouillette, she dives back into her memories of the TV series Divawhere she played the international model Clara Baly, threatened by the arrival, at her agency, of faces fresher and more youthful than hers… 26 years old.
Between anecdotes about The Deschênes house and the country duo formed by Jerry and JoAnne, the accomplices Véronique Cloutier and Jean-Sébastien Girard dig into their encyclopedic memories of knowledge as obscure as it is specialized in local showbiz. They are amazing. How can they absorb and retain so much, let’s say, useless information?
The aim of I was waiting for you is not about ridiculing the guests or mocking an artist who has fallen into oblivion. The humor remains teasing and the self-deprecation of the two hosts is never far away. Between these two real children of TV, the flow goes well and no one pulls the cover too far. Speaking of bedding, Jean-Sébastien Girard even stored his famous cushion I was waiting for youwhich he always holds close to him Good evening good evening!.
Where it is less fluid is when Véro or Jean-Sébastien forcefully insert more nutritious or instructive content into the episodes between two references to Hello Boubou. The sequence turns out to be less natural.
Also, the release of the rights to several images was not authorized, which leads to segments where the guests talk, for example, about terrible gala dresses that we never see on our screens.
The second episode of I was waiting for you revolves around challenges with Gaston Lepage, cheerful captain of Take up the challenge at TQS, Jean-François Beaupré of Zigotos and Jean-Michel Anctil, who piloted, in 2005, an unremarkable show that I had completely forgotten, Everything for youVAT.
It’s almost a scandal that Véro and Jean-Sébastien did not think of Double challenge by Gilles Payer as well as his big sticky hamburger in which winning flags were hidden. It was from their generation. And Gino Chouinard was the in-house host. Shlak by Patrick Huneault at Canal Famille would also have deserved a nod.
You can feel nostalgia at 20, 40 or 60 years old, there is no age to leaf through your album of personal cultural memories. Twenty-somethings today dress like ravers from 1999. The tour For a one night stand by Marie Denise Pelletier, Marie Carmen and Joe Bocan filled theaters across Quebec. And the temporary suspension of repeats of the soap opera Under a variable sky on ARTV almost started a riot in the cottages.
It’s comforting and reassuring to relive a period that was perhaps gentler and less anxiety-inducing than today.
On weekends, the 98.5 FM station plays hits from the 1980s and 1990s and it becomes impossible to change stations. The Cranberries, Live and Stone Temple Pilots, yes sir, yes madam.
To quote the everyday philosophers of the Kaïn group: “The world lives poorly, suffocated by fear of the abnormal. Properly politicized, let’s legalize illegality. »
Like in time.