''Chez Hélène'' is a

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

produced by and broadcast on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

. The 15-minute weekday program was broadcast on the English television network to provide viewers with exposure to the French language. The program was produced at CBC's

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

studios. It began its 14-season run on 26 October 1959, with the final program airing 25 May 1973.

Hélène Baillargeon Hélène Baillargeon (1916–1997) was a Canadian singer, actor, and folklorist probably best known as the host of the CBC Television show ''Chez Hélène'' from 1959 to 1973. She was born in Saint-Martin, Quebec, on 28 August 1916 and studie ...

portrayed the title role. Other cast members were Madeline Kronby who portrayed the bilingual Louise, and a mouse puppet named Suzie who generally spoke English. Corinne Orr provided the voice for Suzie. In terms of children's series, the program remained popular in its final season, with a reported 437,000 viewers recorded by BBM in November 1972. But CBC executives cancelled the series, claiming that it had run its course, and that the network's broadcasts of ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'' would incorporate five minutes of French-language segments per episode. By the end of the 1970s, a newer program, ''

Passe-Partout ''Passe-Partout'' (; ) was a Quebec French-language children's television program produced by Radio-Québec (later Télé-Québec) that was originally in production from 1977 to 1993, and was revived in 2019 with a new cast. It aired on Radio- ...

'' started airing on CBC Television's French counterpart,

Ici Radio-Canada Télé Ici Radio-Canada Télé (formerly known as Télévision de Radio-Canada) is a Canadian French-language free-to-air television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada), the national pub ...

References

External links

Chez Helene
– Canadian Communication Foundation
Queen's University Directory of CBC Television Series
via archive.org) * 1959 Canadian television series debuts 1973 Canadian television series endings 1950s Canadian children's television series CBC Television original programming Television shows filmed in Montreal French-language education television programming 1960s Canadian children's television series 1970s Canadian children's television series Black-and-white Canadian television shows Canadian television shows featuring puppetry {{Canada-kids-tv-prog-stub