''Téléfrançais!'' is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...

children's television series, produced by

TVOntario TVO (stylized in all lowercase as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a Canadian Public broadcasting, publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates ...

from 1984 until 1986. The series of 30 ten-minute episodes has become a popular teaching tool, and is used by many educators (especially in Canadian and American schools) to teach French as a second language to elementary and middle school children. The show's name is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

for ''télévision'' and ''français''. The show follows the adventures of two children named Jacques ( Jacques Dell) and Sophie ( Colombe Demers) before she moved in the show, and Ananas (), a talking

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...

who resides in a junkyard. Other recurring characters are Pilote, Ginette, the ''Annonceur'', Monsieur Pourquoi (''le Superdétective''), Louis Questionneur, Brigitte Banane, and the comic skeletal musical group ''Les Squelettes''. The programs were produced by Jennifer Harvey and directed by David Moore. The theme and all of ''Les Squelettes songs were written by the team of Bruce Ley and Jed MacKay. Julie Beaulieu, who appeared in PBS' '' Bridge to Terabithia'', also appeared. All the characters and scripts were created by Ken Sobol. The series was on air, on TVO, until at least 1996.

Cultural references

In Ryan North's ''

Dinosaur Comics ''Dinosaur Comics'' is a constrained webcomic by Canadian writer Ryan North. It is also known as "Qwantz", after the site's domain name, "qwantz.com". The first comic was posted on February 1, 2003, although there were earlier prototypes. ''Din ...

'', the ''Téléfrançais'' theme song is God's ring tone. A clip from the series served as the

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for

Mounties The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

' 2013 single "Headphones"."A new band for Hawksley Workman"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', January 29, 2013. The

yé-yé ''Yé-yé'' () or ''yeyé'' () was a style of pop music that emerged in Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe in the early 1960s. The French term ''yé-yé'' was derived from the English "yeah! yeah!", popularized by British beat music ban ...

song "La Ballade de Téléfrançais" by Vowl Sounds references Ananas along with the movie

Chungking Express ''Chungking Express'' is a 1994 Hong Kong anthology crime dramedy film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai. The film consists of two stories told in sequence, each about a lovesick Hong Kong policeman mulling over his relationship with a woma ...

and the

Serge Gainsbourg Serge Gainsbourg (; born Lucien Ginsburg; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer-songwriter, actor, composer, and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provocative rel ...

song L'Anamour.

References

External links

Episode-by-episode summary (English)

''Téléfrançais'' ringtone
1984 Canadian television series debuts 1986 Canadian television series endings Television shows filmed in Toronto French-language television programming in Canada French-language education television programming French-language media in Ontario 1980s Canadian children's television series Internet memes introduced from Canada Canadian children's education television series Canadian television shows featuring puppetry TVO original programming Television series about children {{Canada-kids-tv-prog-stub

Cultural references

See also

References

External links