Jeux Sans Frontieres

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Jeux Sans Frontières (English: Games Without Frontiers) is a Europe-wide television game show.

In its original conception, it was broadcast from 1965 to 1999 under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union and featured teams from different European countries in outlandish costumes (often large latex (foam rubber) suits) competing to complete bizarre tasks in funny games.

In the United Kingdom, participants came from the heats of It's a Knockout. The presenter of that series, Stuart Hall, provided the British commentary.

The idea of the show came from the General Charles de Gaulle, whose wish was that French and German youth would meet in a series of funny games to reinforce the friendship between France and Germany. The games were inspired by the matches between French cities. Some games were played in swimming pools. In 1965, three French men (Pedro Brime, Claude Savarit, Jean-Louis Marest) brought the idea of the games to all Europe with success. Teams representing France, Germany, Belgium, and Italy took part in the first edition of the show called Inter Nations Games. [1]

Each participating country hosted one round of the games, presented by the host broadcaster. Every game was umpired by two "international" judges, Gennaro Olivieri and Guido Pancaldi.

The series will be launched again in June 2007, after many fans of the series forced EBU to relaunch it after 7 years of inactivity.

[edit] Participating countries and wins

Between the span of 1965 and 1999, 20 countries participated in 30 editions of JSF (considering Wales and Czechoslovakia as separate participants):

Country	Years of Participation	Editions	Wins
Belgium	1965-1982, 1988-1989	20	2
Germany	1965-1980	16	6
France	1965-1968, 1970-1982, 1988-1992, 1997-1999	25	3
Italy	1965-1982, 1988-1999	30	4
Switzerland	1967-1982, 1992-1999	24	2
United Kingdom	1967-1982 (1991-1994: Wales only)	16	4
Netherlands	1970-1977, 1997-1998	10	0
Liechtenstein	1976	1 (one heat)	0
Yugoslavia	1978-1982, 1990	6	0
Portugal	1979-1982, 1988-1998	15	5
Spain	1988, 1990-1992	4	1
San Marino	1989-1991	3	0
Wales	1991-1994	4	0
Tunisia	1992	1	0
Czechoslovakia	1992	1	1
Czech Republic	1993-1995	3	2
Greece	1993-1999	7	0
Hungary	1993-1999	7	3
Slovenia	1994, 1996-1997, 1999 (earlier as Yugoslavia)	4	0
Malta	1994-1995	2	0

Liechtenstein participated in 1976, replacing Switzerland in one single heat, and using thus the code FL (instead of CH).

Wales participated from 1991 to 1994 on behalf of the United Kingdom, using the code GB. Welsh was the transmission language of the participating broadcaster (S4C).

Czechoslovakia participated in 1992 with Czech teams only. There was no Slovak participation in JSF that year. In 1993 the Czech Republic entered the show as an independent country.

The show inspired Peter Gabriel's 1980 hit single, "Games Without Frontiers" (the direct English translation of the title), in which Kate Bush sings "jeux ... sans frontières" during breaks. The lyrics also refer to the original title: "It's A Knockout".