Once Upon a Time... Man

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Once Upon a Time... Man
Format	Animated television series
Created by	Albert Barillé
Developed by	Procidis
Voices of	Roger Carel Annie Balestra Patrick Préjean Claude Bertrand Yves Barsacq Vincent Ropion
Narrated by	Roger Carel
Composer(s)	Michel Legrand
Country of origin	France
No. of episodes	26
Production
Running time	26 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	FR3
Picture format	SECAM (576i)
Original airing	1978
Chronology
Followed by	Once Upon a Time... Space (1982)
External links
Production website
IMDb profile

Once Upon a Time...Man (French: Il était une fois... l'homme) is a French animated TV series from 1978 directed by Albert Barillé. The series explains world history in a format designed for children. The action focuses around one group. The same familiar characters appear in all episodes as they deal with the problems of their time.

It was broadcast in Canada in both English and French versions. In 2005, the viewing of the program in an Inuit classroom in northern Quebec led to a controversy with the local school board, who, amid community opposition, initially banned the teaching of evolution in schools as a result. [1]

1 Regional releases
2 Characters
3 Episodes
4 Broadcast Information
5 External links

[edit] Regional releases

A DVD box set of all the episodes of the series has been produced by the french production company Procidis, and distributed locally by various distributors their website. The DVD series was produced in French, English (not sold in UK, US or Canada), Finnish, German, Norwegian and Swedish.

[edit] Characters

The series Once Upon a Time... Man illustrated the history of mankind from the point of view of a group that is always composed of similar recurring figures that represent different archetypal roles.:

Maestro (Roger Carel) - The wise old man. He usually serves as the head of the tribe, as a religious priest, as an adviser to the king and as an inventor. Maestro has long white hair and beard that covers his entire body.
Peter / Pierre (Roger Carel) - The courageous and handsome young man. He represents the image of the good person.
Jumbo / Le Gros (Yves Barsacq) - The strong young man. Jumbo is Peter's best friend. A quite large person, with red hair and great physical powers. At times he tends to be a little clumsy but he is very strong. He often defends Peter, Pierrette (and Psi in the spinoffs) from the bad bullies.
- Jumbo and Peter have also young counterparts (Little Jumbo and Pierrot (Vincent Ropion)) and their development is usually followed from childhood to adolescence.
Psi - The good young girl. Dark haired woman, serves mostly as Peter's girlfriend, or as Peter's wife.
Pierrette (Annie Balestra) - The good young woman. Blond haired, serves mostly as Pierrot's mother, or as Jumbo's wife.
The Pest / Le Teigneux (Claude Bertrand) - The big bully, friend of 'The Dwarf', large and strong bully that enjoys picking on others or attacking them. He is strong, but Jumbo is stronger.
The Dwarf / Le Nabot (Patrick Préjean) - The little bully, friend of 'The Pest', weak but intriguer and shrewd. He has a malicious giggle.
The Clock - Displays the year when the events occur. Sometimes it has a character and reacts to what the screen shows. For example complains when narration proceeds many years forwards or glares to the scenery when something interesting is shown.

Some of them had historical roles. For example Pest as Goliath and Pierrot as David. Maestro had the role of Leonardo Da Vinci etc.

[edit] Episodes

And Earth was created...
Neanderthal Man
Cro-Magnon Man
The Fertile Valleys
The First Empires
The Age of Pericles
The Pax Romana
The Conquest of Islam
The Carolingians
The Age of Vikings
The Cathedral Builders
The Travels of Marco Polo
The Hundred Years' War
The Quattrocento
The Golden Age of Spain
Elizabethan England
The Golden Age of the Low Countries
The Great Reign of Louis XIV
Peter the Great and his Times
The Age of Reason (18th)
America
1789–1814 (The French Revolution)
The Awakening of the People (Revolutions of 1848)
The "Belle Époque" (1900 to 1914)
The Crazy Years
Once Upon a Time... the Earth (and tomorrow?)

[edit] Broadcast Information

Country	Television broadcasts
France	FR3
Canada	CBC Television, Télévision de Radio-Canada, Access TV Alberta
Belgium	RTBF, BRT
Chile	TVN
Iceland	Sjónvarpið (RÚV)
Israel	Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) **
Italy	RAI
Japan	Tatsunoko Production *
Mexico	XHGC-TV (Televisa)
Netherlands	Katholieke Radio Omroep (KRO)
Norway	Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK)
Poland	Telewizja Polska (TVP)
Portugal	RTP **
Republic of Ireland	RTÉ
Spain	Televisión Española (TVE)
Sweden	Sveriges Radio (SR)
Switzerland	SSR (French)
Turkey	TRT (TRT) **
United Kingdom	ITV
West Germany	WDR, SWF