Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) 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 ...
French language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in ...
children's television series, produced by
TVOntario
TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario E ...
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
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsJacques Dell) and Sophie ( Colombe Demers) before she moved in the show, and Ananas (), a talking
pineapple
The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a 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 cultivated for many centurie ...
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. ''Di ...
'', 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 of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devi ...
for
Mounties
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...
yé-yé
''Yé-yé'' () (''yeyé'' in Spanish) was a style of pop music that emerged in Western-Southern Europe in the early 1960s. The French term "''yé-yé''" was derived from the English "yeah! yeah!", popularized by British beat music bands such as ...
song "La Ballade de Téléfrançais" by Vowl Sounds references Ananas along with the movie Chungking Express and the
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg (; born Lucien Ginsburg; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French musician, singer-songwriter, actor, author and filmmaker. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provoc ...
song L'Anamour.
See also
* Dimoitou, a French-Canadian school program that used puppets and workbooks