Les Gammas! Les Gammas!
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Les Gammas! Les Gammas! |
| Country of production | Germany |
| Year (s) | 1974-1976 |
| Production company |
Bavarian radio |
| Episodes | 39 |
| genre | Language course |
| Director | Rudiger Graf |
| script | René Ehni |
| production | Walter Flemmer |
| music | Hermann Thieme |
| camera | Eckard Kaemmerer |
| Moderation | Michel Petit |
| occupation | |
|
Jacques David as Emile | |
Les Gammas! Les Gammas! is a French language course in the form of a 39-part television series , which was produced by the French television ORTF (later TF1 ) and the German ARD between 1974 and 1976.
The broadcasters themselves described the series as "television's contribution to the Franco-German cultural agreement", which had already been concluded in 1954. The German Christian Stehr acted as production manager , the French Germanist Jean M. Zemb was responsible for the didactic content , and Rüdiger Graf directed the film based on a script by René Ehni .
Due to its new design, the course developed into a surprise success on German television. It is still broadcast in repetitions today; in addition, television stations in other European countries as well as in America, Africa and Asia took over the series.
The concept of the series
It tells the story of three aliens from the fictional planet Gamma , who have to make an emergency landing with their spaceship - a wooden ball - on earth , of course in France . The gammas apparently belong to a humanoid race and are clearly recognizable as a woman and two men . In the course of the series they are named Odile , Adrien and Émile (played by Catherine Stermann , Jacques David and Pierre Maxence). Faced with the problem of making their spaceship airworthy again, the three on the one hand have to make contact with people on earth, but on the other hand they are constantly on the run from a sensational public and the government authorities that are stalking them. The rapid learning of at least the basics of the French language is therefore essential for the Gammas to survive. Since the gammas can initially only communicate in the language of their home planet (in which the syllables gam and ma seem to play a particularly prominent role), no knowledge of French is required from the audience either. Within the 39 episodes that the third TV programs of the ARD broadcast on a weekly basis (with one repetition per running week), a relatively high level is achieved, with the didactic focus being on conversation . The number of 39 episodes is originally related to the length of a German school year , namely an average of 40 weeks.
Implementation of educational reform models
Les Gammas! Les Gammas! differs considerably from older language courses, both in its basic structure and in its didactics , as they had already been given on television (and before that on the radio ). Even if this is of course not explicitly stated in the course as such, it reflects to a considerable extent the new approaches to education policy that have been controversially discussed by a broad public since the 1960s both in France and in the Federal Republic of Germany. Ultimately, it only becomes clear from the task of the series' presenter, Michel Petit, that this is a contribution from school television. His role also differs significantly from other series in terms of its practical implementation: Up until now, a type that resembled a teacher who gave conventional, so-called " frontal lessons " had dominated, Petit seemed more like a showmaster or animator in some respects . Between the film sequences, Michel Petit, shot using blue screen technology , appears in black or white clothes with a bentwood chair or stepladder as the only prop in front of a monochrome background and explains the French language using large-format text overlays.
A language course in the guise of a telenovela
On the one hand, the series tells a continuous story in the form of a self-contained plot: The model for this was not provided by the series of mostly disjointed episodes, but rather by the telenovelas , which at the time were almost only known from Latin America (especially Brazil and Mexico ) . Just like in these, the viewer, who in the case of Les Gammas! Les Gammas! a course participant is also aroused the need not to "miss any episode". In terms of style, the series mainly picks up on influences from two genres that were just beginning to become “socially acceptable” in the mid-1970s, namely the road movie and science fiction .
The “tabula rasa” approach
Furthermore, the series takes a step back from a previously prevalent concept of language teaching, that is, to take into account the relative “foreignness” of the language to be learned in relation to the mother tongue of the pupil, including its cultural influences. With the gammas as extraterrestrials, the authors of the series create a tabula-rasa situation: The three protagonists not only have the vocabulary but also the terms they denote completely foreign, so that the learner ultimately has a knowledge advantage over his or her own Identification figures are located. This aspect also explains the success of the course beyond Germany and Europe.
Reflection of the zeitgeist
Finally, Les Gammas mediates ! Les Gammas! Insights into the zeitgeist of the 1970s: The figures of the three peaceful, occasionally somewhat confused Gammas with their long hair and baggy, gray robes play with the cliché of the flower child that was widespread at the time . The episodes in which the three cheat the "establishment" (for example in the form of the police) cite subliminal passages from well-known hippie films such as Easy Rider . The playful mixing of the simplest props and cardboard backdrops with the bluescreen technology that was modern at the time contributed to the “avant-garde” overall impression.
Furthermore, it should not be forgotten that at this time mankind was taking its first steps into space and that SciFi programs and films with space themes ( spaceship Enterprise , Alpha 1 moon base etc.) were also popular.
The title is a homophonic pun on "Les gamins!" - to translate in German with: the rascals, urchins or the little rascals.
Edutainment pioneers
The makers of Les Gammas! Les Gammas! implemented the idea of so-called edutainment long before this term was even coined. In the context of the then still unrivaled public television in the Federal Republic of Germany, many viewers welcomed the series as exciting and humorous entertainment that was otherwise not usual on the broadcasting slots allocated to school television . Nowadays it is above all the mentioned "patina", which is felt to be nostalgic and lovable, that gives the repetitions a fan base and a certain cult status .
literature
- Les Gammas! Les Gammas! TR-Verlagsunion , Munich 1974, ISBN 3-8058-0551-9 (1st textbook accompanying the course)
- Les Gammas! Les Gammas! TR-Verlagsunion , Munich 1974, ISBN 3-8058-0552-7 (2nd textbook accompanying the course)
- Les Gammas! Les Gammas! TR-Verlagsunion , Munich 1974, ISBN 3-8058-0553-5 (3rd textbook accompanying the course)
DVD
- Les Gammas! Les Gammas! French course (39 episodes)
Web links
- Les Gammas! Les Gammas! in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Episodes and broadcast dates on fernsehserien.de
- A short article on “Les Gammas! Les Gammas! " (English)
- Complete series as a playlist on YouTube