Un gars, une fille

Un gars, une fille
Un gars, une fille logo, original version.
Created by	Guy A. Lepage
Starring	Guy A. Lepage Sylvie Léonard
Country of origin	Quebec
Original language	French
Production
Producers	Jean Bissonnette Jean-Claude Lespérance Luc Wiseman
Camera setup	Single camera
Running time	26 minutes
Original release
Network	SRC
Release	1997 – 2003

Un gars, une fille ("a guy, a girl") is the title of a Quebec comedy television series created by Guy A. Lepage and broadcast on Radio-Canada, as well as the title of its French adaptation on France 2. It is one of the most successful Quebec television shows, with a concept exported to more than thirty markets around the world. It is the first French Canadian television programme to be adapted in the United States (see below).

A typical episode features several vignettes of the daily everyday life of a couple with the camera mostly centered upon them, often cropping out other characters, giving it its unique visual style. The duo receive friends for supper, go to the convenience store or leave on a trip and sometimes get on each other's nerves. Their quirks and loving bickering provide therefore much of the humour of the programme. The graphic design style associated to the original Un gars, une fille, which consists of a palette of pastel blue and pink and rough lines and scribblings (seen in the transition graphics, see Original section), as well as a logo with simulated printing mistakes and smears, have been imitated for much of the other versions, with the notable exception of the American version. The character names are often those of the actors, as in the first version.

Original

The concept of Un gars, une fille began in the 1990s, as a series of short segments featured in Besoin d'amour, a TQS network daily talk-show hosted by Guy A. Lepage than ran from 1995 to 1996. Lepage is a veteran of the renown comedy troupe Rock et Belles Oreilles (RBO). He played the couple along with Sylvie Léonard and the duo would reprise their roles in what would become in 1997 Un gars une fille, a weekly 26 minutes programme of great success and many adaptations. It was celebrated numerous times in award presentations, notably winning in the Gémeaux and Félix and MetroStar Awards. It was also nominated twice at the American Emmy Awards. Produced by Avanti Ciné Vidéo, the show aired from 1997 to 2003 in its initial run and continued life in reruns afterwards. 130 episodes were produced, translating to about 4,000 scenes. The script writing team has included RBO members André Ducharme and Bruno Landry, as well as Sylvie Léonard herself. Yves P. Pelletier, also from RBO, has been featured onscreen. After the series concluded in 2003, Lepage went on to more success, producing and hosting the hugely successful Tout le monde en parle, adapted this time from the eponymous French hit talk-show.

A typical visual style of many adaptations: a medium shot of the couple facing cropped-out secondary characters.

The standard episode is presented in three acts and each of those acts is split into five to seven scenes. Flashy pastel blue and pink graphics with squiggly lines follow punchlines and mark transitions, coupled with an upbeat percussive tune and often a spoken voice-off phrase summing up the previous segment. Appropriately, the show's publicity and early video releases covers are often recognizable by the presence of those pastel blue and pink colors and askew lines, mimicking the graphics that separates the scenes of the programme (traditionally, the blue color is associated with boys and the pink one with girls).

The two main characters, "Guy et Sylvie", are named after those who play them. Guy likes to tease Sylvie on a variety of subjects and hates her mother. His father is remarried with a young looker, Mélanie, played by Mahée Paiement, and had a child with her. The attention that this little one gets makes Guy jealous, his father seemingly having spent less time on him. Sylvie dreams of having a baby, unlike Guy. She is herself jealous of Geneviève, Guy's sexy office colleague with whom he is said to have slept with years ago. She is also obsessed with cleanliness and resents Guy for being untidy. A curious running gag from the show involved Guy surprising Sylvie by grabbing her breasts from behind while shouting "Road Runner!", followed by the cartoon character's emblematic honking "beeb beeb" sound. While she ostensibly loves it, she pretended the exact opposite when it was obliquely brought up by Guy in front of her mother. This joke was developed on the set by the two actors. The last season saw notable developments: a mariage and a trip to Vietnam to adopt a little girl.

Adaptations

Bulgaria

The Bulgarian version was known as Tia i toi and lasted from 2002 to 2004. The cast was made of Stefaniya Koleva playing Silvia, the girl of the show, and Julian Vergov playing Martin, the guy of the show.

Canada (English version)

The rights for an English Canadian adaptation are held by producer of the original show Luc Wiseman, from the Avanti television production company. However, the main English Canadian networks CBC, CTV and Global Television refused the concept. Wiseman stated: "They were saying that it was not for the Canadian market, that it was too audacious." With A Guy & A Girl as title, it ended up on Women's Television Network (WTN, now known as the W Network), a cable television specialty channel, and lasted two seasons. Jeff Clarke was the guy, Mike, and Kate Ashby was Susy, the girl.

France

The characteristic unstable line and smudge graphics at the beginning and end of the show, and in the middle of two scenes.

Also called Un gars, une fille, the version adapted for the French public began broadcast on October 11, 1999. After a rocky start, it went on to become a success and garnered around 5 million viewers each day, that is to say a third of the people watching television at that timeslot in France (these figures are from the footnoted article; the official website claims an average of almost 7 million). Its format, from 26 minutes weekly, is reduced to episodes of about seven minutes daily, which is more common in France than Canada (inversely, the French television show Caméra Café was expanded from nine to thirty minutes). These were supplemented by two 26 minutes television specials during the holidays of 2001. The Christmas special garnered 27.4% market share (approximately 6 million people) and the New Year's special 25%.

The French show stars Jean Dujardin (later Brice de Nice fame) as Jean and Alexandra Lamy as Alex; it keeps the first names of the actors, as the original. This version introduced pet names for the lovers: "Loulou" for the guy and "Chouchou" for the girl. "Loulou" happens to be how Sylvie, the "girl" of the original, calls one of her friends. The actors blended fact with fiction when they left their respective significant others and married each other in 2003. It won a Sept d'or award for "best entertainment show" in 2001 and concluded in 2003.

Greece

S'agapo M'agapas ("I love you, you love me") began broadcast in Greece starting in 1999. Its format is weekly 26 minutes episodes, much like the original. Thodoris Atheridis plays Thodoris, the guy, and Dimitra Papadopoulou plays Dimitra, the girl, replicating the original version's concept of keeping first names for the characters.

Hungary

The Hungarian version of Un gars, une fille is known under the name of Szeret, nem szeret. It began airing in 2002 on TV2. According to the Internet Movie Database, the format is 7 minutes, much like in France. The guy is Brúnó, played by Szabó Győző and the girl is Brigi, played by Oroszlán Szonja.

Italy

The first edition of the Italian version chose Love Bugs as title, which is the international marketing name of Un gars, une fille. It ran on Italia 1 from 2004 to 2005 with a couple interpreted by famous comedian Fabio De Luigi (already famous for its collaboration with Gialappa's Band) and Michelle Hunziker (veteran of Zelig Circus). A second edition was aired from 2005 to 2006, known as Love Bugs 2, in which Elisabetta Canalis replaced Hunziker. The characters's names in both series are those of the actors, in the fashion of the original show. In the third edition (on air in 2007), Love Bugs 3, the couple is interpreted by Emilio Solfrizzi and Giorgia Surina (MTV's Veejay). Because of low ratings, Love Bugs 3 was withdrawn after a couple of weeks of airing.

Poland

In Poland, Kasia i Tomek began broadcast on September 3, 2002 on the TVN network. The title refers to the first names of the characters, the Polish equivalents of the English "Kate" and "Tom". It stared Joanna Brodzik (Kasia, the girl) and Paweł Wilczak (Tomek, the guy). It won two Telekamery awards in 2002: one for "best comedy series" and one for "best actress" for the work of Joanna Brodzik.

Portugal

Portugal saw its version begin in 1999 with Entre Marido e Mulher ("between husband and wife"). The format chosen was weekly 26 minutes episodes, as the Canadian original.

Spain

Spain opted, with El y Ella ("he and she"), for a format similar to France with 7 minutes shows each day. It began in the year 2000. As in the original, the actors's first names remain: Josep Julien is Pep while Cristina Solá is Cristina. "Pep" is a hypocoristism for Josep.

Ukraine

The Ukrainian version of Un gars, une fille called Леся+Рома ("Les′a+Roma") began broadcast in 2006 on ICTV. Starring Irma Vitovska as Les′a, the girl, and Dmytro Lalenkov as Roma, the guy, it is the first comedy show to be produced in the Ukrainian language. It airs on weekdays, with an average rating of 2 million viewers.

United States

Titled Love Bites, the American version began broadcast on September 13, 2006 with comedian Paul Reiser as producer and writer. It is co-produced by JWT, the world's fourth largest advertising agency. While the original format was 26 minutes, the American one cuts even more than the French seven minutes, choosing to create a first season of 82 episodes of two and a half minutes (which was not part of the original contract, see below). 65 should be seen on television while 17 will be available for computers and cell phones. It airs on the TBS cable television network on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at some time between 11:00 pm and midnight, and on Friday morning at some time between 9:00 am and 10:00 am.[3] Love Bites stars David Julian Hirsh (a native of Montreal, Quebec, seen in CSI: NY and Naked Josh) and Lauren Bittner (seen in Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Third Watch). The characters, called Max and Katie, are about 25 years old, younger than the original Guy and Sylvie. Another notable difference with the original that is witnessed is the possibility in Love Bites to break the fourth wall by speaking to the camera.

It is the first time a French-Canadian television concept is bought for the American public (in film, Louis 19, le roi des ondes was remade as EdTV and an American adaptation of C.R.A.Z.Y. is rumoured). Reiser is said to have been seduced by the series when it was presented to him by Michel Rodrigue, president of Distraction Formats, the Montreal-based international distribution company for Un gars, une fille. Rodrigue said "The selling process has been long and complicated. It has been a very long time that we have been working on it." Creator Guy A. Lepage said that he thought the chemistry worked well between the two main actors. Nevertheless, he has stated his disappointment with the finished product, giving it a "2 out of 10". He declared that, in his opinion, the problem did not lie with the acting but with the length of the show (two and a half minutes long, as mentioned above), the sponsor, the broadcasting and the assembling. He summed it up by saying: "It's media concentration to the power of 1,000, like a super big TVA". Sunsilk, a shampoo marque from Unilever, is the main sponsor of Love Bites. TVA is part of Pierre Karl Péladeau's Quebecor media conglomerate. As of 2006, Canadian and American producers are still caught up in legal contention, notably about the aforementioned short length. The initial contract planned a guaranteed minimum of seven minutes per episode.

Others

The concept of Un gars, une fille was also bought in Belgium, Cuba, Denmark, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and many others, totalling more than thirty exportations. Not all of these countries have necessarily produced a show with the acquired rights.

See also

• List of Quebec television series imports and exports
• List of Quebec television series
• Television of Quebec
• Culture of Quebec
• List of French television series
• Culture of France

External links

Official

• Official website of the Quebec version
• Official website of the American adaptation
• Official website of the French adaptation
• Official website of the Italian adaptation
• Official website of the Polish adaptation

Videos

• Promotional video for international distribution featuring the Quebec version and various adaptations
• Promotional video of the American adaptation
• Various videos of the American adaptation
• Video of the French adaptation
• Video of the Greek adaptation
• Video of the Polish adaptation