{"id":6224,"date":"2012-09-16T17:19:19","date_gmt":"2012-09-16T16:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bothersbar.co.uk\/?page_id=6224"},"modified":"2013-11-05T15:49:54","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T15:49:54","slug":"jacques-antoine-the-games-master","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bothersbar.co.uk\/?page_id=6224","title":{"rendered":"Jacques Antoine: The Games Master"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Jacques Antoine. A name few people would recognize in Britain, but in France where they pay a bit more attention to format developers (it’s not unusual for devisors and producers to get mentioned in a show’s titles) he’s recognized as one of television and radio’s most innovative producers and one of the most prolific format creators. And he also wrote books and screenplays although we’ll be concentrating on the games here although one of his radio shows, Cent francs par seconde<\/em>, actually formed the basis of a film released in 1953. Researching a French television producer is not the easiest of things to do when you’re not very good at French, so if you can add or correct anything here you are encouraged to leave a comment!<\/p>\n

Of course any person in the UK of a certain age would have grown up watching Chatsworth adapatations of his shows on Channel 4 and ITV in the 80s and 90s – everybody knows what Treasure Hunt <\/strong>and The Crystal Maze<\/strong> was. Interceptor<\/strong> was a cult hit. The genre defining Fort Boyard<\/strong> was Channel 5’s highest rating show for a while (albeit that’s not saying much). But you know all those cool ideas you see these days, usually as part of the reality skein? Antoine was probably doing a proto version of it ten, twenty years before it became the fashion. You know how The Amazing Race<\/em> wins loads of awards and was once a great show? Well Jacques Antoine created a show where teams had to race around the world making films about the places they travelled to which would get sent back to Paris to be judged. La Course autor du Monde<\/strong> began in 1976 and ran until 1984. And actually there was an Australian version of it made in 1997.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One of his earliest shows was also one of his biggest, La T\u00eate et les Jambes <\/strong>(The Head and The Legs<\/em>) which began in 1960 and ran for 20 years. The concept is very simple – Two contestants team up over a number of weeks, one is the brains, one is the brawn. The Head will have to answer questions on a different given topic each week. If they fail, it’s up to The Legs to make up for the mistake by taking part in a sporting challenge. If they successfully make it through enough weeks (research suggests six questions for four weeks, but I believe towards the end it became five questions for five weeks) they’d win 100,000FFr between them, a huge cash prize for the time.<\/p>\n

The topic is introduced by a short film for the viewer, and the question set-ups are quite neat and inventive, usually involving some set dressing and some props – most questions are multi-part and it sounds like there is some room for error. The sporting challenges are filmed as a full outside broadcast. Each time The Head gets a question wrong The Legs must perform their challenge, but the challenge becomes more difficult and exacting each time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It’s quite a neat set-up, so it’s no surprise that the ideas have found themselves used in later shows – Un pour Tous\u00a0<\/strong>(One For All<\/em>) from 1993 with at the time current Fort Boyard<\/em> host Cendrine Dominguez used the idea but with individuals playing as a team acting as The Head, and one of them having to be elimiated if The Legs couldn’t perform their challenge. More recently still Dr\u00f4le de Couple<\/a> <\/strong>asked what would happen if you got partners playing together, one answering the questions, the other trying to perform challenges if the brain stuffs up, with a hilarious Mr and Mrs<\/em> style element to determine the difficulty of the challenge. As recently as 2010 TF1 filmed a pilot for a revival with Vincent Lagaf. We’d pay to see that.<\/p>\n

Sometimes he adapted radio shows for television. Le Tirlipot<\/em> famously became Le Schmilblick<\/strong> originally hosted by Guy Lux (you may know him as the man who created Intervilles<\/em> and Jeux Sans Frontieres <\/em>and actually worked with Antoine a few times on radio and TV). What is a schmilblick? It’s basically a useless thing, the term was coined by French humourist Pierre Dac during the 50s.<\/p>\n

The game was basically a “guess the mystery object” competition. They’d see a close up of an object and they had to ask questions to guess what it was. If they got a “yes” answer they could continue to ask more questions or have a guess at the schmilblick for a rising jackpot. If they got a “no” they were off the show. Guy Lux and judge would sit in a studio but the show would travel and people were encouraged to come along and play.<\/p>\n

Again it’s a concept that’s been used a few times. Le Schmilblick<\/em> was bought back by France 3 in the 80s – this is the version I’ve seen. In it, people line up at a beach whilst the hosts sit in the studio. Questions start out at 300FFr and it looks like the money doubles with every “yes” answer. They can opt to walk away with their gains, but if they get a “no” or they guess the Schmilblick wrong then the money is added to the jackpot for whoever guesses it to win.<\/p>\n

It also turns up as a game played on Les Jeux des 20hrs<\/strong> (The Games At Eight O’ Clock<\/em>), a show created with Jacques Solness that ran for over 13 years. It’s basically collection of word and parlour games that would travel the country with local celebrities helping out. I think we can agree this is quite<\/em> the theme tune.<\/p>\n