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Once Upon a Time... Man
French DVD cover
French	Il était une fois... l'homme
Genre	Edutainment Animation
Created by	Albert Barillé
Voices of	Roger Carel Annie Balestra Patrick Préjean Claude Bertrand Yves Barsacq Vincent Ropion
Narrated by	Roger Carel
Composer	Yasuo Sugiyama
Country of origin	List France Belgium Canada Italy Japan Netherlands Norway Spain Sweden Switzerland
Original language	French
No. of episodes	26
Production
Running time	26 minutes
Production companies	List Procidis France Régions Société Radio-Canada ACCESS Alberta Radiotelevisione italiana Swiss Broadcasting Corporation Radiodiffusion-Télévision Belge Belgische Radio en Televisie Katholieke Radio Omroep Norsk rikskringkasting Sveriges Radio Televisión Española Tatsunoko Production
Original release
Network	FR3
Release	30 September 1978 (1978-09-30) – 14 April 1979 (1979-04-14)
Related
Once Upon a Time... Space (1982)

Once Upon a Time... Man (French: Il était une fois... l'homme) is an educational animated television series created and directed by Albert Barillé. It is the first series in the Once Upon a Time... franchise. It explains human history in a format adapted for children, with the action focused around one group of characters which appear in every episode dealing with the problems of the period depicted. Although historical figures would typically appear as themselves, occasionally they inherit the appearance and some of the personality of one of the archetypes. The series is known for explaining historic events to children from different viewpoints as the main characters come from different civilizations.

The series was produced by French studio Procidis in co-production with France Régions (FR3, France), Société Radio-Canada and ACCESS Alberta (Canada), Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI, Italy), the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SSR, Switzerland), Radiodiffusion-Télévision Belge and Belgische Radio en Televisie (RTBF and BRT, Belgium), Katholieke Radio Omroep (KRO, Netherlands), Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK, Norway), Sveriges Radio (SR, Sweden), Televisión Española (TVE, Spain), and Tatsunoko Production (Japan) who was the one who made the animation. The series premiered in France on FR3, between 30 September 1978 and 14 April 1979, and it was subsequently broadcast on the channels of the rest of the broadcasters that participated in the production dubbed into their own language.

Once Upon a Time... Man was purchased by most public broadcasting channels in Europe later, and by many other broadcasters in other countries around the world, and is well-known by a significant percentage of the population. The show aired in the United States on the History Channel starting in January 1996.

Music

The series' opening and ending title sequences famously used Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor as the main theme music. Shortening the piece to only two minutes in length, the introduction uses the very beginning, which jumps into the start of the middle section and finally the dramatic ending to coincide with the destruction of Earth at the end of the intro. It is generally unknown what is the original soundtrack they used, and whom is the original artist who performed on the organ.

Although this is the theme that is generally used, there are dubbings in some languages that use other themes. The version in Spanish uses a pop song based on the third movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Septet, adapted by Rafael Trabucchelli and Agustín Serrano, with Spanish lyrics by Marisol Perales and José Luis Perales, and performed by the children's group Caramelos. The version in Italian uses two songs: the song "Io di più" composed by Pippo Baudo and Pippo Caruso, with Italian lyrics by Giorgio Calabrese, and performed by Lino Toffolo, featured in the series' run on RAI; and the song "Conosciamoci un po'" written by Alessandra Valeri Manera and Massimiliano Pani, and performed by Cristina D'Avena, featured in subsequent runs. The version in German uses the song "Tausend Jahre sind ein Tag" by Udo Jürgens.

Characters

The episodes of Once Upon a Time… Man typically would follow one family, which most typically used the same set of archetypes that would be reused for the scenario. These same characters would later be used in the later additions to the Once Upon a Time... franchise, with some changes.

• Maestro (Roger Carel) – The wise old man. He usually serves as the head of the tribe, as a religious priest, as an advisor to the king, or as an inventor. Maestro's hair is white and so long that it completely covers his body, and only his facial features, arms, and feet are ever visible; he is also distinguished by two hairs on the top of his head that look like antennae. Maestro often keeps objects in his beard and is sometimes seen fiddling around in it to find the one he wishes to present. He also serves as a mentor to the children of the series.
• Peter / Pierre (Roger Carel) – Another protagonist of the series, with brown hair, presented as an ordinary but likeable man. He is always married to Pierrette and is good friends with Jumbo. He is sometimes referred to as Pierrot. In some of the episodes set in the medieval era, Peter has blonde hair and is named Bert, but his personality and relationships are the same.
• Jumbo / Le Gros (Yves Barsacq) – The strong young man with red curly hair, Jumbo is tall, somewhat clumsy, and very muscular. He prefers to solve problems with his fists, and his best friend Peter often needs to indicate for him not to attack.
• Pierrette (Annie Balestra) – A kind blonde woman, typically married to Peter.
• The Pest / Le Teigneux (Claude Bertrand) – A strong bully and one of two common recurring villains in the series (the other being the Dwarf). He is the major rival opposing Peter and Jumbo, and is either working against them or arguing with them.
• The Dwarf / Le Nabot (Patrick Préjean) – The mastermind behind the Pest, the Dwarf is short and has red hair with three spikes pointing upward. He is often the only one who supports the Pest in his actions, and is often shown as a swindler.
• The Clock – A rectangular box with eyes and hands, typically coloured red, the Clock most commonly simply shows the year that the events on-screen are occurring. Occasionally, the Clock does intervene in the series in a minor role, typically to either have some emotional response like surprise or sadness to an event on-screen, or else to correct Maestro in-series when he has ideas too advanced for his historical time period.

Although historical figures would typically appear as themselves, occasionally one of the archetypes would be used, like Maestro as Leonardo da Vinci.

Episodes

Home media

A DVD boxed set of all the episodes of the series was produced by the French production company Procidis, and distributed locally by various distributors. The DVD series was produced in French, English (not sold in the UK or US), Finnish, German, Dutch, Hebrew, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, and Polish. In 2011, an English-language, Region 1 DVD box set was made available in Canada and the United States. The set was produced and distributed by Imavision.

See also

• List of French animated television series
• Histeria!

Notes

1. TVE did not broadcast this episode in Spain in the first run of the series on the network in 1979, because they considered that it contained stereotypes related to the black legend. TVE did broadcast the episode when they re-broadcast the series in 1983.

References

1. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 596. ISBN 978-1476665993.
2. Il était une fois... l'Homme - Le Générique on YouTube
3. Érase una vez el hombre (Media notes) (in Spanish). Hispavox. 1979.
4. Érase una vez... El hombre - Créditos on YouTube (In Spanish)
5. "C'era una volta l'uomo - Conosciamoci un po'". la Repubblica (in Italian).
6. "Tausend Jahre sind ein Tag" on YouTube "Thousand years are one day" (In German)
7. Pérez Ornia, José Ramón (28 April 1979). "Érase una vez.. el hombre". El País (in Spanish).

External links

• Official website
• Procidis, the series' producer Archived 5 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine
• Once Upon a Time... Man at IMDb
• Hello Maestro at YouTube

• Historical television series
• Once Upon a Time...
• Tatsunoko Production
• French children's animated adventure television series
• French children's animated drama television series
• French children's animated education television series
• 1978 French television series debuts
• 1981 French television series endings
• 1970s French animated television series
• 1980s French animated television series
• Animated television series set in the Stone Age
• Animated television series set in ancient history
• Television series set in the Middle Ages
• Television series set in the Renaissance
• Television set in Tudor England
• Television series set in the French Revolution
• Television series set in the 6th century
• Television series set in the 7th century
• Television series set in the 8th century
• Animated television series set in the 18th century
• Animated television series set in the 19th century
• Animated television series set in the 20th century
• Animated television series set in the 21st century
• Animated television series set in the 22nd century
• Fiction about Neanderthals
• Depictions of Cleopatra on television
• Cultural depictions of David
• Goliath
• Cultural depictions of Samson
• Cultural depictions of Joshua
• Cultural depictions of Moses
• Cultural depictions of Ramesses II
• Cultural depictions of Alexander the Great
• Cultural depictions of Cyrus the Great
• Cultural depictions of Solomon
• Cultural depictions of Socrates
• Depictions of Julius Caesar on television
• Portrayals of Jesus on television
• Heraclius
• Cultural depictions of Justinian I
• Cultural depictions of Muhammad
• Cultural depictions of Charlemagne
• Cultural depictions of Leif Erikson
• Cultural depictions of Richard I of England
• Depictions of Genghis Khan on television
• Cultural depictions of Marco Polo
• Depictions of Leonardo da Vinci on television
• Cultural depictions of Michelangelo
• Cultural depictions of Christopher Columbus
• Cultural depictions of Francis Drake
• Cultural depictions of Peter the Great
• Cultural depictions of Louis XIV
• Cultural depictions of Frederick the Great
• Cultural depictions of Georges Danton
• Cultural depictions of Louis XVI
• Cultural depictions of Maximilien Robespierre
• Cultural depictions of Vladimir Lenin
• Early European modern humans
• Cultural depictions of Pericles
• Animated television series set in England
• Animated television series set in France