- France 2 is broadcasting this Saturday evening the premium anniversary of the 30th anniversary of Surprise sur Prize .
- We will see old cult sketches, but also three new hidden cameras with Mimie Mathy, Gad Elmaleh and Teddy Riner.
- The producer, Thierry Lachkar, told 20 Minutes the secrets of preparing such a program.
Thierry Lhermitte hallucinated to see his friend running naked in the Parc des Princes live on TV, Gérard Jugnot in full panic believing to turn off all the lights of Paris, these are two examples of the most cult sketches of Surprise on Prize . Created by Marcel Béliveau in the late 1980s, the show returns this Saturday evening to France 2 to blow out its 30 candles.
Hosted by Olivier Minne, Surprise on Prize version 2020 offers three new hidden cameras. Mimie Mathy will be trapped in a car, Teddy Riner will face a recalcitrant trash in the street and Gad Elmaleh will face a very invasive girlfriend of Kev Adams. Three celebrities "who we think will be very responsive," says Thierry Lachkar, the producer. Once the traps have been selected, it is necessary to choose the trappers, preferably known to the general public too. This is enough to add an additional difficulty to the preparation of the program, the team having to juggle the different timetables. “We had very good traps that we could not set up just because of the agenda problems. It was impossible to plan two hours of time on the same time slot between the trapper and the trapped, "regrets the producer.
" No risk does not exist "
Successfully achieving a hidden camera is not easy, as many parameters can be taken into account. "A gag that does not work, a gag that is exposed by the trapped ... There is no such thing as zero risk," says Thierry Lachkar. When a series of sketches is shot, the producer estimates 10 to 15% of potential losses. And so that the trapped suspects nothing, the show team makes the situation as believable as possible. "We assure ourselves with a trapper who is very close, the organization of a professional meeting which could have been validated by three or four people beforehand," he adds. In summary, everyone is aware of the trap in the entourage of celebrity ... Except her!
What if the trapped did not get caught up in the game? What if they preferred to stay taped to their smartphone during the hidden camera? An unlikely situation for Thierry Lachkar who affirms that "if we manage to go after our desires and the writing of the sketch, the personality is caught so much in a form of mental storm that it will drop its phone". It must be said that the authors of the gags leave no respite to the stars, like Teddy Riner who must manage both a garbage collector, a police officer and a fan in the street. Unable to launch a game of Candy Crush under these conditions.
A revisited madeleine
The three unpublished sketches all require millimeter organization to prevent the fall from falling flat. Policemen who disembark, passers-by who tumble, the production does its utmost to avoid the hair in the soup. For this, the teams organize in particular the movement of vehicles in the surrounding streets, as Thierry Lachkar confides. “We bring in cars driven by production people or actors. We also have people who are there to filter as much as possible the people who use the street. So the risk of seeing a Mimie Mathy fan ask him for a selfie while filming remains low.
The principle of the hidden camera is a real madeleine on television and is based on two ingredients which viewers love: surprise and comedy. But because the humor of the 1990s is not necessarily the same as that of the 2020s, the production made the choice to revisit a little bit the recipe of the program. "We modernized the show while keeping the DNA of this family format: we changed the writing, we show more behind the scenes, we organize interviews," explains Thierry Lachkar. And because we love being surrounded by our old friends for our anniversary, Surprise sur Prize can count on former traps to distill some anecdotes. Before a next return to the antenna? "We have potential ideas if we were to go back to other productions," concludes the producer.
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- Television
- Humor
- Gad Elmaleh
- Mimie mathy
- France 2
- Teddy riner