Tell grandpa, why are you making us drunk with "Temps X" by the Bogdanoff brothers?

• Temps X

  , presented from 1979 to 1987 by Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, was the first program to combine scientific foresight, science fiction and pop culture on French television.

• The show, which depended on the youth department of TF1, marked a whole generation.

• Alain Carrazé, series and cinema journalist for the cult show, tells

  20 Minutes

  his memories.

An open door to explore the worlds of the imagination! We are on Saturday April 21, 1979, it is 5:26 pm,

has just been launched, live, on TF1. In their futuristic suits, signed Thierry Mugler, within their spaceship, Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, two young animators stuck at Antenne 2 passionate about science fiction novels, presents the first magazine that combines scientific prospective, science fiction and pop culture, with the help of a young team made up of Frédéric Lepage for science, Alain Carrazé and François Jouniaux for series and cinema, Michel Asso for music, Francis Rousseau for comics and Chantal de Farcy for mail to the air. A real UFO lands on the small screen, which will forever mark a whole generation of television viewers.

"I arrived on the show before it existed", remembers Alain Carrazé, journalist, specialist in television series.

In 1979, with a school friend, François Jouniaux, Alain Carrazé launched the fanzine

, dedicated "to the sci-fi series of the time such as

which was not yet broadcast in France, and a little in the SF cinema ”.

"" Time X "depended on the youth department"

The duo of “dashing 20-year-old journalists” learns that TF1 is preparing a magazine dedicated to SF. François Jouniaux wrote to Jacques Mousseau, director of youth programs at TF1, to write an article on this project. “ 

depended on the youth department which made

It may seem absurd, but it was like that, ”comments Alain Carrazé. Jacques Mousseau grants them an interview with the Bogdanoff brothers.

“We went to interview the Bogdanoffs at their home.

We stayed for an hour, but they were the ones who interviewed us, ”laughs Alain Carrazé.

The twins are above all literary and "had not planned to talk about series and cinema" in

At the end of the interview, "they offered to give them a hand, we said 'yes ””, Says Alain Carrazé.

"'Time X' was like a bomb"

Temps X

, “information and initiation magazine”, in the words of Jacques Mousseau, deals with the news of SF and explores the classic themes of the genre (robots, parallel universes, galactic empires, interstellar journeys) but also technological and scientific innovation through reports, interviews, shootings, making-of, extracts from films or series.

"It's hard to imagine today," recalls Francis Rousseau, quoted in the fascinating

(Huginn & Muninn), but in the 1970s, the appearance on a television screen on Saturday afternoon, between Denise Fabre and Garcimore, of four young people in futuristic suits in a studio transformed into a spaceship had the effect of a bomb.

"

is shot live on TF1's studio 3, rue Cognacq-Jay, entirely inlay.

"The scenography of"

Temps X

"was intended to be first degree"

“The scenography of the show was intended to be completely first-degree.

The spaceship, the costumes, etc.

We weren't making a fool of it.

A variety show had a variety setting with bow ties and glitter,

was sci-fi with a sci-fi setting, ”says Alain Carrazé.

“There was a double inlay bar that allowed us to move around the scenery.

At the time, in the newspaper of TF1, there was already this process, but there was no question for the presenter to move ”, explains Grichka Bogdanoff in the same book.

is at the forefront of television innovation.

“99.99% of the letters we received at the time and the media impact of the program were about Igor and Grichka, their charisma, their twinness, their costumes, the spaceship.

Nothing about the content, ”explains Alain Carrazé.

"Temps X treated SF seriously"

“Liking SF was less common at that time and above all, much less popular.

The great strength of

was to treat the subject in a serious way, ”remembers Alain Carrazé.

Sci-fi fans "weren't hated," but "those with an interest in the subject felt a bit lonely and ignored by others.

"

From the first issues, we talk about

,

or the

. We welcome the cartoonist Jean-Claude Mézières, the author Arthur C. Clarke, the co-creator of Valerian or the artist HR Giger to whom we owe the creature and the alien vessel of

, by Ridley Scott. “We had no pressure, neither that of TF1, nor that of the spectators. We did what we wanted, ”recalls Alain Carrazé.

Douglas Trumbull, visual special effects pioneer in 1968 with

, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, George Lucas are interviewed for

X.

“It was extremely easy, quite simply because these people did not interest anyone else in France.

We were constantly solicited for reports on shoots, interviews, or unpublished making-of ”, analyzes Alain Carrazé.

Report on the set of

, editing of the unpublished making-of of

by Stanley Kubrick, lunch with Leonard Nimoy from

… A list of memories that will make any self-respecting geek dizzy.

““ Time X ”, a showcase for“ The Fourth Dimension ””

When we think of

, we obviously think of the series.

The show aired, among other things, episodes of The 

,

and

.

Series that could not be seen anywhere else at the time.

“What I'm most proud of is

 ,” says Alain Carrazé.

A dozen episodes of Rod Serling's masterpiece had been broadcast in the 1960s, an "insult to common sense", then commented on viewers.

Alain Carrazé offered the series to TF1 in 1984: "This series is formidable, it is half an hour, but it is in black and white and it must be doubled," he warns.

TF1 takes the risk "probably because of its format" which allows Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff to make a magazine every week and simply play the host to present the series every other week. "With

,

was able to find an extraordinary setting and now we know it in France", rejoices Alain Carrazé.

In front of the post, "a niche audience that felt unloved and mistreated," said Alain Carrazé. The show is a hit with 15-25 year olds, teenagers and even 8-9 year olds. "We wanted to democratize a genre which for us was as interesting as the others", summarizes the journalist. And to add: “We could not imagine that this would interest people so much and especially after so many years. If we had known that, we would have been crushed by the weight of responsibility. It is now, with social networks, that I realize it ”.

From 1979 to 1987,

initiated a whole generation into pop culture, SF, television series… genres hitherto despised.

So many cultural objects that have since come out of the closet thanks to the unconditional love of viewers, now adults, of this show, which has become cult!

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