Téléchat is a French-Belgian puppet show created by Belgian director Henri Xhonneux, French surrealist artist Roland Topor and Belgian producer Éric Van Beuren. It ran for three seasons between 1983 and 1985, with a total of 234 episodes of five minutes each.
A parody of news shows, it was hosted by two funny animals, a tomcat named Groucha and an ostrich named Lola. It featured a variety of sentient objects and revolved around the idea that the real-life elementary particles known as gluons were "the souls of objects."
With its surreal and sometimes a little dark humor, the series enjoys cult status in France and Belgium. It has been dubbed in several langages, including Spanish and German. An English dub (renamed Telecat) aired in the UK on TCC.
The names listed come from the original French version.
Téléchat provides example of:
- Accidental Misnaming: GTI can't get Raymonde and Sophie's names right.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The ape Pub-Pub has green fur.
- The Artifact: Even after Pub-pub quits his job in advertising, he still appears in the opening of every advertisements.
- Birthday Hater: In episode 49 of season one, Groucha says that he doesn't like birthdays because he doesn't like getting older.
- Blue Blood: Juding by the presence of a nobiliary particle in their overly long names, Grégoire de la Tour d'Ivoire (GTI) and Raymonde du Tiroir de la Salle à Manger are probably aristocrats. In the former's case, it's confirmed that he grew up in a castle.
- Butt-Monkey: When GTI participates on the advertisements, he keeps getting ridiculed by Pub-pub.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Groucha manages to stay calm while being held at gunpoint by GTI on TV and even throws some snarks at him. He also has a civilised conversation on the phone in the middle of the hostage situation.
- Catchphrase:
- Groucha starts every episode by saying "Chalut" (a pun on "salut", a casual greeting that can also be used to say goodbye, and "chat", which is French for "cat") to the viewers, and he ends episodes by saying "Chalut, à demain si on veut bien." meaning roughly "Chalut, see you tomorrow if you want." Sometimes, it's Lola who says the catchphrase at the end.
- GTI uses Groucha's catchphrase at first, but after being told to be more original, he goes with "Good evening".
- Duramou often says "Ca fait pas un pli" note which is a French expression that means "That's right".
- Continuity Snarl:
- In the stinger of episode 62 of season one, Groucha tells Lola that he never offered her flowers, even though he did offer her a bouquet of roses in a previous episode.
- In season one, it's said that Gluons have ears (though we don't see them), but in season two, it's said they don't have ears.
- In season three, Groucha laments that his friends didn't celebrate his birthday, even though he said in season one that he's a Birthday Hater.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Léguman never has any trouble defeating his enemies.
- Didn't Think This Through: Pub-Pub uses a powder to make himself invisible, and remembers too late that he don't know how to make invisible things visible again.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Lola's taste for peanuts is treated like a cigarette addiction. She once tells Groucha: "When you start, you can't stop.".
- Drunk on Milk: In the show, milk appears to be a substitute for alcohol. At one point, the Milkbar is described as a licensed beverage establishment. Later in the series, Groucha gets literally drunk on milk on screen and even have an hangover in the next episode.
- Easy Amnesia: In episode 39 of season 2, Durallô the phone becomes amnesic after falling on the ground.
- Eccentric Millionaire: Pub-pub is a billionaire who works in advertising just for fun.
- Everything Talks: One of the core elements of the show is that everything, including objects is sentient.
- Face Palm: Groucha occasionally facepalms.
- Fantastic Racism: GTI claims that he doesn't like Gluons.
- Flowers of Romance: In one episode, Groucha buys Lola a bouquet made of thirteen bright red roses. Although he claims not to know anything about the langage of flowers ("It's Chinese to me."), this particular composition means "I'm your secret admirer."
- Funny Animal: Groucha, Lola, GTI, Hortense, Léon Minoux, Adélaïde, and Pub-Pub (in the third season) are anthro animals.
- Fun with Acronyms: In-Universe, GTI's acronym means "Grégoire de la Tout d'Ivoire" while in real life, GTI is a kind of car. His nickname, TGV means Triste Grand Vide (Big Sad Void) In-Universe, but in real life, it's a kind of train whose acronym means Train Grande Vitesse (Great Speed Train).
- The Ghost: Groucha's tennis rival, an Angora cat, is sometime mentioned, but is never seen.
- Hammerspace: In almost every episode, Groucha takes an object from inside his plaster cast to celebrate the special day of the episode. This includes objects that shouldn't fit into his cast with his arm already inside.
- Iconic Item: Groucha almost always has a plaster cast around his left arm. In the first episode, it's said that he got it from an accident, but it's later implied that he willingly keeps it because it's iconic In-Universe too. He removes it in the penultimate episode of the show when he decides to change his life.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: There's an episode where Groucha and Lola discover a fountain of water that shrinks any object dipped in it. Groucha then tries to drinks some and he temporary gets smaller than a gluon.
- Informed Species: Despite the show being a world of puppet funny animals, the kangaroos look like normal non-disguised humans, aside from the one who appear in season one.
- Injury Bookend: Durallô is healed from his amnesia by the same way he got it, by being dropped on the ground.
- In-Series Nickname: Groucha gives the nickname "TGV" to GTI. It stands for Triste Grand Vide, which means "Big Sad Void".
- Interspecies Romance:
- During the entire series, there is Ship Tease between Groucha the cat and Lola the ostrich. Groucha ends up confessing his love in the final episode.
- Hortense and Léon Minoux are respectivelly a bunny and a cat, but they end up falling in love with each other.
- In-Universe Catharsis: To express his anger at GTI, who is a bunny, Groucha writes a novel about a bunny who gets beaten up.
- Invisibility: In one episode, Pub-Pub discovers a powder that makes objects invisible. He later uses it on himself.
- It Amused Me: The reason why the moon provokes waves of water on Earth's seas is because it amuses the moon Gluon, who doesn't care that it annoys other Gluons.
- Jerkass: GTI who treats sentient objects poorly and even throw away Micmac.
- Last-Minute Hookup: Groucha and Lola in the very last episode, after three seasons of Will They or Won't They?.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": The main character is a cat named "Groucha" from the word "chat" which means "cat" in French. It also sounds a bit like "gros chat", meaning "big cat", which he is.
- Local Hangout: Groucha and Lola spend a lot of their free time at the Milkbar, which is located a stone's throw from their first studios.
- Look-Alike Lovers: GTI and Hortense are very similar, because the latter's puppet is just a redress of the former's, with a wig, glasses, and a dress.
- Love Confession: That's how the series ends. In the post-credits scene of the last episode, Groucha confesses that, while he was aboard a plane about to leave for America, he realized he was in love with Lola.
- Man of a Thousand Voices: Actor Philippe Dumat voiced three main characters on the show, namely Brossedur, Duramou, and Durallo. He also did additional voices, including that of Albert the Dictionary.
- Meaningful Name: The character doing advertisements in season 1 and 2 is a monkey named "Pub-pub", "pub" is a term often used in French to say "publicity".
- Misplaced Wildlife: Lola and her mother Adélaïde come from Australia, but ostriches really are from Africa.
- Mysterious Past: Throughout the series, Groucha reveals very little about his backstory. He describes himself as a foundling born in the street, and received a vast array of medals and awards in undetermined circumstances.
- Nepotism: GTI is a very blatant example. The only reason he got on TV in the first place is because his father is an electricity mogul, his uncle the CEO of Lame Products, and his cousin the proprietor of the studios that host Téléchat. He doesn't even realize it's something he should try to hide.
- No Name Given: Groucha's tennis rival, the Angora cat, is mentioned several time, but is never given an actual name.
- No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: In-Universe, in season 3, when Groucha and his crew lose the sponsorship of Lame Product, they decide to do "anti-commercials" as revenge in every episode where they say how bad Lame Product's products are. This increases the popularity of a competing brand called "Worst Product," which decides to sponsor Groucha and his friends as long as they continue making their anti-commercials. But a few episodes later, Worst Product asks them to stop insulting Lame Product, whose popularity has been increasing lately thanks to the anti-commercials.
- Only One Finds It Fun: Albert the dictionnary, who is Téléchat's number one hater, is the only person who is happy when GTI takes over the show.
- Only One Name: Most of the main characters have no last name, or at least it's never revealed to the audience. The only exceptions are GTI (Grégoire de la Tour d'Ivoire) and his wife Hortense, Sophie Dure-à-avaler, Raymonde du Tiroir de la Salle à Manger, and Léon Minoux.
- Ostrich Head Hiding: Whenever she's afraid or ashamed, Lola puts her head in a hole. That's how she discovered the existence of gluons in the first place.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: In an attempt to avoid a severe beating from a disgruntled viewer, GTI dons a turban and a fake beard. It doesn't work.
- Pumpkin Person: Léguman is made of several vegetables including a pumpkin for his head.
- Pun: The "chalut" catchphrase is a mix between the French words "chat" and "salut". "Chat" means "cat" and "salut" either means "hello" or "goodbye" depending of the context.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Inside Gluons, there are even smaller creature called "Noulgs"
- Shout-Out:
- In an attempt to capture Lola's attention, GTI claims to have had a close encounter of the third kind. Both the physical description of the extra-terrestrial entity and its desire to phone home are obvious references to Steven Spielberg's E.-T.
- The moon gluon has a miniature rocketship taken from Tintin.
- In episode 30 of season three, Groucha talks about a gardening hose called "Lucky Hose" that shoots water faster than its shadow, referencing Lucky Luke.
- Show Within a Show: Léguman, a parody of Sentai with a main character made of vegetables.
- Small Name, Big Ego: GTI is an incompetent reporter who even makes up stories, but he's convinced he's a genius and that he deserve a prize.
- The Speechless: The ape Pub-Pub never speaks in the first two seasons. At the beginning of the third season, however, he comes back from Australia, where he attended the University of Melbourne and earned a PhD.
- Twice Shy: Hortense and Léon Minoux eventually fall in love with each other, but they are both too shy to confess to each other until they get some help from Téléchat.
- Stealth Insult: After Lola tells the viewer that GTI got his position through sheer nepotism, she adds that he got here thanks to his talent. GTI doesn't realise that she meant that his only talent is nepotism.
- The Stinger: Every episode has a short sequence after the credits. It typically takes place in the unlit studio (especially in the first season), at the Milkbar, or in Groucha's house.
- Theme Naming: GTI's real name and nickname, GTI and TGV, are both based on vehicle names.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: The only differences between Lola and her mother Adélaïde is that the latter has hair and wears glasses. Both characters are also voiced by the same actress.
- Unexplained Accent: Characters voiced by François Jerosme often fall into this. Most notably, the ape Pub-Pub has an accent from Southern France, even though he presumably comes from Africa and attended university in Australia.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Groucha and Lola spend the whole series being obviously attracted to each other and behaving like a couple, but nothing official.
- Verbal Tic: The hole Gluon tends to end his sentences with "What".
- Weird Currency: During an auction, buttons are used instead of money.
- Wham Shot: In the last episode, Groucha waltzes onto the set when he's supposed to be on a plane to the United States. Upon seeing him, Lola faints.
- White Gloves: Apart from the ape Pub-Pub, all animal characters wear white gloves (which is presumably an easy way to hide the puppeteers' hands).
