The story begins in the spring of 1962. A director of Radio Diffusion Télévision Française is looking for a “stopgap” for the Christmas holidays, likely to replace the clock occupying the screen when a program ends earlier than expected.
He asks an actor friend, Claude Laydu, to help him find an idea.
The latter immediately speaks to him about a program he discovered, by chance, on German television.
In a short animated sequence programmed just before dinner, a young announcer tells two little girls a story that she traditionally concludes with "And now you have to go to bed!"
".
The children invariably answer, "ja", and go to their room without being asked.
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Thus was born, in his mind, the idea of creating a French equivalent, likely to be broadcast before the daily soap opera at 7:40 p.m. and the television news.
He immediately finds the title: “Good night little ones”.
He writes a short note, and almost immediately gets the green light for the creation of 12 episodes, not one more!
He begins by imagining a mini-Noah's ark, where two children named P'tit Louis and Mirabelle await the visit of a young musician, Ulysse, the Sandman.
This would be accompanied by several animals, including a cat, a dog, a bird, a monkey and a big bear.
The concept proving too expensive for the meager budget granted by the channel, he chose to keep only the big bear.
Quickly adopted by children
Filming takes place in a photo studio specially set up on set.
Savings oblige, Claude Laydu and Christine, his wife, combine the functions of producers, authors, props and scripts.
Laydu becomes the voice of the Sandman.
A cachet is thus saved!
At the time of creating the decor for the credits, he was inspired by photos of Montrouge HLM seen one evening while driving on a motorway slip road leading to Paris.
The twelve episodes are shot with puppets called Big Bear, the sandman, P'tit Louis and Mirabelle.
The broadcast takes place, as planned, during the Christmas holidays, but at times that do not respect the initial contract.
They vary according to a grid not as rigorous as those of today's chains.
One evening, Big Bear and the sandman appear on their cloud, after 8:30 p.m.
These delays trigger tragedies in the families: the children, Jean-Baptiste Laydu, son of Claude the first, refuse to go to bed before having seen their "Big Bear".
Parents show their anger by demanding daily and regular programming.
To the thousands of letters reaching rue Cognacq-Jay are added many press articles.
"Good night the little ones" becomes the event of the end of year celebrations.
Thus, at the beginning of 1963, a second series was ordered.
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For rights issues, Claude Laydu is forced to give up the original characters, and start from scratch.
He creates other puppets, which he baptizes Nounours, Nicolas and Pimprenelle.
The new version was released in October 1963. The success was even stronger.
From now on, hundreds of thousands of children go to bed every evening, a little before 8 p.m., to the rhythm of the pipe of the sandman.
Teddy becomes a star.
We write to him to ask for an autograph.
Some send him jars of honey or scarves to prevent him from getting cold, up there, on his cloud.
His success was such that he was chosen to present the television news at 8 p.m. on December 24, 1963, along with Léon Zitrone.
Stronger than Johnny
In 1964, what are not yet called derivative products, are launched on the market.
The children beg mum and dad to buy them a stuffed animal, a coloring book or a book.
A 45 rpm containing songs from the series is launched on the market.
Sales far exceed those of Johnny Hallyday's records!
The adventure continues until 1973, with 646 episodes, including 12 in color, broadcast and regularly rebroadcast.
In 1984, a wild display on the walls of Bordeaux demanded "the release of Nounours" and his return to the air.
The weekly
Télé 7 jours
immediately launched a referendum, the result of which was final: a very large majority of French people were calling for new episodes of “Bonne nuit les petits”.
The first channel ordered 78 of them. Finally, 195 others were produced between 1994 and 1997. In the early 90s, a VHS video cassette containing black and white episodes passed the milestone of 100,000 copies sold.
At a time when the video recorder is not yet present in all homes, this is a record.
At Christmas time, dolls representing Nicolas and Pimprenelle are snapped up in toy stores.
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The new generations are following suit.
The nascent DTT channels, starting with Gulli, will take over until 2014. On the eve of confinement, a show on the Alhambra stage was sold out for several months.
Claude Laydu passed away in 2011, but Christine, his wife, and Jean-Baptiste and Dominique, their children, are taking over.
They manage, among other things, an Instagram account with 6,000 "followers", a Facebook page with 145,000 subscribers, offering a daily riddle.
They also manage a YouTube channel, "Bonne nuit les petits", with nearly 50,000 subscribers, and work with sites in France and Sweden, offering, among other things, for parties and birthdays, dedications personalized teddy bears and the sandman.
A return to television is finally considered.
A project is currently under study.
This is to say if Nounours is not about to fall asleep on its laurels.