Maritie and Gilbert Carpentier


Maritie and Gilbert 'Carpentier', a married couple, were artistic producers of popular variety TV and radio shows in France and many French-speaking countries from the 1950s to the 1990s.

Biography

Family and studies

Gilbert Carpentier, born in 1920, was the grandson of the French inventor Jules Carpentier and the French acoustician Gustave Lyon. An alumnus of the Conservatoire de Paris music school, he was a pianist, organist, and composer.

Radio

Just after World War II, Gilbert Carpentier started working at the French radio station Radio [Luxembourg (French)|Radio-Luxembourg] as an organ player, then as a radio technician. From 1946, he began composing musical illustrations, and with the help of his wife Maritie, who wrote the texts, they started producing radio soaps. From the 1950s, Maritie and Gilbert Carpentier directed six popular radio shows on Radio-Luxembourg: "L’heure musicale", "Le Club des Vedettes", "Musique à la Clay", "Les contes de l’aigle", "L’heure exquise", and "Le miroir aux Étoiles", hosted every Sunday by a different artist.

Music

In 1957, they created a series of Babar records for children. Maritie Carpentier adapted the writings of Jean de Brunhoff, while Gilbert Carpentier composed the music. These records were awarded the Grand Prix du Disque in 1957 by the Académie Charles Cros, the French equivalent of the U.S. Recording Academy.

TV

Maritie and Gilbert Carpentier are best known for being pioneers of variety TV shows in France. From 1960, following a proposal from the French public TV channel ORTF, they began working in television. They first created numerous live TV shows with their friends Roger Pierre and Jean-Marc Thibault, broadcast on the ORTF. Later, other artists joined, including Jean Poiret, Michel Serrault, Jacqueline Maillan, and Jean-Claude Brialy.
In 1965, they asked Serge Gainsbourg to write a song to represent Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest. Gainsbourg wrote Poupée de cire, poupée de son for the young French singer France Gall. The song won the contest and quickly became a global hit.
Until the 1980s, and especially in the 1970s, they created and directed several variety TV shows in France, contributing to the popularity of many French artists in French-speaking countries, including Charles Aznavour, Gilbert Bécaud, Jane Birkin, Georges Brassens, Petula Clark, Dalida, Joe Dassin, Sacha Distel, Jacques Dutronc, Claude François, Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall, Chantal Goya, Johnny Hallyday, Serge Lama, Thierry Le Luron, Mireille Mathieu, Eddy Mitchell, Nana Mouskouri, Michel Sardou, Sheila, Alain Souchon, and Sylvie Vartan, among others.
Maritie and Gilbert Carpentier’s TV shows were distinctive for their unexpected artist duets, as well as actors singing and singers acting. Each episode featured newly designed sets and scripted segments, adding to the show’s originality. Their shows were often broadcast live and did not include promotional content from artists.
Most of their programs, from their early radio days until the 1980s, were recorded in the renowned Studio 17 at the Buttes-Chaumont Studios in Paris.
Some of their shows, particularly the "Top à..." and "Numéro 1" series, attracted an audience of 15 million viewers each week and were broadcast in 20 French-speaking countries.
Gilbert Carpentier handled the technical aspects and set design, while Maritie Carpentier, sometimes nicknamed "la nounou des artistes", managed the artistic aspects.
In 1980, Maritie and Gilbert Carpentier won an Emmy Award for Best Foreign TV Show.

Produced shows

Radio

Television

  • La Grande Farandole
  • Guitares et copains
  • Teuf-Teuf
  • Top à Cassel
  • Hello Paris
  • Sacha Show
  • Bécaud
  • Pirouettes Salvador
  • La grande lucarne
  • Show Petula Clark
  • La grande Polka
  • Les Grands Enfants
  • Entre nous
  • Nous irons chez Maxim’s
  • Petula Clark et les inséparables
  • Sur la pointe des pieds
  • Jolie poupée
  • Show Smet
  • La grande Bousculade
  • Brialy’s Follies
  • Les Grands Amis
  • Sacha Sylvie Show
  • Deux sur la 2
  • Tréteaux dans la nuit
  • Poiret et Serrault sur la Deux
  • Les petites amies de nos grands amis sont nos amies
  • Show Petula Clark
  • Gilbert
  • Bécaud
  • À la 6.4.2.
  • Chante avec Gilbert Bécaud à l'Olympia
  • À la manière 2
  • Maillan à la une
  • Top à...
  • ''Numéro Un''

Publications

  • La Maillan racontée par ses amis, Éditions Numéro 1, 1993
  • Merci les artistes !, Éditions Anne Carrière, 2001

Tribute

  • Maritie et Gilbert Carpentier, a song from the album Reprise des négociations by French singer Bénabar, in tribute to the couple and their famous variety shows.

Related programs

  • Top à Maritie et Gilbert Carpentier, aired on TF1 on 9 March 1996, presented by Christophe Dechavanne
  • Nos meilleurs moments, aired on TF1 in August 2000, presented by Carole Rousseau
  • Nuit du patrimoine spéciale Maritie et Gilbert Carpentier, aired on Paris Première on 19 September 2009
  • Chabada special, aired on 5 April 2010, on France 3
  • Quand la musique est bonne special Carpentier, aired on TMC on 11 May 2010
  • Nous nous sommes tant aimés : Maritie et Gilbert Carpentier, aired on France 3 on 16 and 17 May 2011
  • L'Âge d'or des variétés - Les Carpentier, a two-part 120-minute documentary by Grégory Draï and Philippe Tuillier, aired on France 3 on 19 December 2016
  • Les n°1 des Carpentier, a 190-minute documentary by Philippe Tuillier, aired on France 3 on 2 January 2019