Network: TVA Television Network
Broadcast Run: 1978 to 1982
Broadcast Medium: Television
Le clan Beaulieu, the sequel to the cult TV classic Les Berger, ruled the air waves for five years (156 episodes from the fall 1978 to the spring 1982) with million plus audience ratings.
Marcel Marin (alias Marcel Cabay, the author of Les Berger) drew upon the initial series to more fully portray Léon-Joseph Beaulieu, the so-called “old lion”, head of the clan and unparalleled icon of a “success story”. This strong-willed, authoritarian, shrewd, cantankerous and manipulative business leader, in his fifties, who had started off with nothing, became a big time financial tycoon. This TV soap opera big wheel, who is both feared and revered, became even bigger than life itself, thanks to the talented performance provided by the actor Roland Chenail.
In this new series, as he got older, the lion got a little softer around the edges. He got married and his new bride, the brutal Amélia (Monique Lepage) became considerably more pleasant, as well, after their honeymoon. The kitchen, which was the family’s centre of activity in Les Berger, was replaced by the workplace, in order to focus attention on the evolving social situations.
Finally, after 12 years of the Berger family and the Beaulieu family, TVA and the writer had to put an end to the saga in 1982 during a fabulous goodbye banquet where Roland Chenail, Nathalie Naubert, Pascal Rollin, Claudine Chatel, Patrick Peuvion, Mimi d’Estée, Alain Montpetit and Huguette Oligny shed some genuine unscripted tears…
Written by Yvon Chouinard – September, 2008