Network: TVA Television Network
Broadcast Run: 1980 to 1983
Broadcast Medium: Television
For three years, two and a half million TV viewers were glued to their TV sets every week to keep track of the love life of a young Quebecker (Christine Lamer) and her handsome, rich and powerful Prince of Spain (Luis de Cespedes), who she met in a travel agency! Between 1980 and 1983, this couple were the most popular and revered superstars in the Province of Quebec. Télé-Métropole aired 115 episodes of the TV soap opera Marisol directed by Gaétan Bénic, Claude Colbert, Paul Lepage and Jean-Louis Sueur.
Marisol was written by Micheline Bélanger and Gérald Tassé. It told the story of a young woman who had to put her life back together after the death of her husband. On one side, there was Quebec bourgeois society: the family and friends of Marisol, played by Jean Coutu, Bertrand Gagnon, Suzanne Langlois, Robert Maltais, Louise Deschâtelets and Élizabeth Lesieur. While on the other side, the European aristocracy played by Nathalie Naubert and Yvette Brind’Amour.
Frenzied love poems, a coma, break-ups, unspeakable ploys and schemes, attempted suicide, getting back together, a blond 7-year old son up for grabs and an uncle who was a national hero on a mission to the Middle East. And an ending which was the most melodramatic of all: love triumphed after so much heartache and adversity, a marriage that transformed Marisol O’Brian into the Countess de Portillo de Gonzalez.
Written by Yvon Chouinard – September, 2008