Kartapus (lost French children's TV series; 1996)

A screenshot from the show.

Status: Lost

Kartapus was a French live-action sitcom TV series made for young children, produced by media company Carrere Group D.A., that aired between 10 january 1996 to 28 august 1996 on French channel TF1. It was made of 40 episodes that were 10 minutes long each and created by Eric Communier.

Plot

It was about a big magical friendly bear, Kartapus (whose name sounds like "carte à puces", meaning "smart card") who came out of a computer and had fun with two children, a boy called Franck and a girl called Amandine, who were the only ones who could see him, as Kartapus was invisible to adults.

Episodes would have Kartapus cause some mischief, intentionally or not, and having the adults risking discovering his existence.

Kartapus

Kartapus was portrayed by an actor named Yves Brunier in a still-faced full-body costume, and sequences from the point of view from adults would have simple special effects of objects moving or floating around (as manipulated by Kartapus) with some Chroma-key techniques. Although Kartapus is the size of an adult when physically on the set, the show's opening theme shows him being originally a small bear cub in a sidescrolling computer game, being pursued in the forest by a much taller nasty-looking human.

Screencap of the intro where Kartapus is in the computer

Castings

Each episode have is casting listed on inatheque, exemple

Kartapus: Yves Brunier (unconfirmed, but he played similar roles like Casimir, and was 53 years old during the show)
Franck (little boy): Mathurin Petit (unconfirmed)
Amandine (little girl): Mélody Gérard (confirmed on her twitter, 1,2)
Father: Régis Porte
Mother: Agnès Sellinger

Episodes

Contributor Reynard saw a few episodes of the show when it aired; from his memories, these episodes consisted of:

Kartapus is introduced coming out of the computer game.
Kartapus picks a notepad and shakes it in the air to scare away a visitor, who only sees the notepad floating in the air. He freaks out and runs away.
Kartapus messes around with Franck's toys and puts them inside their father's briefcase, who then goes to work with them. When the dad returns, he asks Franck if he put the toys in there, and Franck says yes, expecting to be scolded... "Son... thank you!" and it turns out those toys were very useful for him at work to present a project. Kartapus concludes by saying that he should play with the toys more often.
The children's grandmother visits the family, is told about Kartapus. She cannot see him, but asks Kartapus to open the fridge's door. He does, but when she then asks him to close it, he refuses because he thinks she cannot make up her mind. In the end, Kartapus still has a positive impression on the grandma, and says "She deserves to see me!".
Actress Mélody Gérard also remembers an episode that featured a parrot who could also see Kartapus.

On 9 november 2020, some of the episode name have been found on the inathèque. The site is a little bit broken like the episode number or some name which is incorrect.

Title	Date aired	Lenght	Status
Jour invisible	01/10/1996	9 minutes	Lost
Le gâteau d'anniversaire	01/17/1996	8,25 minutes	Lost
Le tonton magicien	01/24/1996	9,45 minutes	Lost
Unnamed 4th episode	01/31/1996	9 minutes	Lost
Unnamed 5th episode	02/07/1996	7,54 minutes	Lost
Le photographe	02/14/1996	8 minutes	Lost
Kartapus se fait un shampooing	02/21/1996	8 minutes	Lost
L'abeille catastrophe	02/28/1996	8 minutes	Lost
L'alarme indésirable	03/06/1996	9 minutes	Lost
Kartapus fait le ménage	03/13/1996	8 minutes	Lost
Joue en basket	03/20/1996	8,55 minutes	Lost
Unnamed 12th episode	03/27/1996	9 minutes	Lost
Kartapus fait un cauchemar	04/03/1996	9 minutes	Lost
Et le voyage de rêve	04/10/1996	8,54 minutes	Lost
Kartapus et le perroquet	04/17/1996	8,55 minutes	Lost
Kartapus est malade	04/24/1996	8,36 minutes	Lost
Unnamed 18th episode	05/01/1996	8,40 minutes	Lost
Kartapus boude	05/08/1996	8,57 minutes	Lost
Kartapus fait la lessive	05/15/1996	8,30 minutes	Lost
Kartapus se transforme	05/22/1996	8,50 minutes	Lost
Kartapus fait des bulles	05/29/1996	8,51 minutes	Lost
Kartapus se prend pour une abeille	06/05/1996	8,27 minutes	Lost
Kartapus fait les devoirs	06/12/1996	9 minutes	Lost
Kartapus et son cousin Cornélius	06/19/1996	9 minutes	Lost
Kartapus et les cartables	07/17/1996	8,34 minutes	Lost
Kartapus photographe	08/21/1996	8 minutes	Lost

Aftermath

Little evidence of the show subsists today; it still has an (almost empty) IMDB page, a section on the Carrere website and on Inathèque, but the named people who worked on it are only known to have been into minor projects. Even in active "remember nostalgic shows" forums, it is hardly mentioned, if at all.

No footage is known to still exist; only the Carrere website had kept a promotional picture and 5 screencaps from episodes. The opening theme has resurfaced, however.