Too bad if it’s annoying. It is not because it is inconsolable over the death of Rosa, its mascot, that “Intervilles” has decided to do without cows, but because it is in tune with the times. Sixty-three years after its creation, the cult game will return to France Télévisions for four special evenings next summer, produced and presented by Nagui. “Falls and cream pies were funny 40 years ago and they're still funny today. I wanted to rediscover this party”, provided “that it shines, that it snaps, that it laughs, that it surprises”, he justifies this Saturday in an interview with Ouest-France.
Asked about the disappearance of the cows from the show, a sensitive subject, the host-producer first defends that, if “there are no more animals in TV shows today”, it is because of “their sensitivity to noise and crowds, their discomfort”. “There are no more tigers in Fort Boyard and the show still works just as well,” he reassures, drawing a parallel with the France 2 summer blockbuster.
“There are no more tigers in Fort Boyard and the show is still going strong »
In 2020, before the Covid pandemic, when Nagui released his project, it was already without these nervous little Landes cows, invited to rush at the participants. The prospect had caused incomprehension among several past hosts of the program. This time, it is cities, essential players in the contest between two localities, which are offended: Bayonne, Dax and Mont-de-Marsan have indicated that they will refuse to participate in the program.
« Intervilles without cows, it is not Intervilles. It’s something else, it’s a fair, or a game show of some kind, but it’s not called Intervilles,” for example lamented the mayor of Mont-de-Marsan (Landes) to the local press.
“I hear the traditional speeches,” retorts Nagui in the western daily. But he seems to attribute them less to respect for local customs than to the interest of an actor, whose name he does not give: “That declarations like that come out at a time when a law wants to ban minors in theater shows. bullfighting, it's no coincidence… It's the same man who organizes the events in Dax and Mont-de-Marsan in the Landes. He was supported by a former toreador whose position on the subject is obvious,” he corrects. On Thursday, the Senate rejected the bill by a large majority.
The producer has still planned a nod to Rosa, Marguerite, Jeannette or Carambole: a mascot which will be imagined by “the designer Zep, the father of Titeuf “, and who will have the face of a little cow. For the rest, “there are nearly 35,000 towns in France. I only need six of them to start and we already have a lot of applications, including some from cities that have already participated, he concludes. So I'm not worried. »
