The genre is generally recognized, both at home and abroad, as being specific to the French-language television industry in Canada, located in the province of Quebec and intimately associated with Quebec society and its dominant Francophone culture (French speakers make up 82 percent of the province's nearly 7 million inhabitants).

     The term literally means "television novel," which strongly suggests its direct lineage with the modem, especially the 19th-century. popular novel. The serial character of the téléroman makes it a descendant of Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, and Eugene Sue, whose works were published as series, one chapter or episode at a time, in the popular daily penny-press, weekly journals, or monthly magazines of their time; only after the serialization had finished would a novel be published in book form. The purpose was, of course, to build customer loyalty for the papers and magazines, a function not unlike that of the téléroman for the visual medium of television.

     This new literature of the 19th century testified to the technologies of modern mass communications in a liberal, urban, industrial, capitalist society. Because of its proximity to the United States, Quebec has benefited and profited from these new technologies and even produced a cottage industry of popular serial novels, both within the pages of the popular press and between the covers of chapbooks.

     With the advent of radio, both public and private, the serial novel became a permanent fixture of programming with such favorite radioromans (radio novels) as La Pension Velder, Jeunesse doree, La Jamille Plouffe, and the granddaddy of them all, Un homme et son péché. These serials developed, of course, under the far-reaching shadow of the U.S. radio soap opera. While importing many of that genre's basic characteristics, the Quebec radioroman showed the imprint of local cultural moorings, particularly in its reference to the history of this French-speaking population on the North American continent dating back to the establishment of the colony in 1604, its nationalistic fervor, its agrarian heritage, and its forced adaptation to accelerated industrialization, urbanization, and modernization.

     There were no in-house writers for these radio plays; one could not earn a decent living writing ra­dioromans or, for that matter, any type of novel. Still, many of the first telenovelists were radionovelists, who were also established literary novelists. A literary profession of successful, independent novelists and te­lenovelists has only emerged since the mid-1980s.

     With the advent of television, classical and modem theater (also prominent on Canadian radio, as in the United States) moved onto the small screen along with the radioroman. As elsewhere, theater was short-lived on TV while the radioroman went on to become the téléroman. Building on the loyal following of the radioroman  by "'bringing to life" the main characters of two of the best-loved and most enduring radio productions. Un homme et son pêché and La famille Plouffe, the téléroman was able to experiment with new themes and new styles of writing. It thus adapted the century­ old popular novel to this modern medium without sacrificing tradition and its most endearing qualities.

     As an indication not only of the rapid growth of the téléroman but also of the centrality of the position it holds within both the television industry and the public discourse on television itself, one can cite the following figures. A recent repertoire lists nearly 600 titles of original works of fiction. including téléromans, produced by Quebecois screenwriters to the delight of  tens of millions of television viewers from 1952 to 1992. A comparable feat is not to be found in any other French­ language television industry, including France's. Nor  is the popularity of locally produced television fiction in Quebec to be equaled anywhere else, particularly  in terms of the loyalty that the téléroman commands. For example,  in  the  early  1980s  the “Who  Killed J.R.?'" episode of Dallas set a new standard in U.S. television market research with its 5--l-point market share. and it has rarely been challenged since. In contrast, in Quebec a 50-point market share is considered the basic standard of a successful show. with the yearly bestsellers reaching the high 70s and low 80s.

Not surprisingly,  the téléroman  has spawned some small but vibrant  secondary commercial  ventures and represents some notable investments by other communications industries. For example, a glossy magazine, Téléroman, is published four times a year with a readership of some 50,000. The well-established television guides, such as TV Hebdo (with nearly 1 million readers), often feature well-known faces of actors or characters of popular téléromans on its cover. Each year, moreover, TV Hebdo devotes a special edition to the current lineup of best- and least-known téléromans. Every major daily newspaper publishes the weekly schedule of television programming and has a television critic whose main subject is the téléroman: its costs, production, writers, actors, characters, intrigues, and audience rates. Talk shows quite regularly invite authors, actors, and TV characters to meet live studio audiences. Even "serious" public affairs television shows, magazines, and newspapers give thoughtful attention to the phenomenon. Of course, the téléroman, with its well-known and beloved characters, is a bonanza for advertising agencies selling everything from sundries to soft drinks to automobiles; téléroman actors are the spokespersons for industries; they appear on public announcements and telethons for the sick and the needy.

     Most importantly, these well-known and well-loved actors and characters have contributed to the birth and growth of a thriving, creative, French-language Quebec-based advertising industry. Not too many years ago, this industry's main revenue came from translating English language, Toronto- or New York­ conceived television commercials. Today, French­ language advertisements for national Canadian and American brand names are conceived and produced in Quebec. This industry has become a remarkable success story in its own right, creating ads for Pepsi, Bell Canada, General Motors, and others.

Another commercial spin-off, besides the inevitable merchandising of images of téléroman characters as dolls, on lunch boxes, and on posters, is the phenomenon of "living museums." Here the sets-whether original or reconstructed--of téléromans such as Un homme et son peche, Le temps d' une paix, Les filles de Caleb, or Cormoran are rebuilt in their "natural" outdoor surroundings. These téléromans are historically grounded, either in a specific timeframe such as the 1930s or 1940s, or in the lives of past public and semi public figures. The actual historical site on which these sets are built, the authentic dwellings upon which they are grafted, even the now-permanent presence of actual descendants of the romanticized characters in these reconstructed settings , all lend a " museum- like" and educational quality to these commercial enterprises. The téléroman is thus much more than a television genre, it is also an industry in itself and a generator of economic activities in industrially related sectors.

     One of the recurring themes in the téléroman is the city, and this city is Montreal, the largest French­ language city in North America. It is a character in its own right in the same manner as the London of Dickens, the Paris of Honore de Balzac and Emile Zola, or New York and Los Angeles for the modern U.S. television series. The téléroman often looks and sounds like an indictment of the city with its wealth of social problems-anonymous violence, corruption, abused children, battered women, drug abuse, solitude, poverty, homelessness. However, it is also an ode to the city's magnetism-riches, arts, adventure, beauty, fulfillment, empowerment, enlightenment, and, above all, the chance for true love. The téléroman exudes both a sense of deja vu and "elsewhereism." 

     The téléroman focuses on the ordinary, even on the antihero who is allowed to fail, sometimes disastrously. It reaches into the banality of everyday life to gather the stuff out of which characters of flesh and blood appear on the television screen, live and evolve, cry and laugh, cheat and repent, love and hate, and sometimes disappear. The fact that ordinariness can be both enticing and serialized yet still command loyalty from seasoned viewers of a half-century of television drama, is the greatest homage that can be paid to these writers, producers, and actors. The popularity, for example, of Chambres en ville, an exploration of the pains and joys of growing up as a teenager in Montreal, attests to the skill of these professionals .

     Another remarkable feature of the Quebecois téléroman lies in its distinctive mixture of gendered world­ views. This particular mixture can be traced to the presence and influence of the women working in the téléroman's creative communities. Telenovelists include women such as former journalist Fabienne Larouche, former journalist and Quebec cabinet minister Lise Payette, and her daughter Sylvie. Renowned female actors of both theater and screenplay lead roles in the téléroman, and women novelists whose best­ selling novels have been adapted to the television genre, such as Arlette Cousture (Les filles de Caleb) and Francine Ouellet (Au nom du pere}, often contribute to the creative process.

     The last few years have seen three unrelated but significant shifts, whose impact on the téléroman is yet to be measured. First, the weekly episodes of a regular series are decreasing in number. Second, the traditionally weak export market may have found its niche: the selling of franchised concepts rather than dubbing rights for televised series. Finally, the arrival of a new technology combining television with the Internet means, for example, that while one is watching a dramatic series, one may chat interactively on the Internet about the show, with both the program and the chat window appearing simultaneously on the TV screen.

     The téléroman, like other works of fiction in many other societies, is a testimony to the creative use of technology, in this case a technology to transmit at a distance and in real time, images and sounds.  Through the efforts and talents of many artists, professionals, and technicians, a world of fiction is created. It is a world in which reality takes on certain meanings for a geographically, socially, historically, and a culturally designated community. That the téléroman succeeds in achieving this sort of world is not unique; what is unique is the fashion in which it does so. The téléroman thus contributes a small but original viewpoint, or narrative, to the accumulated human legacy of past efforts to give meaning  to  the lives of ordinary people.