The Best TV Shows on ORTF Télévision

Every ORTF Télévision Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Discover the best of ORTF Télévision with our list of over 20 series, meticulously updated for July 2025. With its programming history stretching from 1956 to 1974, ORTF Télévision offers an impressive lineup of over 20 shows. Cinépanorama and Les Cinq Dernières Minutes represent the pinnacle of ORTF Télévision’s programming, launching in 1956 and 1958.

  • Out 1
    Out 1 (1971)10.0

    Following the May 1968 civil unrest in France, a deaf-mute and a con artist simultaneously stumble upon the remnants of a secret society.

  • Graine d'Ortie
    Graine d'Ortie (1973)10.0

    In Vendée, a little boy, Paul Guillet, is abandoned by his mother who places him in public assistance. He will go from host family to host family, these various experiences gradually shaping his personality. Graine d'ortie is a French television series in twenty-six thirteen-minute episodes, broadcast from June 1, 1973 on the first ORTF channel. It is also the title of the autobiographical novel by Paul Wagner from which the television series is inspired. In Quebec, it was broadcast from September 1, 1974 on Télévision de Radio-Canada, and rebroadcast from December 14, 1986 on TVJQ.

  • The Investigations of Commissioner Maigret
    The Investigations of Commissioner Maigret (1967)8.6

  • Cinépanorama
    Cinépanorama (1956)8.0

  • À bout portant
    À bout portant (1968)8.0

  • Le Grand Échiquier
    Le Grand Échiquier (1972)8.0

  • The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau
    The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau (1968)7.9

    The intrepid undersea explorer and author circles the globe on his floating laboratory, Calypso, in this occasional series. A pioneer in marine study, the red-capped Frenchman introduced generations of landlubbers to the creatures and mysteries of the sea.

  • Thierry la Fronde
    Thierry la Fronde (1963)7.0

    Thierry la Fronde was a French television series that aired in 1963–66 on the television station, ORTF original script by Jean-Claude Deret. Dubbed into English, it was shown internationally in the 1960s, including in Canada, where it was referred to under the original name, and also as The King's Outlaw. It was shown as well in Poland as Thierry Śmiałek. On ABC in Australia, it was called The King's Outlaw. In the Netherlands, 32 of the 52 episodes were shown in 1967 as Thierry de Slingeraar, as a Netherlands Television Service programme.

  • Les Shadoks
    Les Shadoks (1968)7.0

    Les Shadoks is an animated television series created by French cartoonist Jacques Rouxel which caused a sensation in France when it was first broadcast in 1968-1974. The Shadoks were bird-like in appearance, were characterised by ruthlessness and stupidity and inhabited a two dimensional planet. Another set of creatures in the Shadok canon are the Gibis, who are the opposite to the Shadoks in that they are intelligent but vulnerable and also inhabit a two-dimensional planet. Rouxel claims that the term Shadok obtains some derivation from Captain Haddock of Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin and the Gibis are essentially GBs. The Shadoks were a significant literary, cultural and philosophical phenomenon in France. Even today, the French occasionally use satirical comparisons with the Shadoks for policies and attitudes that they consider absurd. The Shadoks were noted for mottos such as: ⁕"Why do it the easy way when you can do it the hard way?" ⁕"When one tries continuously, one ends up succeeding. Thus, the more one fails, the greater the chance that it will work."

  • Barbapapa
    Barbapapa (1974)7.0

    The adventures of Barbapapa and Barbama and their seven children, where they search for their place in the world, while helping humans and animals.

  • At Theatre Tonight
    At Theatre Tonight (1966)6.7

    At Theater tonight is a TV show broadcasted from 25th August 1966 to 21st September 1985. The show is broadcast plays recorded in two or three days, during public performances at the Théâtre Marigny on the Champs-Élysées, or sometimes Edouard VII theater.

  • L'Homme du Picardie
    L'Homme du Picardie (1968)6.5

  • Les Aventures de Tintin, d'après Hergé
    Les Aventures de Tintin, d'après Hergé (1959)6.4

  • Bonne nuit les petits
    Bonne nuit les petits (1962)6.3

  • Les Saintes Chéries
    Les Saintes Chéries (1965)6.0

  • Midi trente
    Midi trente (1972)6.0

  • Un curé de choc
    Un curé de choc (1974)5.0

  • Les Cinq Dernières Minutes
    Les Cinq Dernières Minutes (1958)N/A

    Les Cinq Dernieres Minutes is a crime based French television series

  • Foncouverte
    Foncouverte (1965)N/A

  • Un mystère par jour
    Un mystère par jour (1970)N/A