H (TV series)

H is a French sitcom with seventy-one 22-minute episodes. The series was created by Abd-el-Kader Aoun, Xavier Matthew and Éric Judor, and produced by Phillippe Berthe, Édouard Molinaro, Jean-Luc Moreau and Charles Némès. It ran from 24 October 1998 to 20 April 2002 on Canal+. In Canada, it is shown weekly on TV5.

H
GenreComedy
Created byAbd-el-Kader Aoun
Éric Judor
Xavier Matthew
Written byÉric Lavaine
Directed byÉric Lartigau
Starring
Theme music composerDJ Abdel
Country of origin France
Original languageFrench
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes71 (list)
Production
Running time22 minutes
Production companyCanal+
Release
Original networkCanal+
Original releaseOctober 24, 1998 (1998-10-24) –
April 20, 2002 (2002-04-20)

The title "H" comes from the three words that characterize the series: Humour, Histoire et Hôpital (Humour, Story and Hospital).

Premise

The lives of the carelessly incompetent medical team at a hospital in the Parisian suburbs explode in surreal humour as they go about their daily duties.

Cast

Guest appearances

In four seasons, many notable French actors appeared in guest starring roles or cameos.

Characters
  • Djamel Driddi - Switchboard operator in Orthopedics. He is ready to do anything to earn money and willing to place himself in difficult situations: cross-dressing, selling rats, trafficking expired pizzas in the hospital, disguising himself as Santa Claus, etc. He is a pathological liar and often uses the expression "dis-moi pas que c’est pas vrai" (Don't tell me that it's not true!)
  • Aymé Césaire - a male nurse. He is the son of an Austrian woman (who ends up having an affair with Sabri) and a man from Guadeloupe. He is a cowardly hypochondriac, often cynical and arrogant. He is obsessed with women and suffers from hyper-sexuality. He claims to be fluent in "Ebonics" but is instead fluent in German. He is named after the Martiniquais poet, Aimé Césaire.
  • Sabri Saïd - a stretcher-bearer and later a barman at the bar "Barbylone" near the hospital. Although a comic character, he can be a "bad guy" : he poisons Aymé, Clara, and Professor Strauss, and locks Jamel out on his balcony.
  • Clara Saulnier - the chief nurse in Orthopedics. An older woman, she is domineering and persistent. Before becoming a nurse, she was an alcoholic prostitute and porn star. She shares a love-hate relationship with Aymé.
  • Beatrice "Béa" Goldberg - a doctor. She is a nice but unattractive young woman. She can also be considered the most "normal" of the characters. Unlucky in love, she finally falls for Jean-François Nguyen, a French-Vietnamese lawyer, but their wedding is broken up on the day of the marriage.
  • Professor Maximilien "Max" Strauss - Head surgeon. He is obsessed with sports, collectibles, money, and various sexual fetishes. Because of his incompetence, he is the defendant in several malpractice suits. He is unable to manage his group (who spend most of the day goofing off) and cannot remember their names correctly. He has a daughter named Charlotte, and the show hints that he may be the son of Hitler.
  • Edgar - the hospital administrator. Intelligent and ambitious, his plans are always thwarted by Professor Strauss, Aymé, or Sabri.

List of episodes
SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
1 20 1998 – 1999
2 20 1999 – 2000
3 20 2000 – 2001
4 11 2002

Distribution

A DVD featuring the "Best of H" as well as a box set featuring all four seasons have been released. The full series is also streamable on Netflix.

H at IMDb

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