"The producers gratefully acknowledge..." the aid of the French foreign ministry, military, and Legion itself. Legion soldiers even play themselves in all the episodes.
Made to bolster the Legion's image when it was going in the toilet. Legion atrocities in Vietnam, Algeria, Morocco, and elsewhere were world wide news before and during this series.
So how did the French gov't decide to improve their image? Make a kid's show, and model it after the corniest westerns. Show the Legion as really being like a sheriff's office in the Old West. Several dozen episodes and there's not one mention of war. Not one.
Instead there'd lovable hijinks involving a sidekick and a preteen boy solving crime. Imagine Apocalypse Now or Platoon remade as a kid's show, with Colonel Kurtz as a detective, with a comedian for comic relief, and a preteen having adventures in Vietnam that are just so gosh darn fun.
That's how bizarre this series is. It's also why it lasted barely over one season. The local Arabs and Bedouins become American Indians, played by whites in heavy makeup and there to be feared, unless they kowtow to whites in which case they are "the good ones."
And the Bedouin fighters who drove the French out of North Africa with a decade of war, terrorism, and cruelty on both sides? Here they become "bandits" with zero mention of their political or religious reasons for fighting.
Another way to think of this is basically Batman and Robin fight Arab independence fighters. All that's missing is colorful tights and "Pow! Socko!" animation.
Made to bolster the Legion's image when it was going in the toilet. Legion atrocities in Vietnam, Algeria, Morocco, and elsewhere were world wide news before and during this series.
So how did the French gov't decide to improve their image? Make a kid's show, and model it after the corniest westerns. Show the Legion as really being like a sheriff's office in the Old West. Several dozen episodes and there's not one mention of war. Not one.
Instead there'd lovable hijinks involving a sidekick and a preteen boy solving crime. Imagine Apocalypse Now or Platoon remade as a kid's show, with Colonel Kurtz as a detective, with a comedian for comic relief, and a preteen having adventures in Vietnam that are just so gosh darn fun.
That's how bizarre this series is. It's also why it lasted barely over one season. The local Arabs and Bedouins become American Indians, played by whites in heavy makeup and there to be feared, unless they kowtow to whites in which case they are "the good ones."
And the Bedouin fighters who drove the French out of North Africa with a decade of war, terrorism, and cruelty on both sides? Here they become "bandits" with zero mention of their political or religious reasons for fighting.
Another way to think of this is basically Batman and Robin fight Arab independence fighters. All that's missing is colorful tights and "Pow! Socko!" animation.