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This is the first episode of incontestably the most culturally significant continuing television drama (soap opera) in French Canada (1953-57) and one of the most successful and influential in English Canada (1954-57). It chronicled the daily life and struggles of a working-class family in Quebec City during the years following World War II. For English Canada, La Famille Plouffe (The Plouffe Family) was "a stylized look into the kitchen window of a culture almost unknown to Anglophone viewers", a seductive fusion of the somewhat exotic world of Quebec and familiar conflicts of family life, but to Quebec audiences it was "a distinctive voice, a precusor of nationalism, a reflection of working-class dilemmas and aspirations" during the Duplessis era, and it is probably not coincidental that the first series ended when Quebec began reforming its role and its image in the ‘Quiet Revolution’.
La Famille Plouffe was so addictive in Quebec that it forced re-scheduling of other social events on Wednesday evenings. Based on Roger Lemelin’s 1948 novel, the series led to a feature film and a series of six one-hour television dramas written by Lemelin and directed by Gilles Carle. La Famille Plouffe was successfully revived in the 80s and Lemelin’s sequel to the novel, Le Crime d’Ovide Plouffe (The Crime of Ovide Plouffe) led to another series and another feature film.
Holdings:
There were 194 episodes in the first series of La Famille Plouffe but they were broadcast live and at this date there are only 8 episodes known to survive as kinescope recordings (16mm film copies of the original broadcasts). These are held by Société Radio-Canada. There are also 5 episodes of The Plouffe Family held by the Canadian Broadcasting Corportation. | 
