Il était une fois... l'homme

To be honest I was surprised there were not more comments on this series. It's a true gem and a classic. Even if it's nearly 30 years old it's still one of the most entertaining and best children's series.

They have shown this on Norwegian TV several times. I can remember watching this every Sunday morning as one of my favorite shows. First of all it's an excellent written series with an idea of combining education and entertainment. Often a doomed combination, but the way it's pulled off in this series is incredible. They succeed in making it both entertaining and educational. You follow a group of character through the different stages of mankind. It's the same characters and so you get to know them throughout the series. They also use a narrator and include him as a character of his own in the show. Making him interesting and funny rather than just a boring narrator from a kids perspective.

The animation is also good. They characters look of the character matches up with who they are. It's well animated, still by todays standards.

As for the educational aspect you get to see history. It's as simple as that. What they do it put these characters into history making one of them Moses one episode and Julius Caesar in the next. They recreate human history as it's supposed to have happened in their own universe with the help of a few characters.

I consider this series as a true classic and one of the best children series of all time. Unfortunately it would seem that it is being forgotten as those who saw it are growing up.

"Es war einmal der Mensch" (German) / "Once Upon a Time... Man" (English) is just about the next best children's program/series after "Es war einmal das Leben" (German) / "Once Upon a Time... Life" (English). History is a dry topic and as someone who always found it boring throughout school, even I like watching episodes of this series with our children and fondly remember seeing it as a kid when it originally aired.

The series is very well made, does not show its age, and our kids at various ages really like to watch it. At the same time, they gain knowledge about history us parents didn't have until way, way later. The series covers everything from the birth of the universe (assuming the Big Bang theory is correct), through evolution, prehistoric times, all centuries, to the last episode looking towards the future of humankind. While most episodes are great, some, around the dark ages, need the support of the fun characters as these times are really just a string of people's conquests, rebellions, new leaders, etc. (hence "only" 8 out of 10). The evolution is covered in a sensitive way, leaving some scope for interpretation of this topic which may be contentious with some people, and similarly, episodes covering religious events such as the birth of Jesus and Islam look only from a historic angle.

Throughout the series, familiar characters give a personal context to history. The topics covered are well balanced, globally speaking, and chosen for their significance. The last episode, looking towards the future of humankind one of the best, pondering increasing environmental destruction, pollution and wars and while presented for children's viewing is very worthwhile to watch for adults as well.

This is one of the best ever children's programs - I would say it's a must see for every family with kids!

Quite educational, good for those who want to learn a lot about the history of the world. One of the best educational series ever. Highly recommend for children.

I used to watch this a lot as a kid. Today I use it when i teach.

I liked the way the female commentator mentioned dates and names and events and there was a small screen at the top with arms and stuff where the dates appeared. That was nice. And some times the screen creature disagreed with the commentator.

Anyways. I also liked that it was chronological. It started with the stone age, where we got to see people hunting mammoth, fishing and so on. It was in many ways my favorite episode. I am very into fishing, and found it interesting that they made line and hooks from animal parts and also that they used crickets for bait.

Another good episode I remember was the one about the Mongol hordes. I liked the way they depicted Djenghis Kahn. They drew him with skulls inside his eyes and fire inside his eyes, laughing and smiling.

The old, bearded inventor was also very nice.

I don't like the way the wannabe leader and his red haired crony always got beaten up by the kind muscle guy. It was too easy and violent and quite frankly not nice.

Other than that the series was very good.

Even though the show played a bit fast and loose with actual historical facts and events, it did it, I believe, only in as much as to make it interesting for a child to start caring about the history of mankind and what makes our species so terribly magnificent.

In the series, we're generously shown man's greatest achievements, and also, a tad more discretely, our greatest horrors too. Still, it doesn't shy away from the less glamorous parts of our past or gloss over problematic issues. ONCE UPON A TIME... MAN is entertainment, first and foremost, but it is also a remarkable tool and a historic document in itself now, forty odd years later.