Falco - didn't he die in a car accident years back? Thing is, the fact that you remember the family but not the French is a case in point, really. Whether or not courses take the family soap approach, or whether they concentrate on famous people, you are still more likely to remember stuff that is relevent to you. We are just like that, as human beings. We like stuff that's relevant to us, we like to be the centre of our own worlds, and if we tap into that, we make language learning more interesting and easier.