1950s
Movies With Manings
Movies With Manings preceded the hockey broadcast on Saturday nights. Writer Allan Manings introduced a selection of Hollywood feature films from a living room set, occasionally with the help of special guests, such as Manings's later colleague on Flashback, Elwy Yost.
Mr. Fix-it
The CBC gave Peter Whittall his own fifteen minute time slot and christened him Mr. Fix-it. In an era when most men seen on television wore jackets and ties, uniforms, or costumes, Whittall cut a distinctive figure dressed in plaid flannel shirts and dungarees, ready for work in the shop. He demonstrated how to handle basic tasks in home construction, ...
Mr. Hope Show
On the novel Mr Hope Show, masked members of Alcoholics Anonymous meet regularly to reveal how they've been cured.
Mr. O
Mr. O was a 15-minute broadcast aimed at five to eight year olds. Every day Mr. O would appear on the program with charming puppets designed by John and Linda Keogh, in such personifications as Clarence the Clarinet and Chelly the Cello. He would engage in dialogue with the puppets and a whole visual sequence was developed which was intrinsically pleas ...
Mr. Showbusiness
Canada's "Mr. Showbusiness" was Jack Arthur, whose career had started in vaudeville, who was a violin prodigy, an entertainer on a steamboat, a pit orchestra leader, a theatrical producer, and the producer of the mammoth Grandstand shows at the Canadian National Exhibition. The series, Mr. Showbusiness, had run on radio in the 1953-54 season, and was ad ...
Music '60
Music '60 was 2 one-hour variety programs, which aired on alternate weeks. Music '60 Presents The Hit Parade succeeded Cross Canada Hit Parade. Although the show's title suggested that viewers might see renditions of the most current and popular musical hits, as they did on Cross Canada Hit Parade, the show ranged over many musical styles and forms, ...
Music Hall
Music Hall was a weekly half-hour of music and comedy on CBC. Eric Christmas researched the music hall traditions of late nineteenth century England, and acted the part of the performer on the show. Gerald Peters wrote the show and was the chairman of the proceedings.
Music Makers
Music Makers ran for two seasons as Music Makers '58 and Music Makers '59. It presented big band music with Jack Kane and his thirty-one piece Orchestra and singer Sylvia Murphy. In addition, the show welcomed a healthy selection of guests from the world of swing and jazz.
In 1959, the show expanded to a full hour and ran every other week under the ...
Music to See
Music To See was the title of a CBC-TV series in which musicologist Helmut Blume hoped to prove that music can make an interesting topic for viewers as well as listeners. Making the camera do the work, the series explored the interior of a piano, watched the harpsichord produce its characteristic sound, showed viewers a medieval minstrel performing his ...
Musicale
A half-hour musical program, which ran for a month in Toronto and Montreal in late 1954. The final offering was Maid As Mistress, by Pergolesi, with robert Savoie and Yolande Dulude.
Nation's Business, The
The Nation's Business started in the spring of 1956 as a ten minute, free time political television broadcast, a service already offered on CBC radio. It ran every other week. In the autumn, it expanded to a quarter hour, and alternated with a broadcast of similar format devoted to the politics of the provinces. The programs were then cut back to slots ...
Nature of Things, The
One of the CBC's most successful productions in terms of longevity, audience acceptance, and international sales, The Nature of Things has been a mainstay of the network's science unit since 1960. Underlying the program is the interaction of human beings and aspects of different fields of natural and physical science and the evolution of technology. In ...
New Nation in the West Indies
The CBC presented a 4-part series of 30-minute films, produced by the National Film Board, on the West Indies as a new member of the British Commonwealth.
News Cavalcade
From 6:30 to 7 p.m., Monday to Friday, most of Newfoundland's 30,000 TV sets were tuned to Don Jamieson's unique half-hour News Cavalcade show, which had been called "one of the most ambitious TV news shows in North America." Stocky, versatile Jamieson, who was half-owner of CJON-TV, invariably ad-libbed his way, with uncanny precision, through the enti ...
Newsmagazine
Under the title News Magazine, and later as Newsmagazine, this digest of international news features ran on the CBC from the first day of television transmission in Canada.
Originally designed as a television newsreel, the program opened with the words, "These are the sights and sounds of our time," spoken in the authoritative voice of newsreader Lor ...
Nightcap
A half-hour produced in Montreal, Nightcap was a very informal musical variety program, set in a cabaret. The host was Alan Mills, who played the club's patron; William Robert Fournier, another regular, was the waiter. Mills would circulate among the studio audience, in which celebrities were planted, to talk with his guests and perhaps to convince them ...
Now's Your Chance
Now's Your Chance was a half-hour primetime talent show on the CBC.
Nursery School Time
The School Broadcast Department of the CBC produced Nursery School Time, a 15-minute program aimed at pre-school age children. It was presented three days a week, and each week the show concentrated on a different subject. The opening season of programs was intended as an experiment. The response was strong enough that the program was revived in the aut ...
Old Testament Tales
Produced by the CBC in Toronto, this 15-minute live broadcast was Canada's first religious television program for children. It presented stories from the Old Testament and performed by puppets.
On Camera
On Camera succeeded CBC Playbill as the principal series for half-hour drama and comedy on the network. The series aimed to encourage Canadian writers, and did provide an outlet for domestic television plays. Plays in the series included: Blind Date; Waltz; Who Destroyed The Earth; Gold Mine in the House; The Last Long Crusade; The President's Ghost ...