1950s
Children's International Newsreel
The first "newsreel" for children on the CBC network was Children's International Newsreel, originating in Montreal. The 15-minute show was made up of segments procured from the news service of the European Broadcasting Union and presented without a host. In December 1955, members of the European Broadcasting Union constructed a film exchange agreem ...
Children's Theatre
For the 1953 television season, producers Joanne Hughes and Peggy Nairn assembled a lineup of afternoon programming for children, which included a half-hour broadcast of films.
Chrysler Festival
On six occasions in 1956 and 1957, the CBC replaced Folio with the Chrysler Festival, a spectacular one hour variety show broadcast live before an audience of two thousand from the stage of Toronto's Loew's Uptown Theatre. Elaine Grand and Hume Cronyn introduced a wide range of Canadian and international performers.
Citizens' Forum
The program format in its initial seasons included a panel discussion for the first twenty minutes, followed by an open session in which a studio audience was invited to participate. The show was generally organized into series of three weeks, followed by an "In the News" program, on national and international affairs. The program also welcomed viewers ...
Clarke, Campbell & Co.
A short lived, late evening, fifteen minute program of music on disk from Toronto, with Marion Clarke and Rick Campbell.
Classroom Clinic
Classroom Clinic was a show for rural communities around Saskatoon. The show began when a hamlet school teacher in St. Isidore De Bellevue, 60 miles north of Saskatoon, wrote the station: "Please teach my class something about artificial earth satellites. Also, show them how to operate a dial telephone, city-style. My pupils will assemble in the nearby ...
Close-Up
Creator and executive producer Ross McLean spun Close-Up, a prime-time, weekly program off from Tabloid, the successful, daily, early evening public affairs show. The CBC supported the series with a substantial production budget that permitted McLean to send correspondents and camera crews to far locations for interviews and documentaries. Originally a ...
Club O'Connor
A summer replacement for The Plouffe Family, Club O'Connor represented piano player Billy O'Connor's return to CBC televison after an absence of a year. On this half-hour musical variety show from Toronto, he was accompanied by his band, with Jackie Richardson on bass, Ken Gill on guitar, Vic Centro on accordion, and drummer and singer Johnny Lindon, as ...
Come Fly with Me
Shane Rimmer starred in Come Fly With Me, a musical variety show that replaced Front Page Challenge in the summer of 1958. The program was produced in European, U.S., and Canadian cities. At around the same time, the CBC sent Nathan Cohen and Fighting Words to the U.K., and opened its trans-Canada microwave network, all representing a kind of expansion ...
Commonwealth Teleview
Commonwealth Teleview, broadcast by arrangement with the United Kingdom Information Service, was a series of six fifteen minute programs intended to show Canada elements of its fellow nations in the British Commonwealth. The programs included a profile of modern living in the town of Harlow; an interview on atomic energy, with Sir John Cockcraft, by Rob ...
Comparisons
Comparisons was a series of one hour films produced by the National Film Boards that set elements of life in Canada alongside practices in other parts of the world. The films included Four Families; Age of Dissent; Four Religions; Suburban Living: Six Solutions; Four Teachers; Courtship; An Enduring Tradition; and Of Sport And Men.
Concert
The CBC has, understandably, produced a number of musical programs and series simply titled Concert. The first month of CBC television (1952) included a weekly, half-hour concert broadcast on Sunday evenings. In autumn 1960, the network presented a series of eight programs, titled Concert, that highlighted compositions and performances by Canadians. ...
Concert Hour, The
The Concert Hour, a classical music program, was produced in Montreal and transmitted on both English and French stations, and included commentary in both languages. CBFT-TV had presented L'Heure du concert every other week, alternating with Teletheatre, but the musical show changed to a weekly broadcast when the network picked it up in spring of 1954. ...
Country Canada
Country Calendar was a half-hour program on CBC which provided regular coverage of agriculture. It started on an interconnected network in Eastern Canada, with Norm Garriock's commentary on farm matters in the first half and Earl Cox on gardening in the last half.
The CBC subsequently introduced editions of Country Calendar for other regions of the c ...
Country Club
Country Club was a CBC summer replacement series set in a country club ballroom. Don Francks was master-of-ceremonies as well as a singer. A popular feature was duets by Don and Patti Lewis. The music consisted of popular ballads, songs of yesteryear and current and past novelty numbers. Bert Niosi and his orchestra were spotlighted on every show playin ...
Country Hoedown
Country Hoedown made its premiere on Saturday evenings as a summer replacement for On Camera. It moved to Friday for a regular slot in the autumn broadcast schedule, and there it stayed for nine years. It followed the lead of Holiday Ranch, and was one of the most popular musical variety shows the CBC ever produced.
This showcase for Canada's countr ...
Court of Opinion
Drew Crossan produced this television adaptation of a CBC radio panel show. It featured host Neil Leroy and regular panelists Lister Sinclair and Kate Aitken, and two guest panelists each week.
Cowboys' Corner
Producers Joanne Hughes and Peggy Nairn included a half-hour program of western films in their afternoon programming for children in the first year of CBC television.
Cross-Canada Hit Parade
The CBC adapted the formula of the U.S. musical variety series, Your Hit Parade, to produce its own weekly half-hour countdown of popular music. Each week, the regulars, the vocal group the MCs (or the Emcees), and an orchestra led by clarinetist Bert Niosi would perform a selection of the top musical hits in the country, determined in cooperation with ...
Crossfire
Crossfire, a companion to Citizens' Forum, was a series of four discussion broadcasts. The programs alternated between two different formats. In one, an assembled panel of experts opened itself to questions on different subjects by a studio audience. In the other, a form of debate, each side of a question had two supporters, one a "witness," the other a ...