Most Favoured Programs
Friendly Giant, The
Bob Homme, as the good-natured Friendly Giant, introduces children to books and helps them see how these can answer their questions and enrich their everyday living. Puppets Jerome the Giraffe and Rusty the Rooster, a good story, a bit of music and relaxed conversation and laughter, make up each 15-minute program.
From 1958 until 1985, Homme wrote an ...
SCTV
SCTV was unlike any other comedy series on the air. What SCTV did for the most part was satirize television itself. Using the premise of a fictitious network, it mimicked existing media stars and no-talents from networks to the local backwater UHFs. The SCTV Network had its own talk shows and parodies of everything on television ranging from musical var ...
Beachcombers, The
If there ever was a show that continues to live on in the hearts and minds of people almost four decades after it was first broadcast, it is The Beachcombers. Gibsons, British Columbia was the setting for the series' 19 year run beginning October 1, 1972 and ending December 12, 1990.
Nick Adonidas was a law abiding and hardworking Greek bachelor. He ...
Mr. Dressup
Ernie Coombs hosted this simple format TV show as Mr. Dressup. With his puppet friends, originally Casey and his dog Finnegan, he taught pre-school subjects with games, music and simple activities. To add to the fun, Mr. Dressup would always open up his tickle trunk that contains any costume for any role he wants.
Mr. Dressup emerged from an earlier ...
Canada Vignettes
Canada Vignettes from the National Film Board of Canada were a staple throughout the late 70's and 80's. The vignettes varied in length from between 30 seconds to 5 minutes and touched a wide variety of Canadian history and present-time topics.
North of 60
Beginning in December, 1992, North of 60 brought the world of Native Canada into the homes of city and suburban residents. It was a hugely successful series for CBC throughout the country, but especially so in the North, where small towns would nearly come to a standstill on Thursday evenings to watch the show.
Set in the fictional town of Lynx Riv ...
Hilarious House of Frightenstein, The
The Hilarious House of Frightenstein was a Canadian children's television series which was produced by CHCH-TV. It was syndicated to television stations across Canada and the United States.
A quirky sketch comedy series, the show's cast included Billy Van, Fishka Rais, Guy Big, Mitch Markowitz, and Julius Sumner Miller. Van, in fact, played the vast ...
Just Like Mom
Just Like Mom was a game show built on a child-mother relationship. Viewers wrote in requesting the opportunity to participate from all parts of Canada. Producer Paul Burford said that the source of the request was usually the child. The show was originally hosted by Stephen Young and Catherine Swing. Executive producer Fergie Olver later took over host ...
Wok with Yan
In Wok with Yan, chef Stephen Yan demonstrated how to cook oriental dishes with a wok. A kind of Galloping Gourmet of the 1980s, Yan achieved notoriety for his energy and ebullience and for the bad puns on the word, "wok," printed on his apron.
Forest Rangers, The
The Forest Rangers took place in and around a village called Indian River, but the real focus of the story was an abandoned fort that had been taken over by the Junior Rangers. The fort was their headquarters, where they set up their ham radio, and helped keep watch for forest fires and other conservational offences. They ran up against not only poacher ...
Danger Bay
Animal rescue missions along British Columbia's rugged northwest coast provided much of the adventure for Danger Bay, a CBC family drama series. Veteran actor Donnelly Rhodes starred as 40-year-old Grant "Doc" Roberts, a veterinarian and the crusading Curator of Marine Mammals at the Vancouver Aquarium. A passionate and intelligent man, with an unconven ...
Galloping Gourmet, The
The Galloping Gourmet, a half-hour, weekday show, was the most popular cooking show of its time. It had originated on Australian television, and then moved to Canada, with Ottawa's CJOH-TV as its production base.
Graham Kerr demonstrated the preparation of dishes that were exotic, but affordable and accessible. The key to the show's popularity, howev ...
Test Pattern
Test Pattern was a MuchMusic game show in which contestants threw a fake brick at a tic-tac-toe style board revealing different challenges. Several prize items were awarded, with the grand prize being the official Test Pattern Two-Slice Toaster. The show also featured Canadian musicians who were prominent in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Sidney M. ...
King of Kensington
Larry King owned and operated a variety store in Toronto's crowded, multicultural Kensington Market. In the tradition of the television comedy series, most of the action took place in one or two sets, principally King's store and attached house. Larry was a portly, garrulous fellow whose business was everyone else's business. He ran the shop with his wi ...
Littlest Hobo, The
Roaming through Canada in search of adventure and occasional stopping places made the Littlest Hobo a Canadian vagabond. The Littlest Hobo starred London, the great German Shepherd dog. All the filming ranged across Canada for appropriate episode locales. Hobo lived up to his name, going from one city or location to the other, never content to stay in ...
Wayne and Shuster Show, The
Wayne and Shuster started their regular appearances on CBC television with The Wayne and Shuster Hour in October 1954, and have provided comedy that ranged from clever and literate to god-awful corn, at a rate of one show a month in the beginning, reduced to four shows a season in later years. Exact titles for their shows have varied: The Wayne and Shus ...
Pig and Whistle, The
Set in a studio recreation of a British pub, Pig and Whistle starred British actor/singer John Hewer as the host of an inn that featured resident singers, dancers and an orchestra, plus guests, with members of the public forming the invited audience at tables round the room. Toronto singer Kay Turner was the barmaid, and the Carlton Show Band were regul ...
Raccoons, The
In the Evergreen Forest, there is a group of raccoons, the most rambunctious being Bert. Their home is peaceful and beautiful, but also threatened by the greedy aardvark industrialist, Cyril Sneer, who wants to destroy the forest for his own profit. Together with some dog friends and Cedric Sneer, Cyril's sympathetic son, they work to oppose Cyril throu ...
Bizarre
Bizarre is the title of this series because bizarre is the word for it- not to mention its star, John Byner, who charges full tilt through a weekly half-hour of sketches, one-liners and blackouts on a host of bizarre subjects. They include Allan Blye and Bob Einstein, a Phil Donahue-type interview with the world's first trisexual; the Godfather's presid ...
Uncle Bobby
This early children's show spent 4 years as a local program before being picked up by the CTV network in 1968. It ran on CTV until 1970, when it went back to airing on CFTO-TV and in syndication. The show was later titled "Uncle Bobby and Friends" and in 1979 the show changed titles again to Kid's Corner.
Childrens' birthdays were introduced by Bimbo ...