Top Rated Programs
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 ...
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 ...
E.N.G
Set against the urban landscape of Toronto, E.N.G follows a "hard-hitting, aggressive television news team" as it tracks down the day's stories. E.N.G, which stands for Electronic News Gathering, stars Sarah Botsford as Ann Hildebrandt, a "tough, ambitious senior news producer"; Mark Humphrey as camera man Jake Antonelli, Hildebrandt's romantic partner; ...
Cannonball Featured
Cannonball was a series of half-hour family dramas about the adventures of two truckers who hauled freight on the highways of Canada and the U.S.A. American actors Paul Birch and William Campbell played the lead roles of Mike Malone and Jerry Austin and Canadian talent played the supporting roles. The thirty-nine episodes were also syndicated in the U ...
Mr. Piper
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation purchased this 39-episode children's series from Pied Piper Films Ltd. of Toronto. Host for the show was Toronto opera singer Alan Crofoot. Each weekly half-hour program consisted of four segments. The first, Tale Time, was a fantasy story using graphics with Crofoot's voice over film as narration. Other segment ...
Do It For Yourself
Do it For Yourself was a half-hour how-to show which featured Mary Bellows doing the fix-it solo and there was also a segment dedicated to plants with Mary along with John Reeves. We produced 278 half hours and the show ran for 3 years on the CBC network. It also aired on the USA network, Lifetime and PBS in the United States. If I so say so myself it w ...
Archie and His Friends
Archie and His Friends, produced by CKY-TV Winnipeg, was an on-going half-hour series for pre-school children in which ventriloquist Uncle Bob and puppet Archie Wood entertained children with crafts, animals and birthday telephone calls. Guests of interest to children were introduced frequently. Other puppet characters on the show included Grandpa Wood, ...
Razzle Dazzle
Razzle Dazzle was the title of a Canadian children's program produced by the CBC between 1961 and 1966. The series was initially co-hosted by Alan Hamel and Michelle Finney, who were later replaced by Ray Bellew, and Trudy Young. There was also a cast of characters who appeared in every episode, most notably Howard the Turtle, who was considered the ...
Buckshot Show, The
The Buckshot Show was a half-hour show from CFCN-TV with host and creator Ron Barge (Buckshot) who entertained children in the Calgary area daily from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday. With a group of puppet characters led by Benny the Bear, Heathcliffe the Dragon, Dafney the Dragon, Foghorn the Firefly, Rodney the Rodent and Farley Frick fro ...
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.
Pasquale's Kitchen Express
Pasquale's Kitchen Express was a fast-paced, fun half hour of cooking, singing (and eating!) that appealed to everyone. In each episode, Chef Pasquale Carpino showed the audience his own brand of haute cuisine as he philosophized and serenaded us with light opera while preparing a full course meal for four people, in record time.
Approximately 340 ep ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Littlest Hobo, The
The series follows the adventures of an extremely intelligent, wandering German Shepherd who walks into a different place in each episode of this long-running television series, and comes upon people down on their luck or in trouble.
Hobo always befriends and helps the struggling person or persons. Then, when his job is done at episode's end, decline ...
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 ...
Switchback
Switchback was a popular Sunday morning kids series which was originally developed in Vancouver and was later produced other CBC regional stations, including Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax. It was a live magazine variety show which employed a fast-moving format of rock videos, camp serials like Batman, puppets, personality interv ...
Here Come the Seventies
Here Come the Seventies was a half-hour documentary series that looked ahead at anticipated technological marvels and innovations we could expect during the 70's. The program was described as a "pop public affairs show."
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 ...
Red Fisher Show, The
The Red Fisher Show was a long-running Ontario fishing programme, with the Red and a celebrity guest either out on a lake in a small boat, or talking about the trip back at "Scuttlebutt Lodge", a studio set. The show started as a radio talk show program in 1963 and moved to television in 1968. Red Fisher is widely know as the man who spawned the fishing ...