CBC Television Series, 1952-1982
by Blaine Allan
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CBC Series Index
THE JACK KANE SHOW
Mon 8:30-9:00 p.m., 26 Sep 1960-3 Apr 1961
Jack Kane and his Music Makers had starred in the half-hour variety shows,
Music Makers '58 and Music Makers '59 from 1957 to 1959. The next year, that
show expanded to a full hour and ran every other week under the title Music
'60. For the 1960-6l season, the CBC returned the show to its original format
of a weekly half-hour. The production also returned to a more modest scale
that stressed the music of the band and its members in smaller combos, and of
featured vocalist Sylvia Murphy. Kane also introduced guest performers, such
as singers Steve Lawrence and Andy Williams, who appeared on the first two
shows of the season. The singers and musicians played to a Toronto studio
audience. The show was written by Bernie Rothman, and produced by Bill Davis,
though the first two programs in the series were produced by Stan Harris,
because Davis was ill.
Jack London's Tales Of The Klondike
Sun 8:00-9:00 p.m., 16 May-7 Jun 1981
Fri 8:00-9:00 p.m., 14/21/28 May and 16 Jun 1982 (R)
William Macadam's Norfolk Communications produced this series of six, one hour
dramas based on the stories of Jack London. The tales included The One
Thousand Dozen, directed by Peter Rowe and starring Neil Munro; In A Far
Country, with Scott Hylands and Robert Carradine; Scorn Of Women, starring Eva
Gabor; The Unexpected, with John Candy and Cherie Lunghi; Finis; and The Race
For Number One. Orson Welles narrated the stories.
Jackie Rae starred in a musical variety show, which also featured the Grads, a
vocal quartet, Jack Kane and his orchestra, and comic and writer Frank
Peppiatt. The program's flexible format allowed it to be produced both in the
CBC's Toronto studios or, occasionally, in a different location. Guests
included Canadian performers, including the cast of "Salad Days," a production
at the University of Toronto's Hart House, but often the show strove to attract
audiences with high-powered, name guests from the United States, such as Eydie
Gorme, Don Cherry, and Dorothy Collins.
Tue 8:30-9:00 p.m., 4 Jul-19 Sep 1961
Tue 9:30-10:00 p.m., 23 Jun 1963
W.O. Mitchell's stories of hired hand Jake, his friend the Kid, a twelve year
old boy, and the citizens of Crocus, Saskatchewan, had appeared in the pages of
Maclean's magazine since 1942 and had been a popular feature on CBC radio from
l949 to 1954. A natural subject for CBC television, already known to appeal to
the Canadian public, the stories were tied up when Mitchell became involved in
long negotiations for a U.S. television series to have starred Burgess Meredith
and Brandon de Wilde as the title characters. After the deal fell through, The
National Film Board announced that it planned to produce twenty-six episodes of
Jake And The Kid, which the CBC would air in two thirteen week series, and
optioned one story to produce as a pilot for the series. John Drainie was cast
as Jake, the character he had played on radio, and Tony Haig as the Kid (whose
radio voice had been Aileen Seaton's). The only story from the series to
appear from the NFB studios was "Political Dynamite," a tale of social conflict
over the issue of Sunday curling. It was released in 1962 and aired on the CBC
on 23 June 1963.
In the meantime, however, the CBC produced its own Jake And The Kid for
thirteen weeks in the summer of 196l, starring Murray Westgate as Jake, Rex
Hagon as the Kid, and Frances Tobias as Ma. The producers of the series were
Ronald Weyman and David Gardner, and the executive producer was Raymond
Whitehouse.
The same year, Macmillan of Canada published Mitchell's Jake And The Kid
stories in book form.
See The Whiteoaks of Jalna.
Fri 11:45-12:45 p.m., 29 Feb-18 Apr 1980
Sun 4:00-5:00 p.m., 6 Jul-3 Aug 1980
Hosted by trumpet player Guido Basso, Jazz Canada featured studio concerts from
Vancouver, Toronto, and Halifax with the country's top jazz musicians. The
minimal sets and live-to-tape production techniques stressed the quality of the
musical performances instead of conventional production values for a musical
television show. Jazz Canada showcased such players as the Moe Koffman
Quintet, one of the incarnations of Phil Nimmons's big band, called Nimmons 'n'
Nine Plus Six, the Don Thompson Trio, guitarist Ed Bickert, Rob McConnell and
the Boss Brass, the Kathy Moses Quintet, the Jim Galloway Band, Paul Horn, the
Tommy Banks Orchestra, the salsa band Manteca, Aura Rully, Doug Riley, Sam
Notto, Sonny Greenwich, Brian Browne, Pat LaBarbara, the Russ Little Band, the
Humber Band, the Harvey Silver Band, the Frank Falco Trio with Eugene Amaro,
singer and trombone player Big Miller, Fraser MacPherson, Skip Beckwith, Bobbi
Sharron, Doug Mallory, Herb Marshal, and Ron Small. The program was
coordinated by Jim Guthro, and produced by Jack Budgell, Bob Gibbons, and Ain
Soodor in Toronto, Patsy MacDonald in Vancouver, and Eleanor Lindo in
Halifax.
Sat 8:00-8:30 p.m., 10 Jan-3 Oct 1953
Wed 7:30-8:00 p.m., 7 Oct 1953-14 Apr 1954
Sat 9:00-9:30 p.m., 2 Jul 1955-24 Sep 1955
A half-hour of music with a big band, pianist Cal Jackson, host Dick
MacDougall, and their guests, Jazz With Jackson alternated in a Saturday
evening slot with The March Of Time until mid-June 1953, when it started a
weekly run. Norman Jewison produced.
Tue 5:30-6:00 p.m., 29 Sep 1964-22 Jun 1965
The Montreal segment of the 1964-65 Music Hop (q.v.) series of popular music
shows, Jeunesse Oblige starred Jean-Pierre Ferland in 1964 and Pierre Lalonde
in 1965.
Fri 10:45-11:00 p.m., 4 Sep 1959-24 Jun 1960
On this fifteen minute broadcast for late Friday evenings, produced by Ty
Lemburg, Toronto sportswriter Jim Coleman presented sports news and interviewed
sports personalities.
Mon 8:30-9:00 p.m., 6 Jul-31 Aug 1959
Mon 10:00-10:30 p.m., 14 Sep-4 Oct 1959
Sun 7:30-8:00 p.m., 25 Oct 1959-17 Jul 1960
Singer Joan Fairfax starred in her own musical variety show, complete with
all-woman orchestra, in the summer of 1959, and the program moved to a Sunday
evening slot for the regular season in the autumn of that year. The half-hour
program proved very popular, attracting an estimated two and a quarter million
viewers. In a Saturday Night article, Marcus Van Steen compared the success of
the Fairfax show to that of Don Messer's Jubilee, and judged that "the naive
and warmhearted sincerity of Miss Fairfax shines through the slick and alien
polish that the producer has sought to impose on the show" (23 July 1960).
Singers the Van Dorn Sisters joined Fairfax regularly on her broadcasts, which
also featured guests such as Norman Brooks and Bill Butler, Ken Steele, jazz
pianist Marian McPartland, dancers Irene Apine and Jury Gotschalks and Tink
Robinson and Bernie Boyde, and singers Roger Doucet, Wally Koster, and Allan
Blye. Alan Lund choreographed the show, which Bill Davis and Don Hudson
produced during the summer season and Len Casey produced for the regular run.
Fri 9:00-9:30 p.m., 29 Jun-7 Sep 1979
Wed 7:30-8:00 p.m., 8 Oct-10 Dec 1980
Mon 7:30-8:00 p.m., 3 Aug-7 Sep 1981 (R)
Mon 7:30-8:00 p.m., 26 Apr-3 May 1982 (R)
An engaging performer with an infectious sense of humour, John Allan Cameron,
from Cape Breton Island, played traditional and contemporary music on fiddle
and twelve-string guitar and sang with an incurably nasal twang. In addition
to music by himself and his guests, the show featured comic sketches written on
the premise of Cameron's desire to be a sports hero or a Hollywood star. In
the first season, he competed with boxer Trevor Berbick, hockey players Eddie
Shack and Errol Thompson, football player Tony Gabriel, swimmer Nancy Garapick,
tennis player Don Fontana, basketball player Brian Heaney, karate champion Jim
Maloney, and track star Debbie Van Kikebelt. In the 1980 series, the sketches
cast Cameron as characters from Hollywood, such as an Errol Flynn-like
swashbuckler, Robin Hood, Charlie Chaplin, a Valentino-style sheik, and the
Phantom of the Opera. Each program also featured "news from home" with comics
Hughie and Allen. Generally, Cameron fared better musically, with concert
segments taped at Mount Saint Vincent University's Seaton Auditorium, with
guests such as Bruce Cockburn, Valdy, Mason Williams, the Good Brothers, Will
Millar of the Irish Rovers, fellow Nova Scotian Denny Doherty, blues legends
Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Chicago singer and songwriter Steve Goodman,
Roger Whittaker, Murray McLauchlan, Ian Tyson, Tom Rush, Ronnie Prophet, and
Tom Paxton. The backup musicians, called the Cape Breton Symphony, were led by
bass player Skip Beckwith, the show's musical director, and included Paul Mason
on piano, George Herbert on guitar, Don Palmer on flute and saxophone, Tim
Cohoon on drums, and Wilfred Gillis and John Donald Cameron on fiddles. Dave
MacIsaac accompanied John Allan Cameron, and the backup vocals were by Bonita
Beckwith, Jennifer Whalen, and Beth Harrington. The program also featured a
troupe of dancers called the John Allanettes. Jack O'Neil produced the
half-hour summer show in Halifax.
This fifteen minute show from Montreal featured films about nature and
wildlife, with commentary by John Kiernan.
Sun 12:00-12:15 p.m., 15 May-25 Sep 1977
Produced by Don Haig of Film Arts, Journal presented short films by young,
independent filmmakers. They included Quebec Village and North Hatley Antique
Sale, by Peggy Peacock and Jock Mlynek, For The Love Of A Horse, Lacrosse, The
Duel - Fencing, Sailaway, and Step By Step, all by Mark Irwin, Spence Bay, on a
settlement in the Northwest Territories, produced by fifteen high school
students and organized and shot by their teacher Brian Kelly, and Serpent River
Paddlers, by Tony Hall.
Mon-Fri 10:22-11:00 p.m., 11 Jan 1982-To Date
One of the most important and effective programming decisions in Canadian
television took effect in 1982 when the CBC moved the national news broadcast
to a time slot an hour earlier, ten o'clock, and introduced The Journal, a high
profile, public affairs show, to fill the remainder of the hour. By doing so,
the network revivified Canadian television news and retrieved five hours of
prime time each week for indigenous programming.
In the summer of 1979, Peter Herrndorf, the CBC's vice-president in charge of
English language television, and Mike Daignault, head of television news and
current affairs, assembled a five week think tank to consider future plans
for the network's national news broadcast. The group, which comprised
journalist Vince Carlin, director of network programming Bill Norgan, radio
producer Mark Starowicz, and former CBC producer Bruce McKay, was asked to make
recommendations on a new time slot (CBC president Albert Johnson had advised
the CRTC in 1977 that the CBC would move the news to an earlier hour to permit
a greater number of viewers to see the broadcast) and the possibilities for a
new current affairs program to complement a revamped newscast. The group
recommended the move to ten o'clock, a time slot that generally attracted the
CBC dismal ratings in competition with programming on U.S. stations, and the
creation of the current affairs show that became The Journal.
Starowicz, then thirty-three years old, had earned renown for his innovative
development of CBC radio's two headlining public affairs programs, As It
Happens and Sunday Morning under the aegis of Margaret Lyons, head of English
language radio. (Along with morning programs such as Gerussi and This Country
In The Morning, Starowicz's two programs were largely responsible for turning
the radio network from a moribund, cobweb- ridden instiution into a more vital
news, information, and entertainment organization.) Starowicz, along with
Morgan, John Hirsch, the CBC's head of television drama, and many other
high-level executives at the network, had recently devoted themselves to the
proposal for a second, smaller, national television network to be controlled by
the CBC. Daignault had twice asked Starowicz to take on the job of developing
The Journal, but Starowicz turned him down until the prospects for TV-2 seemed
dim and the opportunity for Morgan, a compatriot, to become head of current
affairs arose. (Morgan became head of news and current affairs in February
l982, when Daignault left the CBC to become editor-in-chief at Visnews, in
London.) Planning for The Journal under Starowicz'z direction, as executive
producer, started in July 1980.
Herrndorf and Daignault had originally planned to make the scheduling change
and start the new program in January 198l, but Morgan and Starowicz convinced
them that the show could not get off the ground until the autumn. The
program's studio and technical setup were designed by Bruce McKay and
custom-built for the needs of a world-class production devoted to gathering and
disseminating information. Under his advice, The Journal was devoted from the
start to the potential for electronic news-gathering, and the use of videotape
instead of motion picture film. The CBC purchased a battery of
state-of-the-art video production equipment for The Journal, including a video
processing device called the Squeezoom, which altered and moved video images
within the screen, at a reported cost of half a million dollars. The Journal's
budget was estimated between seven and ten million dollars, which was drawn
from cancelled public affairs programs, such as Newsmagazine and The Watson
Report, from budget trimming in other programs, through holding off development
of new programming on television and radio, and from sales of extra commercial
time on the U.S. shows that the CBC carried.
Current affairs and news on the CBC were generally sustaining programming, not
directly supported by advertising revenues. The daily package of news in prime
time suggested that the twenty-six CBC affiliates would be deprived of revenues
from commercial sales during a slot in prime time, as was the CBC itself.
However, the break between the national news and The Journal permitted the
insertion of commercials, and The Journal itself included a break for news
headlines to preview local newscasts after eleven, during which time local
stations could insert commercial spots. In fact, during the period of
negotiations before the show went on the air, the CBC offered to make up any
loss in revenue to the local stations incurred as a result of the time change.
The immediate success of the program allowed the CBC to brag that it had not
had to pay up.
According to a report in Maclean's, the first few months of the show had
exceeded everyone's expectations in terms of audience and costs. Where the
network had hoped to attract 900,000 viewers, The Journal was delivering l.6
million, twenty-one per cent of the available audience. Moreover, the
prduction came in under the costs projected for that period. The depths of the
investment that the CBC made in The Journal became an issue in explicitly
financial terms only a few months after the program first aired in January
l982. Erroneous inflation estimates compelled the network to reduce budget
allocations, and Peter Herrndorf had to cut 3.5 million dollars from the
English language network. The most glaringly evident result, starting July,
The Journal was forced off the air for nine weeks.
(See Mark Czarnecki, "A Brief Vacation," Maclean's [5 July 1982].)
Starowicz had attracted personnel from other operations in the CBC and from
outside the corporation. Upwards of l00 people came to work for this new
operation. Senior producer Richard Bronstein had worked with Starowicz on both
As It Happens and Sunday Morning. Others who had worked on the radio programs
and migrated to The Journal included Andy Moir, David McCormick, Marie
Natanson, Esther Enkin, Terry McKenna, and Alan Mendelsohn. Bernie Zuckerman,
who had worked at The Fifth Estate, came to The Journal to oversee the
production of its documentary reports, and Bob Culbert was appointed senior
editor.
For onscreen anchors, Starowicz hired Barbara Frum and Mary Lou Finlay. Since
l97l, on As It Happens, Frum had built a national reputation as a persistent
interviewer with both an incisive edge and a ready sense of humour. Finlay,
who joined the team after Frum had been signed, had worked for the CBC, on Four
For The Road and Take 30, and most recently was a host and reporter for CTV's
lifestyles documentary report, Live It Up. Among the regular contricutors, the
most notable was Peter Kent. A reporter rather than an announcer, Kent had
anchored the CBC national news from 1976 to 1978. He had headed the CBC's
African bureau and reported to the national news, and then moved to NBC as a
correspondent for the U.S. network. The Journal attracted him back to the CBC,
where he reported in documentaries from foreign locations. His work included
groundbreaking dispatches from Uganda, Poland, and Kampuchea. After a season,
however, Kent returned to Toronto, and he and Finlay alternated as Frum's
co-host. Although Frum and Finlay have remained mainstays of the show,
numerous other reporters have shared the desk and reported from the field, most
regularly, Bill Cameron, Keith Morrison, and Ann Medina. Announcers Peter
Mansbridge, Chris Skene, and Wendy Harada have also all fronted the program.
Tom Alderman contributed visual essays, often about aspects of sport or popular
culture. After the program was criticized for its utter disdain for the arts
in its first month, the producers stepped up coverage (for a time with regular
contributions by Russ Patrick), and usually devoted most of Friday's broadcast
(when people who would be most interested in the arts would probably not be at
home watching television) to reports on art and culture.
The staples of The Journal--as they are for virtually all public affairs
television--have been the documentary report and the interview or discussion.
Documentaries were usually tied together with voiceover commentary and standup
appearances by a correspondent. The program's producers had hoped from the
start that the technology would make people immediately accessible for
interviews virtually anyplace in the world. Interviews and dicussions
occasionally took place in the space-age studio, surrounded by monitors and
electronic controls. More often, however, Frum or Finlay were linked by
satellite or through a "double-ender" with interview subjects. They faced a
large, blank screen on which the image of the subject was electronically
matted, so that they appeared to be bridging distances through a direct,
television connection. (Where satellite transmission was possible, they could
produce these interviews immediately. For a "double-ender" the CBC would tape
Frum or Finlay in the studio, while a remote camera crew shot the subject on
location as the interview was conducted aurally over the telephone lines. The
remote tape would then be shipped or transmitted via satellite at the nearest
possible location, and the signals mixed and edited for broadcast. This was an
adaptation of a technique CBS had used for such programs as Face To Face, and
which Starowicz had used on radio for Sunday Morning. More recently, ABC had
given the technique prominence in its coverage of the 1979 hostage crisis in
Iran, which had given rise to ABC News Nightline in 1980.)
As a prominent addition to the CBC schedule, and as a major development in news
coverage in Canada, The Journal has, understandably, attracted a volume of
anticipatory, critical, and appreciative press of its own. See Liam Lacey,
"The Stakes Are High in Journal Gamble," Globe and Mail (3l December 198l); Bob
Blackburn, Roy Shields, "Getting Journal Jitters," Toronto Star/Starweek, 9-l6
January 1982; Mark Czarnecki, "The CBC's Daring New Gamble," Maclean's (l8
January 1982); Stephen Dale, "Finlay's Journal," Globe and Mail (l2 June 1982);
Martin Knelman, "Their Finest Hour," Saturday Night (March 1983).
Journey Into Melody, a Sunday evening half-hour of music, was the first series
broadcast live over the network from the CBC Halifax studios. It ran for five
weeks in June 1958, and featured Bernard Johnson as a travel agent who dreamed
of exotic places in the world that he would like to go. The locations and
times that he imagined--such as a Cape Breton village a hundred years ago, or
Vienna at the turn of the century--motivated the show's selection of songs.
The principal performers were the Armdale Chorus, already well known to
Canadians for their ten years of radio broadcasts on the CBC's Trans-Canada
network and on the International Service. The music was supported by the
Gordon MacPherson Orchestra and dance numbers choreographed by Gunter Budita.
A half-hour courtroom drama, Judge starred Tony Van Bridge as Judge -----
Humphreys, with Barbara Gordon and Gerant Wyn Davies. The program was created
by executive producer Herb Roland.
Mon 7:30-8:00 p.m., 6 Aug-20 Aug 1973
Fri 7;30-8:00 p.m., 29 Jul-16 Sep 1977
The brother and sister singing team of Judy Ginn and Jim Walchuk starred in
this series of three programs with an accent on Canadian/Ukrainian music and
comedy. It was Vancouver's contribution to a longer summer series of variety
shows from four cities. Also featured in the show were a trio of Joani Taylor,
Pat Hervey, and Michael Vincent, and a band led by the show's musical director,
Bobby Hales. Bill White produced the program. Judy and Jim returned to the
network in a seven week series, produced by Michael Watt, again in Vancouver,
four summers later.
The show opened the star's name in florid script superimposed over a shot of a
single rose laid across a page of sheet music. Over the theme, "Love and
Marriage," announcer Gil Christie invited viewers, "Now let's meet, and greet,
your pet. . .Ju-u-liette." For nearly ten years, Juliette was a fixture of
Saturday night television and became a true Canadian television star.
Born Juliette Augustina Sysak (and later using her married name, Cavazzi),
Juliette began to use just her first name from the age of thirteen, when she
sang with the Dal Richards band at the Hotel Vancouver in the early 1940s. She
had performed on the Alan Young radio show, from Toronto, for a year, but spent
most of ten years based in Vancouver. She and her husband and personal
manager, musician Tony Cavazzi, moved to Toronto in 1954, where Juliette made
guest appearances on Holiday Ranch and was hired as a featured vocalist on The
Billy O'Connor Show (q.v.), where she steadily built a greater following than
O'Connor's. After two years, which ended in friction between the two stars,
Juliette broke off from the O'Connor show, and inherited the show's Saturday
time slot, between the national news and late-night wrestling.
As Barbara Moon indicated in an early assessment of Juliette's television
career, her show appeared at the same time U.S. networks also built numerous
programs around "girl singers," such as Patrice Nunsel, Patti Page, Gisele
Mackenzie, Rosemary Clooney, and Dinah Shore, but, except for Shore, most of
them failed in comparison to the loyal following Juliette possessed in Canada.
In fact, Juliette's ratings were bettered only by the programs that led into
hers, the hockey broadcast and the Saturday national news. ("Why Should
Juliette Knock Them Dead?" Maclean's [26 April 1958])
Like Holiday Ranch, Don Messer's Jubilee, and Country Hoedown, Juliette's show
employed a strict and extremely modest programming format. The basic set
represented the star's living room, and the repetition from week to week of a
pattern that conveyed easy familiarity to her audience. She welcomed viewers,
"Hi there, everybody," she addressed the male musicians who shared the show
with her as "Fellas," and ended each show with a reassuring, "Good night, Mom."
Although a showy platinum blonde, she dressed with more show than glamour, in
what was once called "party dress" style. (Over time, and with higher budgets,
she gained more glitz.) She expressed the friendly and gregarious presence of
a hostess instead of the sultry persona of a chanteuse, more in line with her
background as a dance band vocalist rather than a torch singer. She was a an
appealing image, but as Moon related, she was non-threatening enough that
Canadian wives approved and identified with her. "One Ottawa woman," Moon
reported, "whose husband was in Egypt with the U.N. emergency force confided by
way of explanation that he had requested a pin-up for his tent; she was, it
seems, unable to think of a pin-up more appropriate than Juliette." Viewers
felt they knew the show's star, and knew what the program would deliver. The
song selection tended towards innocuous standards and show tunes from the
earlier part of the century, and for the most part stayed away from the
contemporary hit parade and more sophisticated examples of popular music. (For
accounts of the conservatism in Juliette's approach to choosing music, see Alex
Barris, The Pierce-Arrow Showroom Is Leaking. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1969.)
The popularity and lasting awareness of the Juliette show, as well as the
identification of the show with the late 1950s and early 1960s in Canada led
to its reference in Empire, Inc. (q.v.). When the elderly Sir James Munroe
withdraws and secludes himself in his Westmount mansion, he is discovered in
his bedroom, where he eats potato chips and watches Juliette on the television.
Just to be holed up watching television and to be watching such an inoffensive
and middlebrow show as Juliette's contrasted sharply with Munroe's past, filled
with personal and business manouvering.
As the show developed, its budget increased (in the 1957 season, programs were
costing only $6000 each) and the production became more elaborate, although it
was always a low-cost enterprise for the CBC, and exhibited resulting
restraint. In its earlier years, the series featured trumpet player and
novelty singer Bobby Gimby and a male vocalist, such as George Murray
(l956-57), Roy Roberts (l957-58), or Ken Steele (l958-59), who were billed as
Juliette's "escorts." Subsequently, the program also included performances by
two regular vocal groups: the Four Romeos (Rick Stainsby, Alex Ticknovich,
Vern Kennedy, and John Garden), from 1959 to 1965, and the Four Mice (Diane
Gibson, Sylvia Wilson, Angela Antonelli, and Carol Hill), form 1960 to 1964.
Gino Silvi acted as the show's choral arranger. In the final season, she was
joined by the Art Hallman Singers. The show's musical directors were Bill
Isbister, until 1965, and Lucio Agostini for the 1965-66 season. The program
also featured appearances from guest singers from Canada and the U.S.A.,
including Earl Wrightson, Elanor Collins, Marg Osborne, Peggy Neville, and Jack
Jones. In addition to his introductions, Gil Christie provided the commerical
spots for the show's sponsor, Player's cigarettes.
The show was written by Saul Ilson (l956-59), Alex Barris (l959-63), Rich
Eustis (l963-65), and Allan Blye and Peter Mann (l965-66), and produced by Syd
Wayne (l956-58), Peter Macfarlane (l958-59), Bob Jarvis (l959-64), Stan
Jacobson (l964-65), and Mark Warren, with Jacobson as executive producer
(l965-66). In the final season, the program's format changed radically. More
emphasis was put on the guests, with a feature called "This Week," in which
young and established performers made brief appearances and plugged their
current concert or nightclub dates. By that time, however, the television
audience had changed, the show's appeal had diminished and its ratings were
dropping.
Mon-Fri 2:00-2:30 p.m., 17 sep 1973-6 May 1974
Mon-Fri 2:00-2:30 p.m., 6 May-6 Sep 1974 (R)
Mon-Fri 3:00-3:30 p.m., 9 Sep 1974-12 Sep 1975
Juliette, whose CBC variety show had been cancelled in 1966, had continued to
make regular appearances on the network in specials. She returned in this
daily, half-hour talk show for the 1974 season. From the image of a late night
band singer, Juliette became an earth mother in sequins. Many of the shows,
directed at the presumed daytime viewer, included interviews about draperies,
kitchen appliances and tools, and other household items. Tuesdays were devoted
to interior decorating and Thursdays to new talent. Juliette sailed through a
show that was ill-conceived and poorly produced like a star. A Maclean's
review reported: "Juliette is overwhelming. Her evening gowns sparkle with
sequins and jewels while her friends, dressed in plain clothes, fade into
insignificance. . . . She is not really interested in what her guests have to
say; she brushes them aside to sing a song or turns the conversation quickly to
herself." Larry Solway, Bill Lawrence, and Doug Lennox took turns as her
"sidekick." The show was produced by Don Brown.
Sun 2:00-3:00 p.m., 4 Dec 1955-10 Jun 1956
Sun
A sixty minute digest of information and entertainment for young viewers,
Junior Magazine presented a selection of short film features and interviews
each week. Host John Clark introduced ten minute films on a variety of
subjects, but particularly on travel and on family life in foreign lands. For
the initial part of its run, Junior Magazine drew its material from film shot
by U.S. and U.K. agencies, but later produced its own featurettes. David Clee
selected the films and wrote the linking commentary.
Over time, the format became more elaborate, and used a series of
correspondents in different regions. Clark shared regular time onscreen with
sports commentator Doug Maxwell, mimic Frank Rodwell, naturalist Hank Hedges,
and, frequently, fifteen year old dancer Lorraine Green, starting in the 1958
season. The program also included weekly instalments of such Walt Disney
productions as Treasure Island and Long John Silver. Further innovations the
next year included the development of a panel game and a spot for new talent,
called "This Is Young Canada."
With Junior Magazine, the CBC tried to provide programming that treated
children as intelligent and curious beings, who did not benefit from
condescension. Subject matter ranged from history to practical explanations of
the everyday to ancient legend and myth. Music appreciation sometimes received
special treatment, with commentary by Leslie Bell, and, in late 1960 and early
l96l, with a six part series of one hour programs, hosted by Louis Applebaum,
that featured young musicians performing with symphony orchestras.
Garrick Hagan succeeded Clark as the show's host for the 1959-60 season, and
Ross Snetsinger followed him, from 1960 to 1962. Patrick Watson also
contricuted to the program. The producers of Junior Magazine were Bruce
Attridge (l956-59), John Kennedy (l959-60), and Paddy Sampson (l960-62), with
Frances Chapman (l96l-62).
Mon-Fri 4:30-5:30 p.m., 17 Oct 1960-3 Jul 1961
A sixty minute, weekday afternoon package for children, hosted by Murray
Westgate, Junior Roundup gathered together programs and segments from across
the country for children of different ages. The first fifteen minutes, for
children of early school age, was called Bantam Roundup, and presented The
Friendly Giant (q.v.) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Maggie Muggins
(q.v.) on Tuesdays, and Just Mary (q.v.), with Mary Grannan, on Thursdays. The
remaining forty-five minutes, for children ages nine to fourteen, included
drama, science fiction, travel spots, interviews, and games.
Mondays featured regular guests Dave Broadfoot and Jean Templeton who played
games with a studio audience of children, as well as a telephone quiz, with
book prizes for a participant somewhere in Canada. Tuesdays included This
Living World (q.v.), a nature program from Montreal, with Steve Bloomer, and
regular appearances by John Lunn of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto or CBC
weatherman Percy Saltzman, who would talk about recent news in space travel.
On Wednesdays, from Winnipeg, Stu Phillips performed country and folk music,
called Sing Ring Round (q.v.), and a Halifax segment, Sea Songs And Stories
(q.v.), included legends of the East Coast natives. Thursdays, after Just
Mary, the program presented dramatic films, ballet on film, or concert
performances. Fridays included the Vancouver drama, Tidewater Tramp (q.v.),
and news for children in a segment called "Your World This Week."
Starting in June, Westgate appeared only on Mondays and Wednesdays as the
program altered its schedule for the summer season. He, Broadfoot, and
Templeton visited eight summer camps for Monday videotaped features. On
Wednesdays, Westgate hosted a potpourri show, with news, appearances by guests
who had been regulars during the winter and spring, and viewer mail. Repeats
of The Friendly Giant appeared on Mondays and Wednesdays and of Maggie Muggins
on Tuesdays. Junior Roundup included a number of new features, including
Caravan (q.v.), the travelling circus from Quebec, which had aired on the
network the year before. The CBC also produced a number of fifteen minute
segments of The Children's Corner (which ran in the U.S.A. on NBC in 1955-56),
with Fred Rogers, later known as Mister Rogers, his puppets King Friday the
Thirteenth and Daniel S. Tiger, and their guests.
Stanley Cox was the supervising producer of Junior Roundup, and Doug Davidson
the producer. Francis Chapman produced The Children's Corner, and Maurice
Dubois and Pierre Desjardins produced Caravan in Montreal. Bill Davidson
produced the Monday program during the summer, while Doug Davidson produced on
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Writers inlcuded Michael Spivak and Cliff
Braggins.
Mon 5:30-5:45 p.m., 11 Oct 1954
Wed 4:45-5:00 p.m., 20 Oct-17 Nov 1954
Mon 4:15-4:30 p.m., 22 Nov 1954-27 Jun 1955
Junior Science was a fifteen minute film series.
Produced by Joanne Hughes and Peggy Nairn, Junior Sports Club featured Don
Sims, Dave Price, and later Gil Christie in interviews with sports figures for
young people.
Fri 8:00-8:30 p.m., 8 Jun-30 Jun 1956
Frank Heron, also the host of Small Fry Frolics (q.v.), hosted this summer
talent show for children ages four to fifteen, produced in Montreal.
Wed 5:00-5:30 p.m., 1 May-26 Jun 1957
Ron Kelly produced Junior Television Club, a program with a magazine format, in
Vancouver, and it replaced Hidden Pages on the network. The show, for children
ages nine to thirteen, had five hosts, all children themselves, and each had a
different area of concentration. Graham Phillips interviewed other children
about their hobbies; Gregory Helem had a segment on pet care; Averil Campbell
moderated discussions on subjects of responsibility, such as pocket money and
the use of lipstick, and was also the host for guest performers; Bobby Olson
took care of interviews about sports and outdoor activities; and Margaret Stott
introduced segments on music.
thu 9:30-10:00 p.m., 4 Jul-18 Jul 1974
A three week series of half-hour documentaries produced by Lee Livingstone in
Edmonton, this program followed a local rock band through concert performances,
recording sessions, and offstage life. The three members of Jury were guitar
player Maurice Marshall, bass player Wes Henderson, and drummer Moe Price.
Jury, the show, was part of a summer series of programs from five cities,
called 5 X 3.
Wed 4:00-4:30 p.m., 4 Feb-25 Mar 1981
Mon 4:00-4:30 p.m., 19 Oct-28 Dec 1981
Introduced on WOW (q.v.), this science show for ages eight to twelve starred
David Suzuki. His co-hosts were Lustra (February-March) and Ami
(October-December), robots played by Joan Stuart and Luba Goy, respectively.
Suzuki, a geneticist, was the best known popularizer of matters scientific in
the Canadian mass media, and on Just Ask, Inc. he explored such problems as why
people snore, why stars twinkle, why some cats are left-pawed, and other
subjects in the areas of anatomy, nature, technology, and astronomy. Viewers
were invited to write in with questions of their own, as the program tried to
encourage children's curiosity. The eight part series was produced by Denise
Duncan, with music by Bill Ivenuik and animation by Neil McInnes.
Mon 4:00-5:00 p.m., 18 Oct 1982-28 Mar 1983
Just Down The Street presented a selection of narrative films about children,
produced independently with the CBC's participation. The first, which ran in
four parts, was The World According To Nicholas, produced and directed by Bruce
Pittman (later director of the Oscar-winning short film, Boys And Girls),
starring Danny Higham, Michael Fletcher, Don Francks, Barbara Hamilton, Jane
Mallet, Barry Morse, Kate Parr, and Fiona Reid. Subsequenty the series aired
the Halifax production Jenny Koo Koo; Lisa Makes The Headllines; Sophie Minds
The Store; Noel Buys A Suit; Jimmy And Luke; Irene Moves In; and A Time To Be
Brave.
Tue 5:00-5:30 p.m., 16 Dec 1975-30 Mar 1976
Wed 4:30-5:00 p.m., 15 Sep-18 Dec 1976
A game show for grade seven students, Just For Fun combined a quiz on general
knowledge with competitions that involved stunts, such as balancing brooms,
twirling hula hoops, blowing bubble gum, or bobbing for apples. The program
was written by Tony Zwig and Serena Stone and produced and directed by Hedley
Read. The hosts were Margaret Pacsu (l975-76) and Valerie Elia and Larry Palef
(l976).
Thu 4:30-4:45 p.m., 7 Apr-30 Jun 1960
Thu 4:30-4:45 p.m., 20 Oct-29 Dec 1960
The creator of Maggie Muggins, Mary Grannan had also written another series of
stories for children (See Just Mary Blue Stories [Toronto: Thomas Allen,
l95l]; Just Mary Stories [Toronto: Gage, n.d.]; and More Just Mary Stories
[Toronto: Thomas Allen, 198l]). For this television series, she read her own
stories offscreen and human performers and puppets acted them out in this
fifteen minute program. The stories included The Chinese Bracelet, The
Princely Pig, Golden Shoes, The Little Good Arrow, Penny Pink, and Dolly
Petticoats. Many familiar CBC faces appeared in the stories: Sandy Webster,
Merle Salsberg, Syme Jago, Sid Brown, Gillie Fenwick, Winnifred Dennis, Toby
Tarnow, Joe Austin, Barbara Hamilton, and Alex Barringer. Unseen actors who
provided the voices for John and Linda Keogh's puppets included Douglas Rain,
Jack Mather, Roberta Maxwell, Doug Master, Winnifred Dennis, Ruth Springford,
and Pauline Rennie.
The program was produced by Paddy Sampson in Toronto. Starting October 1960,
Just Mary formed part of the regular Thursday fare in the weekday package for
children, Junior Roundup (q.v.).
Return to CBC Series Index
JUST MARY
The Jack Kane Show
