CBC Television Series, 1952-1982
by Blaine Allan
Return to
CBC Series Index
W.O.W.
Sat 12:00-12:30 p.m., 15 Sep 1979-30 Aug 1980
Sat 12:00-12:30 p.m., 6 Sep-18 Oct 1980
W.O.W. stood for "Wonderful One-of-a-Kind Weekend." This was a children's
series, produced by Nada Harcourt, with writer Pat Patterson. The series
consisted of special programs, shot in different locations across the country,
and starring such personalities as the singing team of Sharon, Lois, and Bram,
musician Bill Usher, and science broadcaster David Suzuki.
Tue 4:30-4:45 p.m., 23 Nov 1954
Wed 5:15-5:30 p.m., 5 Jul-21 Sep 1955
In this fifteen minute program for young viewers, Kirk Whipper from the School
of Physical and Health Education at the University of Toronto took groups of
children on tours of workplaces, such as farms, dockyards, hydroelectric power
plants, and other industries.
Sat 4:00-5:00 p.m., 7 Oct-30 Dec 1967
Sat 4:00-5:00 p.m., 5 Oct-28 Dec 1968
Phil Reimer was the host and Don Wittman and Guy Simonis the commentator for
these water polo tournaments, held at the Pan Am Pool in Winnipeg. The
official title of the series was CBC Sports Presents: Championship Water Polo.
The contestants were teams from Vancouver, Montral, Edmonton, Hamilton,
Toronto, and the host city. Like other CBC television tournaments, the matches
were edited to fit a time slot, and usually joined in progress.
Thu 10:00-10:30 p.m., 9 Oct 1975-8 Apr 1976
Thu 9:00-9:30 p.m., 28 Oct 1976-
Sat 6:30-7:00 p.m., 9 Apr-14 May 1977
Wed 10:30-11:00 p.m., 5 Oct 1977-24 May 1978
Wed 10:30-11:00 p.m., 18 Oct 1978-28 May 1979
Mon 10:30-11:00 p.m., 17 Sep 1979-19 May 1980
Mon 10:30-11:00 p.m., 29 Sep 1980-25 May 1981
The CBC has rarely identified a personality with a public affairs or news show
by attaching his or her name to the program's title. Patrick Watson had fought
the Seven Days battle to cross over from the producer's desk to the on-camera
host's desk, and was a star of television public affairs for a decade when The
Watson Report succeeded Some Honourable Members and identified him as the
inquiring voice. Produced, like its predecessor, by Cameron Graham in Ottawa,
The Watson Report expanded its scope beyond the Houses of Parliament into
business, the civil service, and other public concerns, though it kept a close
eye on government, and included a series of interviews with the three major
party leaders, Ed Broadbent, Pierre Trudeau, and Joe Clark, during the brief
period that Clark's Progressive Conservatives formed the government. Starting
principally as an interview show, in succeeding years the show attracted
increased research, travel, and production budgets to finance more film
reports.
Sun 10:00-11:00 p.m., 24 Sep 1967-23 Jun 1968
Sun 10:00-11:00 p.m., 29 Sep 1968-29 Jun 1969
Executive producer Ross McLean returned to network public affairs with The Way
It Is, the successor to Close-Up, This Hour Has Seven Days, and Sunday in the
late Sunday evening public affairs slot. McLean had been producing the Toronto
dinner hour public affairs show, TBA, the descendant of his own Tabloid and
70l, and continued to do so, renaming it The Day It Is. The two shows combined
their staffs as an information programming unit of fifty to sixty people. The
producers were Perry Rosemond, Peter Herrndorf (who as head of the English
television service would later spearhead the creation of The Journal), and
Patrick Gossage, and the story editors Tim Kotcheff, Hans Pohl, Cameron Smith,
Starr Cot, Barbara Amiel, and Susan Murgatroyd. Later Joan Fiore and Barrie
McLean joined the production staff. The show had a unit of film directors, who
included George Bloomfield, Terence Macartney-Filgate (one of the pioneers of
direct cinema technique in Canada), Henry Lewes, and Don Shebib, with
freelancers Cliff Solway, Paul Rockett, Kerry Feltham, Yves Delarue, and, based
in New York, Beryl Fox. The studio directors were Ray McConnell, Jack Sampson,
and Garth Goddard. One of the show's script assistants, recruited by McLean,
was Jan Tennant, who later joined the network's announce staff, read the
national news, and left the network to anchor Global TV's nightly newscast (See
John Zichmanis, "The Way It Is, The Way it is," Maclean's [December
l968]). Robert Hackborn designed the show's set, and McLean pointed out that
it was suitable for both black-and-white reception and colour, which was just
being introduced, and suggested the similarity of its three rear-projection
screens to the multi-screen film installations at Expo '67.
The host of the show was John Saywell, historian and dean of arts and sciences
at York University. He was supported by a battery of interviewers and
reporters, including Warren Davis, Percy Saltzman, Ken Lefolii (named the
show's executive editor), Peter Desbarats, Patrick Watson, Moses Znaimer, and
the show featured contributions by producers including John Livingston, from
the staff of The Nature Of Things, and Douglas Leiterman, who after the Seven
Days debacle moved to New York. For the second season, Patrick Watson joined
the staff as Saywell's co-host.
Although McLean had been known for his vibrant mixtures of entertainment and
information programming, The Way It Is represented a retreat into safety after
the inflammatory Seven Days period under Watson and Leiterman and the
sixties-influenced and flamboyant year of Sunday, produced by Daryl Duke. In
addition, the program faced the growing audience for W5, the magazine show that
competed directly for the private network, CTV. The Way It Is tried to balance
its coverage with some entertainment and music, but it was best known for its
earnest, respectable, and solid research and reporting.
In addition to short reports in the magazine format show, The Way It Is
presented a number of longer documentaries, in the fashion of Document. Among
them were two of Don Shebib's finer non-fiction films: San Francisco Summer
l967, his examination of the "summer of love," and Good Times, Bad Times, his
elegy for soldiers and the comradeship and memories that men find in the
experience of war. Leiterman produced Fasten Your Seatbelts: A Report On
Airline Safety for the show, in collaboration with the public television
service in the U.S.A., and Fox made similar arrangements to produce the last of
her three documentaries on Vietnam, Last Reflections On A War. Perhaps the
most notable film feature on The Way It Is, though, was a film that had been
completed years before the show had been conceived. In spring 1969, on the
first anniversary of his retirement as Prime Minister, the show presented the
television premiere of Mr. Pearson, the direct cinema profile of Lester
Pearson, shot by D.A. Pennebaker and directed by Richard Ballentine five years
before. The network had declined to air the film, ostensibly because it did
not meet the CBC's technical standards. For the Way It Is showing, Ballentine
remixed the sound, added commentary, and cut two minutes to permit
introductions and "to remove brief portions where the picture was not
distinct." (CBC Times [l9-25 April 1969])
A casualty of Knowlton Nash's decision, as new head of news and public affairs,
to revamp the network's information programming schedule, The Way It Is was one
of the first programs to be dumped.
Sun 1:15-1:30 p.m., 7 Jun 1970-19 Sep 1971
Sun 12:45-1:00 p.m., 26 Sep 1971-
Mon 4:30-5:00 p.m., 1 Apr-2 Sep 1974
Sun 12:45-1:00 p.m., 8 Sep 1974-28 Sep 1975
Sun 12:45-1:00 p.m., 5 Oct 1975-31 Mar 1976
Sun 12:15-12:30 p.m., 4 Apr-
Sun 12:15-12:30 p.m., 19 Sep 1976-25 Sep 1977
Originally a fifteen minute gardening show with Ray Halward, A Way Out later
included information on crafts, do-it-yourself repairs and improvements, and
outdoor activities. Its hosts were George Finstad (l970-74), and subsequently,
on an alternating basis, Mary Chapman and Laurie Jennings. The producers were
Doug Lower (l970-7l), Neil Andrews (l97l-74), and Robert Hutt (l974- 76).
Compared to contemporary standup and sketch comics in the U.S., their soft
satires were notably literate and intelligent. They were influenced by the
development of professional classical theatre at Stratford (or perhaps more
properly, responded to it) in sketches that have become their own classics.
"Kiss the Blood Off My Toga" was their hard-boiled reading of Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar, best remembered for Sylvia Lennick's Calpurnia and her
warning to her husband, in a bleating Brooklynese, "I told him, I said,
'Julie, don't go!'" The flip-side was their baseball game, played in
perfect--or at least comically imperfect--Shakespearean dialogue. As these
sketches demonstrate, much of their material uses anachronism or the
application of one formula on another. Another of their 1950s inventions, for
example, took the well-known television phenomenon of the quiz show and applied
the awareness of Russia that the cold war brought and produced a sketch about a
confiscated recording of the famous Russian television show, The 64,000 Ruble
Question. (See Walter Harris, "TV Triumph on the Bigtime," Saturday
Night [24 May 1958]; Barbara Moon, "How Wayne and Shuster Took New York,"
Maclean's [l9 July 1958].)
Neither Wayne nor Shuster exclusively played the straight man or the comic in
their team, though often Shuster got the job of interviewing or reporting on
the activities of one of Wayne's comic personae. Just about every comic team
has a mad scientist to defuse the fears of a nuclear age, and Johnny Wayne's
was Professor Waynegartner, played with a broad, pseudo German accent, an
Albert Einstein-style white fright wig, and eyes that roll like Groucho Marx's.
Professor Waynegartner was not always a physicist or natural scientist; he was
whatever type of academic, scientist, artist, or specialist Wayne and Shuster
wanted him to be. Other recurring situations have included the adventures of
the Oriental detective Johnny Chan and the tales of the French Revolution and
The Brown Pumpernickel (with Wayne as the Pumpernickel, a.k.a. Sir Percy Fynke,
and Shuster as his nemesis, Franois Maldette).
They 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 godawful corn and mugging ever since, 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 Shuster Comedy Special
(l968-l978), The Wayne And Shuster Comedy Hour (l978-l98l), Super Comedy With
Wayne And Shuster (l98l, when just about all variety programming on CBC TV was
"Super-this" and "Super-that"). For several years, their specials were
presented as a Show Of The Week.
In over thirty years of television, obviously, a parade of supporting players
and guests have appeared with Wayne and Shuster, though they have maintained a
remarkably consistent repertory company of character actors that has included
Sylvia Lennick, Ben Lennick, Paul Kligman, Eric Christmas, Joe Austin, Larry
Mann, Pegi Loder, Don Cullen, Jack Duffy, Paul Soles, and Marilyn Stuart, with
a dance company led and directed by Don Gillies. For many years, Samuel
Hersenhoren conducted the orchestra from arrangements by Johnny Dobson. The
announcer for the show was the durable Bernard Cowan. Their producers have
been Drew Crossan (l954-58), Don Hudson (l958-63), Bill Davis (l963-65), Stan
Jacobson (l965-67), and Norman Campbell, Barry Cranston, and Wayne and Shuster
themselves, with, since 1968, Len Starmer their executive producer.
In 196l, they starred in a summer replacement for The Jack Benny Show on
CBS-TV, which was also picked up by the CBC; Holiday Lodge was a situation
comedy in which they played recreation directors at a lodge in California. A
few years later, they also starred in a series of documentary tributes to
famous movie comedians and, later, movie genres. The show, titled Wayne And
Shuster Take An Affectionate Look At..., was produced by MCA for CBS, in
cooperation with the CBC, and was directed by Norman Campbell. Their subjects
included W.C. Fields, Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, the Marx Brothers, Bob
Hope and Bing Crosby, George Burns and Gracie Allen, and, subsequently, monster
movies, westerns, and Mae West.
Photo (courtesy of CBC) shows Ben Lennick, Johnny Wayne,
Frank Shuster.
Mon-Fri 4:00-4:30 p.m., 30 Sep-30 Dec 1968
Mon-Fri 2:00-2:30 p.m., 6 Jan-31 Mar 1969
This talk show responded to the women's movement with British-born Pamela
Mason in the interviewer's chair. She confronted male guests from a wide range
of fields, not necessarily directly related to issues of sexual politics. The
opening show, for example, concerned astronomy and astrology, with the director
of Toronto's McLaughlin Planetarium and an astrologer. The only female guest
during the first season was Secretary of State Judy LaMarsh. Mason's
occasional co-host was radio broadcaster (and future Liberal Cabinet minister
himself) Jim Fleming. The thirteen week series was directed by David Ruskin
and produced in New York and Toronto by Steven Krantz for his U.S. firm, Krantz
Films, in cooperation with the CBC, and was syndicated to the States.
For the second season, Canadians assumed control, and the basic format of the
show changed. Lorraine Thomson took over the host's job, and interviewed both
men and women. The executive producer was Don Brown, with producers Sig Gerber
and Bernard Cowan, and associate producer Beth Slaney.
Tue 5:15-5:30 p.m., 20 Oct-27 Oct 1953
This fifteen minute program, on which meteorologist Percy Saltzman explained
weather for young viewers, was renamed How About That (q.v.).
Sun 3:30-4:00 p.m., 10 Oct 1959-3 Jan 1960
Sun 3:30-4:00 p.m., 3 Apr-26 Jun 1960
Fri 5:30-6:00 p.m., 14 May-26 Aug 1961
Fri 5:30-6:00 p.m., 19 Apr-28 Sep 1963
The host and narrator of Web Of Life, a nature series produced on film by Tom
Connachie at CBC Vancouver, was Ian McTaggart Cowan, professor of zoology at
U.B.C. The series started as a twenty- six week examination of different forms
of animal life, and added more programs in subsequent years. It used footage
shot locally in British Columbia, and film from Uganda, the southern U.S., the
Caribbean, the Arctic, and in the Gulf of Mexico region, and concerned living
beings as close as the viewer's backyard and issues as foreign as animal
husbandry in East Africa. The footage was shot by Robert Reid and edited by
John Fuller. A well respected program, in 1963, one of the shows in the series
won an award for educational television films at an international television
festival.
Wed Times Vary, 7 Oct-23 Dec 1981
Wed 9:00-10:00 p.m., 23 Sep 1970-1 Sep 1971
Wed 10:00-11:00 p.m., 6 Oct-22 Dec 1971
Wed 8:30-11:00 p.m., 29 Dec 1971-29 Mar 1972
A series of special music, documentary, and drama broadcasts, the Wednesday
night specials varied from popular to classical to public affairs. The 1970-7l
season included Ballet High, a production featuring the music of Lighthouse;
Glenn Gould in a program of Beethoven; Maureen Forrester as the witch in a
production of Hansel And Gretel; and the revue, Oh Coward, with Tom Kneebone
and the songs of Noel Coward. The 197l-72 season included Norman Campbell's
production of Puccini's La Rondine; The Sound Of August, on the music of the
National Youth Orchestra, produced by Glenn Sarty; and several productions by
Mario Prizek: An English Concert; Two In Concert; and The Toronto Symphony: A
Golden Gala. The time slot was also used for the public affairs series, The
Tenth Decade (q.v.) and the drama Talking To A Stranger (q.v.).
See CBC Weekend.
Sat 11:10-11:15 p.m., 16 Jan-5 Nov 1960
This network sports report was read by Fred Sgambati on Saturdays and Steve
Douglas on Sundays.
Sun 11:09-11:14 p.m., 2 Jan-26 Jun 1966
This was a weekend news report, with Norman DePoe.
See Barris And Company.
Wed 10:00-10:30 p.m., 19 Dec 1973-17 Apr 1974
Sun 1:00-1:30 p.m., 23 Jun 1974-
Like Adieu Alouette and Pacificanada (both q.v.), this series of thirteen,
half-hour films by the National Film Board was intended to provide a view on a
particular region of the country, in this case the three prairie provinces.
John N. Smith and Cynthia Scott produced the series, and each directed one of
the films. Others were by Donald Brittain, Tom Radford, Michael McKennirey,
Bill Davies, Barbara Greene, Les Rose, and Ian McLaren. The series included
Catskinner Keen, Brittain's portrait of millionaire Bob Keen; Cavendish
Country, also by Brittain, on country singer and songwriter Cal Cavendish;
Every Saturday Night, by Radford, on the Badlanders, a hoedown band that
started during the Depression; McKennirey's film, I Dont Have To Work That Big,
on the work of sculptor Joe Fafard; Davies' film, The Jews Of Winnipeg; The New
Boys, by Smith, on St. John Cathedral Boys' School, an outdoor school at
Selkirk, Manitoba; Ruth And Harriet: Two Women Of The Peace, about the lives
of two family women who live in homesteading areas of northern Alberta; Scott's
film on Churchill, Some Natives Of Churchill; Starblanket, Brittain's portrait
of the twenty-six year old chief of the Starblanket reserve; This Riel
Business, by McLaren, about the production of a play on the Riel Rebellion;
Van's Camp, by Rose and Brittain, on a fresh water fishing camp in Lac La
Ronge, Saskatchewan; and We're Here To Stay, McLaren's film on the Agri-Pool
cooperative farmers of Lestock, Saskatchewan.
Fri 9:00-10:00 p.m., 2 Sep-16 Sep 1977
A series of concerts, one produced by Marvin Terhock in Manitoba, another by
Ray McConnell in Saskatchewan, and a third originating in Alberta, combined
pop, country, and folk musics. The programs were titled Ballet In The Park,
Saskatchewan Summer, and Alberta Patchwork.
Mon-Fri 3:00-4:00 p.m., 2 Jul-13 Jul 1979
For this summer series, produced at CBC Calgary, Toronto host Bob McLean
travelled to Banff, Jasper, and to the Calgary Stampede to talk to local
guests. The producer of the series was Ray Fitzwalter.
Tue 10:20-10:30 a.m., 12 Mar-2 Apr 1974
Mon 2:00-2:30 p.m., 4 Jan-6 Sep 1971
Fri 2:00-2:30 p.m., 2 Jul-10 Sep 1971 (R)
Wed 7:30-8:00 p.m., 5 Jul-13 Sep 1972
Mon 10:30-11:00 p.m., 28 May-10 Sep 1973
Thu/Fri 2:00-2:30 p.m., 3 Apr-18 Apr 1975
Mon-Fri 2:00-2:30 p.m., 21 Apr-25 Apr 1975
Mon/Wed 1:30-2:00 p.m., 2 Jun-18 Jun 1975 (R)
Mon-Fri 10:00-10:30 a.m., 30 May-2 Aug 1977 (R)
Warren Davis was the host for this educational quiz and conversation program,
based on an 1950s CBC show, Who Knows. Panelists tried to identify mysterious
objects and artefacts from the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum, the
Ontario Science Centre, and from other galleries, then discussed their
significance. The series was produced by Susan Murgatroyd.
Thu 5:00-5:30 p.m., 14 Sep 1972-31 Mar 1973
Thu 5:00-5:30 p.m., 13 Sep 1973-30 May 1974
Fri 10:00-10:30 a.m., 2 Nov-7 Dec 1973
Thu 5:00-5:30 p.m., 26 Sep 1974-29 May 1975
Fri 10:00-10:30 a.m., 1 Nov 1974-30 Apr 1975 (R)
Thu 5:00-5:30 p.m., 11 Sep 1975-
Thu 4:30-5:00 p.m., 8 Apr-27 May 1976
Fri 10:00-10:30 a.m., 8 Apr-27 May 1976 (R)
Thu 5:00-5:30 p.m., 7 Oct 1976-
Fri 10:00-10:30 a.m., 7 Oct 1976-
Thu 4:30-5:00 p.m., 7 Apr-26 May 1977
Fri 10:00-10:30 a.m., 7 Apr-26 May 1977 (R)
Thu 4:30-5:00 p.m., 6 Oct 1977-25 May 1978
Fri 10:00-10:30 a.m., 6 Oct 1977-25 May 1978 (R)
Thu 4:30-5:00 p.m., 14 Sep 1978-24 May 1979
Fri 10:00-10:30 a.m., 14 Sep 1978-24 May 1979 (R)
Fri 10:00-10:30 a.m., 12 Oct 1979-31 May 1980
Sat 11:30-12:00 noon, 12 Oct 1979-31 May 1980 (R)
Thu 4:00-4:30 p.m., 16 Oct 1980-7 May 1981
Fri 10:00-10:30 a.m., 16 Oct 1980-7 May 1981 (R)
Sat 12:00-12:30 p.m., 16 Oct 1980-7 May 1981 (R)
Thu 4:00-4:30 p.m., 15 Oct 1981-27 May 1982
A current affairs program for high school age viewers, What's New presented the
week's headlines and features geared for teenagers. Features included the
caricature puppets of Noreen Young, usually confined to programs for younger
audiences, such as Hi Diddle Day. Hosts for the show were Harry Mannis and
Sandy Lane (l972- 79), David Schatzky (l979-80), Wayne Thompson (l980-82),
Marie-Claude Lavalle (l980-8l), Lon Appleby (l980-8l), and Sara Welch
(l98l-82). Ray Hazzan (l972-77), Sybel Sandorfy (l978-82), and Wayne Thompson
(l98l-82) were executive producers.
Fri 7:30-8:00 p.m., 5 May-3 Jul 1961
Wed 7:30-8:00 p.m., 12 Jul-13 Sep 1961
Thu 6:15-6:30 p.m., 5 Jul-27 Sep 1962
Wed 7:00-7:30 p.m., 3 Jul-9 Oct 1963
A half-hour (sometimes a fifteen minute) summer program on auto racing,
Wheelspin included both coverage of racing events and technical advice. Hosts
were Phil Murray, Jim Chorley, Bruce Marsh, and Jack Wheeler, and the producer
Doug Stephen.
Mon-Fri 5:30-6:00 p.m., 30 Sep 1968-23 Jun 1969
A successor to Music Hop and Let's Go, Where It's At featured current popular
and rock music in an after-school, before-supper time slot, and originated in a
different city each weekday. Ken Gibson produced the Vancouver edition, which
was hosted by Fred Latremouille. The Winnipeg show, produced by Larry Brown,
provided an early, national outlet for the Guess Who (Randy Bachman, Burton
Cummings, Jim Kale, and Gary Peterson) who appeared regularly. Allan Angus
produced the Toronto show, with host Jay Jackson and the Majestics. Robert
Demontigny introduced the Montreal show, which Ed Mercel produced. In Halifax,
Paul Baylis produced and Frank Cameron was the host; guests included Anne
Murray and Truro's band, the Lincolns, which included Frank MacKay and John
Gray, who would later write about the band for his play, Rock And Roll,
and the television adaptation, The King Of Friday Night. The shows from
Montral, Toronto, and Winnipeg were produced in colour, and from Vancouver and
Halifax in living black and white.
Sat 11:00-11:30 a.m., 7 Apr-2 Jun 1979
This series of half-hour programs from St. John's dealt with the founding of
the earliest settlements in Canada, and featured CBC announcer,
Newfoundland-born Harry Brown.
Thu 7:30-8:00 p.m., 3 Jun-16 Sep 1976
Mon-Fri 2:30-3:00 p.m., 10 Oct-27 Oct 1978
Sun 3:30-4:00 p.m., 29 Apr-12 Aug 1979
This series of thirteen half-hour episodes dramatized the development of
flight. Filmed in part in Qubec City, directed by Marcel Camue, it was a
co-production of ORTF, Bavaria Films, Telcia Films, and Radio-Canada. The
English version was produced by Cinelume Productions, and the dubbing
supervised by Donnalu Wigmore of CBC Toronto.
Mon 8:30-9:00 p.m., 28 Jun-13 Sep 1960
Mon 8:30-9:00 p.m., 3 JUl-18 Sep 1961
A summer variety series produced by Dave Thomas, While We're Young spotlighted
young Canadian musical talent. It starred singers Tommy Ambrose and Bonnie
Hicks, with a choral group called the Swinging Voices, under the direction of
Art Snyder, and the Bob Van Norman Dancers, and Gordon Kushner conducting the
orchestra. The series employed some of the performers discovered by the CBC
Talent Caravan, and among the guests in the 1960 series were jazz player Paul
Hoffert, who later co-founded the rock band Lighthouse, and the Two Tones, a
country folk group that consisted of Terry Whelan and Gordon Lightfoot.
Tue/Thu 5:00-5:30 p.m., 30 Sep 1958-25 Jun 1959
A half-hour show for kids, Whistle Town divided its attentions between a toy
shop and a fire hall in a very small town. Nine year old Rex Hagon played
Danny, and Foster was his puppet friend (created by John and Linda Keogh).
They visited Mr. Bean, who owned the toy shop, on Tuesdays, and the fire hall
on Thursdays. Larry Beattie played Mr. Bean, and Jack Mather was his
assistant, with Claude Rae as the town postman. Hugh Webster was Mr. Haggarty,
Ross Snetsinger was Ross, and Jean Cavall was Mayor Jacques, who presided with
his impressive handlebar moustache and his three-corner hat. The show included
little dramas, as well as cartoons, newsreels, and musical numbers by Cavall
and Ed McCurdy.
The series was written by Cliff Braggins and John Gerrard, and produced by John
Kennedy.
Sun 9:00-10:00 p.m., 23 Jan-30 Apr 1972
Sat 8:30-9:30 p.m., 27 Apr-17 Aug 1974 (R)
Clearly the success of the BBC's The Forsyte Saga inspired the CBC to embark on
this large-scale production of Mazo de la Roche's family chronicle, which
traced the Whiteoaks over a century to the early 1950s. Both series used
sources that trod the line between quality literature and potboilers, and both
television series veered between serious drama and soap opera. Thirteen
hour-long episodes, at a cost of two million dollars, made this the CBC's most
expensive production to that date. A risky venture, it also represented the
network's desire to profit from international sales. (And, in fact, the series
was sold to Thames Television in the U.K., to French television and to other
foreign markets.) At home, however, Jalna was praised for the production
values in which the CBC invested, but heavily criticized for its flatness and
predictability.
The scripts, by Grahame Woods, Claude Harz, and chief writer Timothy Findley,
brought the story up to date rather than keeping them at the distance of the
midcentury and before, and employed a flashback structure that switched between
present and past to outline the saga of Renny Whiteoak, played by Paul Harding,
and the two Adelines, the family matriarch and the grandmother after whom she
was named, both characters played by Kate Reid. The cast included Amelia Hall
as Meg, Blair Brown as Pheasan Vaughan, John Friesen as Piers Whiteoak, James
Hardle as Eden, Anoinette Bower as Roma Fitzsturgis, Sean Mulcahy as Maitland
Fitzsturgis, Paul Bradley as Wright, Linda Goranson as Victoria, Paul Craig as
Philip II, Toby Tarnow as Ruth, Gary McKeehan as Christian, Kenneth Dight as
Charlesworth, Charles Palmer as Lomax, David Hughes as Maurice Vaughan, David
Schurman as Philip I, Maureen O'Brien as Alayne, Don Scardino as Ernest, Don
McGill as Uncle Nicholas, Josephine Barrington as Aunt Augusta, Vincent Dale as
Young Finch, and Tom Lewis as Young Eden.
The producer of the series was John Trent, with co-producer Richard Gilbert,
and the directors of photography Ernie Kirkpatrick and Edmond Long.
Fri 9:00-9:30 p.m., 3 Jul-25 Sep 1959
On this panel quiz, hosted by James Bannerman, panelists Walter Kenyon and John
Lunn from the Royal Ontario Museum and a guest tried to identify an artifact
supplied by the R.O.M. or other museum or gallery. The program was produced by
Vincent Tovell. An updated version of the show appeared in the 1970s under the
title What On Earth?.
Thu 7:00-7:30 p.m., 26 May-
Sat 6:30-7:00 p.m., 9 Jul-10 Sep 1977
A half-hour musical variety show, Who's New originated in different cities.
Paul Gaffney produced the Ottawa show, which starred the brilliant
singer-songwriter David Wiffen. Joe Armstrong produced programs in London,
with Terry McMannis. Tom Owen was the star of the Windsor show, produced by
John Peterson, and Hagood Hardy starred in the Toronto edition, produced by Bob
Gibbons. The program returned the next year on CBLT, produced by Gibbons, with
Rainer Schwartz as host.
Mon 9:30-10:00 p.m., 25 Jun-17 Sep 1956
A panel variety show, and a summer replacement for The Denny Vaughan Show, on
Who's The Guest, panelists tried to identify mystery guests from the
entertainment field in Canada. Gerald Bern gave them clues and caricatures,
and the guest, once his or her identity was revealed, performed. Rudy Toth
conducted the orchestra for the show, which was produced by Bob Jarvis.
Fri 10:00-10:30 p.m., 16 Oct 1953
Fri 10:00-10:30 p.m., 30 Oct-28 Nov 1953
On this quiz show, panelists tried to guess the identity of well- known people
from clues provided by cartoonist Bert Grossick's caricatures. The host was
Michael Cashin.
Sun 5:30-6:00 p.m., 4 Sep-23 Oct 1960
In this series of science programs from Vancouver, Robert Quintrell and the
exuberant professor Julius Sumner Miller demonstrated principles of physics.
Mon-Fri 12:30-1:00 p.m., 10 Sep-16 Nov 1979
Mon-Fri 12:30-1:00 p.m., 7 Jan-23 May 1980
Mon-Fri 1:30-2:00 p.m., 8 Sep 1980-30 Jan 1981
Mon-Fri 4:00-4:30 p.m., 1 Jun-11 Sep 1981 (R)
So-called cartoonist and cockney gadabout Ben Wicks was the host of this
half-hour talk show. Wicks sought out unusual guests, and often went to visit
them for his interviews rather than bring them into a studio. The series was
produced by the CBC and J.T. Ross Associates.
Various Days and Times, 26 Nov 1979-4 Mar 1981
Sun 8:00-9:00 p.m., 14 Jun-30 Aug 1981 (R)
Sat 8:00-9:00 p.m., 10 Jul-11 Sep 1982 (R)
Another nature series featuring the work of John and Janet Foster, creators of
To The Wild Country, Wild Canada included thirteen one-hour films on their
travels to wilderness regions of the country. The series was produced by Ralph
C. Ellis and Dan Gibson for their company Manitou Productions, in cooperation
with the CBC, and the programs were directed by John Foster. They voyaged from
the Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories to the Bay of Fundy off Nova
Scotia to the Queen Charlotte Islands off the British Columbia coast.
Tue 5:30-5:45 p.m., 30 Dec 1952-19 May 1953
A fifteen minute program, Willie Wonderful featured stories for children told
with marionettes.
Mon 9:30-10:00 p.m., 5 Oct 1953
Sun 10:30-11:00 p.m., 18 Oct-15 Nov 1953
Sun 9:30-10:00 p.m., 13 Dec 1953-
Sun 10:00-10:30 p.m., 2 May-20 Jun 1954
Fri 7:00-7:30 p.m., 1 Oct 1954-1 Apr 1955
Writer and broadcaster Clyde Gilmour introduced this series of half-hour
National Film Board productions, intended to present different aspects of life
in Canada. The program was seen at different times on different stations (for
example, Sundays at l0:30 in Toronto and Mondays at 9:00 in Ottawa). Among the
films were The Son; Shadow On The Prairie; Listen To The Prairies; Opera
School; Musician In The Family; Motorman; Look To The Forest; Shop Steward;
Ballet-O-Maniac; Men At Work; and Ti-Jean Goes Lumbering. Starting in the 1954
season, the program included not only the films and introductions, but also
Gilmour in discussion with authorities on the subject of the film of the
week.
Thu 6:30-6:45 p.m., 4 Oct-8 Nov 1956
Sun 12:00-12:15 p.m., 18 Nov-23 Dec 1956
Sun 12:00-12:15 p.m., 10 Feb-17 Feb 1957
Fri 6:30-6:45 p.m., 15 Feb-22 Feb 1957
Mon 6:00-6:30 p.m., 7 Oct 1957
This was a series of fifteen minute travelogues.
Sun 5:30-6:00 p.m., 17 Jan-28 Mar 1982
Sun 8:00-8:30 p.m., 15 Jul-26 Aug 1982 (R)
Sun 9:30-10:00 p.m., 2 Sep 1982 (R)
This series of ten half-hour productions dramatized the lives of heroes from
Canadian history. Underwritten by Shell Canada, the programs were produced at
the CBC by Laura Phillips, with executive producer Stanley Colbert. The first
was about Emily Murphy, the early feminist known as "Janey Canuck." Written by
John Kent Harrison and directed by Martin Lavut, it starred Martha Henry, with
Douglas Rain, William Hutt, Gerard Parkes, and Douglas Campbell. Donnelly
Rhodes played Pere Athol Murray, the founder of Notre Dame College in
Saskatchewan (who had also been portrayed by Thomas Peacocke in Zale Dalen's
l980 feature film, The Hounds Of Notre Dame). The Winners episode was written
by Gordon Ruttan and directed by Brian Walker. Norman Klenman wrote the story
of H.R. MacMillan, the modernizer of the Canadian forest industry, for the
production directed by Lawrence S. Mirkin. The story of native poet Pauline
Johnson was written by Munroe Scott and directed by Martha Coolidge, with Fern
Henry in the lead. Yvon Ponton played J.A. Bombardier, the inventor of the
snowmobile; the script was by James Brown and the director was Jean Lefleur.
Kate Lynch played the long-time mayor of Ottawa, Charlotte Whitton, in a story
by Carol Bolt, directed by Graham Parker. Fiona McHugh wrote and Scott Hylands
directed the episode about John Wesley Dafoe, the editor of the Winnipeg
Free Press. McHugh also wrote the script for the program on obstetrician
Marion Hilliard, who was played by Chapelle Jaffe. The show also featured Lois
Maxwell, Peter Dvorsky, Janet-Laine Green, and Mary Pirie, and was directed by
Zale Dalen. Reginald Fessenden invented wireless transmission for voice; he
was played in this segment, written by George Robertson and directed by Richard
Gilbert, by Alan Scarfe. Finally, Robertson and Scarfe also collaborated on
the story of arctic explorer Vihjalmur Stefansson, starring Michael J.
Reynolds, with John Friesen and Eric Peterson.
Fri 9:30-10:00 p.m., 24 Feb 1956
Sat 2:30-3:30 p.m., 25 Feb 1956
Sun 2:00-3:00 p.m., 26 Feb 1956
Fri 9:00-9:30 p.m., 22 Feb 1957
Sat/Sun 9:00-9:30 p.m., 23/24 Feb 1957
Sat/Sun 2:30-3:30 p.m., 22/23 Feb 1958
Sat/Sun 3:00-4:00 p.m., 20/21 Feb 1960
Fri 9:30-10:30 p.m., 24 Feb 1961
Sun 4:00-5:00 p.m., 26 Feb 1961
Fri 9:30-10:30 p.m., 8 Feb 1963
Sun 4:30-5:30 p.m., 10 Feb 1963
Fri 8:30-9:30 p.m., 12 Feb 1965
Sun 4:30-5:30 p.m., 14 Feb 1965
Mon 10:30-11:30 p.m., 24 Jan 1966
Sun 3:00-4:00 p.m., 30 Jan 1966
Sun 4:30-5:30 p.m., 5 Mar 1967
The CBC presented regularly presented highlights of the annual conference of
the Canadian Institute of Public Affairs, called the Winter Conference or the
Couchiching Conference. Subjects included the effects of automation on society
(l956); politics, promotion, and consent (l957); bureaucracy (l958); how
business reshapes society (l960); Canadian nationalism (l96l); Canada and
social planning (l963); trade policies (l965); cities and local democracy
(l966); and a simulated NATO crisis (l967). A wide selection of authorities
were invited to discuss the question at hand; they included Joseph Sedgwick,
Sydney Hook, Gilbert Seldes, Rollo May, J.B. Priestley; Erich Fromm; Stanley
Knowles; Hugh MacLennan; Jeanne Sauv, George Bain, and Jack Pickersgill. The
l96l conference on nationalism, also included a satirical sketch written by
Robert Fulford, which featured musician Ian Tyson and poet Irving Layton.
Producers of the CBC coverage included Cliff Solway (l956), A. Stinson (l957),
J. Lantz (l958), Don MacPherson (l963), Glenn Sarty and James Murray (l966),
and John Kennedy (l967).
Return to CBC Series Index
WINTER CONFERENCE
W.O.W.
Monuments of longevity and success in the Canadian entertainment industry,
comedians Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster met as teenagers in their Toronto high
school, and have been a team ever since. They achieved fame during the World
War II years, in The Army Show, and a much larger audience on their
regular CBC radio broadcasts on the Trans-Canada network in the early 1950s.
They hold the record for the most numerous appearances on CBS-TV's The Ed
Sullivan Show, during the 1950s and 1960s the most popular television variety
hour in the United States. They started in 1958 with a contract for twenty-six
appearances over the year (reported to pay them and their supporting company
$l76,000), and their last appearance on the Sullivan show was their sixty-
seventh.
