CBC Television Series, 1952-1982
by Blaine Allan
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CBC Series Index
Wojeck
Tue 9:00-10:00 p.m., 13 Sep-22 Nov 1966
Tue 9:30-10:30 p.m., 4 Jul-29 Aug 1967 (R)
Tue 9:00-10:00 p.m., 2 Jan-12 Mar 1968
Tue 9:00-10:00 p.m., 11 Feb-20 Mar 1969 (R)
Wojeck, created by Phillip Hersch, was inspired by the headlines
that Dr. Morton Shulman made as Toronto's chief coroner. Shulman
extended the influence of his office through his inquiries into
deaths caused by institutional and industrial negligence and
forced issues of improved safety standards. (See Morton Shulman,
Coroner [Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1975].) In the
series pilot, Tell Them The Streets Are Dancing, which aired on
The Bob Hope Theatre, 9 March 1966, coroner Dr. Steve Wojeck
investigated the death by caisson disease of an Italian worker,
and his inquiry led him to examine the conditions of the victim's
workplace, a tunnel under construction. Producer and director
Ronald Weyman and director of photography Grahame Woods, who shot
the black-and-white film production on location with a
lightweight camera that he could handhold, sacrificed
conventional production values for a down-and-dirty naturalism.
The program, and the series that ensued, tried to confront
contemporary social issues through Wojeck's inquiries. The
program's documentary style and the roots of the stories in the
headlines of the day established standards and format that has
filtered through CBC television drama ever since, in episodic
series, such as Corwin or The Collaborators, and anthologies, in
particular For The Record.
Wojeck was brought to life by John Vernon. Stalwart, often quiet
and understated, Vernon's Steve Wojeck was frustrated or driven
to outrage by people, officials, and institutions that failed to
provide answers or acknowledge responsibility. He regularly
questioned the decisions he had to make and, though he was in
some senses a typical hero and paragon of virtue, he was invested
with a greater vulnerability and depth, and differed from the
standard television hero. Of Polish descent instead of the
typical invisible Anglo-Saxon, he was also Catholic, an element
of his personality that formed a part of his dilemma about
abortion in a two-part episode titled The Cold Smile Of Friends.
The other regulars on the series were Ted Follows as Crown
Attorney Arnie Bateman, Patricia Collins as Wojeck's wife, Marty,
and Carl Banas as Detective Sergeant Byron James, with occasional
appearances by Jamey Weyman and Tanis Montgomery as Stevey and
Judy, the Wojecks' son and daughter.
The barriers that the series broke down were thematic as much as
stylistic or technical. Under the guidance of executive producer
Weyman and associate producer David Peddie, the writers explored
issues that had rarely been confronted so directly in television
drama, and in fact many of the programs can be categorized by the
issue at their centre as much as by the actual story. There was
an episode about abortion, about homosexuality, about
construction safety, about drug addiction, about auto safety,
about food inspection standards and methods, about negligence of
the elderly--each of which precipitated a death that might have
been avoided.
The first program in the series, one of the finest, exemplified
what could be achieved within the form. The Last Man In The
World starred John Yesno as a young native who arrives in Toronto
from northern Ontario. The complications of his new life in the
city--the racial prejudice he encounters, the hooker he mistakes
for a girlfriend--propel him to commit suicide in a jail cell.
Unfolding in flashback structure, the story is driven by Wojeck's
search for the source of the belt with which Joe hanged himself.
Visually and aurally adventurous, directed by Ron Kelly from
Hersch's script, the program stretches the conventions of
television drama to gain both immediacy and dramatic, emotional
power.
Hersch wrote the scripts for the ten episodes of the first
season. The directors included, in addition to Kelly, George
McCowan, Paul Almond, and Daryl Duke. For the second series, which
was produced in colour, he wrote only the first two episodes, a
two-part story called Swing Low, Sweet Chariot; other writers
included Lindsay Galloway, Sandy Stern, Len Barnett, John Gray,
Jerry O'Flanagan, Ronald Dunn, and John Simpson. Cinematographer
Woods's first film script was also presented in the series,
though under a pseudonym while the program was in production;
called After All, Who's Art Morrison?, it was an intriguing and
sympathetic script about a middle-aged homosexual and the
blackmail plot that forces him to disclose his secret. The
directors for the series were Peter Carter, Rene' Bonnire, George
Gorman, John Trent, George McCowan, and producer Weyman.
Wojeck gained both critical and commercial success. The Last Man
In The World won the Wilderness Award as the CBC's best film
production of the year, and an award at the Monte Carlo Film
Festival. The series was sold to foreign markets in the U.K.,
Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Ireland, Finland, and Yugoslavia.
Photo (courtesy of CBC) shows .
Mon-Fri 12:30-1:00 p.m., 26 May-5 Sep 1980
Sat 1:30-2:00 p.m., 10 Jan-21 Feb 1981 (R)
Mon-Fri 1:30-2:00 p.m., 2 Feb-
Mon-Fri 4:30-5:00 p.m., 26 May 1981-
Mon-Fri 4:00-4:30 p.m., 14 Sep 1981-
Mon-Fri 2:00-2:30 p.m., 12 Oct 1981
Mon-Fri 4:00-4:30 p.m., 5 Jul-24 Sep 1982
In Wok With Yan, chef Stephen Yan demonstrated how to cook
oriental dishes with a wok. A kind of Galloping Gourmet of the
l980s, Yan achieved notoriety for his energy and ebullience and
for the bad puns on the word, "wok," printed on his apron. The
series was produced by Carlton Productions and Stephen Yan
Productions in Ottawa.
Tue 7:30-8:00 p.m., 5 Oct 1976-13 Sep 1977
The U.S. disk jockey Wolfman Jack came to the greater public's
attention in the 1972 film American Graffiti and as the
announcer for the television rock concert series, The Midnight
Special. His Howl Productions co-produced The Wolfman Jack Show
with the CBC in Vancouver. The producers booked foreign
performers as well as Canadian musical artists, such as the
Stampeders and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and was intended to give
Canadian artists an avenue into an international market. The
program also featured regular performances by the Famous People
Players, and comedy with Danny Wells, Peter Cullen, and Sally
Sales.
The executive producer was Don Kelley, the producer Riff
Markowitz, and the director Mark Warren.
Wed 10:30-11:00 p.m., 3 Nov 1976
Wed 10:30-11:00 p.m., 5 Jan 1977
Thu 7:30-8:00 p.m., 18 Jun-10 Sep 1981
A half-hour musical variety show, produced in St. John's, this
series starred the Wonderful Grand Band, with comics Greg Malone
and Tommy Sexton. The band consisted of lead singer Ron Hynes,
drummer Rocky Wiseman, fiddle player Jamie Snider, Sandy Morris
and Glen Simmons on guitars, and Ian Perry on bass. The program
combined rock and traditional music with satire, some of which
was directed at the CBC itself. Two programs, for example, made
a point of Ron's mother's resentment that her son was being
exploited by the CBC. Another show opened in the local
Unemployment Insurance office, with Snider singing his own song,
"It's U.I.C." The producer was Jack Kellum and the director
Wayne Guzzwell.
Tue 10:00-10:30 p.m., 16 Jun-22 Sep 1970
A musical variety show from Winnipeg, Words And Music starred
Yvette, with the David Shaw Orchestra. The program featured a
selection of local performers and musical styles that included
jazz, country, and pop.
Tue 10:30-11:00 p.m., 3 Jun-29 Jul 1975
Produced by Gordon Glynn and Doug Gillingham at CBC Vancouver,
World Aquarium was a series of seven, half-hour shows on marine
life in the Pacific. The production ranged from the Vancouver
Public Aquarium to the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian
coast. The first program introduced viewers to the aquarium,
with the institution's director, Murray Newman, who was the host
of the series with CBC announcer Bob Switzer. The second and
third episodes compared the harbours of Vancouver and Sydney and
marine animal and plant life off the two coasts. The fourth
program concentrated on sea lions, seals, and basking sharks to
be found off the west coast of Vancouver Island. The remaining
programs outlined support systems for marine life, the migration
of salmon, and the aquatic mammals, whales and dolphins.
Tue 10:00-10:30 p.m., 8 Jul 1958
Thu 10:00-10:30 p.m., 25 Aug-17 Jul 1957
This series of documentaries, from the National Film Board,
succeeded Window On The World, and described different aspects of
the Commonwealth. Individual programs included Ten Days That
Shook The Commonwealth, on the Suez Crisis; Four Centuries Of
Growing Pains, on the history of the British Empire and the
Commonwealth; Crisis In Asia, on India, Pakistan, and Ceylon (now
Sri Lanka); Can They Hold Together?, on the tests to the bonds of
the Commonwealth; The Invisible Keystone, on the spread of
British Constitutional principles to the colonies; Poverty And
Plenty, on Commonwealth aid; Colonialism--Ogre Or Angel?; They
Called It The White Man's Burden, on the problems of paternalism;
Black And White In South Africa, on racial policies; The Colonies
Look Ahead, on current economic and social development; and Road
To Independence, on the political evolution of the Empire and
Commonwealth.
Mon-Fri 2:45-3:00 p.m., 1 Jun-26 Jun 1959
Fri 4:30-5:00 p.m., 3 Apr-25 Sep 1070
Sat 1:00-1:30 p.m., 15 Apr-26 Aug 1972
Sat 3:00-3:30 p.m., 7 Jul 1973-
Sat 1:00-1:30 p.m., 14 Jul-8 Sep 1973
Sat 1:00-1:30 p.m., 13 Jul-28 Sep 1974
Sat 2:30-3:00 p.m., 5 Jul 1975-
Sat 1:00-1:30 p.m., 12 Jul-20 Sep 1975
Produced by the CBC's schools and youth department, The World Of
Man was first a series of thirteen, half-hour programs on human
life and its environment in different locales around the world.
Each program concentrated on a different aspect of agriculture
and industry: sugar in Egypt, wool in Australia, ranching in
Argentina, diamond mining in East Africa, farming in East
Germany, coffee in Tanzania, oil in Libya, rice in Thailand,
lumber in Finland, and farming in Japan.
Sun 7:30-8:00 p.m., 2 Oct 1960-2 Jul 1961
The World Of Music, a half-hour variety show with Wally Koster,
devoted individual programs to different themes or styles of
music. It was scheduled to include, among its thirty-two
broadcasts, nine based on songs from current lps, six that used
familiar tunes, six with ethnic musical groups, three that
featured dance, and two that highlighted extracts from opera.
Guests included Joyce Sullivan, Alan and Blanche Lund, the
Travellers, Dorothy Collins, Lister Sinclair, and Ernestine
Anderson. The supervising producer of the show was Len Starmer.
Sat 6:30-6:45 p.m., 3 Oct-28 Nov 1964
Sat 6:30-6:45 p.m., 3 Jul-25 Sep 1965
A program of international music, the mid-l960s version of World
Of Music starred singer Lucienne Watson, known as Zou Zou
Sabourin, with an instrumental quartet that comprised Chris
Jordan on guitar, Harlan Green on flute, Johnny Scivoletto on
accordion, and Eddy Bayens on drums. Zou Zou's sister Helene was
a frequent guest on the program, which was produced by Gloria
White in Edmonton.
Sat 10:30-11:00 p.m., 17 Sep-10 Dec 1966
In A World Of Music, folk duo Malka and Joso took over the
Saturday night post-hockey/pre-news time slot for a program of
music from around the world. Israeli Malka Himel and Yugoslavia-
born Joso Spralya had been singing music in different languages
in Canada for several years. The show was chosen from a number
proposed to replace Juliette, partly because of the distinct
difference it offered. Their guests for the television show
included a wide range of folk performers: Odetta, Yma Sumac, Ian
and Sylvia, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Jan Rubes, Miriam
Makeba. However, the program did not match the ratings of the
Juliette show, which it succeeded, and lasted only thirteen
weeks, until December. As the show's head writer Alex Barris
noted in his memoir, The Pierce-Arrow Showroom is Leaking (in a
chapter titled "Anatomy of a Failure"), the program also
attracted racist mail directed against the foreign music and
against Malka. The production, he explains, was marked by
compromise in order to make the international flavour more
palatable, and by friction between the stars and the production
staff. The ill-fated series was produced (the first shows in
black-and-white and starting in October in colour) by Mark
Warren. The musical director was Rudy Toth, and the show's
choreographer was Andy Body.
Sun 2:30-3:30 p.m., 4 Feb-17 Mar 1968
Sun 2:30-3:30 p.m., 19 Jan-30 Mar 1969
Sun 3:00-4:00 p.m., 18 Jan-29 Mar 1970
Sun 3:00-4:00 p.m., 24 Jan-11 Apr 1971
Sun 3:00-4:00 p.m., 23 Jan-2 Apr 1972
Sun 3:00-4:00 p.m., 11 feb- 27 May 1973
Sun 3:00-4:00 p.m., 20 Jan-31 Mar 1974
World Of Music presented classical music from around the world in
Sunday afternoon, one hour broadcasts. It included original CBC
productions, as well as programs purchased from foreign sources,
and documentary films on subjects of serious music, such as the
National Film Board's portrait of Arthur Rubenstein, as well as
programs of concerts, ballet, and opera. The executive producer
of the series was John Barnes, and the host for the first season
was Glenn Gould.
Mon 5:00-5:30 p.m., 19 Oct 1964-31 May 1965
An English version of the Montreal show, Des Fourmis et des
hommes, World Of Nature presented a series of programs on natural
science and geography. Don McIntyre narrated segments on tribes
of Mexico and the Kalahari Desert, on camouflage in underwater
life, on forest vegetation and animals, and other subjects of
scientific and anthropological interest.
Fri 7:30-8:00 p.m., 22 Sep 1978
Sat 11:30-12:00 noon, 7 Apr-8 Sep 1979
Sat 10:30-11:00 a.m., 31 May-16 Aug 1980
An introduction to horticulture, The World Of Plants was produced
by Peter D. Marshall in Calgary, with Holland-born "plant doctor"
Tineke Wilders. Shot from a mobile production unit, the program
travelled to conservatories, solariums, nurseries, and plant
clinics, as well as to W.O. Mitchell's greenhouse, where the
writer obsessively tends orchids.
Sat/Sun Times Vary, 8 Apr 1961-1 Oct 1965
This two hour, weekend afternoon broadcast covered a wide range
of current sports activities, with commentary by the CBC sports
reporting staff: Steve Douglas, Fred Sgambati, Don Wittman, Doug
Maxwell. Often the broadcast featured tournaments that had been
mounted for television coverage, such as CBC Championship Golf,
or Cross Canada Curling. However, it also featured coverage of
regularly scheduled events, including the CFL games and Ontario-
Qubec Athletic Association university football. On l7 September
l96l, the program also featured the first Canadian broadcast of a
National Football League game from the U.S.A., between the
Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers.
The series was produced by Ty Lemburg, and superseded by CBC
Sports Presents.
Sun 5:30-6:00 p.m., 14 Dec-21 Dec 1958
A two part series on the struggle for women's rights, World Of
Women replaced The Candid Eye.
Wed 10:30-11:00 p.m., 21 Jun-6 Sep 1967
Expo '67 and the parade of international entertainers who
performed there were the focal points of this series of twelve,
half-hour programs. Radio-Canada staff announcer Lizette Gervais
introduced programs of opera, ballet, symphonic music, theatre,
and popular music from the Montreal World's Fair, produced at the
International Broadcasting Centre at Expo. Two versions of the
program were produced, one by Neil Andrews, for the English
network, and one by Noel Gauvin and Pierre Morin, for the French
service. The executive producer was Thom Benson.
Mon 5:00-5:30 p.m., 4 Jul-19 Sep 1955
Thu 4:30-5:00 p.m., 25 Sep-11 Oct 1955
Tue 4:30-5:00 p.m., 30 Oct-15 Nov 1955
World Passport
Tue 5:00-5:30 p.m., 7 Jul-29 Sep 1959
Originating in Ottawa, this half-hour program for children
presented films from around the world, selected by producer
Michael Hind-Smith. A later version of the formula, under the
same title, was produced in Montral, with host Steve Bloomer.
Mon 5:45-6:00 p.m., 18 Oct-8 Nov 1954
Tue 4:45-5:00 p.m., 16 Nov 1954-17 May 1955
This was a half-hour film production.
Wed 10:30-11:00 p.m., 1 Jun-13 Jul 1977
Adapted from the Radio-Canada series, Ce coin de terre, this
seven part series of half-hour programs concerned the culture of
Canada's different national communities. The programs themselves
originated in different regions of the country. The first, from
Vancouver, concerned Japanese, Filipino, and Russian people. The
second concentrated on the Jewish community in Winnipeg. The
third came from Alberta, and examined the German Canadians. The
fourth program dealt with Bolivian and Bulgarian people. The
fifth show profiled the Poles in Winnipeg. A Montreal program
concentrated on the Greeks there. The series concluded with a
program on the Ukrainians of Edmonton. The host for the English
version of the show was Margaret Pacsu.
Sun 4:30-5:00 p.m., 31 Jan-13 Jun 1982
Sat 2:30-3:00 p.m., 23 Oct 1982-26 Mar 1983
A rare example of both collaboration between English and French
services of the CBC and of looking to other nations (besides the
United States and sometimes the U.K. and France) as sources for
television material, Worldwide and its Radio-Canada counterpart,
Tlmonde presented a digest of documentaries from foreign services
to provide an international perspective on the world's events.
It included coverage from West Germany, the U.K., Denmark, Italy,
and other nations, gathered through Intermag, a group of current
affairs programs (including the CBC's The Fifth Estate) that have
exchanged items. The executive producer for the CBC was Glenn
Sarty, and the hosts Carole Jerome (l982), Gerry Haslam (l982),
Sheldon Turcotte (l982-83), and Claudia Theriault (l982-82). The host of Tlmonde was Jean Giroux.
Sun 11:00-12:00 noon, 6 Oct 1968-21 Jun 1970
Sun 11:00-12:00 noon, 20 Sep 1970-27 Jun 1971
Sun 11:00-12:00 noon, 3 Oct 1971-18 Jun 1972
This Sunday afternoon discussion program, which alternated with
church service coverage, involved contemporary issues of faith
and religion. Hosts for the show were Tom Harpur (l968-70),
Maxine Nu8nes (l968-70), Dana Bassett (l968-70), and Cathie Kneen
(l970-72), and the producers Terry Thompson (l968-70) and Sig
Gerber (l970-72).
Sat 10:00-10:30 p.m., 15 May-2 Oct 1954
Sat 11:15-12:00 a.m., 10 Oct 1955-
See Saturday Night Wrestling.
Return to CBC Series Index
Wrestling
As This Hour Has Seven Days set an agenda for public affairs on
CBC television in the years 1964 and 1965, only a year later Wojeck
established a new standard for drama. Both evolved from the
techniques and ethics of direct cinema documentary, and tested
the established television standards to use the medium as a
social tool in vibrant, exciting, and challenging ways.
