CBC Television Series, 1952-1982
by Blaine Allan
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CBC Series Index
CINE CLUB
Tue 10:30-11:00 p.m., 11 Aug-29 Sep 1964
Sun 7:00-7:30 p.m., 27 Jun-5 Sep 1965
Sun 7:00-7:30 p.m., 19 Jun-4 Sep 1966
Thu 10:00-10:30 p.m., 6 Apr-27 Jun 1967
Each week, in Cine Club's half-hour slot, the CBC aired one to three short
films from all over the world. Many of the films had never before been seen in
Canada, or had been restricted to the membership of film societies. They
ranged in type from animated cartoons or films made from selected photographs
or still images to documentary to narrative. The first film in the series, for
example was Francois Truffaut's first film, Les Mistons. Other works in the
l964 season included School For Men, by Czech filmmaker Vladimir Lehky; Au fond
des bois, a Polish film by Wladislaw Nehrbecki; the French film Happy
Anniversary, by Andre Bureau; Ernest Pintoff's films, The Shoes and The
Violinist, from the U.S.A.; Ludovic Kennedy's The Sleeping Ballerina, from the
U.K.; The Running, Jumping, Standing Still Film, by Richard Lester, featuring
the cast of BBC radio's The Goon Show; and Run, a Canadian film by graphic
designer Jack Kuper.
The series continued until 1967. The producers were Don Brown (l964), Terry
Kyne (l965), Doug Davidson (l966), and Rosalind Farber (l967). The hosts for
the presentation were Dennis Sweeting (l964), Al Hamel (l965), Lloyd Robertson
(l966), and Oscar Burritt, a leader of Canada's film society movement, and the
host of the CBLT-TV Toronto art film late show on Sundays (l967). The films
were selected by Rosalind Farber.
Sat 6:30-6:44 p.m., 22 Jan-26 Mar 1966
A fifteen minute program of short films.
Fri 8:00-9:00 p.m., 9 Oct-13 Nov 1981
A series of programs on circus life, produced and directed by Paul Starkman,
with Al Waxman.
Thu 9:30-10:30 p.m., 27 Sep-8 Nov 1979
Sun 10:00-11:00 p.m., 27 Apr-14 Jun 1980
Wed 10:00-11:00 p.m., 18 Feb-25 Mar 1981 (R)
Fri 9:00-10:00 p.m., 4 Sep-9 Oct 1981 (R)
Fri 1:30-2:30 p.m., 16 Jul-2 Sep 1982 (R)
A thirteen week series of one hour documentaries, produced and directed by John
McGreevy for Nielsen-Ferns. Each program featured an international celebrity
who led viewers around a city that was his or her favourite, home, or a place
with which he or she had a significant connection. Glenn Gould, for example,
prepared the program on Toronto, while Peter Ustinov showed viewers Leningrad,
Elie Wiesell presented Jerusalem, George Plimpton was the host for New York
City, and Mai Zetterling prepared a film on Stockholm.
Tue 10:00-10:30 p.m., 25 Oct 1955-27 Mar 1956
Sun 3:00-3:30 p.m., 28 Oct 1956-31 Mar 1957
Sun 3:00-3:30 p.m., 27 Oct 1957-30 Mar 1958
Sun 3:00-3:30 p.m., 26 Oct 1958-29 Mar 1959
Sun 3:00-3:30 p.m., 25 Oct 1959-3 Apr 1960
Sun 4:30-5:00 p.m., 5 Nov-14 Nov 1961
Sun 5:00-5:30 p.m., 21 Nov 1961-29 Apr 1962
Gordon Hawkins of the Canadian Association for Adult Education was the host of
Citizens' Forum, which the CBC produced in cooperation with the Association.
The CBC adapted the formula for television from its successful radio public
affairs and opinion series, which had already run for twelve years. The
program continued on radio through the 1955-56 season, after the television
broadcasts began.
The program format in its initial seasons included a panel discussion for the
first twenty minutes, followed by an open session in which a studio audience
was invited to participate. The show was generally organized into series of
three weeks, followed by an "In the News" program, on national and
international affairs. Sample topics included "Can Prisons Reform Criminals?,"
"Man and Society," "Are We a Christian Country?," and so on. The CBC and the
Association prepared and made available to interested viewers and groups
informational pamphlets on the particular subjects for discussion. The program
also welcomed viewers' responses, which formed the basis of a summary show
called "What People Say."
In the 1956 season, the format changed and became more flexible so that the
program could change according to the requirements of the topic uncer
consideration. The series opened with four programs, called "Resolved That. .
.," in the form of debates between teams of two to four speakers on the two
sides of the questions. The resolutions were: (a) "Strikes Are Never
Necessary"; (b) "The Death Penalty Should Go"; (c) "Farmers Need Higher Price
Supports'; and (d) "Canada Should Not Recognize Red China." A subsequent
series, titled "You Be The Critic," called for citizens to write in their
opinions on such questions as "Are Good Times Bad For Youth?"; "How Canadian
Should We Get?"; and "Who Doesn't Conform?" Viewers' answers were the basis
for discussion in the shows. A later series, called "Take It From Here," began
shows with a dramatic sketch that illustrated such subjects as "Will Money
Solve Our Educational Problems?"; "Are Easy Payments Too Easy?"; and "Bright
and Dull: Should They Be Segregated In School?" and to prompt discussion.
In many ways, Citizens' Forum was an innovative, adventurous, and successful
attempt at participatory programming in television. It extended its own
possibilities by travelling to different cities throughout the country, and
sometimes used the telephone phone-in format to reach out to viewers and
listeners.
Citizens' Forum was renamed The Sixties and adapted in format with the name
change.
Days vary 10:00-10:30 a.m., 12 Oct-22 Oct 1971
A series of half-hour documentaries on sixteen major Canadian cities. including
Victoria, Kingston, Ottawa, Charlottetown, Edmonton, Saint John, Regina,
Fredricton, St. John's, Winnipeg, Halifax. The programs were produced in 1967
and originally broadcast on Toronto and Montreal stations only in 1968.
Fri 10:45-11:00 p.m., 4 Jun-25 Jun 1954
A short lived, late evening, fifteen minute program of music on disk from
Toronto, with Marion Clarke and Rick Campbell.
Thu 6:30-6:45 p.m., 5 Jul-27 Sep 1962
Click was a fifteen minute program for the amateur photographer. CBC
announcers Frank Herbert and Ken Haslam, both photographers themselves,
presented information on equipment, processes, and techniques in all forms of
picture taking: black and while or colour, still or motion picture. In
addition, the program included short features that took the viewer outside the
studio to a police photography laboratory to examine forensic techniques, or to
the National Research laboratories to see hou photography is used in scientific
research. The first few shows dealt with holiday photographs, shooting and
editing eight millimetre movies, and how to use a light meter. Doug Stephen
produced Click in Toronto.
Tue 4:30-5:00 p.m., 11 Dec 1974-29 Jan 1975
Don Elder produced this half-hour, weekly nature protram for young people.
which featured Clarke Wallace and Albert Belo.
Sun 10:00-10:30 p.m., 6 Oct 1957-14 Sep 1958
Wed 10:30-11:00 p.m., 8 Oct 1958-23 Sep 1959
Thu 9:00-9:30 p.m., 1 Oct 1959-29 Sep 1960
Tue 10:00-10:30 p.m., 4 Oct 1960-27 Jun 1961
Tue 10:00-11:00 p.m., 4 Jul-26 Sep 1961
Sun 10:00-11:00 p.m., 1 Oct 1961-17 Jun 1962
Sun 10:00-11:00 p.m., 9 Sep 1962-25 Aug 1963
McLean had assembled a creative production group for work onscreen and off. He
worked with an advisory board, which comprised Patrick Watson, Bernard Trotter,
Peter McDonald, Frank W. Peers, and Hugh Gillies. McLean's associate producers
were Watson and Richard Ballentine. The show had three story editors with
different, but related experience in journalism. George Ronald and Douglas
Leiterman had both come from print: Ronald had been a city editor after years
of experience as a correspondent, and Leiterman had for five years worked as a
parliamentary correspondent for Southam news. Ron Krantz, the third story
editor, had worked principally in broadcasting, as a European correspondent for
the CBC, and as a writer for Graphic.
Close-Up's interviewers included program host J. Frank Willis, Charles
Templeton, Pierre Berton, then the managing editor of Maclean's magazine,
Elaine Grand, Percy Saltzman, Dorothy Sangster, Jack Webster, and, later in the
program's history, Barbara Moon, Bob Quintrell, and Robert Hoyt.
McLean modelled at least the spirit of Close-Up on the impertinent, alert, and
cometimes contentious interviews of Mike Wallace in the U.S.A. Close- Up
interviews were praised for staying with the subject's work and its
significance, and for not being celebrity puff pieces. The program's approach
reflected respect for the interview subjects and for the audience, which
brought it favour as well as guests who might not otherwise be seen on
television, such as Bertrand Russell, Somerset Maugham, Dame Edith Sitwell,
Anthony Eden, EVelyn Waugh, or Viscount Montgomery.
Close-Up did not shy away from interviews with controversial figures, such as
singer Paul Robeson, or topics, such as euthanasia or homosexuality, in a 1957
interview with an anonymous British gay, conducted by Elaine Grand. It also
included documentary features from around the world, such as Alan King's 196l
documentary on Morocco. By the series' final season, however, executive
producer Jim Guthro announced that Close-Up would concentrate more on
documentaries about social issues and on Canadian affairs.
Photo (courtesy of CBC) shows Pierre Berton, Charles Templeton,
J. Frank Willis.
Fri 8:30-9:00 p.m., 7 Jun-27 Sep 1957
A summer replacement for The Plouffe Family, Club O'Connor represented piano
player Billy O'Connor's return to CBC televison after an absence of a year. On
this half-hour musical variety show from Toronto, he was accompanied by his
band, with Jackie Richardson on bass, Ken Gill on guitar, vic Centro on
accordion, and drummer and singer Johnny Lindon, as well as singer Sylvia
Murphy. All but Lindon had worked with O'Connor on his radio show. Bill
Isbister wrote musical arrangements for the show, and Don Cameron was the host.
Guests included dancers Joey Hollingsworth and the Taylor Twins, singer Georges
Lafleche, and Hal harvey and Pat Rafferty of the Dumbells. Club O'Connor was
produced by Syd Wayne.
Tue 6:15-6:45 p.m., 18 Oct 1960-27 Jun 1961
Thu 6:15-6:45 p.m., 8 Mar-5 Apr 1962
Club 6 was the CBC's early 1960s attempt at programming for a teenage audience.
It followed the lead of Dick Clark's u.S. perennial, American Bandstand,
although it also included a dose of public affairs. The producers selected one
high shcool each week. Interviews by host Mike Darrow, from Toronto top forty
radio station CHUM, with students stressed the school's academic achievement.
Co-host Bob Willson helped with high school news, and To, Ryan reported sports.
The show included music and dancing, but at a muted level, within the bounds of
good taste. Musical regulars included Tommy Ambrose and Pat Hervey (l96l-62),
the Mickey Shannon combo, and the Walter Boys, a vocal quartet. Denny Spence
and Paddy Sampson produced Club 6.
Sun 9:00-10:00 p.m., 16 Dec 1973-17 Feb 1974
Fri 10:00-11:00 p.m., 26 Apr-28 Jun 1974 (R)
Sun 9:00-10:00 p.m., 29 Sep-1 Dec 1974
Sat 9:00-10:00 p.m., 23 Aug-30 Aug 1975 (R)
For its crime-related series, CBC drama has continually tried to find an angle
in the professions of its investigators. The Collaborators were the forensic
scientists who worked with the police. Richard Gilbert created this program,
in which Michael Kane played the gruff and instinctive Detective Sergeant Jim
Brewer, and Paul Harding and Toby Tarnow played the scientists, Dr. Charles
Erickson and his assistant Liz Roman. The program attempted to deal with the
investigative process in an egalitarian way, from the scene of the crime to the
police station to the lab. However, the producers and viewers soon found that
there was more drama in fires in the streets than in bunsen burners. Paul
Harding left the series after the first season of ten one-hour shows, and noted
that Kane had dominated the show as the principal crime solver.
Kane himself appeared in only three episodes in the second season, and left the
show because of health reasons. His replacement, Quebec actor Donald Pilon,
played Detective Sergeant Richard Tremblay, a police officer of a different
personality. Brewer, with his rugged looks, seemed more harassed and
emotional, well within the accepted type of the television cop or detective,
while Tremblay was relaxed, even stoic, and rational. cccSupporting actors
included Lawrence Benedict as Detective Quinn and Leslie Carlson as Detective
Kaminski.
Executive producers Richard Gilbert (l974) and Brian Walker (l975) drew on many
of English Canada's distinguished writers and directors for the show.
Directors included Peter Carter, Rene Bonniere ("All The King's Men," "A Touch
of Madness"), Don Haldane ("Beyond All Reasonable Doubt"), Graham Parker. Allan
King, Don Shebib ("Deedee," "Once Upon A Time In Genarro"), and Stan Olson.
Grahame Woods, George Robertson, Lyal Brown, Tony Sheer, Claude Harz, and Carol
Bolt, among others, wrote for the show.
Sun 5:00-5:30 p.m., 24 May-5 Jul 1970
Collage, formerly called Music To Remember, was a half-hour of light music,
produced by Neil Andrews, with an orchestra conducted by Lucio Agostini, for
segments produced in Toronto, and by Meredith Davies, for segments produced in
Vancouver. The show's title was subsequently changed to Music Album.
Sat 2:00-4:00 p.m., 24 Sep 1977-19 Mar 1978
CBC sports gave a nineteen part series covering sollegiate sports the title The
College Game. The autumn segment of the series were given over to college
football, leading up to the Canadian College Bown on 19 November. Doug
Saunders was the host for these games, with Steve Armitage calling the action
and Whit Tucker providing commentary. The final six weeks of the series were
devoted to a series of basketball games, with commentators Ted Reynolds, Don
Wittman, and the coach of Canada's national team, Jack Donahue. Jim Spalding
produced the football broadcasts, and Cec Browne oversaw the basketball
coverage. Michael Lansbury was the series producer.
Sun 12:00-12:30 p.m., 2 Apr-4 Jun 1978
Thu 4:00-4:30 p.m., 6 Apr-8 Jun 1978 (R)
John Robert Colombo, author of Colombo's Canadian Quotations, hosted this quiz
and discussion show, a kind of nationalist and adolescent Fighting Words. In a
different city each week, Colombo challenged a panel of high school students to
identify the author of a quotation about Canada or by a Canadian, and then led
them in a discussion of the passage. The show's producer was Richard Donovan.
Wed 5:00-5:30 p.m., 18 May-22 Jun 1960
Members of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet interpreted a different theme, such as
"springtime," each week in this half-hour show for children, which was
originally scheduled to run for twelve weeks. The program included films and
music, as well as dance. The show was written by Marion Waldman. The
choreographer was Brian Macdonald and the musical director Bob McMullin. Neil
Harris produced the series in the CBC Winnipeg studios.
Tue 8:00-8:30 p.m., 24 Jun -16 Sep 1958
Shane Rimmer starred in Come Fly With Me, a musical variety show that replaced
Front Page Challenge in the summer of 1958. The program was produced in
European, U.S., and Canadian cities. At around the same time, the CBC sent
Nathan Cohen and Fighting Words to the U.K., and opened its trans-Canada
microwave network, all representing a kind of expansion of activity for CBC
television. Come Fly With Me also featured the Don Wright Singers and the Rudy
Toth orchestra. Programs originated in Paris, Rome, Edinburgh, New York,
Niagara Falls, Vancouver, Banff, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Jim Guthro
was the producer.
Tue 5:30-6:00 p.m., 1 Oct 1963-23 Jun 1964
In the wake of the folk music revival of the early 1960s, CBC Vancouver
presented Come Listen Awhile, an afternoon show. Each week, host Doug
Campbell, singers Bud Spencer, pianist Pat Trudell, and the George Colangis
orchestra welcomed guest performers for a half-hour of folk music. Guests
included Claire Klein, Betty phillips, Ernie Prentice, Lucille Lipman, Jim
Johnson, Eleanor Collins, Doris Lavoie, and Ina Conant. come Listen Awhile was
produced by Alex Pratt.
Sat 10:15-10:45 p.m., 1 Feb-8 Mar 1969
Comedy Cafe was an interim program, which filled the scheduling gap in the
Saturday post-hockey/pre-national news slot after the failure of Barris and
Company and before Comedy Crackers. It had been broadcast locally, in
Montreal, in black and white in autumn 1968, and converted to colour for the
network in February. For the most part, the cast and writing staff of Comedy
Cafe duplicated the personnel of the popular CBC radio series, Funny You Should
Say That. The television show featured Barrie Baldaro, Ted Zeigler, and Joan
Stuart from the radio broadcasts, and added Dave Broadfoot and George Carron.
Comedy Cafe included sketches with formats that had been tested in the radio
series, such as "The Tavern," a collection of different types of men gathered
in a typically Canadian beverage room where they discuss the events of the day
over a few dozen draft, or the L'Anglaises, a Francophone husband and an
Anglophone wife (a bit originated by Peter Cullen and Joan Stuart on radio, and
performed by George Carron and Stuart in the television version). Perennial
revue performer Dave Broadfoot also gave the show addresses from the Member for
Kicking Horse Pass, a character he had played in Spring Thaw and elsewhere.
The writers were John Morgan, also of Funny You Should Say That, and Martin
Bronstein, and the program was produced by Dale Barnes.
Wed 10:30-11:00 p.m., 4Feb-16 Sep 1970
Comedy Crackers, like its predecessor, Comedy Cafe, was produced in Montreal by
Dale Barnes, and starred Barrie Baldaro, Dave Broadfoot, George Carron, Joan
Stuart, and Ted Zeigler in a series of comic and satiric sketches and
blackouts. It resembled the earlier show in most respects. The program was
taped before an audience at the Versailles Room of the Windsor Hotel, and also
featured announcers Alec Bollini and Stanley Gibbons, and the Harry Marks
orchestra.
Regular gags, such as the L'Anglaises, with Joan Stuart and George Carron as
Anglo wife and Francophone husband, or the B & B Pub, with Carron and
Baldaro as co-owners Jean-Guy Brisebois and Bert Bromhead, lampooned the
friction between the two official cultures and languages.
Fri 9:00-10:0 p.m., 6 May-27 May 1977
An hour of country music, produced by Jack O'Neil at CBC Halifax, with hosts
Tim Daniels and Julia Lynn and Vic Mullin's bluegrass band, Meadowgreen, and
their guests.
Tue/Thu 3:00-3:30 p.m., 21 Sep-23 Dec 1982
Mon/Wed 3:30-4:00 p.m., 27 Dec-6 Apr 1983
Tue/Thu 3:00-3:30 p.m., 12 Apr-19 May 1983
Produced in Toronto by Sandra Faire, Coming Attractions was an entertainment
news magazine. Hosts Patricia White and Bob Karstens presented news from the
worlds of music, video, art, theatre, the movies, televison, and fashion.
Mon/Wed/Fri 4:30-5:00 p.m., 15 Sep 1975-25 Feb 1976
Mon 430-5:00 p.m., 13 Sep 1976-28 Mar 1977
Tue 4:30-5:00 p.m., 4 Oct 1977-28 Mar 1978
Rosemary Radcliffe became familiar to Toronto television audiences as a
frizzy-haired, zany but smart young woman in the early 1970s through her work
on the local CBLT-TV broadcast Sunday Morning (a comedy and public affairs show
"for people whose Sunday mornings start at noon"), Toronto theatregoers got to
know her as part of the Second City cast. Executive producer Don Elder and
producer/director Trevor Evans drew on the talent of other Second City cast
members when they devised a replacement for Dr. Zonk and the Zonkins, which
children found too childish, and created Coming Up Rosie, starring Radcliffe as
Rosie Tucker.
Rosie, a recent graduate of film school, rented space in the basement of a
building at 99 Sumach, and tried to produce documentaries. There, she found
herself surrounded by a troupe of loonies who helped or hindered her work.
Barrie Baldaro played her assistant, Dudley Nightshade; Dan Hennessey was Ralph
Oberding, a salesman for the Neva-Rust Storm Door Company; Fiona Reid played
Mona Swicker and Catherine O'Hara was Myrna Wallbacker, operators for the
Ding-A-Ling Answering Service; John Stocker portrayed elevator operator Dwayne
Kramer; John Candy was Wally Wypyzypychwk of Sleep-Tite Burglar Alarms; and Dan
Aykroyd was Purvis Bickle, the building janitor.
This entertaining situation comedy for older children boasted knockabout
action, with stories that had characters run from one office to another to the
elevator to broom closets, and clever, rapid-fire dialogue. The shows were
written by Barbara Evans, David Mayerovitch, and Stuart Northey. Evans had had
experience with this type of clever kids' show, as Kiddo the Clown, a 1960s
show for CFTO-TV in Toronto. He left Coming Up Rosie, and was replaced for the
final season by Hedley Read.
See This Land.
Thu 10:30-11:00 p.m., 9 Sep-30 Sep 1965
The CBC cooperated with the BBC and Australia's ABC to produce this series of
four half-hour performances. Canadians contributed two segments, with radio
announcer Phil McKellar as host for both. In one, he introduced the Jimmy Dale
Orchestra and the Sonny Greenwich Quartet, with guitar legend Sonny Greenwich,
Doug Willson on bass, Bob Angus on piano, and Jerry Fuller on drums. The other
Canadian show presented the Tony Collacott Trio, with Collacott playing piano,
Bob Puce on bass, and Ricky Manus on drums, and the Rob McConnell Quartet, in
which trombonist McConnell was supported by Ed Bickert on guitar, Bill Butto on
bass, and Bruck Farquhar on drums.
Sun 12:15-12:30 p.m., 13 Jan-17 Feb 1957
Sun 12:15-12:30 p.m., 2 Feb-6 Apr 1958
Commonwealth Televiews, broadcast by arrangement with the united kingdom
Information Service, was a series of six fifteen minute programs intended to
show Canada elements of its fellow nations in the British Commonwealth. The
programs included a profile of modern living in the town of Harlow; an
interview on atomic energy, with Sir John Cockcraft, by Robert McKenzie;
Matthew Halton's interview with Sir Robert Scott, Commissioner-General for
Southeast Asia; a program on the Arts council of Great Britain; and an
interview with the Prime Minister of the Gold Coast, Kwame Nkrumah.
Mon-Fri 4:00-4:30 p.m., 3 OCt 1966-25 Oct 1967
In the daily game show, Communicate, one member of a team tried to guess the
name of a person or thing from one-word clues that his or her partner provided.
Two teams competed in a best-of-three contest, and the winners met new
contestants until they were beaten. Celebrity contestants formed one-half of
each team. Winning contestants--at least the 'non-celebrity" type--took home
cash prizes. Among the famous or moderately famous people who appeared on this
show were the husband-and-wife competitors, Bill and Marilyn Walker, Frances
Hyland and Paxton Whitehead from the Shaw Festival, Libby Christensen and Jimmy
Tapp, and U.S. actors Cliff Robertson and Jane Morgan. Character actor Tom
Harvey was the quizmaster until Bill Walker took his place in Cecember 1966.
Communicate was one of the rare examples on the CBC of a game show in the U.S.
style, with cumulative prizes based on competition among "ordinary people" (as
distinct from panel quiz shows such as Front Page Challenge, where the contest
among well-known players is incidental to the chat that follows the solution,
and the "prizes" to persons who contribute ideas are nominal). Communicate was
directed by Des Hardman and produced by Mel Gunton.
Various Times, 9 Jan 1959-1 Jul 1963
Thu 6:30-7:00 p.m., 14 Jul-25 Aug 1966 (R)
Comparisons was a series of one hour films produced by the National Film Boards
that set elements of life in Canada alongside practices in other parts of the
world. The films included Four Families; Age of Dissent; Four Religions;
Suburban Living: Six Solutions; Four Teachers; Courtship; An Enduring
Tradition; and Of Sport And Men.
Sun 10:00-10:30 p.m., 11 Jul-12 Sep 1965
Sun 10:00-10:30 p.m., 3 Jul-21 Aug 1966
This Hour Has Seven Days nurtured a number of energetic, young producers, and
some found an alternate outlet for their talents and interests in a workshop
series that the CBC aired in the summers of 1965 and 1966. Compass represented
experimentation and and expansion of conventional reportage for the CBC. Over
its ten week schedule, Compass presented a wide variety of half-hour
documentaries and studio productions under executive producer John Kennedy in
l965. In the first program, for example, producer Brian O'Leary produced a
documentary portrait of a Toronto family in which all the children were adopted
are from different ethnic groups, followed by a play by the Rev. Malcolm Boyd
in which whites live in a society dominated byt blacks. Subsequent shows
included an examination of the United Nations and International Cooperation
Year, and The Junkie Priest, a profile of Father Daniel Egan, founder of New
York's Village Haven for drug addicts, both by Beryl Fox; an investigation into
the assimilation of Jews in society, produced by Sam Levene; a look at ballet
in Canada, by Tom Koch; a profile of Marcello Mastroianni, produced by Peter
Pearson; an examination of interstellar communication, and and a show with
singer Leon Bibb, produced by Jim Carney.
The 1966 season opened with a revue, called A Sign Of The Times, in which
members of Second City, the U.S. group, and Canadian performers Pam Hyatt Dinah
Christie. Stan Daniels, Jean Templeton, Barrie Baldaro, Eric House, and Dave
Broadfoot satirized current issues, including sex, the Vietnam war, racial
prejudice, and civil violence. This program was produced by Ross McLean, and
directed by David Ruskin. the series continued with an interview with Norman
Podhoretz, by Patrick Watson, produced by Alex Brown; a program on the
Establishment of English Canada, prepared by Larry Zolf; The Ecstasy Is
Sometimes Fantastic, a film of the rock 'n' roll group, the Checkmates,
produced by Glenn Sarty; Charles Oberdorf's profile of Judge J.H. Sissons, an
itinerant justice in the Canadian North; and a look into a psychedelic club in
Vancouver, by Jim Carney and David Ruskin. Jim Carney worked as executive
producer for the series in its second summer.
Return to CBC Series Index
COMPASS
Cine Club
Creator and executive producer Ross McLean spun Close-Up, a prime-time, weekly
program off from Tabloid, the successful, daily, early evening public affairs
show. The CBC supported the series with a substantial production budget that
permitted McLean to send correspondents and camera crews to far locations for
interviews and documentaries. Originally a half-hour, Close-Up expanded to a
full hour in 196l, and programs were generally made up of segments lasting
eight or nine minutes each. Interviews sent live to air and a commitment to
produce engaging television programming on current affairs gave Close-Up a
spontaneous quality that made it lively and popular.
