CBC Television Series, 1952-1982
by Blaine Allan
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THE FRANKIE HOWERD SHOW
Thu 9:00-9:30 p.m., 26 Feb-8 Apr 1976
Sat 8:30-9:00 p.m., 24 Apr-5 Jun 1976
The CBC imported British comic Frankie Howerd, who had recently appeared in the
BBC series Up Pompeii, to star in a situation comedy to be called Oooh,
Canada.' Howerd's shtik was vulgar, typically English toilet humour and the
bawdy double entendre, as he usually functioned as a character in the story as
well as the show's host and commentator on the action. The premise of the
show, which was retitled before it went to the air, held that Howerd played a
British immigrant, unemployed in Toronto. Each show offered a different
opportunity for Howerd to make a success of himself and to fail. Through the
course of the series, he has to confront the different Canadian institutions
that might put him on the road to success.
Howerd lived in a run-down rooming house, along with the rest of the show's
regular, supporting characters. They included his nosy landlady, played by
Ruth Springford, and her son, played by Gary Files; Wally Wheeler, played by
Jack Duffy, who lived in obscurity in the basement to avoid making alimony
payments; and Denise, a model and dancer played by Peggy Mahon, who gave Howerd
the opportunity to lace the show with jokes about her breasts.
The show offered a form of comedy distinctly different from the CBC's own King
of Kensington, whose time slot The Frankie Howerd Show took for the first part
of its run, or such highly rated U.S. shows as Laverne and Shirley or Happy
Days (which were vulgar in their own, more innocent ways). Nevertheless it ran
only thirteen weeks.
The program was produced by Bill Lynn and Norman Campbell, and written by Bill
Lynn, Jerry O'Flanagan, and Ken Finkleman.
Fri 5:30-6:00 p.m., 2 Oct 1964-25 Jun 1965
Frank Cameron introduced music with regulars Patricia McKinnon, Karen Oxley,
D.J. Jefferson, and Brian Ahern and the Brunswick Playboys in this variety show
from Halifax. See Music Hop.
Sun 2:00-2:30 p.m., 3 Jan-30 May 1965
Sun 1:00-1:30 p.m., 2 Jan
Sun 3:30-4:00 p.m., 3 Apr-10 Jul 1966
Gerard and Sheila Arthur, the husband and wife team who were heard on CBC radio
in Time For French, were the creators and principals of this television series,
which presented conversational French for English- speaking audiences. (As of
autumn 1965, the radio show was also called French For Love.) In sketches,
with dialogue in both French and English, the Arthurs argued in such a way that
the audience could understand the discussion in both languages. The show also
included two other segments. One, called What The Dictionaries Don't Tell,
concerned idioms and subtleties of the French language. For the other, called
Pages choisies, Gerard Arthur read a text in French, and followed that with an
English translation.
As of 28 February 1965, Gerard Arthur retired from the show, but Sheila Arthur
continued to write the scripts. Their places were taken by Felixe Fitzgerald
and Paul Hebert. By the start of the second season, however, the Arthurs
returned as co-hosts, although the sketches were performed by a series of
actors, including Carol Zorro and Yvon Dufour, and Lise Lasalle and Raymond
Cosgrove.
French For Love was produced in Montreal by Denyse Adam.
Fri 5:00-5:30 p.m., 1 Oct 1976-25 Mar 1977
Fri 4:30-5:00 p.m., 7 Oct 1977-8 Sep 1978
Fri 4:30-5:00 p.m., 5 Jan-30 Mar 1979
This was the blanket title for a series of children's programmes purchased from
the BBC and elsewhere.
Fri 5:30-6:00 p.m., 19 Oct 1962-12 Apr 1963
Friday Island was the fictional location for this half-hour comedy/drama
produced in Vancouver, and created by the people who had previously developed
Tidewater Tramp. The Granger family, from Ottawa, visited this gulf island off
the coast of British Columbia, saw their future. and opened a tourist lodge
there. Mom and Dad Granger were played by Lillian Carlson and Walter Marsh,
and their two sons were Stephen, played by Mark de Courcey, and Tadpole, played
by Kevin Burchett. Other members of the family were James Onley, as Grandpa,
and Rae Brown, as Aunt Sophie. Mildred Franklin played Aunt Vi, Reagh Cooper
was the young boy, Boomer, and Niki Lipman was Barbara. Robert Clothier was
the merchant, Archie, and Barbara Tremain was the postmistress, Annabelle.
They ran the general store (although they did not exactly run it together; they
had not spoken to each other for years, and had built a fence down the middle
of the building to separate the shop from the post office).
The program was written by Peter Statner, Christine Best, and Peter Power, and
produced by John Thorn.
Tue 4:30-4:45 p.m., 30 Sep 1958-23 Jun 1959
Wed 4:30-5:00 p.m., 3 Oct 1959-6 Apr 1960
Tue/Wed 4:30-4:45 p.m., 6 Apr 1960-
Mon/Wed/Fri 4:30-4:45 p.m., 17 Oct 1960-30 Sep 1961
Mon/Wed/Fri 3:30-3:45 p.m., 2 Oct-31 Dec 1961
Mon/Wed/Fri 4:30-4:45 p.m., 3 Jan-29 Jun 1962
Mon /Wed/Fri 2:45-3:00 p.m., 15 Oct 1962-28 Jun 1963
Mon-Fri 3:30-3:45 p.m., 14 Oct 1963-26 Jun 1964
Mon-Fri 11:00-11:15 a.m., 19 Oct 1964-28 May 1965
Mon-Fri 10:30-10:45 a.m., 18 Oct 1965-27 May 1966
For many years, one of the most familiar and welcome faces on CBC television
was that of the Friendly Giant, Bob Homme. One of the the most genial and
relaxted presences on television, Friendly usually introduced each show, "Once
upon a time, not long ago, not far away. . ." The camera might survey the main
street of a miniature town until it stopped at an enormous boot, and then tilt
up to his face. "I'll hurry over to the castle and go in the back door so I
can let the drawbridge down and open the big doors for you," he told us. "Are
you ready?" he asked. "Here's my castle." Then, as a harp and tinwhistle duo
played the theme music, "Early One Morning," the drawbridge of a miniature
castle lowered and front doors, lettered "Friendly Giant," swung open to invite
young viewers in. In front of the fireplace, Friendly's gigantic hand always
arranged "one little chair for one of you, and a bigger chair for two more to
curl up in, and for someone who likes to rock, a rocking chair in the middle."
Then, he instructed us to "look up. . . waayyy up," and he called Rusty, a
rooster who lived in a sack that hung on the castle wall. They were joined,
shortly, by Jerome, the giraffe, who stuck his head through the window that
Friendly always stood by. For the remainder of the fifteen minute show, they
would chat, read a story book, and play music and sing. Then, Friendly would
say goodbye to Jerome and Rusty, and to his young guests. He let them out the
front door and pulled up the drawbridge after them as, in the sky above the
castle, a cow jumped over the moon.
In the tradition of genial television father figures, such as Captain Kangaroo
and, later, Mister Rogers, the Friendly Giant welcomed young guests into his
television home and provided a quiet, entertaining, and educational time. One
account of the show noted that the puppet characters represented typical
children and points of identification for young viewers--Rusty, who was small,
and spoke rapidly in a high-pitched falsetto, as the excitable younger child,
and the large, drawling, low- voiced Jerome as the know-it-all, older
sibling--and Friendly served as a reasonable mediator (Maclean's [April 1970]).
The format for The Friendly Giant was strict, in that the beginning and end of
the show were the same each day, and what went on in the middle would vary in
substance, but not in shape. The set formula for the show's structure opened
up different areas that the cast of two could work with more freely. The
performnces by Homme, as the giant, and Rod Coneybeare, as the voices of both
Rusty and Jerome, had an easygoing, conversational tone. Homme outlined the
show and he and Coneybeare rehearsed without written dialogue before going in
front of the cameras. Each show dealt with a specific theme, such as going
fishing or the reasons people wear hats or the idea of having to choose, and
the story and the song generally illustrated or had something to do with that
theme.
Perhaps the most important element of The Friendly Giant was its conscientious
and accessible approach to music for children. Friendly played wind
instruments, such as the recorder, the pennywhistle, or the clarinet, Rusty
played harp (which was actually played by John Duncan), and Jerome sang along.
Once a week, they were joined by a pair of puppet cats who played a musical
concert of their own. These simple little ensembles encouraged children
to appreciate songs and to make music.
The Friendly Giant was created by Bob Homme, and produced by Michael Spivak
(1958-59), Dan McCarthy (1959-60), Doug Davidson (1960-65), Ed Mercel
(1965-66), Hedley Read (1966-7l), Graham Doyle (197l-74), Gloria White
(1974-75), Barry Cranston (1975-76), and John Ryan (1976-84). The show's run
ended at the same time as the CBC instituted massive budget cuts imposed by the
federal government, although the network denied that there was any
connection.
Fri 8:30-9:00 p.m., 1 Oct 1954-1 Jul 1955
Byng Whittaker and Frosia Gregory were the hosts for this half-hour, musical
variety show, which had the format of a masked ball. The three Niosi brothers,
Bert, Joe, and Johnny, provided music, as did the orchestra, conducted by Jimmy
Namaro. Harvey Hart produced.
Wed 8:30-9:00 p.m., 3 Jul-18 Sep 1963
Pepsi-Cola Canada and Kraft Foods sponsored this twelve week, musical variety
series in the summer of 1963. Before a studio audience each week, on Front And
Centre's star-shaped, thrust stage, well-known Canadian entertainers performed
and then introduced new talent to the television audience. On the first show,
for example, Quebec singer Micheline presented Les Jerolas, a variety act (who
had appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show when the U.S. show was broadcast from the
O'Keefe Centre in Toronto, and consequently, ironically, had already been seen
by a larger audience than Front And Centre could ever attract). Other guests
included Allan Blye (who presented Malka and Joso), Pat Hervey (with drummer
Barry Hart), Shirley Harmer, Wally Koster, Tommy Common, Larry Mann, Ian and
Sylvia, Patti Lewis, and Tommy Hunter. Each week, the show also employed a
different musical director and choreographer. They included conductors Lucio
Agostini, Ricky Hyslop, and Eddie karam, and dancers Don Gillies and Bob Van
Norman.
Front and Centre was written by Chris Beard and produced by Terry Kyne, whose
next project would be the late night variety show, Nightcap.
Mon 9:30-10:00 p.m., 24 Jun-7 Oct 1957
Tue 8:00-8:30 p.m., 22 Oct 1957-17 Jun 1958
Tue 8:00-8:30 p.m., 28 Sep 1958-16 Jun 1959
Tue 9:00-9:30 p.m., 25 Sep 1959-21 JUn 1960
Tue 9:30-10:00 p.m., 20 Sep 1960-13 Jun 1961
Tue 9:30-10:00 p.m., 19 Sep 1961-26 Jun 1962
Tue 9:30-10:00 p.m., 25 Sep 1962-25 Jun 1963
Tue 9:30-10:00 p.m., 24 Sep 1963-23 Jun 1964
Tue 9:30-10:00 p.m., 29 Sep 1964-29 Jun 1965
Tue 9:00-9:30 p.m., 14 Sep 1965-29 Jun 1966
Mon 10:00-10:30 p.m., 12 Sep 1966-12 Jun 1967
Mon 9:00-9:30 p.m., 11 Sep 1967-10 Jun 1968
Mon 9:00-9:30 p.m., 23 Sep 1968-23 Jun 1969
Mon 8:30-9:00 p.m., 29 Sep 1969-27 Jun 1970
Mon 8:30-9:00 p.m., 21 Sep 1970-14 Jun 1971
Mon 9:30-10:00 p.m., 20 Sep 1971-12 Jun 1972
Tue 9:30-10:00 p.m., 12 Sep 1972-3 Apr 1973
Sat 8:00-8:30 p.m., During NHL Playoffs, 1973
Tue 9:30-10:00 p.m., 22 May-12 Jun 1973
Tue 9:30-10:00 p.m., 18 Sep 1973-20 Apr 1974
Sat 8:00-8:30 p.m., 21 Apr 1973-22 Jun 1974
Tue 9:30-10:00 p.m., 17 Sep 1974-
Sat 8:00-8:30 p.m., 12 Apr-14 Jun 1975
Mon 8:30-9:00 p.m., 22 Sep 1975-31 May 1976
Mon 9:00-9:30 p.m., 20 Sep 1976-6 Jun 1977
Mon 8:30-9:00 p.m., 19 Sep 1977-5 Jun 1978
Fri 8:30-9:00 p.m., 22 Sep 1978-15 Sep 1979
Fri 8:30-9:00 p.m., 8 Oct 1979-12 Sep 1980
Mon 9:30-10:00 p.m., 15 Sep 1980-25 May 1981
Mon 9:30-10:00 p.m., 1 Jun-3 Jul 1981 (R)
Fri 8:30-9:00 p.m., 3 Jul-25 Sep (R)
Sun 7:30-8:00 p.m., 4 Oct 1981-30 May 1982
Mon 9:30-10:00 p.m., 31 May-14 Jun 1982
Mon 9:30-10:00 p.m., 14 Jun-6 Sep 1982 (R)
Sun 8:30-9:00 p.m., 26 Sep 1982-22 May 1983
Front Page Challenge is an axiom of Canadian television. Although an
entertainment program, its principal reason for being was informational. The
series, created by writer John Aylesworth and developed by producer Harvey
Hart, started as an inexpensive summer replacement for The Denny Vaughan Show
and before the summer run was up, the new quiz show had usurped the time slot
for Vaughan's musical variety program.
Each week, three regular panelists and a guest asked questions of challengers,
who were usually concealed from view, in order to guess headline-making news
stories. After each quiz, the audience watched a newsreel-style account of the
story, and the mystery guest descended from the booth above and behind the
panel to sit for an interview with the four panelists. In the early period of
the program's history, there were usually three quizzes, which lasted four
minutes each. Consequently, the show ran at a quick pace and interviews were
very brief. Later, the game was shortened to three, then two minutes, and the
panel played only two games per show, allowing more time for the question
period.
On the debut broadcast, 24 June 1957, panelists Gordon Sinclair, Toby Robins,
Alex Barris, and guest Scott Young, with the help of moderator Win Barron and
announcer Bernard (Bunny) Cowan, identified Alfred Scadding, a survivor of the
Moose River mining disaster, Madame Alex Legros, who attended at the birth of
the Dionne Quintuplets, and Jean Drapeau, the mayor of Montreal, who
represented the investigation into vice in that city. The panelists were
chosen after extensive auditions and tryouts. Barron was the commentator for
Canadian Paramount News and, besides the credibility that his news voice
offered, also presented himself as a distinguished presence. Sinclair, a
veteran reporter and commentator on Toronto's private radio station CFRB
appeared as a direct, brash, opinionated questioner, and filled the producers'
needs for a "curmudgeon" on the panel. Also a reporter, Barris was associated
more with the entertainment beat through his column in the Globe and Mail, and
had also made a run at television in his own variety show, The Barris Beat.
Robins was chosen from a list of union television actresses, and her looks were
an issue (as they obviously were not with the choices of Sinclair and Barris).
John Aylesworth has insultingly confessed, "We had located plenty of
newspapermen without difficulty, but good-looking women reporters are so rare
we realized we would have to give a few actresses a trial." As an announcer,
Cowan was the commercial voice of Lever Brothers, and took on the job of the
show's announcer when that company decided to sponsor Front Page Challenge.
Before the end of the summer run, the lineup changed. Barron never adjusted to
television and appeared stiff and incapable of controlling the game, and was
sent on vacation. Barris was perceived as too flippant to be a panelist, but
producer Hart tried him out as a replacement in the moderator's chair. By the
time the show started its regular run, however, Fred Davis, the co-host of
CBC-TV's afternoon show Open House, and who had also had an on-air audition for
the job during the summer, became the moderator, and Pierre Berton, then
managing editor of Maclean's magazine, took the third regular spot on the
panel. The combination of Davis, Sinclair, Robins, Berton, and Cowan remained
intact until 196l.
Toby Robins had worked conscientiously to overcome her lack of experience in
journalism to play the game on a more nearly equal basis with Sinclair, Berton,
and their guest panelists, who could include news personalities such as June
Callwood, Mike Wallace, or Walter Cronkite, and she succeeded. However, where
Sinclair or Berton might gain attention for their incisive questions, for their
own opinions, or for putting an interview subject on the spot with a
potentially embarrassing question, Robins gained more press and viewer
attention for her wardrobe (which is perhaps surprising considering some of the
outlandish jackets and ties Sinclair wore) or other aspects of her appearance,
such as the period in 1959 when she wore a blonde wig. She was extremely
important to the success of the program in its early years. She represented a
young and lively professional woman to the Canadian television public. She
remained with the show through an entire pregnancy, and had a child without
having to miss a broadcast, and, as Barbara Frum has attested, made a mark in
the Canadian consciousness of the 1950s as a result. In summer 1959, she also
started to attract press by requesting more money for her appearances on Front
Page Challenge. In fact, the CBC attempted to undercut her by approaching June
Callwood to take the job at the same rate Robins was getting. Callwood
refused, Robins and the network reached an agreement, and she returned to the
show. Each summer, however, she held out for a raise, and used that as a
reason to leave the program to devote herself to a full-time acting career in
l96l.
After a series of on-air auditions with different women, Betty Kennedy became
the third permanent panelist (and "permanent" seems an appropriate word in
discussions of Front Page Challenge). Like Sinclair, Kennedy was well-known to
Toronto radio audiences for her work at CFRB, where she was an announcer and
skilled interviewer. Unlike her predecessor, who was notably bright and
lively, Kennedy projected a quieter and more knowledgeable intelligence and a
moderate and sympathetic conversational style. Like June Callwood and, later,
Barbara Frum, Betty Kennedy has been a hallmark for women in Canadian
journalism, most particularly for the wide public audiences she has gained on
Front Page Challenge.
For many years, then, one of the most familiar sights on Canadian television
was a panel with Gordon Sinclair on the far left, next to Betty Kennedy on his
left, with Pierre Berton at the far right, flanking a guest in the third seat.
The producers of Front Page Challenge have attracted hundreds of guest
challengers to the program, some predictable, others less so. Prime Ministers
Louis St. Laurent, John Diefenbaker, Lester Pearson, Pierre Trudeau, and Joe
Clark all showed up at various times, as did a battery of other federal,
provincial, and international politicians, journalists, and witnesses to
stories. One of the most important guests for the program was Eleanor
Roosevelt, whose 1958 appearance gave the show greater credibility and power to
attract international public figures and celebrities. Errol Flynn, who had
recently returned from Cuba, challenged the panelists to guess the story of the
Cuban Revolution. Igor Gouzenko appeared with a bag over his head, At several
points, Berton and Sinclair themselves have been challengers, Berton on weeks
when he was supposed to be out of town and absent from the broadcast and
Sinclair without his own knowledge, with Davis answering the questions or
another Front Page Challenge staff member resonding from the isolation booth
while wearing a Gordon Sinclair mask. In most cases, identification of the
concealed guest is enough to reveal the story. Perhaps the perfect Front Page
Challenger, however, as Pierre Berton and producer Jim Guthro have noted, was
Boris Karloff, who represented the Regina Cyclone of 19l2, which stranded him
when he was with a British theatre troupe then touring Canada.
The producers of Front Page Challenge, after Harvey Hart returned to CBC drama
at the end of the summer season in 1957, have been Jim Guthro (l957- 6l), Bob
Jarvis (l96l-62), Drew Crossan (l962-64), Don Brown (l964-73), and Ray
McConnell (l73-date). Writers for the show, since Aylesworth, have included
Alfie Scopp, Allan Manings, Jack Hutchinson, Chuck Weir, and Gary Lautens.
Since 1970, the show's guests have been booked by Lorraine Thomson. Since
Front Page Challenge went onto the regular pprogramming schedule in 1957, the
show has also featured an orchestra conducted by Lucio Agostini, then as now
something of a luxury for a supposedly low-cost game show. Starting in the
l970s, the show has also travelled to CBC production centres throughout Canada
for taping sessions.
In 1984, Gordon Sinclair died. His place as a regular panelist was taken by
Maclean's magazine columnist and Washington correspondent Allan Fotheringham.
Front Page Challenge has no numbers or jerseys that could have been retired in
Sinclair's honour, although senior panelist Pierre Berton moved into the
leadoff spot at the left of the desk while Fotheringham took the cleanup
position at the far right. Original panelist Toby Robins died in 1986.
Front Page Challenge is one of the few Canadian television programs to have its
own published history. See Alex Barris, Front Page Challenge: The 25th
Anniversary (Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 198l).
Sat 9:00-10:30 p.m., 5 May-29 Sep 1962
The CBC used this title for a series of movies to replace the Saturday night
hockey broadcast in the summer of 1962
Wed 9:00-10:30 p.m., 6 Oct 1976-2 Mar 1977
Wed 8:30-10:00 p.m., 18 Jan-15 Mar 1978
While John Hirsch was the head of CBC drama, the network commissioned and aired
a number of films and prestige dramatic productions under the title Front Row
Centre. They included, as the series opener, Sarah, with Zoe Caldwell as Sarah
Berhardt; Claude Jutra's film, Dreamspeaker, originally broadcast on For The
Record; Allan King's film adaptation of Carol Bolt's play, One Night Stand; and
Michel Tremblay's Les Belles Soeurs; a production of Pirandello's Six
Characters In Search Of An Author, directed by David Giles; and Ladies In
Waiting, with Martha Henry, Mary Savidge, and Moya Fenwick. The executive
producer was Robert Allen.
Sun 5:30-6:00 p.m., 4 Jan-31 May 1959
Frontiers, a series of documentaries produced at the National Film Board by
David Bairstow, replaced The Candid Eye in the television lineup. The films,
which outlined recent developments in fields such as science, medicine, and
industry, were written by a selection of writers, who included Charles Israel,
Alwyne Whatsley, William Weintraub, Gordon Burwash, and Sally Lindsay. In the
half-hour, Sunday afternoon slot, the network aired: Conquest Of Cold, in two
parts; Northern Town; Prairie Bonanza, which dealt with the petrochemical
industry; a film in two parts on automation in Canadian industry; People Of The
Peace, in two parts; Canada, World Citizen; a two part film on chemical
science; The Mine Makers; Canada, World Trader; and The Gifted Ones.
Thu 5:30-6:00 p.m., 5 Jul-27 Sep 1956
Fri 5:00-5:30 p.m., 5 Oct 1956-1 Feb 1957
Frank Heron was Captain Frank of the Fun Time Showboat in this thirty minute
show for children produced in Montreal. The show also starred two children,
Alan Jack and June Mack, and featured magician Tom Auburn and Otto Muller and
his orchestra. The show started with juggling or magic or a circus act. Alan
and June also showed viewers games that they could play, there was an animal
corner, and Elmer the elephant gave the kids tips on water and traffic safety.
Film segments took Heron and the two children on different adventures, up in an
aircraft, to the zoo, on a roller coaster ride, and so on. Roger Racine
produced Fun Time. Captain Frank's parrot was named Matey.
Wed 5:00-5:15 p.m., 6 Jul-21 Sep 1955
Mon 4:30-4:45 p.m., 26 Sep 1955-25 Jun 1956
Ian McTaggart Cowan showed live animals in this fifteen minute program for
children produced in Vancouver.
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