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BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows...
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Subject: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 08 Nov 07 - 06:51 PM I think it's time for us Canucks to pester and confuse the rest of the Mudcat with our unique knowlege of all those homegrown Canadian-produced TV shows that they have probably never heard of, and probably couldn't be bothered to either. ;-) For a start... ahem! "Quentin Durgens, MP" Wow! Stirring stuff, eh? Here's a link providing answers to all the questions you had about the show, but were always afraid to ask: Quentin Durgens, MP |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Bob the Postman Date: 08 Nov 07 - 07:39 PM One of the most Mudcatable obscure Canadian TV series would have to be the truly bizarre "Chez Helene" starring folksinger Helene Baillargeon. Chez Helene was the only show on TV which we kids would rather do anything else than watch. "What's on TV?" "Chez Helene." "I think I'll clean up my room then." For more OCTV check out this site. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: number 6 Date: 08 Nov 07 - 07:39 PM The Plouffe Family Cannonball ... I'm not too sure if this was a fully Canadian production. Maybe some other canuck can verify this. Razzle Dazzle ... Howard ... one of my favourites of all time. biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Bill D Date: 08 Nov 07 - 07:44 PM well...though it's probably not the strangest, I used to be hooked on "The Red Green Show" but my local channel has dropped it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: number 6 Date: 08 Nov 07 - 07:50 PM On a serious note .... "This Hour has Seven Days", anyone remember when Ian Tyson was a co-host? They don't make programs like this anymore. biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Bob the Postman Date: 08 Nov 07 - 09:16 PM Yes indeed, Razzle Dazzle. It's a good thing that Michele Finney and I never met, because if we had I know that she would have desired me with a passionate intensity equalled only by my lust for her and then my parents would have had to tell her, "No, you may not take our over-weight four-eyed eleven-year-old son for a weekend of unbridled hanky-panky in a sleazy motel." Which would have been deeply humiliating for me and deeply disappointing for both of us. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Sandy Mc Lean Date: 08 Nov 07 - 10:32 PM Long before Red Green there was Smith & Smith. Don Messer's show was a weekly "must watch" as well and Singalong Jubilee. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Beer Date: 08 Nov 07 - 10:41 PM Sandy. I don't think Don Messer or Sing a Long Jubilee is Obscure as Little Hawk asked. Then maybe it is. What what do I know. Are you sure you want the word "Obscure" Little Hawk? If not, than I would like to add "The Last of The Mohegans". Beer (adrien) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: number 6 Date: 08 Nov 07 - 10:51 PM Beer .... I'd say Don Messer would be obscure to anyone outside the maritimes ... it's not that they don't appreciate, or think he was kinda corny, it's that they just don't get his talent and the culture that goes with it. Don is still revered to this day here in New Brunswick. biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: number 6 Date: 08 Nov 07 - 10:53 PM Sorry ... not directed to Beer, or really Sandy ... I was just stating some stuff regarding Don messer and his Jubilee. biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Beer Date: 08 Nov 07 - 10:58 PM No problem #6, Understand your explaination very well and i agree with you. Now would you regard The Lasty of the Mo....as obscure. P.S. Good to see you back |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: number 6 Date: 08 Nov 07 - 11:22 PM Hmmmmmm ..... I'd say so Beer. Took me a while to get it. BTW .... thanks. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: JeZeBeL Date: 09 Nov 07 - 04:41 AM Wow....they all sound so exciting!!!! I hope they're still going in a few years when me and my partner emigrate to canada. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: gnu Date: 09 Nov 07 - 05:27 AM The Friendly Giant. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: bobad Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:01 AM Tugboat Annie - The action purportedly took place on a harbour tugboat but I recall one episode where the cameraman must of fallen asleep or something and all of a sudden you saw two guys with ropes over their shoulders hauling this fake tugboat across the sound stage to simulate motion, ah those days of live TV. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: JeZeBeL Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:11 AM Isn't ice hockey an obscure canadian television show lol |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: artbrooks Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:15 AM ...all those homegrown Canadian-produced TV shows that they have probably never heard of, and probably couldn't be bothered to either. Yup. 'Course, I've never seen NYPD Blue or Ofra either.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Bob the Postman Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:28 AM I see where Tugboat Annie and The Last of the Mohicans were both produced by the same company. Lon Chaney Jr. played Chingascook (sp?). I was really into Radisson, syndicated in the UK and Australia as Tomahawk. Radisson was an important Saturday afternoon show in our town. And I used to watch Tidewater Tramp after school every day--a widowed freighter captain and his teenage daughter steaming up and down the B. C. coast. I remember an episode where the captain was given a rose by a lady passenger, which he tried to keep fresh (the rose, not the lady) by keeping in a glass of water with an aspirin dissolved in it. The daughter was worried that the captain had fallen in love but it turned out he was just trying the aspirin stunt to see if it really worked. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Mooh Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:31 AM My kids grew up with Fred Penner, Mr. Dressup (snicker), Under The Umbrella Tree. My Grandmother loved Tommy Hunter and Don Messer. My parents loved Knowlton Nash, I love Hockey Night In Canada, 22 Minutes, Air Farce, Red Green. But none of these seem obscure to me as they are my personal history. Peace, Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Mooh Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:33 AM Oh, and The Littlest Hobo, who'd kill Lassie in a heartbeat. Peace, Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Mooh Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:37 AM I'm too young to remember the somebodyoranother Coward Show, but folks east made fun of it for some reason recently, maybe just its datedness. Peace, Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Mooh Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:38 AM The Beachcombers...Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: clueless don Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:45 AM Can't speak to obscure Canadian shows, since for me to have heard of them, I would have to have seen them on American TV. But I have fond memories of a show called "Adderly", which I believe was Canadian. Also, there were two animated children's shows that had brief runs here, and which I thought were good: "Anne of Green Gables - The Animated Series" and "Theodore Tugboat". Don |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: GUEST,number 6 Date: 09 Nov 07 - 09:06 AM "Tugboat Annie" ... priceless, but yes obscure, at least in my memory. The Juliette Show .... "our pet, Juliette" ... I dunno, when I was a kid I thought she was kinda dorky ... this show followed Hockey Night in Canada. Speaking of Hockey Night in Canada especially those annoying commercials ... but going way back ... anyone remember the name of the guy who was on the ESSO (or was it Texaco) commercials. biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Desdemona Date: 09 Nov 07 - 09:44 AM My (Canadian) partner had such fond childhood memories of "The Littlest Hobo" that I found the DVDs online & bought them for his birthday; now my kids watch them! On the other hand, that Uncle Bobby fellow seems a little creepy... ~D |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: bobad Date: 09 Nov 07 - 10:09 AM 6, the "Happy motoring" guy was, IIRC, Murray Westgate. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Beer Date: 09 Nov 07 - 10:10 AM Gee #6, I can see that fellow but be damn if I can remember his name. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 09 Nov 07 - 11:02 AM Wonderful reminiscences, aren't they? How come no one has mentioned "King of Kensington"? It's terrible to think of all those deprived people across the world who have missed out on Canadian TV all their lives. Just terrible. ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: number 6 Date: 09 Nov 07 - 11:25 AM Murray Westgate .... thanks Bobad. Yup Beer ... I can picture him vividly ... of course only in Black and White. Back then there were guys at the service pumps who pumped your gas, and wore a uniform type hat as well. LH ... maybe no one mentioned the King as he wasn't so obscure ... that series was one of the most successful Canadian T.V. productions ever ... it was syndicated nearly world wide .... but then od course I wonder if anyone else who had seen it outside of Canada remembers it. biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 09 Nov 07 - 12:10 PM Okay...I don't mean obscure in Canada. I mean obscure to people outside of Canada! Must I explain everything???? All Canadian TV shows are obscure to most people outside of Canada. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Becca72 Date: 09 Nov 07 - 12:48 PM I used to really enjoy SCTV, Red Green (still enjoy that one) and Royal Canadian Air Farce. My ex is a big fan of The Trailer Park Boys, though admittedly I cannot find the humor in that one. The one thing I really miss about living in Northern Vermont is being able to get Hockey Night in Canada. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 09 Nov 07 - 01:07 PM To enjoy Trailer Park Boys one must get to know the principle characters in the show well...and that takes careful watching of 2 or 3 episodes. One then begins to really see the essential charm of the show...assuming that ever happens. The characters become likeable, even loveable in their own weird way, because everything they do makes perfect sense within their necessarily rather narrow horizons. ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Metchosin Date: 09 Nov 07 - 01:24 PM Surprised no one has mentioned Seeing Things with Louis DelGrande? He was the ultimate Canadian bumbling hero. I loved that show....but oh, how I managed to sit through an episode of The Polka Dot Door with the Polkaroo, I'll never know. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Metchosin Date: 09 Nov 07 - 01:32 PM But of course....Louis was an American who escaped. Who better to portray a Canadian. LOL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: GUEST,number 6 Date: 09 Nov 07 - 01:50 PM LH ... regarding the King " that series was one of the most successful Canadian T.V. productions ever ... it was syndicated nearly world wide .... but then of course I wonder if anyone else who had seen it outside of Canada remembers it" So ... I guess it could be obscure or it couldn't be obsure. Then again any TV program ever produced in Canada is obscure. Hell ... us Canadians are obscure !! biLL :) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Mooh Date: 09 Nov 07 - 01:54 PM Oh man, remember Percy Saltzman? Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Metchosin Date: 09 Nov 07 - 02:18 PM No, not by name, but I remember Pierre Berton, Gordon Sinclair and Betty Kennedy on Front Page Challenge. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: GUEST,Number 6 Date: 09 Nov 07 - 02:20 PM OK ... here's one that would be obscure beyond the 'Dominion' of Canada .... the TV series R.C.M.P. In fact (from Wikipidia) ... "Frank Crawley created the R.C.M.P. series in an attempt to fulfill his dream of sharing "the Canadian Way" with the rest of the world. While not a fan of American-style cinema, Crawley wished R.C.M.P. to sign with a U.S. television network. American networks at that time demanded full control over any shows they broadcast and R.C.M.P. ended up with only a paltry take in American syndication." Anyone remember this series? I do ... I believe it was on Friday evenings (CBC, the 1 TV channel we had)at 8:00 p.m. biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Metchosin Date: 09 Nov 07 - 02:36 PM and every true Canadian must admit trying at one time to outdo the kids on Reach for the Top. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: bobad Date: 09 Nov 07 - 02:39 PM How could we forget Percy Saltzman, Mooh, for most of us Canucks of a certain age, he is a part of our collective memories. This from his website: "Percy Saltzman was the first face on Canadian TV when on September 8, 1952, CBC TV inaugurated English language broadcasting in Canada. Percy lasted 30 years (1952-1982) during which he surfed the airwaves with 9000 weather performances (6000 TV, 3000 radio) plus 1000 interviews. During his career Percy Saltzman garnered the Order of Canada; a seat in the Canadian Broadcasting Hall of Fame; and the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal and China's accolade as the world's first weather entertainer. Percy conned the CBC into giving him the air in the first place. "Who wants to watch a talking head spouting weather? Or even doing News?", they said. Like Hollywood, nobody knew nothing about nothing. Percy Saltzman started TV Weather in glorious black and white, with a thick piece of chalk, a blackboard map, glasses without glass, a motor mouth, and a farewell flip, all larded with ham and schmaltz. Each night when Percy finished his frantic three-minute weather blast, the map and he were coated in a thick cloud of chalk dust. Instant chaos they called Percy Saltzman." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Metchosin Date: 09 Nov 07 - 02:49 PM Well gosh, once one of our BC boys travels east, they become lost in the great hinterland. LOL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Metchosin Date: 09 Nov 07 - 02:56 PM I'm so ashamed!!!! I don't recall him. My Uncle Sparky used to own one of the most powerful radio stations on the west coast of North America and I'm sure he would be rolling in his grave, to know I've let down the family with my ignorance and poor memory. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 09 Nov 07 - 03:16 PM I vaguely recall Percy Saltzman flailing away wildly with his chalk. That man could sure wield a piece of chalk in an impressive manner. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Bob the Postman Date: 09 Nov 07 - 04:19 PM Further to the programme "Radisson", from the Queens University site I linked to in post #2 above: "Toy manufacturers issued a Radisson doll, a Radisson rifle, a Radisson belt, a Radisson music box, a Radisson buckskin suit, a Radisson t-shirt, a Radisson board game, and Radisson fur hats, which were actually leftover Davy Crockett coonskin caps, with the tail pulled off and a white feather added." It occurs to me that this is a useful paradigm for understanding many things Canadian. For example, "Peter Mackay is actually a leftover Condaleeza Rice with the what-not pulled off and a whatchamacallit added." Or "Molson's is just Budweiser with the funny off-taste removed and alcohol added." You get the picture. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Wesley S Date: 09 Nov 07 - 04:46 PM It seems like some of the better childrens programming we see on the Disney channel is currently coming from Canada. "Franklin" comes to mind with a theme song by Bruce Cockburn. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Don Firth Date: 09 Nov 07 - 07:22 PM Too bad Bill D's local channel dropped "The Red Green Show." For some bizarre, unexplainable reason, this is one of my favorites, and a "no-miss." The first few times I saw it, I thought it was the dumbest thing that had ever appeared on television, but someplace along the line, I got hooked. What makes the matter even more bizarre is that Monday through Friday, one of the two local PBS channels plays two episodes, between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. And they seem to have a limited number of them in stock, because it's not too many weeks before you start seeing the same shows again. I can practically do "sing-alongs" on some of them. And increasing the bizarreness index is that my wife watches it too. In fact, even though it's pretty easy to assume it's a "guy show," I know several women who watch it regularly (I think they sit there snickering knowingly and feel kinda smug). Barbara likes Harold, and tries never to miss the "Possum Lodge word game." She's also quite fond of Mike Hamer. One of my favorite characters is Ed Frid, the animal control officer who is terrified of any living thing larger than a bacterium, followed by Hap Shaughnessy, whose accomplishments (according to him, include playing "catch-and-release" with Moby Richard— Red: Don't you mean Moby Dick?and when he was a SAC pilot, saving the world from nuclear annihilation one Christmas eve by notifying SAC headquarters that what they had identified as a nuclear missile headed their way was actually Santa Claus in his sleigh. "I didn't actually meet Santa, though," he admitted). Gordon Pinsent is one helluva fine actor, incidentally; I've seen him in a number of serious roles. Red Green has become one of my role-models (although I'm probably a bit more like Ranger Gord) Quando omni flunkus moritati. Don Firth I'm a man, But I can change, If I have to . . . I guess. . . . |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Sandy Mc Lean Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:05 PM For all you Red Green fans you should check out some of the old Smith & Smith clips. This was a very low budget show but I thought that it was very good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3JuAuWIJTU |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:28 PM Then there was "The Beachcombers" with Bruno Gerussi. Not easy to beat that one, eh? High drama in exotic locales! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Mooh Date: 09 Nov 07 - 09:08 PM (Yeah 'Hawk, already mentioned, but who was the bad guy? I really liked him. Mooh.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Bob the Postman Date: 09 Nov 07 - 09:26 PM Old Relic on the Beachcombers was played by Robert Clothier, a veteran Vancouver actor who worked in many stage productions there, then. So, for that matter, did Jackson Davies who played the cop. Does anyone remember "Let's Sing Out", a folk music concert show hosted by Winnipeg's Oscar Brand? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Bob the Postman Date: 09 Nov 07 - 09:29 PM Oh yeah, and "Hymn Sing"--Grandma's favorite show, after Don Messer. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: bankley Date: 10 Nov 07 - 09:21 AM what about that music show out of Winnepeg that had Lenny Breau as a house guitarist. Holy harmonicks! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Bob the Postman Date: 10 Nov 07 - 11:22 AM That'd be the Wednesday edition of "Music Hop", I think. I heard the following anecdote, or something like it, on a radio documentary about Breau. One Wednesday, after he'd had the gig for a couple of years, he failed to turn up at the studio. The producer phoned him at home. Producer: Lenny, where the hell are you? Lenny (puzzled): I'm right here, man, like, at home. Producer: It's Wednesday afternoon, Lenny. Lenny: Check it out. Cool. Producer: Lenny, what have we been doing every Wednesday afternoon for the past two years? Lenny (thinking hard): I don't know, man. Producer: Lenny, we're live on air with Music Hop in 25 minutes. Lenny: Far out. Should I call a cab? Producer: Yes, Lenny. Lenny: Only thing is, I don't have the fare. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Gorgeous Gary Date: 10 Nov 07 - 12:23 PM This is probably a bit off topic, but is anyone out there watching "Blood Ties" the series based on Canadian science fiction/fantasy author Tanya Huff's series of novels? It's currently running late Friday nights on Lifetime down here, and I forget whose running them up there. Mainly curious since we're friends of Tanya's (as well as fans of the books and the show). -- Gary |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: C. Ham Date: 10 Nov 07 - 12:38 PM Bankley said: what about that music show out of Winnepeg that had Lenny Breau as a house guitarist. Holy harmonicks! Then Bob the Postman responded: That'd be the Wednesday edition of "Music Hop", I think. Lenny Breau's band didn't last very long as the house band on the Winnipeg edition of "Music Hop." They were dumped early on and replaced by the Guess Who. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Bob the Postman Date: 10 Nov 07 - 12:53 PM Replaced by the Guess Who, with Randy Bachman on guitar. According to the infallible on-line resource Wikipedia, the teenage Bachman was mentored by Breau during the late 50s. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: GUEST Date: 10 Nov 07 - 03:46 PM Elwood Glovers Lunchon Date (with Sonny Cawfield) The Trouble with Tracy This hour has 7 days Romper Room Music: Sing Along Jublilee The Shurgain Talent Show (PEI) The Irish Rovers Ryan Fancy Show Rita MacNeil Show Tommy Hunter The Pig and Whistle (though, maybe British) Cant remember the name of the Ontario Coroner's case show, before Quincy? And, there was a late night CBC talk show, can't remember the name? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Sandy Mc Lean Date: 10 Nov 07 - 04:03 PM Wojeck was the Ontario Coroner's case show, before Quincy. I think that Quincy was based on it but Americanized. Another more recent but great one was North of 60. The native lady who played Elsie was my favourite. The Pig and Whistle was made in Toronto (to simulate a British pub) and The Carlton Show Band went on to national fame. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: gnu Date: 10 Nov 07 - 04:55 PM Lenny. He MOVED to Winnepeg. Imagine, moving to Winnepeg of your own free volition? Was it because of the unbelievable musical and artistic talent in Winnepeg or because he wanted to try to freeze to death in the largest, coldest snow banks in NA? Look up, way up..... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: number 6 Date: 10 Nov 07 - 05:12 PM Lenny moved to Winnipeg from Maine with his parents as a young teenager. biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: black walnut Date: 11 Nov 07 - 09:25 AM Elwood Glover! Romper Room! ~b.w. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Mooh Date: 11 Nov 07 - 10:21 AM ...and I see Paul, and Karla...(LOL) Peace, Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Becca72 Date: 14 Nov 07 - 06:47 PM Forgot to mention one of my favorite shows (American or otherwise), The Kids in the Hall |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: GUEST,petr Date: 14 Nov 07 - 07:48 PM I used to like watching the Traveling Minstrel Show when I was a kid they used actors and simple background scenery to act out fairy tales. There were some good stories... I still remember the one about Jesus & St. Peter traveling the earth disguised as poor travellers. They come to a village and ask the rich lady at the first house for some food. She shoos them away.. Then they go to the poor womans house next door and she invites them in for some soup.. Now being poor she has hardly any fat to add to her soup and it is quite thin. Jesus tells St. Peter to pay the woman - which he does by counting the circles of fat floating on the surface. (he pays her after eating).. and giving her an equal number of coins. The lady happens to tell this to her rich neighbour who thinks about it and invites the two men in when she sees them again.. Hoping to get the same deal with the coins - she puts in loads of fat into the soup. As it is so greasy however, St. Peter ends up giving her only one coin since there is only one fat circle covering the whole bowl. on another note. I heard from a friend who used to work at the CBC that the old Don Messers Jubilee show which ran for many years and was cancelled at the height of its popularity by Knowlton Nash who thought it was too square.. ALl the old episodes were tossed in the bin, except for a handful that were saved by a janitor at CBC whose wife was one of the dancers. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: bobad Date: 19 Nov 07 - 09:45 PM For some reason a memory of the TV show Maggie Muggins just popped into my head. Anyone remember that one? All I recall is a little, pigtailed girl and a farmer. Early TV days for me. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 19 Nov 07 - 09:51 PM My parents simply hated Elwood Glover for some reason. They always referred to him sarcastically as Elwood "Glubber". I have no idea what the problem was. They also hated Pierre Trudeau. We're talkin' vitriolic hatred. I know what the problem was there, but I don't concur with their one-dimensional view of the man...he was a hell of an interesting politician, whether or not you agreed with him about this or that issue. He had style. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: bobad Date: 19 Nov 07 - 10:06 PM Did your parents hate hippies too LH ? The reason I ask is that a lot of people felt Trudeau was a little too hip for a politician, also leftist and French to boot, a mite radical for many Canadians of that era. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Stilly River Sage Date: 19 Nov 07 - 10:31 PM I vaguely remember Mr. Dressup and used to watch The Friendly Giant, and though I didn't watch it, I remember the Littlest Hobo. I think my mother always watched The Beachcombers. There used to be a cop show I enjoyed, back in the mid-1980s that made it to late night cable TV here in the U.S., called Night Heat. Set in a supposed large North American city, but it (as the IMDb page says) looked like Toronto. I imagine that is where they filmed it. They always sounded very Canadian, despite a couple of more generic East Coast accents from the Boston to Brooklyn zone. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 19 Nov 07 - 10:40 PM Well, my father was certainly somewhat prejudiced against the longhaired contingent, but my mother tended to sympathize with them. I think they didn't like the fact that Trudeau was French (and Catholic), they figured he was selling the country out to Quebec, they detested his sophistication and his clearly strong and healthy ego (some might have called him "arrogant", and some did)...it was a whole host of things. They thought he was destroying the country. At first I went along with them on that, but I only began to fully appreciate Trudeau when I saw the succession of other people who followed him into office! ;-) (Not counting Joe Clark...I always have liked and respected Joe Clark. I think he has always been a very decent man, if not a brilliant one. Trudeau was brilliant.) Also, Nixon referred to him once as "that asshole Trudeau". A big point in Trudeau's favour right there! ;-) Nixon, however, seems to have hated almost everyone, and he used absolutely the most filthy bad language about almost everyone too...so Trudeau was not singled out in that sense. When asked by Canadian reporters how he felt about Nixon's comment, Trudeau smiled and said, "I've been called worse things by worse men"....now there is a brilliant and quite witty response to the press's typical attempt to raise another tempest in a teapot! ;-) Gotta love the guy. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: bobad Date: 19 Nov 07 - 10:52 PM Not to be pedantic LH but Trudeau's quote was actually "I've been called worse things by better people." which is a bit more telling of his opinion of Nixon. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: johnross Date: 19 Nov 07 - 11:56 PM When it was still called "Educational TV" rather than "public television," back in the 1950s, the station in Boston used to run grainy kinescopes of The Friendly Giant from the CBC. I was probably about 10% of the total audience watching that show in Boston. I would love to find some DVDs of Beachcomber. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Metchosin Date: 20 Nov 07 - 01:01 AM Oh dear, I remember Maggie Muggins, not from TV but on the radio. I vaguely recall at the end of every episode, some chirpy little thing she said like, "toora loora loora lay? but I don't know what I'll do tomorrow" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 20 Nov 07 - 02:16 AM Ha! Oh, that is GREAT, bobad! My God, the man (Trudeau) was a Master. LOL! I had a feeling I had not got that quote of his quite right. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: GUEST,HiLo Date: 26 Nov 07 - 11:33 AM Does anyone recall Mr. Fix it ? Some I miss still are, Black Harbour, filmed in NS. Codco from NFLd,The Hit Parade one with Joyce Hahn and Wally Coster and sometimes Robert Goulet. Madame Benoit..It seems that we used to have a lot more Canadian content on telly back then. We must be the only nation on earth that allows our screens to have 90% forgein content. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 26 Nov 07 - 12:12 PM Yes, well, we are in a vulnerable position that way because we speak English and are right next door to the biggest English language TV culture in the world...the USA. Here's another Canadian show: Peter Gzowski had a variety show for a bit on TV, didn't he? (he was mostly known for his very popular radio show on CBC). |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: GUEST,Seiri Omaar Date: 26 Nov 07 - 12:46 PM Well... there's "An American in Canada" too. I never saw much of it, but I remember giggling like a maniac through the pilot. It only went 16 episodes, so says Wikipedia anyway. Cheers, Seiri. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Nov 07 - 01:24 PM I loved Gzowski on the radio! When I moved away from the border that was one of the things I regretted leaving behind, the CBC radio. "As It Happens" was another one I liked. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Metchosin Date: 26 Nov 07 - 01:29 PM Gzowski did some late night on TV for awhile, that didn't get much of an audience, so he returned to radio. Jeez I miss that man. The current run of crap on CBC radio has me turning to NPR out of Washington State. Never thought that would ever happen. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 26 Nov 07 - 01:35 PM Yeah, I miss him too. The CBC has been gutted of funds by a series of neo-conservative governmental policy-makers (posing as something else, of course) and it has deteriorated greatly. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Metchosin Date: 26 Nov 07 - 02:20 PM Yeah, not surprising that they provided them with enough money to produce Afghanada though. What a simplistic, jingoistic, load of propaganda that piece of crap turned out to be. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: SINSULL Date: 26 Nov 07 - 04:57 PM Sergeant Preston and Yukon Kong - but i think it was a US show. I used to see Shatner hawking a Canadian supermarket chain - something about the "frontier'. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 26 Nov 07 - 05:03 PM Mr Shatner...Praise His Name!...did a long series of ads for Dominion, I think...or was it Loblaws??? At any rate, they all ended with the cheerful punchline, "But by gosh...the PRICE IS RIGHT!!!" I think perhaps he was referring to the price they paid him for doing the ads. Needless to say, business went up by leaps and bounds at the lucky grocery chain which had the wisdom and foresight to apply the "Shatner magic". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: number 6 Date: 26 Nov 07 - 06:28 PM "the PRICE IS RIGHT!!!" ... well it couldn't have been Dominion as their punchline was "It's mainly because of the meat" ..... so it probably was Loblaws, or then maybe Steinbergs, or was it MiracleMart .... I dunno maybe it was ......... ? biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: CET Date: 26 Nov 07 - 09:32 PM Well, Charmion and I can claim to have appeared on an obscure Canadian television program. We both competed on Reach for the Top (long before we met each other). I was actually on something even more obscure. I once read A Child's Christmas in Wales on a local cable TV show in Stratford, Ontario. Does anybody remember a series called d'Iberville, about the adventures of the Sieur d'Iberville, who caused the British no end of grief in the 17th century? It might have been a dubbed Quebec program. As for Afghanada, Metchosin, I don't see it as a jingoistic piece of crap. The dialogue strikes me as being extremely accurate. It reminds me of a lot of soldiers I have known over the years. Perhaps anything that treats Canadian soldiers in a sympathetic manner is enough to start you gibbering with rage. My knock against that program is the blatantly PC notion of making the section commander a female. All trades are open to women in the CF nowadays, but neither the infantry nor women have changed enough to make it likely that a woman would be a sergeant in the infantry. There may be some even now, and the time may come when it won't be unusual, but it hasn't happened yet. Also, the actor who plays the part sounds about as much of a grunt as the average Muchmusic VJ. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: GUEST,Willie-O cookieless penniless Date: 26 Nov 07 - 10:34 PM Ahh come on Edmund, Coach just wants a drink, then another drink, and then she's going to pound yer...ya don't mess with a chick from Smithers. I gotta admit, I like Afghanada. It does a good job of conveying some of the complexities of us being there...which we are whether we like it or not. If we get out next year ( I hope), we'll still have thousands of veterans to take care of, a lot of them pretty messed up, who We sent there, so as a nation we will be coming to terms with this particular adventure for a long time yet. But far more germaine to the original intent of this thread, take note Number 6 and Bob: A few years ago the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa had an exhibit of...umm, puppets I guess. All I remember is going around a corner and finding myself face to whatever with...THE ORIGINAL HOWARD THE TURTLE! I was awestruck. He's in good shape for 40-something. Also I heard Michelle Finney on the radio awhile back. In fact she was 11 when she started on Razzle Dazzle. Now she teaches Womens' Self-Defense. There's a message in that somewhere... W-O |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Nov 07 - 10:54 PM I found a long blog with a number of links back to various interviews Peter Gzowski did on tv and radio over the years. http://johngushue.typepad.com/blog/daily_dot/index.html If you search on Gzowski with the "find on this page" feature (under Edit in the drop down menu on the IE browser and I'm sure the others as well) it'll get you there most easily. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Metchosin Date: 27 Nov 07 - 01:31 AM Well all I will concede is that Afghanada is a contrast to All Quiet on The Western Front. LOL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: CET Date: 27 Nov 07 - 04:45 PM "Gibbering with rage" was a bit over the top, I admit. Sorry about that. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: bobad Date: 27 Nov 07 - 07:39 PM Rusty and Jerome, yanked out of comfortable retirement digs, are now facing an uncertain future. Read all the sordid details here. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: SINSULL Date: 27 Nov 07 - 08:41 PM It was Loblaw's. Not to be confused with Topp's, the supermarket with people so you don't have to talk to yourself. Honest, that was their slogan. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: GUEST,meself Date: 27 Nov 07 - 08:48 PM Re: The Friendly Giant. Trouble was - wait for it - Rusty was always half in the bag. (ba-da-da boom!) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Mooh Date: 27 Nov 07 - 09:05 PM bobad...Thanks for that link. I grew up on Friendly and Captain Kangaroo. The CBC shouldn't mess with the Friendly Giant, he's bigger. Look up, look way up... Peace, Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Bob the Postman Date: 28 Nov 07 - 08:16 AM Following CET's courageous lead, I must confess that I too am a Reach For The Top survivor. In our last game my correct answer to the question "On what side of the Periodic Table are the halogens found?" was ruled incorrect. Our appeal was upheld, which would have resulted in a tie game had the producers not scoured the tape for the five spurious points which they also awarded to our opponents. We were left with the suspicion that the game had been rigged in favour of the team located in the production centre, thus saving the CBC the expense of hosting an out-of-town team. On another matter, I, somewhat to my surprise, have turned into a huge Afghanada fan. The secret, as with Trailer Park Boys, is the characters. They are real enough that once you get to know them, you care about them. As to the jingoism, there's plenty of times when one character or another has doubts about the mission (most recently, the O/C himself)--but then operational necessity imposes itself and they're too busy returning fire to have second thoughts about why they're there. The government's official line, respeatedly echoed on Afghanada, is that we're there to help the Afghan people. This is not true, of course, we're there for geo-political reasons like securing access to Caspian oil and appeasing the bully next door, but if the government insists on reiterating the myth, we can at least insist on our living up to it oocasionally, and cry shame when we fail to do so. If anyone would like a copy of my print-your-own Afghanada yellow-ribbon bumper sticker, PM me with your e-mail address. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 28 Nov 07 - 10:26 AM "they're too busy returning fire to have second thoughts about why they're there" Yeah. That has been true of the vast majority of soldiers under fire in every war in history...Germans, Russians, Japanese, Americans, Italians, British, Mexicans....you name it. Once the shooting starts, basic instinct takes over. This is why people should not be hasty to condemn ordinary soldiers on behalf of their country, although their country may indeed be engaged in unjustifiable aggression, imperialism, etc... Ordinary soldiers are usually just trying to do their job as best they can and stay alive so they can go home at some point. I agree that Canadian troops are most certainly not there to "help Afghans"...they're there for the reasons you stated, Bob. Geopolitical reasons. This is not something to condemn the soldiers for, because soldiers simply follow orders faithfully and try to cope as best they can under the circumstances. It's something their political leaders carry the responsibility for, and their political leaders will say all sorts of patently disingenous stuff (the usual platitudes) to dress it up for the home audience. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: CET Date: 28 Nov 07 - 02:09 PM This is really getting into thread creep, Little Hawk, but geopolitical reasons for being in Afghanistan do not justify condemning either the soldiers who do the fighting, or the government who sent them there. Of course we are there for geopoltical reasons. What other reasons are there? We should not be there at all if our vital interests are not engaged. Personally, I think they are. Characterizing our mission in that country as "unjustifiable aggression, imperialism, etc..." is simply nonsense. I don't deny that people of good will can differ about the wisdom of the mission, but one thing it is not is an imperialistic adventure against the Afghan people. Anyway, back to the thread again. I have a memory of being unable to answer the question "Where did Fats Domino get his thrill?" I feebly answered, "On the piano." Also, does anyone remember d'Iberville? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: bankley Date: 28 Nov 07 - 04:13 PM "Cannonball" about 2 truckers, Mike Malone and Jerry Austin.... "The Plouffe Family" which was better as 'La Famille Plouffe' on the other only CDN station... and what about the commercials ? like Fred Davis and his DeMauriers or Alan Mills singing "Always Shop at Your Metro Store', way back when the youngest kid in the family had to change the channels for everyone........ thanx for the Lenny stories.... his daughter Emily Hughes made a fine documentary a few years ago called "The Genius of Lenny Breau"... she sent me a copy,..... but that's another story... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: GUEST,Obie Date: 28 Nov 07 - 04:24 PM "when the youngest kid in the family had to change the channels for everyone..." Back then there was no need for us to change channels. CBC was CH4 and that was it. If you didn't like the show you used the power switch. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 28 Nov 07 - 05:02 PM Yes, your point is a valid one, CET. You are quite correct that countries are always motivated by geopolitical reasons when they make the decision go to war. It's pragmatism of one sort or another...although it may be based on various forms of unrealistic dogma too at times...and it may be poorly thought-out pragmatism in the long term. That's always up for debate. What concerns me about Afghanistan, and indeed about the whole region all around there, is that a number of countries are acting as agents for the big multinational oil companies. I think that is the real game that is being played, and I think that's the principle reason why the West has soldiers in Afghanistan and in Iraq. (not that Afghanistan has oil itself, but it is strategically positioned in regards to several vital areas that do) If so, I can't approve of the game. The money from the oil in the Caspian region and in the Middle East should go to the local people to better their own societies, not to a bunch of multinationals based in the USA, Canada, and Great Britain. It should be 100% in control of the nations under whose ground it rests. Chavez has earned the ire of America for the same reason. He's controlling his own country's oil revenues instead of permitting foreign control. That's what makes him an outlaw in the view of the USA. That's what's makes Iran an "outlaw" too. They control their own land and their own oil. They are autonomous. As they should and have every right to... BUT the one thing a big Mafia boss does NOT permit is autonomy on the part of shopkeepers who reside on what he considers HIS territory...and the big oil companies and the USA consider pretty much the whole world to be their territory (with the conditional exception of Russia and China who are well-armed enough to protect themselves). That's why I say that war is in fact nothing more than armed robbery. It is an attempt to take by force something that rightly belongs to someone else. First you offer them a deal they "can't refuse"...but they do refuse...then you apply some pressure, then some more pressure, then you openly threaten them and apply sanctions, finally you attack them and kill those who won't give in. That's how it works, and it's just armed robbery. Exactly like the Mafia, but on a much bigger scale. Would they do the same to us if the positions of power were reversed? Yeah, probably. That doesn't mean I'm going to approve of it, either which way. There has to come a point where as a single species on this planet we collectively rise above this sort of criminal behaviour. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Steve Latimer Date: 28 Nov 07 - 10:13 PM How about "Check It Out" with Don Adams??? Man, that was dreadful. Billy Van in both "The Hilarious House of Frightenstein" and The Party Game. I think that they were both done at CHCH in Hamilton. CHCH also did a short lived show called "In Session" if memory serves me correctly. It was just featured musicians jamming in a studio, no audience if I recall. There was one episode that had Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King. Albert was great, while they were playing he would stop to relight the pipe that was clenched between his teeth. Stevie had not hit the bigtime yet. It was a good show. There was another that featured Johnny Winter & Doctor John. I called CHCH a few years ago to see if they had footage of the show. They didn't, it had been sold to someone else years earlier and the guy I was speaking with didn't know where it was. I think I saw the SRV & Albert King episode released on DVD a couple of years ago. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: bankley Date: 29 Nov 07 - 08:37 AM well, we had 2 channels...both CBC..one French, one Hanglash,,, and some nites, would turn the outdoor antenna manually to try and pull in a show from Plattsburg,"Shock Theater" where I got to see Frankenstein, Dracula, etc.... in real grainy black and white on a late Sat. nite.... scary.... hell, I remember watching the big chief test pattern.... interesting but not much dialog there... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Metchosin Date: 29 Nov 07 - 12:08 PM Because our reception was better for channels out of Washington State, as children, we spent far less time tuned into the CBC. The most significant event I remember watching on the CBC, when I was was small, was the blasting of Ripple Rock. It was really impressive, although, I'm really glad they used dynamite instead of the nuclear bomb, as originally intended, to remove the navigation hazard. I've often wondered how many salmon and killer whales were found floating in Seymour Narrows and surrounding waters after the blast. They didn't show that. It was the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Metchosin Date: 29 Nov 07 - 12:29 PM You can still see Ripple Rock go up courtesy of the good old CBC. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Little Hawk Date: 29 Nov 07 - 12:42 PM Wow! What a classic piece of oldtime Canadiana. Yes, that was the way it was when I was a boy...black and white TV and those wonderfully formal sounding CBC broadcasters bringing the news to the nation. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: bobad Date: 29 Nov 07 - 01:04 PM Bankley, I remember those early TV days as you describe - manually tuning the antenna to get WPTZ from Plattsburg. Do you remember Bird Berdan the Weatherman, after doing the weather he would run off, don a costume and return to introduce the Friday night scary movie on Chiller Theater, occasionally arriving a bit late and missing his cue. I was always reminded of him by Joe Flaherty doing Count Floyd on SCTV. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: GUEST,Obie Date: 29 Nov 07 - 04:06 PM "It was the largest non-nuclear explosion in history." (peacetime) Not so, as that dubious honour belongs to the Halifax Explosion but that was wartime. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: bankley Date: 30 Nov 07 - 04:24 PM yeah Bobad, I remember, Berdan well, he did a lot of double shifts at that station, good sense of humour....... kinda like Dave Patrick at CJSS in Cornwall... Dave would sometimes show up with a black eye, dressed like a gangster... wearing shades.. Champ Champagne played some guitar and sang, McGowan did his bit.... that staion didn't last long... no surprise What about "Rope Around the Sun" with Stu Davis, and later Stu Phillips or vice-versa... the two Stus... good singers |
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Subject: RE: BS: Obscure Canadian TV shows... From: Bob the Postman Date: 30 Nov 07 - 09:41 PM The Ripple Rock footage brought back memories--and a half-memory. I half-remember that Mom finally talked Dad into buying a TV so we could all watch the Ripple Rock Explosion, without having to humble ourselves by imposing on friends or neighbours who did have the Box. In them days, in that place, the TV didn't come on until about 3:00 in the afternoon. It seems to me that Ripple Rock was smithereened outside normal broadcast hours and our local station had to fire up early so we could tune in. |
