The History of Canadian BroadcastingNetwork: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 2001 Broadcast Medium: Television Cartoonist Michael Fry created the comic strip Committed for the alternative weekly The Houston Press in 1991, and since the strip began being syndicated in 1994 it has been seen in over 100 newspapers in North America. The television rights were secured by Canada’s Nelvana and Philippine […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 2000 to 2009 Broadcast Medium: Television Described by CTV as a ‘roving weekend news magazine and lifestyle show’, Good Morning Canada was a new entry to the CTV weekend schedule in September 2000. The ‘roving’ part involved the series originating from cities other than Toronto, and was produced in the studios […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1997 Broadcast Medium: Television A classic example of the value of cross-ownership of both a television station/network and a cable channel is demonstrated by the history of this series. Comedy Now began on the Comedy Channel on July 6th 1997. The concept was a simple one: to provide an opportunity for […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1999 to 2001 Broadcast Medium: Television Al Waxman starred in this one-hour series, and had just completed the second season’s final episode when he went into hospital for heart bypass surgery. Complications followed, and the Canadian acting community lost one of its brightest stars. Waxman played hundreds of roles in both […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1998 to 1999 Broadcast Medium: Television Louisa May Alcott’s late nineteenth-century novel, Little Women, was a best seller well into the 20th Century . She wrote several sequels, among which was Little Men, which formed the basis for this television series. Alcott’s heroine, Jo (for Josephine) March, married Professor Bhaer in […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1999 to 2005 Broadcast Medium: Television Beginning as a series of illustrated shorts for the Comedy Network’s inaugural season in 1998, this animated cartoon series starred Kevin Spencer as a “chainsmoking, alcoholic sociopath”, and its early billing was as “Canada’s answer to South Park”. The Comedy Network later ordered thirteen half-hours, […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1994 to 2005 Broadcast Medium: Television Cartoonist Ben Wicks created the illustrations for a series of small children’s books about Katie and Orbie, written by his daughter Susan. Katie was a five-year-old, experiencing all kind of things for the first time, and Orbie was her friend from another planet, to whom Katie […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1999 Broadcast Medium: Television Originally announced as in production under the title “Flesh and Blood”, this new one-hour CTV series failed under its new title despite being hailed by the Toronto Star as “gritty and sophisticated”. CTV’s own release talked of “sex and betrayal in the mansions of Rosedale”, and “greed […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1999 to 2000 Broadcast Medium: Television Birdz, a half-hour animated children’s half-hour series, took viewers into a school attended by pre-teen birds with human foibles and frailties – including the ability to talk! The pun-slanted episode titles included The Agony and the Eggstacy, Let the Chicks Fall Where They May, Gulls and […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1998 to 2000 Broadcast Medium: Television The first attempt at a Canadian drama series about hockey in some years, Power Play centred on a fictitious hockey team, the Hamilton Steelheads. Dubbed a ‘quirky comedy-drama’ by the press, Power Play offered some nifty moves both in the on-ice hockey and with the […]