The History of Canadian BroadcastingNetwork: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1995 to 1997 Broadcast Medium: Television This half-hour daytime lifestyle series was hosted by Anne Kennedy (sometimes referred to as “Canada’s Martha Stewart”, though she might not welcome the comparison). The series’ promotional material said of the program that “HOMEstyle celebrates the lost art of homemaking”, thereby inviting even closer comparisons […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1995 Broadcast Medium: Television The growing popularity of video games inevitably prompted the creation of a television series showing and telling viewers what was new and different in the world of video games. The weekly half hour Game Nation was created and produced by Romano D’Andrea and Jeff Preyra, and pitched […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1995 to 1996 Broadcast Medium: Television In October 1996, CTV’s Supervising Producer of Sports Laura Mellanby won the first annual I.H. Asper Broadcast Business Leadership Award for her ‘entrepreneurial skills in creating and developing the successful youth sports program Bigshots’. Daughter of veteran sports producer Ralph Mellanby (and sister of St. […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1994 to 1995 Broadcast Medium: Television Star Trek made William Shatner an international star, but his talents were not confined to acting. Indeed, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was quoted as saying of Shatner’s writing that “it was so damned poetic that I caught myself wishing that I could write that […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1994 to 1996 Broadcast Medium: Television This one-hour series was a spin-off from Larry McMurtry’s novel and subsequent U.S. (CBS) television mini-series, but in the end it failed to capitalize on the success of its illustrious progenitors, surviving for only two seasons. None of the original mini-series cast were in the […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1994 to 1998 Broadcast Medium: Television The unlikely law-enforcement pairing of a straight-laced, by-the-book Canadian Mountie and a streetwise Chicago cop formed the premise for this very successful one-hour comedy-action series. Paul Gross played the polite, unflappable Constable Benton Fraser, and David Marciano was cast as the sharp-tongued Detective Ray Vecchio. He […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1993 to 1994 Broadcast Medium: Television In the 1986-87 season, Nick Mancuso starred on NBC in a short-lived Stephen J. Cannell series, Stingray. It was cancelled after one year, but subsequently achieved cult status. Mancuso’s second television series, Matrix, emulated Stingray by only lasting one season, but did not achieve similar […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1991 to 1994 Broadcast Medium: Television Christopher Plummer was the star attraction of this one-hour CTV drama series, and with Simon McCorkindale as his sidekick they held Counterstrike together for a tidy three-year run. Plummer played Alexander Addington, a very wealthy Canadian who hired a private group to free his kidnapped […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1990 to 1992 Broadcast Medium: Television Each week, this imaginative children’s series took a single topic – Air, Television, Volcanoes, Energy, Computers and Robotics were typical subjects covered – and tried to answer all the questions which one might expect kids to ask about that subject. Host Richard Zurawski was the […]
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1984 to 1995 Broadcast Medium: Television The Canadian Young Naturalist Foundation formed the Owl Children’s Trust in 1975, and in 1976 it launched Owl Magazine, a science and nature discovery magazine, which quickly gained a circulation of 25,000 and continued to grow. Eventually, in 1985, a TV series based on the […]