Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1979 Broadcast Medium: Television Doug Paulson, later to make a name for himself as the host of CTV’s Thrill of a Lifetime series, was the host of this half-hour panel show, which originated from Edmonton. A celebrity panel, which included such luminaries as Alex Barris and Dinah Christie, was augmented with […]
Author: Diba Jafarnejad
Whatever Turns You On
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1979 to 1980 Broadcast Medium: Television The success of their local Ottawa Saturday morning series “You Can’t Do That On Television” prompted creators Roger Price and Geoffrey Darby to develop a prime time version of this scurrilously irreverent comedy, which made the CTV schedule three years ahead of “You Can’t Do […]
Littlest Hobo
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1963 to 1985 Broadcast Medium: Television A late 1950s feature film spawned this television series, first produced for Canadian and U.S. syndication in the early 1960s and then revived by CFTO Toronto for CTV prime time in 1979. As one of many websites for this highly-popular series described it: “It’s the […]
What’s Cooking
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1978 to 1988 Broadcast Medium: Television One of the advantages of the CTV affiliates owning their own network was their ability to agree on the creation of blocks of comparatively inexpensive Canadian daytime programming, which not only helped meet their content minimum requirements, but could generate advertising revenue because of the […]
Rolf Harris Show
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1976 to 1978 Broadcast Medium: Television “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” was the song that made Australian-born Rolf Harris internationally famous in 1960, and this multi-talented performer was quickly in international demand not just as a singer, but as an artist and comedian. He also played a weird and wondrous instrument […]
Patsy Gallant Show
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1978 to 1979 Broadcast Medium: Television Born in Campbellton, New Brunswick, Patsy Gallant was only three when she began singing (in French) with her three sisters at fairs and on radio and TV. The Gallant Singers moved with their family to Montreal when Patsy was ten, but it was not until […]
Mad Dash
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1978 to 1981 Broadcast Medium: Television One of a long line of daytime game shows that graced the CTV schedule in the sixties, seventies and eighties, Mad Dash was livelier than most. Creator/producer Sidney M. Cohen employed his contestants as game pieces on a snakes-and-ladders style game board painted on the […]
Live It Up
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1978 to 1990 Broadcast Medium: Television A light-hearted but highly successful approach to consumer affairs was introduced to CTV in 1978 with Live It Up, a fast-paced half-hour of well-written, snappily delivered segments on the merits or otherwise of various products and services, including such widely diverse topics as the diagnostic […]
Flim Flam
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1978 to 1979 Broadcast Medium: Television Flim Flam was the brainchild of prolific producer/writer Bill Hartley, who was also associated with many other CTV series, including Circus, Just Kidding, Julie (featuring Julie Amato) and Kidstuff. Hosted by Orson Bean, the show featured a panel of judges watching a filmed comedy skit, which […]
Downright Disco
Network: CTV Television Network Broadcast Run: 1978 to 1979 Broadcast Medium: Television Downright Disco arrived as the disco era had passed its peak, but CTV did its best to compensate for any dwindling appeal in the music by mounting an impressive-looking production with four big sets, a sixteen-piece orchestra under the baton of trumpeter Dave Woods, ten dancers under the direction […]