Network: TVA Television Network
Broadcast Run: 1968 to 2000
Broadcast Medium: Television
In 1968, Télé-Métropole created an innovative formula with its launch of the artistic and cultural magazine-type show called Bon Dimanche. The latter would serve as a template for the other TV networks and would remain on the air until 2000, resulting in more than 1,000 weekly programs being aired. Serge Bélair (1968 and 1969) was the first host of this wide-ranging review of what was going on across the Province of Quebec, where the comments of entertainment pundits, book reviewers, record and film critics, fashion and magazine reporters were routinely interwoven with interviews with the biggest and hottest celebrities and stars of the day from every continent.
Over twenty years, there was something like a relay race that took place in terms of hosting this program. Picking up the baton from Serge Bélair, André Robert was at the helm from 1970 until 1976; he then passed it on to the sportscaster Claude Mailhot (1977), who gave it over to Michel Jasmin (1978), then to Pierre Couture (1979), to Serge Laprade (in 1980 when the program took on the moniker Le Brunch), then Alain Montpetit (1981), followed by Suzanne Lévesque (1982) and finally, Reine Malo, who won the Métrostar Award (1983) as TV Host of the Year, and who adeptly and charismatically kept her hand on the wheel without ever going off course, up till the end of the journey.
Amongst the many reporters at that time: Edward Rémy, René Homier-Roy, Christiane Charrette, Daniel Guérard, Jean-Claude Lord, Claude Jasmin, Andrée Boucher, Danielle Ouimet and Denis Héroux.
Written by Yvon Chouinard – September, 2008