Canadian TV in the 1960s

Being a very young Canadian in the 1960s, I watched many shows (as long as I had completed my homework). Some of these shows played around the world so anyone can join in.

Let’s start with the Forest Rangers that ran 3 seasons from 1963 - 1965. Filmed in colour, though Canadians would not be able to see it that way till after the show ended, it was viewed in forty countries including the UK and Australia.

 

Then there was Thierry La Fronde (1963 - 1966) which was actually a French series that played internationally including Canada, in its native tongue in Quebec and the English dub for the rest of Canada.

The theme song takes me back:

 

I vaguely remember a show called Rainbow Country in the late 60's/ early 70's.

 

I have vague memories of Tales Of The Riverbank starring Hammy Hamster. I'm still a bit confused if they were all made in Canada but had different voice actors for U.K. and America...

 

How was this in the U.S? Syndicated? Public TV? Not sure if I've ever heard of it.

 

Wikipedia tells us "Tales of the Riverbank, sometimes called Hammy Hamster and later called Once Upon a Hamster, was a British children's television show developed from a Canadian pilot. The original series was later broadcast on Canadian and U.S. television, dubbed by Canadian and American actors for the markets they were to be broadcast in."

 

We used to pick up Toronto stations in the Buffalo, NY area when I was younger. I remember a show called The Trouble with Tracy that seemed to be on every day. This may have been in the early 70s, I can't remember back into the 60s but it was possibly produced in the 60s.

Also, The Littlest Hobo.

 

I remember being fascinated with TV from an early age. We were lucky in Toronto that we got a lot of stations - both Canadian and US. Cable started to become big around 1970 or so and everything from 2 - 13 was full. By the mid-70s, the extended tiers started to become available. We were over 30 channels by the late '70s.

In the '60s and '70s, Canadian networks usually aired current US shows a few days ahead of their American airings. There were a few that were simulcast - like Bonanza, for example - but most of the time they'd be available a few days ahead. This changed largely when the Toronto stations moved their transmitters to the top of the CN Tower around 1976 - it meant the signals penetrated much further into the US than they did before. Around the fall of '76 or '77, most Canadian stations started simulcasting the primetime shows with the US networks, which meant that cable could block out the US channel and insert the Canadian channel on top of it. This was due to CRTC regulations - and to this day it still upsets most Canadians. This came close to being dropped a couple of years ago when the CRTC reviewed everything, but the poor cry-baby networks went sucking their thumb and carrying their blanket begging them to keep the simsub rules, and the CRTC (not surprisingly) caved.

Canadian networks starting broadcasting in color in Sept 1966, but today many of the early color shows exist only on black & white kinescope - especially Hockey Night in Canada games. The earliest color HNIC game appears to be from the early '70s, although there's some small bits of color footage of Stanley Cup games that exist from the '60s.

There are also some '60s World Series games that exist only because CBC kept copies and the US networks didn't.

There were also an abundance of Canadian game shows during the '60s, but like the US networks, many of those daytime shows from that era no longer exist

CBC was the main network. CTV started as a network in 1961 although they had much fewer affiliated stations. There were some independents - CHCH in Hamilton was one of the biggest. Educational TV came along by 1969 (CICA Channel 19 in Toronto was one of the first). In the early '70s a national French version of CBC started.

During the '70s. a third network (Global TV) and more independent stations went on the air. Multicultural stations became more common, with CFMT Channel 47 in Toronto one of the first. That went on the air in 1979 (and I worked there from '87 -90!)

As for specific shows, I remember some big Canadian shows (like Mr. Dressup or Friendly Giant) that most US residents probably wouldn't recognize.

Interesting to think back to those days!

 

I remember watching the two you've mentioned.

Thierry La Fronde, or as he was know by us kids, Jerry la Frohm.
It actually became a running gag with my Dad who speaks fluent French.

 

I've not heard of or seen any of these. Hope some are available on youtube. Thanks for the information and starting this thread. I love old tv shows.