Canadian TV in the 1960s

Let's Go on CBC From Winnepeg on Thursdays Mid 60's. Hosted by Chad Allen and The Guess Who house band !

 

Ever notice D L Roth looks like Johnny Wayne?

 

LOL

 

Three words: Tiny Talent Time.

 

I remember that Jim Perry's hair went snow white and then he landed an American game show hosting gig and his hair was magically black again.

 

The Friendly Giant was AMAZING! Firstly it had the coolest toy village (we all knew it was a toy village) to wander through with something interesting each time to look at. There was a castle and Jerome the Giraffe who was so tall he could stick his head in the castle window and talk with a rooster in a bag. And at the end the perspective distorts again to show a fireplace I wanted to sit with Grandma at and Friendly's boot right beside. This was pure imagination at work. If this doesn't describe a surreal existence for a child I don't know what does - maybe Goodnight Moon is on par. And it only lasted 15 minutes which is perfect for young minds.

But more importantly it was my gateway into music. Friendly had small animals in the castle who were in a trad jazz group and they would visit regularly. Sometimes Rusty the rooster joined. Mostly Friendly attended on his recorder. My house was surrounded in music but this was very intimate, quiet and so accessible. I was introduced to quiet smooth jazz and traditional baroque. Again, surreal and amazing.

As an adult I found out that Jerome was orange/yellow with BLUE SPOTS! Blue spots on a giraffe (Yes I know why they did this but still within it's rigid reality) Come on...mind blown.

 

Interesting to see two posts mention The Trouble With Tracy, which was for years a punchline for me and my friends when we'd talk about bad comedy. Did you know the entire series used scripts from an old radio show called Easy Aces, written by and starring Goodman Ace and his wife Jane? (They even recycled Ace's trademark lament 'Isn't that awful ?") I heard a few of the episodes many years ago when Ace wrote his memoirs, and a cute show with charm that worked on radio became absolutely painful translated into a sitcom. The radio version ran for fifteen years!

 

It's the retort when somebody asks (usually rhetorically) whether there was ever a show worse than Small Wonder.

Why yes, yes there was...

 

TNN did air the Tommy Hunter Show in the US for a while. Great show filled with great country music.

 

The Trouble With Tracy is regarded as awful. On par with Plan 9 From Outer Space. @Plan9

 

Uncle Bobby was apparently the inspiration for Happy Marsden:

 

Episode of Frank's Bandstand

 

Being 0 in 1963, all I remember was The Flinstones, Bugs Bunny etc....

Dont remember anything Canadian.

 

You know that Chad Allan used to be the lead singer for the Guess Who, so that's kind of odd.

 

TV presenter was what he went on to, but he also stayed in music with Brave Belt (with Randy B.) and solo.

 

I remember Forest Rangers - probably showing in the late 60s/early 70s in the UK - and Beachcombers from a little later.

 

Even though it has been decades since I've seen either Mr Dressup or The Friendly Giant, based on what I can remember about them, I would still give either of those shows the edge over quite a bit of "educational" kids programming you got going, even nowadays. Not sure about Mr Dressup but my four year old would probably love The Friendly Giant. Hell, back in the day it was probably considered unpatriotic if you were a Canadian kid with access to a TV who didn't watch those shows

 

He was indeed.

 

Operation Mystere from the French CBC

 

I grew up watching Uncle Bobby which began it's run in about 1964 and ran well into the 70's. Bimbo The Birthday clown creeps me out now lol: