The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » GOOD Canadian TV shows?

September 20, 2020 12:58 pm

Beachcombers
Cannonball
Don Messer's Jubilee
Front Page Challenge
Howdy Doody (yes, really)
King of Kensington
Littlest Hobo
Man Alive
Open Mike/Mike Bullard
Pig & Whistle
Plouffe Family
Quentin Durgens, MP
SCTV
Super Dave
This Hour Has Seven Days
Trailer Park Boys (reportedly a favorite of that youngster Grilled.Cheese)
Tugboat Annie
Wayne & Shuster
Wojek

Last edited by geo (September 20, 2020 1:16 pm)

Paul Jeffries · September 20, 2020 1:26 pm

Due South
North of 60
Night Heat

PJ

September 20, 2020 1:52 pm

Street Legal

Broodcaster · September 20, 2020 1:56 pm

Red Green

alangee · September 20, 2020 2:02 pm

Juliette

splunge · September 20, 2020 3:14 pm

Letterkenny

September 20, 2020 3:31 pm

Da Vinci's Inquest

Peter the K · September 20, 2020 5:09 pm

Murdoch Mysteries

Radiowiz · September 20, 2020 6:55 pm

Switchback (the Toronto version with Shawn Thompson)
Toronto Rocks (before the crappy Lance Chilton days)
Electric Circus
Speaker's corner.

andysradio · September 20, 2020 8:08 pm

To the Wild County - with Janet and John Foster. I wish the would release the series on DVD.
Mr Dressup
The Friendly Giant
The Tommy Hunter Show

Last edited by andysradio (September 20, 2020 8:10 pm)

andysradio · September 20, 2020 8:20 pm

Those nominated above, how many are CBC shows vs...

betaylored · September 20, 2020 10:41 pm

A little show called Schitt's Creek did fairly well at the Emmy's tonight.😏

g121 · September 20, 2020 10:42 pm

geo wrote:
Street Legal

The wife & I really liked "Street Legal" as well .. wish the episodes were available.
Note: Seems a few of the very early episodes are on the "Encore +" youtube channel.

Love the season one intro by David Wilcox.

Radiowiz · September 21, 2020 2:26 am

The Mad Dash
Just like Mom.

September 21, 2020 7:04 am

andysradio wrote:
Those nominated above, how many are CBC shows vs...

Of the initial list that opened this thread, all were CBC except:

- Littlest Hobo, Open Mike and Pig & Whistle were CTV
- Super Dave was Global, and
- Trailer Park Boys was run on specialty channels

However that's misleading because its an older list (for Grilled.Cheese's benefit) and CBC was the only game in town in the years most of those programs ran

Paul Jeffries · September 21, 2020 7:21 am

A few more that I think deserve an honorable mention:

- The Associates (2001-2002) (Not to be confused with the American sitcom of the same name which ran from 1979-1980).

- The City (1999-2000) (Not to be confused with the American reality series which ran from 2008-2010).

- Cold Squad.

PJ

September 21, 2020 7:34 am

Hard to believe that no one has (so far) had an appetite for "Wok With Yan"

mace · September 21, 2020 8:45 am

Galloping Gourmet with Graham Kerr

Glen Warren · September 21, 2020 8:49 am

Strange Paradise

paterson1 · September 21, 2020 9:38 am

Corner Gas- One of the few sitcoms that makes me..(as the kid's used to say) lol....Still enjoy watching the show on the Comedy Channel..

paterson1 · September 21, 2020 9:53 am

Rookie Blue was really good, as was Bomb Girl's.....Global's Got It!!

RadioActive · September 21, 2020 10:02 am

"Flashpoint" was an excellent police drama that aired on CBS' late night Crimetime line-up before they replaced it with David Letterman. It was also a staple on ION, the U.S. network that airs in a number of cities - including on Channel 51 out of Western New York, which comes in very well here in the GTA over the air. CTV2 still shows the reruns, it I believe.

Retrontario · September 21, 2020 10:35 am

THE ADVENTURES OF TIMOTHY PILGRIM
OCEANS ALIVE
THE NATURE OF THINGS
MEDIA CIRCUS
SPEAKERS CORNER
TITANS/THE ORGINALS
KIDS OF DEGRASSI STREET/DEGRASSI JUNIOR HIGH
READALONG
TODAY'S SPECIAL
SCTV
THE NEW MUSIC
PRISONERS OF GRAVITY
MEDIATELEVISION
HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN
20 MINUTE WORKOUT
SIDESTREET
THE COLLABORATORS

So many great ones....

paterson1 · September 21, 2020 11:49 am

RadioActive wrote:
"Flashpoint" was an excellent police drama that aired on CBS' late night Crimetime line-up before they replaced it with David Letterman. It was also a staple on ION, the U.S. network that airs in a number of cities - including on Channel 51 out of Western New York, which comes in very well here in the GTA over the air. CTV2 still shows the reruns, it I believe.

You might be thinking about Night Heat, A CTV show that ran late night on CBS from 1985-89. Flashpoint was on CBS in prime time in 2008-11 often during the spring and summer. ION later picked up the show and still runs it on their various networks. ION over the years has run a lot of Canadian programming.

bojac · September 21, 2020 12:20 pm

This is Wonderland
Butch Patterson : Private Dick

RadioActive · September 21, 2020 12:41 pm

paterson1 wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
"Flashpoint" was an excellent police drama that aired on CBS' late night Crimetime line-up before they replaced it with David Letterman. It was also a staple on ION, the U.S. network that airs in a number of cities - including on Channel 51 out of Western New York, which comes in very well here in the GTA over the air. CTV2 still shows the reruns, it I believe.
You might be thinking about Night Heat, A CTV show that ran late night on CBS from 1985-89. Flashpoint was on CBS in prime time in 2008-11 often during the spring and summer. ION later picked up the show and still runs it on their various networks. ION over the years has run a lot of Canadian programming.

Yes, in thinking about it now, I believe you may be correct. The fact that CBS ran it in prime time is unusual enough. (although it was never a huge hit Stateside.) But other than occasional shots of the CN Tower and a TTC bus, it wasn't necessarily extremely Toronto-centric. Still that was quite a coup getting it on the air on that network. And it was a damn good show, to boot.

Interesting to note that Flashpoint is still available on CBS All Access (or whatever it will soon be called) with all the episodes from at least the first season there. Of course, you have to be a subscriber to watch it.

paterson1 · September 21, 2020 1:41 pm

RadioActive wrote:
paterson1 wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
"Flashpoint" was an excellent police drama that aired on CBS' late night Crimetime line-up before they replaced it with David Letterman. It was also a staple on ION, the U.S. network that airs in a number of cities - including on Channel 51 out of Western New York, which comes in very well here in the GTA over the air. CTV2 still shows the reruns, it I believe.
You might be thinking about Night Heat, A CTV show that ran late night on CBS from 1985-89. Flashpoint was on CBS in prime time in 2008-11 often during the spring and summer. ION later picked up the show and still runs it on their various networks. ION over the years has run a lot of Canadian programming.
Yes, in thinking about it now, I believe you may be correct. The fact that CBS ran it in prime time is unusual enough. (although it was never a huge hit Stateside.) But other than occasional shots of the CN Tower and a TTC bus, it wasn't necessarily extremely Toronto-centric. Still that was quite a coup getting it on the air on that network. And it was a damn good show, to boot.

Interesting to note that Flashpoint is still available on CBS All Access (or whatever it will soon be called) with all the episodes from at least the first season there. Of course, you have to be a subscriber to watch it.

Yes I don't know if Flashpoint ever mentioned Toronto, but they always used Toronto street names and places (Yonge, Avenue Road, Don Valley etc.). Also they would show the Canadian flag on a building or uniform so they weren't trying to make the location or police force from somewhere else.

Transplant on NBC mentions Toronto and Canada a fair bit, even gives US viewers a little insight into our healthcare system. Like Flashpoint, Transplant is doing ok so far in the ratings, but couldn't be called a hit by any means. Although, in fairness, it has been winning it's timeslot. Getting back to Flashpoint, it was on CBS for 4 seasons which is respectable.

Due South was another CTV drama that had a run on CBS in prime time. That show was the most popular in the UK, where it had solid ratings. Due South was well done in my opinion, and witty writing for a procedural.

Glen Warren · September 21, 2020 7:25 pm

Stations, years, and some key names added in bold...

Retrontario wrote:
THE ADVENTURES OF TIMOTHY PILGRIM - TVO mid 70s, Producer: Jeremy Pollock
OCEANS ALIVE - CHCH TV late 70s, Narrator Tom Cherrington
THE NATURE OF THINGS
MEDIA CIRCUS - TVO mid 70s, Host Reiner Schwarz , Director: Daphne Ewing
SPEAKERS CORNER
TITANS/THE ORGINALS
KIDS OF DEGRASSI STREET/DEGRASSI JUNIOR HIGH
READALONG - TVO '75 - '77, Producer/Director: Jeremy Pollock
TODAY'S SPECIAL - TVO '81 - '87, Producer/Director: Clive Vanderburgh
SCTV
THE NEW MUSIC
PRISONERS OF GRAVITY - TVO '89 - 94, Host/Writer Rick Green, Producer/Writer Mark Askin
MEDIATELEVISION
HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN - CHCH TV '71 - Producer: Riff Markowitz
20 MINUTE WORKOUT
SIDESTREET
THE COLLABORATORS

So many great ones....

Last edited by Glen Warren (September 21, 2020 7:27 pm)

Davester · September 21, 2020 8:20 pm

Live it Up!
Circus!
Littlest Hobo
(Glenn Warren was a TV God when I was young.)

Oh, and lets not forget
Smith & Smith

Davester.

Last edited by Davester (September 21, 2020 8:24 pm)

Radiowiz · September 25, 2020 8:18 am

YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON TELEVISION!

The show was also big in the States:

Last edited by Radiowiz (September 25, 2020 8:20 am)