Classic Canadian TV shows that Americans can also enjoy

[Sal]

Last week, when I printed my guide to classic TV shows now airing in Canada (see "Where to find Classic TV in Canada") I was asked if there were any classic Canadian shows that Americans could also watch. Well, I didn't think there were too many out there. I figured that in the US, out of every 20 new sitcoms, there might be one good one that really stands out. That's still better than we do up here where the success rate is about 1 good sitcom every 20 years. It's weird when you think about it when a country that has produced many great comedians and excels at SNL/SCTV type sketch comedies can't seem to come up with their own "Seinfeld" or "Cosby" or even a "Yes, Dear"!

And so, over the holidays, I began reading a book called "TV North" by Peter Kenter (which should be available on Amazon.com) which is more or less an encyclopedic look at every major Canadian series that has aired since 1952, and it turns out that there are many great shows out there that Canadians can be proud of. Here are the ones that stand out for me. How many can you remember?




THE BEACHCOMBERS (1972-91)

Currently showing on TV Land Canada. Bruno Gerussi stars as a lumber baron living on the coast of British Columbia. This was a huge hit for many years but I never really cared for it.

BIZARRE (1980-84)

John Byner hosted this show dealing with 'bizarre' off the wall comedy sketches that were either screamingly funny or missed the mark all together. I loved when they used bleeps to edit out swear words (a full 20 years before the Osbournes tried it) and even used it as the basis of a sketch where Byner would use celebrity names to edit out offending words (ex. "I have to Stallone in my pants!"). I also liked a sketch called "The Bigot Family" about a family of bigots who spent all their time telling bad ethnic jokes which I can't repeat here. Byner would sometimes trade jokes with his beleagered producer Bob Einstein, who would earn fame with his Super Dave character which was prominently featured on this show.

BOB AND MARGARET (1998- )

A truly awful cartoon series about a British dentist with the obligatory bad teeth and his loving but boring wife. This show was based on the Oscar-winning animated short "Bob's Birthday".

CHECK IT OUT! (1985-88)

"Get Smart"'s Don Adams starred here as the owner of a supermarket where the running gag was that he was now The Chief and all his employees acted like Maxwell Smart. He should never have left CONTROL!

FOREST RANGERS (1963-66)

A children's series about a group of young kids who help out the RCMP and some real forest rangers and end up in some wild adventures. The show only lasted a couple of years and has become more popular in reruns.

FRAGGLE ROCK (1983-87)

A new set of Muppets created by Jim Henson starred here in a show that featured many strange characters and plenty of songs to keep the kids happy.

THE FRIENDLY GIANT (1958-84)

Along with "Mr Dressup", this remains the definite Canadian children's show, starring Bob Homme, who would invite his viewers to come in and sit down in a row of teeny tiny chairs and enjoy some gentle music with the Giant and his friends Rusty the rooster and Jerome the giraffe. There were a lot of complaints when the show finally left the air, since nearly every Canadian grew up with it at some point or would know someone else who has.

THE HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN (1971)

A madcap spoof of horror movie monsters featuring Vincent Price during the opening credits and Billy Van playing most of the monster roles, including a real Wolfman trying to imitate Wolfman Jack. I loved this show as a kid but it hasn't been re-run in a long time.

KIDS IN THE HALL (1989-95)

A popular Canadian comedy team that have their share of fans in the US too. The group included Dave Foley, who would later star in "NewsRadio". The title refers to a group of writers who would stand outside Jack Benny's dressing room hoping that he would use the jokes they wrote for his show that week.

KING OF KENSINGTON (1975-80)

The "King" of Canadian sitcoms. This show starred Al Waxman, best known to Americans as "Cagney and Lacey"'s boss, as grocery store owner Larry King (no not that one!) trying to juggle work and family life in a good-natured manner. One episode featured 8 year old Mike Myers as a little troublemaker! This is the show against which all Canadian sitcoms are judged---and usually fail!

LEO AND ME (1981)

An ordinary Canadian sitcom (aren't they all?) notable only for the presence of Michael J. Fox in the lead role.

THE LITTLEST HOBO (1963-66; 1979-85)

Canada's answer to "Lassie", Hobo was a German Shepherd who was efficient in solving mysteries and saving lives. The show was more popular in the 1980s than in its original run in the 1960s.

MANIAC MANSION (1990-93)

A truly strange show, starring SCTV's Joe Flaherty as a mad scientist-like inventor and his equally weird family, including his brother-in-law that Flaherty accidentally turned into a fly with his human head intact! For those who love "The Addams Family" and "The Munsters".

MISTER ROGERS (1962-64)

Yes, Mr Rogers! Fred Rogers left his cozy confines in Pittsburgh, PA to launch his legendary series in Canada, where it aired for 2 seasons before heading south of the border where he achieved instant immortality. His main assistant was then-unknown fellow American Ernie Coombs. Once Rogers left for the US, Coombs was given his own show, originally titled "Butternut Square" that later evolved into "Mr Dressup". (see below)

MR DRESSUP (1967-96)

Canada's other legendary kids' show. "Mr Dressup" featured the aforementioned Ernie Coombs, who would take time every day to entertain kids by dressing up using costumes from his Tickle Trunk and also by drawing and making arts and crafts with help from his constant companions, puppets Casey ( a polite little boy) and his dog, Finnegan. Still popular today and very fondly remembered, despite the fact Coombs died a couple of years ago.

THE RED GREEN SHOW (1991- )

Steve Smith plays bumbling handyman Red Green, for whom duct tape seems to solve all of his do-it-yourself projects, helped by his extremely dim-witted nephew Harold, and his many lodge brothers, who get together for some serious male bonding near the end of every show.

ROCKET ROBIN HOOD (1968)

A cartoon series featuring the direct descendant of the original Robin Hood living with his own group of merry men in the year 3000. Made by the same group that created the Spider-Man cartoon series. It's hard to say which was better. I liked them both as a kid.

SCTV (1976-84)

This series needs no introduction except to say that this truly was Canada's gift of comedy to the entire world, and it shows no sign of slowing down.

SPIDERMAN (1967-70)

Much better than the movie, this cartoon series was noted for its extremely cool theme song ("Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can...") and exciting adventures, which showed Spidey to have a human, sensitive side, except when he's dealing with the bad guys.

SUPER DAVE (1988-92)

A spinoff of "Bizarre", where Bob Einstein's Super Dave Osborne character took centre stage, complete with his own death-defying, and often hilarious, stunts. Einstein started his career as a writer on the "Smothers Brothers" variety show, where he developed his warped sense of humour.

THE TROUBLE WITH TRACY (1971-72)

Depending on who you talk to, this is either a very funny and fondly missed sitcom or the worst trash to hit TV since TV was invented. The show started with a killer theme song and followed with the misadventures of a nerdy ad executive and his screwball wife and lazy, mooching brother-in-law. The jokes were often bottom-of-the-barrel cornball, but no matter, I loved it!

Incidentally, in your Sitcoms Online sitcom links page I managed to see a few Canadian links (including King Of Kensington), but there's no "Trouble With Tracy" link. Why is that? I would love to find out more about it and I wish some station would re-run it at least once a day. It does have its own "Jump The Shark" site, but that's all I've seen so far.

WAYNE AND SHUSTER (1957-90)

Canada's greatest comedy team EVER! They still hold the record for most appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" (67!) and kept Canadians entertained for over 50 years with their intellectual and hard-hitting brand of comedy. Sketches like "Shakespearean Baseball" and "Rinse the Blood Off My Toga" are still considered classics today, much like "Who's On First?" is south of the border. In later years, they might only show up 3 or 4 times a year, but those shows would give CBC their highest ratings, and they always came back for more.

YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON TELEVISION (1979-90)

The show that made Nickelodeon what it is today. A combination of "Laugh-In" and "SCTV" made by and for kids, who would watch with interest to see who would get slimed that week. One of its featured performers for a very brief time was a young pre-teen Alanis Morrissette.

[Chad22]

When i was a little kid i used to watch Mr. Dressup and Fragile Rock on CBC. Great Kids Shows. Red Green is funny too. No, I dont live in Canada, but I Live in Northern Maine and we get CBC for some reason. So i appreciate them

[APPLEI]

doe's anybody remember "hangin' in"?
it starred lally cadeau as kate brown, head of a youth counseling center.
it aired in the united states around 1986 and had a cool theme song.

[DetectiveGriffin]

Hey, I didnt know fragigle rock was canadian, I just figured it was an hbo thing.

"Let the music play, *clap clap*
worry's for another day ........ "



SCTV rules - my friend and I were gabbing about that the other night when I found my strange brew tape (nice effects, eh?)

[Brad Russ]

I remember a great children's show that was made in Canada called Today's Special which was about a manican that use to come alive in the mall after hours and hang out with all his little puppet friends. I loved this show, and use to watch it all the time. I believe it aired here in America on Nickelodeon. It was definitely one of the best childrens shows iv'e ever seen. Of the shows you mentioned I also loved Fraggle Rock, You Can't Do That On Television, and of course Mr Rogers.

[Sitcomwriter]

I like "Red Green" and remember watching "Today's Special" a few times but the canadian sitcom that stands out the most is "Our Hero".It just recently went off the air but still airs reruns on WAM! and was basically about a girl,her family,her friends and her boyfriend.

PS."Bob and Margeret" airs here on Showtime.

[egregiousgirl]

I used to love Fraggle Rock when I was a kid! I also enjoyed Mr. Rogers and You Can't Do That On Television. The Kids in the Hall is still one of my favorite shows. Another one of my favorites that wasn't mentioned before was Due South, about the mountie who lived in Chicago. You gotta love a man in that uniform.

[TMC]

15 TV Shows You Didn’t Know Were Canadian

[icecream]

Corner Gas and Heartland are in my top 10 overall. I also liked Wind at My Back and The Border.

[AB]

Also a couple of the newer shows are pretty good too.

[Edward216]

I agree catsrule Corner Gas is hilarious. It was run on WGN on American cable and satellite TV for a few years, that's how I found out about it. But then they stopped with the reruns. I always thought it was a very funny show. Though I thought the characters of Oscar and Hank could be very dumb and annoying at times.

Ed.

[visaman666]

Originally Posted by APPLEI

doe's anybody remember "hangin' in"?
it starred lally cadeau as kate brown, head of a youth counseling center.
it aired in the united states around 1986 and had a cool theme song.

Yes I had a mini crush on Kate. I remember one episode where a teen hooker switched her runners for Kate's heels to wear at a job interview and the business owner propositioned the girl and Kate and the audience laughed!

[visaman666]

Hank and Oscar are typical Saskatchwanites!

[Edward216]

Oh I usually thought they were pretty funny. But there were times where their stupidity and also Oscar's cantankerousness just made we want to slap both of them upside the head! LOL.

Ed.

[Jennyluvver]

Willy and Floyd was the greatest Canadian kid's show of all time, as far as I'm concerned. Since the episodes were all thrown out or taped over by the network that owned them, the only people who know of its greatness are the ones that watched it growing up. Many of the jokes and ideas in the show could only be appreciated by adults, so this was not your typical kid's show. If you haven't seen it, you can't imagine what it was like. It starred Les Lye (from You Can't Do That on Television) and Bill Luxton and ran from 1966 to around 1988 in different formats:

Starting as a wraparound concept for introducing cartoons, Willy and Floyd eventually got their own full show to themselves which grew to feature many stock characters, played by Luxton and Lye. At one point, in the early '70's, their show was called Willy and Floyd and Friends when it had a talent showcase format for local performers.

It was around 1975 when the greatest incarnation of Willy and Floyd began. They owned their own talent agency where we got to enjoy their daily adventures, showing films on their old projector (actually recurring sketches featuring Luxton and Lye characters as well as Willy and Floyd themselves), lip-synced (and sometimes actually sang) to a large variety of old songs in faux performance settings, auditioned new acts (often local talent or guest stars) and generally got involved in all sorts of shenanigans. To describe it here still can not give an accurate representation of what it was like. Most of the show felt ad-libbed, even though Les Lye wrote the scripts himself (which must have been outlines saying let's do this and then this) and Willy and Floyd really seemed like real people you were peeking in on, not actors on a TV show. It seemed more real than most reality shows, and Luxton and Lye never talked the way children's performers do. They were more like a classic comedy team which had many attributes which would appeal to kids as well as adults, like Laurel and Hardy (who they impersonated on some episodes).

The great talent agency years lasted from 1975 to 1979. I have over 30 episodes on VHS tape from this era, which I recorded as a child, and these are definitely some of the only copies that exist. I know that there are some VHS copies in Les Lye's family, but I don't know how many episodes they have.

In 1981, Willy and Floyd came back and this time they owned a computer company. This didn't last long, and then it came back one more time as Willy and Floyd's Arms, in which they owned a hotel. These later episodes are the ones most remember, but they weren't anywhere near as good as the talent agency episodes, as the show had simply become a sitcom for kids, written by sitcom writers at this point.