CBC Television Network

A series of college lectures, Exploring Minds was produced in several production centres across the country and the program was developed in association with several institutions of higher learning: Carleton and McGill Universities and the Universities of Toronto, British Columbia, Ottawa, and Manitoba. Programs produced in Vancouver in November and December l955 included lectures on the concept of the mob, manipulations of semantics, and the concept of the devil.

Host/singer/performer Ed McCurdy had two series running on CBC television, one for adults and one for children. On the Sunday afternoon show, for grownups, McCurdy was billed simply as "Canada's popular balladeer." On the Tuesday and Saturday afternoon broadcasts, aimed at children, McCurdy acted out stories that he illustrated with folk songs and his own compositions.

Aired weekly from January 1953 to April 1954; various times.

Written by John Corcelli - April, 2002

Aired Saturday nights at 11:15 PM from July 1953 to June 1954

Toronto sports broadcaster Dave Price interviewed athletes and sports stars on this fifteen-minute, local segment of the DuMont network's broadcast, Wrestling As You Like It, from the U.S.A. The name of Price's show was later changed to Sportfolio. 

Written by John Corcelli - February, 2005

Before the new television network went on the air, the CBC bought from U.S. producer Lou Snader a batch of what were in essence the first-ever music videos. They were packages of three-minute items featuring current U.S. recording artists, including George Shearing, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Barnet, Duke Ellington, Mel Torme, Cab Calloway, Nat King Cole and Peggy Lee.  Not sure what to do with them, the CBC asked two young McLaren copywriters, Frank Peppiatt and John Aylesworth, if they could build a show around them.  They could and they did, and After Hours was the result.

Debuted September 14, 1952. Aired Sunday evenings until 1959.

This program marked an important start in the history of current affairs programming at CBC. Originally produced by Harvey Hart, the program aimed to discuss the week's events in the news. Over time, discussion led to commentary and in-depth interviews on specific subjects. In 1959, the program was replaced by Background.

Moderator: R. A. Farquharson, editor of Saturday Night
Panelists: John Dauphinee; J. B. McGeachy [1952]

Aired Saturday evenings at 7:30 PM, from September to November 1952. It was moved to Fridays in the same timeslot, from December 1952 to July 1953.

 CBC wasn't afraid to start serials on television similar to radio programs of the 1940s and 1950s.. This 30 minute program was aimed at pre-teens and featured well-known works of fiction in regular segments.

Aired Tuesday evenings at 7:30 PM, debuting September 9, 1952, and ran during the first year of CBC television.

This 30 minute television drama was Canada's first because it debuted the same night television was first broadcast in Toronto. The show itself was based on stories from Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, full of dry humour and irony. It was shot in Beaverton, Ontario and was later known as Addison Spotlight Theatre, named after the car dealership sponsor.

Aired Thursday evenings from September 1952 to May 1954

This variety program was part of the CBC's opening schedule, in the second week of September 1952. It was a CBLT production out of Toronto's Jarvis Street studios,  and featured local talent of all ages and abilities. It was very much a product of its time, and only ran for two seasons, but it did at least give exposure to all kinds of Canadian performers in what was then an exciting new medium.



 

Written by John Corcelli - March, 2005

Under the title CBC News Magazine, and later as Newsmagazine, this film digest of international news features ran for almost thirty years on the network, from the first day of television transmission.

Correspondents: Norman DePoe, Ken Mason, Michael Maclear and Stanley Burke in London, Tom Gould in the Far East, covering the Vietnam war, David Levy in Moscow, Peter Reilly at the United Nations, Phil Calder in Bonn, and James Minifie and Knowlton Nash in Washington, D.C.

When CBC Television began broadcasting in September 1952, with an eighteen-hour service, a fifteen-minute daily program called Let’s See told viewers what programming they could see that evening, and what the weather was going to be like.  Weatherman Percy Saltzman was the host, aided and abetted by puppeteer John Conway’s creations, Uncle Chichimus and Holly Hock, the latter playing Chich’s niece and housekeeper. Conway provided the voices of Chich and Holly Hock, and actor Larry Mann was a regular on the show.