Wednesday night, the puck drops on a documentary about a hockey series that blew my teenagee mind 50 years ago. Airing over four consecutive Wednesdays, Summit 72 is a four-part docuseries about the 1972 culture clash on ice known as Team Canada vs. The U.S.S.R. It pitted Canadian pros long-banned at the Olympics and in
Fifty years ago this month, the Canada vs USSR eight game hockey tournament of 1972 galvanized the nation. One of the standouts for Team Canada was Montreal Canadiens defenseman Serge Savard. While TV ratings were an even more inexact science back then, it is estimated that 16 million Canadians, out of a nation of 22
“Her majesty’s a pretty nice girl but she doesn’t have a lot to say.” So wrote Paul McCartney way back in 1969, as heard in a lick of music tucked in the final grooves of The Beatles’ album Abbey Road. The Queen’s 70-year reign spanned from well before Beatlemania through Brexit. With the passing of
For the past four seasons, Peter Mitchell has been doing Ryan Murphy-level duty. He’s the showrunner for the two primetime scripted Canadian series with by far the largest schedules: Murdoch Mysteries and Hudson & Rex. Murdoch, CBC’s historical whodunnit which returns for a 16th season next Monday, September 12, is currently in production in and
Back in the early ’90’s. before he became a late-night TV host, Conan O’Brien and his Harvard writing pal Greg Daniels (creator of the American version of The Office) decided to take a road trip to Vancouver. Turning on the TV in the hotel, they became mesmerized by this strange Canadian series about a B.C.
Expectations were high when Patrick Watson became chairman of the CBC in 1989. Many in the creative end of the television industry cheered that initial impression that the inmates were finally in charge of the asylum. Alas, Watson, who died at 92 on July 4 in Ontario, was as powerless to re-invent and reinvigorate Canada’s
Don Cullen, who died June 25 in Toronto, had one of those faces that was made for television. Even those tiny, low-res, black & white TV screens in the 1960s. He just had a very large, black and white mug that jumped out at you as a welcome presence as one of the main comedy
The third and final episode of our three-part, post-upfront series, “Battle of the Network Stars: Executive Division,” features CBC Executive Vice President Barbara Williams. Williams, a respected industry veteran who called the shots at Global prior to joining CBC, oversees all of the public broadcaster’s English language programming services. This episode finds her just back