Canadian Game Shows

[vtown7]

Happy 136th birthday, Canada!

I'd like to celebrate on this board by having everyone chip in their memories of any Canadian game shows they've seen or heard about, if that's okay!

And I know there are some Canadian members on here besides myself, so share your memories too, eh?

Cheers,

Ryan V.

[PeterMarshallFan]

I vaguely remember a show called \"Baloney\" that aired in the late 80's with Pat Bullard. IIRC, it was taped in a restaurant. Contestants were presented various statements and had to determine if they were facts, or baloney.

[Jimmy Owen]

Well, I'm from Michigan so I did get to see whatever game shows CKLW (now CBET) Channel 9 in Windsor (near Detroit) happened to show. They were CBC with some CTV shows (but never \"Definition.\")  I strugged to fine tune my TV to catch a glimpse of Global or the Sarnia CTV repeater back in the mid-70s.  Shows that Channel 9 aired that I saw included \"Beat the Clock\" (Narz and Wood version), \"Eye Bet,\" \"This is the Law,\" \"Front Page Challenge\" (and \"Daytime Challenge\"), \"It's Your Choice,\" \"Music Game,\" \"Bluff,\" \"Beyond Reason,\" \"Talkabout\" and of course, \"Reach For the Top\" in local and the national finals  editions.  Have only seen it once, but CBET did carry \"Smart Ask\" as well.  CTV and Global seemed more exciting in the 70's, judging from the TV listings of the time.

[Ian Wallis]

It's surprising that Windsor doesn't have a CTV station, isn't it?  I'm pretty sure that parts of Michigan can receive the CKCO repeater on Channel 42 out of Sarnia, although that didn't exist back in the '70s.

As for CTV's lineup, in the mid-70s it was chock full of game shows.  Stuff like \"Anything You Can Do\", \"He Knows, SHe Knows\", \"Definition\", \"Beat the Clock\", \"It's Your Move\", etc.  Some of those shows were pretty good...a couple had GREAT themes!

Too bad there are no Canadian game shows currently on the air...I'd love to be on one, and flying to LA or NY just to try out for one with no guarantee of getting on is a bit out of my price range!

[Jimmy Owen]

I'll tell you two funny things about \"Eye Bet.\"  First, Jim Perry was blond.  Second, there was an incident where the game was over and it came time to award the grand prize.  You could see the gamut of emotions in the contestant's face (a schoolgirl) when the announcer said, \"You have just won A ROUND.....WATCH!\"

[mmb5]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jul 2 2003, 03:16 PM\'] It's surprising that Windsor doesn't have a CTV station, isn't it?  I'm pretty sure that parts of Michigan can receive the CKCO repeater on Channel 42 out of Sarnia, although that didn't exist back in the '70s.

 [/quote]
 Part of the retransmission agreement Canadian stations have with the American distributors is that the standard quality (Grade A) over-the-air signal of an American show cannot reach American audiences.  So, there's two ways of doing it.  Global has a station in Windsor, but it's way to the east and it's low power, so unless you live right on the border, you can't get it.  The CTV station instead put their station up in Sarnia where the signals technically do not overlap.  The CBC station is also on most cable systems in the Detroit area, but the CTV and Global stations aren't since they're mostly repeating U.S. stuff anyway.


--Mike

[joelvanderveen]

I remember watching \"Wild Guess\" (extremely vaguely, though) and \"Food for Thought\" as a wee young'un back in the early '90s. I recall \"FfT\" being taped in a studio set up as a supermarket, but that's as far as it goes.

I also remember the kids' show \"Kidstreet\" (something like that), with race cars being the kids' podiums. And I also used to watch \"Uh Oh!\" (think of it as the Canadian \"Double Dare\"), but that's still showing on YTV.

Indeed, happy birthday, Canada. (And congratulations on winning the 2010 Olympic bid, Vancouver!)

[drmusic_99]

Aha! Jim Perry is also blond, in the cameo appearance he made on \"The David Steinberg Show\".

One show few people remember is \"Guess What\". Hosted by actor Robin Ward, it aired as a companion to \"Definition\" (almost like the Wheel/J! strip). I don't remember too much else about it, other than the very cool synthesizer theme. (It's a longshot, but does anyone have it?)

[rugrats1]

The CBC station is also on most cable systems in the Detroit area, but the CTV and Global stations aren't since they're mostly repeating U.S. stuff anyway.

The Comcast system in Port Huron, MI does carry Global, from the Oil Springs transmitter. As Harron, they also used to carry CKCO, but dropped it before they were sold to Adelphia (which, in turn, sold the Port Huron system to Comcast). CBET is widely available on Comcast in Port Huron, but not the \"local\" CBLN transmitter, which, unlike CBET, includes what little there is left of American shows on CBC (\"Simpsons\" reruns, Disney, some movies).

[James Allen]

Was \"Talkabout\" a Canadian show?

[zachhoran]

Talkabout was indeed a Canadian-taped show, which was syndicated in the US in 1989-90.

[James Allen]

Talkabout was indeed a Canadian-taped show, which was syndicated in the US in 1989-90.

Thanks. I liked \"Talkabout,\" a nice simple little concept that was fun to watch. It would be nice if someone took the idea and did something with it today, after all, they do it in reverse these days. (You know, you have to describe stuff without using certain words).

It was done on a show whose name esapes me, as well as having been done on ESPN (as a quicky filler game on SportsCenter).

[zachhoran]

The board game Taboo had a brief run as a game show on TNN earlier this year, that may be where you remember it from.

[Michael Brandenburg]

I was attending my church's fall festival in Niagara Falls, New York in 1975 and got to see one Canadian game show whose title escapes me at this time.  It was similar to Wheel of Fortune except that it was played by two players and the players got to call two letters in each turn after spinning the wheel -- the first one of which he believed was not in the puzzle and the second one of whice he believed it was.

   In later years I did get to see the following Canadian-produced shows:

  Let's Make a Deal (produced in Vancouver B.C.; Monty Hall hosting): Aired on a \"Christian\" station in my area around 1980.  Not a lot to give away on this one in comparison with the previous ABC network version (Big Deals of the Day only ran around $5,000), but it was fun to see Monty pay off his winning contestants with his own \"Let's Make a Deal\" currency that they would exchange for their appropriate home-country currency after the show.

   Jackpot (produced in Toronto, Ontario; Mike Darrow hosting): Caught this one in my motel room in Niagara Falls when I was there for my church's fall festival again in 1985 and loved it!  Of course, these were the episodes that later aired in the U.S. on the USA cable network.

   Talkabout (already covered in this thread) and Lingo; both of which aired on WIII-TV (now WSTR-TV) in Cincinnati in 1989:  Wasn't really keen on Talkabout, but I did get a big kick out of one episode on which Geoff Edwards appeared as a celebrity player and at the end of the episode, when the host showed the Talkabout home game to the home audience, Geoff immediately shoves a Jackpot home game in front of it, thereby \"plugging\" the game show he was hosting at that time!  (Jackpot was also airing on WIII-TV at that time, BTW -- too bad it didn't last!)

   Of course, Lingo is now back on Game Show Network, and though the game play of the current version is a little different from the earlier version and the prizes are smaller, I still found it a lot of fun when I caught it in my motel room in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, last year during my church's fall festival.


   Michael Brandenburg
   (and I wonder if the Super 8 motel in Kerrville, Texas, has GSN on their motel-room TVs??)

[Ian Wallis]

Quote:
Part of the retransmission agreement Canadian stations have with the American distributors is that the standard quality (Grade A) over-the-air signal of an American show cannot reach American audiences.


--------------


Although I've heard that before, I wonder if it applies to the Toronto stations.  All 9 of them broadcast from the top of the CNTower, and most pentrate far into New York State, especially the Buffalo area.  Even though Buffalo is 55 miles away from Toronto (as the crow flies), the signals must still be pretty strong.

Maybe it doesn't matter so much now because most Canadian networks simulcast US shows, but in the '60s and '70s, the Canadian stations actually broadcast them a few days in advance.  There must have been some American viewers that could have seen these shows on strong Canadian signals.

Back to game shows---Channel 11 Hamilton broadcasts \"Price is Right\" every day at 11 a.m., simulcasting the CBS feed.  In the '70s, Channel 57 in Toronto ran it every day at 5 p.m., one day ahead of CBS.  Channel 9 in Toronto ran it for a while during the '80s, but they decided to simulcast CBS.