CTV Television Network

While British television series have had limited success in North America outside public broadcasting systems like TVO and PBS, many British program formats have proved eminently adaptable to North American tastes. All In The Family was an early example. After the turn of the century, reality programming began to make a comeback in North America, spearheaded by Americanized UK series such as The Weakest Link and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The latter spawned two one-hour Canadian Millionaire specials, but no series.

Developed by CTV in partnership with Canadian Living Magazine, this half-hour daytime series was first seen on the network in February 2003. Designed “to help keep Canadian viewers in working order”, this health and lifestyle show was hosted by Toronto physician Dr. Marla Shapiro, who had already made her name as a frequent guest on Canada AM.

Subjects covered included diet, nutrition, exercise, medical and surgical aids to bodily health and looks, fitness and beauty secrets, the objective being to enable viewers to make smart health decisions for themselves and their families.

Former Second City comedian-actress Jessica Holmes starred in this half-hour series, supported by Roman Danylo and Kurt Smeaton The Holmes Show had its origins in a one-hour Comedy Now! special, Holmes Alone, which won a Platinum Award in 2001 at the Worldfest International Film Festival in Houston. The series featured sketch comedy and monologues, and the format was reminiscent of the Carol Burnett Show.

The gestation of this series was a local daily entertainment show, enow, which debuted on CFTO-TV Toronto in the fall of 1996, as a one-hour program on Saturdays at 7:00pm. It was first hosted by Lin Elioff, followed by Carla Collins and Dan Duran.  Owing something in style and content to the U.S.

Another in a long line of Canadian drama series to come to CTV from the creative teams at Alliance Atlantis, who produced the highly successful series E.N.G., The Eleventh Hour also used a television studio as home base. The one-hour program dealt with the lives and work of a team of investigative journalists, correspondents, camera crews and editors, as they researched, produced and presented stories for a fictional, W5-type program titled The Eleventh Hour.

Soon after this new series made a successful debut on the Discovery Channel in the fall of 2002, it became a regular fixture in the CTV daytime schedule.

Hosted by the then rapidly becoming ubiquitous Carla Collins, Sonic Temple was a series of one-hour live performances by groups like Radiohead, Sky, Snow, Econoline Crush and Aerosmith, interspersed with interviews and a Top Twenty album chart.  Comedy was also a feature of the series, with appearances by Sean Cullen, Jessica Holmes, Teresa Pavlinek and Gavin Crawford.

 Sonic Temple originated from CTV’s downtown Toronto studios.  It played at 10:00pm on Saturdays from May 5th through September 1st 2001, at which time it was replaced by Comedy Now.

After being buried under an avalanche and miraculously rescued after being given up for dead, anthropology professor Declan Dunn decided to dedicate his life to researching miracles, and proving that they really happened. In each episode of Mysterious Ways, Dunn (Adrian Pasdar) was seen investigating uncanny phenomena that happened to ordinary people. He was helped in his efforts by his sarcastic assistant, played by Alisen Down, and by Rae Dawn Chong as a psychiatrist. Sam the dog played Mole, Dunn’s untrainable stray puppy.

The popular CBC Degrassi series of the 1980s and 1990s – Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High – enjoyed a surprise rebirth when CTV announced that Degrassi: the Next Generation, with many of the original stars of the popular CBC series, would b

Cartoonist Michael Fry created the comic strip Committed for the alternative weekly The Houston Press in 1991, and since the strip began being syndicated in 1994 it has been seen in over 100 newspapers in North America. The television rights were secured by Canada’s Nelvana and Philippine Animators Group Inc., and the half-hour animated family sitcom was produced and sold to Canada’s Comedy Network and the Fox Family Channel in the U.S.