CTV Television Network

Set in the offices of a major Toronto law firm - with sweeping vistas of the Toronto skyline in the opening sequence, and frequent location shooting outside Old City Hall clearly identifying this as a Canadian series - The Associates chronicled the lives and loves of five newly qualified lawyers as they tried to practice everything they had learned in law school - and a few things they hadn't.

Described by CTV as a ‘roving weekend news magazine and lifestyle show’, Good Morning Canada was a new entry to the CTV weekend schedule in September 2000. The ‘roving’ part involved the series originating from cities other than Toronto, and was produced in the studios of CTV affiliates in Kitchener, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Vancouver.

A classic example of the value of cross-ownership of both a television station/network and a cable channel is demonstrated by the history of this series. Comedy Now began on the Comedy Channel on July 6th 1997. The concept was a simple one: to provide an opportunity for complete performances by stand-up comedians to be given exposure to much wider audiences than they could hope to reach through the clubs which were their normal habitat.

Al Waxman starred in this one-hour series, and had just completed the second season’s final episode when he went into hospital for heart bypass surgery. Complications followed, and the Canadian acting community lost one of its brightest stars. Waxman played hundreds of roles in both Canada and the U.S. during his 65 years, but was probably best known as the King of Kensington, the role he played in a highly successful CBC series. Americans knew him best as Lieutenant Bert Samuels in the long-running series Cagney and Lacey.

Subtitled Guardians of the Legend, and based on the Myth Men series of books by Laura Geringer and Peter Bollinger, this animated 26-episode half-hour series was targeted to a youth audience, and retold the stories of such mythical heroes and heroines as Andromeda, Theseus, Hercules, Midas, Ulysses and Penelope, and Jason and Medea. A Canada/France/China co-production in association with Scholastic Inc.

Louisa May Alcott’s late nineteenth-century novel, Little Women, was a best seller well into the 20th Century . She wrote several sequels, among which was Little Men, which formed the basis for this television series. Alcott’s heroine, Jo (for Josephine) March, married Professor Bhaer in Little Women; in Little Men, the Professor has died, and his widow fulfils her husband’s dream of running a boarding school for boys.

Louisa May Alcott’s late nineteenth-century novel, Little Women, was a best seller well into the 20th Century . She wrote several sequels, among which was Little Men, which formed the basis for this television series. Alcott’s heroine, Jo (for Josephine) March, married Professor Bhaer in Little Women; in Little Men, the Professor has died, and his widow fulfils her husband’s dream of running a boarding school for boys.

Cartoonist Ben Wicks created the illustrations for a series of small children’s books about Katie and Orbie, written by his daughter Susan.  Katie was a five-year-old, experiencing all kind of things for the first time, and Orbie was her friend from another planet, to whom Katie explained her world and how it worked. The popularity of the Katie and Orbie stories made them a natural source for a television series, which was created for the U. S. Public Broadcasting System.

Originally announced as in production under the title "Flesh and Blood", this new one-hour CTV series failed under its new title despite being hailed by the Toronto Star as "gritty and sophisticated". CTV's own release talked of "sex and betrayal in the mansions of Rosedale", and "greed and skullduggery at City Hall". They were all there, but despite the efforts of a strong cast, which included Tory Higginson, John Ralston, Aidan Devine, Michael Sarrazin and Shawn Doyle, the ratings didn't match the hype.

Birdz, a half-hour animated children’s half-hour series, took viewers into a school attended by pre-teen birds with human foibles and frailties – including the ability to talk!   The pun-slanted episode titles included The Agony and the Eggstacy, Let the Chicks Fall Where They May, Gulls and Dolls, and Big Beak or Not Big Beak.  The hero was 12-year-old Eddie Storkowitz  (no prizes for guessing what type of bird he resembled), and he and his off-the wall family and schoolfriends had a series of adventures which mirrored many of the dreams and ambitions of real-life kids.