CTV Television Network

The first attempt at a Canadian drama series about hockey in some years, Power Play centred on a fictitious hockey team, the Hamilton Steelheads. Dubbed a 'quirky comedy-drama' by the press, Power Play offered some nifty moves both in the on-ice hockey and with the off-ice sexual proclivities of its cast.

Producer Greg Popowich created this children’s series, which owed something in style to The Friendly Giant, and was produced in Yorkton at CTV affiliate station CICC-TV.  Poetree was a talking, ten-foot tree, and his friends were Birdie, who nested in his branches, and Dan the Storyman, who would climb into the tree each day to talk with Poetree and Birdie, and tell a daily story.  Poetree opened each program with a poem, and did another toward the end of the show.

After many years on the road as a stand-up comedian, one-time policeman and Bell Canada employee Mike Bullard was tapped to host his own late-night talk show on the CTV-owned Comedy Network, starting in the fall of 1997. So successful was the show that in April 1998 it was transferred to the full CTV Network, and in September 2002 it began its sixth season.

Lynda Reeves, a leading Canadian expert in style and home matters, hosted this weekday half-hour which had its gestation in Canadian House and Home magazine, and offered viewers a five-days-a-week series of insights into better living.

The series premiered in September 1998, weekdays 1:00 - 1:30pm, and ran for four seasons on CTV before moving to the Life Channel.

Written by Pip Wedge - June, 2002

First Story was a half-hour newsmagazine series, focusing on First Nation arts, political, social and culture issues.  In addition to playing on CTV affiliates, the series was also seen on the Aboriginal People’s Television Network (APTN).  The producers accurately described the series as “dedicated to telling the stories and sharing the diversity, creativity and strength of Canada’s First Nation people”.

Julie Stewart starred as Sergeant Ali McCormick in this one-hour series dealing with a crime squad that handled murder cases that had gone unsolved, hence 'cold',  not forgotten. Despite several cast changes over the years, or maybe because of them, the series continued to draw good viewing numbers over seven seasons.

“No doubt about it, I’m a nature nut,” sang John Acorn at the start of each of his programs The zany approach to life and people adopted by this Canadian naturalist when he was a park interpreter at Sir Winston Churchill Park near Lac La Biche, Alberta, in the summer of 1977, made his personality ideal for television, and he eventually came to host a very successful series under the punning title Acorn The Nature Nut.

Vicki Gabereau began her radio career in 1975 in Brampton, Ontario. After working as summer host on CBC’s Morningside in 1980, she was named host of CBC’s Variety Tonight in 1981. In 1985, the show’s format was changed, and the hour-long Gabereau radio show was born.

In 1996 Baton Broadcasting, owners of CTV Toronto affiliate CFTO, and Electrohome, owners of CKCO-TV Kitchener, made a joint application for a licence for a new station in Vancouver. Their application was granted in January 1997.  A condition of the licence was that a series of half-hour dramas would be commissioned from independent producers in B.C. under the umbrella title The Storytellers.

This one-hour series had its origins in the French film La Femme Nikita, and was known under that title on the USA Network. Variously described as escapist, campy and quixotic, the series developed a major cult following with scores of websites offering insights into the characters and the actors who portrayed them.