PERSPECTIVE to the PURPLE PLAYHOUSE
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PERSPECTIVE to THE PURPLE PLAYHOUSE Perspective A half-hour program, produced by the National Film Board, Perspective included both documentaries and dramatic productions. Most concerned contemporary issues in Canada, although several films, such as Haiti, were produced outside the country, and a few were historical reconstructions, for example, Wolfe And Montcalm. The opening program in the series, Raw Material, concerned the activities of the John Howard Society, and outlined them in dramatic form, as many subsequent productions dramatized stories drawn from contemporary social issues. The producers took advantage of recent developments in lightweight camera and sound recording equipment and took crews into the streets and on location to make films with a naturalistic style. Monkey On The Back, for instance, was a gritty story of drug addiction, and Night Children followed the rounds of a Children's Aid Society case worker. Other productions employed less naturalistic techniques to make their points. A Case Of Conscience and Is It A Woman's World? both included extended dream sequences to explore a man's guilt over leaving the scene of an auto accident in the former, and to put a male lawyer into a role reversal situation in the latter. Escape was essentially a studio-produced effort, in which a lecturer discusses the different ways we slip out of the real world, and brief skits illustrate his remarks. Writers for the series included George Salverson, Charles Israel, Charles Cohen, Gordon Burwash, and William Weintraub. Stanley Jackson, Don Haldane, Fergus McDonnell, Donald Ginsberg, Jean Lenaver, John Howe, and Bernard Devlin. Julian Biggs, also a director, produced the series for the NFB, and Eric Koch was responsible for the CBC. The executive producer for the NFB was Grant McLean. Passe-partout was a parallel series, aired on Radio-Canada; most of the programs were produced by the French language unit of the National Film Board, though some were dubbed from English language productions. As far as the NFB's presence on the CBC was concerned, Perspective represented a distinct difference from the general affairs documentaries, with onscreen commentators, of On The Spot. It also anticipated the direct cinema of The Candid Eye, which replaced Perspective in its Sunday afternoon time slot. Pet Corner Thu 5:15-5:30 p.m., 22 Oct 1953-1 Jul 1954 On this fifteen minute, weekly program from Toronto, first called Pet Shop, host Rick Campbell talked to young guests about the care and training of their household pets. Peggy Nairn and Joanne Hughes produced the show, in cooperation with the Toronto Humane Society. Pet Shop See Pet Corner. Pet Show Sun 3:00-3:30 p.m., 28 Jun-12 Jul 1959 Jeff Hogwood and Audrey Laurie were the hosts of this half-hour program, from Montreal, on the care and training of pets. The Phoenix Team Tue 10:00-11:00 p.m., 16 Sep-28 Oct 1980 Don Francks and Elizabeth Shepherd starred in this series of eight, one hour adventure dramas as former spies, brought back into action and into collaboration by circumstance. Both the stars were veterans at the CBC, Francks as both an actor and musical variety performer, and Shepherd for many appearances in television dramas. For The Phoenix Team, Shepherd was Valerie Koester, a British secret service agent who enlists the unofficial help of her colleague and former lover, David Brook. Brook, played by Francks, had been a top agent in the Canadian service during the years of the Cold War; since espionage started to get more high-tech, however, he found himself alienated from the craft and demoted to a desk job. Nonconformists and authority-flouters, Brook and Koester were set against Brook's overly bureaucratic and technocratic superior, Graydon, and the General, the head of Canadian secret service, who actually sympathized with their desire for independence and their initiative, and relied on them. Graydon was played by Brian Linehan, the unctuous Toronto television host, best known for his interviews with entertainment personalities, and the General was portrayed by the most hyphenated person in Canadian show business, Mavor Moore. The series opened with a two part story called Old Times' Sake, directed by John Trent, in which the two agents investigated an apparent shooting accident, and uncovered a unit called Section D, a remnant of the Cold War that seemed to be still active. Their inquiries led back to the death of Val Koester's father eighteen years before. Subsequent programs were titled Like Father, Like Son; Sanctuary; Saving Grace; The Judas Game; Close Shave; and The Fourth Man. Other members of the cast included Steve Pernie as Carvallo, Gerry Crack as Moffat, Amelia Hall as Miss Woods, Lee Broker as Janev, and Arnie Achtman as Theo. In addition to Trent, Graham Parker, Douglas Williams, Al Waxman, and Don McBrearty directed episodes of the series. The scripts were written by John C.W. Saxton, and the program was produced by Lawrence S. Mirkin, with executive producer Stanley Colbert. Piano Alley Thu 7:30-8:00 p.m., 30 Apr-11 Jun 1981 In this series of eight musical variety shows, eight different pianos in a music store evoked different memories and stories. Jack O'Neil produced this half-hour show, which starred Bob Quinn, in Halifax. Pick And Choose Sun 2:00-2:30 p.m., 4 Jul-12 sep 1971 Producer Nancy Riley picked and chose the best of CBC films produced in different regional centres for this summer series. Each program had a different theme, such as women, artists, history--the opening program was a visual trip across the country, with items from St. John's to Vancouver. The short films were introduced by host Alex Trebek. Pick Of The Week Mon-Fri 11:25-11:55 a.m., 16 Oct 1967-29 Sep 1969 For this weekday morning broadcast, the CBC tried to accommodate an audience of homemakers--who presumably had more time to watch television after they got the kids off to school than they did in the evening--and repeated programs or portions of programs that were first aired in prime time. Regular features included Newsmagazine, Man Alive, This Land, and The Public Eye. Though for some programs, the repeat broadcast might be delayed, more topical programs, such as Man Alive and The Public Eye usually received morning airtime the same week they were broadcast in the evening. Producer Lyal Brown selected mainly public affairs or news and information programs for the daily half- hour, but also included films from the National Film Board, such as the Canada At War series, programs available from Commonwealth countries, and, for at least one period, Singalong Jubilee. In addition, he used regional productions, such as Death Of A Nobody, the Winnipeg production about native people's problems. Pick The Stars A rare example of a Canadian contest program with genuine cash prizes, Pick The Stars was a talent program sponsored by the meat processers Canada Packers Ltd. The program aimed to provide a showcase for new talent, but also to be an entertaining half-hour of acts that ranged from singers and dancers to instrumentalists and circus-style acts. The season was organized in six cycles of six programs, in which the final show of every cycle was a semi-final, the winner receiving five hundred dollars. Competition in the final three shows of the season determined the two winners of one thousand dollar grand prizes. For the first season, viewer mail determined the winners of the semi-finals, but to judge the best of the four acts presented each weekthe show also convened a panel. They included Clyde Gilmour, the Toronto movie reviewer, Ernest Rawley, manager of the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Herman Geiger-Torel of the Royal Conservatory of Music, and Midge Arthur, wife and partner of Canada's "Mr. Showbusiness," Jack Arthur. As Hugh Garner wrote in 1955, "It is quite an imposing panel to judge the merits of tumbling acts and cowboy singers, and I have had the impression sometimes that they deliberately lower their sights to pick acrobats and jugglers in an attempt to show that they are just as down to earth as any of us short-hairs in the audience." ["Television: Ham 'n Eggs," Saturday Night (9 April 1955), pp. 22-23] The format changed in the final season, as judges were chosen from across the country, and their votes were tabulated by telephone. Comperes for the show were Tabloid host Dick MacDougal in the first season, Lee Stevens in the second, and Pat Morgan, who was a Pick The Stars winner in 1954, in the third. The conductors of the onstage orchestra were Samuel Hersenhoren (l954-56) and Lucio Agostini (l956-57). The program was produced by Drew Crossan (l955-57) and Jim Guthro (l957). Pictures Please Mon 5:45-6:00 p.m., 9 Jul-24 Sep 1956 This fifteen minute program for small children originated in Ottawa, and was produced by Fred Rainsberry. Pictures With Woofer See Patty's Picture House. Pieces Of Eight Thu 4:45-5:00 p.m., 16 Oct 1958-29 Jan 1959 Thu 4:45-5:00 p.m., 2 Apr-25 Jun 1959 This fifteen minute show for children featured songs and tales of pirates and seafaring. Ranzo the Pirate from the crew of the Black Avenger, told stories of the high seas, and the Chantymen, a vocal quartet, yo-ho-hoed. Ranzo was played by H. Leslie Pigot, and the Chantymen--Eric Stott, Malcolm Mitton, Harold Kempster, and Carl Smith--were accompanied by Jimmy Nas on the accordion and under the musical direction of Leonard Mayoh.