For Passionate Thinkers

February 23, 2011 4:25 PM

Forty years of incredible programming from Ontario's public broadcaster now viewable on the Web at The TVO Public Archive. Samples include: Imprint 1993: Leonard Cohen talks about his poetry and music. The Education of Mike McManus 1977: Timothy Leary talks about what freedoms the drug culture wrought and reflects on his own role in bringing about these changes. Talking Film 1980: The Cinema Of John Huston offers anecdotes about Orson Welles, Humphrey Bogart, and Truman Capote. Allan Gregg in Conversation 2007: Carol Off/Alvin Toffler, authors of Bitter Chocolate and Future Shock.

A free online resource that showcases four decades of made-at-TVO educational programming. The archive is growing daily as more of their original programming gets digitized.

posted by netbros (17 comments total)

Amazing stuff from Cohen
posted by wheelieman at 4:34 PM on February 23, 2011

W00t! It looks as if they've a decent selection of episodes from Prisoners of Gravity! (Full listing on this fansite, and some PoG episodes in the wild *cough* here.)

Also recommended:

- Big Ideas
- Imprint with Daniel Richler et. al.
- Maps of Meaning, which is either an uneasy or a brilliant mashup of psychology and mythology
- Talking Film with Elwy Yost
posted by maudlin at 4:52 PM on February 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

(Whoops! I can see that netbros has pulled out individual episodes of Imprint and talking Film, but really, you should browse the listings for more.)
posted by maudlin at 4:54 PM on February 23, 2011

If anyone needs me, I'll be watching Today's Special and Polka Dot Door. I can't find the show with the detective dressed up as a kangaroo who does math, though.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:00 PM on February 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

Very cool, but I think I'll remain surly until I find an archive of Friendly Giant episodes.
posted by Bernt Pancreas at 5:13 PM on February 23, 2011

The Friendly Giant was on CBC (I used to walk trudge past some of the props and costumes when I had a job in the CBC's basement).
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:21 PM on February 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

TVO is, now that I no longer have it, a real treasure in Ontario. Crazy that it survived Mike Harris at all.
posted by GuyZero at 5:40 PM on February 23, 2011

Also, merely saying "Elwy Yost" in Ontario gets you special insider privileges & discounts.
posted by GuyZero at 5:42 PM on February 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

As a kid, Saskatchewan did not have its own TVOntario. Instead, the department of education was allotted time at around 9 a.m. on the local CBC station for school programming. And it was generally TVO programs. Stuff that I'm not seeing in this archive (yet) like Readalong and Parlez-moi (get THAT theme song out of your head.) It kind of blows my mind now that there was a time in my lifetime that it was more practical to BROADCAST educational programs to classrooms than to provide them with VCRs and tapes.
posted by evilcolonel at 6:03 PM on February 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

This week Saturday Night at the Movies looks at cinema's portrayal of the tortured artist.
I've been a fan of SNAM for decades. Excellent stuff.

Also, The Agenda with Steve Paikin can sometimes open your eyes.
posted by ovvl at 6:03 PM on February 23, 2011

God, I miss Elwy Yost. "Time to turn the lights down low, and put your feet up..."

Shelagh Rogers was never the same, nor is this unseen questioner mode now.

I've a big beef with Saturday Night at the Movies this season. It's only repeats. Nothing new in the slightest. And while the movies bear repeated viewing, this is overdoing it. Hard to think that TVO is sabotaging its own greatest membership draw by putting up reruns.

It's ruined my Saturday night social life, I tell you that.

But thanks, OP. There's gold in them thar hills.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:37 PM on February 23, 2011

That's a great interview with Cohen, btw. He starts off with his usual shtick of quoting himself, but before long, Gowdy has him squirming on the hook and revealing much more than he ever intended.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:59 PM on February 23, 2011

I used to walk trudge past some of the props and costumes when I had a job in the CBC's basement

Even though I'm pretty sure you didn't mean it to, there is no part of that sentence that doesn't make me incredibly jealous.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:14 PM on February 23, 2011

I'm sure even Willy Wonka's factory had (windowless) roomfuls of unseen office drones doing the paperwork. An illustrative anecdote: when people in my department left, the going away parties always included pizza ordered from 3 For 1.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:33 PM on February 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Magic Shadows intro is an early childhood imprint for me.
posted by juiceCake at 10:45 PM on February 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

TVO is fantastic, definitely, but worse and worse all the time. Just like CBC radio.

Also, why such a spotty archive? So disappointing. I went looking for a couple of Big Ideas episodes that I've been hoping to revisit for many years, but.... Better than nothing though.
posted by Chuckles at 11:10 PM on February 23, 2011

I got excited, thinking I might see the "Nightmusic" episode from 1976 that brought The Ramones into my life, or the fantastic "Nash the Slash Rises Again". But, no.
posted by davebush at 5:56 AM on February 24, 2011