In 1954, the producers of the radio show Sergeant Preston of the Yukon needed a gimmick to make sure its radio audience would watch the TV version of the show. Meanwhile, the show's sponsor, Quaker Oats, needed a follow-up to their ad campaign about how Quaker Puffed Wheat is shot out of guns. So Chicago adman, Bruce Baker (later the creator of Captain Crunch), dreamt up a wildly successful PR stunt for both Sgt. Preston of the Yukon and Quaker Oats by buying up one-inch plots of land in the Yukon (with legal assistance from future British Columbia senator George van Roggen) and giving away deeds to the land for free in copies of Quaker Oats cereal. (For a picture of the deed, click here and here)
posted on Nov 15, 2007 - View this thread

Little Mosque on the Prairie is a new Canadian sitcom that premiers January 9th at 8:30 PM EST on the CBC. To promote the series, 135 kilograms of shawarma was served up (embedded Flash video) Thursday on a downtown Toronto street, with a flock of camels on hand to spread the halal-arity. Considerable buzz is being generated, with American talking heads discussing the effect this show may have, and why it would never have been created in the US. Says series creator Zarqa Nawaz: "North America should be the first place where a comedy like this would come about, where Muslims can be comfortable in their own skin."
posted on Jan 6, 2007 - View this thread

Jay and Silent Bob go Canadian when Kevin Smith of "Clerks", "Chasing Amy" "Mallrats" fame writes himself into a script to reenact a teenage fantasy: making out with Degrassi High's "Caitlin", a character in the both the classic series and it's new "Next Generation" version. He nearly roped Ben Affleck into it ("Affleck, honestly, could use the work right now"), but is going with Alanis instead.
posted on Jan 4, 2005 - View this thread

Big Plans. Little Brains. Mike Clattenburg's Trailer Park Boys could soon be more than just a Canadian phenomenon. The mockumentary began as a film, was adapted into a TV series and has been airing for three seasons on Showcase in Canada (not to be confused with this). Ricky, Julian and Bubbles even joined Our Lady Peace during its Fear of the Trailer Park Tour last summer (soon to be documented on CD and DVD) and could be seen alongside Don Cherry in The Tragically Hip's video for "The Darkest One" (a look behind the scenes - qt version). Bubbles even appeared in that informer guy's video for "Legal" and has been writing music reviews in character. (TPB was mentioned briefly here and here.)
posted on May 26, 2003 - View this thread

MTV Canada plays too many videos, says rival When is the last time you heard that MTV plays too many videos, if ever?OK, crappy videos, but still...
posted on Jan 21, 2002 - View this thread

Degrassi's Back! For the Canadian's out there, I'm sure I don't have to remind you about those classic CanCon series' The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, and Degrassi High. (Any Canadian between 15-35 grew up on at least one of these) Well starting October 14th, we can all grow up again with a new gang of kids on Degrassi: The Next Generation! Who will be the next Joey Jeremiah?
posted on Oct 6, 2001 - View this thread

RIP, Mr. Dressup. For Canadians who were growing up in the 70s and 80s, the loss of this icon is a sad, sad happening. If only there were people to teach today's kids how to have fun with pipecleaners and cardboard instead of whining for $300 in video games. What became of old-fashioned imagination?
posted on Sep 18, 2001 - View this thread

The body that regulates cable in Canada, the CRTC, is licensing 283 new channels. All will be available only through digital set-top boxes.

Along with the expected Biography, Mystery, and ZDTV channels, in the mandatory tier we're getting Book Television from CHUM, a gay and lesbian channel, a documentary channel, and Land and Sea, a rural service from the CBC. If that wasn't wacky enough, the optional channels will include BBC Canada, the Wine Television Network, two wedding channels, several hockey channels, and channels dedicated to theatre, poetry, jazz, dance, pets, South Asian culture, international film, horses, law, martial arts… just about anything you can think of, actually.

While I don't expect they can all survive, it should make for an interesting six months.
posted on Nov 24, 2000 - View this thread

Designer-programmer-actor-model-waiter? Finally, someone giving one or more fingers to Toronto's tightarsed, outdated nouveaux-médias hiring practices. How would you like to be on call 24 hours a day as an interactive-TV manager for the Weather Network way the fork out in Mississauga? Lila Feng worship isn't enough of a payoff, kids.
posted on Jun 12, 2000 - View this thread