Smile. You’re on Candid Canada!
Updated: Nov 4
Earl Fowler
Back in the Westinghouse-Samsung Era, before HGTV Canada was bringing us such compelling fare as Property Brothers and Masters of Flip to watch on ceiling screens while undergoing root canals, Canadian home reno shows always included a little chair that was “waiting for one of you, and a rocking chair for another who likes to rock, and a big armchair for two more to curl up in”:
Below is a surveillance video screenshot from the day Rusty and the book bag disappeared from Friendly’s castle (now known as the Mar-a-Lago Club and Top Secret Document Dispensary) forever. It was about this time that Knowlton Nash and Percy Saltzman first reported hearing muffled clucks and high-pitched invective coming from the vicinity of Mr. Dressup’s Tickle Trunk:
Back in the day, few professions afforded more perks than being a celebrity on a Canadian children’s television program:
In the early days of Canadian TV, no expense was spared on the design of elaborate sets. In this particularly florid example, our pet Juliette appears to warbling past the graveyard:
In a shocker unbeknownst to devotees of the long-running CBC game show Front Page Challenge, it seems unflappable host Fred Davis might have been “stumping” more than just the panel:
“Red” and “Boom Boom” hitch a ride on Brokeback Hot Stove. “How about a scoop, big guy?”
In a similar vein, the real reason the Expos had to leave Montreal:
Few sports fans realize that Aaron Rodgers once tried out for what was then the Ottawa Rough Riders. He was cut after backing up Russ Jackson for a season:
He was made for lovin’ us, baby. (But about that baby … meet little Pierre Poilievre!)
Before the rise of the MAGA movement, we thought a crack-smoking mayor was crazy. Now this seems quaint, almost rustic:
And because we’re Canadian, a bonus tip of the cap from the late, great Murrary Westgate. Happy motoring, everybody!
The most memorable of CBC icons was a person we rarely saw and miss to this day -- Danny Gallivan.
"Oh it's great to be alive in this land of ours..."
And Canadiens goalies could stop pucks.
If you ever find yourself in CBC headquarters in downtown Toronto you'll have to visit the museum, where they have on display Friendly's boots, the book bag, the rocking chair and armchair pictured above as well as vintage TV cameras the size of a refrigerator among other bric-a-brac from our viewing youth.