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My memory is clear tonight, so I'm going to discuss some old programs that used to run on Global. Why? Have you ever tried looking for old and odd programs online, only to find nothing?
Therefore, might as well. This might trigger some memories in Canadians and stares from others, because they're very "WTF?!"
Kidstreet - Kidstreet, a kid's game show, ran on Global in the early 1990s. The contestants were a 3 pairs of siblings and each pair sat in an oversized go-cart the same colour as the team name (red, green or blue). Everyone I knew wanted to be on Kidstreet because the end of the show had the winning team playing in a room full of toys. Who wouldn't want to do that?!
While I don't remember all of the types of questions asked, one round was like a kiddie version of the Newlywed Game. One kid would be asked questions about the other like "What colour is your sister/brother's toothbrush". I believe that the final round was only for the team with the most points and the more correct answers in the last round, the more money the siblings had for a toy shopping spree.
The toys on the show were provided by Toys and Wheels, a toy store chain that existed in Canada in the late 80s and early 90s. Toys and Wheels was in a group of stores that went under when Toys R Us went big in Canada; another one of these ill fated stores was Toy City, AKA the store with the purple panda logo. While Toys R Us and Toy City were forerunners to "big box stores" (they tended to stand out on their own, not attracted to anything), the only Toys and Wheels stores I knew about were smaller stores located in malls. Likewise, I believe Toys and Wheels lasted a little bit longer than Toy City and still existed around when the Littlest Pet Shop came out, so that would have been about 1993. Hamilton's Centre Mall had a Toys and Wheels, located around where Black's is currently. The only Toy Citys I remember were at Woodbine and the corner of Dundas and Dixie.
Night Walk - You were a kid of the 80s. Although you would never be old enough, you have memories of wandering around Toronto's financial district in the early morning with soft jazz playing in the background. Quite a few people share this haunting memory and it's tied to very strange piece of Canadian TV history called Night Walk.
Night Walk was late night filler in the days before infomercials became really popular. Apparently there's several versions of this program: Night Moves, Night Music, Night Walk and Night Ride. They were produced by Global back in the 1980s.
For each show, only one episode or so was produced. I believe Night Walk was the one that featured footage of the insides of downtown buildings. Night Ride was the view from the inside of a car as it drove around in the middle of the night. I have no idea what footage was used for Night Moves and Night Music. All the footage was point-of-view shots, so the idea was that your were the person taking these surreal trips through a quiet, dark and relaxed version of Toronto.
There's no real reason I can think of to explain why these shows were made in the first place. The common answer is that they were intended for insomniacs. I recall watching it as a child when I couldn't sleep at night and it was much better than those 1-800 phone sex ads that are on now.
After some searching, I managed to find CREDITS for the Night shows. Insane!
( Read more... )
Therefore, might as well. This might trigger some memories in Canadians and stares from others, because they're very "WTF?!"
Kidstreet - Kidstreet, a kid's game show, ran on Global in the early 1990s. The contestants were a 3 pairs of siblings and each pair sat in an oversized go-cart the same colour as the team name (red, green or blue). Everyone I knew wanted to be on Kidstreet because the end of the show had the winning team playing in a room full of toys. Who wouldn't want to do that?!
While I don't remember all of the types of questions asked, one round was like a kiddie version of the Newlywed Game. One kid would be asked questions about the other like "What colour is your sister/brother's toothbrush". I believe that the final round was only for the team with the most points and the more correct answers in the last round, the more money the siblings had for a toy shopping spree.
The toys on the show were provided by Toys and Wheels, a toy store chain that existed in Canada in the late 80s and early 90s. Toys and Wheels was in a group of stores that went under when Toys R Us went big in Canada; another one of these ill fated stores was Toy City, AKA the store with the purple panda logo. While Toys R Us and Toy City were forerunners to "big box stores" (they tended to stand out on their own, not attracted to anything), the only Toys and Wheels stores I knew about were smaller stores located in malls. Likewise, I believe Toys and Wheels lasted a little bit longer than Toy City and still existed around when the Littlest Pet Shop came out, so that would have been about 1993. Hamilton's Centre Mall had a Toys and Wheels, located around where Black's is currently. The only Toy Citys I remember were at Woodbine and the corner of Dundas and Dixie.
Night Walk - You were a kid of the 80s. Although you would never be old enough, you have memories of wandering around Toronto's financial district in the early morning with soft jazz playing in the background. Quite a few people share this haunting memory and it's tied to very strange piece of Canadian TV history called Night Walk.
Night Walk was late night filler in the days before infomercials became really popular. Apparently there's several versions of this program: Night Moves, Night Music, Night Walk and Night Ride. They were produced by Global back in the 1980s.
For each show, only one episode or so was produced. I believe Night Walk was the one that featured footage of the insides of downtown buildings. Night Ride was the view from the inside of a car as it drove around in the middle of the night. I have no idea what footage was used for Night Moves and Night Music. All the footage was point-of-view shots, so the idea was that your were the person taking these surreal trips through a quiet, dark and relaxed version of Toronto.
There's no real reason I can think of to explain why these shows were made in the first place. The common answer is that they were intended for insomniacs. I recall watching it as a child when I couldn't sleep at night and it was much better than those 1-800 phone sex ads that are on now.
After some searching, I managed to find CREDITS for the Night shows. Insane!
( Read more... )
