Here's Looking at Us: Celebrating 50 Years of CBC TV: Amazon.ca: Stephen Cole: Books

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An affectionate history of five decades' worth of very Canadian television by the CBC, Here's Looking at Us will be treasured by anyone who gets teary-eyed over memories of giraffe puppets or Bruno Gerussi's chest hair. Indeed, it seems destined for the coffee tables of many Canadians. Heavy on pictures, the book has a layout that's busy but accessible, with stories on CBC-TV's shows and stars arranged chronologically. While Toronto writer Stephen Cole sticks to a just-the-facts approach that precludes much in the way of critical analysis, Here's Looking at Us still touches on all the most memorable moments in CBC-TV's history, from the rise of comedy duo Wayne and Shuster to the broadcast of the Canada Cup hockey series in 1972 and the inception of such beloved programs as The King of Kensington, The Kids of Degrassi Street, Street Legal, and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Cole presents an array of fun, insightful anecdotes from many of the CBC's most famous names. Norman Jewison, who went on to fame as the director of movies like In the Heat of the Night and Moonstruck, remembers his nights of white-knuckle panic back when he was the twentysomething director of live TV productions in the '50s. Anne Murray tells of initially failing to make the cut for the musical show Singalong Jubilee. Another CBC veteran who went on to greater success, Canada's Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, remarks how people still remember her as a young woman on Take 30, a current affairs show for women in the late '60s and early '70s. "I think I was the first person of Oriental origin to be on television anywhere in the Western world," she notes. But then, CBC-TV has always sought to reflect the country as honestly as possible, having spent 50 years dedicated to the "proposition that Canada deserves--no, requires--a national television service that allows all of us to see, understand and distinguish ourselves." What the architects of CBC-TV couldn't have known was how much the creation of a national identity might rest on the efforts of a rooster named Rusty, a giraffe named Jerome, and a white-haired Friendly Giant. --Jason Anderson

Book Description

On September 8, 1952, English-language CBC-TV went to air for the first time, albeit with the logo upside down. Apart from that one little glitch, the terrified group of talented young people who put on that first live show launched the new network with imagination and verve.

In Here’s Looking at Us, Stephen Cole takes the reader on an eye-opening, evocative, often funny journey through the first 50 years of CBC-TV, from the excitement of filming its first drama starring future author Timothy Findley, to the thrill of bringing Olympic gold medal hockey games to the entire country thanks to satellite technology.

This popular history of the shows, people and events that define the first half century of the network is told through the reminiscences, profiles and oral histories of more than a hundred on-air and behind-the-scenes personalities, including Norman Jewison, Robert Goulet, Don Harron, Juliette, Anne Murray, Norman Campbell, Don Chevrier, David Suzuki, Wendy Mesley, and Jonathan Torrens. Their stories are complemented by a wealth of archival photographs, memorabilia and illustrations – more than 350 in all, many previously unpublished. Both text and images provide snapshots of Canadian life past and present as viewed through the lenses of CBC-TV cameras filming docudramas, comedy shows, news programs, variety shows, children’s programs and sports events.

From the network’s longest-running program, Country Canada, to one-night tours de force, Here’s Looking at Us is a celebration of the quietly entertaining as well as the most memorable Canadian television moments of the past 50 years.

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