Clinton News-Record, 1974-12-12, Page 27ALVIN'S TV
ROGER MAJESTIC COLORED TELEVISION
ANTENNA & TOWER INSTALLATIONS & REPAIRS
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I truly enjoyed a show about
Canadian films . can you find
out the name of the very first
film ever made in Canada ... I
missed the title.
W. S. C.. Winnipeg, Man.
The CBC television network
recently aired a special entitled
'Dreamland — A History of
Canadian Movies'. Producer
Kirwan Cox assembled an im-
pressive collection of Canadian-
produced films — from First
World War propaganda films to
full length features such as 'The
Viking'. According to the show's
research team, Canada's film in-
dustry was initially launched on
July 21, 1896, in Ottawa. The
event: the first showing of a short
feature called 'The Kiss'. And so
the movie-making business in
Canada was underway!
This week I saw a movie
about a sheriff who ran people
off the road with his police car.
It starred Martin Sheen but can
you please, please tell me
where I've seen the actor who
played the sheriff before?
K. T., Ottawa, Ont.
The ABC-produced made-for-
TV movie 'The California Kid'
featured Martin Sheen ('The
Execution of Private Slovik') as
a young man determined to
revenge his brother's death.
Sheriff Roy was played by actor
Vic Morrow, If your memory
hasn't been jarred with that
piece of information, try this —
checking your
with Jerry Appleton
Could you please tell me how
long my favourite show has
been on TV . . "The Tommy
Hunter Show"?
Mrs. G. S., Montreal, Que.
Canada's own 'travelin' man',
Tommy Hunter, celebrates his
tenth consecutive year on
Canadian television this season.
Tommy Hunter spent five years
on Canadian radio during the
early fifties. During the summer
of '56, the CBC featured a new
television format of country-
western music hosted by Gordie
Tapp. 'Country Hoedown',
starring Tommy Common, the
singing Hames sisters and a
young lad named Tommy Hun-
ter, caught on. and was im-
mediately slotted into the 1956
fall schedule. The popular series
ran nine years on network
television until it was finally
cancelled in 1964. A half-hour
country western-variety series
was built around Tommy Hunter
and readied for the debut of the
65-66 season. In 1970, the show
was expanded to its current full
hour format. Similar to the
'Hoedown' series 'The Tommy
Hunter Show' is constructed
around a TV 'family' — the
pretty Allen Sisters, the Rhythm
Pals, banjo-playing Maurice
Bolyer and fiddler Al Cherny.
This season producer Bill Lynn
will offer a number of 'specials'
— including a repeat of last
season's Easter show with Pat
Boone.
'Combat'. During the mid-sixties,
all three American networks
discovered gold in the military —
'12 O'clock High', 'The Rat
Patrol', 'Jericho', 'Convoy' . .
Vic Morrow portrayed Sgt. Chip
Saunders in ABC's 'Combat'
series for a number of seasons.
I've seen the TV show 'The
Night Stalker' a few times now
and something is driving me
crazy ... where have I seen the
star before . some years ago
I'm sure!
Mrs. F. V., Kingston, Ont.'
Last season ABC produced
two made-for-television movies
based on the same character
and, for that matter, on the same
plot called 'The Night Stalker'
starring Darren McGavin. The
90-minute TV-movies were so
popular in the ratings that the
network decided to follow up on
the concept in the form of a
weekly series. McGavin plays
crime reporter Carl Kolchak
forever becoming involved in
weird and bizarre murders.
Simon Oakland ("Nina's'
superior last year) is the much
harrassed city editor. Kolchak
travels in a strange circle in-
cluding your average collection
of werewolves, vampires and
other weirdos — but alas,
Kolchak seems to always have a
cross, wooden steak and/or a
chunk of garlic at hand! Darren
.McGavin is by far no newcomer
to television — 1952 saw him in
'Crime Photographer' as the
omni-present Casey and in 1958
he returned as Mickey Spillane's
hard-hitting private eye 'Mike
.Hammer'. The series McGavin is
best remembered for by we older
folk was 'Riverboat' (1959). The
adventure series about life and
times on the Mississippi river co-
starred a young yet-to-be-
discovered actor named Burt
Reynolds. In years to come
Reynolds was to be unveiled in a
rather unorthodox manner, Skip-
per McGavin and his paddle-
wheel ship, the Enterprise,
managed to stay afloat for
several seasons.
May I please have the ad-
dress of Sonny Bono?
C. S. G., Dorval, Que.
Sonny Bonn, formerly half of
the popular Sonny & Cher team,
is now a single act — both
professionally and socially! ABC
awarded the singer-writer a
show all his own this year,
Write: "The Sonny Comedy
Revue", ABC-TV, 4151 Prospect
Ave., Hollywood, Calif, 90027.
*
*A television milestone went
by practically unnoticed this past
October. The grandaddy of
daytime serials, 'Search for
Tomorrow', recorded its 6,000th
show. The CBS mid-day drama
made its debut way back on
Sept. 3, 1951, with actress Mary
Stuart as Joanne Barron.
Twenty-three years and many
television tragedies and
marriages later, Mary Stuart
(now Joanne Vincente) and
'Search for Tomorrow' are doing
very well thank you.
*Another television first is on the
verge of taking place in the net-
work daytime schedules. Starting
in January, 'Another World' will
go to a full hour each day. The
NBC-TV drama stars George
Reinhold (Steve Frame),
Jacqueline Courtney (Alice) 'and
Constance Ford (Ada) ,and
premiered in 1964.
*The possibility of reviving the
cancelled serial 'The Secret
Storm' has surfaced once again.
The former CBS daytime drama
which ran from 1954 until the
spring of this year has been tur-
ned over to the Ogilvy & Mather
ad agency for possible syn-
dication. The series would go
into production as soon as the
new producers line up some 150
necessary network and indepen-
dent stations across North
America.