Little House on the Prairie Filmed in Manitoba

The original Little House of the Prairie ran for 9 years on NBC and became legendary as family entertainment starting in 1974. Based on the experiences from the Ingalls family from 1872 to 1894 and becoming a popular series of children's books in 1935 and through the 1940s, it became a hot property when NBC bought the rights for what they would be family entertainment on the network. Michael Landon was called in to direct which he agreed to as long as he could star in it as well. Running from 1974 to 1983, it became beloved. Today it one of the most streamed shows in history.

There has always been politics associated with the books but the series was mostly associated with family storylines and resilience rather than libertarian politics. However, that who ended up editing the books and having the rights after. It can be tough with books of the time because today's attitude can find things like settlers repugnant. Others might think is a blueprint for tradwifes and lots of kids and agrarian spendour. Navigating all this will likely be walking on eggshells. Even Laura Ingalls getting married at 18 to a 28 year old will be a source of discussion of the series follows the history and the books.

The New York Times actually got a tour of the studio set and one of their first questions was: "Why were we in Winnipeg? Was there no affordable prairie anywhere in America?" The reaction of the producer standing outside the log cabin on a soundstage in Winnipeg was to sigh.

The question is not really answered. But no, there is not another place on planet earth that has a better tax credit for film and TV than Winnipeg. At 65%, it dwarfs California's 35 to 45% tax credit. The original Little House on the Prairie was filmed in Simi Valley, north of Los Angeles. The region has filled in with housing although the outdoor location is still visible although in 2003 much burned down in wildfires. Studio work was done at Paramount and then later at MGM Studios. Building an entire town on a studio was quite a feat but even then car sound and airplanes had to filtered out. 

Could it have been filmed in California? Sure. But the NBC series was filmed on the biggest studio soundstage in the city and Simi Valley for 22 episodes a season. Netflix is doing an 8 episode season. Even with the tax credit, that is a lot of bucks. HBO's The Pitt gets tax credits for a 15 episode season with very minor second location work in Pittsburgh. Even with that money, the pay for the actors follows a very set of payscales to make for the largest ensemble cast you can have inside one large set. The days of Friends and Seinfeld actors getting a million per episode each over 22 episodes are gone. And all of that being paid because of commercial sponsors? Impossible.

So New York Times, this is why in Winnipeg: The tax credit, the Canadian dollar, flight connections, locations, soundstages, crews and additional actors have made Manitoba prime filming territory. As far as the value to Manitoba goes, the conclusion has been that that a lot of the tax credit earned is plowed right back into production rather pocketed by big companies in LA. At least 2000 people are full-time in the film industry in the province. The estimates are that about another 2000 are indirectly employed full time. It is enough to satisfy all the political parties in Manitoba over a 25 year period.

This isn't out first involvement with Netflix in Manitoba and it won't be our last. The second season of Little House is being filmed just as the first season is released July 9, 2026. The publicity machine has been huge. The New York Times had the most inside story. The Los Angeles Times had the creative head writer and producer give their take. The CBC focused on the Canadian performers and the indigenous angle.  

I have not seen the new series myself. I watched the original Little House in the Prairie from time to time but the Wednesday broadcast night and then for the majority Mondays meant I was not home those days. It was hockey practice on those winter nights and in summer repeats soccer or Camp Manitou or family holidays. The year the series ended was when our family got a VCR when I was finishing high school. The final year of the show, the ratings had dropped probably because the audience was changing as they aged. Many rediscovered the show in syndication and now in streaming. Oddly enough, I've seen the musical two times in Minnesota with Melissa Gilbert as Ma with a former partner. It was a lot of fun.

The commentary of the New York Times was that the show was like slow cinema in showing the beauty of the terrain. The producers have tried to replicate Terrance Malick's 1978 movie Days if Heaven. The New York Times approves. The directors, many of who are indigenous and all women, Try to show 1869 Kansas. This requires that Manitoba around Cook's Creek show all it's beauty. Perhaps someone who knows the filming locations will want to arrange tours because that is the type of worldwide attention such a series can bring. The only time I ever did that was for Twin Peaks when I went Washington to see filming locations.

The very talented costumers in Manitoba show their skills in the bonnets and dresses and trousers. A lot of wool was used. The studio log happen is likely to make many in the audience swoon. The Kansas storyline will follow the book in that we will see indigenous and black interactions. This is post Civil War. It is exactly what is was like at the time. The populations were moving westward.

The original Little House on the Prairie is very influential but there is as much Anne of Green Gable, Road to Avonlea and Netflix's own Anne With an E in this according to the CBC. This is not unexpected. A lot of American shows end up here and the Canadian aspect creeps in. In the end, a lot of the prairie stories have  a similar feel. At that time of the century people and trade crossed the border very freely.

Most of the reviews have been positive so far. A few like Slate called it "Woke-ified" and said it would offend the right. Not sure how well that will go. The right tried to go after the kindness of Dolly Parton and it didn't go well. However, the Ingalls family move to territory where property rights were so uncertain meant they were squatting. This would not be something that the original series would really cover. In the end, even some critics were calling crowd pleasing.

I suspect a lot of families will be watching the whole series.

Television Miniseries Over the Years Part 1

Each decade has been marked by different strengths and weaknesses in content from the beginning of televisions' early beginnings till now. The Golden Age of Television began in 1947 for most Americans but it was very limited beyond the very biggest of cities there. In Canada, TV broadcasts began in 1952. Expansion of stations into Manitoba took till 1954 when CBC Winnipeg came on the air. It was no easy task to get signals out beyond the cities and reliable videotape didn't come along till 1957. This meant that almost everything was live or had been filmed earlier on actual cinema film. Nevertheless, the experience of radio played an important role in television development of movies and limited series.

 

From 1947 to 1957, anthologies were the nascent beginnings of the miniseries. That is to say, they were put together as content with a beginning, middle and end rather than serialized material. High culture was the focus and major sponsors came aboard so that shows like For Whom The Bell Tolls and Lincoln could be produced. Different casts, sets and the like would be put together for each production. It was expensive and technically difficult. However, it showed that there was interest by people in literary and biographical material in a limited series. It was also live material because video recorders were not in use till late 1950s.

The earliest material for TV originated in New York so there was very much a theatrical and literary bent to what was presented. Twelve Angry Men and Marty originated on TV before becoming Hollywood movies. Great writers from the literary and theatre world as well as directors came to TV for the new art form. It was a highly experimental time in the post war period that brought not just audio but video into the home of people around the world. 

Not surprisingly, the early development of TV attracted a fair amount of Canadians from theatre and later from the early development of TV in Canada. Actors like Lorne Greene and Christopher Plummer began the move from Stratford to the U.S. for Broadway and television and film. That migration to the States has been a decades long thing. Experience, training and opportunities come in Canada but the sheer volume of content created for the large population is a siren call. The fame, the money and all that goes with it helped create a whole new industry.

Television was an existential threat in Canada. Many Canadians bought TVs in the east and aimed the antennas south from 1947 on to receive signals. The government tasked CBC (already a national presence in national radio) to create both an English and French broadcaster so in 1952 they hired hundreds of technicians, directors and talent to learn the medium for a launch that year. One of those young directors was Norman Jewison who went on to become the Oscar winning filmmaker.

The private network cooperative CTV didn't even get started till 1960-61. All the heavy lifting in Canada was done by the CBC and the National Film Board. The squabbling network seemed to grudgingly create programming for Canada aside from news and live children's programming. Most of their content was U.S. produced. However, this allowed many Canadians to see mini-series from the U.S. when they were broadcast. By 1976, the CRTC began to assist broadcasters in getting monetary gains in exchange for Canadian content. It has resulted in regular serialized series but only lately in more limited series when paired with Bell Media properties like Crave.

As the CBC rolled out stations and programming across Canada, they tried anthology series of high art. Ballet, plays and the like were performed live. They were categorized as anthology series because they were between 30 and 90 minutes of individual productions with different casts and across different theme. So much of the CBC was investing in infrastructure, staffing and programming. The technology changes were coming fast too. Video recorders and colour TV being phased in the 1950s and 60s made keeping up a challenge. Budgets were always an issue.

Based on the year I was born, I don't recall much of anything miniseries-wise from 1965 to 1970. Our family didn't get cable until 1971. In fact, cable didn't arrive in the city until 1967. Some people had antennas to receive KCND in Pembina, North Dakota but most of the shows were syndicated from 1940s and the 1960s shows. It was only in the 1970s that I began to take note of material that would meet broadly the characterization of being a miniseries or limited series.

Some say a William Holden series shown over four nights called Blue Knight was the first miniseries in the U.S. on NBC. The four hour cop show in LA was from a Joseph Wambaugh book. Holden was a big film star so getting him for a TV was coup. The following year he'd be one the cast on Towering Inferno in theatres. Funnily enough, I didn't see Blue Knight but I did see how Towering Inferno. My dad took me to it while serving with Big Brothers. Even I was too young for the movie, he didn't want me to feel left out. My dad often let me stay up late on a Friday to watch some of the movies that played such as World War II movies. I had nightmares about the disaster movie for sure.

As a rule with standards and practices, more adult drama would be reserved for last hours of primetime. More family material would be in early hours so we'd see a lot of music and variety shows. And Disney of course would be the kick off every Sunday evening. I don't know when Blue Knight aired but likely over four nights at 9 PM Central time. East and West coasts it would have aired 10 PM. Often too late for kids under 10 who would be asleep by then. Central time prime time ended at 10 PM so it was much easier for many to watch drama and get to bed early enough.

While I don't remember Blue Knight, the miniseries of 1973, I do remember the Blue Knight TV series starring George Kennedy. Alas, I didn't catch the two season show. Given then time and a very active sports and after school activity as well getting to bed earlier, there was a number of shows I was aware of but couldn't or chose not to watch. In 1974 and 1975, Winnipeg saw the addition of PBS and CKND/Global to the dial so there was a flood of older movies and the introduction of limited series, mostly from the British. The miniseries of Forsyte from the UK kicked off what we could expect to see from across the pond. I can't say my tastes were as refined back then. The British started the Forsyte back in 1967 so had the jump on everyone. The British influence was enormous and many titles were copied.

Canada didn't have the population or budget that the British and Americans did. We did, however, create one of the most expensive docudramas filled at that point in the world called The National Dream based on the book by Pierre Burton. The 8 episodes miniseries was the highest watched drama at the time. Oddly, the CBC has never made this show available to video or streaming. Our family watched it and it added to the lore of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Canada was also doing influential work in teleplays. Not as long as miniseries but at half hour to two hours were entertaining. One such movie was Flight into Danger starring future Star Trek actor James Doohan and written by Arthur Hailey, both World War II vets. Doohan, born Canadian and Hailey naturalized Canadian. Hailey found success as an author, famously for Airport. The 1956 live production on CBC became the inspiration for drama and comedy in film and television for decades to come.

The National Dream Miniseries in Canada and QB VII in 1974 had huge influence in historical dramas based on historical events. With star writers like Pierre Burton, Timothy Findley, William Whitehead and Leon Uris, it kept to the tradition of using top notch literary writers for complicated shows. I did not see QB VII when it came out. It wasn't until about 1975 when the explosion of cable channels created the demand for pull out TV and a daily listings of what was on. In 1977, TV Guide created a Canadian version of U.S. TV guide. This became super important to planning your week and for networks to promote appointment TV.

In Winnipeg in the 1970s, the Winnipeg Free Press and the Winnipeg Tribune had pull out TV listings and reviewed TV shows. I delivered the Winnipeg Tribune and it was the plucky competitor to the Free Press. It used to be that you were a Trib subscriber or a Freep subscriber. There were no Sunday editions of either paper. The TV listings for the week came out Saturday. Because Sunday was a day when literally everything was closed, we got both papers on Saturday so that there would colour comics, TV listings and classified ads. There were no video recording machines so if you missed a show, you missed it. If there were 22 episodes of a season on average, they would likely repeat again in the summer and you could catch them then. But did it really matter if you missed one Starsky and Hutch? No. Because a year long storyline was not what they were about.

The miniseries, as mentioned, were different as they were special programming all at once over consecutive nights (or serialized over a short time) with a beginning, middle and end. They were long form storytelling. As listed above, Blue Knight starring film actor William Holden was aired in 1973 and earned Emmys for the acting. The story was largely filmed on location in Los Angeles following a beat cop. It holds up well today as a snapshot of the 1970s in LA. As opposed to Dragnet which relied on stock footage of LA and rarely referred to the personal lives on the officers. Just the facts.

The critical acclaim, ratings and overall publicity for networks in the 1970s was focused on big events that would draw sponsors and eyeballs. The dominance of CBS, NBC and ABC was growing in entertainment, sports and news. Cable was just beginning but for many years was just trying to bring network TV to areas that could not pick up signals from affiliates far away. Such was how things developed in much of Canada bringing U.S. signals into homes. Before 1967, it was near impossible to get reliable signals in Winnipeg even with giant broadcast towers in Fargo. Even after, as Videon cable customers will attest, it was possible to lose your cable signal with terrible weather as we have had in the last weeks. I remember losing the last few minutes of Where Eagles Dare fuzzing out in a storm when Richard Burton was going to reveal the traitor spilling to the Nazis. It would be a few years before I would see the movie again and learn the secret.

On network TV, they would show Hollywood movies such as James Bond movies from the 1960s in prime time. By the mid 1970s, stations such as CKND and PBS Grand Forks would show movies from the 1940s through the 1960s. Syndication meant series like Star Trek had new life. Everyone was making money. It was good for newspapers and magazines, good for studios creating movies, good for networks, cable operators and advertisers reaching new audiences. There were still missteps studios could make on budgets and film. There never seemed to be the end of someone who thought they could make a big budget blockbuster. A lot of times they were wrong. However, the libraries of many studios such as MGM proved to exactly what independent stations wanted for content and it came to fit with cable and the need for content.

There was still some regulation and corporate separation that kept TV, music and film in their own silos. Antitrust prevailed and broke up the studio system that tied up all aspects of distribution, exhibition and production. The studios had to compete and be more innovative. It took a Supreme Court ruling to get them to break up and ten years to do it. However, without it, it is unlikely we would have had the production companies in the 1960s and 1970s creating in the same way as the vertically integrated media was back then.

There were a number of reasons why TV networks started creating their own movies and miniseries. One main reason is that they didn't want to rely completely on the movie studios for content. Certainly, showing James Bond on ABC could draw ratings but it often took a while for a new Bond to come out. The networks needed material on a more regular basis. It is why in the 1950s and 1960s, it was not uncommon for series like Gunsmoke to have nearly double the episodes that were the standard in the 1970s and 1980s. The development of a season of episodes and repeats usually meant the network still had days to fill  up with programming.

The networks had to satisfy their advertising sponsors and their affiliates. Getting enough sponsors meant it paid for your content which kept affiliates from seeking other affiliation or filling their space with syndicated content. This was indeed a real issue as affiliates could change their affiliation. Even networks themselves might look to switch to a different local station if that station had been reception or local composition of news. Such is the case when NBC WDAY/WDAZ became the new ABC affiliate over ABC KTHI in Fargo in 1983.

To attract the people with the money and the means to broadcast it, the networks began to begin bring people to Hollywood to see what they would be showing to kick off their fall seasons. By the 1970s, this was an elaborate star-studded affair that was attended by media, advertisers and affiliates.  Aside from the regular programming of series, sports, variety shows and news, network exec wanted to buy literary material that was popular and turn it into movies and miniseries. This was a time of epic storytelling though.

Hollywood studios, as well as some overseas studios, often dramatized historical events and great works of literature. However, the maximum length many could stay in a theatre seemed to cap off at about 4 hours and only for the biggest blockbusters such Cleopatra on the Greatest Story Ever Told in the 1960s. TV broadcasts of those movies were broken up in two parts over consecutive nights to boffo ratings. This certainly clued in the networks that there was an appetite for movies over two or more nights.

The antitrust breakup created many production companies that TV and movie studios contracted with to create productions. It is of note that this is how Stephen Spielberg rose up. He directed a made for TV movie Duel from an original story in Playboy magazine in 1971. Dennis Weaver starred. At the time, he had become a star of his own TV limited series of McLeod. This was two different examples of what networks were doing to start the 1970s. Made for TV movies and a revolving wheel of mystery movies such as McLeod and Columbo.

This innovation and insatiable need for content led to miniseries. Trying to get Hollywood talent to sign up required a limited number of episodes and a hot script. It was this type of time, budget and script that drew Richard Holden and Lee Remick to Blue Knight in 1973. Four hours over for four nights of compelling TV that landed both actors awards. While there had been some miniseries before then, this triggered a flurry of activity from all three American networks and from other across the world to create miniseries.

I was just too young for some the earlier miniseries like Rich Man, Poor Man in 1976 and with it being 12 episodes long, I was likely missing a few of them because of sports since it aired in February of that year. I would have turned 11 in the middle of it. I did see it much later though. It would be 1977 before I'd be watching a miniseries from beginning to end and that was Roots. Although from an American experience, it was as much watched in Canada as the U.S. and contributed to discussion. Roots, unlike Rich Man which broadcast every Tuesday, broadcast each night for a week. The story of slavery over generation ran every night in January that year. It was the first time we'd see the introduction of LeVar Burton. He'd go onto long time success on Star Trek: Next Generation a decade later.

The same year of 1977 I would see The Godfather series composed of the two theatrical films and edited and arranged for network TV. There were quite a few miniseries back then that I watched. Some so long ago that the memory has faded. Between 1977 and 1979, there were so many. The minsieries sequel to Roots and Salem's Lot in 1979 left lasting memories. It was the first time we saw a miniseries of a Stephen King book. Salem's Lot was pretty scary for network TV!

The local pullout TV listings was how you planned the week. In the 1970s, there really wasn't the time wasting on scrolling through the phone or Internet since it didn't exist. No home computers and no video games either. Some TV shows like Stranger Things tend to mythologize those times as suburban Narnia. It wasn't but it certainly didn't have the type of varied distractions of today. Having being born in 1965, I can say the very limited TV of two channels before cable was not as compelling as going outside. I came to think of the TV as something you watched the U.S. space program on and this strange war being fought in a place called Vietnam. All of this on black and white TV.

Truly network TV had its greatest moments in the 1970 when there was literally no other competition in drama, comedy, variety, news and sports. It was only the 1980s that cable channels themselves began to compete. HBO was the movie channel most sought out when people just wanted movies. It used to be on the marquees outside hotels. HBO included.

Miniseries have always been great for historical events or sweeping literary stories. In the 1970s, Little Women was a miniseries, Harriet Taubman was miniseries and The Holocaust was a miniseries. Those type of series attracted top talent and many Canadians watched although some were more specific to the U.S. experience.

By the 1980s, it seemed the miniseries had tripled in numbers. Lonesome Dove, The Thornbirds, V, Amerika and the Winds of War were massive series that demanded attention. Big stars were cast and big stories were old from the best of the book world, historical events and speculative fiction. There were far too many to see, some might later turn up on cable or around 1982, many families starting getting VCRs. Ultimately, this helped people not miss episodes of something hugely long like Winds of War.

It should be mentioned that in the rise in tandem of networks and cable, newspapers began to struggle. In Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Tribune went under in 1980 along with the Montreal Star. The free classified ads and media ownership that preferred a monopoly. However, more ads were going to radio and TV. he Winnipeg Sun started shortly after and made sure that they competed on days the Free Press passed over such as Sundays. It was an indication of how market conditions were changing. USA Today began to publish in 1982 and their newstands looked like TV boxes and their format was to remind people of TV programming. No long form stories for them.

There was probably a 30 year period where the media of print, radio, movies and television all elevated themselves through cross promotion and ad revenue. Even the beginnings of the Internet helped promote other media for many year. It was only when giants such as social media began to hoover up other companies and ad money while manipulating things with algorithms that some of the pillars started to collapse. 

It was roughly halfway through 1990s that the Internet started to be used for newsgroups, mail lists and ways of engaging with fans. The Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia were ways for TV and film audiences to really engage. Had the Internet been more like that always, it might have been a less permissive thing now. 

From the 1980s to the 1990s saw cable start to take on more miniseries. Big name directors who were once attracted to networks looked to cable and premium cable to tell stories. The networks were still very powerful but HBO and USA Network started doing miniseries with big names and bigtime directors. It was still networks though that were able to really muster audience side and promotion. Stephen King had a number of network miniseries such as The Stand (ABC) in 1994, The Langoliers (ABC) in 1995 and The Tommyknockers (ABC) in 1993. 

By the 2000s, there was a shift to ever greater number of miniseries from cable networks. This was not a terrible problem because cable subscriptions had risen to levels not seen before. The problem was that the packages were rising every year. And still do now. To get the premium channels like HBO required a very high price. I will write more in the next part. However, miniseries became some of the highest rated shared programming we had as a culture. The fracture was to come and is still happening now.

The End of Hockey Night in Canada 2026

The renewal of the very lengthy 12 year Rogers NHL contract should have been a clue. Some of the changes were already announced such as Amazon Prime games as well as more Netflix games. Television came to Canada in 1952 and that is when CBC began to broadcast it on Saturdays. Foster Hewitt led the TV broadcast from that year until 1965. It was familiar territory for him as he had been the national radio broadcaster for hockey since 1931. From 1952 to 1965 CBC TV and CBC radio simulcast Hockey Night in Canada.

Everything about hockey broadcasting was as a result of the CBC and it went on to become the most watched sport on a weekly basis across Canada. Alas, the profitability of it made it more difficult for CBC to keep bidding on it and winning. They could have possibly had a partnership and retained some rights but dropped the puck on that. Rogers took control in 2014 and only used the CBC network for its coast to coast broadcast reach as well its talent.

As of June 16, the CBC will not host any NHL hockey on Saturday as Rogers brings it all in house. Both sides, Sportsnet and CBC, jointly announced the end of the arrangement. Neither side as really indicated what comes next aside from the name will change for Rogers broadcasts on Saturday on CityTV, Sportsnet channels and streaming partners like Netflix and Amazon Prime. It will likely cost more to see hockey each year as more things move to streaming.

In the early part of my life, Hockey Night in Canada was on a bit too late for me. By 1968, they were on at 7 in Winnipeg on Wednesdays on CTV and Saturdays on CBC. The French channel broadcast every Montreal Canadiens game Saturday so if, by chance, the Canadiens were not on CBC, the switch was made to French. The Canadiens were on a lot though because they were a winning team with the best players. By 1975 CTV was no longer doing weekday games but individual channels were. Winnipeg was not one of them. Our family only got cable and a colour TV by 1971.

There was only one game a night Saturday even though Vancouver Canucks joined in 1970. Back to back games only happened occasionally when Wayne Gretzky was traded to Los Angeles Kings in 1988. After, when a Canadian team was in LA, CBC made time for a back to back game. It was in 1994 that back to back games became the staple of Hockey Night in Canada's Saturday. It was no doubt because of the frustration in much of Canada that the Toronto Maple Leafs were locked into Saturday night, every night, despite the lack of a winning record.

Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary all came on broad the NHL from 1979 to 1980, the most any western team could hope for was many one or two games on HNIC. This is where the regional broadcasts by CTV and CKND became very important. Many fans of the Winnipeg Jets came to believe there was a curse playing on Hockey Night in Canada and still do. We often performed poorly.

Prior to 1979 though, it was possible to be a fan of the WHA Jets as well a team in the NHL. And there were plenty of those. My dad was originally from Montreal so the Canadiens were a favourite and the fact they were a very winning team meant I liked them a lot. The first NHL game for the Jets versus Canadiens, everyone wore tuxedos and ball gowns. It felt like a royal affair.

To get NHL hockey for the 2027-2027 season, Canadians will have to have pay for a cable or streaming subscription. CBC was free for everyone. It is hard to get regular season viewer numbers but Hockey Night in Canada likely got a base of 500,000 people for the first game of the night and rose higher according to who was playing the Leafs. In the playoffs, Canadian matches could bring in 5 million viewers in Canada alone if a Canadian team was playing.

This was the best year for NHL ratings for playoffs in many years. Live television is still something that can attract eyeballs but the new Rogers contract is more than double the last contract. A licence agreement on CBC is not enough money and certainly more than CBC was willing to pay when it doesn't get any ad revenue from broadcasting it. The grand bargain was that CBC was able to provide studio and labour resources. Rogers took that all in house three years ago. So, coming this fall, there will be no Saturday NHL that is free to watch for Canadians.

The CBC has been instrumental in creating the dynamic of how the NHL, CFL and curling are broadcast. Eventually, these sports became so successful, they longer needed the public broadcasters support. The private networks now want these jewels and it will be to Canadians to see if they want to pay for them. With many people cutting cable, the hunt for sports could take people to many streaming sites. In the end, it might be as expensive as cable was.

Rogers will be going into details about the new name and look and where to find their NHL games. Toronto fans might end up paying the most since they have the most games broadcast. There may be a re-evaluation on hosts, panels and even how the broadcast is filmed. At this point, all we know is it will look different. And if a new streamer is added for the mid-week game, what will that look like? Another subscription? A new broadcast team?

As for CBC, the new program will feature sports on Saturday. The Hockey Night in Canada name will pop up from time to time. More than likely for women's hockey although we might see university hockey for men and women now as well. To be blunt, compared to the U.S., Britain and Australia, we are pathetic for sports coverage. There is superior high school and college sports coverage in much smaller North Dakota. Some of our national newspapers barely cover sports. We are luckier than most in Winnipeg that we have reporters who cover sports for both our newspapers but it has been a long time since The Sun has sent reporters on the road to travel with teams. The Free Press is one of the last newspapers to do that. CJOB does exceptional sports coverage but it is for programs they could rights for.

Our national news media barely covers it. Nada is in the National Post. The Globe has a tiny sports section. The media companies have gutted their local sports departments in radio and TV. Most newspapers barely report on amateur sports even in their own areas. The CBC could have plenty of material in sports they could build an audience in at a fraction of the cost. It has been many a year since ABC and CTV's Wide World of Sports but it does show that one network can cover a range of amateur and professional sports. No one else in Canada is covering these areas and CBC has a proven track record of building an audience for Canadian sports.

I remember watching Jim McKay on Wide World of Sports and so many sports were introduced to me from watching that show. In Canada, Rod Black eventually hosted the CTV version. One of the reasons these sports shows ended is because of the rise of the four professional sports leagues taking up more and more of the schedule. Expansion teams like the Blue Jays in 1977 and the Jets and Nordiques in 1979 and Calgary shortly after in 1980 expanded coverage of those sports. CTV gave up on the Wide World of Sports in the mid 1970s but had other sports they began to cover.

CBC has one other asset that can enhance their newly focused Saturday Night and that is their streaming service Gem. Sports on the network can be mirrored on CBC.ca as well as Gem. In fact, Gem has been seriously underutilized since it was founded in 2018. It seems only now they are realizing they can actually bring older CBC material there that is still popular as well as commission to kids and documentary material. This applies to news and sports. There is no reason that Gem can't be the Tubi or DAZN of the north. It is time the CBC took sports seriously as part of its national mission.

Peter Young Passes Away 2026

Peter Young was the sports guy who turned CKY into a powerhouse of local in 1974 when he came aboard as sports director from background in sports reporting in Thunder Bay. The job was part time and he attended school at University of Manitoba for a Master's program at the same time. The heavy competition between radio, TV and print to cover sports in Winnipeg became a big deal when the WHA Jets came on the scene in 1972. Very few games were televised back then so it relied on radio, TV and print to cover the games in reporting form.

There have been a few reports on his passing. Take note of Marty Gold's story in the Winnipeg Sun. He does a far better job than CTV news with their 47 second story about the death of the person who helped the station take number one and keep it all these decades. His interview two years ago with Peter Young shows there is still important stories to tell on people in the city that can't come from generative AI. The sooner the owners of AI pay creators of content rather than just scraping the Internet of material they don't own, the better.

Peter Young was responsible for a lot of the sports and entertainment hires in Winnipeg. Don Percy and Rod Black both came to the city either with job offers or referrals. In one funny story related on Marty Gold's story, he helped a Blue Bomber player get a job in another city when his time ran out here. I expect the memorial service will bring out all the stories and hope some get to be made.

Peter Young was not content to do just a re-cap of a few professional sports, he set out to cover local amateur sports in a major way. It really forced other media to increase coverage. Now, most newscasts in Winnipeg don't mention much about sports at all, even professional ones. But it wasn't always that way.

My recollection of Peter Young is the multiple sports he covered including three Olympics and the Wide World of Sports where he was prolific. School athletes were always given priority and reporting on coaching and teams with player highlights was not just a tiny spot on the one hour broadcast. It was a focus of that was superior to the public broadcaster for local sports.

Sports coverage is evolving for sure. However, one thing can be said about the new digital coverage. None of it focuses on local sports. It is generally all professional sports. Peter Young showed that it was possible to do it. He gave many reporters both men and women their first chance at broadcasting. He covered so many different sports that he was indispensable in telling the story to Winnipeg and throughout Canada. 

His kind of reporting will be missed.

The Hour of Worship Fargo and Religious TV in Winnipeg

Winnipeg knows something about faith broadcasting. Initially, it was radio with Mennonite gospel on CKRC as early as 1947. The radio station CFAM started in 1956 and had a lot of Mennonite religious programs populated the airwaves, In 2020, Winnipeg got its first faith-based channel on FM radio.

One of the reasons the CRTC came in to being was the faith-based broadcasts out of Alberta from Ernest Manning were exploding across Canada where the premier/evangelist made requests for money. This raised concern in Ottawa and the CRTC was formed so that CBC was not the arbiter of broadcasting.

Mennonites were prime drivers of religious broadcasting in Manitoba and while their start came in radio, by the 1960s moves to TV broadcasting began. In Winnipeg, Calvary Temple started Faith to Live by on CJAY which later became CKY/CTV in 1962. It is now one of the longest running TV shows in Canada.

The first faith TV broadcast began in 1950 on ABC in New York during TV's infancy. TV arrived in Canada two years later and the first broadcast in Manitoba was CBC in Winnipeg in 1954, It consisted of three hours of programming. Consumers started buying black and white TV and the programming on CBC grew and it was 1960 when CJAY joined CBWT in Winnipeg as the first private station. The same year, CBWFT, French CBC began broadcasting. 

Across the border KCND in Pembina, North Dakota began to broadcast. With rabbit ear or antennae, it could be seen in parts of the city. This brought a total of four TV stations that could be seen in the city and the 1960s saw a huge increase in programming. Some of it was Canadian, lots of it American but with literally so many hours to fill, much of it was local. Some of that was by mandate but some was practicality of it being cheaper to fill than buying elsewhere.

CJAY at two years old welcomed Calvary Temple's Faith to Live By because production was handled by the church and it filled time on Sunday mornings that the station wasn't sure what to do with. Manitoba on Sundays was very quiet. Blue Bomber games were not allowed to be played on Sundays till 1965! The churches ruled the roost. No shopping, no games and even after 1965, mornings were pretty quiet. So Faith to Live by in 1962 kind of had the audience there for it.

Cable TV did not reach River Heights where I lived until 1968. And until 1970 my parents rented so it was not up to them to install the cable at $10 and pay $5 a month. We moved into our home in late summer of 1970 and by late 1971 had both colour and cable TV. The colour TV was a gift from my grandparents.

Colour TV did not come out till 1966 in Canada but so much of broadcasting was in black and white. Literally everyone I knew was getting colour TVs between 1968 and 1972. In our house, it was Saturday morning cartoons in colour that was a huge attraction. Jetsons and Flintstones were among the the first full colour series to be produced for TV. Older Warner Bros. material that originally has been in colour on the big screen was well suited for Saturday morning.

Sunday was not a day for cartoons in the morning. In Winnipeg there wasn't even a Sunday newspaper. Today, we have Vision TV and JOY-TV for faith-based programming. However, through the 1960s and 1970s Sundays and sometimes early mornings there was faith-based programming. As mentioned, Faith to Live By was one of the earliest on the air in 1962 and now one of the longest running faith programs in Canada. A few others were around for decades like It's a New Day. Church of the Rock has been on CityTV since 1996. Meanwhile, Mennonite broadcasting is done based here in Winnipeg in multi-languages for Russian and Spanish audiences.

Most people who watched TV in the 1960s through 1990s on cable would be aware of Jimmy Swaggert, Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson and whole lost of other televangelists in the U.S. However, there was some more traditionally services on the air too. In North Dakota, a Lutheran Church founded in 1950 began to broadcast in 1967 and because of cable, it was on the dial on WDAZ from the mother channel WDAY in Fargo. This year that church is 75 years old and the broadcast continues to be seen on cable in Winnipeg.

Elim Lutheran Church is a modest church in the Fargo-Moorhead area and because of the reach of cable has been part of the Winnipeg Sunday morning programming since 1968 when cable reached the city. North Dakota and Manitoba have shared a prairies experience living along the Red River. One can imagine the Swedish meatballs that will be eaten at their celebrations as the reach age 75.

It is a reminder that while times are more difficult now, we still share a heritage. The threats weekly from the U.S. ambassador in Canada notwithstanding, it is notable that our contact with our southern neighbour have lasted decades. 

MSNBC to Become MS Now

The owner of MSNBC, like a lot of media companies, has been trying to separate their assets into what can bluntly be called legacy media and new media.  The moniker MSNBC which used to stand for MSN and NBC. The portmanteau being MSNBC. The company started as a cable news network in 1996 to replace NBC's America's Talking that lasted from 1994 to 1996. CNN had been around since 1980 by this point. Fox News was founded the same year MSNBC started. For the entire existence of the MSNBC's existence, it has relied on NBC as the backbone. This all ends this year as nearly all the cable assets are spun off from NBCUniversal into its own unit. For MSNBC, it means a new logo ands call sign. It will be MS Now. It stands for My Source for News, Opinion and the World.

Microsoft sold off their shares of the network in 2005 and the website in 2012 leaving NBCUniversal News Group a wholly owned division of NBCUniversal. And all of it, of course, owned by Comcast. In recent years, Comcast has been confronted by cord cutting in cable and has looked to organize the company so that cable would be separate from network and from streaming.

Comcast is one of the largest communications companies in the world. It is still controlled by the Roberts family in Philadelphia that own a chunk of the shares. Comcast has its headquarters in Philadelphia. The company has owned NBCUniversal and all its operations since 2013. In recent years President Trump has taken to attacking Brian Roberts for the viewpoints of MSNBC and for the removal of a controversial Republican from the station. Since 2012 though, Roberts has not donated to any party nor endorsed any of them.

MSNBC started off, much like CNN, as a straight forwards news channel. Leaning almost completely on NBC, the channel ran rolling news coverage and broadcast quite a bit of programming from the local affiliates of the main channel. Meanwhile FOX had political leanings quite early on and couldn't lean on the FOX channel for news material since there was no national broadcast. Heck, even FOX Sports had only started in 1994 so the network was building everything from the ground up. This largely came from recruiting people from other networks including their exec Roger Ailes who came from the precursor to MSNBC.

CNN has always has had their there own service which theur built from the beginning 1980. Presently, in a more polarized America, CNN has ranked third among news services but internationally, it is the gold standard and runs well. CNN also recruited from U.S. and world networks but they built their own reporting infrastructure. Many times CNN just kept rolling coverage and beat all the competitors with being present and reporting. It wasn't all punditry which has people switching off if it isn't reporting an ongoing event.

The FOX approach to all politics all the time and the flashy, eye-catching graphics changed both CNN and MSNBC to feature the same. MSNBC decides to lean towards the Democrats whereas FOX was all in for Republicans. CNN was more in the middle and as such, bled viewers to the upstart networks. No network mainstream or cable has not seen a plunge in numbers year over year. It remains to be seen whether changes by MSNBC or any anything in television will work to keep news networks functional.

The host-based programming tends to eat their own. It doesn't matter what the networks do. The days of Larry King being around for decades on CNN is unheard of today. In the constant jockeying for position comes burnout and scandal in the the various hosts. Ratings have always been important going back to the radio days. However, the levels of scandal taking down hosts, execs and the like has been rather astounding.

Not many of those hosts of shows around the time of the pandemic are around on many of the news networks today, including MSNBC. Rachel Maddow, one of the stars for years is down to one day a week. However, she is the only one to crack the top 15 shows in the ratings. The rest all belong to FOX. There are no CNN programs in the top 15. Given the decline in overall numbers and the cord-cutting, no network can be happy with their ratings if profitability keeps declining.

The changes of MSNBC to MS Now could give it the leadership and resources needed to help it be less reliant on NBC and more likely able to move to digital more fully. There are some mocking the new call sign and logo. Some of that is political mockery from Trump and his allies on the right in media. There are others legitimately questioning  using MS with it being known as a shorthand for Multiple Sclerosis. Some even thinking using NOW is questionable since so many titles include it already.  Some on the right are calling BS Now.

MSNBC probably thought they couldn't use MS+ or MS Max either with the plus and max being a frequent add on. Personally, I would have opened for The Independent which was Universal Studios original name and in keeping with the present ownership but now independent of NBC. To distinguish from the British online newspaper of same name, they could have just added a tagline such as Citizen or News or whatever.

The important thing for the new enterprise is to make the most of their new start. Subscription and digital remains the future of almost all cable television. And mainstream TV for that matter. It is hard to know what the future will be for news and broadcast in general. I should make clear that I want a variety of news options. When local news closes, it starts to limit the information coming in. I have repeated that Winnipeg is lucky to have to daily newspapers owned by Winnipeggers. We have sports and news podcasts. We have two radio stations that do regular news. We have several ethnic press and radio news. We have a national indigenous broadcaster based in the city.

Nationally, I read Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and National Post. I watch CBC, CTV and local TV news. In the U.S, I read or watch whatever I can from FOX to CNN, I listened on Sirius XM. I read British, Australian and Israeli newspapers fairly often. I listen to news and opinion podcasts. The point is: I like a wide range of material to stay informed across the spectrum. I hope the new MS Now will be part of the conversation.

The Future of Canada

No matter who wins the upcoming federal election, there are things that should be considered to help us navigate the future of the country. Safe to say, we have hitched our wagon to the U.S. and it has made us very vulnerable. Trump has been very chaotic and the new prime minister will have to deal with that. The closest option for Canada was the easy one and our trade and tourism has been focused so much on the U.S. that we haven't even completed twinning highway projects to connect easy and west routes in Canada.

To be fair, twinning of Trans-Canada to Ontario is going through the planning stages now and we'll need those east-west corridors even more. However, it shows what our priorities have been. It has been those north/south road, rail routes, pipelines and airport connections all focused on the States. There have been a few projects to enhance other economic routes such as Trans-Mountain Pipeline, the railway to Churchill, Trans-Canada Highway improvements and LNG projects. 

Alberta has been focused on pipeline projects headed south but that always results in discounted oil prices. Neither Trump or Biden got pipeline projects approved. Harper didn't either. Trudeau actually got an expensive one built but probably got no benefit from it in Alberta. For that province though, it is the best paying oil pipeline the industry has. Funny, how that goes. The Trans-Mountain Pipeline has been selling higher priced oil than anything shipped through southern pipelines. Given the costs of the line, even if western pipelines were approved, it is possible companies would be hesitant due to the enormous costs. Most are shying away even though most think tanks keep saying give the private companies the freedom. Most won't commit even if all restrictions are gone. The costs of infrastructure, labour and supplies are high.

Manitoba has decided not to re-new a hydro energy deal with U.S. company Northern States Power. Part of this is to ensure the province has capacity but also for exports to western provinces and the north. With federal help, hydro can be extended all the way to Nunavut. To that end, the premiers of Manitoba and Nunavut have signed an agreement to get this work done. This is a project of national importance and sovereignty. It is a $1.6 billion project to connect five communities in the north to Manitoba Hydro. Some infrastructure would be built in Manitoba and quite a lot in Nunavut. It is no doubt one of the biggest nation building projects west of Ontario.

Most oil industry people now believe pipelines going east are now too costly. This is why the premier of Manitoba Wab Kinew has proposed a second port on the Hudson Bay to the European delegation at Port Nelson. A second port site runs more along solid ground than Churchill does and avoid beluga areas. There is more silt to dredge than at the deepwater port at Churchill. This isn't as out of the question as it sounds. Dredging is regularly done at ports around the world such as San Francisco Bay.

Alberta has demanded energy corridors across the country. In some private think tank reports they have said they believe parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba all the way to Hudson Bay should be carved out and given to Alberta. Hard to find those reports as they were deemed so hardcore at the time and invited mockery. The premier of Alberta Danielle Smith has threatened separation if Alberta doesn't get unfettered access to build pipelines and remove oil tanker restrictions and any control over carbon. Separation movements in Alberta threaten the Smith government itself. Even when Conservatives are elected, some elements of the province want even more that can make the province seem completely unbalanced.

Alberta and Saskatchewan with so much at stake with resources have kept pretty quiet about tariffs. Alberta has worked nearly counter to every other province. Perhaps if tariffs hit their energy and other areas as hard as Ontario has been hit? A unified Canada can be strong if provinces support one another. Much of the rest of the country seems more willing now to help Alberta with their energy economy. However, the fear of oil spills, derelict infrastructure and environmental damage can't be brushed aside. Even Albertans are not likely to support a deteriorating climate of bad air, water and abandoned rigs. Losing a few communities to wild fire also hurts.

Most of the premiers, in light of what is happening in the U.S., have talked about removing restrictions on labour movement and trade within Canada. This is a discussion that has been going for decades. Ultimately, it always seems easier to keep the sausage from Saskatchewan from entering Alberta. By the way, that's a real case presently. However, if we want the guy to be the sausage king of Canada, restrictions should be lifted across the country. Realistically, if the sausage is good enough for Saskatchewan, why not Alberta. Or Manitoba?

The first ministers need to be pushed on this all the time. Most analysis on this suggests growth that might well compensate for what is being lost on U.S. trade. Ontario deserves credit for putting legislation through on this. And Nova Scotia and New Brunswick deserve credit for signing on to free trade with Ontario. The only reason Manitoba wasn't there was because it was signing the hydro deal with Nunavut.

In terms of Liquid Natural Gas, two LNG plants are about to open in B.C. This is a cleaner burning fuel and many say it is a bridge fuel to renewables. Two more plants are coming in B.C. The U.S. has none on the west coast so far. Concerns are still being raised over flaring and methane releases but reduced coal use has been the primary goal of this building. Moreover, if the money earned from this goes to renewables, it can further mitigate warming.

I think NDP, Bloc and Green party climate policies are not able to go forward without making Canada dependent on the U.S. or world for energy supply. The Bloc was remarkably assured that Trump would not cut off oil to Quebec via pipelines in the States. He kept saying he wouldn't do it which seem tonally deaf. Trump has already done huge damage to the economy of the entire world. It isn't the Bloc who would decide such a thing in Quebec but premier of Quebec. A deal could be made if environmental protections come with it. The Bloc seems intent to obstruct anything in regard to Canada.

Culturally, we have made huge strides in books, music, TV and film. In the election the various parties have some policies in this area. The arts employs a lot of people but historically, it has required support. The Sistine Chapel didn't get the ceiling painted without support. There are debates over labour tax credits but they are tied to employment rather than just cash payments that some other jurisdictions have. Those are probably most effective but the Canadian dollar value has been the biggest factor over the decades.

Arts and media groups are afraid that the Conservatives will slash and burn all arts, newspapers, networks and music. Both provincial and federal government have given financial assistance to the arts, local news and media. The loss of local news, radio, arts groups is definitely felt. It doesn't matter what someone's political background is when a community sees their radio station close or their local theatre. Perhaps there are those that don't care and pick up a weather reports from somewhere else or they get their news from Tik Tok but then it hits with something like no hockey game. And why? Because there is no radio or TV station to broadcast it. No high speed Internet to stream it. No newspaper to report on it. And eventually no hockey team because there is no ads supporting it.

It seems likely that CBC will continue for the time being. The election results don't appear to favour a majority Conservative government who have stated that English CBC would end. The Liberal promise has been to add $150 million a year. The plan for CBC Television even before the increase has been to add reporters outside the major cities. Given the loss of so many reporters from local news, this could bring some value to programming. CBC Radio remains popular across Canada for how it is different from commercial radio and for no commercials.

The drop in flights to the U.S. particularly 

In terms of agriculture, new markets and products are always important. China remains a big purchaser of Canadian goods but we are often the receiving end of tariffs. Those often come after it becomes obvious that China is dumping steel and manufacturing products to kill off Canadian industry. Playing one industry off of the other is miserable. Selling more within Canada itself is the easiest and yet it is hard for a sausage maker to sell from one province to the other. This has to change.

Innovation in agriculture in of terms environment, new products, transportation and equipment is the future of the industry. Canola and ice wine are only some of the well known innovations but all sorts of farm equipment was invented and built in Canada. Another big thing for ag in Canada could be more processing taking place, especially if U.S. goods are tariffed. 

As far as the environment, while consumer carbon pricing is gone, the need to invest in carbon capture and energy efficiencies. The talk about reducing energy cost isn't something that Canada can do for the core price. The world market sets that. However, the government can assist in making residential and businesses less exposed to how much they consume but making sure buildings are better insulated from the elements and possibly have more solar panels. Ask any RV owner how they feel about solar. They love them.

There is a demand for alternative energy. Canada is way behind on geo-thermal although it may be best way to heat homes in the far north. The country doesn't generate any electricity from it either even though other industrialized nations are doing so. In fairness Canada has a lot of hydro electric power from the various dams across the country. Still, many provinces have reached the upper limits of how much power they can generate. Even Manitoba, which four years ago said they didn't need anymore, has revised the need based on not being able to supply new industries and growing population. The need is so great that Manitoba under and NDP government will construct a fuel burning plant for energy needs.

A programs such as the 2 billion trees planted by 2030 ish is not spending its full budget nor planting enough trees. It is always a mystery why such projects take so long to get going. It has been said that if Canada really wants to do carbon capture they need to get more trees in the ground. Even conservatives cannot be comfortable with large areas of Canada burning to the ground. Still, some oil industry people seem to be asking for all environmental controls dropped.

At the moment, the new prime minister is very close to a majority and has popular support. They key for him will be get capacity in the system to help with housing affordability and to be a federal partner on infrastructure. It won't be easy as the U.S. will be unstable for the foreseeable future. And world-wide political tensions rise and fall as do military interactions. Canada will have a difficult time trying to stay peaceful and prosperous throughout this period. 

Saturday Night Live - Winnipeg Fan 1975-2025

It was October 11, 1975 when Saturday Night premiered on NBC. The Saturday Night Live moniker would not be used till the following year. I was a ten year old kid at the time still getting used to cable. It only arrived at our house in 1971, the same year we got a colour TV. By 1974 CKND arrived and in 1975 Prairie Public TV was in place. For kids though, it was an avalanche of programming from CBS, NBC and ABC aimed at youth. Saturday morning cartoons was not something that was found on our CBC, CKY and CKND channels.

By 10 years old, most Saturdays were filled with sports but soccer and hockey were largely played outdoors. It still left young kids able to watch cartoons which started at 8 AM or earlier in the central time zones and ran to noon-ish. Most kids in sports were home early enough for dinner and Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday. 

In 1975, almost everything was closed on Sundays in Manitoba except church which generally had 11 am services. This meant that if kids were going to stay up later hours, it was going to be Friday and especially Saturday because of being able to sleep in a bit later than all the rest of the week. Entire families watched Hockey Night in Canada on Saturdays. Back then it was only one game on that night. And while Winnipeggers loved the WHA and the Winnipeg Jets from their start in 1972, they could love an NHL team as well because it was different league. In our house and many homes in Winnipeg, it was the Montreal Canadiens.

After a game, my parents were usually exhausted and whereas, week nights where they had lunches to make and kids to organize, no extra child care was needed when all that was happening was church the next morning. Stores were closed, workplaces closed. It was very sleepy most Sunday except for maybe some kids sports. 

So what did Gen X kids do on a Saturday? At 10 years old, as long as I wasn't outside, I was able to stay and watch TV in the living room as my parent's slept. My siblings sometimes stayed up but were often asleep as well by 10:30. Most networks would show movies before going off the air shortly after midnight. There were no 24 hour stations back then. But what could I watch?

I was a Winnipeg Tribune carrier which was delivered 6 days a week after school or afternoons Saturday. Both the Free Press and Tribune had TV guides in their Saturday papers and at 10, I had several part of the paper that I read first: comics, sports and TV guide. It was there and other places I noticed something on NBC called Saturday Night which was going to be on after the hockey game.

At the time, I didn't know the show format had been pitched to the CBC and rejected or that that executive producer was a Canadian named Lorne Michaels. I was too young to remember the Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour in 1970 that was on Saturdays at 9 PM on CBC. Lorne Michaels had been working on both sides of the border for comedy. There were so many variety/music shows in the 1970s. The TV guide just said there was a live comedy variety show on Saturday after the hockey game.

NBC already had a musical variety show called the Midnight Special. In central time zone it came on at midnight but in east and west zones it was at 1 AM.  It was the first time I got to see Wolfman Jack. The Royal Canadian Air Farce was a comedy sketch series in Canada that started on CBC Radio in 1973 so I was familiar with the format so a live TV comedy/music show sounded awesome.

In the end, when everyone else went to bed, I watched the very first episode of Saturday Night and was introduced to the characters  of John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Dan Ackroyd along with the rest of the cast. I was delighted by the sketches, the musical guests and the whole rebellious demeanor of the show. It felt very Canadian and of course, I didn't know that so many of the people involved were Canadian.

For young people who had few options for going out Saturday night or who were coming home from hockey, movies and the like, watching Saturday Night Live at 10:30 PM was a real treat. The show started a little rough but by the fourth episode or so started to take shape. I saw Weekend Update with Chevy Chase and it was a fascinating and funny look U.S. news. It would be Chase who would be the first big film star to emerge from the cast. But soon after Belushi and Ackroyd would go to take their SNL characters of the Blue Brothers to film.

The show has ebbed and flowed for the 50 years it has been on. Some amazing years and some awful ones. In some years I was busy and sometimes was doing things on a Saturday night but I have kept coming back in years when things are really top level. And nowadays, segments will appear on social media if I miss an episode.

I do still try to see the show on and off. Sometimes it will be a guest music act or a host that will bring me in. Sometimes it will be the outstanding performances. In 2025, I think they have an excellence in their cast that has really made for a new relevance. It is curious though if the medium of TV continues to be relevant long into the future.

Inspector Morse/Inspector Lewis/Endeavour

Inspector Morse was the creation of Colin Dexter, a British writer who began his mysteries in 1975 while employed at Oxford University. Much like his muse, Dexter loved a good crossword, wanted problems to solve and the leafy green Oxford seemed a perfect place to have murder mysteries take place. Audiences in North America had already seen Oxford in Brideshead Revisited and Tinker Tailor, Soldier Spy from 1979 to early 1980s so a murder mystery series from the university town sounded perfect.

Prairie Public began in 1975 in Manitoba beamed in from North Dakota. I have written about the impact it has had on the province and what impact Manitoba has had an Prairie Public. The evening fare on a weekend of Prairie Public is a reflection of the strong influence of Manitoba viewers. Don't believe it? Then contrast Detroit Public TV which is also on cable with Prairie Public. Saturday might comedies from Britain don't appear on Detroit despite the large Canadian viewership. Prairie Public also has a Canadian charitable tax status which is not available for all those in Canada who donate.

My parents loved to watch the comedies on Saturday and if Jets were not playing on Hockey Night in Canada, a frequent occurrence,  they'd watch Keeping Up Appearance, Yes, Minister? or Are You Being Served? There were others over the years such as Vicar of Dibley, As Time Goes By and, of course, Fawlty Towers. I ended up watching a lot of it with them if there was a stinker of a game and with the Leafs on, for many decades, it was always a possibility. 

Sundays were for Masterpiece which started in 1971 in the States and in Winnipeg, we first started getting it  in 1975. It was mostly classics TV from the Brits that showed but eventually, Masterpiece Mystery came to the fore. The Colin Dexter series of Inspector Morse mysteries was now more than decade old in print and in 1987 it about to be introduced to the UK and the world on screen.

John Thaw was cast as Morse. He was no stranger to the Brits playing a cop. Most in Canada didn't see him in his other shows but he was an experienced hand and fit the role of Inspector Morse like a glove. Compared to the book, they went with a younger man to play Sergeant Lewis. Their two styles of policing very different but their teamwork often needed to get the case right.

The music by Barrington Pheloung was classic and started off with Morse Code before it sweetly played over the beginning and end credits in a way that tugged at the heart. And then there was Oxford in all its glory. And let's not forget Morse's car. So in 1987, on that first Sunday I was able to watch with my parents who were now paying members of Prairie Public. I was still living at home and attending University of Winnipeg. Sunday shopping started that year so I was done by 6 and Sunday evenings were all the major networks with their movie nights. My parents usually watched Murder, She Wrote in 1987 on Sunday.

I was hooked on Morse from the moment I saw it and watched its first season with appreciation in January of that year. I had seen Sherlock Holmes in 1984 when it was ran on CBC and PBS in North America till 1994. I had a stuffed dog named Sherlock as a child so my interest in mystery came naturally. Many mystery shows in North America is that year ranged from gentle fare of Matlock and Murder, She Wrote. I was ready for an Inspector Morse that had many twists and turns as well as an acerbic investigator.

I was able to watch three seasons of Morse and adored it but from 1989 on I was in Japan. Had to catch up on past episodes only when I returned in 1992 (along with past episodes of Sherlock Holmes). More often than not, I'd watch with my mom and dad. It was sad when it came to an end, especially the end in 2000 but there was some comfort that six years later, Inspector Lewis would have a series of his own. I could have done without the wait but it was another super series with a Kevin Whatley reprising his role as Lewis. 

Lewis was exceptional in showing what a partnership of detectives could do in solving mysteries in Oxford. Making Lewis a widow and having to impress the boss all over again became part a very human development in character. As well as having a partner in Hathaway who takes the intellectual role that Morse had in the original series. The series lasted into 2015 when the main actors decided they had taken the show as far as they could take it. In Whatley's case, 30 years.

While Inspector Lewis was on, PBS went ahead with another spin off series called Endeavour that was set in 1965 and on with a young Morse joining the force and being partnered with a senior detective in Oxford. A brilliant paring of Shaun Evans and Roger Allam and a great ensemble captured the times, look and feel of the era and showed Oxford in a whole new way. The first shows started in 2012 and I watched with my parents if I was able to drop by. By mid-run of the show my parents started began having health problem, including memory problems, and Endeavour became harder to follow although they tried. They passed away before this year's final episode. I can't help think they would be watching if they could.

The show's 36 years and how it showed the UK was among several reasons why my parents travelled there in retirement. I often wonder what they would have thought as the last show wraps this weekend.  I know it will be a lot of good memories over the decades and I will miss show and what it brought to mystery on Sunday nights on PBS.

Charles Adler Returns to Winnipeg as Free Press Columnist

This past week Charles Adler returned to Winnipeg media as a columnist twice weekly. At nearly 70, he could rightly have retired after having worked in broadcasting all across Canada and the U.S. It is very likely he could have retired and lived in several places too. In his opening column, he states as much. But he has said that he found friends and contacts in this city that he found no where else and that hastened his return.

His longest turn was 17 years in the key morning slot on CJOB where he ruled the ratings. In 2015 though the station lost overall first to CBC and laid off people. It seemed a good time to go himself. The Jets 1.0 had left in 1996 and without a major league sport (aside from Bombers and Moose), they focused on their strength in the mornings and Adler came in to replace the legendary Peter Warren. 

Warren had been in the job from 1971 to 1998 as an investigative reporter and broke stories his entire career, It was a hard act to follow even for an Emmy awarded broadcaster. But the ratings held for mornings even without the Jets back till 2011. But chaos in the radio world has been going on for decades. It is possible to make money in it but media empires routinely try to brand everything to squeeze out even higher margins. Eventually, people leave that mediocrity. And it leads to a shuffling of the decks. Winnipeg radio stations often see whole teams swapped and a format change to something called Bill or Sue that is being done in every other city. TV networks in Canada brand everything Global or CTV and try to erase any sense of location. CBC itself is repetitive in a one hour broadcast whether it is local news or national news.

That is not to say there are not great reporters or great reporting happening. There are and there is. There are quite a few who come and go. Oftentimes I wonder about the sausage making of who gets hired, retired or moves on. We don't have much in the way of media analysis here at a granular level. The Free Press publisher does do some informational posts regularly but mostly on data collected by the paper. Sometimes about personal things or upcoming stories.

In choosing Adler, it appears there are three regular male political columnists. There are two guest political contributors, one male and one female, who appear less frequently.  There are two indigenous columnists, one male and one female, who often write on politics but not always. There is a sports columnist. There is one female general columnist. 

There are special sections columnists, freelance ones and syndicated ones as well. The biographies give a general idea of what areas reporters and columnists write about. What would be clearer might be a publisher to explain how the newspaper works and why. Or editors explaining. A general wayfaring would be great. And I don't mean this to be critical. I mean this as a guide as important as an index listing. The reason I ask is because I'm not sure the mandate of the main columnists? Is it city hall, the province, the Feds? Do they have free reign?

I remember when I first heard Charles Adler in 1983 when he was at CKY Radio. The station actually had a news desk back then and he was news director. All of them covered sports and Jets were starting to be part of the daily conversation. But news was also covered by radio, TV and print journalists. It was possible to get a range of coverage from a variety of sources in a variety of mediums. It was the time of no Internet or Smart Phones. Adler was there a while but it was a time when people moved every few years. Eventually, Adler too was off to one of several locations until the pinnacle of radio jobs became available in 1998.

Peter Warren's decision to end his career at CJOB probably generated applications for the job from all over Canada. Spending 35 years at a job as highly rated and as compelling was rare even for the time. A lot of elections federally and provincially were probably won and lost in Winnipeg ridings because of his leader interviews. Who wouldn't want that type of stage or platform? So many great journalist and anchors have gotten a Manitoba start or have been part of the local excellence for years. 

It was no wonder Charles Adler wanted the job and continued to have it from 1998 to 2015. CJOB burned through so many people in the 2000s. Being part of a corporate empire meant counting every penny to pay for massive debt for every acquisition. Meanwhile, CBC Radio which runs without commercials, largely stuck to its knitting with local and national coverage that reached number 1 overall in Winnipeg. Adler, could have likely continued for more years at CJOB but the layoffs in the station and sister stations but have felt toxic and sickening.

Adler, moved out to B.C. where some family was and continued to do work for Corus broadcasters in western Canada in different capacities until 2021. Geoff Currier took over and worked many years until retirement when Hal Anderson took over. Oddly enough, both radio hosts after Adler ran for city office.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that CJOB that many of the broadcasters at CJOB come from admittedly conservative backgrounds. Adler himself has admitted he was a paid member Conservative until Harper. He has probably been more forthcoming than some who came after him but CJOB has never been a FOX acolyte. It has right of centre hosts for its news shows or hosts who are straight news. Lately, they have been more light information which has seen them win one ratings period against CBC but not the most recent one.

Adler defended the CBC is one of his more recent columns when talking about his dad and his appreciation for the network. He mentioned as well that he would have likely voted for Kevin Chief had he been the leader of the NDP. We know he endorsed Glen Murray last election. We are not likely to see that type of column from Tom Broadbeck or Dan Lett who will write opinion but not endorsement. 

It remains to be seen where Adler takes his column. And it is curious to what the expectations are from Free Press management and editors. To the present Conservatives, it probably doesn't matter. They do not like any kind of media as pointed out by Adler. He noted that Filmon and Doer both regularly spoke to media and they expected their ministers to as well. The present elected officials not so much.

There have been quite a lot of reporting changes at the Free Press. It sometimes pays to have a veteran presence to give context to what ahs happened in previous years. Goods as some reporters are, having institutional knowledge is effective in contrasting present issues.

Pierre Poilevere To End CBC If Elected

By Manning Centre c/o: Jake Wright - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32870907

The leader of the Official Opposition has made it is mission to defund the CBC. For his base supporters, this has been an objective for decades. In actuality, he wants to defund English CBC while keeping Radio-Canada which would require a change to the Broadcast Act. And likely an explanation why Canadian taxpayers should support one over the other.

The defund the CBC platform is right on the Conservative website. But why not Radio-Canada in Quebec? The answer is votes in Quebec. The Conservatives need to find votes there or some way to win a majority. The big question is whether Quebecers will believe that Conservatives would actually stop defunding at English CBC and not continue to gut the whole corporation.

Outside of the Conservative party, it is unclear whether is support for ending CBC. In recent weeks, Poilevere has been trying get Twitter to classify CBC, among others, as government funded. He succeeded in doing so and says this is evidence of the network being a propaganda arm of the Trudeau government. This is an accusation he has made against all forms of media in Canada for twenty years. It is a dubious accusation because he has never able to show marching orders coming from the Liberal government to slant stories. His argument is that it is self evident which requires no proof. This may be adequate for the base but to win an election on this will require a little more substance.

People will want to know what actually happens if the CBC is actually closed. Does it include radio? Does it include northern Canada? Will assets be sold to the private sector? Will Hockey Night in Canada have less of a reach in the country where some places won't be able to get it without difficulty? Will government support also be dropped for other print, radio and TV. Will Canadian content guidelines and ownership rules be eliminated?

One question leads to another and even some who might be allies ideologically with the Conservatives might come to realize implications beyond a victory of seeing the CBC ended. The big companies that own the media, including the Sun and Postmedia, also receive money from the government. Ending the CBC doesn't necessarily help if it ends their supports too. And if their supports remain, the base of the Tory party might ask why. Quite simply, the Conservatives will have to explain why they pick winners and losers for support. Keep in mind the Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg Sun and all the private stations including CJOB receive some sort of government money, protection or support. Does everyone get cut off? And if they do and news rooms shut down around the country, does this serve the nation well?

As for cozying up to Elon Musk and Twitter, it seems seeking legitimacy in someone who receives government money for Tesla as well as SpaceX while devaluing his overpaid asset in Twitter, is shortsighted. I left Twitter some time ago. I'm not sure what the future is there and who knows if anything will survive AI. Even Elon Musk is afraid of AI because the veracity of real human beings on the site is near impossible. A blue check make might not keep AI from flooding a site like Twitter with inhuman conversations.

But back to CBC. it seems to generate the same hatred in the far right that Trudeau does. It is a deep and ferocious anger that is slightly deranged which is ironic because that is what they often accuse the left of in terms political leaders on the right. One wonders what happens if they truly get their wish and end CBC's existence if that will make them happy. Or will they be like the dog chasing bumpers finally catching one and then not knowing what to do with themselves after as in the case of conservatives defeating Roe v Wade in the U.S.

In the case of the U.S, some Republican are wondering now that they have achieved their goal on abortion, how do they win elections after if the feeling is that they are the wrong side of how Americans actually think? For Conservatives in Canada, if they achieve a majority and end the CBC, do they find that the decision produces another majority or makes them a one term government? Do they care? I suppose they should because as demonstrated by south of the border, elections have consequences. And if your record is one of competent governance, fighting culture battles seems a waste of time and energy.

The $1.2 billion in government funds and the $500 million of commercial revenues helps run a coast to coast to coast network. Eliminating English CBC means that Radio-Canada won't have source material to provide nation-wide information in Quebec. Presently, no other network does that. And in the north, will resources still be left if place there for non-English and French programming? Or do they only get information from the south...in non-native languages? 

If Conservatives become the government, actual legislation has to be introduced to indicate what the plan is. Will the network be sold? Will assets be sold? Will the government allow international players to come in buy CBC, other Canadian networks? Will they eliminate Canadian content regulations? Will they eliminate Canadian ownership rules? It is can of worms where the outcome is unknown. Will it end up with U.S. owned media that eliminates all news in Canada and even hockey coverage because there is no mandate to produce content made in Canada?

While it might appear to be controversial bringing attention to this policy of Pierre Poilevere, it is something that he brings up in every speech. Not Ukraine, but this. He wants his policy to be known and in the absence of a defined way a Conservative government achieves this, we can envision almost anything. It is no wonder that Conservative MPS in Quebec don't want to say anything on this. They are literally hiding under their desks as Radio-Canada remains popular in Quebec. Even if this branch of CBC is preserved, questions about what changes to the Broadcast act and budget will invariably have to be discussed. 

It is possible the Conservatives believe they lost the last elections, including the one when Harper was prime minister, because of the CBC and the media. His supporters seems to think so and it isn't likely anyone can convince them otherwise. It is not much different than Republicans believing the election results were altered and instigating an insurrection. This belief that media is for the left flies in the face of print media across Canada endorsing Conservatives pretty much across the board. As for TV, they don't do editorial endorsement and every news show have Conservatives on their panels to explain policy.

Sadly, many government and opposition parties are frequently avoiding media and are more reluctant to share any information or take questions. Case in point is Joe Biden has down fewer news conferences than Ronald Reagan. This is deliberate on his part. Canada's House of Commons makes it more difficult to hide from questions. However, Question Period is a poor format for information and is more about talking points. It is why journalism can be so effective. It is this journalism that Poilevere depended on this week to reveal Prime Minister Trudeau's visit to Jamaica to a billionaire's house.

Poilevere reaching out to Twitter feels childish and angry. Elon Musk is pushing all the buttons there while the adults in business are heading for the doors. There has to be some serious concern with Conservatives being a freaking train wreck firing Bank of Canada Governor, ending the CBC and ending all the carbon taxes in the first 100 days and watching some serious responses. Not all of it will come from Canada. Much of it will come from world markets. 

It isn't entirely clear that Poilevere can pivot from Opposition to Government. His permanent campaign of anger and accusation that nothing is working means his approach might be a bull in china shop. It also doesn't bode well for letting his cabinet operate independently. It could very well be him in the Prime Minister's Office not telling anyone what he is doing akin to Brian Pallister. Except, you can expect it to be more of a disaster than a premier ditching WWII ceremonies to go on a tour of Europe and visit businesses without their staff.

If the Conservatives expect to win the next election, they need to look less unhinged. They really don't appear to be able to show they are competent enough to take over for a government that walks into rakes all too regularly. It doesn't look great that they walk into rakes just as much.