Hey guys! How're you all doing on this fine first of October? I'm doing okay. I don't really have a big topic to talk about today. Just something I've been thinking about today. It's also a niche topic, specific to Canada, where I live and have lived my whole life. That is Canadian Television in the '90s. Specifically children's Canadian Television in the '90s. It's what I grew up on, and it's what I remember fondly. I'm not even going to talk about specific shows, just my memories watching children's Canadian Television in the '90s.
This topic came about because I was watching You, Me & YTV on YouTube this morning and earlier this afternoon and I watched two videos. The first was the one that was on last night, which I missed out on, where Ryan interviewed Victoria Sanchez, from a show on YTV called Student Bodies, and Melissa Galianos, who played Morgan on Radio Active. Now I never got to watch Student Bodies when it was on, for whatever reason, so I'm not familiar with Victoria's character on that show. However, as you all know by now Radio Active was one of my favourite shows in the late '90s and early 2000s. The other video I watched was an interview that was done back in May, with Toby Proctor, who voiced Darien/Tuxedo Mask in the first two seasons of the original English dub of Sailor Moon. Watching both of these videos got me thinking about Canadian children's Television in general because there were shows that were pretty popular here in Canada, that maybe weren't as well known in the U.S. or were known, but weren't as appreciated as they were here in Canada. Like I'm sure there are many Americans who never even heard of Radio Active or Student Bodies either because they didn't get the shows where they lived or weren't watching them if they did, as Student Bodies did air on Fox in the U.S.
I also looked up some info on Sailor Moon and apparently the reason there was a two year gap between Season 2, Episode 25 "Sibling Rivalry" and Season 2, Episode 26 "Rubeus Evens the Score" is because the dub had actually been cancelled because the ratings were low. Which is really weird to think about, considering how popular Sailor Moon is now in North America. But I guess when it originally aired in the U.S. and Canada, it was considered to be Canadian enough, because the dub was produced here in Canada, by a Canadian company (DIC at the time), that it didn't pick up pace in America. Yet, it had it's fans because DIC dubbed the remaining 17 episodes in 1997 because of a fan petition to revive the show. Which, again, is CRAZY to think about.
Thinking back on it though, I actually only had my siblings to talk to about Sailor Moon because none of my friends in elementary school watched it. It wasn't until I got to high school and met Kelly, when the show's second revival, this time by Cloverway for the third and fourth seasons, that I actually met someone who was into it like I was.
But that's the nature of Canadian Television. Most people who were my age that I knew were watching shows that aired here, but were produced and aired for broadcast in the United States. In fact, I don't even know if anyone my age that I knew watched shows like Corner Gas, which is as Canadian as you can get when it comes to TV shows. That and The Red Green Show, which was pretty hilarious. And children's Television was nuts because we also had shows like Ghostwriter, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, The Odyssey, Incredible Story Studios, System Crash, and Radio Free Roscoe as well, and aside from my siblings, I know one person who loved RFR like I did, but that's it. I didn't watch Are You Afraid of the Dark? though as I was only four or five when the show started in 1990 and I wasn't allowed to stay up late enough to watch it. I remember some of my classmates at OCTC who watched it though and I remember many a morning where we'd get to school and the other kids would be talking about it in the classroom before the teacher started the lessons for the day.
There were also shows for younger children like Mr. Dressup, Sesame Street Canada/Sesame Park, Wimzie's House, Widget the World Watcher, Under the Umbrella Tree, and Kitty Cats among others. We also got British shows like Bananas in Pyjamas and Art Attack! too. Not to mention the American shows like Barney & Friends, Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
There were shows for teenagers as well like The Kids of Degrassi Street and it's sequel series Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High, Degrassi: The Next Generation/Degrassi and Degrassi: Next Class, and Ready Or Not. I vaguely remember Ready Or Not but I don't think I watched any episodes, whereas I did watch Degrassi: The Next Generation from 2004 until 2006, and that includes the reruns of earlier seasons as well. So I watched pretty much the entirety of the show's first six seasons. I think my mom watched The Kids of Degrassi Street in the '80s. But that was like THE teen drama in Canada. I don't think I knew anyone who watched it though. In fact I knew more people who watched The O.C. and One Tree Hill than I know anyone who watched Degrassi: The Next Generation.
So yeah, Canadian Television, particularly children's Television in Canada was varied and weird. Some shows caught on in other countries, like the United States, while other shows didn't and stayed confined to Canada. I think the shows that got a wider appreciation in other countries are the ones that were produced in Canada, but were produced for an American network like Smallville, Andromeda, Mutant X, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.
And that's my ramblings on Canadian Television. Lol. Like I said, I really didn't have a topic in mind for today, but when I was watching You, Me & YTV I started thinking about this stuff and decided to make a blog post out of it. So for those of you Canadian folks out there who grew up in the '90s and 2000s, and watched this stuff, what are your thoughts on Canadian Television? I'm probably going to tackle this subject again in the future, and talk about whether things have changed for Canadian Television in the year 2020 in comparison to 1990 through to 2000. In the mean time though, have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later.
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