Top 100 Canadian TV Series

[AndyC]

46) Friday the 13th: The Series (1987-1990): Surprised this one doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet. "An old antique dealer made a pact with the Devil to sell cursed antiques. When he dies, his store is inherited by his niece Micki (the then smoking hot Louise Robey) and her cousin Ryan (John D. LeMay). With the help of Jack Marshak (Chris Wiggins) [who acts as the voice of wisdom in the series], they fight to retrieve the antiques from the people who bought them to stop them from causing [further] harm." -IMDB Storyline description written by Paul Sasse. Each item possesses some magical quality and gave something to its owner but usually only at the price of someone else dying or being murdered. Said owners hoping to reap these benefits were often unwilling to part with their new treasure sometimes not fully realizing the full scope of the curse the item will eventually put on them or just hoping to continue to reap the benefits. This was a creepy show week after week with quality characters and acting meaning it was must see TV for me back in its day. The series did go downhill a bit in its last season though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9trU9y96m0

That was a truly creepy series: the episode I remember most is Helloween where Uncle Lewis comes back and tries to resurrect a corpse so that he can live again. 

That was a good show. I think it suffered for the producers trying to cash in on the slasher franchise by changing the title. It was a decision that managed to go over badly both with fans and haters of the movies. There were definitely people who never gave it a fair chance because of that.

[Trevor]

48. I don't know if anyone's mentioned Danger Bay yet but that was pretty good entertainment.

[Trevor]

49. Taking The Falls was also a good one, although I think it only ran for one season.

[AndyC]

Do they show a lot of Canadian television in South Africa, Trevor? You seem quite familiar with shows I never expected many people outside of Canada to have seen.

[JaseSF]

Technically The Sentinel is an American series but it was filmed in Canada. Danger Bay I used to watch all the time although it was always a kind of guilty pleasure and I honestly never thought it really good. Still it did have its moments.

50) The Odyssey (1992-1994): bizarre surreal series has its main hero Jay (Illya Woloshyn) fall into a coma. While his family and friends continue their lives in the real world, Jay finds himself in the magical Downworld, a mysterious world without adults. Eventually Jay befriends two followers Flash (Tony Sampson) and Alpha (Ashleigh Aston Moore) and sets off in search of his long since disappeared father and hopefully to also help Jay find his way back home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mf1Pzo9mWE

[Trevor]

Do they show a lot of Canadian television in South Africa, Trevor? You seem quite familiar with shows I never expected many people outside of Canada to have seen.

They do indeed, Andy: they even dubbed ENG into Afrikaans at one point. Due South was very popular as was African Skies ~ the latter largely because it was filmed here.

Thanks for the great TV, Canada! 

[Trevor]

51) Viper ~ although it may also be a USA series filmed in Canada ~ is also another one that was good. Our Bull would love that car. 

Both Viper and The Sentinel have something in common that always makes me go  ~ their company logo "PET FLY PRODUCTIONS", a still of a fly and then loud buzzing: that reminds me too much of the flies buzzing around my underpants. 

[Trevor]

This one is put in here at the risk of me being brained by many, many shoes.... 

52. Highlander: The Series (1992 ~ 1998)

I actually enjoyed it *Ducks shoes* 

[JaseSF]

Viper was partly Canadian made, at least the revived series in 1996-1999 was.

I thought Highlander (although I did think Adrian Paul was well cast in the lead) was pretty bad but it must have had a lot of fans out there given it was on the air for 6 years and more in reruns.

53) My Secret Identity (1988-1991): Young teen comics fan Andrew Clements (Jerry O' Connell) unexpectedly gains superpowers (flying, superspeed, impervious to pain) accidentally after getting in the way of Dr. Benjamin Jeffcoate (Derek McGrath)'s sceintific experiment. Now Andrew secretly uses his powers as "Ultraman"  to help people but must be wary and careful so people don't find out about it and perhaps use the information against him or his family.

This was a fun, innocent  superhero show - the perfect escapist fare with likable characters. I loved it as a teen. It was simplistic yet it was very watchable only really faltering in its later seasons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLuXJL2GCgk

[Newt]

54)  Magic Shadows (1974-1987?)  Hosted by the incomparable Elwy Yost this program presented classic feature films in serial format: every weeknight we could sit down to half an hour of great cinema with Uncle Elwy's enthusiastic and apt commentary and guidance.  On weeks when the featured film fell short of filling the time slot (as they often did) episodes of classic serials were aired; again with Elwy's warm and gleeful introduction.  This program is credited by all who watched it with engendering an enduring love of film.

(Upon checking facts on IMDB I see that Elwy was taken from us on JUly 21 of this year.     I am going to have a nice quiet cry over that.)

[JaseSF]

Sadly I've never seen that although it sounds like it would have been right up my alley. I do recall another kids TV series where the host used to shows episodes of the 60s Batman and The Munsters TV shows although I cannot recall its name right now.

55) Beyond Reality (1991-1993): this short-lived series featured two university parapsychologists invesitagting reports of ghosts, out of body experiences, telekinesis and other paranormal unexplained phenomena that people claim is happening in their everyday life. The show starred Shari Belafonte as Laura Wingate and Carl Marotte as J.J. Stillman. I recall really enjoying this one even though it was rather short-lived.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zlWC2Hmv2o

[Newt]

Sadly I've never seen that although it sounds like it would have been right up my alley.

No doubt at all that it would have been, Jase.  Here's a link to an obit for Yost that I think conveys the 'feel' of his presentations, and includes a clip of the intro to Magic Shadows:  http://beta.torontoist.com/2011/07/elwy_yost_1925-2011/

[AndyC]

Sadly I've never seen that although it sounds like it would have been right up my alley.

No doubt at all that it would have been, Jase.  Here's a link to an obit for Yost that I think conveys the 'feel' of his presentations, and includes a clip of the intro to Magic Shadows:  http://beta.torontoist.com/2011/07/elwy_yost_1925-2011/

I still remember the intro from way back. The animation has that kind of surreal hand-drawn feel I tend to associate with that time. Some of the images really stuck with me, such as tentacles coming out of the neck of a business suit. Pretty freaky stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG9AZm1gPDY&feature=related

[JaseSF]

I'm now certain I would have loved Magic Shadows.

56) The Swiss Family Robinson (1974-1976): this was a quality family adventure series that I looked forward to catching week after week. It taught us valuable moral lessons week after week but never forgot how important adventure and excitement was to the viewing audience as some member of the family, sometimes more than one, seemed to be in peril week after week. It also focused on survival and working together towards that goal with our characters being a family stranded on a deserted tropical island. It ran a total of 26 episodes that got aired in reruns here in Canada for many years. It was quite good I felt. Not  be confused with Irwin Allen's American series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHKh4lOOO-U

[Trevor]

57. The Adventures Of Sinbad (1996 ~ 1998) was another one that I had forgotten about and should have remembered as it was made partly here and in Ontario.