The first series in the Great Canadian TV Playoff are complete and SCTV triumphed with a 3-1 series win for favourite series of the 1970s.
Now it’s time for the next series: the 1980s.
Unlike the Stanley Cup playoffs, TV, Eh’s Great Canadian TV Playoff boasts solely homegrown head-to-head matchups of television shows. Through the rest of the month, we’ll pit eight television shows (just like the NHL) from the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 2000s against one another until the final showdown to name the top Canadian TV series of all time on May 29.
Cast your vote now and spread the word — the 1990s battle it out starting next Monday.
What is your favourite Canadian television series of the 1980s?
- Degrassi High/Degrassi Junior High (41%, 72 Votes)
- Fraggle Rock (15%, 26 Votes)
- Street Legal (14%, 24 Votes)
- The Littlest Hobo (13%, 22 Votes)
- Seeing Things (9%, 16 Votes)
- Danger Bay (6%, 10 Votes)
- Lance et Compte/He Shoots, He Scores (2%, 3 Votes)
- Night Heat (1%, 2 Votes)
Total Voters: 175
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It was a tough choice but I ultimately chose Degrassi over Fraggle Rock. However, if this was 1989 and I was 6, the Fraggles would have won out. Four other Canadian shows that I really really liked in the 80s were Care Bears, Inspector Gadget, The Elephant Show and The Raccoons.
These polls perhaps show the evolution of Canadian TV. You skipped the 50s/60s entirely. Probably because it was too long ago, but also I’m guessing because it would be hard to throw together a list (Wojeck, Forest Rangers, maybe Seaway, etc.). While the 70s list seemed a bit scattered. Even acknowledging some omissions, it can feel like you were struggling to find contenders. But arguably the 80s is when CDN TV started to come of age and this list is the first that feels like a real competition. (I suspect you’re going to find the subsequent decades even more fractious, with increasing numbers of fans complaining their series was left off).
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Obviously it’s a generational thing. But I’d say Street Legal, Night Heat and Seeing Things are all legitimate contenders. While I’m sure (slightly) younger readers will find Danger Bay, Degrassi, Fraggle Rock a tough choice. And, sure — Littlest Hobo, just to be fair :)
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The 80s was when I first started to get into the “idea” of Canadian TV. Street Legal (after some teething pains) became a perfectly solid, American-style drama (without sacrificing its sense of Canada). In fact I kept watching it long after I got bored with LA Law. Though it did maybe take a season or two to find its groove. Night Heat, with its mix of film noir archetypes, gritty realism, and parable-type plots, mixed elements in a way I’d rarely seen before and to my mind is the base-line cop drama to which I compare all later cop shows (American or Canadian). And Seeing Things? Man — it was one of the things that turned me into the Canadian culture nut I am today. Silly, quirky, wry, yet also sometimes dramatic.
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I’m sure they’ve all dated. Badly. But in the context of the times those three shows redefined the potential of Canadiana for me. The only one I’ve seen in recent years is Seeing Things (someone has posted episodes on youtube) — and the writing still holds up as pretty sharp. I’ll probably vote for it for that reason (and because it was the most singular) but I will have to mull it over first. :)
obviously few over 30 somethings parooze tv, eh
guessing most of us boomers are dead having taken too much viagara in the early days of the 21st century
I wish I could change my vote to Seeing Things from Street Legal. I loved both (seeing Toronto as a character in Street Legal was cool to this new Canadian). But I am remembering just now, how quirky and unexpected Seeing Things was for the time. Seeing Things is definitely worth a re-watch.