There was a show on Friday nights called "Kraft Theatre" This wasn't exactly the same one, but it has what I watched the show for...the recipes.
Kraft wanted you to buy every product they made and glue them together into unGodly combinations. I wish I could find some of the 60s recipes, but wait for the titles of this show to finish and then watch the commercial. The scary part is that Moms would actually make these foods!
Kraft Recipes
Canadian Wrestling on Saturday Mornings
We didn't get Saturday Morning Cartoons until years after they appeared in the United States. Instead we got "Bingo", "Curling" "Bowling For Dollars" and Canadian wrestling which had tons of beloved stars. The meanest wrestlers were a french family called "The Vachon Bros." Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon was the meanest of the mean and we loved him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV-rp4dhdBs&feature=related
Andre the Giant when he was a Canadian Wrestler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HngzSCiZ_Eg&feature=related
THE FOREST RANGERS
Here was a show about a man who lived in the forest in a barricaded fort, safe from the police with a bunch of kids. The show was boring, weird and Canadian but had a theme song that I can't stop whistling to this day.
Then there was this alarming show for kids.
An Important Canadian Show THat Formed Us All
Watch this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeBDqOEypXI&feature=related
This was a show about a German Shepherd that traveled from town to town looking for homes in crisis. He would listen in outside a window while a brutish Canadian Dad was beating his wife and forcing the kids to eat puffed wheat in bags without prizes.
Then he would scamper in and settle everything with drizzling compassionate fangs.
The whole family would learn Canadian values from the dog and then all get along and sleep in the same bed together, a cured and balanced family...because a wet smelly Canadian Dog took them under his dewclaw. The he'd dump his new friends and ride a train to another town and another family in crisis and fix everything up for them.
Joni Mitchell -An Actual Canadian Super Talent and a Real Original
Boy, did she come up with a style. Her songs give me piss willies!
Here's one that'll surely raise your neck hairs:
and here's what we get now...
Canada Ruined By Imitating Stupid American Fads
46 comments:
nice post
atrocious grammar
This sucks.
I'd rather go to canada and work at Animaxthan to compromise my Richard Williams taught ideas at some poor finnish animation studios.
athough, no offence, knowing you, you think Animax is The Suck.
ALSO
Will the new George Liqour (AMERICAN!) Cartoon be avalible for us Finnish animators as well?
Hey John
Great post...I used to drink Labatts 50...great beer for camping out at the Pinery's in Ontario or Ipperwash Beach...thanks for using the Dan Haskett stuff...Hosers forever!!!eh
Mr. Dressup was my favorite show as a kid! I'd wake up every morning, eat garlic sausage, cheese and crackers and watch Mr. Dressup.
If I didn't get to see him, I'd throw a tantrum. I had my own "Tickle Trunk" and everything. I even saw him live on tour!
Oh man!! I'm pretty sure Mr Dress Up taught us all how to draw. He's a part of every Canadian's childhood. He was actually American (and a friend of Mr Rodgers), but he adopted Canada after falling in love with it.
And, of course, the Littlest Hobo is in all of our hearts. My sister and I drink and sing its theme -- which always ends in tears.
Mayonnaise, meatballs, and rice? That just doesn't make sense.
BTW the SPP is American, but the "North American Union" idea with an "Amero" currency (which conspiracy theorists claim is the SPP's final goal) originated from a Canadian think tank.
Oh my god! I didn't know that "They paved Paradise" was a Joni Mitchell song! I just heard it through a very bad (probably American) cover version. Thank You Mr. K!
By the way, which version of Hallelujah do you prefer?
Canadian Leonard Cohen's original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf36v0epfmI
Or the American Jeff Buckley's Cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AratTMGrHaQ
I personally can't stand Jeff Buckley's Candy-Ass voice.
Mr. Dressup - hands down - the best Canadian kids show ever!!!
Is that Elvis Costello in Mr. Dress Up? That looks rather alarming.
Who couldn't love the Littlest Hobo? I had no idea that was Canadian.
Canada also gave us Cronenberg, Rabid, Shivers and Scanners (which included the Canadian Michael Ironside). That's something to be proud of.
That's if you can be proud of something simply for happening within the same fairly arbitrary boundary as you.
Growing up in Detroit and being so close to Windsor, I pretty much lived my youth through/and/or was raped by Mr. Dress Up's Casey and Finnegan as well as The Big Friendly Giant. Man, his lute/flute and tiny chairs by the fire still haunt me...
The Joni Mitchell video for Me and My Uncle is great! thanks for posting it.
Oppo, "Big Yellow Taxi" (they paved paradise) was covered by Counting Crows and Amy Grant. And yes, both versions sucked.
Yay! At the beginning of that first beer commercial we see a clip from a classic Roughriders vs. Roughriders game. Of course, the Ottawa Roughriders have since disbanded with the Ottawa Renegades eventually taking their place. The Saskatchewan Roughriders are still going strong though (Grey Cup winners of 2007 and they haven't lost a game yet this year).
I of course grew up with Mr. Dressup and The Littlest Hobo. I recently caught an old Hobo episode in-which a group of evil world leaders lead by a magician were planning to hijack a Canadian power plant and thereby TAKE OVER THE WORLD! Sadly for them, that little german shepherd spoiled their plans. When one of the evil world leaders saw him and said "we should kill that dog for what he did to us." the magician leader said something like "no, he is a worthy adversary and I respect him. Let him go." It was the best worst piece of brilliant crap I've ever seen.
About Mr. Dressup (Ernie Coombs). I heard that off the set he was a colossal jerk. His show would end with everyone saying good-bye individually. Then finally Ernie would say "...and ME" to which Casey would say "Mr. Dressup" and the credits would roll. Well, one time Casey missed his cue. While the credits rolled Mr. Dressup threw the hugest tantrum ever. I didn't see that however, I just heard about it. Although, before radio personality Peter Gzowski died, Rick Mercer got him to recite a list of people who were "a son of a bitch". Mr. Dressup was on that list.
My favorite thing about Molson beer is that each beer sticker has a different picture on it. One time when I was drunk, I made a collection of all these stupid beer stickers for some reason... I honestly can't explain everything I do, but that's my fondest and only memory of Molson beer.
In Baltimore we have a national beer guy since like the early 1920's he's known as the NANY BO guy. Here's a pic of him below.
http://www.curreri.net/IM205512.gif
and one of the beer factory
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/2517576992_b26e75abb6.jpg?v=0
Another weird icon in Baltimore is the Utz chip girl
http://www.eteamz.com/hscpa/images/Utzgirl2.jpg
I can't determine whether the Utz chip girl is actually a girl or not. Also I can't explain why the nany bo guy has one eye, also he kind of looks like the pringles guy. Anyways some person thought these two icons of baltimore were funny and did this campaign in baltimore.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/209/476815966_004719ce68.jpg
I think it could have been done better, but it made a funny point nevertheless.
Sorry for my rambling, but I have been really enjoying all these hilarious canadian things you have been posting on your blog. It's my other source of entertainment this week besides the republican/democratic conventions.
>>The meanest wrestlers were a french family called "The Vachon Bros." Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon was the meanest of the mean and we loved him.<<
Is this where you got the idea for "Mad dog Hoek?"
it sure was, Ryan
nice inks, by he way
Melvillain: Thanks for responding to my comment unsolicited.
And just so no one misreads my previous comment, just know that I am a proud citizen of the USA.
You are funny and cute- yer mom must be proud!
Thanks John. Almost done with current scene.
I was in grade 7 or 8 when Ernie Coombs died and, even though everyone at that age is stupid and tries to be cool, everyone was sad that day and he was all we talked about.
timefish...i remember that day too!...was the same with me and my buddies...the death of ernie coombs def shook our generatio
i met him once...was the nicest guy...gave off that grandpa vibe.
the best though was watching him draw on his show...as a little kid i'd be all bewildered while he drew everything and anything with one of those oil pencils...
although...i saw an old re-run a while back..and there was a very faint under drawing that he was just tracing...haha that made me feel a little disillusioned lol
Kraft recipes loved to put Miracle Whip on bananas in every possible combination.
Elana Pritchard: Was that directed toward me? If so, thank you.
Amazing. Mad Dog is incredible. He was perfectly imitated in the Ren & Stimpy episode. "I worked in the mines to make my body strong!".
hahaha, Yeah I used to watch Mr. Dressup too. and I caught the live show too.
It doesn't surprise me Mr. Dressup was a jerk off camera.. Probably didn't want to do kids shows, just fell into it or something and grew bitter.
I think up until now however, I'd never seen him without gray hair.
Andre The Giant is a national hero to this day, we all grew up with and loved Mr. Dressup, and I happen to love puffed wheat to this day after eating it so much.
But I had not idea the last thing was uniquely canadian.
...Wait a second, was Mr. Dressup gay?
Kraft and Canada: yet another great Canadian comic voice, cartoonist David Boswell (best known for his Reid Fleming the World's Toughest Milkman) notes the Kraft Dinner as some kind of social compensation among the state's delicate economic balance.
"musta been that Kraft dinner." laments a character when untimely flatulence destroys a romantic encounter.
Mr. Dress Up's bio on IMDB.
Jorge, read Mr. Coombs' bio at IMDB. He had a wife and three children.
Mad Dog was the man! Him and his brother took on the Leduc Brothers, their clones it seemed, in a cage match to the death, o as he used to say " Le combat dela MAAOOOOOORT!!!! Dans une CÂÂÂÂÂge!!!"
Mr Dressup was married to a woman for most of his life! Not that there's anything wrong with being gay, but he was certainly not gay.
Hey John,
Not sure if this show has appreared in any of your posts but you probably remember the Hilarious House of Frightenstein on CHCH TV 11 out of Hamilton.
http://frightenstein.com/
Hey, how could you talk about Canadian television (especially stuff for kids) and not mention You Can't Do That On Television? That's one the Americans stole. To this day many USian kidlets and former kidlets think that green slime is a "Nickelodeon thing". But nope. Hey, if it weren't for Canadian TV, there probably wouldn't be a Nickelodeon to sell Ren & Stimpy to!
Oh, and Moose is still hot.
Oh, and I take issue with your characterization of hip-hop as a "stupid American fad". It's at least 30 years old and still going strong, has followers and practictioners from all over the world, and it has its roots in African oral traditions.
And baby Jeebus weeps a little whenever a cracker like that tries to rap -- regardless of nationality.
You guys are excused all that other stuff for bringing us Joni Mitchell, eh.
My friend Frank conducted the last interview with Mr. Dressup before he died. If anyone wants, I'll try to find a link.
John - I've read your blog since the beginning and enjoy reading up on all the various subjects you tackle. That said, your recent posts on Canada might be my favorite. I'm obsessed with Canada and the subtle but significant differences your homeland has with the US.
Keep them coming, love it.
I would also like to hear a logical defense of ketchup flavored potato chips at some point.
Haha! Wow. That Canadian Hip hopster sure had a lot to say. Three strong American fads in one: suburban hip hop gangster, Youtube trash, and a pop-politics and conspiracy flunky. Annoying, yet interesting character.
What I find fascinating about Joni Mitchell is that she originated in the middle of nowhere in Saskatchewan. Her early ideas came straight out of her head.
P.S. Here's another slice of your past...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYp5NJMQCAs
Joni Mitchell excuses Canada's mysterious foot-severer, Tim Hortons, and Cirque du Soleil.
This post gives me a piss willie! I love your canada stories john
Hey John-
Here in Metro Detroit we get the CBC and Hockey Night in Canada and the curling and the specials of nuns starting off enormous Domino line courses and Don Cherry.
No discussion of Mr Dressup's Cartooning?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHNNIE K..ANUCK
hOPE YOU HAD A GOOD ONE!
Joni Mitchell also makes up for Winnipeg's giving the world The Guess Who. Almost.
Call me silly, but I would have put the duck feet on BEFORE the duck sweater, so I wouldn't hafta struggle zipping up leather boots with my fingerless, feathery duck hands.
Where'd they find the guy for Mr. Dress-Up? He's no Soupy Sales, that's for sure - more like an accountant or something. What else did he have in that trunk? Did he ever dress up in women's clothes?
Why are all the puppets "eyeless"? How come the dog's bark is mute - is he supposed to be deaf, and the kid puppet blind? What's the origin of the phrase "Oh, quack!" to express frustration?
I'm confused. We have to discuss Mr. Dress-Up further...
So wait a minute. A rapping douche on youtube represents all modern Canadian T.V.? You have a skewed perception on what makes a valid comparison. Thats like comparing a Hollywood movie to a kindergarten play. Where is Trailer Park Boys? Where's Corner Gas? Where is Little Mosque on the Prairie? Where is The John Dore Television Show? If you are going to make a comparison, Make it Valid.
Is that Glenn Ford smacking Erin Grey around?
"Thats like comparing a Hollywood movie to a kindergarten play."
exactly my point
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