Hockey Night in Canada, and Beyond

I remember my father watchin

g Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights when I was growing up. There wasn’t much choice then, as very early on we only had two channels, English and French CBC, both of which televised the hockey game, Leafs and Habs, respectively. But that's not entirely true, either. My mother tells me my father’s interest in hockey began to wane when the league expanded, from the original six to God knows how many (not that he ever lost interest; that would be a silly thing to say, if you know my father; but his obsession certainly waned). I think the league expanded to about twenty teams in a very short time. What I do remember is the whole family anticipating watching TVO on Saturday nights, once the field of viewing began to open up in the mid-70s (first with TVO and CTV, then with Global and the American Big Three at about ‘78). Doctor Who aired at 7:30 pm, then Saturday Night at the Movies with Elwy Yost. We used to donate to TVO back then, just so that my father and I could get the SNatM season guide. We’d get the full season’s upcoming movies, with far more detailed descriptions of the week’s theme and movie blurbs, not just the name and year that was in the Daily Press TV guide pullout. 1975 kicked off a lifetime love of Doctor Who and B&W classic film.