I've upgraded my cable recently and have been enjoying The Office and Coupling on BBC America, which made me realize how much I miss watching the CBC which was a staple in my household while growing up in Canada.

I'm sure there's a ton more Canadian expats than British living in the US. How come we don't have a CBC America? Sure, there's CBC Newsworld with Peter Mansbridge, but the CBC had some good (alright, passable) original programming also.

For example, there was Street Legal with the lovely Cynthia Dale and Seeing Things and DeGrassi Junior High. Also, who could forget the Beachcombers and uhm, King of Kensington. Also there was a show about a guy and girl managing a community center in the late eighties. If anyone can remember the title to this sitcom, please post here.

I may not have made an effective argument for a CBC America, but I'm sure there's a ton of Canadians on this board. How about posting some of your favorite Canadian shows with a brief description in this thread for your American brethren.

What about the ORIGINAL original Degrassi show--The Kids of Degrassi Street?? Well, OK, I didn't make such a great argument for it either (I barely remember anything about it), but I too would love to watch old reruns of The Beachcombers or Seeing Things.

Here's a list of CBC shows:

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Lis...oadcast_by_CBC

Maybe you'll find your community center show there (it sort of rings a bell).

Not a bad idea. Not nearly as much material as BBC has, mind you, but CBC does often have a lot of good documentaries, news shows, and a very few drama shows.

Enough to make a station in the US? that could be pushing it. CBC doesn't make as many original series anymore, I don't think. Actually, maybe they do, I don't know, I don't watch much TV anymore. They are normally very hit or miss, excellent stuff comes around once in a while (Newsroom, Degrassi...) but most is mediocre.

Doesn't BBC America have stuff like Trailer Park Boys, that's done by Showcase, which is a Canadian cable station. I thought I heard it has Da Vinci's Inquest, which is from the CBC.

I get CBC, I think it's the Toronto affiliate (if there are iffiliates for cbc like there are in the US for things like nbc)
also get another canadian station

Oh yes, the original "The Newsroom" is one of the all-time best shows. I don't watch much fiction, but CBC and CBC Newsworld have some of the best documentary programming around. "Fifth Estate" is a great show, as are "Witness", "Marketplace", and the defunct "Disclosure". "The Passionate Eye" and "Rough Cuts" on Newsworld show consistently high quality docs. As an aside, TVOntario also has two stellar documentary shows, "The View from Here" and "Human Edge".

The early '80s' "Kids of Degrassi" was a very sincere and endearing, if often amateurish, drama, and included some of the casts of the later shows playing different characters.

"Seeing Things" is rerun every Tuesday at noon and six, as I pointed out not long ago.

Am I the only one who finds Rick Mercer about as funny as a paper cut, and even more annoying? Same goes for the "Air Farce" gang. Not a laugh to be had anywhere.

I get CBC here in Bellingham, WA.

From what I've seen of "The Royal Canadian Air Farce," I agree: very unfunny; however, I really like the show "Made in Canada," which Rick Mercer both stars in, and, at least in part, created.

I hate Air Farce with a passion. They are crude and vulgar, and they have never once made me crack a smile, much less laugh.

Rick Mercer is hit or miss. Sometimes he is ok; sometimes not so much. He is a local boy, so I am all in favor of him doing well.

Thanks for the link. The name of the show I was thinking about was Hangin' In. I think it's probably more enjoyable to fondly look back at these shows than to actually watch them.

What's amazing is the extent to which I still remember DeGrassi Junior High even though it's been a decade since I've seen the show. It's ridiculous that I can still hum the tune to the Zit's Remedy's only song. I still remember the twins, Yick and his best friend Arthur and his older sister Stephanie who left the show after one season to do a CTV (?) sitcom where the dad is a teacher by day and a masked wrestler by night. Of course, my memories are somewhat disjointed because I thought the Dad was played by Jesse Venture instead of Lyle Alzado.

My guess is that these shows probably wouldn't pass the test of time and I would probably enjoy them as much as Danger Bay (which I hated). I think BizRodian is more correct in stating that CBC did a better job with news and documentaries. I used to love watching Venture on Sunday nights and they should have kept Dollars and Sense since it was a great money management teaching tool for kids.

That wrestling sitcom was none other than...Learning the Ropes! Ah, I remember it well...but I was always bitter that Stephanie (who I had a bit of a crush on) left Degrassi for that crappy-ass wrestling show. Yes, that show sucked hard, though it was pretty cool to see NWA wrestlers occasionally show up and give inspirational speeches.

If anyone's interested, the masterful, hilarious first incarnation of "The Newsroom" is available on DVD in its entirety at a reasonable price.

Yes, but don't these shows generally just show documentaries as opposed to making them? I'm sure there's plenty of shows in the US that'll show the exact same documentaries. I could be wrong, however. That's why I don't think that they'd fit on a "CBC America" station. I mean, the fact that CBC shows these is really cool, and that's what CBC is good at... but the actual content isn't CBC.

Mercer is ok in the right thing. 22 Minutes was good about 75% of the time, but it was all news based, and had no rewatch value.

Air Farce is just bad. The first season or two were half decent, but then it dived. One thing I remember about Air Farce was when they did the episode on the banks, it was around the time when (I think it was..) The Royal did the whole "Can a Bank Change?" campaign, using Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin" song. They basically had the whole episode on banks, spanning out on the ridiculousness of that campaign.

Degrassi holds up remarkably well. Maybe not for adults so much, but you can still show it to young teens and they'll like it.

In some cases, yes. Fifth Estate, Marketplace, and Disclosure are of course all produced by CBC. Passionate Eye, Rough Cuts, and the two TVO mainstays show a huge variety of generally non-conformist docs, many of them Canadian-made. I'd venture that a very high percentage of them wouldn't see the light of day on U.S. TV.
I think it was one of the TVO programs that broadcast the scathing The Corporation while it was still in theatres, and again more recently.

An American in Canada and The Newsroom can be found on HDNet...yeah I realize that doesnt help many people.

I like BBC America and wouldnt mind a CBC America, but what I would really prefer is just the plain old BBC. Why does it need to be Americanized for me, I just want the regular BBC however many there are just like the Brits get...same with CBC. What is the reason that they dont do this? Please tell me its a better reason than the BBC doesnt run commercials in the middle of shows or that some of their shows contain nudity.