''Playdate'' is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

drama anthology television series which aired on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

from 1961 to 1964.

Premise

The series replaced '' General Motors Presents''. Ed Moser, a story editor from that previous series, became executive producer of ''Playdate''. He reduced the presence of Canadian script writers, featuring nine Canadian-written scripts in the final season of ''Playdate'' compared to 19 Canadian works featured in the final season of ''General Motors Presents''.

Robert Goulet Robert Gérard Goulet (November 26, 1933 October 30, 2007) was an American‐Canadian singer and actor of French-Canadian ancestry. Goulet was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts, until age 13, and then spent his formative years in Canad ...

hosted the earliest episodes of ''Playdate'', replaced by

Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage and television. His accolades included an Academy Aw ...

from 20 December 1961. From October 1962, episodes of the UK series ''The

Jo Stafford Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical tr ...

Show'' were occasionally broadcast, billed by the CBC as ''Playdate Presents...''. In September 1963, similar treatment was given to ''

The Red Skelton Show ''The Red Skelton Show'' is an American television comedy/variety show that aired from 1951 to 1971. In the decade prior to hosting the show, Richard "Red" Skelton had a successful career as a radio and motion pictures star. Although his tele ...

'', an American series, when it was sporadically broadcast in the ''Playdate'' time slot. The CBC cancelled ''Playdate'' and ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...

'' by June 1964, as part of a general reduction in variety programming for the 1964–65 season. In the months following the last ''Playdate'' episode, ''

'' was regularly seen in the time slot.''Montreal Gazette'' television listings, July–August 1964 In 1964, 26 episodes of ''Playdate'' were sold for broadcast in Australia.

Episode

This hour-long series was broadcast over three seasons as follows (times in Eastern zone):

Season 1: 1961–62

Broadcasts of ''Playdate'' for the first season were Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. (Eastern time):

Summer Playdate 1962

''Summer Playdate'' consisted of broadcasts of UK productions in a Tuesday 9:30 p.m. evening time slot between regular seasons of ''Playdate'', from July to September 1962. Episodes were generally British mysteries.

Season 2: 1962–63

Broadcasts were Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. (Eastern time):

Season 3: 1963–64

Broadcast Mondays at 9:00 p.m. (Eastern time) from 30 September 1963 to 20 July 1964 as follows:

References

Bibliography

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 0250914
''Playdate'' at TVArchive.ca
1961 Canadian television series debuts 1964 Canadian television series endings CBC Television original programming 1960s Canadian anthology television series