Dear Aunt Agnes | |
---|---|
Genre | Comedy drama |
Starring |
|
Country of origin | Canada |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 39 |
Production | |
Executive producer | Ruth Vernon |
Producer | Heather Conkie |
Production locations | Toronto, Ontario |
Running time | 30 Minutes |
Release | |
Original network | TV Ontario |
Original release | January 7, 1986 – December 27, 1989 |
Dear Aunt Agnes is a Canadian television comedy-drama series that aired on TV Ontario from January 1986 to December 1989. It was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, and ran for three seasons.
Teenage Alex and her younger brother Andrew live in Toronto, and are the children of divorced parents. In the series debut, their mother has just departed on a temporary assignment to the Canadian embassy in Senegal, and her Aunt Agnes arrives to look after the two children in her absence. Also part of the household is a boarder Gary, who studies sociology at the local university.
The series focuses on a variety of challenges young people routinely find themselves dealing with - peer pressure, divorce, single-parent households, and questioning their own & others' values.
Dear Aunt Agnes was created at a time when TV Ontario (TVO) was looking to expand programming for pre-teens. During its research phase, the network discovered a demand for shows that could help young people deal with critical real-life situations in effective ways. At the time, educators around the province reported the number children from separated families was increasing, and requested programming that might help these young people cope with the anxieties and challenges of living apart from one or both parents. [1]
The Agnes Peabody character had been developed by Heather Conkie in an earlier TVO series It's Mainly Music , and was popular with viewers. In creating the new show, both Conkie and executive producer Ruth Vernon thought this character might have the right mix of oddball fun and wisdom to be both appealing to audiences, and also effective as a guardian and mentor to her two young relatives. Conkie (who also produced the show, wrote some episodes and composed the theme music) said: "Agnes doesn't have the supreme right to say 'yes' or 'no' to the children, as a parent would. So they are free to test things out on their own and question adult values". [2]
Although initially aimed at 8-12 year olds, the show also became a hit with parents. By the end of the second season, it was TVO's highest ever rated show in the early evening timeslot. [3] But ratings success was not a priority for the public broadcaster and its primary sponsor: a sharp drop in Ontario government grants in 1987 reduced the network's budgets, and forced the series' cancellation after only two seasons. [4] Viewers flooded the network with calls and letters protesting the decision, with some threatening to withhold their financial support until new episodes were aired. As a network that relied partly on viewer donations, TVO was able to reverse the decision and produced a third season in 1989 after a one year hiatus. [5] [6] The new batch of episodes featured Alex and Andrew facing challenges of teenagers, rather than young adolescents. [7]
Filming was done primarily on a TVO set, with outdoor locations filmed around Toronto's Rosedale, Forest Hill, and Summerhill neighbourhoods, and the University of Toronto campus. The family house shown in the opening credits is located at 121 Crescent Road in Toronto, and was owned at the time by Conkie. [5]
The series ran from January 1986 to December 1989, and episodes were re-run until September 1993. Since then, TVO has not made any episodes available to the public. A very limited number of episodes from other shows were released on TVO's Public Archive streaming site in 2011, but the cost of obtaining rebroadcast rights from actors, writers, and composers has resulted in the archive project focusing more on current events programs than dramas. [8]
Episode # | Date | Title | Description |
---|---|---|---|
1.1 | 7 Jan 1986 | Crossed Signals | Alex and Andrew don't like the idea of their great-aunt Agnes looking after them. |
1.2 | 14 Jan 1986 | Cover-Up | Alex covers up for Andrew when he gets in trouble. |
1.3 | 21 Jan 1986 | Fair Play | Alex sneaks downtown; Gary cheats on an essay deadline. |
1.4 | 28 Jan 1986 | Be Real | The children's father announces a visit on his birthday. |
1.5 | 4 Feb 1986 | The Best of Friends | Marsha hangs around with an older crowd. |
1.6 | 11 Feb 1986 | Moon Motel | Andrew finds he has misjudged his partner on the science project. |
1.7 | 18 Feb 1986 | The Visit | Andrew and Alex learn their father might marry. |
1.8 | 25 Feb 1986 | Battlezone | Gary and Agnes fight over the local election campaign. |
1.9 | 4 Mar 1986 | Popularity Game | Agnes encourages Gary. Andrew and Alex resist peer pressure. |
1.10 | 11 Mar 1986 | Wrong Route | Unable to handle his paper route, Andrew enlists the aid of others. |
1.11 | 18 Mar 1986 | Educating Agnes | Agnes becomes friends with old man Taylor, and is shocked to discover he is dying. |
1.12 | 25 Mar 1986 | Trouble with Travino | Alex loses a part in the school play; Andrew get a low grade on a geography project. |
1.13 | 1 Apr 1986 | Nobody's Fault | Elizabeth comes to visit; Andrew suffers a serious accident. |
2.1 | 20 Jan 1987 | Getting Even | A lesson to handle the school's bully gets Andrew into a much bigger battle. |
2.2 | 27 Jan 1987 | The New Neighbour | Andrew and his friend Steve play detective in order to track down missing bicycles from the neighbourhood. |
2.3 | 3 Feb 1987 | A Matter of Honour | Gary falls in love with his best friend's girlfriend, and Alex is suspicious about a package and its contents. |
2.4 | 10 Feb 1987 | Sisters in Spirit | Alex and Marsha meet a frightened young girl and later on discover that she needs help because of an unbearable family life. |
2.5 | 17 Feb 1987 | In a Fog | Things to awry for Alex and Andrew when they're left alone for a day while Aunt Agnes is on vacation. |
2.6 | 24 Feb 1987 | Job Hunting | Gary ignores Aunt Agnes' advice after he encounters a series of rejections in his job search. |
2.7 | 3 Mar 1987 | Tam Lin | An immigrant Vietnamese girl, scheduled for heart surgery, comes to live with the family. |
2.8 | 10 Mar 1987 | The Date | Alex's first date throws the household into a turmoil. |
2.9 | 17 Mar 1987 | Money Matters | Borrowing, spending and a mistaken debt present special problems for Alex, Gary and Andrew. |
2.10 | 24 Mar 1987 | Burnout | Alex and Andrew's mother arrives on a surprise visit from Africa. |
2.11 | 31 Mar 1987 | Standing on Ceremonies | When Aunt Agnes is left out, Alex and Andrew refuse to attend their father's marriage; Gary has a problem with the two girls he invited to his graduation. |
2.12 | 7 Apr 1987 | Opportunity Knocks | Exaggerated skills on a job application and participation in a protest demonstration make Alex and Gary reluctant to go to their respective job interviews. |
2.13 | 14 Apr 1987 | Body Beautiful | Alex, Andrew and Gary treat Aunt Agnes to a day at the beauty salon for her birthday. |
3.1 | 4 Oct 1989 | The Homecoming | Alex and Andrew return from France. |
3.2 | 11 Oct 1989 | A Question of Vanity | Alex and Andrew's bickering hinders busy Aunt Agnes. |
3.3 | 18 Oct 1989 | Fallen Idol | A wealthy boy moves into the neighbourhood. |
3.4 | 25 Oct 1989 | Dancing on Thin Ice | Alex thinks her ballerina friend has bulimia. |
3.5 | 1 Nov 1989 | The Crush | Alex develops a crush on a teacher. |
3.6 | 8 Nov 1989 | Gary's Driving School | Gary gives Alex driving lessons. |
3.7 | 15 Nov 1989 | Doing Good | Alex becomes a candy striper. |
3.8 | 22 Nov 1989 | Schultz's Dad | Alex discovers a friend's father is an alcoholic. |
3.9 | 29 Nov 1989 | Andrew in Love | Andrew's crush on the director complicates a school play. |
3.10 | 6 Dec 1989 | Home, Sweet Homeless | Schultz runs away from home and his father's problem. |
3.11 | 13 Dec 1989 | Bazaar Situation | |
3.12 | 20 Dec 1989 | Christmas at Loon Lake | Aunt Agnes gives Alex and Andrew an old-fashioned Christmas at her family cottage. |
3.13 | 27 Dec 1989 | Future Plans | Alex, Andrew and Aunt Agnes plan to go separate ways. |
TVO, formerly known as TVOntario, is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates flagship station CICA-DT in Toronto, which also relays programming across portions of Ontario through eight rebroadcast stations. All pay television providers throughout Ontario are required to carry TVO on their basic tier, and programming can be streamed for free online within Canada.
Studio 2 was a daily (weeknights) current affairs newsmagazine on TVOntario in Ontario, Canada. The show won several Gemini Awards, and was hosted by Steve Paikin and Paula Todd, and first aired in 1994.
Polka Dot Door is a Canadian children's television series which was produced by the Ontario Education Communications Authority from 1971 to 1993. The series features two hosts who speak directly to the home viewing audience.
Saturday Night at the Movies was a weekly television series on TVOntario, the public educational television network in Ontario, Canada. The series presented classic movies, followed by interviews and feature segments with directors, actors and other people involved in making the films presented.
Airwaves is a Canadian television dramedy series, which aired on CBC Television in 1986 and 1987.
TFO is a Canadian French language educational television channel and media organization serving the province of Ontario. It is owned by the Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority (OTELFO), a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario and operating as Groupe Média TFO. It is the only French-language television service in Canada that operates entirely outside Quebec. The network airs cultural programming, including blocks of French-language children's programs, along with original series, documentaries, and films.
Human Edge is a Canadian television series, which premiered on TVOntario in 1989. The program presents international documentary films on social issues.
Téléfrançais! is a Canadian French language children's television series, produced by TVOntario from 1984 until 1986. The series of 30 ten-minute episodes has become a popular teaching tool, and is used by many educators to teach French as a second language to elementary and middle school children. The show's name is a portmanteau for télévision and français.
The Margaret Collier Award is a lifetime achievement award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, to a Canadian writer for their outstanding body of work in film or television. Formerly presented as part of the Gemini Awards, since 2013 it has been part of the Canadian Screen Awards. It can be presented to an individual writer or writing team.
Night Heat is a Canadian police crime drama series that aired on both CTV in Canada and CBS in the United States. Original episodes were broadcast from 1985 to 1989. Night Heat was the first Canadian original drama series that was also aired on a United States television network during its original broadcast. It was also the first original, first-run drama series to be aired during a late night time slot on a television network in the United States.
Imprint was a Canadian television series that aired on TVOntario, CBC Newsworld, BookTelevision and Knowledge. Inspired by Bernard Pivot's French literary programme Apostrophes, the series featured interviews with prize-winning authors and journalists, and examined the latest trends in books and contemporary issues in literature.
The John Drainie Award was an award given to an individual who has made a significant contribution to broadcasting in Canada. Although meant to be presented annually there have been years where it was not presented.
Thomas Ranald "Ran" Ide, was a Canadian educator and the founding Chairman of TVOntario.
Geoff Pevere is a Canadian lecturer, author, broadcaster, teacher, arts and media critic, currently the program director of the Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival in Toronto. He is a former film critic, book columnist and cultural journalist for the Toronto Star, where he worked from 1998 to 2011. His writing has appeared in several newspapers, magazines and arts journals, and he has worked as a broadcaster for both radio and television. He has lectured widely on cultural and media topics, and taught courses at several Canadian universities and colleges. In 2012, he contributed weekly pop culture columns to CBC Radio Syndication, which were heard in nearly twenty markets across Canada. He has also been a movie columnist and regular freelance contributor with The Globe and Mail.
Catherine Annau is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and writer.
The Agenda with Steve Paikin, or simply The Agenda, is the flagship current affairs television program of TVOntario (TVO), Ontario's public broadcaster. Anchor Steve Paikin states that the show practices long-form journalism. Each hour-long program covers no more than two topics.
Heather Conkie is a veteran Canadian television writer and producer who began her career as an actress. She was featured in multiple children's shows in the 1980s on TVOntario beginning first with Polka Dot Door.
Joseph Frederick Motiki is a Canadian television host, actor, and performer. He is best known for hosting the TVOntario children's block The TVOKids Crawlspace and the Food Network game show Ice Cold Cash.
Hard Rock Medical is a Canadian medical drama television series which aired on TVOntario (TVO) from 2013 to 2018. It was the first original drama series for TVO, the public television network for Ontario. The series also aired nationally in Canada on APTN beginning in 2014. The series ended after a five-season run in 2018.
Carolyn Bennett is a Canadian comedian and writer.