| This Is the Law | |
|---|---|
| Developed by | Nigel Napier-Andrews |
| Creative director | Jimmy Amaro (music) |
| Starring | Austin Willis (host) Paul Soles Robert Warner |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 min (time slot) |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBC |
| Release | 21 June 1971 – 6 April 1976 |
This Is the Law was a Canadian panel game show which aired on CBC Television from 1971 to 1976.
It presented short, humorous vignettes supposedly set in various towns and cities across Canada which ran with musical accompaniment rather than a soundtrack, and challenged panellists to guess which (obscure) law of that particular region was being broken by the "Lawbreaker" character who was always arrested at the end of the vignette.
The vignettes were quite subtle, and more often than not, despite many guesses, the panellists were unable to come up with the law that was actually being broken, because the laws featured were generally archaic but, at the time of production, still on the books in the featured communities. (An example: in one vignette, the Lawbreaker is seen wearing a caveman-style costume at an event and engages in dubious behaviour before being suddenly arrested. After the panel failed to correctly identify the indiscretion, Willis indicated it was because the Lawbreaker's costume did not fully cover his chest, and in the Canadian locale where the vignette was set, it was illegal for individuals of any gender to expose their nipples in public.)
The vignettes alternated with depictions of actual court cases, presented in a series of still cartoons, in storyboard format, with narration. The narrator would end by asking a question about how the judge eventually ruled. The four panellists would each guess what the judge decided, and why, and each panellist would conclude by lighting up a large "Yes" or "No" in front of his or her seat. After all four panellists had guessed, the answer would be revealed.
Robert Warner starred as the police officer, and Paul Soles portrayed the Lawbreaker. Soles was the first show host, but after the initial 1971 summer episodes, Austin Willis became host, from the regular 1971 fall season until the end of the series.
 | This article relating to a non-fiction television series in Canada is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This article about a television game show is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is a BBC radio comedy panel game. Billed as "the antidote to panel games", it consists of two teams of two comedians being given "silly things to do" by a chairman. The show was launched in April 1972 as a parody of radio and TV panel games, and has been broadcast since on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, with repeats aired on BBC Radio 4 Extra and, in the 1980s and 1990s, on BBC Radio 2. The 50th series was broadcast in November and December 2007.
Front Page Challenge was a Canadian panel game about current events and history. Created by comedy writer/performer John Aylesworth and produced and aired by CBC Television, the series ran from 1957 to 1995.
The Guess Who is a Canadian rock band formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1965. The band found their greatest success in the late 1960s and early 1970s, under the leadership of singer/keyboardist Burton Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman, with hit songs including "American Woman", "These Eyes", and "No Time".
Polka Dot Door is a Canadian children's television series which was produced by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority from 1971 to 1993. The series features two hosts who speak directly to the home viewing audience.
The National is a Canadian national television news program which serves as the flagship broadcast for the English-language news division of CBC News by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It reports on major Canadian and international news stories, airing on CBC Television stations nationwide Sunday to Friday at 10:00 p.m. local time.
Paul Robert Soles was a Canadian character actor, voice artist and television personality. He voiced the title character in Spider-Man (1967), and portrayed Hermey in the 1964 television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer; Soles was one of the last surviving participants of the special's voice cast.
Alexander Austin Willis, was a Canadian actor and television host.
I've Got a Secret is an American panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson–Todman's own panel show, What's My Line?. Instead of celebrity panelists trying to determine a contestant's occupation, however, as in What's My Line, the panel tried to determine a contestant's secret: something that is unusual, amazing, embarrassing, or humorous about that person.
Betty Margaret Hannah Kennedy was a Canadian broadcaster, journalist, author, and Senator. She is best known for her work on radio and television.
William Allan Van Evera, known by the stage name Billy Van, was a Canadian comedian, actor, and singer.
You Bet! is a British game show, based on the German series Wetten, dass..?, that originally aired on ITV for ten series and a number of specials between 20 February 1988 and 12 April 1997, and was revived in December 2024. It was initially hosted by Bruce Forsyth (1988–90), then by Matthew Kelly (1991–95) and finally Darren Day (1996–97).
CFL on CTV is a presentation of Canadian Football League football airing on the CTV Television Network produced by Bell Media's The Sports Network. It was previously a standalone independently produced program on CTV from 1961 to 1986. CTV dropped coverage of the CFL after the 1986 season; and this coverage was replaced by TSN and the newly created Canadian Football Network.
Lawrence S. "Larry" Solway was a Canadian actor and broadcaster.
Nigel Napier-Andrews is a British/Canadian TV producer, director, and author. In 2014 he became the host of the TV series Escapes with Nigel.
Lorraine Thomson was a Canadian dancer, television host, television producer and one of the co-founders, with Pierre Berton, of the ACTRA Awards. She was the first dancer hired by the CBC for their first televised variety show, The Big Revue, and made regular appearances as a dancer and actor on many television shows in the first decade of Canadian broadcasting. She turned to radio hosting in the 1960s, and then television hosting in the 1970s for CBC's The Naked Mind, The Weaker(?) Sex and V.I.P. She was one of the first women to produce variety shows on CBC, and for 18 years, she was the program coordinator for Front Page Challenge. She was nominated for several national awards for her work both in front of and behind the camera.
From 1965 through 1975, in addition to the Saturday night game on CBC, Hockey Night in Canada also produced and broadcast a Wednesday night game on CTV, CBC's privately owned competitor; beginning in the 1975–76 NHL season, these midweek games began to broadcast by local stations. In 1970–71, the Vancouver Canucks joined the NHL, meaning that there were now three possible venues for an HNIC telecast.
The Masked Singer is a British reality singing competition television series that premiered on ITV on 4 January 2020. It is based on the Masked Singer franchise which originated from the South Korean version of the show King of Mask Singer which features celebrities singing famous songs while wearing head-to-toe costumes and face masks concealing their identities. In February 2022, the show was recommissioned for a fourth and fifth series. The show won an International Emmy for Best Non-Scripted Entertainment in 2021.
The Masked Singer Australia is an Australian reality television singing competition show which was hosted by Osher Günsberg, that premiered on Network 10 on 23 September 2019. It is based on the international music game show franchise format Masked Singer which originated from the South Korean television program King of Mask Singer. The show was recorded at Disney Studios Australia, formerly called Fox Studios Australia.
The second series of the British version of The Masked Singer premiered on ITV on 26 December 2020, following a "The Story So Far" recap episode which aired on 19 December, and concluded on 13 February 2021. The series was won by singer Joss Stone as "Sausage", with singer Ne-Yo finishing second as "Badger", and singer Aston Merrygold placing third as "Robin".