Network: CTV Television Network
Broadcast Run: 1995 to 1996
Broadcast Medium: Television
In October 1996, CTV’s Supervising Producer of Sports Laura Mellanby won the first annual I.H. Asper Broadcast Business Leadership Award for her ‘entrepreneurial skills in creating and developing the successful youth sports program Bigshots’. Daughter of veteran sports producer Ralph Mellanby (and sister of St. Louis Blues hockey star Scott), Laura put together what became a very successful series for both YTV and CTV.
Hosted by Sean Buckley, the series’ regular features included interviews with top performers in all sports disciplines in the ‘Most Valuable Player’ segment, a critique of sports video games by Ted The Head (whose scoring was done by so many cartoon heads out of ten), and a weekly Hilarious Bloopers reel. Buckley did the links in a sparse but effective studio setting, but the majority of the footage was shot on location.
The series was a co-production between CTV and YTV. Each episode played in the network schedule on Saturday mornings in the 1995-1996 season, and was repeated several times on YTV.
Pip Wedge – May 2003