Network: CBC Television Network
Broadcast Run: 1969 to 1970
Broadcast Medium: Television
Aired weekday afternoons from September 1971 to November, 1972.
This program was a daytime drama about a psychiatrist and his patients. It starred Chris Wiggins as Dr. Paul Bernard, a sympathetic, Freud-like character who interviewed a patient every day. Some of whom appeared on a monthly basis, offering viewers a chance to see how well Bernard’s clients were doing.
Most of his clients were women, which was probably a device used to garner a female audience during the day. Nevertheless, the stories these women told were based on case studies provided by the Canadian Mental Health Association. These cases were adapted for television with strict controls on content.
Michael Spivak was the producer with the assistance of Fremantle International and the CBC.
The production employed a huge cast of Canadian female character actors and writers. The cast included Carol Lazare, Dawn Greenhalgh, Vivian Reis, Marcia Diamond, Phyllis Marshall, Nuala Fitzgerald, Tudi Wiggins, Kay Hawtrey, Paisley Maxwell, Peggy Mahon, Josephine Barrington, Michele Oricoine, Shelley Sommers, Anna Cameron, Micki Moore, Diane Polley, Barbara Kyle, Gale Garnett, Til Hanson, Arlene Meadows, and Valerie-Jean Hume. A second season was planned with mostly male characters, but due to a CBC labour dispute, production did not continue.
Scripts came from Spivak, Tony Flanders, Grace Richardson, Vicki Branden, Les Rose, Barry Pearson, Corinne Langston, Lucille Chaplan, Dennis Donovan, William Bankier, Warren Waxler, Jack Cunningham, and Valerie Wise.
Jaylar Productions, produced 130 episodes of the series which were soon sold to some CBS stations in the U.S.A. and syndicated to Australia and Hong Kong television.
Written by John Corcelli – September, 2005