Sidney M. Cohen is a Canadian television director specializing in live multi-camera productions requiring minimal editing and is also a TV program creator.
He was born in Montreal, Quebec and began his career with CFCF-TV and later CBC Television. In 1967 he was on the administrative staff of Expo 67 (the world's fair) in Montreal; associated with the TV division and worked with notable TV shows including Ed Sullivan.
He relocated to Toronto at the conclusion of Expo '67 to join Screen Gems Productions with TV game show pioneers Dan Enright and Jack Barry. This association began his quiz and game show career.
He spent 3 seasons in Ottawa producing and directing numerous series with the CTV affiliate (CJOH-TV, before returning to Montreal for 8 years where he produced and directed for the CTV affiliate CFCF.
In 1972 his first game show for CTV was Puppet People, a series for children featuring live action and puppets interacting. He produced and directed The Art of Cooking in 1974, the first of 9 cooking series he's directed.
In 1976, he started his independent production company Super People Productions which has created many successful TV series including the hit game show The Mad Dash which was revived in 2001 in Europe. In 1979–80, he directed Say Powww, a local adaptation of the TV POWWW franchise in Los Angeles, hosted by Jack Clark.
He returned to Toronto in 1981 to begin production of Thrill of a Lifetime, one of TV's original reality series, telecast internationally and revived in 2002.
Through the 1980s and 90s, he produced and directed 21 different series including Midday for CBC Television, Test Pattern for MuchMusic, TimeChase a history quiz series, and Just Like Mom.