Switchback (TV series)

Switchback was a Canadian television show for children, teens and young adults broadcast on CBC Television in the 1980s. It was produced regionally from Vancouver, Winnipeg, Regina, Halifax, Calgary and Toronto.

Produced by Nijole Kuzmickas and originally hosted by Canadian folk musician Rick Scott, CBC Vancouver's Switchback was a weekly Sunday morning live broadcast that began in January 1981. The name "Switchback" referred to the program's original format, which invited young viewers to trade used toys, comic books, and other bric-a-brac. Viewers could either call in or write in with offers, which were written on a board on the studio set or later featured in a free classified-ad-style publication put together by the show and mailed out to viewers who requested it. This feature was dropped after the first season.

The show regularly featured phone-in contests and write-in raffles for prizes such as T-shirts, LPs and toys. An old cowboy cliff-hanger adventure serial was also featured weekly during the first season. The second season began with host Gordon White, soon replaced by Richard Newman (now a voice actor), who remained with the show for two and a half years.

A memorable show during Newman's tenure was the "dippy-dome" episode, which ran mock news flashes and backward footage of the inflation of the original B.C. Place Stadium roof. The episode unwittingly predicted, nearly a quarter-century before the fact, the dome's accidental deflation in 2007. Numerous hosting changes followed Newman's exit while the show struggled to recapture the rapport created by Scott and Newman. CBC Vancouver's desperation in this regard was evident: Producer and writer Phil Savath took over the program and hired a teenager, Andrew Cochrane, at that time attending Churchill Secondary School and performing with the Vancouver Theatresports League. Cochrane went on to host Switchback in Halifax while he was attending law school at Dalhousie University.

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