Delilah (TV series)

Delilah
Genre	situation comedy
Written by	Bryan Barney
Directed by	Ron Meraska Jack Sampson
Starring	Terry Tweed Miles McNamara Barbara Hamilton
Country of origin	Canada
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producer(s)	David Peddie
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBC Television
Original run	4 October 1973 – 3 January 1974

Delilah is a Canadian situation comedy television series which aired on CBC Television from 1973 to 1974.

Premise

Delilah marked the CBC's first situation comedy in prime-time, having aired its previous sitcom Toby in daytime.^[1]

Delilah (Terry Tweed) moves out of the city and becomes a small community's first female barber. Her barbershop was intended to be given to her younger brother Vincent (Miles McNamara), but he must first graduate from school.

Other series characters include Delilah's Aunt Peggy (Barbara Hamilton, the town's newspaper editor T.J. (Eric House), family friend Franny Tree (Peter Mews), Frances (Kay Hawtrey), Mavis (Joyce Gordon) and Isabel (Paulle Clark).^[2]

Production

Delilah was recored before a live studio audience. Six of the episodes were written by Bryan Barney under script editor Jean Templeton.^[1]

Scheduling

This half-hour series was broadcast on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. (Eastern) from 4 October 1973 to 3 January 1974.

Reception

The series generally received poor reviews and negative audience reception. It was cancelled after a single 13-episode season.^[1] Delilah was one of several CBC flops during the early 1970s, including Corwin and McQueen, the product of inferior creativity.^[3] However, CBC's next sitcom, King of Kensington, fared much better and became a multi-year success.^[1] Toronto Star television critic Jim Bawden declared the series as "Worst Canadian Sitcom", declaring the scriptwriting to be "appalling" and discovered an absence of laughter from the audience when he attended a taping of an episode.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Miller, Mary Jane (1987). Turn Up the Contrast - CBC Television Drama Since 1952. Vancouver: UBC Press / CBC Enterprises. pp. 125, 133–135. ISBN 0-7748-0278-2. 
2. ^ Corcelli, John (August 2005). "Delilah". Canadian Communications Foundation. http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/programming/television/programming_popup.php?id=1192. Retrieved 7 May 2010. 
3. ^ Miller, Mary Jane (1987). Turn Up the Contrast - CBC Television Drama Since 1952. Vancouver: UBC Press / CBC Enterprises. p. 228. ISBN 0-7748-0278-2. 
4. ^ Bawden, Jim (10 October 1992). "Roasting turkeys". Toronto Star: p. SW4. 

External links

• Allan, Blaine (1996). "Delilah". Queen's University. http://www.film.queensu.ca/CBC/Dan.html. Retrieved 7 May 2010. 
• Delilah (TV series) at the Internet Movie Database