Rideau Hall

CA

Comedy
English     0     2002     CA

Overview

Rideau Hall is a Canadian television series broadcast begun in 2002 on CBC Television. It starred Bette MacDonald, Fiona Reid, Jonathan Torrens, Joe Dinicol, and Rejean Cournoyer. It is a sitcom about an earthy, one-hit wonder disco queen named Regina Gallant who is recommended for appointment as Governor General by a conniving Prime Minister anticipating she will become a national embarrassment in the job, allowing him to move ahead in eliminating the position, along with the Canadian Monarchy. Regina is brash and loud and highly unsuitable for a formal position, but has a charming common touch. Each episode has her becoming embroiled in one scandal or another, usually not of her making, only to have things resolve in her favour by the end. Reid plays her prim and proper executive assistant, Torrens her flakey gay secretary, and Dinicol her laconic, level-headed son. Cournoyer plays the Prime Minister's aide. Barry Flatman played the P.M. in the pilot, but did not appear in the regular series. The series brought in fairly good ratings for the CBC and it was expected the show would be renewed for a second season; however, the show was cancelled after the Canadian Television Fund's budget was cut by the federal government and CBC could only afford to keep its more popular shows, like Royal Canadian Air Farce, on the air. Six half-hour episodes plus an hour-long pilot were produced.

Similar

AfterMASH is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from September 26, 1983, to December 11, 1984. A spin-off of the series M*A*S*H, the show takes place immediately following the end of the Korean War and chronicles the adventures of three characters from the original series: Colonel Potter, Klinger and Father Mulcahy. M*A*S*H supporting cast-member Kellye Nakahara joined them, albeit off-camera, as the voice of the hospital's public address system. Rosalind Chao rounded out the starring cast as Soon-Lee Klinger, a Korean refugee whom Klinger met, fell in love with and married in the M*A*S*H series finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen." AfterMASH premiered in the fall of 1983 in the same Monday night 9:00 P.M. EST. time slot as its predecessor M*A*S*H. It finished 10th out of all network shows for the 1983-1984 season according to Nielsen Media Research television ratings. For its second season CBS moved the show to Tuesday nights at 8:00 EST., opposite NBC's top ten hit The A-Team, and launched a marketing campaign featuring illustrations by Sanford Kossin of Max Klinger in a nurse's uniform, shaving off Mr. T's signature mohawk, theorizing that AfterMASH would take a large portion of The A-Team's audience. The theory, however, was proven wrong. In fact, the exact opposite occurred, as AfterMASH's ratings plummeted to near the bottom of the television rankings and the show was canceled nine episodes into its second season, while The A-Team continued until 1987, with 97 episodes.

More info
AfterMASH
1983