April 12, 2000
A Look at... Front Page Challenge - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- I read non-fiction and do it recklessly. I cannot stand fiction, simply because it doesn’t interest me all that much. One of the books I’ve finshed reading is Alex Barris’ memoir on the much lamented CBC program, Front Page Challenge. It’s a terrific book for television and political buffs like me, not to mention Canadian dribble. It’s about the long running quiz show, Front Page Challenge. It ran on CBC for 37 years and it was popular as hell and a great record of our history, political or otherwise.
It’s premise (the show) is simple. 4 panelists and the debonair Fred Davis, MC would try to decifer a news story or personality having to do with news. The panel would ask questions and then they’d try and figure out what the “headline” was. For example for something like Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth’s homerun record in 1961, they got Roger Maris and the panel had to try to identify him by asking yes or no questions. The panelists were a colourful bunch of great personalities, and they inhabited that show for most of those 37 years: Gordon Sinclair, Toby Robins, Betty Kennedy, Pierre Berton, Allan Fotheringham and of course, Jack Webster.
It’s premise (the book) is simple. And if there’s anything worth bitching about it’s that. Barris, a long-time writer for the show and one of the people there from the beginning, resorts to using lengthy quotes to fill the pages of the book. His role as an author is rather small, and that’s what’s misleading about the book and the credit given him. He uses words of people having to do with the show, in a way where the book ends up reading like an edited scrapbook of anacdotal evidence.
It’s not a bad book. As I said up top, it’s just for Canadian junkies like me. It’s not for the easily bored or the anti-mundane. I found the “inside” stories facinating and the stories about the show itself interesting. If there’s anything to be learned of this book, it’s that Canada had a quiz show phenomeon equal to Regis, even before Regis was sitting next to Kathie Lee.
People watched Front Page Challenge and it’s a pity it’s not on the air anymore. I heard a while back that Peter Mansbridge is thinking of hosting a show like this where current events is the common denominatior, but why not him just doing a newer version of this show?
Ah, well as Dr. Foth once said, the folks at the CBC are out to lunch. They certainly were when they cancelled this show. Thanks to this book, I feel I’ve been part of that, even though it isn’t on television anymore.
Alex Barris’s book “Front Page Challenge” has an introduction penned by Vicki Gaberau and is published by MacMillan Canada. It’s $29.95 and worth a look.
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