First Performance is a Canadian

Television in Canada

Television in Canada officially began with the opening of the nation's first television stations in Montreal and Toronto in 1952. As with most media in Canada, the television industry, and the television programming available in that country, are strongly influenced by the American media, perhaps...

 dramatic television series which aired on CBC Television

CBC Television

CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

 from 1956 to 1958.

Premise

These short series of television plays were produced as a promotion for Canada Savings Bond

Canada Savings Bond

Canada Savings Bonds are investment instruments offered by the Government of Canada on sale between October and April every year. Unlike a true marketable bond, Canada Savings Bonds or CSBs are debentures....

s.

Scheduling

The first season of this 90-minute series was broadcast on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. (Eastern) during October 1956. The second season (1957) aired Thursdays at 9:30 p.m., also during the month of October. The final 1958 season was broadcast Tuesdays 9:30 p.m. in October, with the last broadcast on 4 November 1958.

Episodes

1956 season

• 3 October 1956: Time Lock (Leo Orenstein producer; Arthur Hailey writer)
• 10 October 1956: O'Brien (Melwyn Breen producer; Joseph Schull writer), a comedy
• 17 October 1956: Black of the Moon (David Greene producer; Leslie MacFarlane writer)
• 24 October 1956: The Discoverers (Ronald Weyman producer; Mac Rosenfeld and George Salverson writers)

1957 season

• 3 October 1957: Seeds of Power (Arthur Hailey writer), starring Katherine Blake, Lloyd Bochner
  Lloyd Bochner
  Lloyd Wolfe Bochner was a Canadian actor, usually playing the role of suave, rich leading men.- Career :...
  
  , John Drainie
  John Drainie
  John Robert Roy Drainie was a Canadian actor and television presenter, who was called "the greatest radio actor in the world" by Orson Welles....
  
   and Patrick Macnee
  Patrick Macnee
  Patrick Macnee is an English actor, best known for his role as the secret agent John Steed in the series The Avengers.-Early life:...
  
  
• 10 October 1957: Ice on Fire (Len Peterson writer)
• 17 October 1957: Cousin Elva (Stuart Trueman book, Leslie MacFarlane adaptation), starring Araby Lockhart, Alexander Webster and Helene Winston
• 24 October 1957: Janey Canuck (Byrne Hope Saunders book, Lister Sinclair adaptation), starring Katherine Blake and Lloyd Bochner

1958 season

• 7 October 1958: Panic at Parth Bay (Harvey Hart producer; Lester Powell writer), starring Frances Hyland
  Frances Hyland
  Frances Hyland, OC was a well-known Canadian theatre actress.Hyland studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, making her professional debut in London as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite John Gielgud. In 1954, she returned to Canada, becoming a regular at the Stratford Festival in...
  
  , Leslie Nielsen
  Leslie Nielsen
  Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...
  
  , Alexander Webster, Hugh Webster, Leslie Yeo and Louis Zorich
• 21 October 1958: The Man In The House (Adrian Waller producer; Marcel Dubé writer; Ivor Barry translation), starring starring Collette Coutois, Gratien Gélinas, Germaine Giroux, Clement Latour and Ovila Legaré
• 4 November 1958: The Man Who Caught Bullets (Mario Prizek producer; Mavor Moore writer), starring Everett Sloane
  Everett Sloane
  Everett Sloane was an American stage, film and television actor, songwriter, and theatre director.-Early life:...