Parade 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...

 music variety 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 1959 to 1964.

Premise

Parade was created as an open-format entertainment series which covered most music styles and included comedy performances. Sometimes an episode would focus on one particular performer, while another episode could feature various entertainers under a particular theme.

The series featured Canadian artists such as the Canadian Opera Company

Canadian Opera Company

The Canadian Opera Company is an opera company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest opera company in Canada and the third largest producer of opera in North America. The COC performs in its own opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.-History:For 40 years until...

, Maynard Ferguson

Maynard Ferguson

Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...

, Oscar Peterson

Oscar Peterson

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...

, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Toronto Symphony Orchestra

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is a Canadian orchestra based in Toronto, Ontario.-History:The TSO was founded in 1922 as the New Symphony Orchestra, and gave its first concert at Massey Hall in April 1923. The orchestra changed its name to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1927. The TSO...

 and the Billy Van

Billy Van

William Allan Van Evera, , known by the stage name Billy Van, was a Canadian comedian, actor and singer.-Biography:...

 Four. Featured international performers included Ernestine Anderson

Ernestine Anderson

Ernestine Anderson is an American jazz and blues singer. In a career spanning more than five decades, she has recorded over 30 albums. She was nominated four times for a Grammy Award. She has sung at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival , as well as at jazz festivals all...

, Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger

Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...

 and Jonathan Winters

Jonathan Winters

-Early life:Winters was born in Bellbrook, Ohio, the son of Alice Kilgore , a radio personality, and Jonathan Harshman Winters II, an investment broker. He is a descendant of Valentine Winters, founder of the Winters National Bank in Dayton, Ohio...

. Wayne and Shuster

Wayne and Shuster

Wayne and Shuster were a Canadian comedy duo formed by Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster. They were active professionally from the early 1940s until the late 1980s....

 provided their interpretation of James Thurber

James Thurber

James Grover Thurber was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories published in The New Yorker magazine.-Life:...

's Many Moons

Many Moons

Many Moons is a children's picture book written by James Thurber and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. It was published by Harcourt, Brace & Company in 1943 and won the Caldecott Medal in 1944. Princess Lenore becomes ill, and only one thing will make her better: the moon...

 in a 1963 episode. The "Sing, Sing, Sing" episodes of Parade were recurring occasions which featured Pat Hervey and the Gino Silvi Singers leading a sing-along

Sing-along

Sing-along, community singing, group singing, is an event of singing together at gatherings or parties, less formally than choir singing. One can use a songbook. Common genres are folk songs, patriotic songs, hymns and drinking songs...

, supplemented by dance performances from a troupe choreographed by Alan Lund

Alan Lund

Alan Lund, OC was a Canadian dancer and choreographer, who worked in television, movies and theater.Lund trained as a dancer in his native Toronto and first established a performance reputation as a dance team with his wife Blanche, appearing during World War II in the revue Meet the Navy...

 supported by an orchestra led by Bert Niosi

Bert Niosi

Bert Niosi was a Canadian bandleader, known as "Canada's King of Swing".-Biography:...

.

Reception

In early 1962, Parade was ranked Canada's 17th most popular series according to national ratings by Elliott-Haynes.

Scheduling

This half-hour series was broadcast as follows (times in Eastern):

Day	Time	Season run
Thursdays	8:00 p.m.	9 July to 17 September 1959
Tuesdays	9:30 p.m.	19 July to 20 September 1960
Thursdays	9:30 p.m.	13 July to 7 September 1961
Sundays	7:30 p.m.	17 September 1961 to 24 June 1962
Wednesdays	8:30 p.m.	4 July to 19 September 1962
Wednesdays	8:30 p.m.	26 September 1962 to 3 July 1963
Thursdays	9:30 p.m.	26 September 1963 to 25 June 1964

The episodes from July to September 1962 were rebroadcasts from the two previous seasons.

The series was cancelled after 1964 due to reported reductions in CBC's variety budget. Norman Sedawie, Parades producer, then left CBC for work in America.