Tommy Hunter, 1937-2026, R.I.P.

[The Bread Guy]

I age myself saying I remember seeing him & the ensemble on TV every week. Rest in peace ....

Canadian country star Tommy Hunter dies at 89; hosted long-running TV variety show

Tommy Hunter, a fixture in Canadian living rooms for decades with his long-running CBC TV show, has died at age 89.

www.cp24.com

Tommy Hunter, Canada's Country Gentleman, Dies At 89 - That Eric Alper

Tommy Hunter, the beloved Canadian country music performer known for decades as “Canada’s Country Gentleman,” has died at 89. He passed away from natural causes on July 2, closing a chapter on one of the longest and most influential broadcasting careers in Canadian music history. Born Thomas...

www.thatericalper.com

... and in case you're not quite as old as me
The Canadian Encyclopedia entry

Tommy Hunter - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The theme song:

 

[MacNav63]

Likewise. The final image of the guitar leaning up against the stool is etched on my mind.

 

[mariomike]

That's very sad news.

My friend's mother drove him and myself to the CBC studio on Yonge St. .We were about nine years old, I guess. Tommy was a true gentleman and introduced us to the beautiful Haymes sisters. He was very tall, and wore a sharp suit.

During rehearsal, Tommy was singing a jail house number. In the middle of it, Clark shouted out, "They're rubber!" ( The bars on his cell. )

He will be missed.

 

[Blackadder1916]

Rest in Peace

I was surprised to see this news because I thought (not that I thought much, if any, about it) that he had already passed away. It also surprised me that he was only (a comparatively young) 89 years old. In the early 60s, to a young lad, he seemed much older that the mid-20s/early-30s that he was at the time. I remember watching him on TV way back then. Not that I was a C&W fan, but in Tommy's own words, there wasn't a lot on Canadian TV, at least not Canadian original programming.

But in a 2010 interview with The Canadian Press, Hunter pointed out that, when he was first starting out on TV, there wasn’t much else on the dial for viewers to watch.

“There was one network,” he said. “So they didn’t have a lot of choice. (The TV) was either on or off.”

Recalling that he, along with many of the performers who were on CBC shows of that era, made trips to overseas (and isolated) Canadian bases to entertain those in uniform, I did find this. Unfortunately it is without sound.

 

[OldSolduer]

RIP Tommy. We watched you every week.

 

[mariomike]

There was one network,” he said. “So they didn’t have a lot of choice. (The TV) was either on or off.”

We watched WBEN, WGR, and WKBW.

 

[MacNav63]

Rest in Peace

I was surprised to see this news because I thought (not that I thought much, if any, about it) that he had already passed away. It also surprised me that he was only (a comparatively young) 89 years old. In the early 60s, to a young lad, he seemed much older that the mid-20s/early-30s that he was at the time. I remember watching him on TV way back then. Not that I was a C&W fan, but in Tommy's own words, there wasn't a lot on Canadian TV, at least not Canadian original programming.


Recalling that he, along with many of the performers who were on CBC shows of that era, made trips to overseas (and isolated) Canadian bases to entertain those in uniform, I did find this. Unfortunately it is without sound.

There really wasn't anything else! In my mind there is real transformation in the early 70s. We were in Calgary until 71 and there was quite literally just CBC and the local CTV affiliate. I don't remember any US TV and assume we were too far away from anywhere to pick up any signals. Then we were in Lahr for 3 years with only German language programming on our TV. When we came back to Ottawa in 74 though suddenly we had cable and so much more to watch.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

RIP good sir.

The saturday nights of my youth: Tommy Hunter, Wayne and Shuster's specials and Hockey Night in Canada. All in the past now.

 

[Blackadder1916]

We watched WBEN, WGR, and WKBW.

The choices available in Toronto was greater than those in St John's Nfld.

. . . Then we were in Lahr for 3 years with only German language programming on our TV. . . .

There wasn't much difference twenty years later if you lived in a village outside of Lahr. Though there was CFN, I could only get it sporadically and poorly. There were a couple of German channels and (having a TV that could switch formats PAL, SECAM and NTSC) also could get French channels from across the Rhine. Most of my TV watching when I was there was in either German or French - helpful in improving my language skills in both as well as getting a different perspective on the news.

 

[MacNav63]

The choices available in Toronto was greater than those in St John's Nfld.

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There wasn't much difference twenty years later if you lived in a village outside of Lahr. Though there was CFN, I could only get it sporadically and poorly. There were a couple of German channels and (having a TV that could switch formats PAL, SECAM and NTSC) also could get French channels from across the Rhine. Most of my TV watching when I was there was in either German or French - helpful in improving my language skills in both as well as getting a different perspective on the news.

CFN for us was radio only. The Americans I believe had TV but we couldn't get it. The German channels just seemed so strange to my North American eyes and there seemed to be parts of the day where there was just nothing. Mind you, I'm not saying it was a bad thing for a kid not to be glued to the TV!