Don Messer's Jubilee [SEP] original network
Don Messer's Jubilee
Don Messer's Jubilee was a television folk musical variety show produced at station CBHT in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was broadcast by CBC Television nationwide from 1957 until 1969.
Taking its name from band leader and fiddler Don Messer, the half-hour weekly program featured Messer and his band "Don Messer and His Islanders", as well as a guest performer. The show followed a consistent format throughout its years, beginning with a tune named "Goin' to the Barndance Tonight"
raising a national protest among viewers and fans and even raising questions from the floor of the House of Commons. At the time the show was dropped, it still rated in the top 10 and the network was not specific about its reasons for dropping the show. The audience protest came particularly from the Maritimes and from thousands of Maritimers living in other parts of Canada, including former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, who was a fan of the show. Messer and his band continued "Don Messer's Jubilee" in syndication on CHCH