''The Billy O'Connor Show'' was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

variety television Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a compè ...

series which aired on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

from 1954 to 1956.

Premise

Billy O'Connor, a jazz musician, hosted this series with a small house band - Vic Centro (accordion), Kenny Gill (guitar) and Jackie Richardson (bass). Jack Duffy and

Bill Isbister Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

also made frequent appearances on this series. O'Connor was promoted in CBC publicity as "a man you'd like to get to know".

Juliette Juliette is a feminine personal name of French language, French origin. It is a diminutive of Julie (given name), Julie. People * Juliette Adam (1836–1936), née Lamber, French author and feminist * Juliette Atkinson (1873–1944), American ten ...

joined O'Connor on the series as a regular performer from 20 August 1955. However, their adversarial relationship led to the end of O'Connor's series in May 1956 and the debut of Juliette's own series in the same time slot that October.

Sylvia Murphy Sylvia Murphy (September 24, 1931 – February 24, 2021) was a Canadian singer who was popular on radio and television programs on the CBC from 1949 to 1964. Biography She was the oldest child of Celia (née Zoddickson) and John Murphy. Her mothe ...

became the vocalist for future series with O'Connor.

Scheduling

This 20-minute series was broadcast on Saturdays at 11:10 p.m. from 16 October 1954 to 19 May 1956, following the NHL hockey broadcast.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Billy O'Connor Show CBC Television original programming 1954 Canadian television series debuts 1956 Canadian television series endings 1950s Canadian variety television series Black-and-white Canadian television shows