THANKS A MILLION... OR TWO!

Farewell

Double - Double at the Doughnut Shop

Thanks for giving us great ratings for our New Year’s Eve special: The average audience, 8:00-9:00 PM on December 31, was 1,594,000 viewers. Then, the repeat on January 2 was watched by a further 547,000 viewers. The total of both broadcasts is 2,141,000 viewers. A terrific way to end our Final Flight. Thanks a lot, eh?!

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Online Now: New Year's Eve Finale. Watch On CBC.CA Right Now!

nye2008

From "CHOOSE A CATEGORY" to the right of the player window, select "2008: Year Of The Farce" under the Final Flight tab and click on each sketch to watch (3 pages). Joining us on our finale are special guests Peter Mansbridge and Ron MacLean, the 2008 Chicken Cannon Target Of The Year, as well as exciting surprise appearances!

 

Thanks a million… or two!
Thanks for giving us great ratings for our New Year’s Eve special: The average audience, 8:00-9:00 PM on December 31, was 1,523,000 viewers. Then, the repeat on January 2 was watched by a further 519,000 viewers. The total of both broadcasts is 2,042,000 viewers. A terrific way to end our Final Flight. Thanks a lot, eh?!


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AIR FARCE IN THE PRESS

New Year's Eve Special Roundup!

 

Canadian Press, Bill Brioux: Air Farce Goes Out In Style, With Right Balance Between Nostalgia And Punch

"What a terrible time to stop doing this!"

That was Craig Lauzon's sentiment right after he and the other six Air Farce troopers took their final bows in Toronto last week at the end of the very last "Farce" taping.

Click here to continue reading...

 

Globe And Mail: John Doyle, "It's All Over But Should It Be?"

Search me. I have no idea why CBC management is killing off Royal Canadian Air Farce.

During the fall, when Air Farce got 10 series-ending shows called Air Farce: Final Flight, the ratings were excellent. The final show a few weeks ago pulled in 913,000 viewers, up there with CBC's two true week-after-week hits, Hockey Night In Canada and Rick Mercer Report. The average ratings over the 10 weeks stood at 770,000 a week. That's more than twice the number for the appalling Sophie, at a measly 325,000 season average. Click here to continue reading...

 

Toronto Sun: Bill Harris, "Now the Farce won't be with us".

For fans of Canadian TV comedy, New Year's Eve 2008 will mean more than the passing of another year into the history books.

Air Farce, which began as a radio show and has been a staple on CBC television for the past decade and a half, will air its final episode.

Click here to continue reading...


Globe And Mail: Roger Abbott, "Memories of a Farce"

‘Everything I learned about Canada, I learned watching Air Farce.” I hear this from a taxi driver, spoken in a joyful South Asian accent as he swerves through traffic. From the back seat, I tell him that he must have a pretty weird impression of Canada if that's the case, and he laughs.

Click here to continue reading...


Toronto Star: Don Ferguson, "38 Years of Air Farce"

On May 31, 1970, a small group of Montrealers debuted a comedy show at a small theatre on Blvd. de Maisonneuve. The group, called The Lace-Up Demons (no one knew why), put on a mostly improvised performance that was enthusiastic, under-rehearsed and over the top. One of the sketches ended with two actors portraying masturbating monkeys.

In the fall of 1970, the group, renamed the Jest Society, commuted to Toronto for a two-week engagement where it got rave reviews and was repeatedly held over. In mid-October, one of the original Montreal cast quit. A replacement was needed urgently, but the only person who knew the show was the publicity photographer who'd been hanging around backstage. That was me. I was hired to fill in for a week and never left.

Click here to continue reading...

 

CBC Radio One: Q

Jian Ghomeshi talks to Roger Abbott and Don Ferguson about the Air Farce series finale (Runs: 19:11). Play Real Media.

 

CBC News

Marisa Dragani reports: CBC's political satire Air Farce takes off for final flight (Runs: 2:15). Play Real Media. Play Quicktime.

 

BILL BRIOUX: Farce Farewell A Family Affair. Click here to read.

billbrioux

Neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor ice could stop me from attending the final ever taping of Air Farce last night in snowy Toronto. Thanks to my neighbors Doug and Roberta, and their trusty, driveway-clearing snow blower and four wheel drive jeep, we made it down to the CBC broadcast centre, where everyone else made the same commitment--the bleachers were packed.

Click here to continue reading...

 

NATIONAL POST: The Farce Fades From TV

There were bottles of Crown Royal, Jim Beam and vodka along with plenty of beer backstage when the Royal Canadian Air Farce filmed its final episode last Friday at CBC studios in downtown Toronto.

Click here to continue reading...

 

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Online Now: New Year's Eve Finale. Watch On CBC.CA Right Now!

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From "CHOOSE A CATEGORY" to the right of the player window, select "2008: Year Of The Farce" under the Final Flight tab and click on each sketch to watch (3 pages). Joining us on our finale are special guests Peter Mansbridge and Ron MacLean, the 2008 Chicken Cannon Target Of The Year, as well as exciting surprise appearances!

Radio Classics
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radio

Take a "look back" at the best of Air Farce on radio with our new radio classics. We'll be adding one classic every week. Go to the Air Farce page on CBC.ca by clicking here. Then on the right hand side of the menu, click on "Farce Flashbacks" and then "Radio Classics". Enjoy!

NEW AIR FARCE RADIO CLASSIC ONLINE: Abendigo Notions!

Click here and select "Radio Classic" (to the right of the screen) and enjoy our Radio Classic offerings, including the latest starring Air Farce Radio favourite Abendigo on Notions!

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iTunes

Air Farce invades your iPod! Get A Season 16 "Season Pass" For $14.99

Miss an episode? If you've got a personal media device that can play videos, like Apple's iPod, then you can now take Air Farce with you wherever you go! And for only $14.99 you can have the entire season on your iPod or computer!

If you have iTunes installed click on this link to go directly to the Air Farce: Final Flight page at the iTunes Store!

itunes

Every Air Farce: Final Flight episode from this year will be available to download for only $1.99 each on iTunes. The show will still be available for free streaming at CBC.ca, but for Farce on the go (along with some of your other favourite CBC shows), log onto iTunes today!

iTunes is available as a free download to your Mac or PC from Apple Canada's website.

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Air Farce wraps it up...

Our final show aired December 31, 2008, 35 years after starting our radio series (December 1973) and 16 years after our first New Year's Eve special (1992 Year of the Farce) on CBC Television. Read all about it on our news releases page, check out the message from the Air Farce production and creative team, and look at what the media had to say about the big announcement.

Radio

Where it all began ...

Royal Canadian Air Farce's first ever broadcast was on the CBC Radio series "The Entertainers" on Sunday, December 9, 1973. Recorded in front of an audience of 160 people at the Curtain Club in Richmond Hill, Ontario, click here for a clip of one of our very first sketches.

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AIR FARCE LIVE DVD • Available Now! Click Here!

LOLFor our 15th season on CBC Television, Air Farce became the only live prime-time comedy show on North American TV.  We wanted the excitement of performing the show in real-time, with no second takes, and up-to-the-last-minute topicality.  It was a high-speed roller-coaster ride for our cast and production crew –- sets moving in, make-up and costume changes, all accomplished with split-second timing.
It worked really well, too!  No doors refused to open, no lights exploded, no pants fell down on live TV.  Okay, we had a few glitches… and some are on this DVD.  Check out Jessica and Craig trying to keep a straight face in “Cross Border Car Shopper” and “Prime Minister’s Choice”, and together with Penelope, bravely pressing through to the end of “Vomit Virus”, even if Craig’s moustache doesn’t.

As well as live studio sketches, some great “Farce Films” are included – digital shorts, shot on location.  “Rink Widow” and “Indiana Jenkins” are instant classics.

All the hot topics of 2007/2008 are covered – the rise of the Canadian dollar, Barrack Obama’s emergence, Amy Winehouse’s behaviour, Sister Bessie’s Awards, and the usual Air Farce mix of highs and lows, politics and fun.s a double-dose of Air Farce comedy, Canada's favourite social networking tool. The faves from 2007 disc features 43 top scenes from last season on CBC Television, taking pokes and potshots at outsourced phone centres, Mac ads and iPods, oddball comedy moments with Britney and Sir Paul, and irresistible targets like politics and politicians.

Click here to order your copy now. For information on other Air Farce DVDs for your home viewing pleasure, click here.

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