Name Sidney Cohen | Role Television Director | |
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Sidney M. Cohen is a Canadian television director specializing in live multi-camera productions requiring minimal editing and is also a TV program creator.
He was born in Montreal, Quebec and began his career with CFCF-TV and later CBC Television. In 1967 he was on the administrative staff of Expo 67 (the world's fair) in Montreal; associated with the TV division and worked with notable TV shows including Ed Sullivan.
He relocated to Toronto at the conclusion of Expo '67 to join Screen Gems Productions with TV game show pioneers Dan Enright and Jack Barry. This association began his quiz and game show career.
He spent 3 seasons in Ottawa producing and directing numerous series with the CTV affiliate (CJOH-TV, before returning to Montreal for 8 years where he produced and directed for the CTV affiliate CFCF.
In 1972 his first game show for CTV was Puppet People, a series for children featuring live action and puppets interacting. He produced and directed The Art of Cooking in 1974, the first of 9 cooking series he's directed.
In 1976, he started his independent production company Super People Productions which has created many successful TV series including the hit game show The Mad Dash which was revived in 2001 in Europe. In 1979–80, he directed Say Powww, a local adaptation of the TV POWWW franchise in Los Angeles, hosted by Jack Clark.
He returned to Toronto in 1981 to begin production of Thrill of a Lifetime, one of TV's original reality series, telecast internationally and revived in 2002.
Through the 1980s and 90s, he produced and directed 21 different series including Midday for CBC Television, Test Pattern for MuchMusic, TimeChase a history quiz series, and Just Like Mom.
He directed the daytime Canadian coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympics from Barcelona. He was also executive producer and director of Canada AM, CTV's TV morning news program.
Another pet project included Porthole TV, a show dedicated to cruise ships, for international syndication. Sidney hosted many of the episodes. A new series is in development.
In 2007 he directed his second season of the quiz series for the TVtropolis Network, Inside the Box. In 2008, he directed his fifth season of Cooking with the Wolfman for APTN TV and directed @issue, a current affairs series.
In 2009 he produced and directed his 8th and final season of Reach for the Top (Ontario), for TVOntario as well as the Canadian national final of the academic competition. In 2010, he produced and directed the debut season of Who'd You Rather? for Canada's mensTV channel (now The Cave) and recently completed season six of Cooking with the Wolfman for APTN TV. He also directs lifestyle programming and some episodes of The Agenda with Steve Paikin through 2014 for TVO.
His latest 2013 project as producer, is season 3 of Accessibility in Action, a lifestyle/magazine series featuring inspiring stories for Accessible Media's AMI-TV.
Sidney is married to Susan M. Cohen, a Toronto-based artist. They have 2 children, Jay Cohen, and Tracy Cohen.