Sidney M. Cohen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sidney M. Cohen is a Canadian television director and 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, 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 1979-1980, he directed "Say Powww", TV's first live interactive game series hosted by Jack Clark from the Metromedia studios in Hollywood CA.
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 (tv series)" for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, "Test Pattern" for MuchMusic, and "TimeChase" a history quiz series.
He directed the daytime Canadian coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympics from Barcelona. He was also executive producer and director of Canada AM (a TV morning news magazine).
Another pet project includes Porthole TV, a show dedicated to cruise ships, for international syndication. Sidney hosted many of the episodes.
In 2007 he directed his second season of the quiz series for the TVTropolis Network, Inside the Box. He also directed Cooking With The Wolfman for APTN TV and directed "@issue", a current affairs series.
In 2008 he will produce and direct his seventh season of Reach for the Top (Ontario), for TVOntario.
Sidney is married to Susan M. Cohen a well-known artist. They have 2 children, Jay R. Cohen, a TV announcer and art auctioneer and Tracy Cohen a television producer.
