Andrew "Sandy" Stewart (22 Feb 1930 - 5 Aug 1998) was a Canadian television producer and writer. He was the producer of Reach for the Top, a high school quiz competition that continues today.
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Sandy Stewart was born in Calgary, and in his childhood moved to Montreal and London, Ontario.[1] His first job was as a technician at London's CFPL radio in 1948.[2] He joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1952 with the Toronto outlet, and had a posting in the Northwest Territories. He later moved to television and helped with the production of Razzle Dazzle and The Friendly Giant.
Stewart brought Reach for the Top, a televised quiz show for high school students, to a national audience in 1966, bringing teams from Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Ottawa to Montreal for a national final.[3] He would produce the show until 1985, when it was cancelled by the CBC. He retained some rights to Reach for the Top, however, and continued to run a school-based version until his retirement in 1995. His final year was marred by job action in Ottawa that led Ontario schools to threaten to boycott the tournament if a team from Bell High School was allowed to participate.[4]
Stewart served as president of the Canadian Science Writers' Association and held regular dinner lectures up until his death in 1998.[1] He wrote Here's Looking at Us, a book about Canadian television. He also wrote a strong criticism of CBC management during cuts to English programming in the 1990s.[5]