The Trouble with Tracy

Yesterday I was reading MacLean Magazine's Book of Lists in the local library, when I came across one such list covering the worst in Canadian sitcoms. Frankly speaking, I thought the title a bit redundant. "SCTV", on the other hand, was one of the best shows but that was never a sitcom. And I never caught onto "Little Mosque on the Prairie" or "Corner Gas". For us Canadians, it seems, humour is still an American import, the point very heavily illustrated by the fact that "The Big Bang Theory" is the No. 1 show in this country.

I saw the No. 1 listing, and it was "The Trouble With Tracy". Suddenly memories of the old CFTO logo (now CTV Toronto), Uncle Bobby and lunchtimes at home during my elementary school days flooded into the old melon. I don't recall laughing one whit at it despite the canned laughter that all but said "You are supposed to laugh now!", but I had just thought that the humour was above my age grade. Little did I know that there was apparently no humour to be had at all. All I remember was this perky blonde, her harried husband (played by the late Steve Weston who used to be on those old Labatts "Laugh-In"-like commercials) and her good-for-nothing hippie brother, living in a high-rise apartment building that looked like some of the towers that populated my old neighbourhood of St. James Town. At the time, I probably thought that Tracy and company lived just down Ontario Street or over on Bleeker.

In any case, I wouldn't mind seeing a sliver of "The Trouble with Tracy" if only to get that bit of nostalgia and that awe at seeing what adults wore back in those days.