The day Midday said goodbye after more than 4,000 episodes on CBC

You could rely on Midday to bring you something unexpected if you watched it long enough.

That's because the long-running current affairs show was full of many different stories from across Canada, from the very day it hit television screens in1985.

Like, the story of a beaver named Bucky who lived indoors with a human family, a 35-pound cat improbably named Fluffy, a woman who fed raccoons at the back door of her home for 24 years, as well asa long tunnel under a bank that stumped police and seemed to be the work of a failed and unidentified bank raider.

And so muchmore a three-person debate onregional hotdog preferences, a chair that wasn't for sitting,the making of a 45,000-egg omeletteand a profile of a man who sheared 20,000 sheep a year included.

It was all part of the Midday mix and deliberately so.

'A coast-to-coast panorama'

Midday starts out in 1985

40 years ago

Duration 0:29

Valerie Pringle and Bill Cameron introduce the stories being covered on the first-ever Midday broadcast.

Envisioned from the get-go as a CBC programthat would show off regional content, Midday would also serve up a daily newscast so the audience could get caught up on the news from home and around the world.

An early print advertisementdeclared Midday would be "a coast-to-coast panorama of national, international and regional news," which would also include "sports, business and entertainment, celebrity interviews, plus features on fashion, food and fitness."

Executive Producer Mark Starowiczsaid the show would be a lot like the kind of show TV viewers watched a little earlier in the day.

"I've nicknamed it 'a morning show at a convenient hour,'" he told TV Guide, in an interview published just days before Midday made its debut onJan. 7, 1985.

"It will definitely be a light-spirited program, consciously injecting a populist and tabloid touch here and there."

Many starsand stars-to-be

Hugh Grant on Canadians, comedy and Seinfeld

28 years ago

Duration 1:14

Hugh Grant gets talking about Canadians, their taste in comedy and his interest in Seinfeld.

Midday's less formaltone and broad mandategave the show the latitude to explore many subjects in its programmingand the opportunity to talk to many people about their lives and their work.

Actor Robert Englund on life as Freddy Krueger

38 years ago

Duration 2:17

The actor talks to CBC's Midday about his work playing the iconic horror movie villain.

Many big-name TV and movie stars, in fact, Gillian Anderson,Big Bird,Tom Cruise, Robert Englund,Daniel Day-Lewis, Hugh Grant, Keanu Reeves and Kiefer Sutherland among them would make time for Midday over the years, as did manyfamed and acclaimed writers, musicians and artists, including Paul Anka,Margaret Atwood, Stephen King,Alice Munro, Daphne Odjig,Kenny Rogersand Richard Wagamese.

Midday also gave viewers early glimpses of up-and-coming Canadianstars like the Barenaked Ladies, The Kids in the Hall, Jann Arden,actor and futurefilmmaker Sarah Polley, as well asYannick Bisson, years before hewould go on to star on Murdoch Mysteries.

Gretzky grilled on contract extension

35 years ago

Duration 1:24

Wayne Gretzky faced some tough questions on his high NHL salary on Midday.

And this being Canada, hockey players were given time on the Midday ice, even if they had to skate around tricky questions, occasionally.

It was also the show that Mr. Dressup visited to talk about his retirement. Because Middaywas the kind of show that could also explore those kinds of stories, too..

'Deadly serious and deadly ridiculous'

"The show was about range," former Midday host Ralph Benmergui said, when reflectingon the show's 15-and-a-half-year run,as it came to an end on June 30, 2000.

"You got to do deadly serious and deadly ridiculous."

He recalled one such story in which Midday featured an interview with a boy who liked to stand in a closet and pretend he was operating an old-fashioned elevator at an Eaton's store.

"You got to do prime ministers and you got to do kids doing silly things," Benmergui said. "It was fun."

A bit like Ripley's Believe It or Not!

Original Midday hostValerie Pringlehad a similar take about the mix of material covered on the show.

"I mean, sometimes it was Ripley'sBelieve it or Not!" Pringlesaid, laughing as she recalled some of those zanier stories, which included a woman who sang backward.

"But there were, in the space of that, woven a lot of human, sad, wonderfulstories and then, we were good on the news. It was a show we were really proud of."

By that final broadcast in 2000, Midday had seen more than 4,000 shows go to air.

Many changes in the chairs

In January of 1985, the show had started out with three hostsPringle, Bill Cameron and Keith Morrison, the latter two of which already worked on The Journal and who would alternate in their on-screen time with Pringle, who had joined CBC to take part in Midday.

'When the lghts went out in the Boston Garden'

36 years ago

Duration 0:10

Midday's Sheldon Turcott briefly describes the circumstances of the halted fourth game of the 1988 Stanley Cup Finals.

Veteran journalist Sheldon Turcottwould serve as the newsreader for the 10-minute Midday newscast, a role he would hold for the first 10 years of the show's run.

Before the end of Midday's first year on air, Peter Downie would join the show, serving as Pringle's co-host for the next few years, until he left and Benmergui joined the Midday crew in 1989.

By 1992, more change was en route for Midday as Kevin Newman took Benmergui's place and Pringleleft soon after to join CTV's Canada AM.

That last change opened the door for Tina Srebotnjak, one of the show's producers and on-air contributors,who would stay with Middayas a host until the end of its run. Brent Bambury, formerly of CBC Radio's Brave New Waves, took the chair beside her in 1995 and he was there when the show's run wrapped in 2000.

Midday montage

The many hosts of Midday

24 years ago

Duration 1:25

Valerie Pringle and Peter Downie were among the former hosts of Midday that visited the program for its last broadcast on June 30, 2000.

The last show brought together six of the current and former hosts to reminisce about their Midday memories with a montage of the show's various iterations to help jog their memories.

"Fifteen years of Midday and quite a few hairstyles flashing before our eyes," said Bambury.

Srebotnjaknoted that she and Pringle had generally seen the longest tenure of the hosts, while most of their male colleagues had moved on after a few years.

"Valerie and I always say: 'We train them and we ship 'em out,'" she joked.

A bit like the thousands of Midday episodes that made their way from studio to screens across Canada for 15 years.