Mary Walsh: Open Book

Mary Walsh: Open Book was a weekly book club series on CBC Television, which aired from 2002 to 2005. Similar to Oprah's Book Club, the series was hosted by actress and comedian Mary Walsh, who moderated a discussion about books and literature with a panel of celebrities and other guests.[1] Each episode of the series was structured around discussion of a single book, including both Canadian and international literature, and both fiction and non-fiction titles.[2] The series aired at 11 p.m. on Sunday nights, attracting relatively strong ratings for a late time slot.[3]

Mary Walsh: Open Book
GenreTalk show
Presented byMary Walsh
Country of originCanada
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes64
Production
Production locationsHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Running time30 min.
Release
Original networkCBC Television
Original release2002 (2002) –
2005 (2005)

Participants included actors Megan Follows, Greg Malone, Paul Gross and Mark McKinney, political scientist Janice Stein, lawyer and politician Jerome Kennedy, writers Susan Musgrave and Evelyn Lau, singer Jann Arden, journalist Pamela Wallin and columnist Jan Wong.[2]

Michael Donovan was the creator of Open Book.[2]

Episodes

Season 1
No.
overall		No. in
season		TitleGuestsOriginal release date
11"Edna O'Brien, The Country Girls"Noreen Golfman, Megan Follows, Ian BrownJuly 21, 2002 (2002-07-21)
22"Beryl Bainbridge, According to Queeney"Sandra Shamas, Pamela Wallin, Fiona ReidJuly 28, 2002 (2002-07-28)
33"Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version"Mark McKinney, Ed Macdonald, Greg SinclairAugust 11, 2002 (2002-08-11)
44"Ian McEwan, Atonement"Jann Arden, Jackie Maxwell, Barry NewhookAugust 18, 2002 (2002-08-18)
55"Alice Munro, Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage"Jan Wong, John Frizzell, Jackie MaxwellAugust 25, 2002 (2002-08-25)
66"Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines"Mark McKinney, Diana Swain, John FrizzellSeptember 1, 2002 (2002-09-01)
77"V.S. Naipaul, Half a Life"Evelyn Lau, Michael Crummey, David GilmourSeptember 8, 2002 (2002-09-08)
88"Pat Barker, Regeneration"David Gilmour, David Macfarlane, Janice SteinSeptember 22, 2002 (2002-09-22)
99"Joan Didion, Political Fictions"Jan Wong, Diana Swain, John FrizzellSeptember 29, 2002 (2002-09-29)
1010"J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"Albert Schultz, Susan Musgrave, Kenneth OppelOctober 6, 2002 (2002-10-06)
1111"David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"Mark Farrell, Greg Sinclair, Noreen GolfmanOctober 13, 2002 (2002-10-13)
1212"Mary Karr, The Liar's Club"Jann Arden, Jan Wong, Susan MusgraveOctober 20, 2002 (2002-10-20)
1313TBATBATBA

Season 2
No.
overall		No. in
season		TitleGuestsOriginal release date
141"Sandra Gulland, The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B."John Frizzell, Sheila McCarthy, Scott ThompsonOctober 12, 2003 (2003-10-12)
152"JT LeRoy, Sarah"David Gilmour, Noreen Golfman, Bryden MacDonaldOctober 19, 2003 (2003-10-19)
163"Robert D. Kaplan, Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History"Margaret MacMillan, Heather Mallick, Carolyn McCoolOctober 26, 2003 (2003-10-26)
174"Margaret Drabble, The Peppered Moth"Eleanor Wachtel, Fiona Reid, Susan GoyetteNovember 2, 2003 (2003-11-02)
185"Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner"Heather Mallick, Neville MacKay, Patricia RozemaNovember 9, 2003 (2003-11-09)
196"Antonia White, Frost in May"Shirley Douglas, Bette MacDonald, Wendy CrewsonNovember 16, 2003 (2003-11-16)
207"Greg Critser, Fat Land"David Foot, Diana Swain, Fiona ReidNovember 23, 2003 (2003-11-23)
218"Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita"Greg Malone, Ed Macdonald, Lynn CoadyNovember 30, 2003 (2003-11-30)
229"Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones"Sylvia Hamilton, Sheila McCarthy, John FrizzellDecember 7, 2003 (2003-12-07)
2310"Ian Rankin, Tooth and Nail"Paul Gross, Jerome Kennedy, Alison GzowskiDecember 14, 2003 (2003-12-14)
2411"Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine"Ed Macdonald, Jennifer Podemski, Evelyn LauDecember 21, 2003 (2003-12-21)
2512"Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass"David Gilmour, Noreen Golfman, Spider RobinsonDecember 28, 2003 (2003-12-28)
2613"Elizabeth Smart, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept"Katherine Govier, David Macfarlane, Jackie BurroughsJanuary 4, 2004 (2004-01-04)
2714"Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World"Lloyd Axworthy, Warren Kinsella, Lesley ChoyceJanuary 4, 2004 (2004-01-04)
2815"Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men"Svend Robinson, Kim Campbell, Stevie CameronJanuary 11, 2004 (2004-01-11)
2916"Margaret Laurence, The Diviners"Lisa Moore, Susan Goyette, Jackie BurroughsJanuary 18, 2004 (2004-01-18)
3017"William Trevor, The Collected Stories"Geoff Pevere, Evelyn Lau, Michael WinterJanuary 25, 2004 (2004-01-25)
3118"Mary Gordon, The Shadow Man"Kathleen Edwards, Brian D. Johnson, Sylvia HamiltonFebruary 1, 2004 (2004-02-01)
3219"Ruth Rendell, A Dark-Adapted Eye"Alexa McDonough, Jerome Kennedy, Evelyn LauFebruary 8, 2004 (2004-02-08)
3320"Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea"Stevie Cameron, Paul Greenhalgh, Vincent WalshFebruary 22, 2004 (2004-02-22)
3421"Fay Weldon, Down Among the Women"Cameron Bailey, Michael Winter, Shirley DouglasFebruary 29, 2004 (2004-02-29)
3522"Doris Lessing, Martha Quest"Erica Ehm, Hana Gartner, Lesley ChoyceMarch 14, 2004 (2004-03-14)
3623"Percy Janes, House of Hate"Geoff Pevere, Peter MacNeill, Susan GoyetteMarch 21, 2004 (2004-03-21)
3724"Graham Greene, The Comedians"Michael Crummey, Mark Critch, Elizabeth MayMarch 28, 2004 (2004-03-28)
3825"Claire Tomalin, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self"Elliott Leyton, Margaret MacMillan, Fiona ReidApril 4, 2004 (2004-04-04)
3926"Virginia Woolf, Orlando"Michael Crummey, Marni Jackson, Ian BrownApril 18, 2004 (2004-04-18)

Season 3
No.
overall		No. in
season		TitleGuestsOriginal release date
401"Janice Kulyk Keefer, Thieves"Katherine Govier, Fiona Reid, Greg MaloneOctober 3, 2004 (2004-10-03)
412"James Joyce, Dubliners"Geoff Pevere, Andy Jones, Robert MacNeilOctober 10, 2004 (2004-10-10)
423"Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea"David Gilmour, Ralph Benmergui, Valerie BuhagiarOctober 17, 2004 (2004-10-17)
434"Joel Thomas Hynes, Down to the Dirt"Cameron Bailey, Ed Macdonald, David GilmourOctober 24, 2004 (2004-10-24)
445"Martin Clark, The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living"Heather Mallick, Michael Winter, Leo FureyOctober 31, 2004 (2004-10-31)
456"Nuala O'Faolain, Are You Somebody?"Diana Swain, Michael Winter, Fiona ReidNovember 7, 2004 (2004-11-07)
467"J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace"Ed Macdonald, Austin Clarke, Ian BrownNovember 14, 2004 (2004-11-14)
478"Jane Smiley, The Greenlanders"Michael Crummey, Jackie Burroughs, Jennifer BaichwalNovember 21, 2004 (2004-11-21)
489"Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong"Jackie Burroughs, Susan Goyette, Noreen GolfmanNovember 28, 2004 (2004-11-28)
4910"John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever"Brian D. Johnson, Geoff Pevere, John FrizzellDecember 5, 2004 (2004-12-05)
5011"Richard Ford, Independence Day"Mark McKinney, Michael Winter, Kerri SakamotoDecember 12, 2004 (2004-12-12)
5112"Jonathan Bate, John Clare: A Biography"Mark McKinney, Susan Goyette, Stephen KimberDecember 19, 2004 (2004-12-19)
5213"Rian Malan, My Traitor's Heart"John Frizzell, Marni Jackson, Hana GartnerJanuary 2, 2005 (2005-01-02)
5314"Christopher Byron, Testosterone Inc: Tales of CEOs Gone Wild"Robert MacNeil, Heather Mallick, Ralph BenmerguiJanuary 9, 2005 (2005-01-09)
5415"Hugh MacLennan, Two Solitudes"Linden MacIntyre, Cameron Bailey, Émile GaudreaultJanuary 16, 2005 (2005-01-16)
5516"Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September"Susan Goyette, Heather Mallick, Seamus O'ReganJanuary 23, 2005 (2005-01-23)
5617"William Boyd, Any Human Heart"Marivel Taruc, Bill Casselman, Seamus O'ReganJanuary 30, 2004 (2004-01-30)
5718"Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn"Mark McKinney, Johanna Schneller, Julie StewartFebruary 6, 2005 (2005-02-06)
5819"Gil Courtemanche, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali"Linden MacIntyre, Rick Salutin, Don ConnollyFebruary 13, 2005 (2005-02-13)
5920"Tobias Smollett, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker"Ralph Benmergui, David Gilmour, Katherine GovierFebruary 27, 2005 (2005-02-27)
6021"Roland Huntford, The Last Place on Earth"Ralph Benmergui, Douglas Bell, Lisa TaylorMarch 6, 2005 (2005-03-06)
6122"Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment"Greg Malone, Ed Macdonald, Julie StewartMarch 13, 2005 (2005-03-13)
6223"Olivia Manning, The Balkan Trilogy"David Gilmour, Julie Stewart, Linden MacIntyreMarch 20, 2005 (2005-03-20)
6324"Gabriel García Márquez, Living to Tell the Tale"Tal Bachman, M. G. Vassanji, Jane UrquhartMarch 27, 2005 (2005-03-27)
6425"Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time"Linden MacIntyre, Michael Crummey, Julie StewartApril 3, 2005 (2005-04-03)

Impact

The show was spoofed on Royal Canadian Air Farce as Open Book with Marg the Princess Warrior, with Roger Abbott impersonating Walsh in her Marg Delahunty persona from This Hour Has 22 Minutes, discussing books with her guests (including Luba Goy's Margaret Atwood). The running gag was Marg's tendency to rant incessantly about each book and then stray off-topic into her political views and declaring her opinion supreme, eventually driving away her guests.

References
  1. "Open Book: Mary Walsh is not hard to read. She's up front with her opinions, and that makes for interesting TV". Halifax Daily News, July 21, 2002.
  2. "Walsh gets serious; Actress takes break from comedy on new show Open Book". Windsor Star, July 20, 2002.
  3. "Mary Walsh: Open Book draws high ratings". Canada NewsWire, September 1, 2002.
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