Format
As first conceived, The Wilton North Report's opening segment, which was planned to be its signature segment, would review the day's news using actual footage, then have the hosts comment on it in a funny, hard-hitting fashion. (CBC Television's This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Comedy Central's The Daily Show would follow a similar premise later on.) Before the show's debut, however, producer Barry Sand would eliminate the news segment, believing it didn't mesh with the "friendly" approach of the show's co-hosts, Phil Cowan and Paul Robins. What Wilton North did have at its premiere was a newsmagazine-type show, relying not so much on jokes about current events as on features, interviews, and remote reports (some serious, others not so much), as well as occasional comedy bits and live musical performances. Cowan and Robins would serve as the show's "anchors" and offer their own comments and opinions and segments, with a regular assortment of reporters and commentators alongside them. The cast included interviewers and reporters including Nancy Collins, Greg Jackson, Wayne Satz, and (on health and fitness) Jack LaLanne, along with commentary on the news by staff writer and author/commentator Paul Krassner.
Later in the show's brief run, The Wilton North Report was to completely change its format, reducing its reliance on comedy and moving toward having Cowan and Robins serve as "veejays" in presenting "mini-documentaries" on various real people and events; Paul Krassner would also present and comment on "underground videos" alongside Cowan and Robins.
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