Hangin’ In with David Eisner

The cast of "Hangin' In" which ran on CBC from 1981 to 1987.
From left are Ruth Springford, who played Webster; David Eisner, who
played Mike DiFalco; and Lally Cadeau, who played Kate Brown.
Source: https://outlet.historicimages.com/products/mva58251
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It took me a minute to recognize him. It was the second season of the CTV drama “Transplant”. He was a doctor whose daughter died and he was now suing the hospital for wrongful death.

I always read the credits, and this time a name struck me – David Eisner.

It took me a minute to search through my memory to see who he could have played. Since I was binge watching “Transplant”, the minute that bereaved doctor came on screen, I knew that was David Eisner.

At that moment, he was not in a hospital, but instead in two places in my memory – prowling the streets of Kensington in Toronto on one hand, and serving as a sensitive, compassionate and funny youth counsellor on the other hand.

Such was David Eisner’s television career in the 1980s.

Next to the king
I was really young when the “King of Kensington” was on TV, but I do have some memories. One was of an exhibition minor hockey game between the team Larry King (Al Waxman) coached, and a team from Rimouski, Quebec. The captain of King's hockey team was a kid named Guido, who King took under his wing and mentored. Guido was a semi-regular who always hung around King’s convenience store.

He was played by a very young and energetic David Eisner.

Going upstreet
“Hangin’ In” debuted in 1981, a year after “King of Kensington” went off the air, and ran to 1987 for 110 episodes. It was about the staff at a youth drop-in centre in Toronto. The head counsellor, Kate Brown, was played by esteemed Canadian actor Lally Cadeau. She was the heartbeat of the show, and the centre. She was flanked by Mike DiFalco, a young, energetic and somewhat idealistic counsellor, played by David Eisner. Rounding out the cast was Webster, played by Ruth Springford, who was a secretary in name, but much more in reality.

In a small way it was as if Guido had grown up. He was now talking to youth the way Larry King had talked to him.

However, beyond being a comedy, “Hangin’ In” dealt with a lot of sensitive issues from abuse to bullying and much more.

Cadeau, Eisner and Springford complemented each other perfectly, and “Hangin’ In” was a show I looked forward to watching on CBC Channel 9 every week, Tuesday nights if memory serves.

Parting thoughts
There was one really interesting thing I read about David Eisner. It must have been in “TV Guide”, because the Canadian version we received often profiled Canadian actors, directors, and shows. This profile on David Eisner talked about how he was a talent who, in just a matter of time, would break out. He would make it in that lucrative American market that virtually all Canadian actors aspired to.

That article came to mind when, maybe a year or two later, I was watching “Highway to Heaven”, an American drama on NBC that starred Michael Landon and his co-star Victor French. Each week featured a number of guest stars, and this particular week one was David Eisner. He was playing a writer, who I think was the grandson of another writer whose shadow he had always lived in.

I thought that “TV Guide” article prophetic, because here was David Eisner on primetime US TV.

Wikipedia reveals that he has had a lengthy career as an actor, appearing on virtually every major Canadian TV show over the past 40 years, as well as a lot of movies and U.S. television series.

Yet for me, he will always be Mike DiFalco, offering a helping hand, a sensitive ear, and a shoulder to cry on if a teen needed it.