Megan Follows: It’s “Hockey Night” tonight

Canadian actress Megan Follows in the 1984 CBC movie "Hockey Night.".

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087416/

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Her name is synonymous with Anne of Green Gables, so it is fitting I saw Megan Follows on the news the other day talking about an audio version of the classic Canadian story.

However, my fondest memory of Megan Follows was in a ground-breaking role that helped launch the career of not one, but two great Canadian actors.

Hockey Night
In 1984, CBC had been airing commercials for awhile, promoting this made-for-TV movie that was pretty ground breaking for its time.

In “Hockey Night”, and Megan Follows played Cathy Yarrow, who moves to Parry Sound, Ontario with her mom and sister after her parents separated.

She is a goalie and, because the town has no girls’ hockey team, she tries out for the boys’ team in her age group – and makes it. That’s when the fun begins.

What’s cool about this movie is that it is not the coach, played exceptionally well by Rick Moranis, who can’t handle a girl on the team. Instead, it is the team’s sponsor who wants her off the team.

Cathy also endears herself to her teammates, and catches the eye of one of their best players, played by a very young Yanick Bisson. He would go on to star as the title character in “Murdoch Mysteries”.

In the end, they come to her aid and she gets to play.

It was a ground breaking movie for its time, highlighting an issue that still exists.

By 1984, Megan Follows had already built up quite an acting resume, but her biggest success was just coming up.

In the beginning
In the early 1980s, Megan Fellows appeared in various Canadian TV shows, as so many Canadian actors did to get their start. She guest starred in “A Gift to Last” in 1978, although the role was uncredited; “The Great Detective “; “Hangin’ In”; and “The Littlest Hobo”.

Her first recurring role was Jenny Tanner, one of the title characters of “Matt and Jenny”, a Canadian drama that aired on Channel 13 of the peasant vision dial. The story focuses on Matt and Jenny Tanner who come to the New World from England, searching for their uncle who came to Canada earlier. Follows appeared in 26 episodes over the course of the show’s one-season run.

Then in 1984, she had her big break in “Hockey Night”.

Stateside
By 1984, I was well aware of who Megan Follows was, yet it was all from Canadian television.

So, it was kind of weird when I had the TV on Channel 7 one night, and this new sitcom starring Marin Mull debuted. It was called “Domestic Life” and Mull played a TV commentator, long before the days of Frasier Crane, who talked about his family – or domestic life – on air. His daughter looked familiar, but at first I could not believe my first instinct.

It looked like Megan Follows, but it was rare for Canadian actors to get recurring American network roles, much less with that little exposure.

I checked the credits and, in fact, it was Megan Follows.

“Domestic Life” did not last long, cancelled after 10 episodes.

Defining role
Along the way, Megan Follows had a guest spot on “The Facts of Life”, another American sitcom; and played in a number of movies.

In 1985, she appeared opposite Gary Busey in “Silver Bullett”, a movie about werewolves, based on a Stephen King story. I recall watching that movie with my cousin Fred at his friend’s Trevor’s place in Duchess.

Later that year, Megan Follows landed the role that would bring her into the homes of people across Canada and the world. She played Anne Shirley, the title character in “Anne of Green Gables”, which was one of the most read and iconic books in Canadian culture.

Two years later, in 1987, she reprised the role in “Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel”, and again in 2000 in “Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story”.

It would endear her to audiences across the nation and the globe.

The rest of the decade and beyond
Megan Follows continue to act to this day. She closed out the 1980s in a number of movies and television specials in Canada and the United States, including “Comedy Factory”; “ABC Afterschool Specials”; “Inherit the Wind”; “Ray Bradbury Theatre” and more.

In the succeeding years she would appear in TV productions such as “The Outer Limits”; 10 episodes of “Second Chances”; “Murder, She Wrote”; the TV movie “Under the Piano”; “Linehan”; “Law and Order”; “Made in Canada”; “The Fugitive”; “Family Law”; “ER”; “The X Files”; “The Division”; “Strong Medicine”; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”; “CSI: Miami”; “Robson Arms”; “Cold Case”; “Crossing Jordan”; “Royal Canadian Air Farce”; “The Border”; “Lie to Me”; “Brothers and Sisters”; “House”; “Longmire”; “Republic of Doyle”; 78 episodes as Catherine de’Medici in “Reign”; “Murdoch Mysteries”; “Wynonna Earp”; a continuing role as Ty’s mom on “Heartland” and much, much more.

Parting thoughts
Megan Follows has put together a solid career over the past five decades, transitioning from child to teenager, adult, mother and grandmother.

She will always be best known for her role as Anne Shirley from “Anne of Green Gables”. In fact, it was that story that caught my attention.

However, the role I will best remember Megan Follows in was Cathy Yarrow in “Hockey Night”. I saw the movie a couple years ago, 40 years after I first saw it on CBC.

I have to say it holds up well.

Moreover, “Hockey Night” was a groundbreaking role as a girl trying to break into boys’ hockey.

It was a Canadian story that reflects our own culture to us.

It is a story that still needs to be told, and it is Megan Follows who showed us the way.