1979. (A very young) Sue Brophey is production assistant on a weekly CFTO-TV newsmagazine program called Hourlong. Her job is to make sure that Hourlong is, in fact, an “hour long”. Week after week, stop-watch in hand, she times the show segments, does her mental math, smiles at the producer and assures him, “You’re 4 seconds heavy … 3 seconds short… no worry, we’ll add it to the credits.” Then one week, just minutes to air, a suddenly aging Sue Brophey, without the smile, looks at the producer: “You’re seven minutes short!!!!” Impossible. Check the batteries, get the fire-hose. Re-boot the stop-watch. Seven minutes…! Cue the Hourlong theme, the show starts. How we filled those seven program minutes is a secret. But we did it. And I’ve always thought the now famous Sue Brophey owes me seven minutes. Anyone timed “Canadian Idol” lately?

(from a sworn affidavit by John Darroch)

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