Mr. Chips

Canadian Workshop, March 1979

Above, a Black & Decker ad promoting the Mr. Chips program on CBC TV.

According to TVarchives.ca, Mr. Chips was produced at CFCF-TV in Montreal.  From 1973 to 1978, Mr. Chips was portrayed by Bill Brown.  (There's a short youtube video of him.)  When he retired, he was replaced by Jon Eakes who claims he got the position because " there were not too many English speaking cabinet makers without German accents in Montreal." (Sorry, Arnold.)  Jon continued as Mr. Chips, staying on after it was renamed You Can Do It in 1980.  From 1986 on, he hosted Renovation Zone, then from 1996 the House Hot Line on the Life Network, as well as Just Ask Jon Eakes on HGTV Canada and the DIY Network in the US from 1997 to 2005.  As a result, he claims to be "the longest, still-standing, TV Home Improvement guy in North America!"  Author of Fine Tuning Your Radial Arm Saw, he now has his own website:  Ask Jon Eakes. It's a very useful source of info and videos about woodworking tools and techniques.