Global in Canada was a new network on the air about a year when, in 1975, it imported a little weekend show from NBC. Known back then as Saturday Night, it soon added Live and turned out to be one of the smartest buys the Canadian network has ever made. Five decades later, Global celebrated
Last Saturday’s fight-filled 4 Nation Face off tilt between Canada and the USA was a ratings winner on both sides of the border. After the anthem-booing was over last Saturday in Montreal, an overnight, estimated, 2,879,000 hockey fans ages 2+ watched the game on Sportsnet National+. The United States took the first head-to-head tilt between
Claire Rankin says she’s waited “a really long time…to land something like this.” The PEI native is talking about her role as Mary on Son of a Critch. How she landed the role — after one of those remote zoom call auditions — is just one of the stories she shares on this hour-long podcast.Season Four
Sunday night, viewers can settle in for a three-hour salute to 50 years of Saturday Night Live (8/9c, NBC and Global). Over the years, Canadian comedy talent has shone on the series. Let’s start with creator/executive producer Lorne Michaels. I remember former New York Times TV columnist Bill Carter rhetorically asking me, “who has been
One of Canada’s most beloved TV stars has passed away. For six of the last seven seasons and 100 episodes, Diesel vom Burgimwald played Rex, the astonishing German Shepherd who patrolled the streets of St. John’s, Nfld., with his police partner Det. Charlie Hudson (John Reardon) on Citytv’s Hudson & Rex. This past week, Sherri
This weekend, Saturday Night Live celebrates a half century of laughs with SNL50: The Anniversary Sprecial (NBC, Peacock+,Global, STACKTV). The three hour tribute follows a re-broadcast this Saturday night at 11:30 p.m. of the very first episode of the series. Hosted by George Carlin, that premiered Oct. 11, 1975. Twenty five years ago, in 1999,
In June of 1996 I flew to Winnipeg to interview Dan Aykroyd. At the time, the former Not Ready for Prime Time Player was on location and starring as aviation executive Gordon Crawford in the CBC miniseries The Arrow. Gordon was the maverick behind the Avro Arrow, a twin-engine fighter-interceptor built by Toronto’s A.V. Roe
One of Canada’s most beloved TV stars has passed away. For six of the last seven seasons and 100 episodes, Diesel vom Burgimwald played Rex, the astonishing German Shepherd who patrolled the streets of St. John’s, Nfld., with his police partner Det. Charlie Hudson (John Reardon) on Citytv’s Hudson & Rex. This past week, Sherri
“TORONTO GOAL SCORED BY NUMBER 27, DARRYL SITTLER…TIME, FIVE-O-FOUR. UNASSISTED… TOMORROW AFTERNOON THE MARLIES PLAY HOST TO THE PETERBOROUGH PETES…” Paul Morris’s straight forward goal announcing still rings in my ears to this day even though he ceased to be the Toronto Maple Leafs’ public address announcer at the end of the last century. He
Back when Twin Peaks premiered in 1989, there were no little people speaking backwards on television. Plenty of double talk, but nothing even close to the nightmarish, fascinating world of David Lynch. The award-winning filmmaker, painter and artist passed away Jan. 15 after years of declining health due to emphysema after a lifetime of smoking.
At one point during CNN’s cocktail coverage on New Year’s Eve, Anderson Cooper sobered up long enough to salute a news network mentor and friend: Aaron Brown. Brown, 76, an award-winning ABC and CNN news anchor and journalist, died December 29 in Washington. Part of a deep bench led by Peter Jennings at ABC News
Even as the year draws to a close, 2024 keeps taking them away from us. Jimmy Carter, America’s best ex-president, died Dec. 29 at 100. Olivia Hussey, famed for director Franco Zeffirelli’s “Romeo & Juliet” but also a lead in the shot-in-Canada slasher flick “Black Christmas,” gone two days earlier at 73. TCM always does
I was seven-years-old when Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer first landed on television. The time was December of 1964. The Beatles had broken big on Ed Sullivan that year and men were circling the Earth. The Toronto Maple Leafs were closing in on their third-straight Stanley Cup win. After 97 years as a nation, Canada was finally about
