As we all continue to self-isolate, television has become our life raft to the other side. That’s a lot to ask of any one flat screen, but we can do this people — as long as we know what to watch. Last week I recommended seven shows: Transplant (CTV), Ramy (Hulu/Starz Canada), Ken Burns’ Baseball
Sandra, my co-isolater here in the Brampton Bunker, happened upon a familiar face earlier today in her quest for YouTube gold — Graham Kerr. Way back in the late ’60s, the jovial Englishman shot to fame as host of the Ottawa-based cooking show The Galloping Gourmet. Now 86 and living in a retirement community in
By now, almost everybody in Canada should be isolating at home by now. How has that affected TV ratings? The assumption would be that, during the current pandemic, news channel numbers must be up year-to-year. In addition, with every major sports leagues sitting out the COVID-19 virus, TSN and Sportsnet channel ratings must be way
Talk about making lemonade out of coronavirus. The late night talk show hosts have all been working from home lately, setting examples as comedians in isolation getting their own coffee. Miss Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon’s act? Now you can see him at home with his kids crawling all over his head. Wondering what Seth
A few weeks ago, on the last set visit I’ll probably get to make for a while, I drove out to Newmarket, Ont., to interview the cast of The Wedding Planners. The eight-episode series premieres Friday, March 27 on Citytv. Interviews took place in one of several century-old churches that surround the quaint-looking main street
A show about social isolation has just been isolated out of busienss. Lets face it: Big Brother Canada already smacks of Spring Break. While fans love it, it isn’t exactly an essential service. Speculation was bulding that Global’s popular three-episodes-a-week reality show was about to be shut down mid season when official word came Tuesday:
If you’re getting stir crazy with all the newscasts and other usual TV options, the major carriers are offering free previews to help your family survive the current lockdownapalooza. Kudos to carriers Rogers, Bell and Cogico, who have already started making several specialty channels available to their subscribers on a free trial basis. Some of
Here’s a sobering thought: with the passing of Lyle Waggoner, — setting Dick Van Dyke’s half-season tenure aside — Carol Burnett and Vicky Lawrence are now the only surviving main cast members from The Carol Burnett Show. Wagoner died Tuesday, March 17 in Los Angeles after a short illness. He was 84. Here’s a couple
Sports fans are already climbing the walls with all the major leagues suspended until further notice. That now looks to be for much longer than just two or three weeks, jeopardizing everything from the NBC and NHL playoffs to the launch of the baseball season to The Masters and The Kentucky Derby. Sportsnet has already
Remember when all we had to worry about was more snow? The COVID-19 virus has many of us bunkered down in self issolation, hiding behind a fortress of toilet paper. Schools and sports leagues have been suspended and late night talk shows are either dark or performed in empty studios. For those looking towards their
I really wish I had met Earl Pomerantz, especially after reading Ken Levine’s wonderful tribute to his friend and fellow television writer. Pomerantz, a Canadian whose writing credits read like a Paley Centre tribute to the Golden Age of American sitcoms, died Saturday at 75. The Emmy award winner got his first TV writing gig
In the excellent new HBO documentary “Ali: vs. Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes,” civil rights activist and MSNBC host Al Sharpton observes that Dick Cavett “was the whitest of white guys in America. But he gave blacks that had been considered outside of the mainstream – like Ali – a chance to be heard,
I was there the day Robert Conrad ended his network television career. It was way back in my early days at TV Guide magazine, sometime in the late ’80s. Conrad, who died Saturday in Malibu at 84, was trying to make a TV comeback at the time. The macho TV star, who came to fame