Ed The Sock Re-Booted as a Movie Heel

“Basically, this is Ed and Red screwing with movies.” That’s how Steven Kerzner describes his new project, Ed The Sock‘s This Movie Sucks!, which premieres Friday, May 28 at midnight on CHCH (and also on CJNT Montreal, CHEK Victoria as well as diginets Moviola and Silver Screen Classics).
It has been nearly two years since the Sock got tossed off Citytv after Rogers started going through the dirty laundry left over from the CHUM days. That followed a 14-season run in late night, making Ed’s Nite Party the longest-running late night show in Canadian TV history.
Now Kerzner has found the perfect home for Ed at the Hamilton, Ont., indie superstation ‘CH. New owners Channel Zero have a boatload of B movies to goof on, and Ed and his Night Party co-host Liana K (below) will have fun shredding the celluloid.
This Movie Sucks! sounds like nothing but fun, but if some fans miss Ed’s more pointed side, look for it this fall when CHCH launches I Hate Hollywood, Ed’s caustic take on all those stupid entertainment magazine shows. Ed and Red on the red carpet? Sounds like a show to me.
I’ve always been a sucker for the Sock’s cigar-chompin’, old school comedian charm going all the way back to those kooky Newton Cable days. What I admire about Kerzner today is his perseverance and his let-it-rip from the lip attitude. In a world where media convergence makes cowards of us all, Ed still tells it like it is. Kerzner says he has no plans to muzzle Ed now. “If I was concerned about pissing somebody off I should have stopped a long time ago,” says Kerzner. “At this point, the horses are gone and the barn’s burned down.”
Read more about Ed, Red and This Movie Sucks here at this feature I wrote today for The Canadian Press. And listen here as I break the news about Ed’s TV comeback to CHML’s Scott Thompson. Scott also asks about Betty White’s delightful performance last weekend as host of Satuday Night Live. There’s also some talk about the NHL playoff hockey ratings (topping 3 million for those final Montreal-Pittsburgh games), the upcoming, two-hour Survivor finale (this Sunday on CBS and Global) as well as a look ahead to next week’s announcements from the U.S. networks as to which pilots may make the cut. You can listen in here.