Much of my world view of international politics in the late ’60s, early ’70s was gleaned from the work of the great Toronto Star editorial cartoonist Duncan Macpherson. One example, above, shows HRH Prince Philip, returning home from a royal visit to Canada with multiple cowboy hats. His wife, The Queen, waits with a rolling
Remember the movie “Erin Brokovich”? Twenty years ago it won an Oscar for Julia Roberts who played the real-life, kick-ass consumer advocate of the same name. It’s been more-or-less made over as a TV series called Rebel starring Katie Sagal (The Conners, Sons of Anarchy). Sagal, 67, is well cast; she’ made a career playing
When I started hosting podcasts a year-and-a-half ago, one of the people high on my guest list was Slawko Klymkiw. There are many reasons for this. First of all, Slawko has spent over 40 years towering over the media landscape in Canada. His list of achievements are many, both as head of programming at CBC
According to ratings gatherer Numeris, there are few surprises among the top shows in all of English Canada for the week of March 22 – 28. CTV nearly swept the Top 10 with only the Global import hour New Amsterdam breaking up the sweep in 7th spot with 1,639,000 viewers. Global fell behind without new
If you grew up in Toronto in the ’70s, 80s and ’90s, at some point you likely got your evening news from Tom Gibney. The CFTO news anchor passed away Tuesday at 84. Gibney, a Saskatchewan native, anchored the No. 1 Toronto newscast from 1973 through 2001. He retired after 27 years and was gifted
Do not ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for Ken Burns. PBS’ master documentarian and the public broadcaster itself have both drawn criticism of late. “To truly reflect diversity, PBS must end its overreliance on Ken Burns as ‘America’s Storyteller’ read a recent headline. Independent filmmaker Grace Lee argues that: The decades-long interdependence
“Is regular network TV programming dead? These four Canadian broadcast execs say no, it’s evolving.” That’s the headline to a feature I wrote appearing in Saturday’s Toronto Star. Read the full story here if you’re a subscriber or, better yet, buy a copy. People have been writing the network TV obit for years. Tina Fey
The King of Late Night, Johnny Carson, took his final Tonight Show bow 29 years ago next month, His band leader, the man behind the Tonight Show orchestra, kept right on going. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, he’d still be touring all over America, playing 40 weeks a year, killing it on an instrument