In January of 2015, Louis CK was before critics at a TCA press tour promoting the fifth season of his Emmy award-winning FX series, Louie. At the time he was the undisputed King of the comedy world, in stand-up and on television. Louie — dark, fearless, funny and at times heartbreakingly sad — was my favourite
Curating and sharing vintage TV shows has been a passion of mine for several years. I’ve been screening 16mm network prints of everything from Batman and Bewitched to The Dick Van Dyke Show and half-hour Fall Preview reels since 2011 at TV on Film Project screenings. As some of you know, I’d rather thread than stream. One
Ran into some characters Tuesday night in Toronto: the Corner Gas cast, to be specific. Brent Butt, Nancy Robertson, Gabrielle Miller, Eric Peterson, Lorne Cardinal and Tara Spencer-Naim joined animators and producers at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s comfy Hugh Jackman theatre to screen an episode of Butt’s latest passion project: Corner Gas Animated. Brent has been
How well CBC’s reincarnated The National does will eventually be answered once the broadcaster figures out a reason for there to be four news anchors. The flagship newscast returned Monday in a generally mistake-free hour. While Ian Hanomansing, Adrienne Arsenault, Rosemary Barton and Andrew Chang all did a fine job, there was never any reason to have
Wendy Crewson chews the scenery to bits in Monday night’s opening episode of Frankie Drake Mysteries. Trust a TV veteran to get the tone just right. Crewson guests as a gold digger with a secret that links her to the main character, flirty, flapper-era detective Frankie Drake (played by Lauren Lee Smith). The series premieres
Back when the earth was still cooling and I was a young lad of 15 I got a job as a bus boy at Ontario Place. It was at a place called The Blockhouse restaurant. It served chopped beef, stew and giant glass pitchers of beer I’d have to fish later out of the West
Last June, at the Corus upfront in Toronto, myself and several other TV beat writers were in a room awaiting Shamar Moore to come in and tell us all about S.W.A.T. The remake of the mid-’70s cop show, premiering Thursday night, was one of Global’s major prime time acquisitions this season. Just before Moore walked into the room, we
One of the last great “characters” of the Television Critics Association has gone to the big cathode ray tube in the sky: Frank Barron. The TCA’s oldest living member passed away Monday according to his widow and constant companion, Margie Barron. He was 98. Put in TV terms, Frank aged beyond the all important 18-49-year-old