It has been a 24-hour MTM marathon ever since the news broke Wednesday that Mary Tyler Moore has passed away. I was honored to be asked to share memories of watching and, on a few occasions, meeting Moore. The first time I met Moore was in January of 1986 at a TCA press tour gathering in
It’s both an honor — and another indicator I’ve been doing this a long time — to find myself a go-to obit guy. This year, it seems, every day or two, another entertainer from my youth passes away. Bewitched‘s Dr. Bombay — Welsh actor Bernard Fox — was paged for good Wednesday at 89. That was a day
The question comes up every December: which of the “Holy Three” of holiday specials — Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer, A Charlie Brown Christmas or Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas — is best? Really, they’re all great and deserve their evergreen status. When you’re on a radio show with other guests, however, you’ve got
It has been a few weeks since I last spoke with Scott Thompson at Hamilton’s CHML. The AM900 host wanted to check in this week regarding the passing of Florence Henderson, the actress who played TV mom Carol Brady on the early ’70s series The Brady Bunch. Henderson died Thursday at 82. Read more about Henderson
Way back in 1960, during the very first U.S. presidential televised debates, it was said that if you listened to them on the radio, Richard Nixon won. If you watched them on TV, the winner was John Kennedy. I’m temped to repeat that experiment for Monday night’s first of three televised debates between Hilary Clinton
This week, Scott Thompson at Hamilton’s CHML wanted my take on a thorny issue stirring up plenty of controversy in Canadian TV circles: changes to the CRTC regulations regarding funding. The rule change that rankles many in the Canadian writing, directing, acting and production communities: shows now only need to achieve a 6 out of
Summer being a season of upside down schedules, it had been a while since I last spoke with CHML’s Scott Thompson. We got back together on the radio this week to talk about the big TV audience last Saturday night for The Tragically Hip. Which gave me an opportunity to take issue with the CBC’s
On Tuesday, The Amazing Race Canada heads to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. It was an eye opener for me to tour this booming metropolis last May while the racers were out dodging thousands of scooters on the streets. Ho Chi Minh is a city of contrasts with simple concrete stalls set