Where do documentary filmmakers go to find that historic clip or interview nobody else has? Many turn to the CBC Archives in Toronto. The vast, climate controlled vaults at the CBC Broadcast Centre are home to approximately 1.5 million hours of digitized material. Those restored holdings are drawn from over 90,000 cans of film, 215,000
If you are a fan of comedy, film, television, movies, music, or even Bazooka Joe bubble gum jokes, join me this week in conversation with Frank Santopadre. For over eight years and 600 episodes he brought comedian Gilbert Gottfied in like a tugboat to harbour in the truly amazing Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal podcast. Santopadre,
I went into the vault this week to create a 3-Pack of favourite TV stars from the ’60s. Two are from interviews conducted in 1997 at a Hollywood Collectors autograph show. This one featured about 70 stars from the past including the co-owner of the hotel, Beverly Garland (My Three Sons). First up is Dawn
Every Sunday night back in the 1950s and ’60s families would gather around their living room TV and watch The Ed Sullivan Show. The variety hour ran 23 seasons, ending 54 years ago in 1971. Now streaming on Netflix, the documentary Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan is not just another “best of” blast of nostalgia.
Meet the star of the new series Pretty Blind. As described in her AMI-tv bio, Jennie Bovard is a running, beer-drinking, thirtysomething with albinism. She loves making people laugh and is very involved in accessible sport and recreation opportunities in her community. She has lived with partial sight all her life, has a diploma in film
Here is why Jonathan Torrens is the perfect Canada Day Weekend podcast guest: As a producer, he is behind two new Canadian TV comedies: Pretty Blind, starring Jennie Bovard as a legally blind but supremely independent library worker (premiering July 8 on AMI); and 0-60 Driving Academy, steering headlong into a second season on Bell Fibe. Then
In the digital age, the question is not only which tools are still available to support Canadian content production but which ones are still relevant. One with an insider’s perspective is Pat Ferns, author of “The Big Picture: A Personal History of Independent Television Production in Canada” (Sutherland House). Ferns began his career with a formative
Early in 2019 when The Big Bang Theory was winding down production after 12 seasons and 279 episodes, I took this photo of series co-creator, writer and executive producer Chuck Lorre. I caught him at a pretty good time. Warner Bros. was naming one of its fabled Burbank soundstages after the series. Lorre scored a