To have not done a podcast with Kenneth Welsh — what an opportunity lost. Welsh died May 5 at 80 years of age. He burned so bright for so many years that 80 seems both impossibly long and way too short for such an incendiary life. You could not cover television in Canada throughout the
David Birney, who passed away April 27 in Santa Monica, Calif., is best known to TV audiences for two one-season roles — and one unhappy marriage. His first starring TV role was as Bernie Steinberg, a Jewish cabdriver with writing ambitions married to Irish Catholic schoolteacher Bridget Fitzgerald on the CBS sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie
Man Men creator Matthew Weiner wrote a sterling exit for Robert Morse. Towards the end of the series’ run, Morse’s character — ad firm patriarch Bertram Cooper – dies at home shortly after witnessing the best ad line ever uttered on television: Neil Armstrong’s “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for
“People used to describe us as pot smoking hippies on welfare.” That was Paul Pope, the dean of Newfoundland TV and film production, describing his early days in an industry he helped create. I knew him for one day, but it was memorable, and he told me the secret to making Canadian television. That day
Early this year, shortly after his comedy club pals Bob Saget and Louie Anderson died, Gilbert Gottfried shared a photo on Instagram of the three of them. The shot was “very sad now,” he wrote. A few months later, they’re all gone. I mean, these guys were all still in their sixties. What the Hell.
Estelle Harris, who passed away April 2nd at 93, will always be remembered for her role as George’s mouthy and haranguing mother Estelle Costanza on Seinfeld. For many viewers, Estelle Costanza became a morbid object of fascination. People had to know: how did George Costanza turn out the way he did? Her impact was so
This Sunday, March 20, would have been Carl Reiner’s 100th birthday. Despite writing a book entitled, “How to Live Forever,” the great writer-producer-comedian double-crossed us by dying nearly two years ago at 98. To mark the occasion of Reiner’s centennial, the National Comedy Center, located in Jamestown, N.Y., will premiere a new multi-media exhibit in
Did you know that there was a Canadian Comedy Hall of Fame? Well, there was, but then there wasn’t and now there is again, except not really. An actual brick and mortar CCHofF that fans can visit does not exist, yet, but that is the goal of the committee which has pumped new life into