It’s not an overstatement to say that the most influential sitcom in the history of television premiered 68 years ago today — I Love Lucy. Lucille Ball, a one time RKO chorus girl who stood out in a string of feature film dramas and comedies in the late ’30s and ’40s, became TV’s biggest star
I referenced the passing of Rip Taylor this morning on The Humble & Fred Radio show. Taylor being a much bigger deal in the ’70s, “Humble” Howard Glassman suggested I explain exactly who Taylor was. So here goes. Before Donald Trump, there was Rip Taylor. Trump stole Taylor’s act, right down to all the shouting
I don’t recall Julia as being a remarkable show back when it first premiered in 1968. What did I know; I was 11, growing up in Etobicoke, Ontario. This was not a show about a witch, or being lost in space, or a superhero crime fighter such as Batman. It was about a nurse, a
Rod Coneybeare, the puppeteer and CBC radio host who brought Rusty the Rooster and Jerome the giraffe so vividly to life over 24 season of The Friendly Giant, has gone to the big castle in the sky. He passed away last Thursday in Lindsay, Ontario. He was 89. The CBC children’s classic, which ran weekday
We all knew Valerie Harper was dying. We knew it when she made her final Television Critics Association press tour appearance over five years ago on January 11, 2014. She was promoting a TV-movie she had shot in Langley, BC, called, “The Town That Came a Courtin’.” News that she was suffering from a form
Saturday, August 31 marks the 35th anniversary of one of Canada’s most successful TV ventures — MuchMusic. The popular specialty channel — which started out as a pricey Pay-TV service — caught the wave of the music video revolution just as it crested. The music video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was released the December before
It’s finally true: as he once told John Lennon, Peter Fonda knows what it’s like to be dead. The actor, best known for his counter-culture hero role in “Easy Rider” (1969), passed away last week at 79. His death was attributed to lung cancer, not a gunshot to the stomach. That was an accidental wound
Fifty years ago, on July 20, 1969, I got to stay up late to see Neil Armstrong take his big step into history. He was on the surface of the moon; I was at the cottage on the shore of Lake Huron on the Bruce peninsula — where I am now as I write this.