Ivan Reitman (above right, with Dan Aykroyd and Rick Moranis on the set of “Ghostbusters”) packed a lot of movie theatres when I was a university student and beyond. His low-budget cottage country comedy “Meatballs”(1979) co-starred an actress named Kate Lynch who went to my high school in Etobicoke (Michael Power-St. Joseph’s). She was great,
Ralph Mellanby was the guy who put Don Cherry in Coach’s Corner. The Hamilton, Ont. native died last Saturday, Jan. 29, at 87. Raised near Windsor, Ont., the innovative executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada was one of the country’s most influential television broadcasters. Back in the ’60s, he was quick to embrace modern
When I interviewed him in 2014, Hugh Wilson, the creator of WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-82), admitted many of the episodes of the series were a tad underwritten. “In the beginning, he said, “the scripts were pretty tight. By the third year, we almost had blank pages, we were so far behind.” Fortunately, Wilson had cast
Good grief! Pieces of our childhoods keep falling like snowflakes in January. News that Peter Robbins had passed away at 65 should give every boomer pause. His face may not be familiar, but on television he was the original voice of Charlie Brown. Tormented by mental health issues in his later years, his family announced
Louie Anderson won three Emmy awards. One as a woman. The Minnesota-born comedian played Christine Baskets, mother to professional clown Chip (played by Zack Galifianakis), on the FX comedy Baskets (2016-2019). “I feel wonderful about the award, for two reasons,” Anderson told reporters gathered in Pasadena, Calif., in 2017 for the semi-annual Television Critics Association
Who doesn’t love Meat Loaf? I met the Grammy Award-winning singer — a.k.a. Michael Lee Aday — in 2016 in London. The burly rock star with the booming voice was there to promote the premiere of a West End musical based on his 1977 rock anthem album Bat Out of Hell — one of the
Bob Saget was no Sidney Poitier. He didn’t win an Oscar and was no Civil rights icon. As an actor and as a human rights advocate, he was not in the same league as Mr. “To Sir with Love.” He was just a dad on TV and in real life, a Funniest Home Video host
Those of us who listened to TCM’s “The Plot Thickens” podcast didn’t know it at the time, but we got to catch what turned out to be the last act of Peter Bogdanovich. The Hollywood director, producer and sometimes actor, who played the shrink Dr. Melfi turned to on The Sopranos (Dr. Elliot Kupferberg), died