Retired publicist pal Bill Vigars reached out from the West Coast this week. He let me know an actor who headlined a hit series in Canada back when I was starting out on the TV beat was in need. Scott Hylands was one of the stars of Night Heat (1985-89), a Gemini Award-winning CTV cop
You can draw a straight line from Mort Sahl to Dave Chappelle. Fearless, contentious, uncompromising and sometimes his own worst enemy. The Montreal native died Oct 26 at his home near San Francisco. He was 94. His rise in the mid- to late- ’50s was so pronounced it seems as if he should be older.
“We knew this was coming,” actor Michael McKean tweeted upon news of the passing of Peter Scolari. “Doesn’t make it easier. RIP my friend.” Scolari, a native of New Rochelle, N.Y., died Friday at 66 after a two year battle with cancer. The actor was best known for two roles: playing opposite Tom Hanks in
You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do if you’re not celebrating 70 years of I Love Lucy. Television’s most enduring comedy began on Oct. 15, 1951. With the help of showrunner Jess Openheimer, Lucille Ball, who bounced from RKO comedies to chorus girl roles in movies, turned a radio hit into a TV sensation. She did
Alan Kalter, best known as David Letterman’s CBS Late Show announcer for 20 years, died Oct. 4. He was 78. Kalter was born in New York, or as he used to call it at the top of each show, “the greatest city in the world.”. He took over from retiring announcer Bill Wendell as the
Television’s longest-running game show The Price is Right celebrates 50 season this week. It premiered on Sept. 4, 1972 with Bob Barker as host. Since then, according to CBSViacom: Over US$300,000,000 in cash and prizes has been given away. More than 8,400 cars have been awarded, including the very first car, a Chevrolet Vega valued
If you ever watched an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, or The Cosby Show, or even I Love Lucy, you enjoyed the work of Jay Sandrich. The veteran TV director passed away Wednesday, Sept. 22, at 89. Sandrich, who was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2020, directed many TV all-time
“I can’t stand stuck-up bodies of water. It’s like, get over yourself, Lake Superior.” In 2018, in one of his last high profile TV efforts, Norm Macdonald had Jane Fonda read that joke on Norm Macdonald Has a Show. The 10-episode Netflix series was so stripped down it was barely more than a podcast, but