Another sign that the old broadcast network era is finally at an end. It was announced on Tuesday that Harbor Group International has entered into a definitive agreement with ViacomCBS for the purchase of 51 West 52nd St. in Midtown Manhattan. The cost: US$760 million. The 38-story office tower was known as the CBS Building
I was still in the art department of TV Guide Canada when Night Court emerged as one of NBC’s strongest assets, along with The Cosby Show, Cheers and Hill Street Blues. There was a wide, counter top light table in the art department which illuminated dozens of slides. Pipe smoking editor Ken Larone, the one adult in an office full of twentysomethings,
One of the last surviving members of a cherished Canadian voice troupe from the early ’60s has passed away. Alfie Scopp, 101 years of age, died July 24 in Toronto. He was one of the golden voices associated with the talented Toronto troupe who spoke for characters from the 1964 beloved annual holiday classic “Rudolph
How lucky am I to have a conversation with Bill Persky, the Emmy-winnng writer-producer of, among many other things TV-related, The Dick Van Dyke Show. The spry 89-year-old New Yorker is the latest guest on brioux.tv: the podcast. (Listen now at the link above.) He’s pretty sure that he is the last remaining writer from
The one and only time I encountered Jackie Mason in person he was selling Chicken Soup. Not the dish; the TV show. Co-starring the English actress Lynn Redgrave as his Irish Catholic girlfriend, Chicken Soup cast Mason as what he was at the time, a middle-aged Jewish man with a droll but searing sense of
On this day in 1969, at 2:56:15 AM (GMT), Neil Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon. I’m up at the cottage this week, half unplugged, so here’s a giant leap into the brioux.tv archives — a replay of a salute I wrote to Armstrong, who passed away at 82 in 2012:
The situation with situation comedies today is no laughing matter. When the news shows for fall were announced this spring, there were few comedies on the list – and one was a reboot of The Wonder Years. The best new comedies that are made today, many for streaming services, could compete for awards as dramas,
Herb Tarlek earned a place of honour on TV’s Mount Rushmore of boorish, weasel-y characters. The WKRP in Cincinnati sales manager just oozed phony charm with every, “Hey big guy” entrance. The white shoes, white belt, plaid jacket with elbow patches – it is a wonder Frank Bonner could even be heard over his wardrobe.