You type a lot of obits these days when you work the TV beat. This one hits home harder than most — Jim Bawden. It was Bawden’s TV column I read in the Toronto Star back when I was in high school and college. He covered the medium in print for 40 years (including an
I am a little obsessed with a show called The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. That was the reason why, one year ago following a Television Critics Association press tour session, I followed Cicely Tyson out into the hall. Way back in the late ’60s, the distinguished actress was a guest star on an early episode
In 2015, PBS aired a Pioneers of Television special saluting Mary Tyler Moore. Much of the special, of course, centred on Moore’s seminal sitcom of the early- to mid-’70s. The series was designed around Moore but the early seasons featured a trio of top TV performers: Moore as “make it on her own” career girl
Larry King, who passed away Saturday morning at 87, was a late-blooming, hard-grinding TV icon when I interviewed him in the ’90s and early 2000’s. CNN’s biggest star, especially in the early days, started in radio, honing his craft doing thousands of interviews before moving to television. During a 25 year span on CNN, his
Who is the greatest TV actor of all time? In an article by Ben Lindbergh published in the latest issue of The Ringer, the nod goes to Ted Danson Although Linbergh is looking more at quantity rather than quality, he builds a pretty good case. Danson’s latest series, Mr. Mayor, premiered Thursday night on NBC
Tonight and tomorrow night are your last two chances to see Alex Trebek host Jeopardy. The syndicated series airs in most markets at 7:30 p.m. The courageous quizmaster lost his fight against pancreatic cancer late last year. These last episodes were taped at Sony Studios in Los Angeles just ten days before he died I’ve
In the mid-’60s, Dawn Wells played girl-next-door Mary Ann on Gilligan’s Island. For the young actress, it turned out to be much longer than a three hour or even a three season cruise. Wells died Wednesday from complications from COVID-19. She was 82. The former Miss Nevada was still in her twenties when the series
News of the death of Chad Stuart — one half of the British soft-rock ’60s duo Chad & Jeremy — provoked for me yet another memory from the Television Critics Association press tour. Nearly nine years ago, in January of 2012, me and Bill Harris — another former Toronto Sun scribe — wound up at