Back when I worked at The Toronto Sun, I was happy to contribute to Showcase, the best entertainment magazine even many Sun readers — due to the seamless way it was folded into the mix — didn’t know existed. Bob Bishop and Derek Tse always poured their hearts into it and so did many of
“Now gosh golly bingo Tretiak’s out counting the crowd we’ve got a hockey game!’ Way back last century when Bullock & Brioux were known over several streets in Etobicoke, this is what Pat Bullock would say to start off his Howie Meeker impersonation. There’s always a phrase impressionists use to find a voice. Look up
You never want to be caught without your laptop or even an iPad when somebody as special as Alex Trebek dies. I was crossing up Hwy 6, headed to close a cottage on the Bruce Peninsula, when my phone lit up with messages from Murtz Jaffer. The CTV News Channel producer was calling with the
Sean Connery — this was no time to die. I never met him, and I’m sure I would have remembered if I had. I do remember the first time I saw him on screen. It was at the long-gone Orangeville Drive-In north of Toronto. My parents knew the family who ran the outdoor theatre, including
Those blockheads at ABC have Boomers all a Twitter. They’ve decided not to air A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown in prime time on network TV in 2020. Curse you, Disney executive chairman Robert Iger! It’s been 55 years since A Charlie Brown Christmas first charmed kids and parents in
I watched an interesting TV show Wednesday night, all about teachers using television to conduct remote learning classes to students at home. No, it wasn’t a live zoom demo. It was an episode of a 66-year-old TV series. The Peabody award winning series was Mister Peepers, starring Wally Cox. The still charming, classroom-based comedy was
Way back when the British spy drama The Avengers made its way to North American TV screens in the mid-’60s, I was more into Hot Wheels than hot babes. My TV thrills were found watching Batman, and perhaps Get Smart! and Lost in Space — not some imported, tongue-in-cheek James Bond hour for adults. Yet,
Frequent visitors to this site will know that I collect TV shows on 16mm film. Older readers will remember this format from high school, when pizza-sized reels of film were threaded on a projector, the lights would go out and everybody took a quick nap. I stayed awake, and never lost my fascination with the