O lord how it rained. The story behind the greatest Super Bowl half time show ever is here. Production designer Bruce Rogers was in the truck in Miami for Super Bowl XLI and tells how, when Prince was warned it was pouring rain, he asked, “Can you make it rain harder?” Price was plugged into four,
One of the things that surprised Sean Patrick Shaul while making “Silent Legend: The Mack Sennett Story” was how few people, even in the film and TV business, had even heard of the man dubbed the original “King of Comedy.” The Vancouver-based filmmaker’s Sennett doc premieres Monday at 8 p.m. on CBC’s Documentary Channel. Having
I only have one Don Francks story, and it’s really not even about him. News of the passing of Francks came over the weekend. He was 84. The Vancouver-born actor, jazz musician and all around cool dude worked right up till the end, finally succumbing to lung cancer. Francks is somebody I really regret not having
One of the wonderful surprises from Thursday night’s TV on Film Project screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox was discovering an audience member had a hand in bringing two classic gems to Canadian TV screens. For many years, Pip Wedge was VP of programming at CTV. In the fall of 1966, however, Wedge was creating shows for CTV
First reaction: tremendous sadness. The great Garry Shandling passed away Thursday at 66 after suffering a heart attack. Second reaction: thank goodness he got to take that one last ride with Jerry Seinfeld. Go to Crackle.com now and watch the Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee episode from the most recent season featuring Shandling. The episode is
“God, can we get away from The Beatles for a moment?” Sir George Martin had had enough. The 82-year-old music icon had been fielding questions about John, Paul, George and Ringo for half an hour. This was in 2008, at a Television Critics Association PBS press conference. The public broadcaster had brought Martin before the press
Who picks the “Classic TV” options on Air Canada flights–somebody with a dart board? Is this some plot by Air Canada to drive folks to turn off their screens and save electricity? Among the classic choices this week: two episodes of the best-forgotten Howard Hesseman classroom comedy from the late ’80s, Head of the Class.
How batty was I over Batman? Fifty years ago, when it first premiered on ABC, pretty batty. So when The Toronto Star started running reviews on old TV shows as part of their “Rewind” series of “first pop culture loves,” I called dibs on the bat-beat. See how I rated the show back when I