Peter Mansbridge has been CBC’s chief news anchor for so long it is almost hard to remember who came before him. Knowlton Nash was his name, and he died on the weekend at the age of 86. I was fairly new to the TV reporting racket and working at TV Guide when Nash stepped down
Some people swoon over their first car. They never forget where they drove it, how much it cost, the smell of the interior. Moses Znaimer has that same deep connection to television. Not just the medium, or the ZoomerMedia empire he now runs, but the actual box itself. Znaimer loves TV sets. He has purchased
Do you or someone in your family have one of these cards? If so, I’ll trade you straight up for my HBO Game of Thrones screeners Dear Mister TV Feeds My Family: How old is television? Thanks Jimmy from Long Island. Some experts say broadcast television dates back to April 30, 1939–75 years ago this
Getting busted in ’86 by Hill Street cops Warren and Haid. Photo: Gene Trindl When people talk of this new “Golden Age” of television, shows such as The Wire and The Sopranos are often cited as the starting point. Kiefer Sutherland–back as Jack Bauer in Fox’s revival of another respected show, 24–says the spark goes farther
The passing of film legend Mickey Rooney, dead at 93, brings to mind one of the most entertaining TCA press tour sessions ever. Rooney was part of a gathering of greats brought together by PBS to launch their series Pioneers of Television. The 2005 panel also included Sid Caesar, Red Buttons, Rose Marie, Carl Reiner
Nineteen sixty-four grows in significance, for me, with every passing anniversary. Tuesday the 25th being the 50th anniversary of Muhammad Ali becoming The Greatest.On Feb.25, 1964, the 22-year-old boxer defeated fearsome heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. Mighty Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round. Cassius Clay, as Ali was known at the time,
I always loved those early SCTV shows done for about a buck-ninety-five out of Global-TV. There was something about Harold Ramis as Mo Green that just killed me every time.The bit resonated with viewers who grew up in the Toronto-Niagara-Buffalo region since it was such an obvious goof on WKBW’s tepid local daytime game show
In the history of television, Sid Caesar goes so far back he might as well be Julius Caesar.He was guesting on Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater in 1948 and headlining the Admiral Broadway Revue with Imogene Coca in 1949. In other words, he dates back to when sponsors owned shows. That was not such a