OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper today appointed Canada’s first Minister of Television. In a surprise move, Brampton, Ont., resident Bill Brioux was named to the newly-created post. Mr. Brioux has watched television for many years and is also set to appear on an upcoming episode of Mr. Harper’s favourite Canadian series, Murdoch Mysteries. He’s also alleged
Brand in front of Save-On-Meats neon sign VANCOUVER–Happen to be back in B.C. this week so thought I’d check in on a place I didn’t have time to visit when I was here a few weeks ago–Save-On-Meats.Smart move. Had the best corn beef sandwich ever at this Gastown marvel, a 55-year-old butcher shop and deli
Way back when I used to work for TV Guide, there was a great deal of evidence that–hard as we all worked on feature stories–folks mainly bought the little magazine for the listings. Specifically, many readers would take the mag, sit down, and highlight all the movies in the week ahead that they wanted to
Looking for some last minute Christmas gifts for the TV fan in your family? I offered several suggestions, mainly DVD box sets and books, in a story for The Canadian Press this week. You can read that entire story here.Among the DVD sets I single out is Shout Factory’s Mr Magoo–The Television Collection (1960-1977). The nearsighted cartoon
How did the biggest success story in Canadian television in years wind up getting cancelled after just one season?Combat Hospital was a monster hit in Canada. The big budget, Toronto-lensed co-production consistently drew 1.5 million viewers a week last summer on Global, but its failure to break through south of the border on ABC has apparently
That’s a wrap: Lauzon, Ferguson, Park and Corrin Happy to report there are plenty of laughs in this year’s annual Air Farce New Year’s special.Attended the Thursday night taping of the sketch comedy hour at the CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto. (A second night of taping takes place Friday.) Was a little apprehensive heading in.
Alert a CBC therapist: Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays went out with a whimper. An overnight, estimated 145,000 caught the season finale Tuesday Dec. 6, below even the low season average for the critically acclaimed comedy.To put that in perspective, 196,000 watched the ‘tween sketch comedy That’s So Weird the same week on YTV–and that’s at 6:30
This week, CHML’s Scott Thompson wanted my take on the recent Bell/Rogers/Leafs mega-deal. I point out that the TV business is way rougher than anything that takes place on the ice. Look for Bell and Rogers to go into the corners with the elbows up and expect a few concussions along the way.As for whether