Some of the people who make the TV we love pass away so soon we can’t believe it. Then there are those legends who live so long, we’re surprised that they pass away at all. Norman Lear died Tuesday, Dec. 5 in Los Angeles at 101. His face, under that trademark floppy off-white hat, would
Pluto TV is one of the newest, and most heavily promoted, of the free streaming services to arrive in Canada. Part of the Paramount entertainment colossus, it boasts 100 channels and thousands of movies, all free. Canadian content, especially newscasts and “How To” shows, is boosted through an alliance with Corus Entertainment. The service is
Many of the TV icons I grew up with are dropping like flies. Poor Tony Dow, for example. The Leave it to Beaver brother clings to life after already being declared dead in many premature on-line reports. It’s wonderful, then, to celebrate the impressive and productive longevity of Norman Lear. The producers of such shows
By the time I started covering television in the mid-’80s, one of the titans of the industry was already switching sides — Fred Silverman. The native New Yorker, who passed away Thursday at 82, did what nobody before or since has ever accomplished — he was the top programming exec at each one of the
Wednesday night, Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel go back Live in Front of a Studio Audience. The 97-year-old television showrunning legend and the ABC late night talk show host return with a second live special. This time they will again re-stage a brand new presentation of a script from Lear’s pivitol ’70s sitcom, All in
On Thursday, Netflix announced it would cut back on smoking scenes in its original series. This was in response to an anti-smoking organization, “Truth Initiative,” who called out the streaming service for all the tobacco use in a show most popular with younger auidences: Stranger Things (back this week with a third season). The series
Podcaster Mike Boon, a.k.a. “Toronto Mike,” invited me back on his show Monday to “kick out the jams.” Mike, a fellow Michael Power grad, who, as he liked to point out, graduated from that high school many years after I did, invites all manner of media types over to his basement studio and quizzes us
Wednesday night’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s ‘All in the Family’ and ‘The Jeffersons’” was an uplifting homage; a sweet valentine to TV in the ’70s. If you’re old enough to have watched these classic sitcoms back in the day, then this night was for you. I could have just looked