One of the shining stars of Canadian television in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s was Dinah Christie. The This Hour Has Seven Days and Party Game performer died Friday, April 10 at 85. The London-born actress-singer came to Toronto with her actor parents at the age of two. In the “born out of a trunk”
Trying to launch a Canadian Comedfy Hall of Fame is no laughing matter. Just ask Tim Progosh. In fac t, don’t ask him, I already did in our conversation this week on brioux.tv: the podcast. Progosh first took on this Seventh Act of Hercules over 20 years ago. He kept running into unfunny road blocks:
I think I was about 35 before I figured out that Billy Van played all those crazy characters on The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. The series, consisting of 130 episodes cranked out over nine months, premiered more than 50 years ago in 1971. It is one of the most eccentric and enduring, locally-produced, TV shows
Do you remember Party Game? The saucy little charades-fest aired out of Hamilton, Ont.’s CHCH from 1970 through 1981. “Captain” Jack Duffy, Dinah Christie and Billy Van were the Home Team, an almost unbeatable trio when it came to charades. Al Boliska was the original host, replaced a year later by Bill Walker. The series
Fifty years ago, one man on one TV show created eight vividly memorable TV characters in every episode: The Librarian; Grizelda, the Ghastly Gourmet; Bwana Clyde Batty, The Oracle, The Count, The Marharishi, the record-spinning Wolfman and Dr. Pet Vet. Then he’d pull on a gorilla suit and fall on his face. The show was
Hard to imagine, but John Travolta passed on the role of Forrest Gump. Johnny Depp was John Hughes first choice to play Ferris Bueller. Al Pacino had first shot at being Han Solo in Star Wars. Casting “What if’s” also occur in television. Tiffani Thiessen auditioned for Rachel Green on Friends. Matt LeBlanc was offered
Tonight, Thanksgiving Monday in Canada, turkey and stuffing aren’t the only things on the agenda. There’s also a third season of Corner Gas Animated. As fans know by now, the original cast members — except for Janet Wright (Emma, who passed away in 2016), all returned to reprise their live action roles on the series.
Just as the Frankenstein monster kept getting brought back to life, the same thing is happening to The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. The wildest kiddie show ever to come out of Hamilton, Ontario — or anywhere else for that matter — is being re-energized across multiple platforms. As of Friday, July 19, all 130 episodes