Peter Lassally worked as a producer on three important shows in late night: The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. A soft-spoken gentleman, he was in his office on Ferguson’s show six or seven years ago when I asked him what the three
I met Bill Paxton, with other reporters, on a couple of occasions. Once or twice during the run of HBO’s Big Love, and just last month in Pasadena during the TCA press tour where he was promoting his new CBS series Training Day. He was his usual, good-natured self on that day, dominating the session.
It has been a 24-hour MTM marathon ever since the news broke Wednesday that Mary Tyler Moore has passed away. I was honored to be asked to share memories of watching and, on a few occasions, meeting Moore. The first time I met Moore was in January of 1986 at a TCA press tour gathering in
What makes even a crusty TV critic cry? News that Mary Tyler Moore has passed away. I first fell in love with her on The Dick Van Dyke Show, but who didn’t? Certainly Dick Van Dyke did. Look at the photo above — how much in love were these two kids? They were even asked,
PASADENA, Calif. — I used to tell young journalists attending their first Television Critics Association press tours to make sure not to skip CBS Day. “You’re not on the TV beat,” I would say, “until you’re in a scrum with Leslie Moonves.” This was way back before I started quoting myself on blog posts. In any
The new year started Sunday with a new series: Ransom, which premiered Sunday on Global and CBS. If you missed it, don’t feel like you’ve been held hostage. Global’s got it again on Wednesday night and then again this coming Saturday. Global simulcast CBS’ 8:30-ish start (football over-runs play havoc with Sunday schedules). The series
Way back in 1960, during the very first U.S. presidential televised debates, it was said that if you listened to them on the radio, Richard Nixon won. If you watched them on TV, the winner was John Kennedy. I’m temped to repeat that experiment for Monday night’s first of three televised debates between Hilary Clinton
This week, Scott Thompson at Hamilton’s CHML wanted my take on a thorny issue stirring up plenty of controversy in Canadian TV circles: changes to the CRTC regulations regarding funding. The rule change that rankles many in the Canadian writing, directing, acting and production communities: shows now only need to achieve a 6 out of