Milton Berle was television’s earliest non-puppet breakout star. Let’s not forget Howdy Doody. Berle’s Texaco Star Theater (1948-’53) a rambunctious comedy-variety series that stood out in the early days of network television, was the most-watched series among early set buyers. Berle himself joked that he sold more TV’s than anyone else. When his show came
If you listened to the 1972 Canada-Soviet Union Summit Series over the radio — as some of us did with a wire running up one arm and into an ear speaker while pretending to pay attention in a classroom — it wasn’t the voice of Hockey Hall of Famer Foster Hewitt calling the play-by-play. It
As brioux.tv: the podcast listeners know by now, executive producer Mitch Azaria loves to go Tripping. These past five years, he has taken us by mahogany lake boat up the Rideau Canal, sailing along the tip of The Bruce Peninsula, on a bird’s eye view over the Niagara region and aboard a Budd train northwest of
This week on brioux.tv: the podcast — Dave Thomas pays tribute to his late, great writer-producer-performer friend, Joe Flaherty. Thomas and Flaherty produced SCTV in its second season, taking their cue from original (sort of) showrunner Harold Ramis and putting more of a spotlight on the cast’s ability to morph into famous celebrities. They also
One day, the date I cannot remember, I was scanning my cable TV listings when I came upon an unfamiliar station. It was called Turner Classic Movies, and it played nothing but movies, movies and more movies. And, blessedly, they were commercial-free. Well, I thought I had died and gone to movie heaven. I’ve added
Terry Fox dipped his toe into the Atlantic off the coast of St. John’s, Newfoundland, on April 12, 1980. This marked the launch of his historic crusade against cancer, the Marathon of Hope.Sinc then, nearly a billion dollars has been raised to help other people with cancer around the world in Terry’s name. On this
Those of us who grew up with SCTV have it deep inside our nervous systems. To this day, if Joe Flaherty and John Candy show up on Instagram, as they did for me yesterday, in a sketch as the two hopeless lads from “Goin’ Down the Road,” we watch it all again and love every
You were probaby expecting me to post a review of the new AppleTV+ documentary about Steve Martin before it premiered. Well excuuuuse me! It took me a few extra days to get around to it, but I have seen both parts of STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces. Part One, “Then,” features his rise