In 1982, I was invited to a private dinner with Norman Jewison. Memories of that encounter flooded back on the news this week that the dean of Canadian film directors had passed away Saturday at 97. Forty-two years ago, he had accepted an invitation to be a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto. The
Cop or detective shows nowadays have to have some sort of an extra hook. The main character has some sort of Spidey-sense, or can tell if somebody is lying, or they’re an old rookie — something. Anything! In the new CTV police procedural Sight Unseen — premiering Sunday after the NFL playoff game and then
To see your way clear to a new spin on a cop show is not easy. Sisters Karen Troubetzkoy and Nikolijne Troubetzkoy, series creators who’ve proven themselves on hits such as Orphan Black and Transplant, looked within themselves for inspiration. Karen, or Kat, has struggled with vision loss requiring multiple surgeries since her twenties. It started suddenly after
Christina Applegate brought down the house last night at the 75th Annual Emmy Awards. The former Married…with Children star and Dead to Me actress walked on stage accompanied by host Anthony Anderson. She was greeted with a standing ovation. Applegate, using a cane, had tears in her eyes. The 52-year-old actress, who began her TV
Two thousand and twenty-three was a challenging year in the TV business. Inflation and higher interest rates had consumers thinking twice about streaming subscriptions. The writers and actors strikes put a cork in the content pipeline. Peak TV seemed to slip back from the summit. The big success story in Canada, however, was the rapid
I always resented the series M*A*S*H. This had nothing to do with the merits of the multiple Emmy Award-winning series, or the fact that, when my career began at TV Guide Canada shortly before the series ended, it was a pain having to shift keys and type an asterisk every time in between capitalizing the
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour had a profound effect on this 10 to 12-year-old. You watched TV as a family back then, in front of the one screen in the house, in our case, a 25-inch Clairtone. “From Television City in Hollywood,” said announcer Roger Carroll. “Ladies and gentlemen, The Smothers Brothers.” Shot from above,
Every year I plan on taking a short cut by posting this list with the idea of simply cutting and pasting something I wrote from a previous year. Every year, however, a few shows jump to the top of the list that were overlooked in the past. This year is no exception, starting with the