Herb Tarlek earned a place of honour on TV’s Mount Rushmore of boorish, weasel-y characters. The WKRP in Cincinnati sales manager just oozed phony charm with every, “Hey big guy” entrance. The white shoes, white belt, plaid jacket with elbow patches – it is a wonder Frank Bonner could even be heard over his wardrobe.
Last, but certainly not least among Canada’s media companies to hold a virtual upfront to advertisers this week was Bell Media. Their pre-packaged ad reel went “live” around 2 p.m. ET and, while there was one drop out on my screen for a minute or two, it wrapped up at the 3:07 mark. Bell boasted
Global framed their 43 minute, virtual upfront presentation Wednesday with an old-fashioned “let’s put on a show” approach. Food Network Canada host Noah Cappe kidded around as the director of the virtual video, introducing Corus execs such as Doug Murphy, Troy Reeb and Barb McKergow. Hey, it’s been a long year in lockdown. Things opened
The return of Canada’s Got Talent, six hours of Dick Wolf drama imports and the launch of Bachelor in Paradise Canada were all among the headlines at Tuesday’s Rogers Sports and Media virtual Upfront presentation to advertisers. This is a busy week in Canadian television. I had to interrupt my screening of the Rogers Sports
My mobile device keeps reminding me about the No. 1 summer show in Canada for seven straight years — The Amazing Race Canada. The series, from Insight Productions, was an automatic two million-a-week draw for CTV. As a reporter, I was very fortunate to attend several legs of the race, including trips to Vietnam, China,
I was not a big fan of Friends. The NBC sitcom ran 10 seasons and 234 episodes from 1994 through 2004. I maybe saw 10 of them, six all the way through. It just wasn’t my jam. I liked the theme song by The Rembrandts, and how they would switch up the visuals in the
If you’re looking for something on television to get you through the long weekend, here are three recent shows I’m currently sampling. The first is brand new today: 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything (AppleTV+) is an eight-episode music documentary about, well, basically the year when the music changed everything for me. I still have
While, for a few days, the announcement seemed stuck in second gear, Crave finally copped to being the home in Canada for Friends: The Reunion. The unscripted special streams Thursday, May 27 on HBO Max in the US and on Crave in Canada. Last December, Bell Media struck a deal to be the exclusive home