Earlier this week, the fourth episode of brioux.tv: The Podcast premiered. It features The Globe and Mail’s outspoken TV critic John Doyle. If you haven’t heard it yet, the hour-long episode can be found here. John has been one of the top voices in TV criticism ever since he began contributing to the Globe’s long-gone
Was CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge too buddy-buddy with new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on that bus? CHML’s Scott Thompson wanted my take on CBC’s coverage last week of Trudeau’s first day at work. I thought there was nothing wrong with Mansbridge’s informal tone and also enjoyed Trudeau’s zinger suggesting Mansbridge might be out of touch with
Peggy Lee’s haunting “Is That All There Is?” plays a big part in Sunday night’s Seventh and final season opener of Mad Men (10 p.m., AMC). I remember first hearing the song back when I was in Grade school. It came out in November of 1969 and times in nicely as Mad Men closes out
A little over a year ago, I was invited to Ottawa to moderate a panel of Canadian TV executives. The event was Prime Time in Ottawa, which just hosted industry leaders for the 20th time earlier this month. At the session I moderated, the professionals in the room were still buzzing over a fuse colleague John Doyle
Back in January I attended a TCA press tour dinner in Pasadena presented by the Hallmark Channel. The cable network likes to mix the press in with the stars from their upcoming family movie offerings. There at one table sat the great Ed Asner. I walked over and said hello to the TV legend. He’s
Da Vinci’s Inquest: why didn’t it spark a new Golden Age of Canadian TV? Drop whatever you’re doing and go read John Doyle in Thursday’s Globe and Mail. Right now. If there’s a pay wall go out and buy a copy. John asks: Where is Canada in the golden age of TV? Basically, where’s our
I used to goof on CBC all the time when I was the TV columnist at the Toronto Sun. Back then it wasn’t even mandatory.Once I wrote an obit that began, “BROADCASTING CORPORATION, CANADIAN; died in its sleep last night…”Good times.The fellow in charge of CBC programming back then, Slawko Klymkiw, was a very patient
A couple of smart guys are all over two things I’d been thinking about lately but am too busy/lazy to get to myself. So follow these links to enlightenment: The Globe and Mail’s John Doyle is bang on as usual with this take on recent changes over at the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.