In paying tribute last week to Hugh Downs, the long-time announcer, host and newsman who passed away last week at 99, I forgot to single out another one of his accomplishments: sitcom scene stealer. Fortunately, retro-savvy reader Kevin Vahey weighed in with a link to a classic: Downs getting pulled over in an episode of
As it is with everything else, this is an unusual year for TV networks. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent social distancing, the major US broadcasters had to cancel their pricey upfront launches in New York in May. Instead of talent and producers doing the annual ad market meet and greet — and in
Something unusual was announced today — a Canadian-made series has landed on a US broadcast network schedule. Usually it works the other way around. In this instance, the CTV medical drama Transplant is set to join NBC. It helps that NBC Universal partnered with CTV and Sphere Media Plus on Transplant from the beginning. As
It is mid-May, 2020. By now, the major US broadcast networks have usually had their blockbuster upfront presentations in New York. Canadian broadcast execs would be flying down to Los Angeles this week to scoop up shows during the annual “Hollywood Screenings.” Not this week and not this year. The COVID-19 pandemic had shut down
By the time I started covering television in the mid-’80s, one of the titans of the industry was already switching sides — Fred Silverman. The native New Yorker, who passed away Thursday at 82, did what nobody before or since has ever accomplished — he was the top programming exec at each one of the
I couldn’t help but wonder if Eddie Murphy had stayed away too long before his long-awaited return to Saturday Night Live over the weekend. After all, it had been since 1984 — 35 years — since the youngest-ever cast member had electrified audiences at 30 Rock. In hockey terms, would Murphy bathe in Rocket Richard-style
Last Saturday, Jimmy Fallon, Paul Rudd and James Corden played Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, French president Emanuel Macron and British PM Boris Johnson on the opening sketch on Saturday Night Live. They were joined by Alex Baldwin as U.S. president Donald Trump. The week before, when Will Farrell hosted, he was joined by former
An easy target every year is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. Those of us with long memories still cling to when the parade occurred during our own age of wonder, with folks such as Lorne Greene and Betty White in the booth. It never seemed like an endless infomercial back then. I took