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,
Many thanks to all who attended the first two TV on Film screenings at the historic Westdale theatre in Hamilton, Ont. It was great to meet the very enthusiastic TV buffs who braved the, well, really great weather to join these afternoon TV parties. I threw away my notes and just took questions at the
This festive Larry Fritz illustration graced the cover of TV Guide for the week of December 24, 1955–exactly 67 years ago today. That was back when television was something you watched for free as long as you were willing to put up with the occasional commercial – sort of like FAST channels such as Pluto-TV
For quite a while now I’ve been thinking about tapping into my collection of old school cassette recordings to see if I could turn dust-gathering interview blather into podcast gold. Thank goodness that some of those old cassette tapes I’ve boxed away for years still work! Many contain recorded conversations I’ve had with TV and
This festive Larry Fritz illustration graced the cover of TV Guide for the week of December 24, 1955. That was back when signals were pulled in from all over on rooftop antennas–for free. Back when there were TV listings magazines–which sold for 15 cents. Back when binging only took place at the dinner table, and movies
Retired publicist pal Bill Vigars reached out from the West Coast this week. He let me know an actor who headlined a hit series in Canada back when I was starting out on the TV beat was in need. Scott Hylands was one of the stars of Night Heat (1985-89), a Gemini Award-winning CTV cop
Time was I spent much of September and parts of October hammering out fall preview copy. This went on for decades, dating back to those thick annual editions of TV Guide magazine. I later wrote fall preview editions of the Toronto Sun’s Television magazine and even a few for The Toronto Star’s Starweek magazine. This
Rolling Stone magazine has just come out with their list of the 100 Best TV sitcoms of all-time. It’s a pretty fair list, compiled mainly by my Television Critics Association pal Alan Sepinwall along with three other Rolling Stone contributers — Maria Fontoura, David Fear and Rob Sheffield. These lists are always great argument starters.