Send us a text Some actors are thrilled to land a role on a TV series that lasts six or 13 episodes. Then there are Melody Thomas Scott and Peter Bergman. As all soap fans know, they’ve starred for decades as Nikki Newman and Jack Abbott on The Young and the Restless. The series is in its 52nd year on both CBS and Global. Scott and Bergman, who wer…

Send us a text Who is this lawyer writing and producing hit medical dramas? He is David Shore, who got his start in Canada writing for Traders before crossing the border as a writer-producer on The Practice and Law & Order. Besides his hits he was involved with a few great misses, including EZ Streets, a short-lived series that was HBO before HBO, …

Send us a text Twelve years after their storyline wrapped on NCIS, Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly have reunited as their crowd-pleasing characters on NCIS: Tony & Ziva. As executive producers of this series, the two actors had a say as to where this series would be shot, and they picked Europe -- smart move if you're going to be spending six m…

Send us a text Ryan Reynolds said he just didn't want to live in a world without a John Candy documentary. So he produced one, and it's a beauty. "John Candy: I Like Me" premieres Friday, October 9 on Prime Video. Colin Hanks -- whose dad Tom Hanks starred opposite Candy in 1984's "Splash," directs. Hear from both Reynolds and Hanks, along with, in…

Send us a text Former New York Times television columnist and bestselling author Bill Carter joins me for a wide open discussion about the White House attack on late night talk show hosts. Me and Bill celebrate Kimmel, more than ever our hero for going Brooklyn-rogue and standing up to bullies Donald Trump and his FCC chairman Brendan Carr. Carter …

Send us a text Have you ever made a bucket list of places around the world you'd like to visit? Eugene Levy did for Season Three of The Reluctant Traveler, streaming now on AppleTV+. This season finds him flying to Mexico, India, Vienna, Ireland, Vancouver, Louisianna, Korea and even London. His tour guide in The UK was none other than The Prince o…

Send us a text In the '60s, Dini Petty broke ground with Toronto radio station CKEY as Canada's first female traffic reporter to fly solo in a helicopter. After 5,000 hours in the air she landed her pink chopper and went on to a stellar career as a news anchor at Citytv and as a talk show host at CFTO’s The Dini Petty Show. Now, at age 80, she’s ba…

Send us a text The Blue Ant founder and CEO and former Alliance Atlantis chief rang the bell earlier this month on the Toronto Stock Exchange. His company's reverse takeover of Boat Rocker delivered more Canadian content -- including top-rated The Amazing Race Canada -- to a diverse portfolio MacMillan already successfully shops around the world. Y…

Send us a text Where do documentary filmmakers go to find that historic clip or interview nobody else has? Many turn to the CBC Archives in Toronto. The vast, climate controlled vaults at the CBC Broadcast Centre are home to approximately 1.5 million hours of digitized material. Those restored holdings are drawn from over 90,000 cans of film, 215,0…

Send us a text If you are a fan of comedy, film, television, movies, music, or even Bazooka Joe bubble gum jokes, join me this week in conversation with Frank Santopadre. For over eight years and 600 episodes he brought comedian Gilbert Gottfied in like a tugboat to harbour in the truly amazing Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal podcast. Santopad…

Send us a text If you've already listened to Part 1 of my conversation with writer-producer-podcaster Frank Santopadre, you just know there was more to explore. This is the second half of our terrific conversation. Here the focus is more on life after Gilbert Gottfried and Frank's eventual decision to create an entirely new podcast that would be Fu…

Send us a text I went into the vault this week to create a 3-Pack of favourite TV stars from the '60s. Two are from interviews conducted in 1997 at a Hollywood Collectors autograph show. First up is Dawn Wells (Mary Ann), who was signing autographs with her old Gilligan's Island pal Russell Johnson (the professor). Wells was one of the stars who di…

Send us a text Back in the 1950s and '60s, every Sunday night, families would gather around their living room TV and watch The Ed Sullivan Show. The variety hour ran 23 seasons, ending 54 years ago in 1971. Now streaming on Netflix, the documentary Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan is not just another "best of" blast of nostalgia. It rec…

Send us a text Meet the star of the new series Pretty Blind. As described in her AMI-tv bio, Jennie Bovard is a running, beer-drinking, thirtysomething with albinism. She loves making people laugh and is very involved in accessible sport and recreation opportunities in her community. She has lived with partial sight all her life, has a diploma in f…

Send us a text Here is why Jonathan Torrens is the perfect Canada Day Weekend podcast guest: As a producer, he is behind two new Canadian TV comedies: Pretty Blind, starring Jennie Bovard as a legally blind but supremely independent library worker (premiering July 8 on AMI); and 0-to-60 Driving Academy, steering headlong into a second season on Bel…

Send us a text In the digital age, the question is not only which tools are still available to support Canadian content production but which ones are still relevant. One with an insider's perspective is Pat Ferns, author of "The Big Picture: A Personal History of Independent Television Production in Canada" (Sutherland House). Ferns began his caree…

Send us a text By far, the biggest name in TV sitcoms this century has been Chuck Lorre. This June, when I saw that he was going to be a keynote speaker at the Banff World Media Festival, I thought what the hell, put in a request for a podcast interview. So glad I did, because on this episode, we talk about the glory that is The Kominsky Method, Bi…

Send us a text Jason Ritter is my guest this week on brioux.tv: the podcast. I spoke with the 45-year-old actor recently at the Corus Entertainment Upfront in Toronto. Ritter is so thrilled to be on Matlock -- last season's biggest rookie hit on both Global in Canada and CBS in the US -- that he's been dancing up a storm on TikTok. We talk about th…

Send us a text This 200th episode of brioux.tv: the podcast features a SCTV original who remains one of my favourite people to interview -- Dave Thomas. On this, our third podcast conversation, Thomas talks about his recent trip to Kyiv, a city where drone strikes and missle attacks from Russia have created a living hell for Ukrainians at war. Thom…

Send us a text People who work television's morning shift could be forgiven for being a tad grumpy. That's never the case with Tim Bolen, who recently made the leap from co-hosting Morning Live on Hamilton's CHCH to pairing with Dina Pugliese on Citytv's national franchise Breakfast Television. Add living in Toronto when he was on TV in Hamilton an…

Send us a text My guest this episode is an executive producer who helped guide Schitt’s Creek to a canoe full of Emmy and CSA awards. He’s currently one of the executive producers on another wonderful sitcom, Son of a Critch, shockingly ignored -- nomination wise -- at this year’s Canadian Screen Awards. Yes, it is Andrew Barnsley and he's just bac…

Send us a text Bummed your invitation to Martin Short's cottage in the Muskokas was evidently lost in the mail? Save yourself the long drive and listen to this week's episode of brioux.tv: the podcast. One of my favourite guests, filmmaker Mitch Azaria, is back with his sixth in an annual series exploring the province of Ontario: Tripping The Musko…

Send us a text Jay Leno is Jay-walking his way back to Canada. The former Tonight Show host, who turns 75 in May, will join fellow late night rival Arsenio Hall as comedy headliners May 2 at Casino Rama near Orillia, Ont. In an exclusive brioux.tv: the podcast interview, presented in partnership with latenighter.com, Leno says he was hesitant about…

Send us a text People of Comedy: Celebrating 30 Years of the Nubian Show starts streaming April 9 on Crave. It features this week's guest on brioux.tv: the podcast and one of the true iron men of the Toronto comedy club scene: Kenny Robinson. Since 1983, he's been performing at YukYuks as well as at Just For Laughs and other Canadian comedy venues.…

Send us a text These days it is not unusual for fans to wait over a year for a second season of their favourite series. But five years?? That is the situation for When Hope Calls, the spinoff to the popular period piece drama When Calls the Heart. The shot in Ontario series returns April 6 on Super Channel Heart & Home in Canada and on Great Americ…

Send us a text For this episode we go back into the vault for an interview conducted ten years ago with Joe Clokey. He was the son of the man who created and animated Gumby, the most bendable children's TV character ever. Joe grew up in California as "Gumby's little brother," watching his dad and mom stamp out dozens of brightly coloured characters…

Send us a text Ali Weinstein is the writer/producer/director behind "Your Tomorrow," a look at Ontario Place the summer before it was shut down after 52 years. For over five decades a 155-acre Toronto waterfront sanctuary, it is being radically redeveloped. Gone are 850 West Island trees. Instead we get a spa with a killer view of Cinesphere. In a …

Send us a text Podcasts were invented for guests such as Malcolm McDowell. He is a smart, funny, generous man and as terrific as ever as Pop on CBC's Son of a Critch. This conversation took place last summer in St. John’s, Nfld., in McDowell’s trailer which was parked outside the Bella Vista banquet hall. It had been an exciting 24 hours with the P…

Send us a text Two of the four Baroness Von Sketch Show players, Jennifer Whalen and Meredith MacNeill, are back with a new CBC series -- and it's a period piece! The series is called Small Achievable Goals and it is about two women in midlife encountering all of the joys of menopause. Hot flashes, mood swings, homicidal trendencies and more. Now, …

Send us a text Claire Rankin says she's waited "a really long time...to land something like this." The PEI native is talking about her role as Mary on Son of a Critch. How she landed the role -- after one of those remote zoom call auditions -- is just one of the stories she shares on this hour-long podcast. Season Four finds Mary -- and Rankin -- o…

Send us a text Saturday Night Live is celebrating the big 5-0. Who better to put it in perspective than the Canadian writer who was there at the start. On this special presentation from brioux.tv: the podcast and LateNighter, Rosie Shuster tells how it all began. She was born with a funny bone as the daughter of Frank Shuster (half of the comedy te…

Send us a text OK, Hearties, here he is, Jack Wagner who plays Bill Avery on When Calls the Heart. The former soap star has played the sheriff-turned-judge character for 12 seasons on the Langley, BC-based Hallmark and Super Channel series. As viewers will see on the Saturday, Feb. 8 episode, Avery will be re-introduced to Georgie McGill, played by…

Send us a text If ever we needed some candid talk from Rick Mercer, we need it now. The CBC Hall of Famer didn't hold back when I spoke with him last summer in St. John's on the set of Son of a Critch. The native son plays Mark Sr.'s new VOCM radio station boss on the CBC sitcom. Catch the episode this Tuesday (also on CBCGem). Mercer was delighted…

Send us a text This episode is the second to feature a cast member from Season 4 of Son of a Critch: none other than the son himself, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth. Ainsworth, of course, plays young Mark Critch, circa 1990, on the CBC sitcom. The episode was recorded last summer on location in St. John's, Nfld. Ainsworth was shooting a scene on a residen…

Send us a text Monday January 20 is inauguration day in the US. So everybody raise your right hand, and for those listening here at home, hang onto those Canadian passports. A dozen years ago The Donald was just another tanned game show host when I interviewed him in his 26th floor office at Trump Tower in New York. Now I've reached into the vault …

Send us a text The second season of the slick crime series Allegiance begins January 15 on CBC and CBC Gem. The shot-in-Surrey, B.C., drama stars Supinder Wraich (Sort Of), Enrico Colantoni and Samer Salem. I spoke with all three in Toronto at the CBC Winter Media Launch in December. Wraich plays Sabrina Sohal, a promising rookie police officer who…

Send us a text No man is an island. Allan Hawco's new series, however, is shot and set on an archipelago of eight islands represented by the French government off the coast of Newfoundland. Hawco, who played a detective on Republic of Doyle and was also on Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, plays Donny "Fitz" Fitzpatrick. He's a cop who gets too nosy about po…

Send us a text This Hour has, well, not just 22 Minutes but a full hour as I catch up with Mark Critch, this week's guest on brioux.tv: the podcast. The conversation was taped last summer in St. John's, Nfld., during production on the fourth season of Son of a Critch (returning Tuesday, Jan. 7 on CBC and CBC Gem). What a trip that was, including a …

Send us a text Genevieve Mushaluk, a 33-year-old corporate lawyer from Winnipeg, Manitoba, had her torch snuffed on last week’s two-hour, second-last episode of Survivor. Picked as the final member of the jury, she’ll be in LA watching the finale with the rest of the castaways when the season ends December 18 on CBS and Global. Did she see her elim…

Send us a text My guest this week has made over three dozen made for television movies, She also headlined Hallmark’s Aurora Teagarden series. Before that, as a child star, she was part of the long-running TGIF family series, Full House, as well as its streaming sequel, Fuller House. Of course I’m talking about Candace Cameron Bure. In 2022, she br…

Send us a text If you work in this industry you know how hard it is to keep ahead in a world that always seems to be pivoting. Streaming, fast channels, multi-platform media brands – who can keep up? Well, one fella is Jamie Schouela, President, Global Channels and Media at Blue Ant Media. I caught up with Jamie a few weeks ago in Toronto when I wa…

Send us a text As we head into another frigid Canadian winter we bring you a podcast about a series that is set and shot in the hottest part of Australia. The series is called Troppo, a term used in north Queensland that means going mad from the heat. Troppo is based on the best selling novel from Candice Fox titled Crimson Lake and it is about a d…

Send us a text After 31 years as host of The Fifth Estate, plus another decade winning Emmys for CBS and NBC News, award-winning investigative journalist Bob McKeown is ready to retire. The Ottawa native never shied away from his assignments, especially when it came to reporting on football and head injuries. Back in the '70s, he was a CFL all-star…

Send us a text Tyler and Jordie Schwartz started their business of selling retro toys and gifts in 2007 as the Canadian Leg Lamp Company. The idea came after shooting their fan film “Road Trip for Ralphie,” an homage to the kid from the 1983 classic, “A Christmas Story.” Next they introduced Moose Mugs from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (…

Send us a text When Jess Salgueiro auditioned in person for the role of Eve on Frasier, she had to do it in front of a pair of sitcom legends: Kelsey Grammer and director Jim Burrows. Pressure? Yes and no says the actress, who was born in Winnipeg, Man. She figured there must be hundreds of others lining up to try and win a role on this reboot of a…

Send us a text Stop me if you've seen this kind of Hallmark series before: an enterprising and attractive single woman (Sarah Drew from Grey's Anatomy) owns a Christmas store on the main street of a picturesque small town. She crosses paths with a handsome, newly single-police officer (Peter Mooney from Burden of Truth). Before you can say, "witnes…

Send us a text If only The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was still around to help us through another turbulent US Presidential election. Pat Paulsen -- where are you when we need you? A key writer/producer back on that 1967-69 comedy variety show was a Canadian -- Allan Byle. Before the Smothers, he worked for Fred Rogers as well as CBC songbird Ju…

Send us a text In Part 2 of my conversation with Ken Levine, more evidence that the Emmy-winner is one of TV's top storytellers. One of my favourite episodes from his excellent podcast, Hollywood & Levine, is the one where he told listeners exactly what he thought of the recent reboot of Frasier. Some might see this as sour grapes from one of the a…

Send us a text What hasn't Ken Levine done? He's an Emmy-winning screenwriter who has -- with writing partner David Issacs -- written for some of television's best comedies. You may have heard of M*A*S*H, Cheers and Frasier. In his spare time (!) he has also been a disc jockey, a major league baseball play-by-play announcer, a cartoonist, a playwri…

Send us a text This past spring, the CBS action-drama Tracker became an instant hit, emerging as the No. 1 US network series of the season. On this episode, I speak with the tracker himself, Justin Hartley, who was in Toronto last June promoting the series at the CTV upfront. After a career in soaps (Passions; The Young and the Restless) as well as…