Television
Total 456 Posts
Several years ago, Joel Goldberg gifted me a poster of this cover of Graffiti celebrating Toronto’s new VJ superstars. Featured are FOTMs Shirley McQueen and J. Gold (Joel Goldberg) of CFMT’s Something Else, Samantha Taylor (who went from CFMT to CBC’s Video Hits) and John Majhor of
Admittedly, I'm a sucker for anything created by David Simon. The Wire is my all-time favourite television show, ahead of Six Feet Under and The Sopranos. Another David Simon series is The Deuce which ran for three seasons. This post is about The Deuce's theme songs. I love all three
I do a lot over here at TMDS. First off, there's my flagship podcast Toronto Mike'd. For that show I book and schedule guests, conduct the research, host, record and publish the episode. Then there's the post-drop promotion on social media and TorontoMike.com. Then, there's my clients... and a
I had never been in the Crystal Ballroom at the King Edward Hotel until this morning when I attended a Hollywood Suite event. I bumped into so many FOTMs! This was the first time I met Erica Ehm in personOne of these lovely people is actually a future FOTM
There was a time in my life when staying up and watching late night talk shows was rather important to me. The first late night talk show I dug was The Late Show with David Letterman. His irreverent sense of humour appealed to me, and he seemed to have interesting
Marilyn Denis was the second host of CityLine, following in the footsteps of FOTM Dini Petty. If you're looking for a deep dive into the career of Dini Petty, including plenty of CityLine stories, look no further than episode 662 of Toronto Mike'd. Marilyn hosted CityLine on Citytv from 1989
I first watched Six Feet Under in real-time. That is to say, I'd tune in on Sunday nights for the premiere of each episode. In the early 2000s, it absolutely blew me away. This summer, I introduced my wife to the HBO series, as she'd never seen it. It streams
When Six Feet Under first aired in the early 2000s, it was appointment viewing for me. Sunday night at 10pm I was there. I loved that show. My wife had never seen the show that currently ranks as my second favourite series of all-time, so last month we started watching
I used to spend more time watching sports on television. To be frank, I had more time for television! Today, I'm raising four kids, running my own business, and biking for 90+ minutes every day. That doesn't leave a lot of time for TV. As I write, late into my
I finally got around to watching the first episode of The Rehearsal, a new HBO series from Nathan Fielder. It was brilliant. If you've seen it, you've already laughed at the title of this post. Fielder's previous series was Nathan For You, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But it turns out
Back in December, I had Dr. Liza Egbogah on Toronto Mike'd to share the story of her experience on Dragon's Den. It was episode 965 and Dr. Liza spoke about how she struck a deal with Manjit Minhas but was "ghosted" over the following seven months. Dr. Liza told me
As a huge fan of SCTV, I really wanted to love Schitt's Creek, but I bailed after the first episode. It just didn't hold me, even with Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara and Get A Life's Chris Elliott! That was years ago, and now Schitt's Creek is the talk of the
Breakfast Television in Toronto has made a significant change to its on-air crew. Roger Petersen, who had been co-hosting with Dina Pugliese, has been relieved of his duties. Roger joined the Toronto Citytv team in 1999, undertaking a variety of roles including reporter, anchor and host of the car show
Ken Shaw, who has been on the air at CFTO / CTV Toronto for forty years, announced his retirement yesterday. His final newscast will be on January 6th. Why January 6? By working into 2020, Ken Shaw gets to make the claim he was at CTV News for parts of six
I watch a lot of pilots. I'll hear about a show people are digging, and I'll give it a try. More often than not, I bail after one episode because I'm not feeling it. Sometimes I'll give it three or four episodes before bailing, and if the show is as
Kevin Frankish, longtime co-host of City TV's Breakfast Television, announced this morning that Friday will be his last day on the program. Here's his announcement... A very difficult thing to tell you right now. https://t.co/fmzNXPNUZh— Kevin Frankish (@KevinFrankish) May 29, 2018Kevin hasn't yet disclosed why he's leaving
On March 14, 1987, Dave Hodge had had enough of the way decisions were being made at CBC Sports with regards to live sports programming. Here's footage of the last straw and the pen flip heard across the country. It really has become the stuff of legend, and I've been
My daughter is a typical teenager, only she doesn't turn thirteen for another three months. She had been urging me to watch 13 Reasons Why on Netflix because she wanted to talk about it. I had my marching orders, so I dove in. Initially, I treated the task as if
In September, I sat down with former-Citytv anchor Anne Mroczkowski for an episode of my podcast. She mentioned a video cassette of Speakers Corner outtakes the staff would watch at parties. I took a mental note that I had to see these outtakes. Brother Bill, a popular deejay at 102.
Rogers introduced Shomi as a Netflix alternative only two years ago, but is already shutting down the service. "We tried something new, and customers who used shomi loved it. It's like a great cult favourite with a fantastic core audience that unfortunately just isn't big enough to be renewed for
"A New York music executive in the 1970s hustles to make a career out of the city's diverse music scene." That's the description of Vinyl. With Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger on board as co-creators, they had my curiosity, but with the HBO seal of approval, they had my attention.
Ann Rohmer has been a fixture on Toronto television for decades. Before joining Citytv in 1986, she was a features reporter for Canada AM. At Citytv, she was the CityPulse Weekend sports anchor before joining David Onley as the first hosts of Breakfast Television on September 6, 1989. Ann hosted
Over six years ago, Ann Rohmer left her job at CP24 for a position in the aviation industry. (Note: It took me 6 years, but I finally have the untold true story about this retirement and will share it here another day.) Then, mere months later, Ann returned as if
CTV has announced that Canada AM will broadcast its final episode tomorrow. Canada AM first hit the airwaves on Sept. 11, 1972 as Canada’s first morning television news program and ran for 43 seasons. Your final Canada AM hosts are Beverly Thomson, Marci Ien and Jeff Hutcheson. Bell Media
I read every news item this morning with great skepticism. The morning of April 1 is when news organizations like to have fun with fake stories. When Breakfast Television posted this to their Facebook feed, I thought it was in very poor taste. What's funny about someone losing their job,
