James Bawden

So here I am watching the first episode of the totally compelling Israeli TV series Prisoners Of War.
When TV came along 60 years ago it was supposed to act as a window on the world for viewers.
But rather the opposite developed --Canadian networks prefer gobbling up U.S. series with some Canadian content tossed in every once in a while.
In fact I can't recall the last Israeli TV series I watched before Prisoners Of War.
And, yes, POW is brilliant on many levels. Super Channels is running the first two episodes back to back starting Wednesday July 10 at 8 p.m.
It's also somewhat familiar.
Because the equally fine U.S. series Homeland is actually based on it.
To really savour all the qualities of Prisoners Of War one must first be aware of all that Homeland is.
The two shows are vastly similar but also vastly different.
It's the difference between the American gloss and insistence on star turns by Mandy Patinkin and Clare Danes.
By contrast the Israeli original has very fine actors but they are totally unknown to me --and surely will be to most North American viewers.
The differences are totally cultural I should like to submit.
Because the problems with Palestinians are everyday occurrences to many Israelis.
Americans have only lately been tuned in to the horrors of terrorists operating on American soil.
The story of POW involves two Israeli soldiers coming home after years of confinement with the enemy.
In Homeland just one American returns --remember.
In POW Nimrode (Yoran Tolledano) is back with a wonderful wife and two very young kids. Also returning is Uri (Ishai Golan) who finds his fiancee has married his brother.
The biggest difference is the complete lack of a character who in Homeland is Clare Danes playing Carrie Mathison.
I like POW because it is made on the proverbial shoe string budget --actual locations and a complete absence of gloss make it even more compelling for me.
The returning captives have been away for 17 years rather than the eight on Homeland. Their adjustments are far more dramatically cohesive without the melodramatic turns of Homeland.
So I'd say watch POW after Homeland and you'll come to admire both series for what both are.
But I think you'll agree that POW is superior fare and somehow much more authentic.
PRISONERS OF WAR PREMIERES ON SUPER CHANNEL WEDNESDAY JULY 10 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.

So there I was at a fancy dress dinner and all the lawyers present wanted to know when Suits was coming back for its third season.
Well, now I know--Suits returns Wednesday July 17 at 10 p.m. on Bravo.
I've been watching this one from the beginning and I'm hooked on this stylish, sometimes brilliant look at Manhattan lawyers.
The show is actually filmed in Toronto although you'd never know it although I did spot a Beck taxi in the background in one scene shot out on Bay street.
First of all what impresses me about Suits is its look -- courtesy of production designer Tamara Deverell and director of photography Daniel Stoloff.
Suits doesn't look at all like a cable series --the photography gleams and the sets are as lavish as any on TV.
Of course I don't tune in for the sets. It's the smartness of the dialogue and the well chosen cast headed by Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams.
As the story opens it's just two days from the end of Season 2.
Mike (Adams) is struggling through a nightmare because mentor Harvey (Macht) now seems to hate him and wants him to leave the firm.
Suits has always seemed to me a bromance between Mike and Harvey and to see them at continual odds for the first episode at least is , well, different.
I guess I'm allowed to say both Rachel (Meghan Markle) and Donna (Sarah Rafferty) have continuing problems with Mike who is being advised to quit the firm.
But the highlight for me was the weird and wacky comedic journey of Louis who must even battle to retain his bran bars in the new corporate set up. Just listening to Louis (Rick Hoffman) complain about the firm refusing to supply him with Uniballs made the episode for me.
Also Louis and Donna get the best lines:
Donna: "Wait, is this the story from the breakfast club?"
Louis: "Im not familiar with that group."
On Suits everything has changed but everything seems the same.
First of all there's been a merger with a British firm as Jessica (Gina Torres) takes on a new partnership and essentially passes over Harvey.
But Mike now has a steady and ongoing relationship with Rachel --remember at the end of Season two he told her the dark secret he really isn't a Harvard graduate.
I think the series is now at high water mark --the actors now know their characters and know how to say that unique crackling dialogue (scripted by creator Aaron Korsh).
And Suits is that rarity --a summer series that would be great any time of the year.
SUITS SEASON THREE RETURNS TO BRAVO WEDNESDAY JULY 17 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.

I am utterly devastated by the news critic extraordinaire Gina Mallet has died of bile duct cancer, aged 75.
When I was head hunted by The Toronto Star to be the new TV critic in 1980 I was given the desk next to Mallet because as it was explained to me "nobody else wants to sit next to her".
She could shout out her disdain for the entire newsroom to listen as she berated editors and colleagues alike over our shared short comings.
The Star management didn't quite know what to make of her.
She joined The Star from Time magazine in 1977 and immediately let it be known she would not lower her standards just because a certain production was Canadian.
One enraged theater nationalist even stormed into the newsroom determined to slap her in the face.
Instead he got his bearings mixed up and lunged at entertainment editor Shelley Chusid before security guards led him from the building.
The more enraged the nationalists became the more tightly The Star clung to Mallet who truly relished her role as a promoter of quality theater.
Her background included stints at Oxford University and the Sorbonne and her knowledge often surprised people.
When Jeremy Brett (TV's Sherlock Holmes) casually mentioned he had been married to Anna Massey Mallet interjected :"Oh, yes, we shared the same nanny as children."
When she profiled Maggie Smith the actress stated it was just abour the best piece she'd ever read.
Lunching with Ralph Richardson at his London home and the grand old trouper was so taken with her he offered a ride back to her hotel --on the handlebars of his motor scooter which Mallet gratefully declined.
She had the dazzling ability to see a new play and be back in her Star cubicle by 11 p.m. pounding out a masterful critique of what was right and what was wrong.
I sometimes felt sorry for Star assistant editor Archie Williamson who bore the full brunt of her fury if he didn't deliver an adequate lay out for her review.
One evening staffers on the night desk looked over and saw Mallet punching Williamson in fury and shouting "I want the front page...I want the front page."
At her best Mallet produced just as exciting a read as her famous predecessors Nathan Cohen and Urjo Karda had in their prime.
Mallet eventually tired of the stress and went on to a career freelancing for The Globe and Mail until she was named restaurant critic of The National Post.
I never went to a single restaurant she wrote about but I always read the reviews as examples of great food literature.
I also enjoyed many lunches with Mallet and The Star's former film critic Ron Base where her opinions were as forceful as ever.
I was also delighted her great book Last Chance To Eat won the James Beard award for food writing.
In recent years she'd slowed down somewhat but remained as opinionated as ever.
Her death shocked me because it was so out of character.
I thought she'd be shouting and fighting to the end but she finally just slipped away ever so peacefully.

There I was way back in 1971, my first week on the job at the Hamilton Spectator as the kid TV critic, unsure of myself and pounding out a column every day
Then the phone rang and a voice said "Mr. Bawden in the Spec's TV listing yesterday you listed Gunga Din as running 89 minutes. I always thought it ran 91 minutes. Good night."
The next night there was another call.
"Mr. Bawden referring to Boris Karloff as a former Hamiltonian may be a stretch. I know he farmed in Caledonia which is not part of Hamilton."
And so on and on.
"That's Harry Purvis," whispered Jim Clements from the next desk --he wrote the theater reviews. "Don't encourage him. He thinks he knows everything about old movies."
But Harry did know everything. Born in Hamilton in 1924 he'd resisted every attempt to dislodge him from his family. A very shy man it would take me years before I actually met him.
In his tight circle he was legendary --he'd written for Photoplay magazine starting in 1947, Mad Magazine and he wrote all the movie listings for TV Guide Canada off the top of his head. For American TV Guide he had the hysterically funny Flicker Snickers.
He'd started making cast lists when he was eight and a typical Purvis list had dozens of names not actually on the end credits.
Purvis became a movie maniac at a tender age. Because Hamilton was such a compact city he'd get in up to eight movies on a busy weekend of viewing.
When I asked him what he was doing that day in August 1939 when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Steel City he blushed and said "There was a triple bill at the Empire I couldn't give up. I could see the King another time."
His three rooms on the top floor of the family home were jam packed with yellowing newspapers, copies of every movie magazine around , thousands of books and more than 10,000 movie stills.
Now that I think of it Harry would have been a perfect subject for the currently running TV hit Hoarders.
Every once in a while he'd venture forth from his nostalgia aerie for a live confrontation with chat show host Bob Bratina on CHML Radio.
The topic was to try to beat Harry on old movies but I don't recall many people ever did.
So wide spread was his fame that actual old movie stars tried to contact him for information on their careers.
After an hour on the phone with Harry supplying hundreds of lines of dialogue she'd mouthed over the years Ida Lupino shouted into the phone "He's too smart, too smart."
On an open line 1972 show with Harry Ginger Rogers said how happy she was to finally play Hamilton and Purvis interrupted to say "Ginger, you were here in vaudeville in 1927."
I understand Ginger departed that interview in a real rage.
Half way through an interview with Harry, Milton Berle started taking notes.
Harry was a walking encyclopedia of Hamilton history. He knew the guy who has sold the hockey team Hamilton Tigers to New York city to become the New York Americans.
He had even met Evelyn Dick "but I didn't date her of course". He'd watched as a kid as the first building on McMaster's new campus went up.
What I remember about Harry was his niceness. In one epic contest with Elwy Yost for charity Harry was beating the TVO star so badly he later allowed "I let him win a couple of questions."
I set up a radio interview between Harry and Barbara Frum for CBC's As It Happens but Harry blew it when Barbara went off topic. She was supposed to be asking about movie lines that were never actually said.
I think the best article he ever wrote was for The Canadian magazine when he talked about all the awful movie lines relating to Canada. I wish I could find a copy of that story.
The Star's Clyde Gilmour wrote a series of luncheon interviews with Harry I've got to reread --they were hilarious in capturing Purvis's unbelievable memory.
I did survive my years as the kid TV critic for The Spec partly based on the kindness of a stranger named Harry Pirvis.
His death last week aged 89 shocked me --I thought his love of movies would keep him going forever.
One of the last DVD's I sent him was of the 1929 version of The Letter which he'd last seen on his mother's lap at The Century movie palace, aged four. He remembered ever line save for one part --and that happened when little Harry fell asleep for awhile.
In fact I suspect he's still watching his golden oldies up there which would certainly be his definition of heaven.

After watching the first two hours of the latest British mystery drama Broadchurch I must confess it : I'm hooked.
This stylish and completely compelling new miniseries stars TV's Dr. Who David Tennant in his return to television --not counting an NBC pilot which he filmed in Chicago but which was rejected as being too good for American TV viewers.
And watching Broadchurch and Tennant in such fine form got me to thinking about why British TV can polish off these murder mysteries with such aplomb.
First of all this one is delightfully slow and deliberately measured.
On CSI or Criminal Minds a grisly murder gets solved in 42 minutes flat complete with pulsating rock music.
Here it will take Tennant a very deliberative eight hours to come up with something.
And during those hours we get to understand and analyze the actions of the main suspects as we'd never get in an American show or on one of those Canadian efforts tailored to be as non specific as possible about location.
In one interview Tennant says the actors involved worked away without knowing the identity of the suspect until they were filming the last hour.
In this story every lead character has an arc of some sort where we really get to know them and what makes them tick.
In Britain a huge audience of nine million viewers became compulsive watchers for the eight week run which is considered highly unusual in this era of channel fragmentation.
I found the acting superb particularly that of Olivia Colman as the policewoman Ellie Miller, a Broadchurch native, who has been passed over in the search for a new Detective Inspector played by Tennant.
He is perfectly cast as the brash but insecure DI Alec Hardy, a character with a string of past failures who does not treat his team as equals.
When Miller brings in a supper of fish and chips he begs off causing Miller to erupt "You don't eat fish and chips? What kind of Scot are you?"
Best scene in the series might just be the opening tracking shot as a family man leaves his picture perfect family to go to work and we follow him along the village's high street as he meets and greets with neighbors.
In that single shot the idlylic community's group personality is established.
I'm not giving away much by stating that the body of an 11-year-old boy is quickly discovered on the beach --the tension revs up thanks to the skill of director James Strong.
Chris Chibnall (Dr. Who) wrote it and it kept my attention --I'm wondering how North American audiences used to quick resolves will take to it.
One problem: Episode One premieres Sunday night at 10 on Showcase smack dab against Mystery Masterpiece's quality British series Endeavour.
The second hour is on Showcase Monday night at 10.
BROADCHURCH DEBUTS ON SHOWCASE SUNDAY NIGHT AT 10.
MY RATING: ****.

Was it really 16 years ago that I first ventured on to the Manhattan set of the new ABC morning series The View?
I think I was among the first TV critics to visit and it was all arranged by CHCH-TV which had picked up the Canadian TV rights.
The entertainment editor of the day at The Star was vehemently opposed and said the show had no chance of catching on.
"Who wants to see a bunch of women yelling at each other?" he said and refused to pay for my expenses.
So I went on my annual New York trip. It was very early in 1975 I remember. I wrote the story for The Star which got a high readership.
And that entertainment editor shortly faded from sight.
The gals were all friendly including the normally aloof Barbara Walters who executive produced it and was part owner.
Besides Walters and Behar the original Group of Four included Meredith Vieira and Debbie Matenopoulos.
I was lucky to see Behar the day I was on because at the beginning she normally was only on when Walters was busy elsewhere.
But gradually she became a regular because of her quick wit saving many impossibly dull segments.
I sat in the audience for the live broadcast and noticed at each and every commercial break Walters would summon the producer and read the riot act about the way the past segment had been going.
Afterwards I had a long talk with Behar in her dressing room. She asked me for a list of Toronto comedy clubs because she had yet to headline in Toronto.
Vieira was equally sweet but and Debbie was merely frazzled. She was there to give the youth point of view and wound up being the most conservative of the four girls.
And gradually The View took off. Big names like President Obama made it a must stop during campaigning.
Yjat morning Behar told me Regis Philbin had introduced her to Walters who was looking for a co-host with the ability to quip without a script. Walters saw some of Behar's monologues and promptly hired her.
Big news is simply this: did Behar retire gracefully or was she yanked?
At 70 she just doesn't fit the profile of a show that has seen ratings erosions in recent seasons.
Already Walters, 83, has announced she'll retire next year.
And right winger elizabeth Hasselback high tailed it over to FOX news after ABC sources said they found her attitudes too extreme.
Behar's separate show on HLN got cancelled after two seasons even though it was the weblet's highest rated series.
For ABC imitation isn't the highest form of flattery --CBS's offshoot The Talk is now inching up in the ratings.
For me I always enjoyed Behar's spirited exchanges and I think I'll send her an updated list of Toronto comedy clubs now that she's got time on her hands.

Of all the obituaries about the passing of Karen Black the best one summed up her talents this way: "strange and lovely".
Well, I actually met the lady, sat beside her at a Hollywood party for more than an hour and she was all that and more.
It was in June 1982 as part of the TV Critics junket in Los Angeles, very late at night and the Presidential Suite at the Century Plaza hotel was packed with the usual hordes of hungry critics and hangers on.
I remember I'd just been speaking to Donna Mills so the party must have been a CBS affair.
I needed some air so I took a seat on a settee near an open window and looked at the glowing lady sitting ever so serenely next to me.
Yes, she was Karen Black, who didn't look like she wanted to talk.
But I did. I told her I'd been in New york months before and was on the set of the daytime soaper Another World where I'd interviewed her younger sister. Named Gail Brown and Black immediately perked up.
As it turned out Another World was the only acting credit for Gail Brown who left the show at year's end and never again acted.
But playing the vulnerable Clarice on the show for several years had been enough for her. I often wondered in subsequent years what had happened to her.
"TV eats an actor up," Black said ."I should know. I've had to do a lot of it. Especially in the beginning."
I subsequently checked her TV credits which included stints on the F.B.I. (1967), Run For Your Life (1967), Even The Big Valley (1967). Imagine Black and Barbara Stanwyck sharing the TV screen!
She was also in one of prime time TV's strangest series 1967's The Second Hundred Years all about a prospector frozen in suspended animation in 1900 and returned to his family that includes his 67-year old son. The stars were Monte Markham and Arthur O'Connell.
"Yes, I do remember it," she said, her smiler fading fast.
Two years later she had her first smash movie role in Easy Rider brilliantly cast as "Karen".
In 1970 came the Oscar nomination for Five Easy Pieces cast memorably as Rayette. Then there was Drive, He Said (1971), A Gunfight (1971), Cisco Pike (1972), Portnoy's Complaint (1972), The Great Gatsby (1974) as Myrtle and The Day Of The Locust and Nashville (both 1975).
"I can't complain," she said her smile returning.
We talked about Nicholson, we talked about Gatsby a film she found difficult to make. But she won her second Golden Globe for it.
She even made a mainstream hit with Airport 1975. "Chuck Heston is a nice man," she said.
When we spoke she'd just received raves for Altman's Come Back To the Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean cast as a troubled transsexual..
The surprise is how many dozens of films she made in the next 30 years all of which I've never seen. She was working on a film with River Phoenix called Dark Blood when he died in 1993.
She was born Karen Ziegler in 1939 in Park Ridge, Illinois. "People think it's funny, two sisters one named Black the other Brown. We think it's funny, too."
Then she got up and vanished into the crowd. "Thanks for listening to me," she said as she went off with her husband LM Kit Carson.
She worked continuously until 2009 when she began battling cancer.
She is survived by her fourth husband Stephen Eckelberry.
I'm glad I met her even if it was for such a short time. I never saw her again. But when I recently revisted 1974's The Great Gatsby I thought how well she did as Myrtle.

So there I was chatting up a Grade 6 class last fall when a very precocious 11-year old girl asked me why most TV was so stupid.
Well, have I got a smart new series for her.
It's called Brain Games and debuts on National Geographic channel Tuesday evening at 10.
I saw two half hour episodes which I'm guessing will form the first hour.

But watching in 30-minute spurts is peffectly OK with me because there's so much information to take in.
But the 11-year old was right as the number of TV channels increases smart TV has all but disappeared from the dial.
In a desperate search for ratings of any kind dumb and dumber reality TV has taken over control.
That's why I'm high on Brain Games.
I'm thinking any Grade Six student would enjoy this --along with all parents. The first eoiside starts with footballs being tossed across the screen.
You the viewer gets asked how many footballs flew by. I missed the correct number and so will you.
The youthful host is Jason Silva who is a self confessed "wonder junkie" who just likes playing visual perception tricks on poor viewers.
But he does get our attention. And he makes his points about the way the human brain is wired and I'm not surprised he is a fellow of the Hybrid Reality Institute.
His partner in missing perception is trickster Apollo Robbins who takes simple card tricks to teach us that the human brain's peripheral vision just ain't what it seems to be.
Because Brain Games teaches us about human focus and does so in bite sized lessons that are fun to watch.
The activities are all staged on location and not in the TV studio. And people off the street get recruited to test their perception --most of them flunk out merrily I'm happy to report.
The concept was originally a three hour TV special that aired way back in 2011.
The basic theory is that the human brain is good at some things like differentiating face but pretty lousy in perception contests.
The brain tends to focus on what it considers important filtering out everything else.
Robbins shows with a simple card trick how passers by are so fixated on his deck of cards they don't see the winning card is stuck on his forehead.
This is a participation series --you cannot help but play along and get fooled. In one experiment passers by must decide which of two women is taller --the girls have been placed in a room where depth and perception have been diddled with.
In another experiment college students asked to focus on two cheerleaders fail to notice the other cheerleaders who come and go are really guys in drag.
My brain is telling me to keep watching and for once I'll have to go along with this perception.
BRAIN GAMES PREMIERES ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TUESDAY AUGUST 20 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

I sometimes feel all of American TV these days is composed of reality series.
And already reality shows are racing back early for fall previews to beat the conventional networks.
First up is Counting Cars which is actually the third spinoff of a History staple Pawn Stars.
The format is similar whether it is spin off number one American Restoration or spinoff two Cajun Pawn stars.
The first new episode revs up Monday August 26 at 10 p.m on HIstory.
And the very next night there's the granddaddy of them all Pawn Stars which returns the very next night (Tuesday at 9) also on History.
Like Pawn Stars Counting Cars is filmed in Las Vegas and looks at the goings on at Count's Customs which is an automobile customization business operated by Danny Koker --who first appeared on TV as a guest expert on --you guessed it --Pawn Stars.
The first episode looks at the effort to restore the car once owned by Bob Marley which has been disintegrating in a locker for the past two decades.
We get to learn all that goes into a restoration --how parts are hard to come by and when alternates can be used and when not.
We also get to visit with Marley's doting son Ziggy who is financing the reboot but insists hemp be used as much as possible in the interiors.
And all this is juxtaposed with the other restoration as an elderly couple want their Ford pick up redone but on a tight $20,000 budget.
We even see a guy come in with a prized antique buzz saw who wants it all gussied up so he can mount it over his fire place.
The format on these shows always includes an artificial deadline that must be met complete with mini biographies of the other contestants.
So we get to meet "Horny Mike" who is one of the great airbrush artists around, Roli, the shop's detailer, Big Ryan, a gargantuan parts expert and manager Scott.
I watched the first two new episodes which I thought chock full of history lessons. But this show hardly ranks as compulsively viewable.
Next night at 9 on History there's the return of Pawn Stars. Not my favorite reality opus but with Dog The Bounty Hunter cancelled I have to make do with other shows.
Also made by Leftfield Pictures and also filmed in Vegas, it takes place at the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop.
The undoubted star is amiable history buff Rick Harrison who always has his father in tow --I'm not sure who actually owns it. Then there's grandson Cory and Cory's best bud the hugely stupid Chumley.
Now I like watching this one because it offers bit sized nuggets of history.
Like in the first new episode titled "Lost And Found" we get to see the difference between a pirate's chest and a bride's dowry chest.
There's also a guy who walks in with lithographs of Chagall and Miro and experts are called in and we see what an astounding price these can fetch.
I like it when the experts weigh in and how they can spot a fake from an original.
The whole episode is shot in quick takes with lots of characters appearing and some of them get quite ticked off when the claims of authenticity are called into question.
These seedy characters are quite wonderful. I know the encounters are "fixed" somewhat but this one does not irritate me as Storage Wars often seems to do.
And I know Pawn Stars must be a hit because of all the imitations out there including Hardcore Pawn.
In fact Pawn Stars is so popular there are even guest stars --first up it's Steve Carell who manages to mix things up comically with Rick before making his hefty purchase.
COUNTING CARS RETURNS TO HISTORY ON MONDAY AUGUST 26 AT 10.
MY RATING: ***.
PAWN STARS RETURNS TO HISTORY ON TUESDAY AUGUST 27 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ***.

So there I was, my first time on the set of Knots Landing, expecting to interview a star or two.
"All are currently busy," cackled the Lorimar publicist.
"So Julie Harris will have to do."
Julie Harris will have to do?
The lady was a Broadway and Hollywood legend and over a hurried lunch turned out to be a delightful conversationalist.
What she wanted to talk about above all was her magical summer in 1960 as she appeared opposite Bruno Gerussi in Rome And Juliet at Canada's Stratford Festival.
"I live in Manhattan. It's very noisy there. But Stratford! At 9 every morning the lawn mowers would be powered up and that's all you'd hear every morning!"
"He was a perfect Romeo, robust, a street urchin type," she enthused. "The audiences were so enthusiastic. One of my greatest memories."
Harris who died Saturday at her Massachusetts home aged 87 was long retired from acting.
When I met her she was indignant at being asked the same question by packs of TV critics.
"They always ask 'What are you doing in a TV series?" she laughed.
"My answer? I tell them more people will see me in just one episode of Knots Landing than in all the plays I ever did on Broadway."
And Harris certainly had enough hits under her belt.
First up there was her star turn as 12-year old Frankie in The Member Of The Wedding (1950) which was turned into a movie several years later.
"It was easier pretending to be 12 on the stage. I was an old lady of 24 by then. Those movie close ups are murder. My partner was little Brandon De Wilde who really was seven when we started. He was word perfect in rehearsals. The first night in front of an audience he blinked when the curtain went up then became the character before thousands of people."
Harris won her first Emmy for playing hedonist Sally Bowles in I Am A Camera which later became a 1955 movie --the musical Cabaret came much later.
It was enough to jump start a Hollywood career that included playing opposite James Dean in 1955's East Of Eden.
"What Jimmy didn't know about the human condition. But it was director Elia Kazan who knew how to harness that phenomenal energy and drive. Jimmy and I planned on working together on stage and then he was dead the very next year aged only 25."
Harris later starred in such movie hits as Requiem For A Heavyweight (1962) opposite Anthony Quinn, The Haunting (1963) with Claire Bloom, Harper (1966) with Paul Newman and Reflections In A Golden Eye (1967) with Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando.
"Movies and I never quite clicked," she laughed.
"Next to Liz Taylor I was considered very plain indeed.
Instead she won four More Broadway Tonys for The Lark, Forty Carats, The Last Of Mrs. Lincoln and The Belle Of Amherst.
The lunch was over. The bells were ringing for the actors to rehearse the next scene.
"Time to be Lilimae Clements once more" quipped Harris.
And the most gifted Broadway actress of her time walked back into the TV sound stage and waved goodbye as she disappeared into the dark.

It was bound to happen after Canadian Pickers took over from American Pickers and with a Canadian version of Storage Lockers looming on the reality TV horizon.
Monday night at 9 on History it's Restoration Garage which is a Canadian Counting Cars for all extent and purposes.
In the Canadian version we get to see the inner workings of "The Guild", an upscale classics automobile restoration company located near Toronto --although the actual location isn't spelled out.
Counting Cars like most U.S. reality shows comes in at half an hour with two episodes usually strung together each week.
The difference in Restoration Garage is that it's a full often leisurely hour.
Again purists are going to wonder why such a series is on History but there are enough history lessons in the first episode to answer that question.
First up the guys are asked to consider restoring a classic 1953 "talking" car" with a smiling face named Mr. BP that was a safety gimmick used by BP Petroleum, to tour Ontario schools touting road safety.
The guys carefully examine the body and say it has completely rusted out. A full scale reboot would cost upwards of $80,000 but by buying a chassis from England the cost can be lowered to something like $27,000.
The Guilders are also trying to recreate from newly fabricated metals a classic Bugatti aerolite --almost everything has to be designed and built from scratch and the meticulous craftsmanship is a real wonder.
And we also see the gang truy out the reconstructed 1929 La Salle "Rum Runner" which conks out on iys first trial run and has to be towed back to the garage.
We're also introduced to the tradesmen who are an individualistic lot --and there's a female daring to join their ranks to see if she can make her.
Her decision whether or not to stay forms the biggest surprise of the first episode.
I'm certainly not an old car buff but I watched and got some history lessons I found fascinating. Whether or not the hour format is a little too leisurely will be answered when the ratings numbers are announced.
RESTORATION GARAGE DEBUTS ON HISTORY MONDAY AUGUST 26 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ***

Meanderings and mutterings from the messy desk of your friendly neighborhood TV addict:
CBC NEWS FLASH
CBC News's horrible summer ratings have engendered near panic in the venerable Corp.
Sure, it's summer doldrums time. And yes veteran anchor Peter Mansbridge is on vacation.
But who can say the anemic ratings which translate to around 400,000 viewers at 10 p.m. some recent nights aren't just plain awful.
By contrast CTV an our later is notching more than respectable numbers of around 1.2 million viewers.
CBC is using these weeks to test market a whole list of possible candidates to replace Mansbridge who at 66 suddenly finds himself the oldest TV anchor standing.
Don't get me wrong I think Mansbridge does a very good job.
But I think he needs some help. And some CBC staffers are telling me the Corp is already deciding a sidekick is necessary to rev up the numbers.
Amanda Lang is currently the leading contender for that job.
But don't forget in eras past Mansbridge has survived such co-anchors as Pam Wallin and Hana Gartner.
He's a cagey survival of the CBC news wars, no doubt about it.
CBC insiders also acknowledge that the 10 p.m. time slot has been wrong from the get go.
When CBC went up against CTV at 11 it mostly won those long ago ratings wars.
At 10 the total TV audience is far larger than at 11 but there's great competition from all those slick and hugely popular American dramas.
Another CBC problem is the terrible current format that resembles a near empty wine bar or disco.
And cost cutting has resulted in recent years in the retirement of many of CBC News top reporters.
One result has been CBC has been consistently behind CTV's lead in reporting the on going Senate scandals.
CTV's Robert Fife just keeps getting those scoops which once were the hallmark of CBC reporting. But no more.
LOOK HERE TCM
I usually look forward to Robert Osborne's introductions to the old classics on Turner Classic Movies.
But remember that seven per cent of the time TCM has to make a substitution on its Canadian feed because the cable weblet lacks Canadian rights.
So it made no sense for Osborne to go on and on about Claude Rains being cast in a scintillating Hitchcock mystery --obviously he was talking about Notorious(1946).
But our Canadian feed substituted Rains in Saturdaty's Children (1940).
And the other night Osborne raved about Charles Coburn starring opposite Lucy Ball and Boris Karloff in Lured (1947).
And the Canadian feed substituted Coburn in B.F.'s daughter (1948).
My obvious solution: why not drop Osborne's remarks altogether when a substitution is made so we poor Canadians can never know what we are missing?
BBC CANADA'S PROBLEM
Look, I rather enjoy BBC Canada even though I wish it could show more of those classy British serials we expect of the Beed.
But enough is enough. I've seen each and every episode of Top Gear a hundred times or so it seems to me. Ditto for Kitchen Nightmares and Graham Norton.
With the new fall season just around the corner here's hoping BBCC banishes those shows to the vaults forever.

I have to admit there are some Reality TV series I find irresistible (my current favorite is Love It Or List It) while there are many I simply stay away from.
No doubt about it I'll surely be watching the latest entry the Canadian made Extreme Collectors which premieres Monday September 2 at 9 p.m. on Slice.
I really enjoyed chatting up host Andrew Zegers on the phone after I watched the first episode.
He's very much at ease in front of the TV camera because of his years as the on-air appraiser for Antiques Road Show Canada.
I also know he was a partner in the Flamboro Antique Show which is one of Canada's biggest and best outdoors shows.
"Finding just the right guests as the most important part," Zegers says. "We wanted to concentrate on devoted collectors and not simply the ultra rich. We will have celebrities too --Corbin Bernsen is in the first episode. But for the most part these are people who are animated by their passion."
Zegers scoured collectors sites and magazines and then his team had to determine if the subjects were just right for TV.
One thing this show is not: an upscale version of Hoarders.
"In the first half hour you'll see a guy with a passion for kids toys and the meticulous care he displays his collection. Everything is laid out in an order and those fortunate to view it will wonder at his care and concern."
There's also a lady who has a hat collection --Zegers comes visiting with a hat expert who is amazed at some of the rare pieces any reputable museum would want to own.
"She has hat boxes nobody else has from the Victorian era. there's a real reverence there for her collection and the display is everything --it's guaranteed to strike awe into the viewer."
Zegers also visits with Bernsen who in a separate wing of his home has well over 8,000 show globes.
"We talk about what started him, what keeps him going. Again everything is so neatly displayed because he's so proud of his acquisitions. And he also asks me if I can figure out which one is the most expensive."
At the end of each segment Zegers gives an appraisal of the collection under investigation. I'm honor bound as a TV critic not to reveal the astounding prices here.
Tune to see which Bernsen piece Zegers predicts is the most costly --and see if he's right on or not.
In today's TV world most of the subjects are very savvy about appearing on the tub --plus they are there to talk about their passion and it's a fantastic platform for them to explain their life's work.
"Every collection is calculated," Zegers says. "The collections reflect the spirit of the collector. You just have to love their stories, the dedication."
In upcoming episodes Penny Marshall shows off her sports memorabilia while a Houdini collector shows off a multimillion dollar collection.
Mentalist Mysterion in Toronto shows off an action figures collection while a Chatham collector shows off his Fifties diner complete with vintage cars and gas pumps.
How about the beer can collection in Philadelphia numbering 83,000 items and still growing stronger?
"We've just grazed the surface," Zegers laughs. And by the way if he is related to actor Kevin Zegers it's only very distantly.
A first run of 14 episodes has been ordered for Architect Films (Deck Wars).
"More please" is my initial reaction.
EXTREME COLLECTORS PREMIERES ON SLICE MONDAY SEPT. 2 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

Pssst! Want to have a great success with your reality TV series?
Well, make sure the word "hell" is somehow included.
Such as Hell's Kitchen, Hell On Wheels. Oh, I forgot to include Hotel Hell in there. And there must be others.
But my fave is Highway To Hell which returns for its second season Tuesday September 3 at 10 p.m. on Discovery.
This one is wholly Canadian and wholly exciting.
I was getting ready to enjoy Labour Day when I noticed the first season marathon all day on Discovery and I couldn't stop watching.
This series is firmly set on B.C.'s treacherous Coquihalla Highway which constitutes 100 kilometers of winding roads smack dab through the Cascade Mountains.
This show just wouldn't work in the summer.
Instead it deals with often deadly crashes in the fall and winter caused by inexperienced drivers who panic when confronted by blizzards, slippery roads and roaring semis.
The result can be a pile up of dozens of cars or flipped semis that burst into flames endangering hundreds of drivers who get piled up behind the accidents.
The episodes seem to be shot at night which is when the biggest pile ups happen.
And it is personified through the experiences of jovial veteran Jamie Davis and his Heavy Rescue team.
He has a skilled team behind him including skittish Scott Bird who retired at the end of the First Season but now wants to get back at it.
Then there's gnarled Old Bruce who has his own way of doing things --often antagonistic he surely is not a team player.
And what about Jamie's stepson Brandon who is of two minds whether he wants to really get involved in the trucking business.
The first season was a huge ratings winner for Discovery Canada over its nine hours. And this season there are 13 hours with as many thrills as ever.
First up there's a semi that veered off an icy highway and turned over --the owner wants the truck saved if possible meaning a huge shipment of lumber has to be hand packed and carried out before the rig can be pulled to safety.
But the second accident is truly spectacular --a rig crashed with a huge shipment of food containers catching fire and burning through the night in a seemingly never ending blaze that ties up the highway for hours.
I mean these situations are not set up. The capacity for the guys to get hurt seriously is always there.
And I'm wondering about the TV crew called out in dangerous weather conditions because this stuff could never be rehearsed.
Anyhow Davis is very camera savvy. He knows how to show concern for his guys and the rigs he must save.
And I like Highway Thru hell because, well, it's so Canadian. At the end of the first episode he's wondering how long this motley crew can make it before he starts making personnel changes.
Mark A. Miller produced it, Dan Johnson co-wrote it with Miller. Todd Craddock is the chief photographer. and the producing company is Great Pacific Television.
HIGHWAY THRU HELL RETURNS FOR SEASON TWO ON DISCOVERY TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 3 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

I generally stay clear of TV cooking shows.
Most feature celebrity cooks ranting away either in studio kitchens or in restaurants where the presentation is everything.
Where the food came from is rarely is ever discussed.
So the new series Untamed Gourmet comes across as a real treat.
The second season of this bright, innovative series revs up on APTN Tuesday night at 8:30.
Untamed Gourmet ditches the kitchen formula altogether and goes out into nature with First Nations chiefs to show us where Canadian food comes from.
Each episode has a lyrical quality about it with beautifully shot location work and inspirational musings about the way food gathering has lost its true purpose in our lives.
The whole idea of aboriginal gourmet cooking seems at first glance to be a bit odd. But that's due to our ignorance about First Nations history and the unique interdependence between man and nature.
In the first new episide young Chef Aaron Bear Robe travels with guide Marc Eber through rural Ontario (mainly the Collingwood area) as they fish for rainbow trout and stop to gather fiddleheads, ginger root, wild rhubarb, dandelion greens and buckwheat honey.'
This is all framed within the larger context of stewardship of the land and respect for aboriginal history.
Plates are made of birch bark and Robe cooks everything up on an open fire as he muses about his own evolution into a top chef at his Toronto restaurant Keriwa cafe.
Each episode follows that format of a chef and a guide interacting with nature and collecting ingredients from the forest while being careful not to take everything so the plants can grow back.
We learn a whole lot about traditions and history and how this sense of being at one with nature was ruptured once the European settlements began.
In the second new episode "BC Interior Fowl" chef Ben Genaille ventures forth into Pemberton, and Kamloops.
His party is on the look out for duck, grouse and snowshoe hare near B.C.'s Shuswap Lake.
When he finds portions of slate he uses these as the plates. And his menu includes a rosehip salad, juniper berries, rattlesnake plantain, Oregon grapes, skunk cabbage and all served up in what looks like a sumptuous meal.
And Genaille reflects on what it means to be a First Nations chef, how his mother's gardens inspired him as a child and what he looks for in producing such a sumptuous feast.
There are six new programs this season --also featured are Port Alberni salmon, Northwest Territories caribou, Cowichan Valley mule foot hog, and Prince Edward Island lobster.
The co-creators are Cary Ciesielski and Ian Toews for 291 Film Company and the result is food for thought --Canadian TV at its best.
THE SECOND SEASON OF UNTAMED GOURMET PREMIERES TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 3 AT 8:30 P.M. ON APTN.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

Fall is the TV time for new series. But it's also time for a gaggle of new networks.
Check out Cottage Life the latest starter upper which is a new Canadian HD Channel now into free previews for the next few months.
And if you want to sample something totally different check out Cottage Life's new series entry The Fabulous Beekman Boys which debuts Tuesday September 10 at 10 p.m.
And I had a fine time interviewing one of the boys on the phone.
That would be former physician Brent Ridge who with his partner Josh Kilmer-Purcell started their own reality series in 2010 --only now is it coming to Canadian TV.
But I instantly recognized them as the couple who won the 21st edition of The Amazing Race.
"We started the series way back in 2010 because we had to," jokes Ridge.
"We had both been downsized in the economic crisis of 2009 and we needed to get some work, any work."
Formerly an ER doctor, Ridge had been a health consultant for Martha Stewart Omnimedia advising on all aspects of the medical world.
Kiler-Purcell had been an advertising executive by day and a successful drag queen by night.
The series can best be described as a sort of take off on The Egg And I as these two city slickers purchase an antique farm in upper state New York and try to launch a line of up scale products such as goat's milk soap.
One critic summed the experience up best calling it a sort of "gay Green acres".
The series which has already run for three seasons on American TV follows Brent and Josh as they try to cope with situations both are completely unable to handle. In other words confusion prevails.
"I really don't think we were prepared for what happened," Brent stammers. "In fact I now know we were totally unprepared."
In the first half hour episode the boys bicker like any other couple as they try to portion out the responsibilities.
However, Josh must keep his day job in Manhattan to pay the bills while Brent looks after the farm as best he can.
The big news is the publication of Josh's latest book but Brent can't make it to a public reading in New York city simply because he is too busy at the farm.
I tell Brent he was lucky the couple decided on starting up with a herd of goats who need minimal supervision.
"So far there haven't been any big vet bills," Brent is saying on the line. If the guys had bought a dairy herd they might have gone bankrupt with vet charges very early on.
But as Brent says "We were lucky the soap just took off. It's for sale everywhere. Even in Toronto."
About the farm: it was a huge estate founded by a Mr. Beekman in 1802 --he was the magistrate and one malcontent burned down the original barn necessitating the construction of a replacement that fairly dominates the rest of the property.
"We were told it was in this area that the wagon trains would set off for the west," says Brent.
There are other characters like the goat expert "Father John". And there's even a ghost named Mary.
My conclusion: the show is charming if more than a bit voyeuristic. The couple's quarrels do not seem staged for TV but are often fiercely real.
When I ask Brent if he thought he was making a statement about gay couples he says "Of course!"
And that statement is to show a couple behaving just like any two young marrieds. Because in June 2013 they actually married on the farm with Martha stewart dutifully in the audience.
Earlier they also won a cool million dollars on The Amazing Race despite set backs along the way and some injuries.
"We had a strategy and stuck to it no matter what," Brent explains. "We were certainly not the youngest or even the best in-shape couple. We trained a bit. And we figured out how we would handle the challenges. And it worked."
But Brent says The Fabulous Beekman Boys is over as a TV series because "we outgrew our roles. We're no longer innocent. The concept simply would not work any more. Time for another challenge I guess."
THE FABULOUS BEEKMAN BOYS DEBUTS ON COTTAGE LIFE TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 10 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

With its most popular series ever Saturday Night At The Movies cancelled after more than three decades on air TVOntario must rebuild its bridges to the vast TV audience out there.
A great starting point is the low budgeted series The Water Brothers which is just about the most relevant show on TV this year.
The second season revs up Tuesday September 10 at 7:30 p.m.
The half hour documentary is hosted, written and co-produced by Tyler and Alex Mifflin and for all I know they probably also did the catering.
The subject could not be more timely. And I was thinking all about this up at a friend's cottage where she showed me the shore line which continues to recede year after year.
Without water we're nothing.
First up this second season is a marvelous look at the sacred Indian river The Gangers.
Look, we've all seen images of the multitudes bathing in the river and the funereal pyres floating majestically in the flowing waters.
A billion Hindu people revere this river but the facts are somewhat jarring --here is one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
As it winds through the subcontinent the Gages and tributaries provide water for 14 per cent of the earth's population.
The tributaries upstream also provide the much needed water for irrigation projects and that's one of the big problems.
Downstream the mighty river is a flow of sludge and toxins, a bubbling cauldron that contributes to high gastrointestinal cancers. The Mifflins get everything right almost all the time. The images are powerfully and horrifying. And the Indian experts consulted on camera agree it is very sad indeed.
Tyler and Alex venture upstream to show the huge tanneries where chemicals like formaldehyde are dumped into the flowing water.
A total of 15 million litres of waste gets dumped every day but only six million is ever treated.
So far governments have shut down 100 polluting tanneries but the shots of the river show decaying bodies floating past the camera. The water seems completely black.
The film makers also visit a religious bathing festival and finds many participants simply do not believe the river is at all polluted. How could it be when it is so holy?
They even take a dip themselves and find the water "surprisingly very refreshing". At about this moment I stopped eating my lunch.
Tests of the water show it contains far more bacteria than should be permitted. The river of death is also itself dying.
The filmmakers may be very young but they're completely accomplished. They know how to hold a TV audience deftly using stunning images to tell their story.
This is the kind of series TV Ontario desperately needs and who cares about the minuscule budget.if the results are so accomplished?
This is TV for the mind and soul. The Toronto production company is SK Films Inc.
Other programs look at "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch" and there's a visit to a salmon farm in B.C.
THE SECOND SEASON OF THE WATER BROTHERS PREMIERES ON TVONTARIO TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 10 AT 7:30 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.

I enjoyed interviewing Nathaniel Parker on the phone the other day as the popular British TV star explained his reasons for starring in the new CBC-TV movie Still Life which premieres Sunday September 15 at 8 p.m.
In fact as I reminded him I once phoned him in Prague when he took over as the lead actor in the British TV mystery McCallum.
"That was 1998," Parker remembered. "So it was great to talk to him again.
Parker is the big name to entice TV viewers into watching Still Life.
He shines as Chief Inspector Armand Gamache who is investigating a suspicious death in the tiny town of Three Pines which is nestled deep in Quebec's impossibly beautiful Eastern Townships.
"When I was asked I was hesitant," Parker admitted. "But only because I had played an inspector in another mystery series as you well know."
He's modestly referring to his spectacular success as Inspector Thomas Lynley in 23 two-hour installments of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries made between 2001 and 2007.
"Then I read this script and both characters could not be more different."
Whereas Lynley was aristocratic Chief Inspector Amand Gamache is world weary, completely professional in his drive to find the killer, armed with two decades of experience at his job.
"The character made sense to me. It was a challenge."
Still Life was written in 2002 by Louise Penny.
As Parker notes her ninth book How The Light Gets In has just debuted number one on The New York Times best seller lists.
"It's a wonderful coincidence."
Filming took place last autumn with Parker as the star export complete with a gaggle of recognizable Canadian character actors including Anthony Lemke, Gabriel Hogan, Kate Hewlett, Patricia McKenzie and Dylan Trowbridge.
Veteran Wayne Grigsby (October 1970) wrote the taut script. CBC veteran Phyllis Platt is one of the executive producers and Peter Moss's atmospheric direction is a huge plus.
"We shot everything on actual locations," explains Parker. "The cast was wonderful, I didn't know any of them at the beginning. Also the crew was great. I had a fine time making it. In the last few scenes you can see the colors changing.
"I live in the English countryside. But the geography in the townships is different, the houses are farther apart and there are huge forests. It's really spectacular."
To explains Parker's very definite English accent a line was inserted stating Gamache had studied at Cambridge University.
"But as filming progressed some French phrases did creep in there."
It seems Canadian TV film makers are finally clueing in to the popularity of such British mystery imports as Inspector Lewis, Broadchurch and the recent run of Silk.
Over the years there have been a few tentative attempts at making a quality home grown mystery series --the outstanding example is The Murdoch Mysteries but it runs in hour long installments.
Way back there were CBC's attempts to forge a Benny Cooperman TV franchise with Saul Rubinek and more recently Wendy Crewson starred in CTV's two-hour Joanne Kilbourn mysteries.
As far as TV mysteries go Parker has guested over the years on such British staples as Poirot, Morse, A Touch Of Frost.
So he knows what it takes to forge a success.
"The emphasis is always on character," he explains. "That was the success of Lynley I feel."
As a TV stalwart Parker, 51, says he was never told why Lynley was cancelled."Our ratings remained strong but the entire production team defected to another network."
Undeterred Parker joined the cast of Merlin playing the character of Agravaine for all 13 episodes. He also impressed as Albert Speer in BBC's miniseries Nuremburg: Nazis On Trial.
Parker says he'd "certainly" be up for more stints as Inspector Gamache.
"It all depends on the ratings. The books were written with the seasons in mind so the next one must be filmed during the winter."
"I've only seen a rough cut of Still Life so far but I think it turned out. Yes, it's been an adventure so far."
STILL LIFE PREMIERES ON CBC-TV SUNDAY DECEMBER 15 AT 8 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.

So there I was in Steve Smith's dressing room talking to the talented comic about the last ever episode of The Red Green show.
Let's see now that would be in the spring of 2006.
"We've been through a lot together," smith said.
And boy was he right.
I first met him and his talented wife Morag when they were starring in the successful CHCH-TV series Smith And Smith.
It was 1979 and I was still the youngish TV critic at the Hamilton Spectator.
The next year I defected to The Toronto Star as TV critic but I still journeyed back to Hamilton to interview the Smiths who kept at it until 1985.
People don't realize it but Steve then wrote exactly one episode of Check It Out titled imaginatively enough "Dog Day After Dark".
Then came the series Me And Max. The wonderful CHCH veteran director Larry Schnur was there, I remember, and Morag was there as well as Max Smith and David C. Smith.
I can't remember why this only lasted one season but next up came Smith & Smith's Comedy Mill.
I loved that one, went on the Hamilton set several times.
The cast for this sketch comedy was marvelous: Peter Keleghan, Linda Kash, Mag Ruffman.
Schnur directed again but it only lasted two seasons as far as I can recall.
All this was a mere prelude to the incredible success Smith enjoyed as Red Green on The Red Green Show.
The Red Green Show started on CHCH before that station faltered.
Then it was shipped to London's CFPL station where it actually ran on Global.
Then Comedy picked it up. Finally CBC relented and it ended its spectacular run of 197 episodes.
And then the day came when I talked to Steve in his dressing room.
And I suggested he keep the Red Green character going through a one man show. He could travel with the set, I suggested. And I predicted Smith would pack them in wherever he played.
But he said no. He was ending the program because at the time he said he was beginning to hate the curmudgeon he had created.
But something has changed and Smith is now taking my advice.
Why now? I have an idea he simply got tired of being retired.
Also, Red is a character who is still popular thanks to the perpetual reruns. And Smith even has a new Red Green book titled Red Green's Beginner's Guides To Everything.
I remember after the first season I'd chatted to Smith and he was amazed at the fame of his show. He had figured he'd have a longer run with Comedy Mill but that one somehow never took off.
Anyway the Red Green tour: How To Do Everything starts February 14 in St. Catherine's and then proceeds across the nation.
I was at the taping of the final Red Green show sitting in the bleechers with an old friend. Sitting next to us were a couple who had driven all night from Michigan.
So I'd propose Smith add some U.S. tour dates as soon as possible.

Now available ahead of the new fall TV schedule: The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife
Both new U.S. sitcoms are getting the preview treatment by CTV which understands a new show needs all the hype it can get.
Now you can watch the pilots on CTV.ca and hopefully if you like them you'll tell your friends and create some buzz.
The Goldbergs is definitely a reworking of The Wonder Years with added twists.
Creator Adam F. Goldberg goes back to the 1980s when as a little kid he'd record all the mad antics of family which he recreates here.
Young Adam who is the family video diarist is played engagingly by Sean Giambrone in a pretty wonderful way.
The parents are meddling mom Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey) and grouchy dad Murray (Jeff Garlin), older brother Barry who is all of 16 (Troy Gentile) and the one invented character sis Erica (Hayley Orrantia).
And there's even a sexually active grand dad Pops (George Segal).
The line readings by the youngsters are especially funny. When mom says that one day she won't be here to dress him for school Adam shouts "You keep saying that but when."
Big item in the pilot has Barry deciding he's old enough to drive and then crashing into everything in sight.
The Eighties references are fun from Mom's bouffant hair style to the pretty awful interiors of the home. The music references are also right on.
The pilot does need some work but has most of the attributes for a hit. Perhaps the actors yell a bit too loud but chalk that down to youth full exuberance. Yes the actors try too hard but when they get the hang of the characters that will surely change.
Meeting the young stars at the CTV fall preview was great and the kids already knew that there was another sitcom way back at the dawn of TV called The Goldbergs so they've done their homework.
The show already has a lot of heart. Now it needs a dab of understated humor.
The other new series Trophy Wife is far more challenging.
Malin Akerman is pretty funny as the show girl who becomes the third wife of a much older man played engagingly by Bradley Whitford. Marcia Gay Harden nicely plays the original wife.
This is hardly a traditionally family sitcom. Instead it's an often bizarre take on the realities of contemporary marriage --the creators are Sara Haskins and Emily Halpern.
Direction from Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect) manages to blend realistic touches with elements of absurdom.
Akerman aces all the big comedy moments and it will be interesting to see which way this one goes.
By watching in advance you can become your own TV critic and spread the word to others. At least that's what CTV is hoping.
THE GOLDBERG PREMIERES ON CTV TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 24 AT 9.
MY RATING: ***.
TROPHY WIFE DEBUTS ON CTV TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 24 AT 9:30 P.M.
MY RATING: ***.

Super Channel's Prisoners Of War : Deja Viewing

Suits Back For Third Season

Remembering Gina Mallet

Remembering Harry Purvis

Broadchurch: British TV At Its Best

A Fond Farewell To Joy Behar

Remembering Karen Black

Brain Games: Smart TV Is Back

New Seasons For Reality TV

Remembering Julie Harris

Restoration Garage: More Canadian Reality

Meanderings And Mutterings

New Series Extreme Collectors Worth Watching

Highway Thru Hell: Welcome Back

Untamed Gourmet: Food For Thought

Beekman Boys: A Pleasant Surprise

The Water Brothers: Making TVOnario Relevant

Nathaniel Parker Shines In Still Life

Finally Red Green Listened To Me

You Can Watch CTV's The Goldbergs Now!