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Farewell To Canada AM.
CTV is making a terrible mistake in canceling Canada AM after 43 years.The show's understandably confused hosts switched off Friday morning with tears.The pioneering morning TV show was one of the few...
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I Remember Muhammad Ali
The day last week when Muhammad Ali passed I casually mentioned to a friend "Oh, I Met Him Twice".My friend stopped eating lunch and glared at me."You must be awfully proud?"And I answered truthfully...
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Global TV Plans A New Season Of U.S. Hits
I stopped going to Global TV's fall TV up fronts years ago,The reason is simply Global ploughs most of its money into buying up U.S. imports and never does enough in Canadian TV programming.I speak as...
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CTV's Fall Programming: New U.S. Shows Dominate
I always enjoy myself at the "CTV Upfronts" held annually at the Sony Center.Booze and dailies are served with abandon to thousands of potential advertising buyers and CTV also imports bunches of top...
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Rogers:More Americam Series
Rogers TV has announced a 2016 fall TV schedule full of American imports but low on quality homegrown scripted series.But is this really news?Basically the three Canadian networks hustle down to...
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I Remember Gordie Howe
As a little kid I'd watch Gordie Howe on Hockey Night In Canada in the dear departed Fifties.Hockey coverage in those days was in black and white and the hockey game only came on at 8 p.m. because the...
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Lawren Harris Receives His Due In New TV Portrait
Film makers Nancy Lang and Peter Raymont faced a seemingly insurmountable obstacle in their new documentary Where The Universe Sings: The Spiritual Journey Of Lawren Harris.Harris, a Group of Seven...
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Happy 100th Birthday To Olivia de Havilland
Movie icon Olivia de Havilland has turned 100.But she's not the oldest movie star I know.Patricia Morison is 101 and you can catch her singing her Kiss Me Kate hits on a new Facebook posting.But back...
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Remembrance Of TV Critics Junkets Past
I was pleasantly surprised to read on the wires then other day that the Television Critics Association convention is once again in full swing in Los Angeles.I thought it might have been ditched by now...
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TV Chatter: The Summer Edition
Here it is a sweltering August day. I should really be home enjoying the AC but here I am up on the Danforth in a friendly Greek restaurant with three best friends: a veteran actress, a producer who is...
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I Remember Arthur Hiller
So there I was in the Academy Awards library in July 1980 getting material on some of the personalities I was going to interview on the annual Television Critics Association press tour.And the man...
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Peter Mansbridge: Hail And Farewell
I started out as the kid TV critic for The Hamilton Spectator in 1971 and jumped to the Toronto Star in 1980.So I knew Peter Mansbridge before he actually became Peter Mansbridge.I mean before he...
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Migrant Dreams: What Canadian TV Is All About
The new Canadian TV season really kicks off Wednesday night at 9 with the TVOntario premiere of Min Sook Lee's brilliant and deeply disturbing documentary Migrant Dreams.It also debuts Thursday on...
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Undercover In ISIS: Great "Canadian" TV
I just knew I had to get a preview copy of the new Canadian made TV documentary Undercover In ISIS when I spotted the filmmaker's name: Martin Himel.I remember him way back in 1983 when I was TV critic...
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I Remember Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon, one of the most powerful women in American TV, has just died, aged 93.There will bow be a moment for you to ask "Who was Agnes Nixon?"She was so big it took me months to negotiate an...
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Road To Mercy: Must-See TV
I have to admit I kept postponing watching my screener of the new CBC-TV documentary Road To Mercy.The subject is mercy killing and I'd lost a dear friend last year (journalist Eric McGuinness) who...
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Bugs On The Menu: A Tasty TV Treat
I made sure I had my breakfast before clicking on the preview DVD of Bugs On The Menu.I was afraid the subject matter might put me off food for the rest of the day --the increasing substitution of...
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Shomi Couldn't Show Me
Hot flashes and cool conclusions from the messy desk of a veteran TV critic:At the recent block party in my neighborhood I asked friends who if any subscribed to shomi or CraveTV.Nobody seemed to know...
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The Brain's Way Of Healing: TV For The Mind
It's becoming increasingly difficult to find a TV documentary as challenging as The Brain's Way Of Healing.This hourlong edition of The Nature Of Things premieres Thursday night at 8 on CBC.As TV...
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The Brain's Way Of Healing: TV For The Mind
It's becoming increasingly difficult to find a TV documentary as challenging as The Brain's Way Of Healing.This hourlong edition of The Nature Of Things premieres Thursday night at 8 on CBC.As TV...
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