brioux.tv: the podcast
Hosted by veteran TV columnist Bill Brioux. Each week, join in on an outspoken conversation with the actors, executives, and insiders that make the television industry pop. In each edition, Bill invites his guests to talk business, give up some great stories, and make it personal. Plus laughs.
Episodes
It was 65 years ago this fall that The Dick Van Dyke Show premiered on CBS.
The half hour sitcom was not an instant hit, struggled in the ratings hammocked between Marshal Dillon and Bachelor Father and was canceled at the end of its first season. Executive producer Sheldon Leonard refused to give up on the series, created by Carl Reiner, and went to New York to shop for another sponsor. He found a cigarette company ...
Back in 1996 I wrote a TV Guide Canada cover story on a local actress then making a name for herself on North America’s No. 1 series – ER. Her name is Gloria Reuben, born in Toronto and raised in London, Ontario. When I reached her by phone in Los Angeles, she had to interrupt the call to accept a bottle of champagne sent from then NBC west coast president Don Ohlmeyer. He was congratulating Reuben and o...
As a TV beat reporter with an eye on the ratings, I never could understand why the Global television network walked away from their top-rated Canadian original hit Private Eyes in 2021. This breezy, stylish detective series, reminiscent of past romantic hits such as Hart to Hart, was vaulting well over the million mark in viewers. Fans couldn’t get enough of stars Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson’s snap...
Back in the ‘70s there was this hippie musical Godspell that ran for over a year in Toronto. The cast was mainly unknown at the time but wouldn’t stay that way for long. Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, Jayne Eastwood, Rudy Webb, and future Letterman bandleader Paul Shaffer were all in on the act.
The story has been told bit by bit in other document...
As George Harrison once said, all things must pass. Which brings us to the fifth and final season of Son of a Critch, the CBC sitcom based on the early life of Mark Critch (This Hour Has 22 Minutes).
Last June as production wrapped I met with the four main castmates from the series -- Critch, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Claire Rankin and Malcolm McDowell -- at the CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto. There we shared a conve...
This week on brioux.tv: the podcast, meet a former child star who continues to impress -- Kathy Garver, best known for playing oldest sibling Cissy on Family Affair. The series premiered on Sept. 12, 1966 -- 60 years ago next month. It ran for five seasons and 138 episodes and starred Brian Keith as Uncle Bill, a Manhattan bachelor. With the help of his gentleman's gentleman Mr. French (Sebastian Cabot), he wa...
For Part Two of my conversation with "Programming Insider" Marc Berman, we continue with the back half of the Critics Quiz. What was the scariest thing you ever saw on television? Do you think the era of the late night TV talk show is about done? What was your most memorable Television Critics Association press tour moment?
Questions about those semi-annual network press gatherings dominate, including, "What show did...
If you are reading this, you probably already follow Marc Berman, a.k.a. "Mister Television." In 1997, while at Mediaweek, Marc created The Programming Insider, the daily, digital online destination for television and media. We've known each other since then through our affiliation with the Television Critics Association. We've both worked our way through platefuls of scrambled eggs at fancy Pasadena and Hollywood h...
Back in 2008, I had the pleasure of interviewing Peter Lassally, then winding up his extraordinary career in late night as executive producer of The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. For close to an hour, at his office deep within CBS Television City, Lassally regaled me with stories about Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Ferguson and many others.
In listening back to the conversation — for the firs...
In 2022 I had the good fortune to welcome Ronnie Schell as a guest on this podcast. Schell was a familiar face and voice on TV for decades, most prominently as Jim Nabors' army pal on Gomer Pyle, USMC. He was also the voice of Hockey Night in Canada's animated mascot Peter Puck, did many Disney movies and cartoon voice-overs. Early on, he even snuck in an appearance on You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx.
Schell was ...
In Part II of this two-part conversation, retired Globe and Mail TV columnist John Doyle returns to talk a little bit more about soccer but mostly about our shared fascination with television.
The two of us tackle several of today's biggest TV challenges. For example: are late night talk shows going the way of the western? Does Crave sensation Heated Rivalry live up to the hype? Is funding at a crossroads in Ca...
Can it be? Is that our John Doyle making sense of The World Cup in The Toronto Star? The former TV columnist at The Globe and Mail has come out of retirement to help explain why we are all suddenly mad for soccer as Canada continues to kick its way into contention.
This isn't the first time John has turned into a sports scribe. He has reported on three other World Cups as a journalist. Hey, he's not just anothe...
Yes, TV is Good. ABC declared it back in the '90s in their press materials. Now Alan Sepinwall has used the slogan as the name of his new podcast, where he is paired with fellow critic Kathryn VanArendonk.
I first met Alan back when that slogan was coined at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual network press tours. He wasted no time establishing himself in what was a competitive room as one of North Ameri...
There has been a lot of talk lately that talk shows, as we know them, are too expensive to last. The big band, the studio audience, the nightly monologue -- they all cost money.
Well, Tom Green thinks he has the answer. He's growing the talk show of the future now on 150 acres in Ontario on The Tom Green Farm (now streaming on Crave).
What about the guests you ask? Green has managed to persuade a whole barnload of fri...
This Saturday, May 30 at 12 noon, over 100 people in brightly-coloured orange wigs and vivid caftans will be storming Orangeville, Ont's city hall. Demanding more polyester? Lobbying for a clown college? No, this will kick off the 2nd annual Roper Romp Orangeville.
It's all thanks to super fan Sofie Weber, one of two guests on this episode of brioux.tv: the podcast. She tells me she has over 100 people set to dress u...
World's collide as the talky half of Jay and Silent Bob meets Murdoch Mysteries. Yes, it turns out that Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith's pal since Clerks, is a superfan of the CBC historical whodunnit Murdoch Mysteries. He was turned on to the series by his buddy, Matt Goehring. Mewes binged 18 seasons and 300 episodes in six months. All caught up, he and Matt have teamed with Shaftesbury on The Murdoch Mysteries Podscast...
Please welcome a veteran sports reporter and host who, in my opinion, has been better on his feet and in the moment than anybody else in a rink or on a field. I’m talking of course about Scott Oake, who recently announced his retirement from Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada. Correction – he reluctantly announced, because he never wanted any fuss made about his departure. He just wanted to go quietly,...
With the recent passing of Dinah Christie at 83 we go back into the vault for my 2014 conversation with the beloved Canadian entertainer.
Always a welcome presence on television in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, Christie was a touchstone for many boomers. I used to rush home from school to see the CHCH charades series Party Game where Christie, along with impish comedian Billy Van and "Captain" Jack Duffy, form...
Adam Growe is happy to be back behind the wheel of Cash Cab for a 10th season (airing Wednesdays on MUCH and streaming on Crave). Raised in Vancouver, the stand-up comedian had to re-take and pass his special cab licence in Toronto before shooting took place last October/November.
The series, which has been franchised in 40 counties, first took to the road back in 2008 in Canada. This new edition come...
Who’s a good boy? All the puppies on the new CBC/CBC Gem series Must Love Dogs, that’s who. Premiering April 20, the 10 episodes feature a couple I met last December at the CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto – Brady Oliveira and Alex Blumberg. They live in Winnipeg and are very dedicated to rescuing and finding forever homes for canines all across Manitoba.
Brady can catch any dog. He i...
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