I Remember, I Remember

I lost a lot of friends in the entertainment business in 2015.
Here's my personal tribute to some of my favorites:
I remember spending an afternoon on the 1987 set of TV's Masquerade which cast Rod Taylor in a spy caper thing he cheerfully described as "very silly but it pays well."
Hard to believe he was 84 when he passed in January.
I met the great redhead Maureen O'Hara on the set of a TV movie remake of The Red Pony filmed north of Toronto in 1971.
At 51 she remained a red haired beauty with great anecdotes of starring in such classics as How Green Was My Valley and The Quiet Man.

She was 95when she died in her sleep in October.
I met Alex Rocco on the set of the 1975 CBS adventure series Three For The Road which only lasted 13 episodes.
"Did you really kill a man," a gal reporter from Pittsburgh asked him and he nodded creepily.
He died in July, aged 79.
"I hate that movie Gigi," grinned Louis Jourdan when we lunched in Century City in 1971.
"People think it's the only thing worthwhile I've ever done."
Jourdan died in February, aged 93.
I met Coleen Gray in 1971when she was making an episode of The Bold Ones as a guest star and she laughed "I used to work with Stanley Kubrick. Now this."
She died in August aged 92.
I always enjoyed visiting the set of Eight Is Enough and meeting up with the warm and wonderful Dick Van Patten who was full of stories of toiling on live TV on the series I Remember Mama.
He died at 86 in June.
I remember watching Christopher Lee shooting additional scenes for Airport 1977 --needed because the fim wasn't long enough to be sold to NBC in a two-hour slot. And I told him he didn't look at all like Dracula.
He died in June aged 93.

I enjoyed a lunch in 1974 in Hollywood with a gaggle of famous RKO leading ladies including the queen of film noir Lizabeth Scott long retired from acting to become a successful L.A. realtor.
Scott died in January at 92.
I remember a long lunch at thje Universal Hilton hotel with the quiet, unpretentious producer Harve Bennett whose TV credits included Mod Squad and the Star Trek films.
That day he was peddling a 1991 sci fi series Time Trax with Dale Midkiff who was also present.
Retired since 1998, Bennett died in February at 84.
I first met actress Elizabeth Wilson in a New York hotel in 1972 where she was promoting her new sitcom Doc which lasted two seasons on CBS.
Always busy on stage and in films this wonderful character actress died in May aged 94.
I remember being on the set of Gilmore Girls and complimenting Edward Herrmann on how great was as the very rich father.
He died actually in December of last year at 71.
I met Kevin Corcoran at one of the Disney press launch parties --he'd spent his career working on the Disney lot.
He died in October at 66.

Richard Dysart I surely remember from the times I was on the set of L.A. Law which ran from 1986 through 1994.
He died in April aged 86.
I shared a great high tea with Joan Leslie at the Pasadena Ritz Carlton hotel in 1992 --and the great star of Yankee Doodle Dandy and High Sierra did not disappoint with great anecdotes about working with Cagney and Bogey.
She died in October aged 90.
Of course I can't forget Leonard Nimoy who was bright and scholarly and took time to answer each question thoughtfully.
He died in February aged 83.
The only time I met Jackie Collins I was surprised she was a fan of Margaret Laurence and Margaret Atwood.
She died in September at 77.
I had breakfast in the posh Polo Lounge with Anne Meara when she was starring in the short lived 1975 CBS legal series Kate McShane.
She died in May aged 85.

Canadians? I'll start with filmmaker Paul Almond who made a greatish black and white TV version in 1961 of Macbeth starring a young unknown Sean Connery.
He died in April aged 83.

And then there was the fine actress Alberta Watson who I first met on the set of In Praise Of Older Women (1969).
She died in March at 60.
I first interviewed Don Harron in 1977 as he began a five year tenure as host of CBC Radio's Morningside.
He died in September aged 90.













 

Murdoch Mysteries: A Christmas Celebration

I remember the first time I visited the set of Murdoch Mysteries.
It was in the summer of 2008 and what had originally been three two hour TV mysteries starring Peter Outerbridge (and shot in Winnipeg).
Then the concept went to weekly hours with a new Murdoch in the person of Yannick Bisson who I'd first interviewed when he was the 15-year old star of the CBC-TV flick Hockey Night.
By that time Outerbridge was making another series for Shaftesbury Films --ReGenesis.
Years later City dumped the series not because it wasn't doing well but because Rogers was about to gorge on NHL hockey and no longer needed MM as Canadian content.
City's loss was CBC-TV's gain and the pleasant Victorian era thriller has been thriving ever since.
Monday night at 8 there's a n elongated two-hour edition called A Merry Murdoch Christmas.
The guest stars include Kelly Rowan from The O.C. and Ed Asner and Downton Abbey's Brendan Coyle.
Watching it was a pleasure and a reminder we sometimes take this fine Canadian show for granted.
Certainly Outerbridge played the lead with a lot more anguish --0Bisson comes across as a suave leading man rather than the Catholic trapped in a Protestant city.
The women may seem a trifle too pretty for Victorian ladies --makeup and lipstick back  then was not allowed unless one wanted to be seen as a brazen hussy.
But the show has done an awful lot of hunting for original Victorian exteriors and interiors --when I was visiting I was told Hamilton often subbed as an appropriate historical location.
Tonight's installment A Merry Murdoch Mystery is a bit on the ghoulish side for this time of year --the sighting of a mad monster with horns might give younger viewers nightmares.
But Michael McGowan's direction is sprightly enough and most of the bases are covered as Yultide entertainment including a look at what were deemed appropriate gifts for children in those days.
Asner is in fine form as Kris Kringle who may or may not have actually stolen a cache of children's presents to give out as his own.
Rowan is the suddenly widowed wife of a large magnate apparently murdered with a host of suspects as he was universally hated.
One oddity has a little girl named Mary Pickford entertaining an audience and while it is true "little Mary" was born in Toronto in 1892 and lived on University Avenue I'm not so sure she'd still have been in the city after 1900.
But it's a good touch, I can't actually argue with that.
The amalgamation of murder mystery and Christmas celebration is an uneasy blend but fans of the show should keep watching until the end.
The amount of snow in the outdoor scenes leads me to believe it must have been filmed last winter --we've hardly seen the white stuff this year as yet. Am I right.
When one thinks about it the fact that Murdoch Mysteries has been Shaftesbury Films's longest running hit is a bit odd.
After all Shaftesbury also made TV's Joanne Kilbourne mystery movies with Wendy Crewson which one would have thought might have been easily transferred to weekly TV but nothing ever happened.
And as Crewson told me the last time we spoke:"That train has left the station."
So let's continue to celebrate Murdoch as an example of a well made home grown series on all fronts in an era when quality Canadian fare is fast disappearing from Canadian TV.
A VERY MURDOCH CHRISTMAS PREMIERES ON CBC-TV MONDAY DECEMBER 21 AT 8 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

Ron James Shines In His Latest CBC-TV Special

 Speaking about his latest New Year's Eve Special (on CBC-TV (December 31 at 9 p.m.), Ron James chuckles that "it certainly was the hardest to write."
When he sat down with his writers in July NDP leader Tom Mulclair was way ahead in the polls.
"But then Prime Minister Harper took the lead. And then Canadians wound up with Justin Trudeau as our new PM."
Says James: "We had to write three different beginnings. Because anything could have happened --and it did!"
And then there's the matter of Donald Trump.
"He started out as the clown, then morphed into something far more deadly, it was difficult mocking him as he sank into the dark side."
Other firsts for James: Alberta turned orange after four decades of Toryisms, Bruce Jenner turned into a woman and captured every moment on his reality series, and the loonie began falling.
Says James "There is comedy in everything but our Canadian sense of comedy is very different from American.
"For one thing we're 33 million and they're 375 million. It's a matter of proportions, it really is."
Last year's CBC special was taped at Niagara Falls but this year "it was Peterborough's turn, specifically Showplace Performance Centre. A fine city with a great cross of working class, intellectuals, young kids, the audiences were special."
And as he always does James taped two sold out shows (Oct. 25 and 26)  "in a venue that's a bit more intimate which really helps my kind of comedy. And as usual there was certainly a full script but I went off on my riffs as the audience warmed to some of my themes."
Think of it --an hour of TV with a guy just standing there making jokes.
But James is an accomplished veteran at assessing the mood of an audience and playing off them.

I think he's right on in the brutal new practice of  "internet shaming".
And then there was the summer rafting expedition in the Beaufort Sea.
"This was something David Suzuki told me to do and a decade later I took his advice and went with my daughter and we were forever grateful."
But --and I'm pressing him --doesn't he miss his wonderful weekly comedy series cancelled by a previous CBC management who were, in turn, cancelled.
"What I miss are the days in the writer's room when we were building scripts. The talent I met on those occasions was awesome."
In fact James says "This year I had enough material for two more shows."
And the appearance of a Canadian comedy show on Canadian TV is so unusual you may want to tape  this one for future viewings.
James says being born in the Maritimes is one reason why he always sees the funny side of life. "Some times it's bitterly funny. It's a way of thinking and I'm lucky I never lost that."
Few of his fans realize it but he did the obligatory stint in Hollywood guesting on such series as Wings and Get A Life.
These life experiences he rolled into the brilliant stand up TV special Up And Down And Shaky Town.
James is momentarily silent when I tell him a Grade Six class was watching his classic 2001 Global comedy TV series  Blackfly and loving every minute of it.
"I think I'll be back in another series, I really do. You learn from all life experiences."
These days he's still out on the road for 35 to 40 gigs a year which will include Caesars in Windsor and many smaller cities "where audiences are hungry for Canadian comedy. Life on the road, it's been a blessing for me."
In fact James says he's already beginning collecting stuff for next New Year.
"It's never too late to begin thinking about the next one, I can tell you that."
RON JAMES NEW YEAR'S EVE SPECIAL PREMIERES ON CBC-TV THURSDAY DECEMBER 31 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.


"

Is This The End For Hamilton's CHCH-TV?

I remember it was the day after Labor day, 1971, that a scared, introverted 25-year old boarded the Grey Coach express on Elizabeth Street for Hamilton.
I was that scared kid --the day before I'd said farewell to my friends in the M&D department at The Globe And Mail where I'd toiled for several summers as a utility critic taking all the assignments nobody else wanted.
Just days before I'd taken tea with the great screenwriter Dalton Trumbo who autographed a copy of his memoirs for me --I have it right here.
Another day I got to interview the new, unknown star of the blazing Canadian film hit Goin' Down The Road and every time I've seen Jayne Eastwood since she still shouts "We're still here!"
But at summer's end I had no permanent job just a vague promise from the editor Donn Downey he'd be using me as much as he could, budget permitting.
And then I got as telephone call from Paul Warnick, feisty ME of the Hamilton Spectator who had just lost TV critic Jack Miller to The Toronto Star.
He'd been reading my stuff, asked me if I liked TV and over drinks at the Toronto Press Club offered me a great future.
I took it and boy was I lucky.
A few months later The Telegram collapsed and one day in the Spec newsroom over 40 Tely types lined up to get jobs --I think two reporters were finally hired.
And, of course,  as the newly installed TV critic of The Spec I had to cover TV in my own backyard.
That meant CHCH-TV, Hamilton's sole TV station.
In those days it was a cocky independent servicing a huge swathe of southern Ontario.
In 1971 southern Ontario viewers had their choices of a CBC station in Toronto (CBLT), a CTV affiliate (CFTO), and CHCH and that was about it.
TVOntario was just about ready to start.
If you had a powerful enough antenna you could also reach CBC's Barrie affiliate CKVR and CTV's Kitchener affiliate CKCO-TV.
And then there were the Buffalo stations: CBS's WBEN-TV, Channel 4, NBC's WGR-TV, Channel 2, and ABC's WKBW-TV, Channel 7 plus a wobbly PBS affiliate, Channel 17.
That was it.
There were no cable specialty channels, no DVD, a few people had VHS but the cost of buying a movie was about $29.95.
I guess I'm the only TV critic around who can boast about actually going on the set of such CHCH classics as Party Game, Ein Prosit, Junior Hockey, The Palace , and, of course, Tiny Talent Time.
 CHCH didn't have much money but it took its Canadian content requirements very seriously indeed
The thing is in the Seventies Hamilton was booming.
There was Stelco, Dofasco, Westinghouse, General Electric.
Hamilton factories were operating at peak capacity and the city even had an energetic downtown with five huge movie palaces: Capitol, Palace, Hyland, Century, Tivoli plus twinned theaters at Jackson Square.
The Spec at over 140,000 was booming, too, it asked more for a full page ad than did the mighty Toronto Star.
I remember interviewing Bill Shatner on the set of Party Game. Captain Kirk reduced to doing Party Game?
"I need money for alimony," he said.
CHCH also bankrolled Pierre Berton's nightly half hour interview --Berton was so adept he'd do up to eight half hour interviews in one taping session.
And then I met the man responsible for all of CHCH's success.
His name was Sam Hebscher and he bought the movies that ensured the station's ratings domination for decades.
He'd started out running movie theaters in Ottawa, switched to Hamilton where he ran both the Palace and Capital theaters.
Hebscher remembered one matinee in 1942 when the Palace was running Mrs. Miniver.
"I had to stop a couple in the back row who were petting heavily and getting quite frisky. It was Evelyn Dick and her latest boy friend."
Originally Hebscher bought hundreds of old Warners titles and stored the cans of films in the Barton Street ice arena which he also ran.
When newer releases became available he made sure CHCH got them first.
"What I did," he told me" was to read the movie ads every day in the Toronto papers. When a movie hit the drive-ins I knew it was time to pounce."
Thus CHCH had the world premieres of The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, Gone with The Wind, every blockbuster one could name.
I remember telling Sam that at an NBC press conference in Burbank I was attended the president announced the world premiere on TV of Gone with The Wind and I had to tell him CHCH had run it the week before.
So with such a ratings domination why did CHCH sink like a stone?
I think in the late Seventies it was a decision to move away from movies --CHCH bought the entire new series of Lorimar Productions (outside of Dallas which CBC owned up here). True, there were some block busters like Knots Landing but also many stinkers.
The station lost ratings points quickly and never recovered. Competition from new cable networks really hurt. Hebscher retired and soon there was nothing left but stuff nobody else wanted to  buy.
And now it could be game over for CHCH which made many promises asout promoting local news.
Now many of the newscasters have been dismissed and we could be watching a first: a local TV station folding.
I was in on the glory days but I'm not liking what I'm seeing--the slow, inevitable disintegration of an important part of Hamilton's cultural heritage.


 



 

The Curse Of Clara: A Christmas Treat

 Christmas on TV has always been a very strange time.
The American networks foist on us animated specials which are decades old and feature the singing talents of such delightful but deceased stars as Burl Ives, Jimmy Durante and Bing Crosby.
So may I suggest something new this Yuletide.
It's the simply smashing Canadian animated featurette The Curse Of Clara which premieres on CBC-TV Monday December 14 at 7 p.m. Got that?
Instead of Crosby and Ives how about some genuine Canadian superstars in the presence of Phil Esposito, Hockey Night In Canada's Bob Cole and Karen Kain along with E.N.G.'s Sara Botsford and talented Saara Chaudry (Degrassi) as Vickie/Clara.

To get the proper historical perspective I phoned up  writer/producer Vickie Fagan who fessed up that "The story is indeed partly autobiographical
"It starts in the summer of 1972. I was from a small town in Ontario and I wanted to study ballet. And I was a student at the National Ballet school (1972-77).
"I did indeed get an offer to dance Clara in The Nutcracker. And I was told the story of the curse --that Claras never get to do ballet as adults."
Interpolated is the stirring saga of the Canada-Russia hockey series.
I must add here that as the very young TV critic for The Hamilton Spectator I got the only one-on-one interview with the late/great announcer Foster Hewitt at his radio station CKFH as he prepared to leave for Moscow.
Fagan thought she had the making of a true TV classic and proved it when she went out and got Veronica Tennant as producer.
Fagan wrote the TV script with Jeremy Diamond "which was tough because everything has to happen in just 22 minutes."
Then came the choice of animators and she chose well in directors M.R. Horhagher (I hate You Red Light) and Mike Valiquette (Captain Canuck).
Smiley Guy Studios has produced outstanding animation --the characters drawn completely reflect the personalities.
Fagan enjoyed the trip backward. "I was there until I was 17 and I sort of burned out on ballet.I wanted a more normal life and that included other forms of dance."
She agrees the dance mistress "is a compilation of many ballet teachers from that era. Discipline was the key word. I'm not so sure it's like that these days.
"But I still say ballet is part of my DNA."
When told the story "absolutely must be animated, her first thought was to pitch it to CBC "and we were accepted!"
Then came her stint at Smiley Guy "with 30 animators. And the way they got right the dance steps --it was perfect.
Then came time in the recording studio with such stars as Esposito who was very nervous, it's not his thing. And we were all nervous about meeting this larger than life personality. I asked him if he ever missed hockey and he said 'I miss it every day.'"
My fearless prediction is that The Curse Of Clara is going to be TV's next big Christmas perennial.
THE CURSE OF CLARA PREMIERES ON CBC-TV ON MONDAY DECEMBER 14 AT 7 P.M. (REBROADCAST DECEMBER 25 AT 5:30).
MY RATING: ****.

The Thread: Must See Documentary on TVOntario

What a surprise --director Greg Barker's new documentary on the Boston bombings, titled The Thread, comes in the month when TV usually showcases reruns of old Christmas specials.
That makes The Thread easier to catch, I'm guessing.
It premieres on TVOntario on Wednesday December 9 at 9 p.m. Got that?
As one who worked for four decades within the "old journalism" --newspapers to you older folk --I was astonished at the impact of internet users as the bombing unfolded live on TV.
In ye olden times people would be turning to live coverage on 24/7 news channels.
No longer.
By 2013 many younger people turned instead to the internet and resorted to a sort of "vigilante justice" as they debated among themselves who the killers might be.
They were trying to aid the police, of course, but in several instances managed to tar innocent people.
On such services as Reddit they corresponded among themselves and formed a sort of electronic village council not bound by the usual standards of libel --in effect they became part of the event and drove the rumors and stories in several wild directions.
Now The Thread would not work so brilliantly without the access Greg Baker enjoyed among key access among the leading protagonists.
My first reaction: these are well spoken young people who were soon leading a whole phalanx of bloggers and writers and they scarcely understood how powerful they were for the first few days after the bombings.
There's the shy, introverted screenwriter living in a modest basement apartment who got the job of directing the traffic on Reddit and was completely surprised by the hate speech accusations he tried to delete.
Superb editing gets us right into the chase and we see how wrong conclusions can have a devastating impact.
Of course we also know who had done the killings --but in real time this electronic detective tale winds all over the place.
The tension builds and builds as the amateur detectives spout out theories, point fingers, speculate on people based on media pictures --a burly guy with a giant back pat is quickly spotted in one news clipbut it is a false lead.
One high profile suspect is twentysomething Sunit Tripathi because he has gone missing, his family is worried, and he has ethnic features --but as it turns out he committed suicide before the bombing took place.
After such a barrage of unfavorable publicity the Tripathi family is devastated.
The race for scoops makes for many ill informed leads leaking out and becoming accepted as fact.
Barker does an exceptional job of stitching together the interviews with participants who were making up a new form of journalism as the news unfolded.
Baker won an Emmy for his documentary Manhunt  on the CIA's attempts to capture Osama bin Laden.
I fearlessly predict The Thread should win him a second.
THE THREAD PREMIERES ON TVONTARIO WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.
 

I'll Miss Jim Perry

Part of my decades long job as TV critic was to interview the game show hosts.
And at the top of my favorites list was Jim Perry who has died at 82.
In 1974 I had to venture to CFTO's cavernous studios to report on as new series called Definition which clearly was the bastard child of CHCH's Party Game.
Perry was the amiable host and that day he was taping five half hour episodes with funstress Rose Marie and Richard Deacon.
There was a guy on set with a laugh machine turned up to high volume and every time Perry said something funny the air waves would explode with buckets of canned laughter.
And Definition ran late afternoons on CFTO from 1974 to 1989.
Perry's big gig of the year was hosting the Miss Canada pageant a role he held from 1967 to 1990.
At the end of the broadcast Perry would warble "The Fairest Girl In Canada" to the beaming winner.
He also took over from Charles Templeton as host of the CTV game show Headline Hunters which was a sort of poor man's Front Page Challenge.
"I was born (in Camden, New Jersey," he told me.
 After duty in the Korean War he decided to become a vocalist and his first big gig was replacing Eddie Fisher as staff singer at Grossingers in the Catskill Mountains.
"Then I was straight man to Sid Caesar all over the place--I still used by real name Jim Dooley. When I joined AFTRA there already was a Jim Dooley on the books so I took my mother's name of Perry.
But his first game show hosting appearance was in Canada on Fractured Phrases in 1965.
Back in the U.S. he hosted the game shows Eye Bet and The Money Maskers later called Bingo At Home which ran in syndication from for 13 weeks in 1969.
"My family moved to Canada for a bit --I still have dual citizenship."
He was back in the U.S. as host of Card Sharks and in 1969 was the announcer for the short lived That Show starring Joan Rivers.
When he took over Definition in 1974 "I had no idea it would last 15 years.
"For the first few weeks I was the announcer and when Bob McLean left I replaced him--Dave Devall became the announcer --he was also the weather guy."
In 1978 he was cast as host of NBC's Card Sharks --"I did two pilots but was so busy in Toronto Bob Eubanks did the daytime version and Bill Rafferty the night time edition."
"I even did pilots for two game shows that never made it to TV: Casino and Twisters."
Starting in 1982 Perry fronted the revamped Sale Of The Century which lasted until 1989 --he also fronted a syndicated night time version.
It was inevitable that he would appear in the 1980 TV flick The Great American Traffic Jam opposite fellow hosts Wink Martindale, Jack Clark and Art James.
"I spent a  decade commuting between L.A. and Toronto," he joked. "The total was ten different game shows. Try matching that."
I always found him a swee,t unpretentious guy. One one of the L.A. TV Critics Tours when he was promoting one of these shows I  walked into the interview room and tried to trick him with confusing questions.
"I recognized your Canadian accent," he shouted back.
Te couple celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2009 and both son Sean and daughter Erin worked backstage on various quiz shows.
And as far as I'm concerned nice guys sometimes do finish first.




"

Bell Media Cuts Only The Beginning

 

 Canadian TV is in terrible shape and the huge cuts at Bell Media are only the beginning.
Technology is making Canadian TV redundant.
The other day when I was chatting up a Grade Six class I was told by almost all students that they never watched "regular:" TV.
What they meant was they switch their fave TV shows to their phones or tablets and watch later at their own leisure.
The old tyranny of the networks dictating when we coul;d watch programs is gone forever.
Bell is the first network to dispose of some of the most reliable names in the TV biz.
Long time Off The Record host Michael Landsberg has been bumped and will now produce segments for other shows.
Among the other casualties: CTV News Ottawa co-anchor Carol Anne Mehan, Ottawa sports reporter Carolyn Waldo, CTV Morning Licve's Lois Lee, CFRB host Mike Toth, TSN co-host David Basti,
CFTO anchor Bill Hutchinson, CFTO sportscaster Suneel Joshi, CTV News anchor Dan Matheson.
Many were highly respected in their fields.
Waldo twittered her farewell: "It was a wonderful 25 years at CTV."

But the fact is people are starting to watch TV in different ways.
Part of the problem has been the tendency of the three big Canadian TV networks (Bell, Rogers and Shaw) to rush down to Hollywood in the spring and buy up all the new American shows even the bombs.
This year the Canadian networks forked out almost $700million.
Why? Because it is simply cheaper to buy a new U.S. series for $50,000 an episode rather than make a Canadian one.
And the picks for this season are bombing at an unprecedented rate.
CTV was actually the best of the bunch in promoting Canadian drama series including Motive, Saving Hope and the Listener.
But Bell badly bungled in the sports department letting Rogers run off with most NHL hockey (great Canadian content) as well as the surging Blue Jays.
Over at CBC things are just as tough.
"The fall schedule has bombed," one insider tells me. "The old reliables including Rick Mercer, 22 Minmutes and Heartland have done OK but The Romeo Section attracted less than 200,000 viewers for the entire country.
"All the publicists were dumped and the new bunch refuses to send out tapes for review or to arrange interviews.
"Even the National is under 500,000 many nights of the week.
"Canadian TV may be in a terminal situation."

Who Watches Canadian TV These Days?

So there I was in a fancy Greek restro on the Danforth once again chatting up a veteran actress, a respected but retired producer and a know-it-all publicist as the conversation turned to the current state of Canadian TV.
ME: I'm trying to watch the new Canadian TV shows but it's hard to find many. I've been catching The Romeo Section since it started on CBC. I think it's great but ratings have been dismal. The show might fare better on a quality cable channel, I think.
ACTRESS: I'm praying for our dollar to keep dropping. It means more U.S. productions come here but as for as Canadian stuff is concerned there's very little going on.
PUBLICIST: CBC fired its veteran publicists a long time ago. Ratings dropped like a stone. The new college age kids they hired had to learn the biz from the bottom up. But they were paid a pittance and many have left as their freelance contracts expired. So the ratings have plummeted again.
ME: I had to tell one new publicist I needed copies of the new shows before they hit the air so I could review them. And she said "Why?" CBC had some Shakespeare plays from Stratford on early this fall and refused to screen them. Virtually nobody watched which is very sad.
PRODUCER: I used to sit with famed TV director Norman Campbell in the cubby hole of an office CBC gave him. On the top of CBC's empty Toronto studios there's the "Norman Campbell Studio" but CBC never had enough money to let Norman direct there. Norman Campbell couldn't work his magic in the studio named for him. All his great shows are locked in CBC archives and have never even been on DVD.
PUBLICIST: The American shows shooting here pay big bucks for the top publicists. The Canadian independents try to nickel and dime us and then wonder why they don't get the press.
ACTRESS: Speaking of the press what's left. I'm told The Sun will never ever review a TV documentary no matter how great it is.  There's no full time TV critic left at The Star. John Doyle at The Glove is the resident curmudgeon. How do we get the message out anymore? It's d-d tough I can tell you.
PRODUCER: I watch a lot of American TV these days. The great U.S. cable channels like HBO are filled with superb dramas. That's where the action is these days. I watch Huul whis is supposedly banned here. A teenaged geek lives nearby and he's getting me phoney American e-mai addresses so I can jump over the artificial border installed by the CRTC. I think Canada cable stinks. What great Canadian dramas are there to watch on Canadian cable?
ACTRESS: I watch Saving Hope on CTV which is Canadian although not in your face. I watched Rookie Blue when it ran on Global, a good but not great show. I acted on Night Heat some 20 years ago and that's about the current state of Canadian TV drama --we're still in the region of Night Heat.
PUBLICIST: City dropped Murdoch Mysteries after Rogers secured rights to NHL hockey which is a huge chunk of Canadian content. MM was simply too pricey which is often the case --Global dropped Combat Hospital which got great numbers because ABC dropped it in the U.S. Canadian webs won't act alone claiming the bottom line rules.
PRODUCER: I now must have a pending U.S. sale before I got into production. The Don Cherry TV movie was only sold to Finnish TV. Americans just aren't interested in Canada at all I'm sorry tio say.
ME: Hey, you guys stop trying to cheer me up! At least the Jays ALMOST got to the World Series!

Lowdown Tracks: The Art Of The TV Documentary

 

 Just when it seemed the Canadian TV documentary had seen better days along comes Shelley Saywell's positively brilliant new group profile Lowdown Tracks.
Watch it Saturday night November 14 at 9 on TVOntario to see if you agree with me.
Saywell examines the lives of five buskers in the Toronto subway who join together with Lorraine Segato to make great music.
"It seems we were filming forever," laughs veteran producer-director Shelley Saywell. "But we really started in August 2013 --it certainly was over two very brutal winters and we were out there with our subjects for all that."
"It all started when I was at one of Lorraine Segato's concerts with some of these street musicians. And I joked to her I should have brought my camera because this was a pretty important story."
For some time Saywell had noticed the large number of homeless in a city as affluent as Toronto. But how to tell their story in a way that would not demean them --that was the challenge.
"I chose five buskers. They tell their stories through their songs. And all are enormously talented."
Saywell says it was "relatively easy" filming their acts --some hesitated balked at telling their stories which are often filled with great pain.attributes.
"I started with more studies but some dropped out. At times I'd stop filming if it got too personal. 
Their shockingly low standards are exemplified by the man who sleeps rolled up under a picnic table in a park --in the middle of winter.
Another participant shows the hole in the wall where she made her life until authorities chained it off.
Another guy shows the reality of sleeping in a shelter --the men are roused at 6 a.m. to fend for themselves out on the street no matter how cold it is out there.
"All of them have similar backgrounds," Saywell says. She's referring to positively brutal childhoods which often involved sexual abuse.
How they coped was to withdraw into themselves. They became needy adults who often could not cope with normal society.
Says Saywell: "They all talked. They knew what we wanted. And they are very self aware, that's the point.":
They had withdrawn into themselves using their music as mission statements.
Saywell films them everywhere.
There's the guy putting up his tent in the wooded area of a Toronto park.
There's another who tells her "I've been talking to the dead since I was a child."
Chances are you've brushed by some of them as they sang in the subway.
The way social workers tend to marginalize them is another shocker but Saywell says "With budget cuts the case loads are huge. "
If most seem to have some form of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) so what? Their humanity shines forth and we get to know them and their peculiar situations.
Saywell who also wrote the script has masterfully jumped back and forth from the subjects and finds common threads. The images often sum up what we're thinking, wondering about them.
In short here is a great group profile and I'm sure you'll pause the next time you meet one of them in the subway.
So the art of the TV documentary is alive and kicking in Lowdown Tracks.
LOWDOWN TRACKS PREMIERES ON TVONTARIO SATURDAY NOVEMBER 14 AT 9 P.M.
WITH REPEATS SUNDAY NOVEMBER 15 AT 10 P.M. AND TUESDAY NOVEMBER 17 AT 1 A.M.
MY RATING: ****.

I Remember Marty Milner

I'm finally getting around to saluting Martin Milner --the talented TV star died of heart failure September 15, 2015.
In a business filled with bruised egos Marty was a standout --he was well educated and read, quiet and introspective with one wife he adored and a slew of kids none of whom followed him into the acting business.
The first time we met was in a penthouse suite at the Century Plaza hotel in 1971 where Milner was tub thumping for his long running series Adam-12.
We chatted first about his upbringing."I had a normal childhood until my family moved to Los Angeles and I pestered them if I could go to acting school. Instead they got me an agent who arranged a test as the youngest boy in thje 1947 flick Life With Father.
"I played John Day and Bill Powell and Irene Dunne were my parents and a cutie Liz Taylor was my 15-year old cousin. I thought I had it made and then two weeks later I contracted polio and was out until I got a bit in the 1949 John Wayne flick Sands Of Two Jima and then I graduated from Hollywood High School.
I said I'd recently seen him on TV in Mister Roberts (12955) opposite Hank Fonda and Jimmy Cagney.
"Yup, that was a thrill. On another war flick Halls Of Montezuma I met one of the stars Jack Webb and he used me a lot on his radio series Dragnet which he later took to TV as a series."


I asked him if I could ask a few questions about Route 66 the sensational CBS drama show he had headlined from 1960 toc1964.
"Why not!" he grinned. "It's just about the best TV series of its time. Stirling Silliphant created it and wrote most of the scripts and I auditioned and won the role of Tod Stiles.
"I wasn't a complete unknown. Stirling had seen me in the 1959 movie Compulsion where I was Diane Varsi's beau.
"The movie of that era I'm still asked about is Sweet Smell Of Success (1957) as the jazz musician Steve Dallas. If you know the movie you'll remember the fabulous work of Burt Lancaster."
I was sure I'd seen him, on a lot of various TV shows.
"Oh, I did everything--lots of live TV shows then Desilu Playhouse, The Life Of Riley where I had a recurring part, The West Point Story, Twilight Zone. I took everything because I was young and wanted to learn the business."
The star of Route 66 was Tod;'s Chevrolet Corvette and Milner said there were several substitutes in case the main car wasn't working.
"We filmed in 40 states and often pretty far from the real Route 66. The producers were always after unusual locations.
"Some pretty big stars guested. They were usually billeted at the local motel. Guest star Joan Crawford was furious her room lacked a full scale mirror."
Milner's co-star was George Maharis who played Buz Murdoch.
"Physically we were different. Mentally George was an intense Method actor while I was all American. The contrast was played up in stories."
Milner says he took his wife and kids along on the extended shoots. "I certainly got to know the country. Also yours --several episodes were filmed in western Canada."
Maharis left in the third season to be replaced by Glenn Corbett but the show only lasted another season and a half expiring in 1964.
In 1968 Milner was at it again as LAPD officer Pete Malloy opposite Kent McCord.
"Jack Webb was the creator and this was a reworking of Dragnet. I'd worked with him before but he took me out to the parking lot to make sure I could really drive. I'd been driving for four years on Route 66 --of course I drove every working day for the next seven years!"
The last time I met Milner was  in 1975 on the set of Swiss Family Robinson filmed on the 20th Century Fox lot. Irwin Allen who made all those disaster flicks showed me the fake volcano constructed at one end of a gigantic sound stage.
He told me to press a button which I did and fake lava started bubbling forth.
Milner later blamed the failure of SFR on the amount of money spent on special effects and the lack of investment in scripts.
He kept acting but also co-hosted a morning radio show in San Diego.
I talked to him on the phone when he was making the ABC series Life Goes On for ABC in 1992. "I'm the geezer," he laughed. "You can't miss me."
He last acted on an episode of Diagnosis: Murder in 1997 and publicly groused he'd never been asked to do Murder, She Wrote.
A fine actor and friend without the usual egotistical trappings, Marty died at his Carlsbad, California, home, aged 83, September 6, 2015.




 

Against All Odds: A Canadian Success Story

 

 I've always found it passing strange that some of the best Canadian TV programming of the season always comes on Remembrance Day.
And that's because Canadian networks can't import this content --it must be home grown.
Consider the very fine new documentary Against All Odds: The RCAF Flyers which debuts on November 11 at 11 a.m. on Sportsnet.
I thought I knew my Canadian hockey history but this one celebrates the stunning gold medal winners of Canada's hockey team at the 1948 Olympics against all odds.
I compulsively watched this one and I'm still at how good it is.
And I also got to speak on the phone with one of the three surviving principals Murray Dowey who as Flyers goalie racked up a string of Olympic shut outs which may never be equaled.
"I don't quite know why Canada later forgot all about us," he says with a chuckle. "But it was a different time. And the media had been calling us the misfits. Some misfits if you ask me."

George Stroumboulopoulos narrates unobtrusively making these fantastic "misfits" the heroes front and center.
Writer/director P.J. Naworynski (for Infield Fly Productions)has done an impressive job of setting the stage and surprisingly enough discovering rare footage of the actual games played in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
"For one thing," Dowey tells me. "There had been the decision not to even send a team.  Then we assembled just three months before the event."
It certainly was a weird bunch of mostly war veterans Most had played pick up hockey but were hardly anywhere near professional caliber.
The director introduces them in breezy character sketches.
Dowey jokes he was recruited only after the scheduled goalie was judged not up to scratch.
"I'd played some hockey with Turk Broda who was the Leafs goalie. Remember there were only six NHL teams at the time. That meant six professional goalies --the teams in those days only suited up one man."
Dowey remembers he was phoned up and given 15 minutes to make his mind up. "I said OK, of course no money was involved. Had a day to get to Ottawa from Toronto where I worked for the TTC.
"Downsview airport was fogged in so I had to take the milk train --the worst ride I ever had."
The guys sailed on the Queen Elizabeth in steerage with the American team bunked in posh quarters.
"The Yanks thought they'd have it all over us. What arrogance! Canada invented hockey not the United States."
A brilliant mixture of rarely seen newsreel footage intermixed with the memories of the three survivors gets us rooting for the under dog team which usually lost games by wide margins.
"We were terrible at first," remembers Dowey.
One press comment :"There's no hope for this team" summed up the dismal prospects.
Dowey also remembers meeting the gold medalist Barbara Ann Scott who won in figure skating. He also remembers a photographer asking team mates to hoist her on her shoulders.
"That shot made the papers everywhere."
Dowey says the team played defense "like there was no tomorrow. You know in the first game I got a penalty for catching the puck and tossing it in front of me. Had to go to the penalty box.
"But the Swedes still couldn't score."

One would think these winners would be talked about forever. But this is Canada where modesty prevails.
"It didn't happen," Dowey tells me. "I went back to the TTC. Oh, we'd have reunions every few years in Ottawa."
Asked to summarize he says "It was a great victory for Canada. I guess because most of the guys were from Ottawa it really never registered here in Toronto."
And regrets?"I just wish they'd had face masks in my day. I wish I'd had a glove as big as those mitts today.
"I also wish they'd let us keep our uniforms. We had to hand them in. I gave what I had to a London museum-- my glove for one.  Wish I had more to give but that's it."
Against All Odds quite successfully recreates a great time in recent history when Canadian hockey stars ruled the world. What a fantastic triumph for the nation!

AGAINST ALL ODDS PREMIERES ON SPORTSNET NOVEMBER 11 AT 11 A.M AND ON SPORTSNET ONE AT 7 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.

If The Poet: A True Success Story

First of all I had never heard of Ian French.
And I was completely unaware of Slam Poetry.
So why did I find the new CBC-TV documentary If The Poet so compulsively watchable?
I think the secret lies in the success story it portrays and these true tales of achievement always intrigue me.
Also, I watched because I'm trying to see how CBC-TV's new documentary series  Firsthand is evolving --so far I thought last week's entry Reefer Riches excellent.
You can check for yourself Thursday November 12 at 9 p.m. on CBC-TV.

The saga in If The Poet captures a bald guy aged 54 who has become a sensation in the art of Slam Poetry.
I can only describe "slam" as a form of rap but without the music.
It's in your face and when done correctly the results can be pretty wonderful.
I think this hour artfully directed by Kim Saltarski (World's Worst Drivers) succeeds because it is utterly unpretentious --French made his Slam debut at age 50 and we watch as he sets off to win the World Cup of Slam Poetry in Paris.
Who knew watching a guy recite could be so exciting.
This true story rewrites The Odd Couple by pairing French with 29-year-old Ghanaian-Canadian poet Ian Keteku who is the trainer trying to get this dude up to scratch.
All the signs seem against French because for the most part his competitors are ambitious twentysomethings who really know how to play to their audiences.
"It owes a lot to standup comedy," director Saltarski tells me on the phone. "I mean you have to be fearless to even try to attempt it. Ian adds a lot of relevant social commentary, he gets it all out there."
Saltarski says his ideas for a TV portrait "started about 2 1/23 years ago. I got funding from Bravo for a 15 minute short and the subject kept expanding and I knew I was onto something bigger.
"I got to know his story and it made sense to keep filming. For one thing Ian had a troubled youth, his brain was wired differently. High school was a real downer but he's so talented he channels all that in to his poetry.,"
So Sakltarski approached First Hand about an hour profile. "And I was told arts coverage was going to be part of their menu so we were on board."
The hour goes deep down into French's early 20s and brushes with the law.
"We had collaborated on a few songs,that's how I got to know and appreciate his talent. And he used that beat to segue into slam."
Says Saltarsaki "That partnership with Keteku is essential to what French is today. "I think . Keteku showed  him how to transform those demons into dazzling, challenging poetry which he performs fearlessly. It's quite a dramatic development and I couldn't have caught it in a short shoot. I just kept filming and filming."
Slam poetry is a sort of contest where challengers have three minutes and ten seconds to win over an oftren difficult audience.
"There are all kinds of contestants. Some participants do the same routine time and time again. Ian is forever changing, that's what makes his ascendancy so amazing."
IF The Poet tracks French's ascent from an embarrassing debut to success in 2013 on the National Championship Toronto Slam Team to winning 2014's Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship (in Vancouver).
Then comes World Slam Poetry --Slam's World Series--and it's all high moments of tension dramatic but the results won't be revealed here --you'll have to watch the whole hour.
IF The Poet It personalizes the World of Slam by honing in one one of the art's older practitioners.
IF THE POET PREMIERES ON CBC-TV's FIRSTHAND THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

War Story: Afghanistan Celebrates Our Military

 

 
I'm always writing about the most disturbing trend on Canadian TV these days.
Simply stated it's the lack of Canadian stories.
Producers only want to make series they can sell to U.S. TV. That means fine dramas like Saving Hope and Rookie Blue have their Canadian roots heavily disguised for easy foreign sales.
And then along comes something as powerful as War Stories.
Each Remembrance Day a new batch of the series emerges.
This year War Story:Afghanistan examines the biggest out and out conflict involving Canadian soldiers (outside of peacekeeping) since the Korean War.
There are six half-hour episodes premiering over three nights --Monday November 9, Tuesday November 10 and Wednesday November 11 running in chronological order with two back-to-back episodes per night at 8 p.m. Got that?
Simply stated this is must-see TV.
Cancel all dinner engagements and better yet make sure if there are kids in your household they watch, too.
My intention was to only watch the first two episodes but I got hooked and just had to see the rest.
This is the fourth year of the series but I find these tales the saddest perhaps because the protagonists are still very young --watching the ones on D-Day I could only marvel at the heroics of veterans now well past 80.

 As usual the Toronto-based film makers have distinguished themselves.They are Barry Stevens (series director and executive producer), David York (executive producer) and Bryn Hughes (producer).
When I watched the World War II series a few years ago I was immediately  taken by how so few survivors still exist and how previous seasons looked at D-Day, Korea and Vietnam.

The entire effort is told through the eyes of the men and women involved giving it a verisimilitude that can't be beat."When I was interviewing them it was their casual bravery that I noticed," says series director Stevens.
Biggest star of the show? "It just happens one of the participants, Harjit Sajjan has been made Canada's new Minister of Defense --always wearing his Sikh turban he was a crack intelligence officer and his testimony is vital to our understanding the narrative.
But the biggest hero? It just has to be medic Paul Franklin who had his legs blown off--Rick Mercer made him semi-famous by revealing every year Franklin has to assure Veterans Affairs his legs are still missing in order to qualify for his benefits.

But just as heroic is Lt. Sarah Keller who lost her husband in one battle.
"There is a lot of actual footage," Stevens tells me. "But not much is from Canadian TV which under reported the conflict. There's a lot of American footage, some British  though."

The first half hour looks at the arrival of Canadians, Edmonton's Princess Patricia Light Infantry, aiding their American allies in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Four Canadian soldiers are killed in a senseless example of "friendly fire" which is covered by the actual cockpit recordings of the Americans who were stupid and blindly went ahead with an attack after superiors warned them to reconsider.

At 8:30 comes the second episode which is even more painful to watch.
The Canadians return to Kandahar in 2005 as Americans switch to fighting in Iraq. "
"Canada's mission was both military and reconstructive. The Taliban remained everywhere. A Village elder says he will out wait all the invaders," Stevens says.
The second night looks at the sustained combat in Kandahar. And then Canadian soldiers launch  "Operation Medusa" still the biggest operation in NATO history.

On Wednesday night at 8 "Hearts And Minds" looks at a Canadian bringing health care to a remove village while "The Long Way Home" looks at battle field medical treatment and treatment of the dead.
I can't think of a more meaningful way to observe Remembrance Day.
Says Stevens "If we're run out of wars to cover, I'm actually happy. There are no glib answers to any of this. Everything has consequences.
" I just think the soldiers need to be listened to. Why it all happened is very important. At some point we changed from liberators to invaders."
All four editions of this remarkable series deserve to be out in boxed DVD sets so students can be reminded what war is really like.

WAR STORIES PREMIERES ON HISTORY MONDAY NOVEMBER 9, TUESDAY NOVEMBER 10 AND WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 11 ALL AT 8 P.M.

MY RATING: ****.

Polar Bear Town Is Must-See TV

As I meander around Toronto these days people are always asking me are there any new must see Canadian TV series.
I'm usually stymied by the request but after watching the new series Polar Bear Town have
I got a winner for them.
You can see for yourself --the next new episode premieres on OLN Tuesday night at 9. Got that?
Look, it's the beginning of a new TV season so I've been inundated with new product.
When I was finally prodded to give Polar Bear Town a chance I really liked what I saw.
For one thing this show is oh so very Canadian.
It's also meticulously stitched together, well photographed and edited (from Merit pictures) a look at the northern Manitoba town of Churchill which was built directly on the migratory path of the world's largest polar bear migration.
Every fall upwards of 1,000 very hungry polar bears descent on the town and its environs as they attempt to reach the forming pack ice where they can feast on seals for the rest of the winter.
Says producer Merit Jensen Carr "About that time the town of 800 springs to life. There are tourists everywhere coming to witness these great creatures up close. It can be very dangerous but it's also an exciting time."
To make her 12-part series Carr had to get her crew in position and ready to shoot at any time of the day or night.
"It happens for just seven weeks in the year. We had to get everything shot on the first take."
Although the majestic polar bears occupy center stage Carr's method is to profile the unusual citizens of Churchill each of whom is touched in different ways by the bears and their environment.
"That's exactly right," she is saying on the phone. "We personalize story. Because the entire town is dependent on these animals."
I usually tease OLN for being the network of storage lockers wars and Dog, the bounty hunter --both shows I admit to watching on my own..
But Carr praises the network for being with the project all along and even sending executives up to cheer on the production.
"There's a different version of six hour-long episodes being made for Smithsonian TV in the U.S.," she says. "And British TV has bought yet another version. Each network has a different set of requirements all of which we have to meet."
In one episode we get to visit with a young waitress (originally from Quebec)mauled last year by a migrant bear. She steadfastly refuses to leave her home town and seems proud of surviving the attack and getting back to her job.
The profiles of the denizens are nothing short of amazing.
"Young Gun" Kelsey guides his clients right into the waiting bears  --we see how one Brazilian photographer reacts to the most dangerous moments of his life.
Kelsey also shows an abandoned bear trap that would cause a mother bear incredible pain before inevitable death and also doom her cub who could not survive alone at that stage.

There's "The Sheriff" Brian who has established a compound for Eskimo dogs who at one point were almost extinct. We see him tossing great swabs of meat to the dogs while a hungry bear looks on and tries to steal a meal or two along the way.
Then there's Dennis who is known as the bear whisperer. --a pioneering environmentalist who trule cares about the futurte of these unique creatures.Says Carr "Usually the cub will stay with the mother for two years. It's a long period to get them up to scratch.
"In some scenes we see a terribly emaciated bear --he's a senior at the end of his life. One can tell the health of a bear from the behind --the bigger the  behind the healthier."
Carr says at one time errant bears would be shot dead.
"But these days the bears are the saviors of the town. We show how the whole community bonds to trap and tranquilize bears off course and get them to places of safety."
This week's episode is titled "Trick Or Trap" as the town organizes citizens' patrols to keep the bears at bay as the kids go trick or treating at Halloween.
"The town is a microcosm of Canada,"Carr believes.
"There's a strong Inuit and Metis component, great characters who like the loneliness of the north,younger people here for adventures. And all are dependent on the bears."
POLAR BEAR TOWN'S EPISODE SIX PREMIERES ON OLN TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

grrrr

teeee

I Remember Joan Leslie

 

So there I was lounging at Pasadena's Ritz Carlton hotel during the 1992 TV Critics Association summer meetings.
Day after day TV stars appeared to answer questions and show their new shows.
And then I saw I had the weekend off.
A friend had given me the phone number of legendary Warners star Joan Leslie and I just dialed and Joan Leslie instantly answered.
I nervously suggested a phone interview but she said "Oh, no, I'll come tomorrow for High Tea, you know the works, salmon salad sandwiches, fruit cake, empire cookies."
And at 2 p.m. on Saturday she roared up in her Cadillac and we sat down for hours of conversation.
To say she was one of the nicest actresses I ever met would be an understatement. In poise and demeanor she ranked right up there with Irene Dunne, Ann Rutherford and Jane Greer as a true lady of the cinema.
And now I'm saddened by the news Joan Leslie died in Hollywood this week aged 90.
"Do I remember Toronto?" she chirped. "My sisters and I headlined Toronto's Shea's theater for a month in 1934. W went to Catholic school by day and at night I wowed them with my imitations of Greta Garbo and Zasu Pitts."
She was born Joan Brodel in Detroit to wealthy parents --"Dad was a stockbroker who lost everything in the crash of 1929. So we went on the road with an act billed as "The Three Brodels'. So you see I'm not really from a showbiz family."
By age 10 she was a Robert Powers child model earning the huge sum of $5 an hour.
"An MGM scout saw me and signed me to play Robert Taylor's kid sister in Camille (1936). One day I was playing jacks on the set when Greta Garbo waltzed by and her skirt slapped me in the face. She stopped and said 'Pardon'. So I can say Greta Garbo actually talked to me."
She continued in supporting parts until 1940 when Warners signed the pert teenager to a long term contract "and promptly changed my name to Joan Leslie. I played Velma, the crippled youngster in the Humphrey Bogart classic High Sierra. I then made a second film with him, The Wagons Roll At Night and he was soft spoken and charming to this youngster
"On my 16th birthday Jack Warner gave me a new Buick and co-starring billing opposite Gary Cooper in Sergeant York --he won the Oscar for it. I played the child bride Gracie and I was 16 and Coop was 40 and he gave me a doll for my birthday. I met the real Gracie when she and Alvin York came to New York for the premiere. She had never seen indoor plumbing and had trouble flushing the toilet.
"By 1942 I was so hot at the box office I got star billing after Henry Fonda and Olivia de Havilland in the comedy The Male Animal.
"Then came my biggest movie Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) opposite Jimmy Cagney. Director Mike Curtiz was our director who supplied the fancy camera work but Jimmy supplied the heart and soul and he also won an Oscar. Clearly I was a good luck charm!"
During the war years Leslie received thousands of fan letters a week as service men voted her the girl next door they'd like to come home to. "I'd sneak onto the sets of Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford just to see how they worked. Joan took me to Adrian's dress salon to buy me some new clothes and I shared a makeup artist with Stany."
In 1943 Joan was loaned to RKO to co-star with Fred Astaire in The Sky's The Limit (1943) ."He was 44 and touchy about his age and I was 18. I came back after a weekend and had all my routines down pat and Fred lifted me up and exclaimed 'You really can dance!"
But Warners started typecasting her as the nice girl and the quality of her pictures declined.
"I sued Warners claiming (rightfully) I was under age when I signed my contract. I won but was blackballed by the major studios. I had to take what was offered, mostly B pictures."
Leslie married Dr. Bill Caldwell, had twin girls, and gradually withdrew from acting."My family and my church came first. And I found I didn't miss it."
When we chatted that day Leslie had returned to acting in senior parts in TV assignments like Murder, She Wrote and Marcus Welby.
"I made most money from an Avon commercial that ran and ran in California.
"But recently I'm only getting depressing roles. The way oldsters are portrayed is pretty awful so I've decided to retire again."
She began working for such charities as a home for unwed girls she helped support with the help of fellow retired actresses June Haver and Ann Blyth.
"We joke about being such dull copy, we're still married to our first husbands. The three Brodel girls have had a total of three husbands.
"And if you must know I can still ride a bicycle and I still eat apples."
I freely admit that I'm missing Joan Leslie already.


'

A Real TV Rarity: A Canadian Spin-Off

People are always asking me if a Canadian TV series ever got spin off or remade for American TV.
And my answer was always the same: yes, but....
It just so happens that CBC's Fifties hit The Plouffe Family (which ran in both French and English version starring the same cast was later remade into the U.S. TV stinker Viva Valdez!
Outside of that I'm hard pressed to come up with other examples.
CBC-TV's venerable Front Page Challenge was bought by CBS as a vehicle for news star Mike Wallace but an actual series never appeared.
Recently CBC-TV's Intelligence was first sold to Fox and then to CBS and various pilots were commissioned but it never made it out of development stage.
Now I'm about to celebrate Canadian TV's most successful series.
Wait for it --it's Love It Or List It.
I kid you not.
The original show was made in Toronto and the premise was basic but fun. Designer Hilary Farr tried to redo a creaking house on a tiny budget while her rival, realtor David Visentin took the quarreling couple out to see various houses he hoped to move them into.
The fact the two participants heartily disliked each other (at times) made it fun if predictable fare.
Farr used the same crew, came up against all types of obstacles and always seemed to be knocking items off her client's "must"list.
Visentin behaved like an attack dog and often got ticked off --comically speaking--about the outrageous demands put on him.
It was inevitable W Channel would commission a spin off and eventually we got Love It Or List It Vancouver (retitled in the U.S. as Love It Or List It Too).
This time I was less enthusiastic.
Designer Jillian Harris is lush and lovely and realtor Todd Talbott is very laid back.
But those dudes out in B.C. live in a paradise and none of the homes shown are really in need of great repairs.
However Mrs. Clinton has been quoted as saying she loves both shows so there.
Another spinoff was commissioned when the LIOLI cast and crew were dispatched south of the border. These days Hilary and David are acting more like clowns.
They're unfamiliar with the territory and Hilary doesn't know the fix-it teams she's supposed to be working with.
The same fate befell Property Virgins which was fine as long as Toronto's pert ()()()( had the show.
When it was moved south the American realtors seemed merely crass and exploitative.
And now we have yet another spin-off--Love It Or List It UK starring these refugees from Location,Location,Location Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer..
I finally got to watch a new episode and I'm not quite sure what to think.
First there's nothing but a bit of faux antagonism between Kirstie and Phil, they've worked together so long and they know each other inside out.
So there's no tension. And also Kirstie seems less involved in the redesign than Hilary was.
A very nice East Asian couple were profiled and were quite endearing --housing in London seems twice as expensive as Toronto (which is expensive enough).
I just don't know, I much prefer the original but that's just the way I am.
How about you?











 which I can never watch these days --the U.S, realtors taking iover from Canada's *(*(*(*( were crassly exploitat  the border.
The same fate befell

Reefer Riches: Timing Is Everything

"Talk about timing!" laughs TV director Cynthia Banks whose sparkling new documentary Reefer Riches premieres on CBC-TV's new series Firsthand Thursday October 29 at 9 p.m.
It just so happens that veteran director Banks (Apocalypse 2012) had been working the past year on a meticulous exploration of what the legalizing of marijuana has meant to the U.S. states of Oregon and Colorado.
And then along came a little something called the Canadian general election and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau's promise to decriminalize marijuana.
"And suddenly we have the hot button issue all covered," Banks says so the  appearance of RR right after Trudeau's election win is indeed serendipitous.
Firsthand replaces the old CBC series Doc Zone and one big difference is the absence of a series narrator --Banks narrates her own program which is right and proper.
She's also managed to stuff a heck of a lot of material into the 44-minutes. Usually TV content dictates style but expert editing gives Reefer Riches a certain speed but at no point should viewers feel rushed.
Banks isn't sure what will happen if the Canadian Parliament votes Trudeau's way.
"I know the black market aspect will disappear --much of the street stuff sold illegally is dangerous. . And don't forget the huge tax revenues that will flow into the government coffers.
"It sounds very easy to accomplish  but really the subject is quite complex."
Banks artfully shows all the problems the Canadian government must avoid iof legalization goes through.
The shock in Colorado is that a referendum on the subject passed (as a proposition) --here is one of the most conservative western states.
"Governor H was personally opposed but he went with it"--and there was no huge disaster on the ground.
Law enforcement officials say the rate of crime neither went up or down by very much.
Banks craftily personalizes the subject.
Stupid me I though people just smoked reefers.
We see how candy floss laced with marijuana is being sold over the counter. There are coffee brands laced with it.
We meet some of the emerging marijuana tycoons including Tripp Keber of Dixie Elixirs (one of he largest edibles company) .MSNBC's Pot Barons, Jamie Perino who owns a chain of marijuana dispensaries,  and Pete Williams,COO of Medicine Man.
And there's JamiePerino whose  enterprise Euflora has been dubbed "the Apple store of cannabis".

We see marijuana farmers and how they tenderly nourish their crops --I'd never seen that before.
Yes, some typical pot heads are interviewed including one lady who exemplifies all the traits of over usage.
This fascinating but balanced account should answer most questions. Banks argues forcibly for checks and balances.
Getting there first means Reefer Riches is a must see, as well constructed Banks's award winning A Hail Of Bullets.
REEFER RICHES PREMIERES ON CBC-TV'S FIRSTHAND THURSDAY OCTOBER 29 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.