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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.
213 Episodes
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Send us a text Have you ever made a bucket list of places around the world you'd like to visit? Eugene Levy did for Season Three of The Reluctant Traveler, streaming now on AppleTV+. This season finds him flying to Mexico, India, Vienna, Ireland, Vancouver, Louisianna, Korea and even London. His tour guide in The UK was none other than The Prince of Wales. “I was really taken aback with how at ease he made me feel.” said Levy. The four-time Emmy award winner also got the royal treatment durin...
Send us a text In the '60s, Dini Petty broke ground with Toronto radio station CKEY as Canada's first female traffic reporter to fly solo in a helicopter. After 5,000 hours in the air she landed her pink chopper and went on to a stellar career as a news anchor at Citytv and as a talk show host at CFTO’s The Dini Petty Show. Now, at age 80, she’s back with Trailblazing Talks with Dini Petty, a one-hour special premiering Monday, Oct. 20 on The News Forum Network (check Bell, Rogers, Shaw and T...
Send us a text The Blue Ant founder and CEO and former Alliance Atlantis chief rang the bell earlier this month on the Toronto Stock Exchange. His company's reverse takeover of Boat Rocker delivered more Canadian content -- including top-rated The Amazing Race Canada -- to a diverse portfolio MacMillan already successfully shops around the world. You'd think he'd be exhausted from counting all that money he made from the sale of his half of the CSI franchise and the rest of his Alliance Atlan...
Send us a text Where do documentary filmmakers go to find that historic clip or interview nobody else has? Many turn to the CBC Archives in Toronto. The vast, climate controlled vaults at the CBC Broadcast Centre are home to approximately 1.5 million hours of digitized material. Those restored holdings are drawn from over 90,000 cans of film, 215,000 videos and over 270,000 audio assets. Classic CBC shows such as The Friendly Giant, This Hour Has 7 Days, and Hockey Night in Canada broad...
Send us a text If you've already listened to Part 1 of my conversation with writer-producer-podcaster Frank Santopadre, you just know there was more to explore. This is the second half of our terrific conversation. Here the focus is more on life after Gilbert Gottfried and Frank's eventual decision to create an entirely new podcast that would be Fun Fr All Ages. If you haven't heard Part 1 yet, get back in line! Both episodes are now live and in full colour.
Send us a text If you are a fan of comedy, film, television, movies, music, or even Bazooka Joe bubble gum jokes, join me this week in conversation with Frank Santopadre. For over eight years and 600 episodes he brought comedian Gilbert Gottfied in like a tugboat to harbour in the truly amazing Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal podcast. Santopadre, as you’ll hear, just didn’t become the George Fenneman to Gottfried’s Groucho Marx by sitting around DeSota dealerships. His career as a ...
Send us a text I went into the vault this week to create a 3-Pack of favourite TV stars from the '60s. Two are from interviews conducted in 1997 at a Hollywood Collectors autograph show. First up is Dawn Wells (Mary Ann), who was signing autographs with her old Gilligan's Island pal Russell Johnson (the professor). Wells was one of the stars who died (at 82) during the worst of the COVID pandemic in 2020. The second interview is with Bob May. Bob Who? He was the guy who for three season...
Send us a text Back in the 1950s and '60s, every Sunday night, families would gather around their living room TV and watch The Ed Sullivan Show. The variety hour ran 23 seasons, ending 54 years ago in 1971. Now streaming on Netflix, the documentary Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan is not just another "best of" blast of nostalgia. It recognizes Sullivan as a social game-changer. As network television's top-rated variety showman throughtout the 1950s and '60s he introduced Black ent...
Send us a text Meet the star of the new series Pretty Blind. As described in her AMI-tv bio, Jennie Bovard is a running, beer-drinking, thirtysomething with albinism. She loves making people laugh and is very involved in accessible sport and recreation opportunities in her community. She has lived with partial sight all her life, has a diploma in film and tv production, and lives in Halifax. She’s been recording a podcast for several years called Low Vision Moments where she talks about...
Send us a text Here is why Jonathan Torrens is the perfect Canada Day Weekend podcast guest: As a producer, he is behind two new Canadian TV comedies: Pretty Blind, starring Jennie Bovard as a legally blind but supremely independent library worker (premiering July 8 on AMI); and 0-to-60 Driving Academy, steering headlong into a second season on Bell Fibe. Then there are his IMDb credits. The PEI native has worked on the following CanCon favourites: Trailer Park Boys (as rapper J-Roc), Mr. d; ...
Send us a text In the digital age, the question is not only which tools are still available to support Canadian content production but which ones are still relevant. One with an insider's perspective is Pat Ferns, author of "The Big Picture: A Personal History of Independent Television Production in Canada" (Sutherland House). Ferns began his career with a formative stint at CBC, created award-winning series and documentaries as an independant producer and helped reform the Canadian tel...
Send us a text By far, the biggest name in TV sitcoms this century has been Chuck Lorre. This June, when I saw that he was going to be a keynote speaker at the Banff World Media Festival, I thought what the hell, put in a request for a podcast interview. So glad I did, because on this episode, we talk about the glory that is The Kominsky Method, Big Bang's Barenaked Ladies theme song, his take on The Sopranos finale, and his latest project -- a Netflix sitcom starring Leanne Morgan. On...
Send us a text Jason Ritter is my guest this week on brioux.tv: the podcast. I spoke with the 45-year-old actor recently at the Corus Entertainment Upfront in Toronto. Ritter is so thrilled to be on Matlock -- last season's biggest rookie hit on both Global in Canada and CBS in the US -- that he's been dancing up a storm on TikTok. We talk about that, working with Oscar-winner Kathy Bates, his famous dad John Ritter, his famous granddad Tex Ritter and what it's like being a third...
Send us a text This 200th episode of brioux.tv: the podcast features a SCTV original who remains one of my favourite people to interview -- Dave Thomas. On this, our third podcast conversation, Thomas talks about his recent trip to Kyiv, a city where drone strikes and missle attacks from Russia have created a living hell for Ukrainians at war. Thomas talks all about his decision to fly to Ukraine and answer a friend's call to help raise awareness and money for the cause. He was accompan...
Send us a text People who work television's morning shift could be forgiven for being a tad grumpy. That's never the case with Tim Bolen, who recently made the leap from co-hosting Morning Live on Hamilton's CHCH to pairing with Dina Pugliese on Citytv's national franchise Breakfast Television. Add living in Toronto when he was on TV in Hamilton and now living in Hamilton and inching through traffic hell in Toronto and you have basically the seven tasks of Hercules. Or is it a genius move sin...
Send us a text My guest this episode is an executive producer who helped guide Schitt’s Creek to a canoe full of Emmy and CSA awards. He’s currently one of the executive producers on another wonderful sitcom, Son of a Critch, shockingly ignored -- nomination wise -- at this year’s Canadian Screen Awards. Yes, it is Andrew Barnsley and he's just back from France where he attended Series Mania, an industry marketplace where stakeholders gather to discuss where this crazy business is all heading...
Send us a text Bummed your invitation to Martin Short's cottage in the Muskokas was evidently lost in the mail? Save yourself the long drive and listen to this week's episode of brioux.tv: the podcast. One of my favourite guests, filmmaker Mitch Azaria, is back with his sixth in an annual series exploring the province of Ontario: Tripping The Muskoka Lakes. We talk all about the new documentary, premiering April 20 on TV Ontario and also streaming (even earlier) on TVOdocs.org and at TVO's Yo...
Send us a text Jay Leno is Jay-walking his way back to Canada. The former Tonight Show host, who turns 75 in May, will join fellow late night rival Arsenio Hall as comedy headliners May 2 at Casino Rama near Orillia, Ont. In an exclusive brioux.tv: the podcast interview, presented in partnership with latenighter.com, Leno says he was hesitant about accepting the booking given all the "51st State" and Tariff talk emanating from the White House. "I almost wasn't going to do these dates," L...
Send us a text People of Comedy: Celebrating 30 Years of the Nubian Show starts streaming April 9 on Crave. It features this week's guest on brioux.tv: the podcast and one of the true iron men of the Toronto comedy club scene: Kenny Robinson. Since 1983, he's been performing at YukYuks as well as at Just For Laughs and other Canadian comedy venues. Close to 30 years ago, he launched The Nubian Comedy Revue, a showcase for BIPOC entertainers which is performed on the last Sunday of every month...
Send us a text These days it is not unusual for fans to wait over a year for a second season of their favourite series. But five years?? That is the situation for When Hope Calls, the spinoff to the popular period piece drama When Calls the Heart. The shot in Ontario series returns April 6 on Super Channel Heart & Home in Canada and on Great American Family in the United States. A lot has changed in five years including the casting of the two leads. The two Canadians at the heart of the s...
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