brioux.tv: the podcast
171 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 days ago -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.
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Episodes
Olympic preview with Scott Russell
July 15, 2024 11:00 - 47 minutes - 32.7 MBWelcome to a faster, higher, stronger podcast episode This week’s guest, Scott Russell, has medalled for years in Olympic Games coverage. He’s off to France for the Olympic Games Paris 2024, which runs July 26 through August 11. Russell will host the afternoon show, Bell Paris Prime, and he will remain host for CBC’s coverage of the Paralympic Games, which follows August 28 to September 8. And then he will leave the podium. The Canadian Screen Award and Gemini Award-winning broadcaster has ...
Michael Douglas
July 08, 2024 11:00 - 33 minutes - 23.3 MBIn a spectacular career that's gone everywhere from The Streets of San Francisco to "Wall Street" and beyond, two-time Oscar winner Michael Douglas currently stars in the epic, eight-part limited series "Franklin," now streaming on AppleTV+. If you don't think Douglas looks like Benjamn Franklin, neither did the actor. He does an extraordinary job, however, disappearing under the skin of America's favourite founding father at his diplomatic best. These were the years where Franklin was task...
One Man Treasure Ron James
July 01, 2024 11:00 - 35 minutes - 24.6 MBMan it was fun heading down to Niagara last October and catching up with Ron James. He was shooting season two of his comedy series 1 Man's Treasure, which is up now and streaming on Bell Fibe. If this episode sounds different it is because it was shot outside in a park, and simply recorded on a Pixel phone. There is some reflection here about getting older, or, as James says, being in the "third quarter in the game and you're still trying to find the purpose in life." Ron needn't look any f...
Food Fight: the Corus-Rogers brand battle explained
June 24, 2024 11:00 - 1 hour - 44.8 MBThe licensing of American specialty brands in Canada went all WWE in June as Rogers swooped in and wrestled away rights to The Food Network and HGTV brands, among others, from Corus. The new deals with Warners Bros. Discovery takes effect in January. There are indications Bell Media can't count on re-upping some of their Discovery brand imports either. What has sparked all the brand swapping? What are the ramifications for Corus and others? Daniel Eves, who for years was at the table negoti...
Charles Martin Smith
June 17, 2024 11:00 - 1 hour - 53.4 MBAs "Toad" in "American Graffiti," Charles Martin Smith took playing the school nerd to new heights. Over 50 years later, the California-born actor-director co-stars opposite Toronto actress Anwen O'Driscoll in "This Time," director Robert Vaughn's very modern road picture now streaming on Super Channel. In between, Smith has acted with a Who's Who of Hollywood, including Burt Reynold ("Fuzz"), David Niven and Don Knotts (Disney's "No Deposit, No Return"), Sean Connery and Kevin Costner ("The...
Hugh Dillon on Mayor of Kingstown S3
June 10, 2024 11:00 - 27 minutes - 19.2 MBHugh Dillon is a man of many talents, including acting, writing and rocking -- the latter done with his band, Headstones. The acting writing and producing skills were put to the test this third season on the Paramount+ drama Mayor of Kingstown. Dillon and his series co-creator Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone; Tulsa King) made it their mission to put their lead, Jeremy Renner, firmly back on his feet again after the actor suffered a horrible accident in January of 2023. Renner's Mayor "Mike" ...
Previewing Allan Hawco's Saint-Pierre
June 03, 2024 11:00 - 33 minutes - 23.1 MBHere is another conversation I had in May at the CBC Media Upfront on Toronto. Allan Hawco and Josephine Jobert -- stars of the upcoming CBC series Saint-Pierre -- talk about shooting the series, which will premiere in 2025. Currently in production on the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, the police procedural finds an out of favour St. John's detective (Hawco) teamed with a seasoned investigator from France. Can opposites arrest? Hawco, who co-created the series, says don't expect a...
CBC Media Upfront 2024-25
May 27, 2024 11:00 - 29 minutes - 20.4 MBOne of the new shows on CBC's 2024-25 schedule is called Small Achievable Goals. It is a scripted comedy about female podcasters going through menopause. Those three words, however, coulld also describe, in a fiercely competitive and crowded media landscape, the only way forward for CBC. On this episode of brioux.tv: the podcast, I speak with Executive Vice President Barbara Williams and General Manager Entertainment, Factual & Sports Sally Catto. We talk about new shows hitting the schedu...
When Calls the Heart's Ben Rosenbaum
May 19, 2024 12:00 - 55 minutes - 38.1 MBAttention Hearties! And especially Hickies! Yes, this week's episode of brioux.tv: the podcast features Ben Rosenbaum. For over a decade, he's played Mike Hickam on When Calls the Heart, the longest-running series on both Hallmark and Super Channel. With Season 11 winding down, WCTH has already been renewed for a 12th season. Born and raised in the States, Rosenbaum has enjoyed his decade-long run working on the show in British Columbia so much he applied for landed immigrant status. He loo...
Evanka Osmak's Hoop dreams
May 14, 2024 16:00 - 44 minutes - 30.7 MBEvanka Osmak helps us keep score most nights along with Ken Reid at the Sportsnet Central desk. She's taking her own shot now in the publishing world with her first novel, a cool book for kids ages 6-11 titled "Ali Hoops." The PlumLeaf Press release is all about a young girl named Ali who loves shooting hoops with her schoolmate Leila. Can they both make the school basketball team? What if one of them does and the other does not? Born in New Jersey and raised in Oakville, Ont., Osmak has an ...
More Tripping with Mitch Azaria
April 21, 2024 11:00 - 46 minutes - 31.8 MBAs briouxtv listeners know, executive producer Mitch Azaria loves to go Tripping. These past five years, he has taken us by mahogany lake boat up the Rideau Canal, sailing along the tip of The Bruce Peninsula, on a bird's eye view over the Niagara region and aboard a Budd train northwest of Superior to White River. This April, his latest immersive documentary is Tripping the French River. The mode of travel this time is aboard a cedar strip canoe as we travel from Lake Nipissing on a three-h...
Dave Thomas remembers Joe Flaherty
April 15, 2024 11:00 - 1 hour - 52.2 MBStop doing whatever you are doing right now and listen to this podcast episode with Dave Thomas. The SCTV writer-producer-player looks back on his years working with the late, great, Joe Flaherty, who passed away April 1st at 82. Thomas and Flaherty produced the series in its second season, taking their cue from Harold Ramis and putting more of a spotlight on the cast's ability to morph into famous celebrities. They also had an uncanny way of mashing together good and bad films with, well, F...
Bill Vigars on Terry Fox 44 Years Later
April 08, 2024 11:00 - 56 minutes - 39.2 MBTerry Fox dipped his toe into the Atlantic off the coast of St. John's, Newfoundland, on April 12, 1980. And so began his historic crusade against cancer, the Marathon of Hope. Forty-four years later, nearly a billion dollars has been raised to help people with cancer around the world in Terry's name. On this podcast, the man who ran with him halfway across Canada and who helped organize Fox's fundraiser, Bill Vigars, shares many first hand stories about this great Canadian hero. You'll find...
Murdoch Mysteries' Daniel Maslany
March 24, 2024 11:00 - 58 minutes - 40.2 MBGotta sing! Gotta dance! Gotta watch the cast of Murdoch Mysteries do what no other scripted, dramatic Canadian TV series has done before -- present a full-blown musical episode. It happens Monday, March 25 on CBC (see it after the 25th on CBCGem) and April 6 on Ovation in the US. "Why is Everybody Singing?" finds our hero, Det. William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson), shot in the head while investigating a crime. In a coma, he watches, helplessly, while the rest of the cast go into their song and...
Canada's Got Talent titan Trish Stratus
March 19, 2024 11:00 - 36 minutes - 25.3 MBTrish Stratus is a WWE Hall of Famer, eight-time WWE Champion, and was recently named WWE's Greatest Female Superstar. Now she's heading into her third season as a judge on Canada's Got Talent, which has just been supersized with a million dollar payday thanks to Rogers. So if head judge Howie Mandel gets out of control this season on CGT, remember, he's just a body slam away from total annihilation! The Toronto native has parlayed her success and passion into the Stratusphere. Through yog...
Troy Reeb on 50 Years of Global TV
March 11, 2024 11:00 - 39 minutes - 27.5 MBBack in 1974, fifty years ago, there was no streaming, no cable, no news or sports networks. What there finally was, however, was a third national Canadian broadcast network. On this episode of brioux.tv: the podcast, Corus Entertainment EVP Troy Reeb looks back at a time when Canada went Global. Once known as "The Love Boat network," it is the longtime Canadian home of some of TV’s most enduring hits, including the Young and the Restless and Saturday Night Live. Over the years, it was wher...
Eugene Levy returns as The Reluctant Traveller
March 06, 2024 12:00 - 24 minutes - 16.7 MBThe folks at AppleTV+ asked if I’d like a one-on-one with Eugene Levy. Before you could say Schitt’s Creek, I said yes! Levy – beloved in Canada for decades as part of the legendary SCTV cast – had just been inducted into the Canadian Comedy Hall of Fame. The interview took place in February in Pasadena, CA. I also took part in a press conference with Levy a day earlier while attending the winter edition of the Television Critics Association semi-annual press tour. What I didn’t know at t...
The Great Canadian Pottery Throwdown
March 06, 2024 12:00 - 28 minutes - 19.9 MBHave you seen The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down? The series is produced out of Grenville Island in Vancouver and among the executive producers is Seth Rogen. He is known more for pot than pottery but watch him get his hands dirty a few times on camera, making, of course, ash trays from behind a pottery wheel. Now, there is a lot to pottery. You’ve got to fire up your creations in a kiln and then add colours and glaze. The contestants on the show on the episodes I’ve seen are very talent...
Allegiance writer, executive producer, Mark Ellis
February 26, 2024 12:00 - 59 minutes - 41.2 MBTV shows don't just write and produce themselves. That takes showrunners! Two of the best in Canada have been Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern, the husband and wife team behind such hits as Flashpoint, X Company and Transplant. Their latest is the new Wednesday night CBC police drama Allegiance. The series stars Supinder Wraich as promising rookie cop Sabrina Sohal. She's teamed with a savvy police veteran played by Enrico Colantoni, my previous guest on brioux.tv : the podcast. Stephen ...
Law & Order Toronto's Karen Robinson
February 22, 2024 12:00 - 52 minutes - 36.1 MBI had so much fun zooming with Karen Robinson, who lays down the law on the new Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. "Toronto is its own character in the show,” says Robinson, who loves that the city is representing itself for a change instead of somewhere else. “This is about us.” Robinson plays Inspector Vivienne Holness on this latest extension of the L&O franchise, which also stars Aden Young and Kathleen Munroe. And, yes, she played a zanier cop shop boss on another Tassie Cameron-he...
Steve Smith is back as Red Green
February 19, 2024 12:00 - 50 minutes - 34.4 MBOne of Red Green's favourite sayings is, "If the ladies don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy." Steve Smith may be the handiest fella ever in the history of Canadian television. Inspired by that ol' TV fishin' pal Red Fisher, Smith crafted Red Green out of duct tape and suspenders. The Red Green Show had humble beginnings out of Hamilton, Ont.'s CHCH, eventually airing 300 episodes over 16 seasons stretched across five different stations and networks, including CBC and...
Tim Progosh, Comedy Hall of Fame founder
February 12, 2024 12:00 - 49 minutes - 34.3 MBFor years, actor/comedian Tim Progosh has wondered: with all the great comedians Canada has produced over the years, why is there no Canadian Comedy Hall of Fame? Progosh has done more than wonder. He's made it happen. For more than 20 years, his efforts have been stymied by celebrations cut short by the 9/11 attacks, by deals falling through during a recession, by COVID and actor strike interruptions. Who knew saluting the funny was such a serious and challenging business? On this podcast e...
Michele Finney's Hard Day's Night, 60 years later
February 08, 2024 12:00 - 55 minutes - 38.3 MBI’m old enough to remember seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. That "really big shew" happened on February 9, 1964 – 60 years ago. I remember my dad going on about their long hair and those so-called Beatle wigs. I could not, however, take my eyes off them, and neither could a then-record 73 million other people who watched that night on television. That summer of ‘64, The Beatles came to Toronto for two performances at Maple Leaf Gardens. There for both shows and chosen to interview...
Enrico Colantoni shows his Allegiance
February 05, 2024 12:00 - 54 minutes - 37.3 MBOf the 137 podcast episodes I've done here over the past four-plus years, the most amazing conversation might be the second one we recorded. That was with one of my favourite actors, Enrico Colantoni. The man has done very well since he left Etobicoke for the Big Apple as a student at the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts. Distinguishing himself there led to memorable roles in "Galaxy Quest," Just Shoot Me, Veronica Mars, Flashpoint, "A.I.", "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" and on a...
Run the Burbs/One More Time
January 29, 2024 12:00 - 48 minutes - 33.2 MBIn this episode: two CBC Tuesday night comedies for the price of one. First up is Andrew Pfung and company from Run The Burbs (Tues. on CBC). The sitcom returns for a third season with Rakhee Morzaria, who plays Camille, joining Phung on this round-table chat, along with showrunners Jennica Harper and Nelu Handa. We start off talking yard sales, the focus of the season three premiere. "Almost all the ideas on the show come from a very real place," says Phung. Also noted is how the kids on...
Ghosting with Luke Hutchie and Matthew Finlan
January 22, 2024 12:00 - 23 minutes - 16.3 MBTwo actors known exclusively for their work in the horror genre step off script and into their own real-life thriller on their quest to decipher if Canada’s most ghostly places are truly haunted. Yes, Luke Hutchie and Matthew Finlan are the ghostbusters in this "factual" (CBC never uses the "R" word) series. Both have horror genre credits in their IMDb profiles, with Zack playing a killer gay vampire in the OUT tv series Ezra and Matthew in the cast of the Paramount+ feature, "Orphan: Firs...
Sight Unseen's creators Kat and Niko Troubetzkoy
January 18, 2024 12:00 - 40 minutes - 27.8 MBTo see your way clear to a new spin on a cop show is not easy. Sisters Karen Troubetzkoy and Nikolijne Troubetzkoy, series creators who've proven themselves on hits such as Orphan Black and Transplant, looked within themselves for inspiration. Karen, or Kat, has struggled with vision loss requiring multiple surgeries since her twenties. Her story led Kat and Niko to come up with a unique angle: what if a homicide detective suddenly became clinically blind? Could she team up with a remote, se...
Production design "discovery" Mark Steel
January 15, 2024 12:00 - 56 minutes - 39.1 MBSeries creator and star Mark Critch needed to replicate the bridge of the original Star Trek Enterprise for a fantasy sequence on his St. John's-based sitcom Son of a Critch. The episode airs this Tuesday, January 16 on CBC. Who did Critch beam aboard to do the job? None other that my guest this week on brioux.tv: the podcast, Mark Steel. True, that name sounds more like a Marvel superhero than a production designer. Steel, however, has been crafting the look of everything from phasers to...
Meet CBC Wild Cards Giacomo Gianniotti and Vanessa Morgan
January 08, 2024 12:00 - 38 minutes - 26.4 MBWhen you are casting a he/she series, chemistry is everything. The producers behind the new Vancouver-based cop/caper hour Wild Cards struck gold with their leads: Vanessa Morgan (Riverdale) and Giacomo Gianniotti (Grey's Anatomy). He plays a by-the-books, wrongfully accused cop trying to clear his name after being demoted to harbour duty. She plays a daring schemer who can con her way out of just about any corner. When the two are thrown together to solve a case, these wild cards make for ...
Pluto TV: Canada's FAST success story
January 05, 2024 12:00 - 50 minutes - 34.5 MBTwo thousand and twenty-three was a challenging year in the TV business. Inflation and higher interest rates had consumers thinking twice about streaming subscriptions. The writers and actors strikes put a cork in the content pipeline. Peak TV seemed to slip back from the summit. The big success story in Canada, however, was the rapid growth of Pluto TV. In one year, the Free Ad-supported Streaming Television platform went from zero to pacing at over one billion total viewing minutes monthly...
Bonanza rides again with DVD archivist Andrew Klyde
December 11, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 64.8 MBGiddyap, pardner. This week's episode of brioux.tv: the podcast takes a deep dive into everything you need to know about collecting your favourite TV shows on DVD. My guest is archivist, curator and classic TV expert Andrew J. Klyde, executive producer of Bonanza: The Official Complete Series. For many boomers, Sunday nights were spent with your family crowded around the one set in the house watching Disney, Ed Sullivan at 8 and then at 9, Bonanza. Throughout its 14-season, 431-episode run, ...
TV Toy & Game collector Bruce Button
November 27, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 42.9 MBAt brioux.tv, most podcasts deal with the people who make television memories. What about, however, people who collect TV memorabilia? We’re talking toys and games, trading cards, comic books, autographs and puzzles? Meet Canada keeper of every boomer’s childhood memories: Bruce Button. For close to 50 years, Button has been buying, selling and curating TV merch, specialising in pop memorabilia from the ‘60s. On this podcast, I visit his Hamilton, Ont., house, where four rooms are jammed fu...
Andrew Barnsley gets Schitt's done!
November 20, 2023 12:00 - 58 minutes - 40.1 MBWhen he was asked to be president of the Toronto Film School a few years ago, Andrew Barnsley wasn't sure if he could take the job. After all, he was the executive producer of three network sitcoms at the time: Schitt's Creek, JANN and Son of a Critch. (A fourth, the reboot of Kids in the Hall on Prime Video, came later.) The Emmy and Golden Globe award winner eventually figured it all out and now has his Emmys for producing Schitt's Creek on display at the Toronto Film School campus. It se...
John Doyle Strikes Back!
November 13, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 56.8 MBThe strikes are over. How will this affect the future of television? Who better to ask than Mister John Doyle? The retired and distinguished Globe and Mail TV columnist returns to brioux.tv: the podcast to share his savvy and unfiltered take on the crazy business of television. On this episode we tackle the following topics: The impact of the writers and actors strikes on the Canadian TV industry. (Our conversation took place hours before the U.S. guilds announced a deal had been done.) W...
Cheryl Hickey moves beyond ET Canada
October 16, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour - 51.5 MBIt has been a whirlwind couple of weeks for Canada's first lady of entertainment news, Cheryl Hickey. The big hit was learning that the series she has hosted for 18 seasons, ET Canada, was being shut down by Corus Entertainment. Hickey admits the move, which took effect Oct. 6, caught her as much by surprise as it did others in the industry. The native of Shallow Lake, Ont. a very small town near Owen Sound, started her career at Global 24 years ago. That's pretty much the last time I interv...
Robyn Hood's Director X and star Jessye Romeo
October 02, 2023 11:00 - 43 minutes - 30.2 MBHe's directed Drake, Rihanna, Kanye West, Justin Bieber and Jay Z. Now, Julien Christian Lutz, a.k.a. Director X, puts a Hip Hop spin on a legendary folk hero with Robyn Hood. The Young Adult drama airs Friday nights on Global and can also be streamed on Stack TV. This episode, we hear from two of the key players on the new series: Jessye Romeo, a young, British actress who plays Robyn -- a masked, hip hop vigilante and leader of The Hood. She's out for justice with her family and friends w...
Survivor 45 preview with Murtz Jaffer
September 25, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour - 52.1 MBFire up the Tiki torches and pass the Doritos. With Survivor 45 upon us, who better to deliver the scoop than Murtz Jaffer. Murtz's day job is as Associate Producer of Global's The Morning Show. He's also well known as the world's foremost expert on reality TV, traveling to countless final episode tapings of many reality shows and attending and hosting multiple cast parties. For this season of Survivor, Murtz has scouted the field and knows the 17 new contestants and one returning player v...
Bones of Crows' storyteller Marie Clements
September 18, 2023 11:00 - 40 minutes - 27.6 MBMarie Clements grabs your attention with the opening scenes of her new series version of Bones of Crows (premiering September 20 on CBC, CBC Gem and APTN). A pyramid of caribou skulls are stacked high as crows circle overhead. It is a not so subtle symbol of the decades of horror, abuse and genocide that took place in Canada in the wake of the residential school system. Clements has taken her festival film feature of Bones of Crows and expanded it with this five episode miniseries version. ...
Laugh-In legend George Schlatter
September 11, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour - 48.9 MB"Still Laughing" is the title of George Schlatter's new book and if you read it, you'll be laughing, too. There are first-hand, hilarious stories on every page and he shares many of them on this podcast episode. Schlatter went from being a Las Vegas bouncer (although he prefers the title, "executive in charge of emergency departures") to being a talent agent, where he struck up an early and valued friendship with Frank Sinatra. He eventually became a TV producer, handling top talent such as ...
When Calls the Heart's Kevin McGarry
September 04, 2023 01:00 - 51 minutes - 35.3 MBAs Kevin McGarry says on this episode, the odds seemed stacked against When Calls the Heart lasting into a 10th season. Yet last it has, with the 10th season now streaming on both Super Channel and Hallmark, and an 11th season already in production on the elaborate town set erected on farmland near Langley, B.C. The series has weathered the loss of one of its main leads. Aussie actor Dan Lissing, who played original Mountie suitor Jack Thornton, opted to leave the series at the end of Season...
FROM THE VAULT: cartoon kingpin Joe Barbera
August 21, 2023 11:00 - 40 minutes - 27.9 MBBack in 1986, I had the good fortune to interview Joe Barbera at his corner office at the Hanna-Barbera Studio on Ventura Blvd in Los Angeles. The savvy TV producer/studio head was 75 at the time and had plenty to talk about. He was getting offers to make live-action feature films based on The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Jonny Quest. He had a new, animated Bible series to promote on Home Video. He insisted that ABC, CBS and NBC would stick with his main bread and butter, Saturday morning ca...
Previewing "Kinecon at Cinecon" with Stan Taffel
August 14, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour - 44.7 MBDo you love watching classic films on TCM? Then if you live in the Los Angeles area, or will be there over Labor Day weekend, you'll love Cinecon. Described as a "7th heaven for cinephiles," Cinecon returns for a 59th year August 31 to September 4 with a playbill of rare goodies you can't even see on TCM. Among those programming the festival is this week's podcast guest Stan Taffel, president of Cinecon and a dedicated film archivist and curator. One of Stan's innovations was introducing "...
Winning Time's Quincy Isaiah
August 07, 2023 11:00 - 22 minutes - 15.3 MBQuincy Isaiah says his basketball game has improved by leaps and rebounds since suiting up for the role of Magic Johnson in "Winning Time: Rise of the Lakers Dynasty." The series is back for a second season on HBO Max and Crave. The Michigan native plays the early '80s version of Earvin "Magic" Johnson in the series, which was created by Adam McKay. Isaiah had to do both an acting and a sports audition to win the part, and was coached later, as were the other actors, to look NBA worthy on th...
Sabrina Jalees goes Farming for Love
July 24, 2023 11:00 - 58 minutes - 40.4 MBMe and hilarious actress/comedienne Sabrina Jalees connect over candy bars stolen from the CTV press launch as well as her two current TV gigs: hosting Farming for Love (Sunday nights on CTV) and acting as a judge on Roast Battle Canada (Mondays on CTV Comedy channel). The Toronto native jumped out to a fast start as a teenage correspondent for The Toronto Star, a standup comedian at YukYuks and Just for Laughs and as a judge on MuchMusic's cheeky music roast, Video on Trial. Recent credits...
Get hooked on Moonshine with Emma Hunter
July 17, 2023 11:00 - 46 minutes - 31.7 MBIt doesn't take long for Emma Hunter's frisky DJ Nora to jump back into action on Moonshine (CBC; The CW). As Season Three begins, she's having sex in a car with her police officer boyfriend (played by James Gilbert). Sorry, America. You won't see that scene in the U.S. Hunter's auto erotic antics, as well as the occasional obscenity, will be cut on The CW. It seems that the Canadian brew of Moonshine is a little too strong for The CW's standards and practices. The raunchy dramedy, from wri...
Hart Hanson Pt. 2: the backstory on Bones
July 03, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour - 42.4 MBWhen we left off in our two-part conversation with TV writer/creator Hart Hanson, he was make the career jump from Canada to Hollywood. Part Two is packed with stories from the U.S. TV trenches. After shepherding both Joan of Arcadia and Judging Amy, Hanson's decision to bail on Snoops baffled colleagues and managers. Not his boss David E. Kelley, however, who admired Hanson's writing and gave him his blessing. When Hanson went on to create the series Bones, he did the unthinkable -- he inf...
Hart Hanson: Bones' boss a Can-Am success story Pt. 1
June 26, 2023 11:00 - 57 minutes - 39.4 MBWas he born in California or Canada? Even Hart Hanson's not 100% sure but here's what we do know: he has created hit TV shows in both countries, including the longest-running drama ever at Fox, Bones. Pt. 1 of this two-part conversation looks at his start in Canada as a writer on The Beachcombers through his work as a writer and producer on Neon Ryder, North of 60 and as the creator of Traders. Hart talks about earning degrees at The University of Toronto and The University of British Colum...
Jordan Gavaris jumps back in The Lake
June 12, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour - 44.8 MBWarning: there is a lot of Brampton talk in this episode. My guest, Jordan Gavaris, grew up in my town so brace yourself for a walk down memories of the Bramalea City Centre. Otherwise the top subject is Gavaris' Prime Video series The Lake, which just returned for a second season on the Amazon-owned streaming service. Shot in Ontario's cottage country, the story finds Gavaris -- previously best-known for Orphan Black -- as Justin, a gay dad with a 16-year-old daughter named Billie (Madiso...
Marilyn Denis quits her day job
June 05, 2023 11:00 - 44 minutes - 30.5 MBThis Friday, June 9, after 13 seasons, ever-popular radio and TV host Marilyn Denis concludes her long-running CTV daytime series The Marilyn Denis Show. Prior to that, she enjoyed a 20-year run in daytime TV on CityLine -- an incredible 33-year reign over two networks. In fact, as she discusses on this episode of brioux.tv: the podcast, Denis was so coveted by former Bell/CTV boss Ivan Fecan that he insisted she be part of the deal when a tug of war developed over her services. The good ne...
John Doyle is back!
May 29, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour - 55.7 MBNow that John Doyle has retired as the TV critic of The Globe and Mail, how are we supposed to make sense of it all? Where is our roadmap out of the madness that is Canadian television? It is all right here, friends, in this handy and convenient, click and listen podcast episode. Hear Doyle on why he retired over six months ago from the newspaper he toiled at with distinction for 26 years. Does he still think the people who run the Canadian Screen Awards are idjits? That would be yes. What s...