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. These are challenging times not just for Canadian media companies but also studios trying to sell shows. Are half hours dead? Does Rogers have any money for scripted fare after that $11 billion NHL deal; and will a wall be built around the US market in this scary new age of tariffs? As Andrew said just before we started recording, “It’s a great time to be alive, right?” 

As president of the Toronto Film School, Barnsley also talks about the challenges facing students keen on becoming the next generation of Canadian storytellers. Listen and learn!

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 YouTube channel.

This latest three hour, immersive, real-time documentary invites viewers to cruise along in a made-in-Muskoka Duke runabout, a mahogany classic converted to electric power. From the passenger seat you'll cruise past incredible boat houses along "Millionaires" and "Billionaires" row. Reel in a boatload of pop up info bites and dive under the water to visit an actual shipwreck. Travel tariff free from your own living room. All aboard!

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," Leno says, "because I didn't want to be the ugly American coming in." 

Don't worry about it I tell Leno -- we can use the jokes. The comedy road warrior has had to tweak his act just to straddle divided states audiences. That is working for him so far. "Ever since I took politics out of my act, ticket sales are up 20 or 30 per cent."

Leno also talks about how, back in the war for late night days,  things  weren't always so cozy between him and Arsenio. We touch on those nasty accidents Leno suffered these past few years, including a serious car fire which forced him to seek "a face guy." There is plenty of car talk (he's still hosting Jay's Garage on MSNBC) and we find out his take on the current late night landscape.

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 at YukYuks in Toronto.

The documentary features several performers who see The Nubian Show as the Def Jam of Canadian comedy. Among them are Russell Peters (the "Brown Sinatra," as Robinson calls him), Hassan Phills, Crystal Ferrier, Marito Lopez and Zambrina Douglas. 

Listen as Robinson, who is also the president of the Canadian Comedy Hall of Fame, reminisces about some of his comedy heroes and others he met along the way.

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 series now are Cindy Busby (best known for several seasons of Heartland) and Christopher Russell, my guests this week on brioux.tv: the podcast. Busby plays Nora, a lawyer who travels by stage coach to the western Canadian town of Brookfield. Russell plays the new mountie in town, Michael "Fearless" Fletcher.

Before you can say "1916," a pioneer romance ensues.

Returning to the series is Wendy Crewson as no-nonsense lady rancher Tess Stewart.  The first new episode will also feature Morgan Kohan -- who has moved on to Sullivan's Crossing -- as Lillian Walsh. Busby and Russell, who first met a decade ago on the set of one of their many Christmas TV-movies, explain how they both got called to When Hope Calls.

 For this episode we go back into the vault for an interview conducted ten years ago with Joe Clokey. He was the son of the man who created and animated Gumby, the most bendable children's TV character ever. Joe grew up in California as "Gumby's little brother," watching his dad and mom stamp out dozens of brightly coloured characters out of plastercine in creating a unique world of stop-animation wonder.
TV audiences first saw Gumby on a short film tested during a broadcast of NBC's The Howdy Doody Show in 1955. That led to a full season order the next year, extended about once a decade on various networks into the '60s, '70s and '80s.
Clokey tells story after story about how the character evolved, who did the voices and even details about the theme song. It was his big sister and a friend singing, "He was once a little green slab of clay..." to a tune composed by a prominant jazz musician. The music played millions of times for a paltry one-time fee. Even Clokey lost out when a spinoff merchandising deal made a fortune -- not for him, but for the toy company.
We also talk about Clokey's other famous series, Davey and Goliath, a collection of suburban kiddie parables bankrolled by the Lutheren church. I saw both shows daily as a lad while watching Rocketship 7 and Commander Tom as they beamed across Lake Ontario from Buffalo, N.Y., on WKBW. 

Ali Weinstein is the writer/producer/director behind "Your Tomorrow," a look at Ontario Place the summer before it was shut down after 52 years. For over five decades a 155-acre Toronto waterfront sanctuary, it is being radically redeveloped. Gone are 850 West Island trees. Instead we get a spa with a killer view of Cinesphere.

In a moving, observational documentary,Weinstein captures the place in its final days as a full-on family retreat. Even after falling into disrepair, it was still treasured as a bird sanctuary and even a beach.

The documentary is rather personal for me. As a student, I worked there as a bus boy for three summers, 1972, '73 and '74. Out the front door of the West Island's Blockhouse restaurant, between shifts clearing tables for two dollars an hour, I watched the CN Tower rise above the Toronto skyline.

It never seemed possible back in those halcyon days of summer that Ontario Place would wind up, fifty years later, looking like an abandoned mall. Weinstein's documentary, shot mainly during the park's last active summer of 2023, throws a bright light on that reality. 

Was Ontario Place purposefully left to rot? Hear Weinstein on that and the making of this doc, which premieres on TVO March 23 and streams on TVODoc starting March 21.

Podcasts were invented for guests such as Malcolm McDowell. He is a smart, funny, generous man and as terrific as ever as Pop on CBC's Son of a Critch.

This conversation took place last summer in St. John’s, Nfld., in McDowell’s trailer which was parked outside the Bella Vista banquet hall. It had been an exciting 24 hours with the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau -- who was down the street trying in vain to save his job at the annual Regatta --  stopping by to say hello to the cast and crew.

Back in August, few suspected how Trudeau’s fortunes might change in six months. Wait till you hear McDowell’s take on Trudeau as well as the PM's mother Margaret whom McDowell first met 50 years earlier in London.

We touch on some of the actor's past performances in films such as “Clockwork Orange,"  “Caligula” and too many others to mention. We start off talking about a few of his past podcast hosts, one he loved and another not so much. 

McDowell made sure I was offered a cup of English breakfast tea (milk; no sugar) and we were off to the races. Pour yourself one now and listen in. 

 Two of the four Baroness Von Sketch Show players, Jennifer Whalen and Meredith MacNeill, are back with a new CBC series -- and it's a period piece!
The series is called Small Achievable Goals and it is about two women in midlife encountering all of the joys of menopause. Hot flashes, mood swings, homicidal trendencies and more.
Now, you can't swing a tampon in daytime TV without Drew Barrymore or Oprah menopausing for station identification. Even in primetime this has come up before. Remember that episode of The Golden Girls? Where Blanche thought she might be pregnant? That episode was called, "End of the Curse."
Well, Whalen and MacNeill wage war on the curse. Helping is a top Canadian comedy cast including Jon Dore (The Lake), Peter McKeleghan (Workin' Moms),  Tricia Black (Pretty Hard Cases) and Paul Braunstein (Shelved). The two main characters are podcasters, so right there, I have a rooting interest. The eight episode series airs Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET on CBC and CBCGem. 

 Claire Rankin says she's waited "a really long time...to land something like this."
The PEI native is talking about her role as Mary on Son of a Critch. How she landed the role -- after one of those remote zoom call auditions -- is just one of the stories she shares on this hour-long podcast.
Season Four finds Mary -- and Rankin -- out of the kitchen and in the thick of it. On this Tuesday's episode (CBC, CBCGem), Mary has a mid-life crisis. In a few weeks, she's going back to school. Later, she'll be getting back in touch with her beauty pageant roots.
The challenges are all welcome for this versatile actress who began her stage career at Stratford performing in Shakespean classics such as Love's Labour's Lost, Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest.
During her Hollwood years, Rankin found gest starring roles in everything from House, Monk and Ally McBeal to The Drew Carey Show.
Those shows were all more fun and less stressful than one of her first LA jobs opposite a Hollywood legend, a "Wish" she wishes she had never made.
Way more fun was working opposite Dick Van Dyke on Diagnosis Murder, especially getting a chance to sing with the TV legend between takes.
Get to know Claire Rankin, this week on brioux.tv: the podcast. 

Saturday Night Live is celebrating the big 5-0. Who better to put it in perspective than the Canadian writer who was there at the start.

On this special presentation from brioux.tv: the podcast and LateNighter, Rosie Shuster tells how it all began. She was born with a funny bone as the daughter of Frank Shuster (half of the comedy team of Wayne & Shuster). She meets Lorne Michaels at junior high, he falls for Rosie, and Lorne then soaks up every showbiz lesson he can from her dad.  

Together with their Toronto school chum Howard Shore, all three land at 30 Rock in New York, assemble the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, put together the next generation of comedy writers (including Rosie) and create the greatest live TV comedy-music showcase ever. 

Shuster talks about the show that came before, CBC's Hart & Lorne Terrific Hour; writing for Gilda Radner (a joy) and John Belushi (a struggle), getting props from her proud poppa, and her on-again, off-again marriage to Michaels. 

But will she get a dress in time for two galas in New York, including the three hour SNL50: The Anniversary Special as well as the hour-long red carpet show? Tune in Sunday, Feb. 16, on NBC and Global to find out.

OK, Hearties, here he is, Jack Wagner who plays Bill Avery on When Calls the Heart. The former soap star has played the sheriff-turned-judge character for 12 seasons on the Langley, BC-based Hallmark and Super Channel series.

As viewers will see on the Saturday, Feb. 8 episode, Avery will be re-introduced to Georgie McGill, played by special guest star Melissa Gilbert whose credits date all the way back to her child star days on Little House on the Prairie. 

'Bout time Avery got in on the romance on this series, says Wagner, a veteran of several soaps, including General Hospital, The Bold and The Beautiful and Santa Barbara. He also played a romantic lead on Aaron Spelling's frothy primetime serial Melrose Place.

All this and the guy is a scratch golfer, the only non-professional athlete winner of a major pro-am tournament. Listen for his story about golfing with Sean Connery. We also talk about his chart-topping mid-'80s hit "All I Need," his previous encounter with Gilbert (both were on Dancing with the Stars) and his theory as to why When Calls the Heart is the perfect show for 2025.

 If ever we needed some candid talk from Rick Mercer, we need it now. The CBC Hall of Famer didn't hold back when I spoke with him last summer in St. John's on the set of Son of a Critch. The native son plays Mark Sr.'s new VOCM radio station boss on the CBC sitcom. Catch the episode this Tuesday (also on CBCGem).
Mercer was delighted to be back before many familiar faces among the crew. He is, of course, an original alumni of Mark Critch's other series, This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
After traveling across Canada last year doing stand up shows with his friend Jann Arden, Mercer questions whether the public broadcaster has lost its way at the worst possible time. He notes how Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre's oft-stated goal to cut the CBC appropriation now draws applause breaks even on the East Coast.
Hear more frank talk from one of Canada's most popular entertainers as he returns to brioux.tv: the podcast.
SPECIAL ALERT: That bearded guy glimpsed in the background Tuesday in the bar scene with Critch and Mercer? The guy trying hard not to act? Yup, guilty as charged. Don't blink. 

This episode is the second to feature a cast member from Season 4 of Son of a Critch: none other than the son himself, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth.
Ainsworth, of course, plays young Mark Critch, circa 1990, on the CBC sitcom. The episode was recorded last summer on location in St. John's, Nfld. Ainsworth was shooting a scene on a residential street closed off for the production. Also there was Sophia Powers, who plays Mark's girlfriend Fox.
The two are trying to navigate high school this season, with scenes shot right in series' co-creator Mark Critch's old high school in St. John's.
It is fun to hear Ainsworth speak in his own lilting Liverpudlian tongue during this interview. He and his famous co-star, the great Malcolm McDowell, are often at the Duke of Duckworth, cheering on their favourite football club.
Ainsworth also talks about his upcoming feature film "Everything's Going to Be Great" which costars Bryan Cranston and Allison Janney.
Special note: at the end of this episode, listen for a tribute to one of my high school pals, Stephen Dudley. I recently learned that this brilliant pianist, whose music can be heard on most of these episodes, passed away late last December. Here, in a cassette recording made exactly 50 years ago, he gifts a folk night crowd with one of his own compositions. Stephen was 67.

Monday January 20 is inauguration day in the US. So everybody raise your right hand, and for those listening here at home, hang onto those Canadian passports.

A dozen years ago The Donald was just another tanned game show host when I interviewed him in his 26th floor office at Trump Tower in New York. Now I've reached into the vault and fired up the time machine to bring you a conversation about TV, the world in general and why he feels both always need a bad guy.

The Apprentice host went directly into his signature charm offensive, saying he had checked me out with his friends at NBC who allegedly told him if he spoke with one reporter from Canada, I was “the guy.” (The same line he used on Elon Musk.)

Being played like this was a ton of fun, but that was then. Who could have known that this former real estate hustler would be a two-term US president and be seen by some as one of the most dangerous men on the planet?

Tune in to hear about The Apprentice, the late Joan Rivers (“she’s tough”), David Letterman (“great guy”), the Canadian economy at the time ("your banks were smart") and the war in Afghanistan (“a mess”).

The second season of the slick crime series Allegiance begins January 15 on CBC and CBC Gem. The shot-in-Surrey, B.C., drama stars Supinder Wraich (Sort Of), Enrico Colantoni and Samer Salem. I spoke with all three in Toronto at the CBC Winter Media Launch in December. 
Wraich plays Sabrina Sohal, a promising rookie police officer who fights to serve her hometown. Rico is the seasoned cop who mentors her past the hurdles of a flawed justice system. 
In Season Two, Sohal graduates to the Serious Crimes Unit and has six months to prove she's got what it takes to be a detective. She's paired in that task with a more experienced detective, played by series newcomer Salem. 
All three take part in this chatty podcast episode, taped live at CBC's Broadcast Centre in downtown Toronto. The discussion ranges from immigration and cultural clashes, fellow co-star David Cubitt (whom they all praise) and even which cast member caused the most outtakes. 

 No man is an island. Allan Hawco's new series, however, is shot and set on an archipelago of eight islands represented by the French government off the coast of Newfoundland.

Hawco, who played a detective on Republic of Doyle and was also on Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, plays Donny "Fitz" Fitzpatrick. He's a cop who gets too nosy about police secrets and is therefore banished to Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. There he is paired with local police officer Geneviève "Arch" Archambault (Joséphine Jobert from Death in Paradise). Sparks fly and plot lines ensue.

Hawco talks about creating the series with Robina Lord-Stafford and Perry Chaffe, and starting a TV production base pretty much from scratch with Saint-Pierre -- an even bigger challenge than getting Doyle off the ground years ago in Newfoundland. James Purefoy also stars in Saint-Pierre, which airs Monday nights after Murdoch Mysteries on CBC and CBC Gem. 

This Hour has, well, not just 22 Minutes but a full hour as I catch up with Mark Critch, this week's guest on brioux.tv: the podcast.
The conversation was taped last summer in St. John's, Nfld., during production on the fourth season of Son of a Critch (returning Tuesday, Jan. 7 on CBC and CBC Gem). What a trip that was, including a visit from a guy who was once Critch's snowboard instructor -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Now both men are going downhill this winter!
Speaking of which, we also talk about Critch and the 22 Minutes cast tackling an hour-long New Year's Eve special this Tuesday, Dec. 31, at 8 p.m. ET on CBC.
As for Son of a Critch, look for it to be an emotional season. Young Mark (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) is off to high school, with scenes shot right in Critch's old alma mater. In fact, so much of Season Four is pulled from Critch's past, he was literally able to show the other actors video he shot in 1990 before certain scenes were shot.
All this and the latest Malcolm McDowell stories in a sweet and fun, on-location episode.

Genevieve Mushaluk, a 33-year-old corporate lawyer from Winnipeg, Manitoba, had her torch snuffed on last week’s two-hour, second-last episode of Survivor. Picked as the final member of the jury, she’ll be in LA watching the finale with the rest of the castaways when the season ends December 18 on CBS and Global.

Did she see her elimination coming? Does she have any regrets? Will she ever eat rice again? And what about all those snakes and spiders??

Mushaluk tells all in this shorter than usual episode of brioux.tv the podcast. Here she is, a true Canadian Survivor.

My guest this week has made over three dozen made for television movies, She also headlined Hallmark’s Aurora Teagarden series. Before that, as a child star, she was part of the long-running TGIF family series, Full House, as well as its streaming sequel, Fuller House.

Of course I’m talking about Candace Cameron Bure. In 2022, she broke away from Hallmark and joined the Great American Family network. There she is not just one of its busiest stars, she is also a very hands-on Chief Content Officer, making sure
these films touch on issues of faith and belief as well as on romance.

Many of these films are shot in Canada, including two premiering this month on Super Channel Heart & Home. “A Christmas Less Traveled” (Tuesday, Dec. 17) pairs her with Edmonton-born Eric Johnson, while another Canadian, Cameron Mathison, stars with Cameron Bure in "Home Sweet Christmas” (Monday, Dec. 23).

If all that isn’t Canadian enough, the California native is also married to a hockey player: former Canadiens and Flames sniper Valerie Bure. Hear her on all this and more this week on Brioux.tv: the podcast.

If you work in this industry you know how hard it is to keep ahead in a world that always seems to be pivoting. Streaming, fast channels, multi-platform media brands – who can keep up?

Well, one fella is Jamie Schouela, President, Global Channels and Media at Blue Ant Media. 

I caught up with Jamie a few weeks ago in Toronto when I was asked to moderate a CTAM panel on the future of the industry from a cable perspective. He leads the strategic direction and operations for the company's streaming and linear networks, as well as digital, print and consumer event properties. The companies' brands include Love Nature, BBC Earth, T+E, Makeful, HauntTV, Cottage Life and many more.

He's also busy spreading Blue Ant content around the world. Here he is, one of the good guys, Jamie Schouela.

As we head into another frigid  Canadian winter we bring you a podcast about a series that is set and shot in the hottest part of Australia. The series is called Troppo, a term used in north Queensland that means going mad from the heat. 

Troppo is based on the best selling novel from Candice Fox titled Crimson Lake and it is about a disgraced American ex-cop played by Thomas Jane (HBO's Hung) hired to help an Australian  private investigator. They are teamed together on murder cases in far north Queensland.

The actress playing the PI is Nicole Chamoun and we reached her half way around the world this week in Australia via a zoom call.  Seasons One and Two of Troppo are streaming now in Canada on Super Channel. 

 After 31 years as host of The Fifth Estate, plus another decade winning Emmys for CBS and NBC News, award-winning investigative journalist Bob McKeown is ready to retire.
The Ottawa native never shied away from his assignments, especially when it came to reporting on football and head injuries. Back in the '70s, he was a CFL all-star centre for the Ottawa Rough Riders. He is without a doubt the only three-time recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award to have also won a Grey Cup.
On this episode of brioux.tv: the podcast, the 74-year-old talks about how he lined up opposite the best the CFL and American college football had to offer. That he later went head-to-head with Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter and even Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom host Marlin Perkins only added to his legend.
Then there's the time he got bitten by a shark! Sink your teeth into the whole story on this story-packed podcast episode. Then see the highlights as part of The Fifth Estate: 50 Years of Truth, premiering Friday, November 29 on CBC and CBC Gem.  

Tyler and Jordie Schwartz started their business of selling retro toys and gifts in 2007 as the Canadian Leg Lamp Company. The idea came after shooting their fan film “Road Trip for Ralphie,” an homage to the kid from the 1983 classic, “A Christmas Story.”

Next they introduced Moose Mugs from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (1989). Seventeen years later, they’ve branched out to all kinds of retro goodies, including toys, candy, books, games, ugly sweaters and much more.

You’ll find them all packed inside their Oakville store, or on-line at retrofestive.ca. 

Thanks to the Schwartz's, you’ll also find these nostalgic Christmas treats at the TV on Film Party screenings I’ve been hosting at The Westdale theatre in Hamilton. Awarded as TV trivia prizes, they make the perfect treats for fans who know all about A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Grinch and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.

Tyler talks about how these retro reminders bring us back to an innocent time spent growing up in front of the TV. Hear him this week on brioux.tv: the podcast.

When Jess Salgueiro auditioned in person for the role of Eve on Frasier, she had to do it in front of a pair of sitcom legends: Kelsey Grammer and director Jim Burrows.
Pressure? Yes and no says the actress, who was born in Winnipeg, Man.  She figured there must be hundreds of others lining up to try and win a role on this reboot of a TV classic. With nothing to lose by trying, she told herself, just have fun and see if you can make them laugh.
She did, and got the part.
Now after two seasons streaming on demand at Paramount+, Salgueiro feels right at home on the famed Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood. 
This past September she and Grammer were in Toronto attending a public screening of the series. She was blown away when Grammer, speaking to the crowd beforehand, got emotional about having her as part of the cast.
Hear all about her climb up the TV ladder as this week's guest on brioux.tv: the podcast.