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We all know Jimmy Kimmel stands up for the First Amendment. Now there is also joy in Mellonville for he has done what not even Martin Scorsese could do -- complete a documentary about SCTV.

Kimmel is the executive producer of SCTV: The Greatest Show You've Never Heard Of. The 90-minute documentary premieres Friday, October 30 on Netflix. 

I’ve had the good fortune to attend tapings of Jimmy Kimmel Live and to get to know this fearless firebrand of late night a little over the years.

A true SCTV fan, the Brooklyn native came to Toronto in 2018 and moderated a panel featuring the original cast – including, at the time, Catherine O'Hara and Joe Flaherty – for what was to be a documentary directed by Martin Scorsese.

Well, Scorsese kept making other movies but no SCTV doc. Not even Guy Cabalero or Edith Prickley could make him do it. 

Kimmel called up Netflix, which is now running the late ‘70s, early ‘80s series, and took on the project. He even apologises to all of Canada for the title, because he knows that every last hoser here has heard of it. 

Please click on the link and give a warm, Sammy Maudlin welcome to the FCC’s favourite funnyman.

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My guest this episode is an award-winning Canadian I've been looking to welcome since I started podcasting seven years ago – Jayne Eastwood. 

Back when the fabled Toronto production of Godspell burst on the scene in 1972, it made stars of its incredible cast – including Gilda Radner, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Victor Garber, Paul Shaffer, and Dave Thomas. 

Eastwood, in the opinion of Godspell doc director Nick Davis, was the biggest star of them all at the time. ("You Had to Be There," still in cinemas, comes to CBC in December.) Her role in the 1970 Can-con classic "Goin' Down the Road" made an instant impact. 

That and Godspell sparked an incredible career that continues to this day. Eastwood has clocked over 300 IMDB acting credits, including roles on just about any Canadian TV production you can name -- from King of Kensington to Sullivan’s Crossing; from Night Heat, Seeing Things, The Littlest Hobo and SCTV to voice work on Paw Patrol; from Check it Out, Noddy and Degrassi to scenes stolen on "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Dawn of the Dead."

All this and she was on the CHCH '70s series Party Game. And yes, you bet we talk about that.

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It was 65 years ago this fall that The Dick Van Dyke Show premiered on CBS.

The half hour sitcom was not an instant hit, struggled in the ratings hammocked between Marshal Dillon and Bachelor Father and was canceled at the end of its first season. Executive producer Sheldon Leonard refused to give up on the series, created by Carl Reiner, and went to New York to shop for another sponsor. He found a cigarette company that absorbed the cost of half the series and made a second season possible. 

A move to Wednesdays at 9:30 following the No. 1 hit The Beverly Hillbillies vaulted Van Dyke into the Top 10. After five years and 158 episodes -- and despite overtures from the network to continue -- the series ended its original run in 1966.

On this episode of brioux.tv: the podcast, TV historian David Van Deusen celebrates the shows' 65th anniversary with a book and a documentary. This month, he's also posting a special episodes of his podcast, "Tripping over the Ottoman," featuring Larry Mathews (Ritchie Petrie). Join us as we go over some of our favourite episodes of the classic sitcom.

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Back in 1996 I wrote a TV Guide Canada cover story on a local actress then making a name for herself on North America’s No. 1 series – ER. Her name is Gloria Reuben, born in Toronto and raised in London, Ontario. When I reached her by phone in Los Angeles, she had to interrupt the call to accept a bottle of champagne sent from then NBC west coast president Don Ohlmeyer. He was congratulating Reuben and others in the cast – including George Clooney and Noah Wyle – for shattering yet another ratings record.
Flash ahead three decades. Reuben stars as district attorney Mae Silver on the Blue Bloods spinoff Boston Blue. Donnie Wahlberg, Sonequa Martin-Green, and Ernie Hudson are part of the ensemble, just heading into its second season Friday nights on CBS and CTV.
Reuben has packed in plenty in the intervening years, including as a backup singer for Tina Turner. You may have seen her in Spielberg’s "Lincoln," or on the series MR Robot, or recently on Elsbeth. We talk about how astonishing it is that her character on the series seems so her in real life, almost as if the character was written for her, which it wasn’t. It was great catching up, but the crazy thing is, it felt like we had kept in touch the whole time. Please welcome, the very present, Gloria Reuben.

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As a TV beat reporter with an eye on the ratings, I never could understand why the Global television network walked away from their top-rated Canadian original hit Private Eyes in 2021. This breezy, stylish detective series, reminiscent of past romantic hits such as Hart to Hart, was vaulting well over the million mark in viewers. Fans couldn’t get enough of stars Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson’s snappy repartee.
Well, now it is five years later and, backed by producers Shawn Piller and Lloyd Segan, detectives  Shade and Everett are back in Private Eyes: West Coast. Besides a change of scenery, the move to Victoria, British Columbia, has opened up a whole new casting pool of guest star talent. 
It was great catching up with Priestley and Sampson and it was soon clear that rebooting this series was just like stepping back into a comfortable pair of gum shoes. The series premieres Sept. 30 on Global and StackTV and in the US on Oct. 5 on TheCW.

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Back in the ‘70s there was this hippie musical Godspell that ran for over a year in Toronto. The cast was mainly unknown at the time but wouldn’t stay that way for long. Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, Jayne Eastwood, Rudy Webb, and future Letterman bandleader Paul Shaffer were all in on the act. 

The story has been told bit by bit in other documentaries but never all in one place. Director Nick Davis has put it all together under a title that would never fit on a theatre marquee: 

"You Had to be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls, and Created a Community that Changed the World (in a Canadian Kind of Way)." It can be seen on the big screen starting Oct. 2 at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto plus later in October at the Hot Docs in Toronto. 

Davis has previously written and directed a couple of terrific sports documentaries, including a 30 for 30 series on the 1986 New York Mets. I really enjoyed our conversation and hope you will as well.

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As George Harrison once said, all things must pass. Which brings us to the fifth and final season of Son of a Critch, the CBC sitcom based on the early life of Mark Critch (This Hour Has 22 Minutes).

Last June as production wrapped I met with the four main castmates from the series -- Critch, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Claire Rankin and Malcolm McDowell -- at the CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto. There we shared a conversation about how the series ends with young Mark (Ainsworth) graduating from high school and into a very uncertain future, for himself as a budding performer, and for his home province of Newfoundland.

Critch says it is the ending he always had in mind. Ainsworth talks about going from child star to young adult actor with a starring role as Link on The Legend of Zelda. McDowell, now 83, says he will miss the show as well as St. John's which became a second home for the veteran actor.

Look for the final season to begin Tuesday, Sept. 8 on CBC and CBC Gem.

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This week on brioux.tv: the podcast, meet a former child star who continues to impress -- Kathy Garver, best known for playing oldest sibling Cissy on Family Affair. The series premiered on Sept. 12, 1966 -- 60 years ago next month. It ran for five seasons and 138 episodes and starred Brian Keith as Uncle Bill, a Manhattan bachelor.  With the help of his gentleman's gentleman Mr. French (Sebastian Cabot), he was suddenly tasked with raising three kids. 

At 20 (though playing 15), Garver was already a showbiz veteran when the series began. She boasted credits in everything from Our Miss Brooks, The Millionaire, Father Knows Best and "The Ten Commandments." Unlike many former child stars, Garver never stopped working, pivoting to voice work in animated shows such as Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang to a 2025 Grammy nomination for an audio recording. Then there are her books, including one out earlier this year, and several upcoming projects, and Garver enters her eighth decade a true showbiz survivor.

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For Part Two of my conversation with "Programming Insider" Marc Berman, we continue with the back half of the Critics Quiz. What was the scariest thing you ever saw on television? Do you think the era of the late night TV talk show is about done? What was your most memorable Television Critics Association press tour moment?

Questions about those semi-annual network press gatherings dominate, including, "What show did you vote for in the annual TCA Awards as Program of the Year?" and, "Name your most unforgettable TCA character."

All this and more from Berman and Brioux, part deux.

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If you are reading this, you probably already follow Marc Berman, a.k.a. "Mister Television." In 1997, while at Mediaweek, Marc created The Programming Insider, the daily, digital online destination for television and media. We've known each other since then through our affiliation with the Television Critics Association. We've both worked our way through platefuls of scrambled eggs at fancy Pasadena and Hollywood hotels in bi-annual trips to countless network press tours.

Those live tour dates are no more but as readers at Inc. now know, Marc's passion for television remains. In this first of two parts, I ask Marc my "Super 16" TV critic questions, including, Who was the first star you ever interviewed? Who surprised you as the biggest jerk? Who would you choose: Ginger or Mary Anne? And the telling opener: was there a TV series that made you want to become a TV critic? Marc gives a moving response to that and many other questions. This is a nostalgic, heartfelt episode from two dudes who were brought up right -- in front of the TV set.