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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.

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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 joke writer for hire (for everyone from Bill Murray to Martin Short to Sarah Silverman to Meryl Streep to even the Boston Red Socks) led him to becoming an Emmy award-winning writer-producer on The View. 

He’s just launched his own podcast, Fun For All Ages. Now you can hear celebrities in the mix with experts in various fields talking about their favourite obsessions. Did you know that Triumph the Insult Comic Dog master and Conan O’Brien wit Robert Smiegel owes much of his comedic perspective to Peanuts’ creator Charles Schultz? Just one example of the fun facts confirmed on this episode of brioux.tv: the podcast.

This is Part 1 of 2 with Frank; both posting on the same day.

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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 seasons was stuffed inside the robot suit on Lost in Space. May, who died at 69 in 2009, talks about the time he was nearly electrocuted in that tin can. Danger Will Robinson!

Behind Door No. 3 is Monty Hall, the co-creator and long time host of Let's Make a Deal. Hall was a spry 91 when I spoke with him in 2013 as he was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the game show. He passed away at 96 in 2017.

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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 entertainers into living rooms across North America. 

On this episode of brioux.tv: the podcast, I speak with Sullivan's granddaughter and the driving producer of the documentary, Margo Precht Speciale. She spent 10 years lining up interviews with Harry Belafonte, Dionne Warwick, Smokey Robinson and others, as well as clips from the CBS variety hour featuring  everyone from Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, Ike & Tina Turner, James Brown, Nat King Cole, Gladys Knight, The Supremes, Billy Preston and many others.

Please join us for a "really big shew!"

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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 things that have happened to her as a partially sighted person … such as that time she physically distanced herself from a post because she thought it was a person. I think we’ve all been there with that one. 

Showrunner Mark Forward and Jonathan Torrens – two cast members who worked together for several years on Mr. d – spun her stories into a six-episode first season of Pretty Blind, which premieres July 8 on AMI.

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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; Letterkenny and Shoresy; This Hour Has 22 Minutes; Wipeout Canada; Call Me Fitz; Moonshine; Degrassi: The Next Generation and The Royal Canadian Air Farce. 

Before all that, he got his start at CBC as a teenager as host of Street Cents, which led to his own shows, Jonovision, and Jonathan Cross's Canada.

Had he been born sooner he also would have been on The Beachcombers and The Littlest Hobo. Join us for the ultimate deep dive into CanCon TV. 

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 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 television funding process. He later helped put the Banff World Media Festival on its feet.  At a time when, it can be argued, Canada's story matters more than ever, Ferns wades into the battlefield between the CRTC and the new media giants of content distribution. Can we marry Canadian stories with global reach? That and more with Order of Canada member Pat Ferns, this week's insightful guest on brioux.tv: the podcast. 

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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 a personal note, I tell him how Bob Hearts Abishola was a big winner with Lucia, my wife Sandra's Italian-born mother. Lorre wanted that series to salute the immigrant achievement in America -- a message that could not be more relevant today.

I even put Lorre on the spot by asking what he thought would be the perfect Canadian TV sitcom. Hear his three word answer and so much more, on a memorable episode.

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 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 generation player in the Hollywood film industry.
Playing his dad on the series is another son of a famous actor, Beau Bridges. (His dad, Lloyd Bridges was in both the '60s series Sea Hunt and the 1980 comedy "Airplane!").
While the pilot for Matlock was shot in Toronto, the rest of the series is one of the few network shows currently produced in Los Angeles.
Ritter also talks about the joys of parenthood. He and his New Zealand-born actress wife Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets) have a young daughter. 

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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 accompanied by a small film crew and ventured into territories invaded and claimed by Russia. On one mission the soldiers he was with helped bring Ukrainian infants and elderly citizens back from enemy hands. 

Thomas even found time to check out a Ukrainian comedy club. There were no photos of Yakoff Smirnov on the wall. Thomas is planning a documentary about his 10-day, first hand account.

This is about as far removed as you can get from Thomas' old days spoofing Russian television on SCTV's hilarious "CCCP1" episode. Thomas's goal is to help raise donations for Ukrainian's under fire. Money goes to provide medical aid, training and vehicles for defence. Give now and qualify for a charitable tax receipt. Donate to the Ukrainian Freedom Fund at ukrfreedomfund.org.