brioux.tv: the podcast

Send us Fan Mail 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. ("Y...

Send us Fan Mail 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 ...

Send us Fan Mail 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 shatteri...

Send us Fan Mail 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 Sh...

Send us Fan Mail 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 tog...