Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Arlene Lott: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1678

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

In this 1678th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Arlene Lott, Rachel on The Kids of Degrassi Street and Nancy Kramer on Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High and School's Out. Yes, there's plenty of Degrassi talk, with a special guest Degrassi fanatic even, but we also discuss Arlene's Princess of Pies title and her relationship with FOTM Mike Wilner. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Silverwax, Yes We Are Open, Nick Ainis and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

I'm standing in awe and admiration for Canada. Hello this is Peter Mansbridge. It's a reporter's duty to be unbiased, but I'm so proud of Canadians everywhere. Standing united, buying Canadian products, supporting Canadian businesses, and our very way of life. Shop as if your country depends on it. Keep your money in Canada for Canada. I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm in Toronto like you wanna get the city love.

So, my city love me back, put my city love. Welcome to episode 1678 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Yes We Are Open, an award-winning podcast from Mon Monaris hosted by FOTML Grego.

Silverwax.ca use promo code TRONOMYKETEN at checkout and save 10%. Recyclemyelectronics.ca committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past building Toronto skyline a book and podcast from Nick Aini's sponsored by fusion Corp construction management Inc and Ridley funeral home pillars of the community since 1921 Joining me today Making her Toronto Mike debut is the queen of pies Arlene lot welcome Arlene hey thank you is that an official title queen of pies you know my friend and producer at the CBC

Porsche Corman coined that princess of pie in fact for the CBC but I'll take Queen okay you know what I'm I'll take the upgrade I'm promoting you princess you're the queen of pies, Arlene. I'll take it, yeah, thank you. So this pies business, we're gonna dive into that a little later. Are you a Toronto Maple Leafs fan? Have been.

Are you currently a Toronto Maple Leafs fan? I am currently uninformed. Okay, so you're just, you've tapped out. You're not currently engaged. I used to watch hockey when I was little with my dad It was like a tradition and the way I used to get to stay up late at night was just by begging to watch the Peter Puck cartoons. Yeah. Yeah, Peter Puck is a FOTM a friend of Toronto Mike. Yeah, Brian McFarland He's still with us in like 90 something amazing. Yeah amazing

I remember Peter Puck too, but we're similar vintage I you know, so I used to watch a bit of sports with my dad, but then I kind of fell off. Okay. So you're not, you're not watching the current, uh, playoff series between the Leafs and the senators. I have not yet jumped on the bandwagon. I'm sorry. No, don't apologize. Keep me updated. What's happening? It's two nothing Leafs. Okay. Go Leafs. And we're going to Ottawa now and game three is tomorrow night. Okay. Done and done.

So now's the time. Jump on that bandwagon. Okay. Shove over, make some room. You are here because I was chatting with FOTM Mike Wilner and we were talking about, actually the episode was going to be, I think it was going to be about the 2025 Blue Jays season, but I had no interest, much like your interest in the Leafs right now. I don't feel the J's and I didn't really want to talk about the 2025 J's so we talked about a lot of other stuff and I think it was the

best Mike Willner episode yet in my humble opinion. He's been here a bunch. He's been here a bunch. He's been here a bunch. How do you know Mike Willner? How do I know Mike Willner? Well, we've been together a few years actually. We date. He's my fella. So he's your fella? You guys are a couple? Well done Mike Willner. I think, yeah.

You know what? I saw something one point recently that said the happiest couples are the ones where each one thinks they got the better deal. You think you got the better deal. That's a good case. I love you think you got the better deal and he thinks he got the better deal. I hope he doesn't want to use Craig. One of us. Yeah, yeah.

One of us got to be. Yeah. How long have you dated FOTM Mike Wilner? We're coming up to three years. Wow. I know. And how come it took three years for him to say, Hey, why don't you talk to Arlene lot? You're going to have to ask him. Okay. That's going to

be like 90 minutes on that. Yeah. So I'd like to introduce you to somebody Arlene. Okay. Because we're not alone in this basement studio. It sounds scary, but it's true. Okay. I'm not talking about the ghosts that haunt us. So shout out to the crash test dummies. Okay. Amazing. There is a super Degrassi fan. I should say that differently. A Degrassi super fan is to your left.

Okay. She comes out to TML X events. These are Toronto Mike listener experiences. Okay. She infamously came out to the first one but was too shy to introduce herself. This is a true story. She will be just nod yes or no before we introduce you, but will you be at TMLX18 on June 26? A thumbs up and a nod.

Okay. Double thumbs up. Super Degrassi fan who's going to co-host the whole show, but particularly this segment we're going to dive into now. I want to introduce Andy. Say hello, Andy. Hello. Oh my god. So Andy, what do you think of Andy's jacket? Okay, this is an extraordinary jacket. I don't have anything like this. This is like a Letterman jacket and with all the

patches. It says Degrassi Panthers on the side. It's got 87 on it. It's from retro kid, right? It's got 87 on it. It's from retro kid, right? So good. It's so good. We never got, we, we got a bit of merch. I mean, you probably have seen as, as a super Degrassi fan, you've probably seen some of the authentic merch that we were given while we were making the show. Like we were given t-shirts, we were given Letterman sweaters.

You got a gourmet scum shirt. Oh my God. Does he? Yeah. He's going to say that got a Gourmet Scum shirt. Oh my God. Does he? Yeah, I was gonna say. That's a Judy Shiner Toker original, I'm sure. She was our production designer and is brilliant. And if you get a chance to talk to Judy, fantastic. Well, here we go.

Okay, so I don't want to bury the lead here. I called you the queen of pies. And then I said you were dating Mike Willner. Those two alone would get you on Toronto Mike. Amazing. Okay, so you're in. I'm valid. Just for being would get you on Toronto Mike. Amazing. Okay, so you're in. I'm valid. Just for being the queen. Validated right there.

I don't talk to many queens, okay? Just for being the queen of pies and for dating Mike Willner, you're in the basement. I'll do 90 minutes on dating Mike Willner and making pies, okay? Oh man. But I don't want to bury the lead here. So I'm going to introduce this segment

in which we're going to hear a lot more Andy because she is the biggest Degrassi fan I know. But I'm introducing it with this little ditty right here. Andy, can you name that tune? Sure can. It's the theme song to the kids of Degrassi. The kids of Degrassi Street. Going way back. So we're going way back with this one. So on that note, I'm going to crack open my Great Lakes beer. So Arlene, you have a summer, a Sunnyside IPA.

Gorgeous. Session IPA. And we have a hop pop for Andy and we're going to do it three, two, one. That's good. It's like we rehearsed it. Okay. So cheers to you. Take us way back. And then along the way, uh, Andy and I will pepper you of questions, but how

did you become involved in the, the OG series, like before Degrassi junior high, there was the kids of Degrassi street. How did you get involved with that, Arlene? This is such a random thing. And I was rethinking about it this morning because so many things had to happen for that to happen. I joke and say I'm the child of immigrants because my parents moved to Toronto from Collingwood.

But it's like the old world is just's just a couple hours north of here. And so having the opportunity to grow up in the city, I went to the public school, which is right behind the Playing with Time office. At Queen and Carlaw. That's more street public school at Queen and Carlaw. And at the time they were looking for kids to be in a show, right?

They were passing around flyers, they were going to local schools, they were saying, hey, we want kids who you think could act, but aren't actors, if that makes sense. They wanted us to be kind of natural and not trained because they wanted to shape us themselves. And I was going to this little school,

I was in grade four, so I was like nine years old, walking down the halls and I heard about an audition for the school play Wizard of Oz. I audition, I go, I sing, I get a part, I get the part of Dorothy. That's a big part. I know that that's the whole freaking thing. Let me tell you that anyway. So it was a swing. So I was narrator one night, Dorothy another night and it was very exciting. And our principal basically said to the producers of the show, hey, anybody who we think would be good for you

is in the show. So he passed along the information to us and I booked an audition. I don't know why my parents said yes. I don't know why I went to the audition for the play. I don't know a bunch of things, but here we were. And I went and I sat and I did a script reading with Kit and Linda, who were the creators,

producers of the show. This is Kit, Hood, and Linda Schuyler. Linda Schuyler, yeah. Schuyler, my apologies. And I remember reading script parts with Kit. He was feeding me lines. And the script was from an episode called Casey Draws the Line.

And it was about Casey and Lisa who was played by Stacy Mystician who I know you've had here. And they were fighting about a rabbit in the backyard or something like I've honestly forgotten the story but I just remember reading lines with Kit and they were like great we'll let you know. And I didn't get a role right away, but I got asked to come and do some background work. So one of my first episodes I showed up for and I have a letter somewhere at home in a photo album, like, you know, one of those peely, sticky photo albums, you can, of course, you know, I got the letter where where I had been called into work for a day. And

we didn't end up getting used that day, just whatever, however the day went. I didn't make it to camera, no big deal. I was just supposed to be an used that day, just whatever, however the day went. I didn't make it to camera, no big deal. I was just supposed to be an extra that day anyway, but I remember getting paid like $10. For a nine year old, big deal, right? Big deal. It was like 1981, that's so much money.

And, but then it just kind of became a summer job. Will you come back? Will you do more? And then it was, hey, do you know, we think we could give you a part and we have a little role for you named Rachel Hewitt. So I did a few episodes as Rachel. So you were Rachel on, by the way, Andy, my co host for this episode, you can just ask anything you want as it strikes you. Yeah. And let me tell you this, because people who know the show, I meet with people on occasion, I can generally go through this world unrecognized right now which is kind of nice. But you're not Joey Jeremiah. I'm not Joey Jeremiah. Because he can't go through this

world unrecognized. No and he has that voice right like everybody here, I know but he has such a distinctive voice Pat so you hear it and you're just like, oh my God, I'm 14, right? But I can walk through the world generally anonymously right now, but people who I meet at fan situations and who wanna talk to me about this, they know so much. The Andes of the world. And so much, I forgot, I can't believe how much I've forgotten and I'm so grateful when people tell me stories

because it's like, oh right You know, I'm old now like I don't remember anything Okay, but but this is okay so because we know we'll get to Degrassi in a moment everybody But you're Nancy on Degrassi, but you're Rachel on the kids of Degrassi. Yeah Okay, any kids cuz I want to spend a little time and kids of Degrassi Street Here I am doing an on-air meeting with my special co-host, Andy. But then we have to spend some more time, obviously, on Degrassi Junior High and then Degrassi High. And then of course, school's out.

And then maybe if you're lucky, Arlene, we'll talk about you being the queen of pies for goodness sake. How amazing. Holy smokes. But Kids of Degrassi Street, I remember a lot of the actors we saw on Kids of Degrassi Street would show up in Degrassi Junior High, but different character names typically. I know Wheels, for example, played a different character. What was the name of his character on?

Griff. He had the vest or whatever. Yeah, the jean cut off vest. Yeah, he was a tough guy. Had the bandana. Right. OK, well, more on him later. But for Kids at Degrassi Street, any questions about this phase of the Degrassi universe Andy

Well, actually Arlene has pretty much answered them because I was really curious. How did that all start? You know, how did you get in there and that's really cool. Yeah, it's so random luck Absolute luck and what is my life? Well, you were playing Dorothy like you had a desire and Yeah, I guess so. I liked to sing. That was It'll just give that role to anybody. Dorothy. Thank you. You better be good. I stopped being humble about it. Yeah, no, it was amazing. You were Dorothy.

I was, you know, perfectly adequate. Better than that. Okay. So it's not like you were tree number three, right? Sorry. Come on. Okay. So this is Plane with Time Repertory Company. Correct. Okay, so this is playing with time repertory company. Correct. Okay, and you're an OG member. That's amazing. I would just get a t-shirt that said that and that's what I'd wear. Okay, so let's get to the the good stuff. Let's listen. Feeling shy and lonely, gee, I gotta go to school I don't think I can take it, don't think I can take it I wonder what I'm gonna do

But when I look around I see That someone is smiling right at me Wait! That someone's talking to me, hey! I've got a new friend Everybody can succeed, all you need is to believe Okay, first question for Arlene is how do you feel when you hear that theme song? It's rather joyous right now. Yeah. Has it always been joyous? Because maybe there was a period of time where it was less joyous, Arlene

Lott. Let's say that. Yeah, there were probably times when I wish not that I wish I didn't do it. I'm always thrilled that I've done it. Right. Like what a what a legacy, you know, to have been a part of this uniquely Canadian program is really something to be proud of. But people of our event of Andy and my vintage, we have such warm memories of this program

that we watched every Monday night on CBC. Like Arlene Lott's coming over. Oh, Queen of Pies, dating Wilner. No, she was Nancy Kramer on Degrassi Junior High. Like, let me just clear my schedule. You know what I mean? That's such a compliment. Thank you. I, it's so random, right? Like there were, it's a really small group of people that this applies to,

right? Like there were, I think maybe maybe I don't know like 40 50 of us in the rep Co like there were not there were two to three Classes of us you were kind of a grade seven or a grade eight or you know And then at one point they expanded the school to grade nine or whatever So it was like there were these sort of groups of us that kind of had to travel together because we were in the same Grade on the show and so it felt very much like school in very many ways. So when you kind of graduate and you leave that behind, there's part of you that maybe wants to move on from that

and make your way in the world as a as a regular human. But oh, and I think you've like you've successfully done so. And we'll talk about that. But now it sounds like you're at a point where when you look back, nostalgia merchants like me and fanatics like Andy, and I was also a fan, I was watching too every Monday night. But you must now realize like you brought some joy to so many Canadians and beyond our borders as well,

I'm sure, but primarily Canadians. But this joy you brought us, that's invaluable. Like that's priceless. It is really humbling to think about that. Like I say, when I meet people at conventions, or I haven't done a lot, like, so you know what? I'm gonna take this back to Pat Mastroianni, because Pat organized a grassy palooza.

And he reached out to us and was like, who wants to do this thing? Right. And I was like, okay. So you said yes. And I said yes. And to say yes to that was to, you know, honor that history. But also I want to thank Pat for that. And I have, but I'm going to thank him here as well

for just having the concept to bring it all together. Because really that has what re-energized my joy. What are we doing? Is this 2019? When is this? Yeah, it was around then, right? Pre-pandemic. Like it was around then. Do you know? Were you there? Did I meet you? I'm so sorry. No, that's a good question. Annie, did you go to Degrassi Palooza? No. Get out of my basement. What do you here for? I've been to several other Degrassi experiences.

There was one where there was a theater. The schools without screening. Yes. Yeah, I loved that one. It was a good time. So I was there, but I didn't go to any of the Degrassi Palooza's. We had our own, me and my friends. Come on.

Where we had people come as far away as California It's amazing to come and do a little tour of you know sure yeah You're not right now. You're not far from the facade of Degrassi, Jr. No, we're around the corner from the old building Vincent Massey. Yeah, Vincent Massey, but it was like around 21st 22nd Yeah, it's like north of 29 Shore. 29th, 30th. There was a two involved. Elder is the name of the street. Like it's Birmingham turns into Elder. Okay, I'm gonna have to swing by.

It was on Daisy. Let's go do some photos there. Wasn't it? Well, it's, yes, I suppose. Cause they put townhouses on Elder, but it's like a little bit south of Elder. Yeah, I know it's changed quite a bit. Yeah, but yeah, so I go by it all the time

and I'm like, that was the Grassy Junior High. Yeah, but like Pat's enthusiasm and his drive to bring us all back together honestly was just such an uplifting experience. What a treat. Okay, now, so I have questions, but Andy has questions too. So do you want to go first? Maybe we take turns? Sure.

Yeah, okay. But you go first because you're my special guest today. Yeah. So I was starting with first because you're my special guest today. Yeah. So I was starting with some like kind of general things. So thinking back to your time on set, do you have any specific memories about specific episodes or storylines that really resonated with you that you kind of loved being a part of or just loved watching or that you just thought were really cool or special that they did. There, wow, there are so many. I'm going to go back to, it was one of, one of the ones that I had a bit more of a lead role in, and this was back on kids up and it was called Martin hears the music. Um, and this, this episode had two storylines that had the story about Martin who was really hard of

hearing and he needed hearing aids and didn't want to have hearing aids because of the embarrassment behind that. And also at the same time, my character, Rachel, was going to be singing in the show and she was freaking out because she wanted to have a nice dress and she wanted to look good, but Rachel thought she was overweight and she wanted to have a nice dress and she wanted to look good, but Rachel thought she was overweight and she wanted to lose weight for that. And so she was like starving herself and not treating herself well.

And, you know, then she gets some guidance to be well and performs this singing song. And it was just, it was such an interesting time to learn to be a performer. Like I really felt like I had a lot of focus on me from the directors, the writers, the everybody, the music, the music writers of the show, even like Wendy Watson and Lewis Manning. And that's Wendy singing the song, the theme song. So that's Wendy singing the song. Do you know who wrote the song? Wendy and her partner Lewis. I want to say Manny.

See, Annie knows this stuff, but I'm still learning. Wendy and Lewis did all the music for the show. So like purple and blue, you know, will be true. The theme song of Degrassi Jr. or not the themes. I like the school song. That's Wendy and Lewis. Like they did all the music for the show. Okay. Okay. I got to say, as a fan, I got to shout out the, um, the fight between Joey and Dwayne in the washroom. I'm just thinking of moments are just popping out now. Yeah. Intense. Right. That was a good one. Speaking of washrooms, um, Nancy, when we got on to junior high and high for that point, like there was like this running, I don't know if it was a gag in the, in the production office or whatever, but I was always leaving the washroom. It was always like, anytime there was a scene

in the washroom, Arlene's leaving, while Nancy's on her way out the door. Like she's always in the washroom. What's that? I'm going to admit, I never noticed that, but now on rewatch, I am going to notice all the time. There are a couple of other fans who I've met who there's a drinking game.

There's a Nancy drinking game. And one of them is if I come out of the washroom. Oh, that's funny. Nancy says 200 words. He says 200 words shot. Okay, so now it's no, I've forgotten all the rules. I'm sorry, but Nancy Nancy Kramer drinking game well, I'm gonna play a little Nancy for those. For example, Hey ref is on the live stream now and he's a little like a little older than us and he completely missed the show. Like you really do need to be I feel like you have if you have to be of a certain age when this show and if you are of that age it hits you hard and it stays with you forever but if you got like 10 years up on that you're not watching this kid show right well speaking of Willner he's he's just a

few years older than me and he missed it right like it wasn't 73 years old. In spirit. So cause Mike, you're right. Mike's not Mike. I think he's just a couple years on me. Okay. He missed it completely. Wasn't for him. He was too old. It wasn't for him. And we were playing kids maybe like a couple years younger than us. We were very close in range to our characters. I felt, I felt like Joey and Caitlin and Wheels and Snake, I felt like they were my age. So I was born in 74, so I don't know whether the characters. I'm a 72, like, you know, we're all kind of 70 to 74

in there somewhere. And he was born in 89, so I don't know why she likes this show so much. Let's figure that out here, okay, so let me. Yeah, it was for the younger folks, right? Let me hit you with some of my stupid questions. Okay. So the first episode of the grassy junior high, it's really focused on Stephanie K all the way with Stephanie K. Like this was a big saying in our schoolyard forever, all the way with Stephanie K. But

Stephanie K, the actress who plays Stephanie Kate, leaves the show very early in the run. Like she goes off and I remember I would see her on a CTV show of Lyle Alzado. Yes. The late great football player. Okay. And so it seemed and my perception was that, oh, she left for greener pastures or whatever. Do you know whether there was any thought maybe bring it? Did she have any interest in coming back or bringing that character back?

I got to get her in the program. You're gonna have to get her here. I can't speak to that for her. Does Andy know? I don't know. But you know, we got some updates from 1236. He's always keeping us updated. We need him on the live stream right now.

Tell me let's go all the way of Stephanie Kay. She was a jazz singer. Maybe she still is, but would perform jazz. So she does some some like Journalism quasi journalism as well. He's all the way of Stephanie. I don't want to miss Misrepresent her work right now. So I don't I can't speak you don't know you don't know what you don't know here Okay, I'm also going again to tell to tell you I Also watched Beverly Hills 90210. Okay. But to me, it was to me, no comparison. Like Degrassi Jr. High, vastly superior to for my sensibilities and my interest.

And I did watch 90210, but it was just like this Americanized glitzy. It was very polished. Yeah. Right. Like they were pretty, pretty. They were so pretty. Yeah. Some of them were pretty. Sure. But so it's a grassy was the the I could relate to the Degrassi characters and the storylines seemed more real and raw. A lot went wrong for us though.

She is. Yeah. Well, Nancy, you know, Nancy did all right. She did. Okay. But you know, like some of that I have to think she's like she's kind of typecast. Right. Like I wasn't the school editor, but I was very involved in the. No, you were the you were the voice of reason.

I mean, in my real life, right. But like on the show, like editor of the newspaper, student council, like that's very true to form for me in real life as well. So it wasn't it wasn't a big stretch. Before we get back to Andy. I know she got lots of questions here, but I do have a cam gording question for you. But first I thought I'd play a little bit of your for those who don't for the hey refs out there who didn't watch the grassy. Here's how you sounded. I just pulled one minute here.

Attention students. Don't forget the next Thursday night is when four of our finest minds take on the revenge you can find on the TV quiz show Quest for the Best. Hey Kathleen! Let's all turn out to cheer them on as we wear out the colors of the bright. What's J.D. Salinger's best known book? Easy, The Catcher in the Rye. Correct. Easy. It is easy. He gave us a huge list of sample questions to study. Here's your copy.

Thanks. My parents are going to be so proud of me. Mine too. And mine. I just know they're going to do something embarrassing. My mom said she bought me a brand new outfit for the show. Nobody's going to see it under your school sweater. Sure they will.

Oh. Remember, we practice tomorrow at lunchtime. Okay, but I don't need any practice. I don't need any practice. You can be weird sometimes. She's a jerk. So there you go. That was a great episode. I love that episode so much.

And heavy. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, but for heavy. Spoiler alert, the mother was gonna buy the dress or whatever, an alcoholic. Yeah. Kathleen's mom. Do you know who played Kathleen's mom?

I do. Tell me. Stefan Brogren's mom in real life, Snake. You knew that, right, Andy? I sure knew that. So Snake's real life mom played the mom of Kathleen. Think her name's Sheila, maybe? Yeah, lovely lady.

Okay, keep those fun facts coming. All right, more fun facts. At the actual Quest for the her name's Sheila maybe? Yeah, lovely lady. Okay, keep those fun facts coming. All right, more fun facts. At the actual Quest for the Best studio shooting, right? Like where they're filming the episode of Quest for the Best. The extras in the audience, like all our parents. Okay. Yeah, my folks are in there.

And this is like a ripoff of like Reach for the Top. Yeah, yeah. And I watched Reach for the Top, like it was a big deal. Sure. I could be wrong, but Wilner might've been on Reach for the Top. Like it was a big deal. I could be wrong, but Wilner might have been on Reach for the Top. Wilner's a smart cookie. I could see him on Reach for the Top. I'm gonna have to check that out. Confirm that story before I go to press.

We'll do. Seems like something he would do though. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he's a learned guy. You know, he knows his trivia. Okay. Your turn, Andy. You know, he knows his trivia. Okay, your turn, Andy. Okay, so my question is, so you were on Kids of Degrassi and then Degrassi Junior High. Was there like a new audition that you had to do or was it just kind of assumed that you would have a role? I, there wasn't, let me say this.

We had agreed that we would all be kind of changing our characters. Or they came to us, they asked, they were like, are're like are you what do you think like would we carry these characters forward we're thinking about changing them and we're like let's change them you know whatever right there are no guarantees in life so let's take that chance so I don't remember an audition per se I feel like I feel like there was always a place for us but I think they were just trying to figure out who the show was, like who all the characters were. And for that whole first season, I didn't have a line.

I was just in the repertory company. I was in the background that whole first season until like the last episode of the first season of Junior High. And I was like, is this ever gonna happen for me again? Like, I was kind of like, is it over? Did I miss something? Did I screw up? What happened? And I was seeing all these people around me,

like, you know, like these amazing young actors around me. I was like, Oh, maybe I maybe I don't have the stuff. And then it was like, Oh, okay, no, it just took a little took a little time. There's a lot of stories to tell. And splitting it up between like it used to be there were maybe eight of us or 10 of us in the original core group. And then now all of a sudden, there's 60. So yeah yeah it's gonna take some time to introduce those characters and weave them together into something that makes sense but yeah it was a long waiting process. Can I ask you about a certain trio? Of course. Go. ["The Dips Are Here"] The digressing sensation's the one and only, the tits are here!

Everybody wants something, they'll never give up. Everybody wants something, they'll never give up Everybody wants up, they'll take your money And never give, and never give, and never give up Cut! Joy, this video doesn't oppress Caitlin. Nothing will. There you go, Joey. Well, I had Stephen Stone on the program. Did you? And I asked, where's the studio version?

Like, how did you manage to not get them in the studio and cut like a proper 45 single? Amazing. Of everybody wants something. And I don't know, it just didn't occur to them. They didn't do it. It's too late now, sadly. We'll get to that in a moment, but please let's talk about the zit remedy. That was Joey snake and wheels. Iconic. And I don't even have a specific question

here. I just want to talk about the zip remedies. Nobody will talk. My wife doesn't know the zit remedies. She's like her and Wilner should get together and talk about something else. Yeah. Yeah. No, like legend, legend. And so often like that jingle, they'll take your money. Like, but don't you think 680 CFTR would have played that single if it existed? Oh, so good. Right. And what are your thoughts on the Zip Remedy? I'm blasting that in my car. If the, yeah, if the single, it's just like, we're all worse off for them not making a desires from the movie oh yeah I actually do shut out to Gowan yeah that

song was ever present great song Zit Remedy were great now let's spend a moment sadder topic and then we'll get to happier times and pies, etc. But were you close with Neil Hope? I don't know about close. We were colleagues. We you know, and when we work together on a show like that, we it's like, honestly, it's like we were all at school together. So it's very much like your friend, your classmate, your guy you see in the hall every day, you know, we shared a unique history and a unique presence on the Canadian cultural landscape. And we knew that, right? Like all of us kind of like we were going to

the Gemini Awards in limos. We were like, it wasn't super fancy. And look, we were very fortunate that this was the day before cell phones. Like, yeah, there's stuff, but it was really good that, that a lot of our lives as young adults remained just for us. No social media, none of this Instagram nonsense. None of this Instagram nonsense. Right. And he he again, he had a more elevated experience than I did in Junior High and High. Like his character was much more prominent than mine. But, you know, I knew him to be lovely and warm and and just a nice guy. You know, and I'm sorry, I had heard about his personal problems over the years.

And when we found out he had passed, it was really devastating. That's what I was wondering. What's it like for you colleagues, former colleagues, when you learn this news, and not only do you learn, he's gone way too soon, but, oh, you're learning about it now, but this actually happened several years ago. Yeah, it had been about five years that he had passed and none of us had heard.

And it, I mean, you question your own mortality. You question, is there anything I could have done? But we weren't close like that. Like we, again, I'm gonna say it's very much like your high school. How many of your friends did you keep in touch with after? Like a couple, you know, a few that you might see like and a few that I still see in the entertainment business because a few of us went into the business. But but

not everybody kept in touch over. You might bump into a couple at John o vision maybe or something. Did you attend that John o vision? No, I didn't. I didn't hear about that one. But okay, speaking of bumping into people last night, I'm downtown at Massey Hall at the Chili Gonzales concert. Who's sitting a row behind me? Nikki Kemeny, who played Vula. Okay, Andy just hit the floor. I have to go pick her up. I have to go pick her up. So random. Like I see out of the corner of my eye, I'm like, Nikki? It's crazy. Crazy. Did you ever see a blue dog picked?

Keith's band. Oh my God. Yeah, I definitely saw them play and that was at, I want to say the big bop. I feel like it was one of the floors because there were like three floors in that club and I am sure I saw them in there. They played my high school. That's my blue dog picked. We were all wondering, uh, are the twins going to be there? That was the big question. Okay, and again, random story about the twins. So one day I take my kid to go swimming at Greenwood Park Pool, and I'm in the pool,

and in walk Maureen and Angela. And now the three of us are in the pool having this conversation. There are people swimming by doing double takes. Like, what is? It was so random, but not random at all. It makes perfect sense. Well, it makes, you know, a fan of that universe will keep throwing us together forever.

I feel this way. A fan of that pool, I believe is the legendary FOTM Hall of Famer Cam Gordon. And Cam Gordon, I mentioned earlier, voice of reason. So he says Nancy, let me get this right. Okay. No, Nancy was always so mature and conscious, conscientious alongside Lucy and Bronco. He puts them in the same category.

He wants to know your thoughts on who are the most responsible quote unquote voice of reason characters on the grass. Oh yeah, he's right about that. He got like Lucy, Bronco. Joanne. Joanne for sure was like anchored. She was amazing. Who else was good? I think honestly, I think Kathleen was pretty,

I mean, she was tense and intense. And Vula too. And Vula. Yeah, she was your moral compass for a while there. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, Snake was pretty steady. But did you ever wish your character would do something zany and wild?

Like... I don't know, I don't think I would have had it in me. I liked Nancy for who she was. You could play Dorothy, you could play zany and wild. Yeah, it's a fantasy. I think Nancy was pretty needed in her place. I think she was, yeah, she was a good voice of reason. There are always those people.

When Mike was talking about doing this episode and I was saying to him, like, Nancy was always one of my favorite sort of side characters. Just because like I don't know like if it was intentional but there are so many things where I would just like I said before like the 200 words like yeah now I've watched that I laugh so much because it's like yeah it's like Nancy she doesn't care about anything she doesn't care about the content she just wants those 200 words. She's an editor. It was awesome. Like I loved it. And if it's okay, Mike,

the other thing that I was talking to him about was in Degrassi High. There's the episode where you and Joey and Snake are taking driver's ed. Yeah, I was gonna bring that up when you mentioned the zit remedy. There were two out of three of them in there. I love that episode.

And then at the end, spoiler alert, Nancy is the only one who passes her test. Thank you. And she drives up in this sweet red convertible and she's like, look what my parents got me. Owned by who's sitting beside me in the car? Keith White, who played Tim, Tim's car, like Keith's car. That was my next question.

That's Andy's question. She wants to know who owned that red convertible that you drove. And shooting that driving school sequence was actually a lot of fun. It was a very long day in the parking lot. Or like in the schoolyard where we were like driving around this course.

And I think by the end, like we probably all had whiplash by the end of that. Like we were like slammed forward a number of times. The driver instructor is like wearing one of those like neck collars. Yeah. Where it's implied that basically. He got whiplash.

Yeah. That was a fun episode. Yeah. And Nancy had to be a little sassy on that one. Like she did get a little. Okay. I'm gonna leave it on the bones. Now, Andy, do you think we could go to Schools Out now? We sure can. Oh, man.

Yes, please. Okay, let's go to Schools Out here. And that one has no song. Did it have a song, a theme song? It's not the same. And I was trying to think about that. I'm like, because the other series were so memorable, but I don't think Schools Out had a theme song. But Schools Out is the most memorable because we heard the F word in primetime on CBC. Do you remember where you were? I remember which house, which, yeah, I remember where I was when I heard the F-bomb.

And it's multiple, right? Because Caitlin, okay, Andy, can you, I didn't pull the clip. Can you do it by heart? Well, it's Snake First talking to Joey. Nobody remembers that. No and he says oh look Mr. Big Man Joey Jeremiah you know dating Caitlin but fucking Tessa Campanelli and then Caitlin is around the corner and here's that you were fucking Tessa Campanelli. Yeah that's pretty good Andy okay and that's like the f-bomb heard around the world.

So I was in my first year of university at York University when that aired. And there were watching parties all over campus. But I was living in residence. I was living in Winter's residence across from the college there. And you could hear like the windows were open. It was a really nice warm evening and the windows were all open in residence and you could hear you were fucking Tessa Campanelli

and the whole university was like, whoa! Like the whole campus. And did you own a t-shirt that says, okay, so what does it say? You were fucking Tessa Campanelli on the t-shirt. Yeah, I'm not even surprised. How have I not made this pie? That's crazy.

Oh, please make the pie. Pies are coming. I'm gonna be making the pie. I not made this pie? That's crazy. Oh, please. Pies are coming. No, pies. I gotta know how you become the queen of pies. We're gonna get there very shortly. We talked about Neil Hope, dying too soon, sad story, tragic story there. I feel his character was done dirty.

I gotta say, I'm uncomfortable with this ending to schools out and what they did to wheels. I know what the writers are doing because of how his parents are taken and there's a whole Greek mythology thing going on here. It's Shakespeare, I suppose. But damn, the way they did them dirty and that schools out. I got a lot of happy endings there. No.

Lucy lost her sight. Is that right? Am I remembering correctly? But like, got it back, right? Like she got like, she's got a little bit of it. Were you friends with that actress? And with Anais? Yeah, Anais. I put your every name. Some similar situation, but we've since seen each other at a reunion. Who are you closest with from the, uh, either the OG cast or the, the direct grassy? That's a really good question. I would say these days I'd say Pat.

And because actually his his home is around the corner for my accountants. So I have an excuse to go visit him every single year when I do my taxes. But we have a lot of taxes. I wish he'd save me a lot of money. But no, I was just with him and his folks the other day having like espresso at his at his parents. In 1989, I was working at a it's called Papa Ball it was a game at the C&E and Pat came by and I gave him free games I couldn't believe Joey Jeremiah was at my booth. Was he in the hat?

I can't. Hawaiian shirt? Well he was you know you can't take the Joey out of him right like. He was. There was so many options. Yeah. Now, I mean, if he, like you said, we don't have video cameras and recording devices in our pockets in 1989, but if I could only get them to record, everybody wants something for me. Yeah. That would cost you a lot of money to get them to do that. So, okay.

So schools out any, so schools out is like the finale of de grassi jr. High and I don't know what the radians were on that thing but Andy and I have seen it a million times. There's a special episode of Toronto Mike with the aforementioned cam gordon where we did a 2.5 hour deep dive into schools out. Can I just say also I notice here that cam has said this is a good point snake Snake also said to Wheels, I wouldn't be caught dead in that piece of shit talking about Wheels' car. The mouth on that kid, okay?

Yeah, thanks Cam. He grew up well before everybody. Yeah. Oh jeez. Snake was ahead of the game. Okay, and so I don't want to wrap up Schools Out. Andy, any Schools Out questions? Did you enjoy the soundtrack?

What I remember of it. Oh, you remember Gowan. I remember Gowan. Oh, you can't forget him. And also, Haram Skaram. How'd you know that was Cam Gordon? Because he signs in as Carlos Delgado. I know. The first time he signed in as,

shout out to Mike Wellner, but the first time he signed in as Carlos Delgado. I got excited that Carlos Delgado was on the live stream. I think I was. What are the odds? Yes, and that he knows Degrassi. That guy should be in the Hall of Fame, the real one. Like Mike was saying, Mike and Cam did a whole,

what was it, two hours? 2.5 hours. Special on School's Out. Did you learn anything? Harem Skerim did the theme, Cam says. Oh, okay. Well, I'll have to go back and revisit. Okay, we've got a lot to do here.

Did you know you were coming by for 90 minutes of questions about your Degrassi? I mean, I did. I'll have to go back and revisit. Okay, we've got a lot to do here. Did you know you were coming by for 90 minutes of questions about your Degrassi career? I mean, I did, I should have been more prepared. You weren't prepared, okay. I'm embarrassed. And I think in schools out there is a scene where you're basically talking about what your future is and it's not confirmed, but it kind of sounded

like Nancy was gonna be a doctor. She talked like that, didn't she? Yeah, and I think she was like, and I'll be a doctor. She talked like that, didn't she? Yeah. And I think she was like, and I'll be four years and then four years doing this. Like I kind of got the impression that Nancy had a future. This is Dr. Nancy now. She could be Dr. Nancy. She could be the queen of pies.

She could be a doctor. Who knows what happens here? Doctor of pastry. Okay. So Degrassi junior high, Degrassi high, and then schools out obviously meant a great deal to many a Gen X Canadian, I would argue, including Andy. I don't think you need to argue that. Great jacket. So that you can actually go to these Degrassi Palooza. Are they still happening? Not in the same way. Like Pat tours with the Degrassi tour. And I have, and that's mostly like him, Stacey, Stefan, Kirsten Bourne.

That's Tessa. And that was Tessa Campanelli. And sometimes Silak goes, Silak Say-Sanasi who played Yik. Like it just sort of depends. And they do sort of a smaller. Yik and Arthur, you know, it's all coming back because I haven't, I don't even know. Can you see this series on Jam or something? Like you see the grassy junior high today it's definitely on YouTube yeah all the episode all the episodes it is on a streaming or it was it may have been on prime prime I heard about that and so people will message me every once in a while say oh my god I haven't even watched the whole series

with my daughter like she didn't really have a concept of what I've been known for or how I got into this business. She didn't really understand this to me. How old is she now? She's almost 20. And so, you know, it's not for her, right? But it's so I showed her the first couple of episodes because we were going to be going to Pat's for a barbecue.

He's having everybody over around Palooza time. Can Annie come to the next one? Right. And he was having everyone over just to get together beforehand. And I said, oh, you know, I'll bring my daughter because I was picking her up for music camp and we'll swing through. And so I was like, you should probably know what this is. Like I showed her the first couple of episodes and they're so when you watch them back, they're so earnest. Like we would show them to eight year olds now like they wouldn't be then I

don't mean kids have I mean like junior high and she was just like looking at me like, oh my god. And it's very it's such a different time. But I'm thinking now spike had a baby. Shane, Shane jumped off a roof. Odeed and jumped off a roof. Like scared the shit out of me. It's a bridge, but yeah. Yeah, yeah. The bridge at the concert. Why do I think it's a roof?

It's a bridge. After the Gourmet Scum concert. Now you, there was a- Cause Luke gave them a tab, like LSD. What were they taking LSD? Definitely LSD, acid, right? Drop an acid. It was acid, yes.

And there was real life events at the time. We hear about someone would drop acid after a concert or something. And they would think they could fly or something. It was security street. Or they would drown. It was Benji. It was a Pink Floyd concert or something. Yeah, I think it was.

That was a big deal because I've still not tried acid because I'm really afraid I'll jump off a roof, a building or a bridge. You don't know what's going to happen. Just don't do it. I saw what happened to Shane and I do know there was post. So now I guess we have the new next generation comes at some point and of course people like Snake and Spike they're in the damn show and wheels came back for the first the first episode I know there was a moment where he got to come back and I don't know if it was I don't think it was the first episode he comes back. I remember he came back early okay he comes he does come back though it got me to the new next generation on next. But there was a movie where the aforementioned Jono

from Jono Vision plays Shane, because the actor who played Shane said no. Yeah. Like this happened, but this is now we're post, we're post Arlene Lott. Yeah, you're post me, but also kind of not. Let me tell you another story. So when Playing With Time evolved after that show,

they did another series called Liberty Street. I'm gonna take you through a couple of little things here to get you to there. They did another series called Liberty Street. And they reached out to everyone who was in the repertory company as actors and said, hey, do you want to come and learn to be a technician? Do you wanna come and apprentice in our departments?

And at this point, I was just finishing my third year of university. I was at York and I was doing theater production and design. And I was like, yeah, I could come, I could work in the costumes department because I did costume designer, I could work in the art department because I did set design.

And so because JC Hunter also wanted to do costumes, so they sent her to costumes, and they sent me to the art department. And so I fortunately got to work with these juggernauts of the Toronto film design scene. Carole Spear designed the pilot of Liberty Street, and then Tamara Deverell took it over. Car Carol Spear is David Kronenberg's production designer. Wow. Tamara Deverell is now Oscar nominated, has been working for

Guillermo del Toro for a billion years and I've worked with her many years since, right? And then her daughter has worked for me and now my daughter has worked for us. Like it's all just sort of crazy. So Liberty Street helps you segue from actress to behind the scenes in the industry. And a lot of the things like Tamara was instrumental in just helping me land in graphic design, which is what I do now. I work in film as a first assistant art director. I do graphic design for sets. And so not the visual effects stuff, but the stuff that's real. Like, you know, if this was a set, this would, I this was a set, I would do the can.

I would do all the logos on your wall. I would do the pizza box. I need some art direction in this set of mine, okay? It's fantastic, are you kidding me? It's beautiful. It's not what Andy said. So, that's what I do now, but really, I started working for her.

I didn't have a computer, but I could use a computer. So basically, she's like, here, make this. And so I consider myself kind of a master forger. I can look at something and make it. So, that's how I got that gig. So coming back- I watched Liberty, I remember, cause I was a big Degrassi head.

I watched and Joey was in it. Yeah, Joey was in it. Well, he wasn't playing Joey, but Pat was in it. That's right. And so, and that was shot in Liberty street in an old building. I went downtown to do some research for the show. And we found out that the building that we were in,

it was 107 Atlantic Avenue. And it was in the archives of the city of Toronto as a tinsel factory that was its first recognized business and I was like I love this story I was like this is so great and I brought it to the writers and they were like anyway after Liberty Street they come up with this idea they're gonna do Degrassi Next Generation. And so they reach out to me and they're like, Hey, do you want to design the pitch documents for that?

So I was fortunate enough to sit down, I got all, you know, took all the information, we made family trees, we did all kinds of things. And we pitched that series, it went to the CBC, It went and CBC passed and or and or they didn't make a deal. I don't know. Sure. Actual details. And then we pitched it to CTV. And that's that was the next generation. Did you know that Andy? Well, I knew it was on CTV. Oh, yes. We all know that. And it's just such a random, you know, that Arlene Lott worked on those. Yeah, this is all news. But then, yeah. And then just I just, I didn't do the series, but I was art departmenting at that point.

It's still okay. It was, yeah, interesting. Pop quiz, name the only, no, this isn't, no. We talked about this before I pressed record, but I got the name. Okay, so name the only CFNY program director who also appeared in every episode of Liberty Street. That's the question, okay?

I can't. So there's only one human who satisfies both Toronto Mike's requirements here. That's so funny. I cannot remember the actor's name, but the character was, was it Diamond Dave? Well, the actor's name was Reiner Schwartz. Reiner Schwartz, that's right. I can picture his Afro.

And he went, yeah, close, you know? His character's name was Drive Home Dave. Drive Home Dave, not Diamond Dave, close. Man, I can imagine all these memories of the, I remember watching Liberty Street. This was similar vintage to me and I was like, oh, they're living this cool life. And these lofts and the biking and it's like,

I wanna do that. Yeah, what was that reality bites? It was supposed to be that kind of a vibe. Like what happens to you when you're a young adult and can you get a job and can you navigate your life and pay the rent, essentially. So you mentioned you moved into art direction. So I'm just going to shout out, because I don't know, you might be humble and I need to boast for you, to shout out a few of the series that you worked on, okay?

And then you can tell us how involved you were. But huge series as far as I'm concerned, Orphan Black. Yeah. Did you work on Orphan Black? Season one. Yeah. We built that show. That's a big deal. It was a big deal. And globally acclaimed.

Yeah. And it was, yeah, that was a very exciting series to see grow. And sometimes, sometimes you work on things and you look at them and you're like, this is fun and some things are for the money, some things are for the beauty, some things are for your heart. This one was like, we knew as soon as we were reading the scripts, we were like, oh man, this is good. It's so delicious. Every script was like, yeah, we were just sitting in the art department waiting for the next script, because we're like, what's next?

What a great show to be. Imagine being a part of Degrassi and Orphan Black. Can you imagine? Mind blowing. You're ready for Ridley Funeral Home now, as far as I'm concerned. Very important question though, from Carlos Delgado. Should be in the Hall of Fame.

I'm so excited. The volleyball game at Bonkow's Cottage. The volleyball. Was the gang actually playing or just pretending to play? We were trying to play, but it's hard to play volleyball and talk. Like, and hit your mark the exact same place every time. Well, they did it in Top Gun, didn't they? With their shirts off. I'm trying to think of movies that have volleyball scenes and I can only think of Top Guns. Top Guns. Top Guns. Both have volleyball scenes and I can only think of Top Guns. Top Guns. Top Guns.

Both of them. Top Guns. Right. Top Guns. Okay. You tried to play. Okay. Yeah, we tried to play.

We were not great. Important follow up question. Where in Toronto was the house in the Schools Out house party at the very beginning? So there's a house party in the beginning of Schools Out. Where was that house in Toronto? Think back, Arlene, okay? We're really jogging your memory. Was it, was it supposed to be Lucy's house?

Yes. Okay. Then that was at 120 Pape. That's huge. Okay. And I, I, Rosie great Tio regret to inform you that house has been torn down. Shout out to Ridley funeral home. RIP 120 Pape. That

house belonged to Kit and Linda who were partners at the time. Like married at the time. Well they're still married. Like together. They're not married anymore? No they split and Linda's with Stephen. Any of the other guys should know this. He acts like he's still married. And Kit's passed away. Yeah. Kit's, but, but 120 Pape was their home and we used that as Lucy's house. So anytime there was a Lucy party, it was there. How come I feel like, cause I just chatted with Stephen in depth

and I thought they were together during the chat, but Andy, I'm the only one. No, they were, Stephen and Linda. Stephen and Linda are now together. Yes, right. But Kit and Linda back then. Right. Yeah, sorry.

Yeah, way back. I'm caught up to speed now. So I am just thinking though, in Schools Out, I'm trying to remember, and I think it was supposed to be Lucy's house, but I don't think it was the same house that they used for Lucy that they used in the series. I'd have to see it. Yeah. I like how we were moving on with Arlene

and we all came back to Degrassi. We can't leave Degrassi. It's important stuff. But she's the queen of pies. We're going to talk about that too. But we're talking about these addresses. So you mentioned Pape, that 107 Atlantic. The VP of sales worked at that address for a full year

and he hated that job. This is coming from the live stream Okay, this is all very Funny Carlos Delgado has already updated Wikipedia with this information. Thanks Carlos. Okay, geez, you know what hell of a hitter, but I Principle guy right like when the American when the Star-Spangled Banner was played Yes He wouldn't stand and he would sit like in protest for how they treated his Puerto Rican brothers and sisters.

Wow. Did not know that. He's a principled guy. And honestly, if you just look at his numbers and you look at his career, he belongs in the Hall of Fame. Okay. I think he's being suppressed for planes the bulk of his career in Canada Just my two cents here. You can talk with my I have when you're gonna see well

They're next I have an expert on like right after this. Okay, well on speed dials. I want to record that conversation When you tell Mike how your Toronto Mike debut went I need to hear that Okay, you can I met you as if I'm gonna be back like I'm somehow like a regular now. You might kick out the gym. Okay. So orphan black, orphan black. Yeah. Suits suits. Yeah. Seasons three, four, five with suits. Okay. Before we had a Dutchess. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. They brought back that show in some form. Yeah. Suits LA. Okay. Suits LA is up and Adam right now. I have not yet seen it.

What kind of music do you like? Oh, I'm a throwback girl for sure. Like let's go 80s New Wave. 80s New Wave. Also, also, do do do do do do do do for sure. Is that romantic traffic? Yeah, absolutely. Do you know who co-wrote that song? A guy named Rob. Was it Gowan? No. Gowan wishes. He told her romantic traffic. It's a guy named Rob Bruce, who was the keyboardist for Spoon. Oh, fun. But Rob Bruce excitedly yesterday sent me jingles for Toronto Mike sponsors. So I'm actually I'm glad Andy's here. I got a little chill. So I'm going to play the Rob Bruce and I grilled them on them because I heard it and I'm like, I think this is like, he's not listening. I think it's like heard it and I'm like, I think this is like, he's not listening. I think it's like AI slop.

I'm like, I really don't like AI slop on my programs. It's got awkward. Right, but Rob explained to me that he's like an arranger. It got awkward, but it's okay. That's what I'm gonna do. It's gonna be awkward when he hears this. Rob knows I love him.

But it's like, he's the arranger. And yes, AI is his instrument of choice for these productions But he uses them as a musical ranger So he's not just pressing a button and then this is what spits out. There's a lot more Rob Bruce involved So I'm actually gonna play them one by one and you two can tell me what you think and vote and I'm gonna give you Some gifts for making the trek Arlene lot. Thank you so much if that is your real name some gifts for making the trek, Arlene Lott. Thank you so much. If that is your real name.

John Lott covered baseball, any relation? No, and that's what Mike says every time he gets a message from John Lott. He's like, hey, John Lott, no relation. He took some great, this John Lott, who's retired now, took some amazing photos of Exhibition Stadium. Oh wow. Because there's not a lot of good photos out there

because it was pre-digital and everything. While you're going through my IMDB, I worked on the last movie that filmed there at Exhibition Stadium. What movie was that? That was Detroit Rock City. The Kiss movie, yeah, with Eddie Furlong, which came up organically in the last Toast. People be playing.

Yeah, we talked about Detroit Rock City. How random. Yeah, we used Exhibition Stadium as our exterior. And you know for a fact that's the last movie film that exited Stadium? We were told like they were tearing it down pretty shortly after that. What time are you done? We got the crane here? Kind of.

Yeah. That's amazing. Was it Kobo Hall? No. What was the supposed to be something hall from in Detroit? Wherever they were supposed to be. Okay, sure. Kobo Hall?

Kobo Hall? We'll take you with us. Oh my god, help me internet. Anyway. Well, shout out to Eddie Furlong, who wore the Public Enemy shirt in Terminator 2. And I was a big Public Enemy. I remember at the time being very

excited that he wore the Public Enemy shirt. So good. Amazing. OK. So I'm glad you brought up. I brought a broad Proust, but you brought up the 80s new wave stuff

and all ties in. So I'm going to play some of these and we'll get back. Then we'll talk about your baking career, because I think that that chapter is so mind blowing and you're the queen of pies for god's sake so we have to talk about what the heck's going on there. Are you ready? Yeah. Okay listen closely. Shout out to Redleaf Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. What do we think about this? Arlene first.

I love that. I love the nostalgia factor. I love the Pleasantville vibes. I, that extra little bounce at one after 20 is a nice little hit. That's a good time. Andy, what do you think? I liked it. Yeah, I thought it was cute. I have one for each of you. Ridley Funeral Home measuring tape.

That's for you, Arlene. This is amazing. I've seen one of these in person. Have you used one of those? I get one too. Thanks, Mike. Of course. It's so nice. I've always wanted one of these. And get one too, thanks Mike. Of course. It's so nice.

I always wanted one of these. And double sided metric imperial. Yeah. This is the best. You can measure pies. I could measure pies. We'll get to that in a moment. Okay, so that's the first one.

We're gonna burn through these. It's beautiful, thanks. And then we're gonna get to the pie. I even pulled a little clip about you, okay. You ready? Mm-hmm. Palma pasta, come and taste our authentic Palma e Italian cuisine, Palma pasta. Palma, enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta

and entrees from Palma pasta. Palma pasta, we're in Mississauga. Ooh, that's so good. At Oakville. Palma pasta, it's the best of Palma pasta Tonight How are we feeling about that one Arlene? This is delightful Do you enjoy Italian food?

I do enjoy Italian. Would you like a frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta? I would never say no to a lasagna. It's in my freezer right now for you. Oh my god. Okay. Thank you. Andy, what did you think of the Palma Pasta jingle? So are they all sort of in this retro style? You'll have to tune in to find out. We're gonna see. We're gonna see. I thought it was gonna have more of like the like Italian. Yeah. So Rob's listening, as you know, he's taking notes. Okay.

He's been knowing to change things and make modifications as he listens to the feedback. Gotta get a real like Alfie Zappacosta. You wanted more Alfie Zappacosta. Yes. Zappacosta. Who you'll hear at the end when I play the closing theme. Oh my God, we should be lovers.

See that's, you went there, okay. But 439, oh, he said over. Yeah, see she knows, this woman knows her shit. Yeah, impressive. I know two things, that was it. Well that's impressive. And I've used them all up. Okay, you ready for this one?

We've already enjoyed their wares, but let's talk about them. It's Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery. We believe in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. It's Great Lakes Brewery, order online for free, local home delivery in the GTA. Good times and amazing beer. That's GLB. What do you think, Earlene? This is very long for a jingle.

It needs to be shorter. See, this is good feedback. What's the hook? Where's the hook? I need a little snip. snip because that was 37 seconds. So maybe 20 seconds. I need a snippet, but I like, I like it all. Here's my question. Here's my question. Are all three going to be aired back to back? They might not be aired at all actually, but I did want to air them. I did want to air them with you so we could have them aired and then we could talk about it. Right, because as a trio,

maybe not enough to distinguish them from each other. Okay, no, good. I like this feedback. But all beautiful. And did you agree with this feedback? Yes, we are on the same page with that. I like the fact that you two could have just been like, this is awesome, great work, Robbie, way to go.

But no, I don't want, no one wants that. Is that an poor taste? Did I just like completely misstep? I feel like they're all gorgeous. I love the real talk. And I love it when you're honest like that. I'm giving you some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery to bring home with you are leaving. What is this place? So you've got a lasagna. You got a measuring tape. You got a beer. Okay. You ready for the next one? Yeah.

Yes, we are open. one? Yeah. And yes, we are open. Are we open? Yes, we are. Yeah. So your feedbacks, I feel like you're right. They're similar sounding things. They need to be more distinctive and maybe a little shorter, maybe a little shorter. I really like that.

Okay. That was cute. That's the correct answer. I mean, I'm giving you a wireless speaker from a Naris. We are open. Because with this wireless speaker, you are going to listen to, yes, we are open. Yes, we are open.

And we are everywhere. The most rural, city TV everywhere. Where's JoJo Chinto? I only got Mark Daly loaded up. JoJo said no to me. So I had, in fact, I had, I almost called him Stu Stone. Stu Stone was here earlier today, so he's on my mind. But in fact, make sure we come back to Avi Federgreen in a moment. That's a note for you. Okay. But Peter Gross, dear friends.

Yes. Yeah. I had him in person make a plea to Jojo Cinto to get Jojo on Toronto Mic. And Jojo was like emphatic with his, nope, I'm not not talking any podcast yeah so he took a hard pass on that I always remember Jojo he always got the weirdest like reporting jobs like there's a cat up a tree like Jojo got those jobs well here's Mark Daly here the following program contains adult themes nudity in coarse language viewer and parental discretion is advised yeah so the most recent episode of Yes We Are Open was Al Grego going to Regina. Have you ever been to Regina?

Never. No, me neither. Have you been to Regina, Andi? No. No. I have been to Saskatchewan, but not Regina. Where'd you go in Saskatchewan? Took a flight into Saskatoon.

Did you leave the airport? Yes, and then drove to North Battleford for a wedding. Okay, that's way up north, right? This is why people go to Saskatchewan. My goodness gracious. Okay. They got big mosquitoes. Not when I was there. I don't know why I think maybe that's way too big. Who knows? It's all the same to me. Okay. So Al sat down with Amanda Ray who owns Bass Studio, a thriving hair salon in Regina.

And Amanda shared her story from a stylist to a business owner, the challenges she faced and the resilience it took to overcome them, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. So please subscribe and listen to Yes We Are Open. Okay. Got it? And look at your new speaker. You know what?

I would want Andy to have a speaker. I can hear him in my head like, give Andy a speaker. That's a sweetheart. Give Andy a speaker. That's how him in my head like, give Andy a speaker. That's a sweetheart. Give Andy a speaker. That's how Al would say it. Okay. He's a true sweetheart. So he's reaching under the desk right now.

Andy. A speaker. Don't tell Lieve Fumke because she wants a speaker too, but I'll give her one next time I see her. I'll bring one to TMLX18. This is amazing. By the way, on June 26th, you and Mike Wilner should come to Great Lakes Brewery

in South Etobicoke. It's like 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard down the street from the Costco, not far from rural York and Queensway. Familiar with that Costco. Palma Pasta will feed you, Great Lakes will buy you your first beer and you can hang. It'll be amazing. TMLX 18, 6 to 9 p.m. on June 26. Is that a Saturday? It's a Thursday. It's a Thursday. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. Jays often don't play on Thursday. I think Mike told me because I think I did the same pitch to him and he said they're off that day. They're off. And he might have put it in a calendar. You and Mike Willner need to come to TMLH18. Can you imagine? Holy crap. Okay. Hold on. I got to finish my Prussian clips here. We're almost done. We're almost done. You ready? This is just some advice. okay? I don't have a gift for you on this one. I should talk to these people, get

you a gift, but here we go. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. We need to do it today. That means we need recyclecycle My Electronics dot ca today. Today. So if you have old electronics, old devices, maybe you have a drawer full of old cables you don't use anymore. Don't throw that in the garbage. Go to Recycle My Electronics dot ca, put in your postal code and find it where you should drop that off to be properly recycled. I'm not even kidding. I have a whole drawer of cables. I bet you do. I bet you got some kids of Degrassi Street

cables that you gotta I don't have cables, but I do have a box somewhere in the house of VHS recordings of of the original series. I don't know if they're any good. I'm afraid to actually put them in a machine because they'll probably just disintegrate. You know you gotta send those to Ed Conroy. Oh, you have a person who like- Also known as Retro Ontario. Oh, does he do transfer?

I know Retro Ontario. Yeah, so his name is Ed. And he does, he's very interested in old VHS of that nature. Wow. We could get it to him. Interesting. Yeah. I bought a VHS machine with one of my work checks

when I was a kid. $10? Yeah, no, it was like a lot of money. It was like $200. I know, I meant you were getting $10. With my $10, no, eventually we made a little bit more, but it was like such a big thing. And I remember wanting to buy it

because there was gonna be a free much music weekend on cable television. And I wanted to have a VHS machine to be able to record a Duran Duran documentary. No, you're speaking my language. Okay. You know the name. Okay. Yeah. And I had to have that machine by then. Did you make the mistake? Top loading. It was the whole, yeah. Did you make the mistake I made in that you sat there and edited out the commercials?

And then years later, you realized that that's what you, what you, well, you wanted the commercials, but at the time you didn't want the commercials. But now you would only want the commercials. No, I wasn't so. That's a me thing. Okay. I wasn't so buttony.

All right. So two more. Clicky. And then we're going to talk pies. Two more. Shout out to Nick Aini's. This is your jingle Nick. Build in Toronto skyline. It's a podcast and book from Nick Aini sponsored by fusion core construction management. That's the perfect length. 10 seconds. Perfect. I think your, your feedback is excellent. I think you're exactly right.

Done, no notes. Yeah. Now this one's gonna be three times that length, but you're gonna get an amazing present at the end of this. And I can't wait to give it to you. Here we go. Silverwax.ca Absolute care for your call

From beginners to experts Silverwax is a name to remember The ending there sounds to me like Son of a Preacher Man. Oh, right. Like I'm going to play that ending again. So listen to this. Okay. That was lovely.

I have from Silverwax and everybody listening, remember the promo code is Toronto Mike 10. Use it. Use it liberally. It's amazing. I can't believe I'm giving you this, this robust kit. It's unbelievable. This giant bucket, these two spray bottles, the interior and exterior of your car, it's gonna be, the sheen, it's gonna sparkle.

It'll be so damn clean, it'll be so easy for you to do. Even Mike Willner can borrow the kit and use it on his automobile. That's for you, courtesy of Silverwax. Thank you, Silverwax, because my car is very old and very sad, and this will make it much happier. All right, so here we are now, finally. Okay, here's how we're gonna get there.

I'm Arlene Lott, the Princess of Pie. Look at this incredible pie topper. I'm gonna show you just how easy it is to make. All you need is a stencil and a relaxing Sunday afternoon. Do you have both of those things? I've prepared my pastry and I'm gonna just finish rolling that out. All you need is a stencil and a relaxing Sunday afternoon. Do you have both of those things? I've prepared my pastry and I'm going to just finish rolling that out. You rolling a joint here, Arlene?

Holy smoke. So I'll bring it down. That is where you announced that you were the princess of pie and I've been calling you the queen of pie. How did this happen? You're working in art design and I mean, I mean, just how, how did you become the princess or queen of pie? Okay. I mean, I mean just how how did you become the princess or queen of pie? Okay, so I

Have often said the CBC is the gift that keeps on giving everything My whole life has somehow gone back to the CBC. Well, let's hope the Conservative Party of Canada doesn't win on Monday Yeah from your lips to the universe's ears I We need this institution. I feel very strongly about this. My first day working at the CBC, so I worked at the CBC for a bit.

So I was working in art departments and film, and then the writer's strike of 2007 hit the film industry. And so we didn't work for a long time. And I wasn't quite sure what I was, was it? Maybe I'm ahead of myself. No, it was around 2007. I had a friend who was working at the CBC. She was coordinating audiences for Airfarce for Royal Canadian Airfarce. And the CBC was coming up with a new lifestyle show called Steven and Chris. Yes, hosted by the designer. Chris no longer with us, sadly, but it was a very interesting time. And she said to me,

Hey, you're not working right now. Do you want to come and work and help me coordinate audiences? And I was like, Okay, I could probably do that. I don't know. So we call my friends and be like, Hey, you guys want to come to a taping? Like, whatever. And people's moms would come. And it was lovely, right? It was wonderful. But my first day working at the CBC, I walk in, I met, I went to a audience session for the hour with George Strombolopoulos. His guest that day, Jean-Critien. Some guy. Yeah, some guy.

I'm in the elevator after I start working there a little while later with Peter Mansbridge, who, you know. FOTM Peter Mansbridge. Peter was carrying a printer to his desk and I like get in the elevator and like do you not have people to carry your printer? Like is this anyway, I feel like we don't have conscription in this country, but I think everybody should go work at the CBC for a year just to see how news moves across this country.

I think it's an almost impossible job to tell people from coast to coast to coast how we do things. I think it's a very important place. Anyway, so I was working at the CBC in Lifestyle Television and my audience coordination time was kinda coming to an end and there was still a few more episodes of Steven and Chris to go with that first season. And I went to the producers and I was like, okay listen, you don't really know what I actually do

but I kinda do this art direction stuff in the real world. Like I won't be doing audience for you anymore, but thanks, it was nice. And maybe next year, if you have room on the crew, I would love to come and work with you. And they said, you know what, don't go, like stay and come and be Steven's DIY producer for a little while.

So I worked with him directly for a bit and was able to infuse some graphics and like do some other things. It was so exciting. It was such a wonderful time. It was the first time in a career move where I ever took a chance and asked for what I wanted. And it was this beautiful moment that was reciprocated,

how fortunate, right? And so I met a lot of people working at the CBC. Anyway, film kicks up again, the economic downturn of 2008 happens, the show gets put on hiatus, so I go back to film. Not that I didn't look back, I really loved lifestyle television. I thought it was a lot of fun, but I think I ended up like,

I think it cost me money to work there. But it was a brilliant time in my life and really good for my soul and good for my creativity and good for a bunch of things. So anyway, met those contacts there. And like I said earlier, my friend Portia, who coined that phrase, the princess of pies, she reached out to me and she was the head of CBC Life

at the time, or she was doing, directing the programming there, whatever, she was in charge of all of that, the exec there. And she said, I want you to come and shoot a segment with me. And I was like, what do you mean? And she's like, Yeah, we have this idea. Like, do you want to do this? And I was like, be on camera. And she was like, Yeah, we want you and I was like, I have not like I don't. I haven't been in front of a

camera. Nancy Kramer was a long time ago. Nancy Kramer was a long time ago. And I you know, I was like, wait, like me? And she's like, yeah. And I was like, okay. So I decided to do it. And I've been really fortunate in my life and I'm pretty good at seeing a good door to walk through. And that was a good door. That was a good door.

And that comes from like the pie thing in general. My mother was like your classic 1950s housewife. Oh, June Cleaver. And her name was June. And my dad was Bob. So yeah, June and Bob. And it writes itself. And so she made a mean pie.

She made a wonderful pie. And so I learned how to make pie from my mother. And to me, like it's, it's love, right? Like pie is love. So, and I think a lot of people are afraid to make a pie. And why would you make a pie when you can walk into the grocery store and get one for like $7? Why would you go to all the trouble except for that you want to, you know? You're the princess of pies. You know, you're the princess of pies. Yeah, I am now. Yeah. Yeah. You are on a podcast hosted by Leslie Taylor. Do you remember this? Yeah. Okay. So Leslie Taylor, probably listening to us right now. Yeah, she's awesome. Yeah. Absolutely. And she's got a baseball connection,

you know, you can you know, okay, okay, I was gonna say you can tell Mike Wilner, just sorry, he'd be interested in the rest of the other. Yeah. Okay, I was gonna say you can tell Mike Wilner this story. He'd be interested in the rest of them. They know each other. Yeah. Okay. Very good. Very good. So where like where has this Princess of Pi taken you? Like, I'm just trying to understand where has this esteemed title taken you, Arlene? So there's been a few things with Pi like Maybe gosh, I don't even know how long ago it was, seven, eight years ago. I, you know, Instagram was a wonderful thing

that was new and fresh. And I happened to see a pie artist on there who cut letters out of pastry instead of just making a regular solid top or lattice top or you know, all those things that we know to be your classic toppings. And I was like, oh yeah, I know all of them. Oh, oh you mean I can take the graphics work that I do and transfer this to pie?

Duh, right? Light bulb moment, thank you. And so I started doing pastry art, pie art. And there were sort of a few of us out there doing it, not a ton, maybe 12, 15 of us that I could name off the top of my head. Is it like stenciling? I don't even know what we're,

some of it is like, you might start with a stencil. You might just freehand it. You might use cookie cutters. You might use whatever you have around your kitchen to cut things to cut shapes out of it. Did you know this, Andy? Well, which part of it? I don't know.

Did you know any of this? Like so so you can make I don't know theoretically there could be like a Rob Proust pie. Yeah, or whoa, Arlene is going into a bag. Watch your head there. Okay, yeah. Okay, this exciting. I'll do play by playing here. She's reaching into a drum roll. What I do have a drum roll. Should I do it? Do you want a drum roll, Arlene? Because I loaded it up for somebody else. Oh my God. So I was trying to, that's amazing. I was trying to visualize. So I have to, that's amazing. I never go anywhere into handed.

So you have presents, I have presence. So my love, I guess I can't. This is for you. Yeah, be careful that letter. I the E spun on me in transit, but there you go. So multiple things. One is, I told my wife, the queen of pies, although now, do you want princess of pies? Like what do you want to be?

You do what you gotta do man. So I, well, it's your title. So I mentioned the princess of pies was coming over and she goes, is she going to bring a pie? And I said, well, I didn't ask her to bring a pie. Like I wouldn't, you know, I mean, I don't know if she's going to bring a pie, but this has got some heft to it. It's a glass plate.

It's just, you know. And the stenciling, which I'm going to make sure I get a photo of that you did here is the Toronto Mike logo, essentially with the microphone. That's, this is now I know what you're talking about. It's gorgeous. Pie art.

Yeah, and I, so because I do graphics in film, oh wow, it did actually, hold on, I kinda wanna take a picture of you holding that pie, like in your studio. Okay, take a photo. Andi will entertain us with a story of her rebellious youth. I'm very curious, what kind of pie? That is a blueberry pie, wild blueberry

with a little tiny little bit of cranberry. Mike, how lucky are you? You know what, blueberry is an amazing fruit. You know, I took a chance because I don't know if you have allergies, I don't know if you have. No allergies. Oh my God. I live my whole life.

I don't know if you hate fruit. No, I love fruit actually. Like some people hate fruit. No, fruit's my friend, but. Fruit's my friend. Fredgie's and I are learning to get along. But for my whole entire life, Iis and I are learning to get along. For my whole entire life, I was told I was allergic to penicillin because of a reaction

I had as a baby. Okay, I didn't put any in there. No, but the story has a happy ending, which is in my 40s, I thought, oh, maybe I should get tested. Maybe it's not true. Yeah. Because all my life, I've been saying to every time you get asked... Right, and you don't know if you pass it on your family, whatever.

Yeah. Yeah. And I got tested, and I'm not allergic to penicillin. Yeah. So like I lived with this, I don't know if it went away or if it was just bullshit from the beginning. Did it nag at you? Has it been a fear like your whole life? Do you know how? And if you had known how many times?

Every time you're sick, they wanna give you penicillin. Yeah, that banana stuff. Is that? Well, I wouldn't know. Right, like the banana antibody. Right, you wouldn't know. I never got to enjoy it. I can't even get it in.

Andy, do you enjoy penicillin? The banana stuff? That was good shit, man. The banana stuff? For when you got like strep throat or whatever? Yeah, it was good stuff. Okay, so I'm blown away. You know what?

You've earned your lasagna, you know, all the goodies here. Thank you so much for the pie. Yeah. And so this is what I do, right? Like I look at images. ArleneLott.com. Yeah, that's the website. Instagram.

Just letting the listeners know. They might want to go find out how to get a pie. I will. Yeah, you can commission me through the website. Also my Instagram is Arlo Designs. And that's, that's a place you can see more of my current work to Arlo Designs. Yeah, I don't update the website as often as I should, which is like ever. But I do respond to my messages that come through the website

if you wanna commission something. But I do cakes, I do pies, I do desert scapes, I do all kinds of things. But that's the side hustle. That's the side hustle for when film slows down. I think everybody who works as a freelancer, especially in entertainment, it's really handy to have a side hustle that you

can turn up and turn down. Right. So this is how I see your life, right? Like you've got your main gig and then you got this amazing side hustle where you're the princess of pies for God's sake. And then you have this other like, oh, I'm also, I can also do the Degrassi nostalgia circuit. Do you know what I mean? Like you can get pulled into the Andes of the world or like just dying, you know? And sometimes in film, like there's crazy overlap. Like we'll see people who were our crew members back then or cast members who now work in film.

Like when I worked on The Strain, there was myself. Another big show. Another big show. Myself, Selik Sessanasi was an AD on that who played Yek, and then Darren Brown who played Dwayne was also an AD. So we would be standing in the kitchen some days, you know, getting a coffee, whatever, and Miles who was the one of the executive producer of the show would just walk by and just start giggling because he's got like three Degrassi kids on his on his staff.

Andy would freaking have kittens. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really weird. She's gonna start watching the strain because she knows what's going on behind the scenes. his staff. Andy was freaking have kittens. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's really weird. She's going to start watching the strain because she knows what's going on behind the scenes. Yeah. And you worked on the Killjoys, right? I worked on the Killjoys.

I did seasons four and five of Killjoys. Yeah. And the production designer of that was Ian Brock. Ian Brock was like a grip under grassy when I was nine. Like he, you know, Andy knows that. Okay. She knows you know eventually. Oh and he knows that okay. She knows all the grips. And when I went back to work in film and I went to work on what show was it? Riverdale. Yeah. Riverdale. Ian was the. Cynthia Dale right? Ian was the. Oh no is this the Archie's one? There's two you know.

No not the Archie's one. Yeah the Cynthia Dale one. It was the Canadian Coronation Street. Cynthia Dale. I don't know who Cynthia was on. Why do I think Cynthia Dale was in Riverdale? Melissa DeMarco. Who's on Degrassi, the Next Generation. Yeah, and who was? I think so many people. Stuart Arnot. Was Mr. Ravitch a good guy?

Ravitch? Yeah, he was lovely. Dan, he's lovely. I was remembering him in the head as Ravitch. It's Ravitch. Ravitch, yeah. He's a good guy? Yeah, lovely.

Because I liked his voice. Great voice. What about Miss Avery? Great voice. Amazing, it was just her birthday yesterday, I think. Yeah, I like his voice. Great voice. What about Miss Avery? Great voice. It was just her birthday yesterday. I think. Yeah. Michelle Goodie on Earth Day.

Earth Day is her birthday. Yeah. Lovely, lovely human. Okay. You're a lovely human as far as I'm concerned. Andy, this is your last chance here because we're gonna, we're done now. Any Degrassi questions that have been lingering in your mind for this past several decades, you have an OG Degrassi person here.

She's also the princess of pies and she's dating Mike Willner. It's so random. I will say that I do follow you on social media and your pies are gorgeous and the odd cake that you do. It's incredible work really. And for someone like me who is not particularly artistic. It's really it's really impressive You know what come over. I'll give you a lesson like it's I think the thing about pastry. It's like a dog It senses fear so if you are afraid the pastry will tear it will break it will do what just

Zen Zen out when it's pie time anything we don't know about Mike Willner But we should know that you'd like to share with us. Nothing I can disclose. Did he tell you, don't you dare tell any Mike Wilner stories on Toronto Mike? No, he wouldn't dare. Can we do 90 minutes on Mike Wilner? That was the pre-interview. Just you two?

Okay, I had to go. I didn't record this. This is our pre-interview. You ready to start? Yeah, let's go. Let's go. Andy, how was this for you? When you saw this studio, because you've heard many an episode of Toronto Mike, and you saw interview. You ready to start? Yeah, let's go. Let's go. Andy, how is this for you? When

you saw this studio, because you've heard many an episode of Toronto Mike, and you saw the studio for the first time today, you'd ever been down here. What were your honest feelings? It was a little underwhelming, I have to say. Yeah. Shout out to Chris Murphy from Sloan. But I only say that because when you watch it online, you watch the video or the live stream, it looks so big. Smaller than you thought is what you're telling me. You thought it would be bigger. I did, Mike.

That's some low hanging fruit right there. It was a little smaller than I thought. You no longer get the Ridley funeral home measuring tape. How big do you need it to be? So that she can't measure. And it's not the size, it's the content of the character, the product that you get to listen to. Which is fabulous, Mike. Oh, thank you. I was just waiting for that. And how was this for you, Arlene Lotz? What a great time.

Thank you so much. Amazing. Okay. We, we got to take our photo after this and I'm going to get a photo of this pie before I eat it all tonight amazing Gold leaves go any predictions for Monday. No the election. I mean, oh, yeah. No, no like any Do you have any predictions for Monday because this is recorded? I know I don't I'm scared I will jinx it if I say anything. So I want me to make a prediction sure why not? Pretty big majority for the Liberal Party of Canada. Pretty sizable majority. I'm just going to note that Mike also said that Hillary Clinton would win. So I also said Kamala Harris would win. Yes, you did. So this will be three strikes. I'm out. We can't afford your strikes. And that

that brings us to the end of our one thousand. By the way, Avi Federgreen is a friend of yours. You want to shout him out? Oh, we have not seen each other in a super long time, but we worked together on Liberty Street. So Avi was here earlier today for his podcast Unleashed. His special guest was Stu Stone, FOTM Hall of Famer. People should listen to episode three of Unleashed. Okay.

By Avi Feder-Green. Amazing. And that brings us to the end of our 1,678th show. That's unbelievable to me. What a big number that is. Okay. Go to torontomic.com for all your Toronto Mic needs. Go to arlenelott.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Go to arlenelott.com for all your

pie requirements. You can commission her, Anne-Larne. I like that. It's like a painter. It's bespoke. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That word pops up everywhere. Like everything's bespoke. The pizza shop is the bespoke pizza place. The mortgage brokers are bespoke mortgage. Customized to you. Yes. the mortgage brokers or bespoke mortgage customized to you yes much love to all who made this possible that's Great Lakes Brewery you got your beer Palma pasta I've got your lasagna Menaris you've got your speaker silver wax you've got your car care kit recycle my electronics dot CA building Toronto skyline and Ridley funeral home Andy Andy just made a measurement and says,

it's too small, Mike. See you all tomorrow. So I mentioned Chris Murphy, underwhelmed. Do you know who my guest is tomorrow? It's Andrew Scott from Sloan. Amazing. I will have all four members as FOTMs, assuming he doesn't buffy on me,

but that's tomorrow 2 p.m. You can watch us record it at live.torontomike.com. This is romantic traffic. Thank you. See you all tomorrow. Music