Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Bill Brioux: Toronto Mike'd #821

Episode Date: March 22, 2021

Mike and Bill Brioux discuss the open air era of the Cloverdale Mall, the SCTV reunion documentary, William Shatner's 90th birthday, WandaVision, the end of Kim's Convenience and what's good on TV.

Welcome to episode 821 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. CDN Technologies, your outsourced it department contact barb she's barb at cdn technologies.com palma pasta enjoy the taste of fresh homemade italian pasta and entrees from palma pasta in mississauga and oakville sticker you.com Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos and decals For your home and your business Ridley Funeral Home Pillars of the community since 1921

And Mike Majeski Or as I call him, Mimico Mike He's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike. From torontomike.com and joining me this week is Bill Brio. Welcome back, Bill. Well, it's great to be back, Mike.

Thank you for having me. I enjoy your jingle. I love that opening music that you have your theme song it's uh very catchy and uh my feet and legs are starting to just tap along well you know it's been a while since i've given some props to the composer of that uh of that theme song so shout out to ill vibe or illy as i call him. He composed that for me back in 19-something. It was actually 2012 when he came up with that for the Toronto Week. That's great. Yeah, works.

No, thank you. By the way, I enjoy your blog. I subscribe. I don't know if anyone subscribes to things via RSS anymore, but I subscribe to your blog via RSS. Remind people where they can read your great blog. Well, if you just go to brio.tv, b-r-i-o-u-x dot tv, and there's daily reports and insights into television, reviews. There's also links to the podcast and everything else. So it's your one-stop TV shop. I miss blogs. Now we have a plethora of... Is it plethora or plethora? What do I have of podcasts?

Tons of them. Lots. Yeah, you're right. But the blogs, if I think back to, I don't know, 2004, I had a blog and I enjoyed subscribing to blogs and people would write daily updates on things. And I'm just glad you're still doing that because I love to kind of see, I don't know what's going on. I'm drowning in like a sea of like television and I don't know like what to grasp at and what to check out. So I just love like reading your take on things and your spin on things. It's awesome. Well, it's nice of you to say Mike, appreciate it. I think that there is room for folks like me and John Doyle and others to

curate, you know, to point people where, where peak TV is still with us. There's so many streaming services now. And I think the blog is a help. It is an old fashioned thing in a way, like I don't know if I was just starting, I don't, I probably wouldn't do a blog, but I've done one now since 2007. So whatever that is, 13, 14 years of that. And it's just a muscle I was using, right? I used to write daily for the Toronto Sun as a TV columnist and TV guide before that. And it's just a muscle I was using, right? I used to write daily for the Toronto Sun as a TV columnist and TV guide before that. And I've written for, oh my goodness, you know, the Toronto

Star and Globe and Mail and different places. So I was sort of up to speed. And I think if you stop, it's hard, you know, it's like running. It's like anything, right? Five years later, you can't do it anymore. No, I think you you're exactly right that's why i just haven't stopped since 2002 with the blog but your podcast just before we get into this because there's some cloverdale mall stuff and then we're going to talk a little tv and i'm kind of i'm kind of psyched about this because i get excited about the mall episodes but like well how could i not but uh what is the name of your podcast that people should subscribe to to hear more Bill Brio? Yeah, please do. It's simply Brio.TV, the podcast.

We should have a contest to come up with something catchier, but that's what it's been called. And that's what it is. And I've been lucky to have had great conversations in Canadian TV. in Canadian TV. I just talked to Sloko Klimku, who's just this month stepping down as the head of the Canadian Film Centre. And, you know, all kinds of people in and out of the business,

people starring on it, the stars of Murdoch Mysteries and Ron James last week, who did his own show out west and here in Toronto, actually, but for online. Right. So it's been fun just um

talking to people about tv and it's just conversations beyond um the usual fan stuff and more about what it's like navigating and making a tv show through a pandemic and uh and scheduling it uh you know so it's it's it's a catch-all for people curious about canadian tv now did you understand what ron james said like were you able to uh my ears are tuned to ron i've been talking to him for years i love the way he uses language and uh i i'm a huge fan of his when i um i've seen him live a few times he was was the warm-up act for the SCTV show when Jimmy Kimmel was here three years ago at the Elgin Theatre.

What happened to that? Well, that's the big question, Mike, and it's a bit of a question mark. The, you know, Martin Scorsese is directing, we are all told, a big documentary on SCTV. So you had Kimmel moderating it, and that Elgin Theater was packed with everybody who ever loved SCTV or acted with them.

And on stage, there's Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy and Martin Short. Was Rick Moranis there? Rick Moranis was even there. That's massive. Yeah, it was amazing. And even like John Candy's kids, it was amazing and even like john candy's kids you know like it was a just sort of like a mecca moment like a very almost religious experience

and then gone went away and what's going on and scorsese just keeps going with other projects but i'd heard that part of this is connected with netflix was going to be the home for it and that perhaps netflix is negotiating to bring all of that sctv content to their platform and then have the documentary you know which makes sense and that's what they do that sounds better than what i heard because i'm happy to hear what you're you're selling me there because i heard that he just lost interest in the project and that he moved on to other things like fran lebowitz or uh whatever like right yeah yeah no no and that could be true too i don't know i have no confirmation i've talked to a few people about it and that was the one theory that um it was sort of a network negotiation that was going on with netflix

uh but uh you know i probably should update my information there on that. Why aren't we taking to the streets? Like, why aren't we protesting? I don't understand. This, to me, is an outrage. Like, Mark Weisblatt first tipped me off that there was trouble in Paradise. Because we've been talking about, since they recorded this thing,

I've been quite eager to see this. I love the old SCTV. And it's funny you mentioned Ron James open for that because at that exact same venue, I saw Ron James on the Conan O'Brien show back in 2003, same venue. He was there. I think Adam Sandler was the big guest,

but he was the standup. I was in the audience for all four of those shows. That was quite a week. Stompin' Tom was the musical guest that night. Oh, my goodness. It was amazing. You know, Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, they all came back. And to hear Conan's great band in that room.

Right, Max Weinberg 7. Yeah, they were stunning shows. And that vaulted Conan to a level where NBC finally said, yeah, let's put him on as host of tonight five years from now and then that worked for six months and they yanked it away from him but uh right i i certainly love listening to conan's podcast he's he's one of my favorites uh now so he's doing well but yeah i don't know it's not the curse of the elgin i just think um it's odd given the great success of schitt's creek in the u.s and canada right that um if they were going to do a documentary why it hasn't surfaced by now

okay i'm now like re-energized by the possibility that this is all part of some kind of a great promotional effort because netflix is bringing uh resurrecting the SCTV clips. I got to say, and I won't name this person because this is all highly illegal activity, but there's an FOTM who has got all the SCTV episodes sitting on a Google Drive. I may or may not have,

you know, clicked through to enjoy a number of the, but they're all there sitting on a Google Drive. It'd be great to get them on Netflix and then do the Martin Scorsese thing and celebrate this like tremendous show.

But Bill, we got so much to cover here. Uh, I want to just tell people who are tuning in that if they want the A to Z, like if you want to hear more about Bill Brio writing at the, uh, a TV guide or Toronto sun and all this exciting stuff in your life, they should go to episode three 27.

So I'll just read what I wrote then. But in episode 327, Mike chats with Bill Brio about his years at TV Guide and the Toronto Sun and TV, lots and lots of TV from Hill Street Blues to Breaking Bad. And that episode was two hours and 10 minutes. And that's from the good old days when I when I made people you know sit across the table for me in the uh the basement that was fun Mike I I enjoyed that and uh I can't believe it's uh you know I thought at the time 327 episodes was a staggering amount and now you're like at nine 825 like that you're like the Simpsons of uh podcasting It's crazy amount of, I've done 25 and I'm, you know, ready to lie down. Well, listen, Bill, on that note, when you do decide to move over, move your great, great podcast over to TMDS here, we're going to come up with a better

title for the podcast. That's okay. I'm open to ideas for sure. But this initially, like we're going to talk some TV, but in fact, we already have surprise, but we're, uh, we're going to talk a different subject off the top here. And I'm going to just let people know that exactly one month ago today, it was episode 804 and my buddy, Andrew Stokely, uh, joined me and we dove deep into the history of the Cloverdale mall in Etobicoke. I think I wrote, I'm looking at the description, come for the hot oven bakery memories, but stay for the magic of the Cloverdale Mall in Etobicoke. I think I wrote, I'm looking at the description, come for the hot oven bakery memories, but stay for the magic of the home hardware.

And, you know, I'm, you know, I'm in my mid forties and I don't think Stokely's got more than a couple of years on me. So you, you listened. So maybe I'll let, let's hear some Bill Brio here, but tell us why you were so interested in that episode. And then, and why we said, we got to get you back on because we have some cracks to fill in our Cloverdale Mall deep dive. Well, I really enjoyed that episode. I saw that you were doing the Cloverdale one.

I listened to you and your buddy talk, and I just enjoyed every second of that. And so, yeah, I'm keenly interested because I grew up just down the street from there. I grew up at 5308 Dundas Street West, and that was at Poplar and Dundas. It was an old farmhouse, and I'm like 20 years older than you, Mike, I guess. So it was just that much longer that when I was there, they still had a couple of farmhouses on Dundas Street and literally across the street when I was a baby. There's slides and pictures of me.

And you can see them building the Canadian tire store that used to be there. And the house that I live in now, it's a kebab place. It's like there used to be a charcoal pit next door. And, you know, and there was Colonel Sanders had a Scott's Chicken Villa. Yes. Just three doors down, which I would. My mom worked at the reception and I would when I was growing up. Friends who went to our Lady of Peace school back in that neighborhood got jobs there and we would go to the back door and get free chicken um but you know literally i was pushed as a baby

in a stroller by my mom down the street to cloverdale mall where she would shop and then that was a ritual that went on for 10 years while we lived in that house so we're talking are you like i mean when we talk about cloverdale mall we're talking, are you like, I mean, when we talk about Cloverdale Mall, we kind of explain it as like the East Mall and Dundas and you're just like right by where the 427 sort of there. Like, so, so you're with it. You were born on Dundas Street West, amazingly enough. And you mentioned it being an old farmhouse.

Well, Cloverdale itself, my understanding is it was built on an old uh the the edenville farm edenville farms yeah the um because the eden family owned that land i think and that's why it's called the cloverdale because it's a cloverdale off of the 427 like those ramps at big circles right they form a clover and that's that's why it's cloverdale stop the music stop the the rock and roll. That is a huge mind blow right there. Like to me, if I take nothing else from this episode, I promise I'll take more than that.

But that's, I never even thought of that. Of course. Oh my God. They used to have, if you're in Cloverdale and if it ever opens again, I haven't been there in a while, but. Well, it's open now. It depends what you go in for, but it's open now.

Okay. So if you go down, if you had to go to the washroom, there's a long corridor. And it's a nostalgic trip because they have framed pictures from years gone by, many of them black and white of old attractions and stores and fashion things. And they used to have an office at the end. And they had a giant map of Cloverdale and from an aerial shot of that whole area. And you could see back then it was just the 427 and Dundas and you could see those Cloverdale rings really clearly. And it made more sense then. Oh, my God. Yeah. And I do. I know that well, because that is pretty much across from the home hardware, which we talked about quite a bit in the initial.

I called that the part one of the, the Cloverdale mall deep dive here. But what we, you know, and I did my homework. So I learned, for example, I learned that there was a Morgan's there.

Yeah. Now I only know Morgan's from Googling it and like learning about more, even though I have a daughter named Morgan, apparently there's no connection there, but I, I Googled it and I learned about Morgan's and it sounds like the Hudson Bay company bought up Morgan's at some point, but maybe take us back because it sounds like you go back to the sixties with this mall and this mall opened as an open air shopping plaza. And I don't even remember it as an open

air shopping plaza. Yeah, I do very keenly. And I should, I should i what i'll do i'll send you some slides that my dad took if you want to post them oh i have them i have them you sent them over i'm gonna i'll post them uh attach them to this uh toronto mic.com entry about this episode yeah because there's shots he took when it was open air and really that's my primary memories of it um because again i lived uh you know i was born in 1957 and we moved in 68 uh further east on dundas to islington so um those first 10 11 years that's where i would be all the time and they had this thing mike it was a concrete slide and it was called i think the snail because it sort of resembled a snail and it was sort of down in the south end towards where the dominion store used to be and it was in the middle of this outdoor mall and what what happened is you're back in the 60s parents would

drop their kids at that snail slide and then they'd go shopping for two hours. It was a different time. Parents were would literally would trust that no stranger would wander off with their kid. And we would all that was where kids met and formed lifelong allegiances because this crazy slide, which seemed massive, which was probably maybe six feet high. which seemed massive, which was probably maybe six feet high. It was they should have opened like an insurance shop across from it or a doctor bone mending place because it was just a place for accidents to happen. And it was literally concrete. And it had little nooks and crannies where you could underneath it. You could hide with your friends and you had other things on the side

and it was um how very bizarre thing but i have such vivid memories and there is a picture yeah if you're walking down that hallway toward the uh the wet restrooms at the cloverdale of this slide and it really was like it was like the cne in one little little box. It was just a great lot of fun. But the slide itself, that was like aluminum or something. That wasn't concrete, was it? Concrete, concrete. It was a giant white concrete thing. That sounds very painful.

What did you get burned sliding down this thing? It was just a place to crack your head and break your arm. You know, it was what you think of it back then when I was a kid, you know, your parents would take you to the drive in theater and in front of the street. And there was one in Orangeville we used to go to all the time talking about nostalgia and things gone. And, you know, you'd have a teeter totter and that thing that you ran around and spun on. Yeah. You'd have a teeter-totter and that thing that you ran around and spun on. Yeah.

But everything there, they had like metal horses on metal springs. Right. It was all designed to chip teeth or break bones. I caught the tail end of this as a child of the 80s. So I'm the same age as your buddy Joe, who is your goaltender. I don't know when the last time you guys were able to play hockey. I don't know when that was. A year and a half ago.

And as you know, he disappeared for a year. Yes, he did. Because I know you wrote about it in The Star, so you're all over that story. So shout out to Joe, because I'm sure Joe will listen. And then I'll get back to what else happened at Dundas and Islington in a moment here, actually. But yeah, um, yeah.

And so in the, in the early eighties, I definitely have memories of like, uh, playgrounds that were like, they looked like they were death pits. Like they were nothing like my oldest is 19. And I can tell you there was nothing like this left. Like these were just,

yeah, just danger everywhere. It's kind of, I don't know when we got our act together, but I bet you at some point in the eighties they said, okay, well, maybe we don't have to like kill our children on these playgrounds. Uh, but yeah, things might've started to change in the eighties at some point. It's safer, but I tell you that slide at Cloverdale was the greatest thing.

And there was like, uh, handles on it and you'd scramble up to the top of it. And because you were kids you'd push each other off and you know it was just a long way down when you were seven and uh and also the cave parts of it the pockets underneath if the damn thing ever broke or collapsed we would have been killed you know i i can see why it was removed and And you might also, I have these memories that Cloverdale, too, had these art pieces that were the giant wooden giraffes. And that was another very vivid memory of that open-air strip down the middle.

And I believe, and I'm not 100%, but I saw this a few years ago, five or six. They have moved, and they're now where the Etobicoke City Hall area is there, Burnhamthorpe and East Mall. Yeah, exactly. On the other side. And I think they have those giraffe things that used to be in Colville, but I'm sure they busted up that slide and buried it somewhere before the insurance companies could take pictures of it. I got to look for the, I go, that's where I often I'll donate blood. They have blood clinics at the old Etobicoke City Hall. We donated blood at that slide. I just set you up. But again, we should tell people, let's tell this fun fact in case they haven't heard your first couple of visits here. You mentioned you lived for a while at Dundas

and hold on, let me get it all, let me get my bearings for a while at Dundas and hold on, let me get it all. Let me get my bearings right. Okay. Dundas and Islington. That's where we moved to in 68. Yeah. Okay.

So wait, where were you like, so of course there was a, there's a police station there now. Am I in the right? Cause, oh, you know,

you're right. You know, it's funny. That is a funny, cause you're right. Dundas and Islington was the old, old mill donuts. Like help me out here.

Cause there's kind of two. Do you know what I mean? Like Dundas does that. I do know what you mean. Yes're right dundas and islington was the old old mill donuts like help me out here because there's kind of two do you know what i mean like dundas does that i do know what you mean yes so okay dundas i was so i was on uh east of islington and if you go east on the north side you'll come to chestnut hills parkway uh you'll pass some low three-story red brick apartments okay and then there's these houses and my parents not the corner house but the first driveway on dundas past that okay uh 46 86 dundas that house is still there uh sold about four or five years ago now and um they're building new ones along there but that's where we move okay i got it so so that dundas islington there's like that now there's a gas station on one corner.

You're right. In the other corner. I mean, there might be a Rabah, or the Rabah might be a little bit west, actually, on Dundas. Rabah is west. So you're going up the hill towards the St. George's Church on the hill down the end. It's more as that banks along there.

And it was a busy strip of road. But it was funny. Yeah, my parents moved from 5308 dundas to 46 86 not that imaginative when they came to moving my parents and what do you remember the address of uh the old michael power high school oh yeah it was uh 55 50 i think you're right let's feel like it might be joe's in the, we're live on Facebook and Joe's listening. Joe, can you confirm for us? I think, I feel like it was 55-50, but I couldn't.

It wouldn't have been that. Well, I was at 53-08. Okay. So it wouldn't have been 55. Maybe 50-50 or something. It was more like 50-30 or something like that. Yeah. Okay.

So this is a fun fact, even though we weren't there at the same time, because you've got a couple of years on me. That's why you got that cool Santa beard going on there. But we did attend the same high school. Yes, we did. Michael Power. And although, did you attend it when it was still located? I'm the last graduating class of the original location.

Well, then you remember that campus. It was kind of a cool layout. It had a lot of little eccentric corners to it, a couple of houses and things. And of course, the chaplains, the chaplain house was there. Yeah. Where the chaplains kind of lived, I guess. Yeah, it was. No, I was at a unique time and it's odd to see it just bricked in with seven or eight

condo towers now and and um things but it was uh it was certainly um you know i've been to a reunion or two at michael power since they moved over towards where uh tobaco um arendale is that what they call that arendale it used to be yeah i think so right but we're near the park. Near Centennial Park. Centennial. Yeah. And it's just odd to return to a reunion

to a school that you never attended. Right. You know, like it's weird. I always remind my kids, I always tell my kids, they go to Humberside

or one's graduated already but they go to Humberside. Wow. And I'm like, you know, I can't go back to my high school because it's condos now.

That's the way it is in this city, apparently. But a couple of things about, I want to say a couple of things about Power. Remind me the name of the comedy duos that you were in. Remind me. Oh, well, it was my buddy Pat Bullock and I, we met at, you know, Michael Power. They arranged the lockers alphabetically and Bullock and Brio. So mine was right under his,

so all his banana peels and apples and junk would fall down on me. And that's how we met. And we ended up doing standup comedy and doing a shtick all over the place and for a few years. And yeah, so that's the only comedy. This is all on the first episode. So people, if they want to dive deep into this, we talk a lot about this in the initial Bill Brio episode of Toronto Mic'd.

But kind of, I would say you gained a certain level of fame, like Cable 10 and some, right? And is this a Bullock and Brio movie that you shot at Cloverdale Mall? Yeah, you're right. No, no, you're right. The fame of Bullock and Brio spread over several streets in Etobicoke. movie that you shot at Cloverdale mall. Yeah, you're right. No, no, you're right. Uh, Bullock, the fame of Bullock and Rio spread over several streets in October. Yes. It was quite explosive, but, uh, yeah, we, we shot a little movie. I was, my dad had a 16 millimeter camera and I got into the hobby of shooting film with Pat and a few other friends, Dave Kerwin and other guys there. And, um, so we made a movie, we asked permission to shoot

inside Morgan's to be perfectly honest. I don't remember at that point, it might already have been the Bay. But if people with long memories will remember that, that, that Morgan's or the Bay building or use, it was a two story building and you literally could ride escalators up to the second story where they had furniture and other departments yes uh i think when um target moved in they sealed off the upper floor and uh you know but it did it did used to have that other area so we wanted to do a christmas movie uh called christmas cards very clever we were at 17 and um so we we actually shot this was made in 1975 or something we were in high school still and um we used the exterior at the eaton's downtown because we wanted to shoot through the store

windows you know they would decorate the windows with animated wooden figures and things like that. It was quite festive. So we wanted shots through the windows of us looking in. So I took the shots of that there, downtown on Yonge Street, and then we pretended we were in the same store, but it was actually at Cloverdale at the bay there.

Wow, wow. And possibly Morgans, only because I liked the story a little bit better when it was Morgans, but it might have at Cloverdale at the Bay there. Wow. Wow. And possibly Morgans only because I liked the story a little bit better when it was Morgans, but it might've been the Bays. Might be, might be Morgans. Do you still have this movie anywhere? I do.

Yeah, no, I do. In fact, I've transferred a lot of that. I have a site, films.brio.tv. And right now that's mainly,

actually my dad's home movies my dad shot home movies going back to the 30s uh and and up until the mid-70s so i've transferred and edited and put sound and narration to um well it's it's stuff you might be interested in because we look at different neighborhoods where he lived my dad rossrio, who was the cameraman and all this stuff, he grew up in Bloor West and on Ronson Vales and Beresford, all those streets there. And then so there's shots there, there's shots in the Kingsway where my grandfather lived on Wilgar of that home. And it's like 1939 and it's a brand new housing development. You know, you think of the Kingsway and the roads aren't even paved yet. And the color is astounding for film that old. That's 80 years old.

So I wanted to get it preserved and transferred. And that's what I did with that. So people are curious about places in Etobicoke in that era. Please check out films.brio.tv and you could watch those little movies. I'm going to check it out for sure. And, you know, those Kingsway homes are worth five million bucks a pop now. You know that, right? I know.

My grandfather, he had a beautiful home still there and you're right um i think that when he died in 1965 they sold it for like 50 000 right uh you know it's certainly worth a few dollars more now you're right you know this is a whole separate podcast but uh my first wife and i i was thinking the other day about our first home okay which was on islington by the way speaking of this neck of the woods, okay. So we bought a bungalow in Islington, and we paid exactly, exactly $205,000 was what this house cost. And this was for a bungalow, and we were expecting our first child. And I mean, I know what, what you know if you take an inflation calculator and look at you know okay so there's 205 and that's back in whatever 1990 or 2000 or whatever and then just

just the how far uh far and away that real estate has outstripped you know the rate of inflation and just basically what you know what that would sell for today it's it's mind-boggling but there was a time not that long ago when you could actually buy a house in this city. Like, I own a house. I feel like I'm Monty Burns or something. Yeah, it's crazy. Even here in Brampton, a neighbor, friend,

they're moving to Calgary. They bought the house they're in now two years ago, and they sold it last week, and they made about $200,000 in that interval. It's frightening and scary. And I remember, too, my first wife and I, we lived in L.A. for a little while. I was working for TV Guide and we moved back to Etobicoke. We were living in an apartment trying to save up and thinking maybe we could buy a house there.

And I remember looking and looking and and they were $325,000 was the cheapest thing we could find. And we just thought, ah, impossible. We'll never have that much money. And we moved to Brampton. It just shows you what it just, you know, if you've got lots of money, you can afford it. And if you don't, you can't.

It also just tells you, like, time means everything. It is, yeah. You know, I just don't know. Like, if a starter home is everything like uh you know i just don't know like if a starter home is a million bucks well i don't know how you do it unless you've got some help from a family member like your parents are gonna i don't know i don't know how you do it without help i don't know i mean my son dan lives downtown at palmerston and bluer uh did you call that downtown i don't call that downtown well Well, you know, you're right. It's west of Bathurst.

It's like Bloordale, maybe? Annex? I don't know what you'd call that area. When I worked at the Sun, anything west of Bathurst was Calgary. Okay, so I once worked for a software company. It was like here, Ontario, in Burnhamthorpe area. So like the heart of Mississauga, whatever. And I still remember the woman telling me

that they just bought a house downtown. Like, I'm a Toronto guy. I was born at St. Joe's. just bought a house downtown like I'm a Toronto guy I was born at St. Joe's like they bought a house downtown so I said whereabouts was it and she says oh it's just off Roncey's okay I honestly I don't want to sound like some kind of geography snob even though I probably am but you know our mutual

friend Humble Howard now lives at Queensway in Islington and I sometimes catch him saying that since he moved downtown from Oakville and I'm like, okay, wait a minute here. You're at Islington and Bloor. I know Islington and Queensway. Not, not downtown.

Islington and Queensway is very, very not downtown. I sure don't live downtown, but okay. I got confirmation from our mutual friend, Joe, Joe from TO. He says it was 5055. So it was 5055 Dundas, Dundas Street West. That's where Michael Bauer is.

Thank you, Joe. Joe saves again. That's what he did in hockey. It's about time he made a big save like that. Okay, so we have you shooting a movie at Morgan's or maybe the Bay at the Cloverdale Mall. Tell me about the Big Boy restaurant. Tell me about that.

I have very vague memories of that. That was really early and it didn't last long. I don't think. But at the south end of the mall, when you would park your car and you would walk into the mall at that south end, it was very different than it is now. And it was all open air. But they had a Dominion grocery store on the West side. And then on the East side at the bottom, there was a restaurant and it was a Bob's big boy,

I believe. And they had that crazy boy with the tray out front, the chubby guy in the checkered pants. And that was the vivid memory for me. And so, but that was, you're looking early 60s at that thing. That was like maybe gone by 65 or something. Okay. Well, the Dominion is still technically there.

It's now a Metro, but all the Dominions turned into Metros at some point. But like that's still there. And the, what is it? The West, Southwest kind of part. Yeah. Still there. There aren't too too many original if there are any tenants so you mentioned on your show your podcast with your buddy that the laura secord store was closed just closed during the pandemic that might have been the last of the original tenants besides dominion slash metro but um it was there. It was relocated at one time. There was my other memory, Mike, was because of that community.

The thing that was really important back then was the parish and the church. A lot of the activity centered around that kind of church life and scouting and cubs and scouts was such a big deal back then all my friends my age would go to camp samac or different things and in order to get your cub uniform or your scout uniform you could only buy it at easons which was a men's clothing store in cloverdale mall mall on the um uh north um east side going up uh that strip again back when it was outdoors so i think of the mall a little differently but that's that was easons and you could if you needed you needed these damn shirts to sew your badges on or you get your green and uh gold cap and all that stuff and it was they had the exclusive rights to all that.

Well, maybe that's where I got, I mean, I was a beaver and a Cub Scout myself. What were we? 353rd, I think. I'm trying to remember our number. I think that was it. The Humberside United, not Humberside, Humbercrest United Church near like Jane and Dundas area.

But I wonder if I had to go there. I don't know. And I also remember going to Michael Power and being told like we had to go to a somewhere to get a blazer or something like i still remember having to get my michael power uniform i think the tuxedo junction for a while you had to get the gray pants there or something i know i was since i'm somewhere i don't know why i want to think i don't remember the name anymore but richie some italian gentleman's name i think was what this clothiers was oh yeah

i think i know who you mean um there was a gentleman yeah i just can't can't pull it up but if it comes to you during this episode just spit it out okay i don't care what we're talking about i need to know but yeah and it's funny because they relax that uniform quite i was there what five years because we had oac's so uh by the time I left, the uniform policy had been relaxed tremendously. But that first year, I was still of an age where I had to wear the tie, the blazer, the long... By the time I ended, I think they were like, okay, well, if it's above zero, you can wear a golf shirt and at some point you can wear some shorts on nice days. They had really relaxed that, but it was really strict that first year I was at that it was not relaxed at all when i was there uh you know of course it was the 70s so um you know when

we would do up the the knot of our tie was roughly the size of your head you know it was like a giant yeah and there was about an inch of tie stuck out under that people would try to sneak by with gray jeans you know that was a big risk but you know the the pre-spec that at power were um you know i just right out of a dickens novel and and some of the one guy father kelly i remember he had a sawed-off goalie stick up over the blackboard the the paddle was missing, or the blade was missing, but the paddle was there. And literally written on this thing was Board of Education. And if you had done something that wasn't really to his liking, you had to get up there and bend over,

and he'd let you have it with the Board of Education. So one of those things would be not being in uniform. So we tried to stay in uniform. Did you have a father, John Redmond there? Yeah, absolutely. No, Redmond was the athletic director and he was the principal by the time I left. Okay. And a beloved figure who I was not athletic.

I tried out for the junior hockey team like I was late for the tryout i jumped on the ice and skated for the wrong team redmond was kind enough not to uh uh just mock me but uh he was a wonderful guy very uh man a few words who led by example and friends who were athletic who trained with him talk of him still in hushed tones like he really was a unique individual and there was a few there was a great guy father michael gates many people won't have known him because he goes back really he was more running the alumni when i was even a student there but uh just a great example, wonderful guy, raised a lot of money for Catholic schools. And now that's why guys like Redmond and Gates

have schools named after them. Sure, I was going to say, yeah. In fact, it's not too far from where I'm speaking to you from right now that the big new Father John Redmond school is located. Yeah, near the Humber College there. All right, one more thing about Cloverdale Mall, though. the big new Father John Redmond school is located. Yeah. Near the Humber College there. All right.

One more thing about Cloverdale Mall, though. Your aunt worked there. Yeah, my Aunt Jackie. There was a Grandin Toy. I don't know if people remember that. It was like a stationery store. I sure do. It was all green and white, and that's where you went before there was any big box, before there was a Staples.

Yeah, before Staples, right. You went to Grandin Toy, and you went before there was any big box before there was a staples right you went to grand and toy and uh you'd go there and you'd you know it would be oh my goodness they have uh paper clips that aren't um steel they have color on them you know like the giant innovations like uh pasted notes and things like that and uh but it was pre a home computer you know mainly and uh but it was for businesses that needed envelopes and it was a fairly big store i as i recall um so that was a hub there you know that they had um a few places like that but but certainly certainly Morgan's was the big department store. And I listened to you guys also talk about food court. Yeah. And to me, and I was, I still, when my parents were getting on and my dad was still alive,

I would go down and get groceries for them at the grocery store there and then drive over to their place on Dundas and the food, the best place to eat there in recent years for me was the uh mr greek which was sort of a an eatery toward uh the if you exited in the middle of the mall um out the east side and it was run by this spanish family uh mr greek and they the best chicken and rice my i have to tell you fantastic food if it's still there was it in that strip that includes uh pick and choose if you if you went across the hall okay i think it's pick and choose which is more uh indian flavored food or uh chinese food i think

chinese food right it's and and, it's directly across from that. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. By the way, Paul Hawkyard is chiming in to say that Big Boy was there at least in the 70s because he just saw an article. It was mentioned in the Toronto Star in 1974. So it definitely lingered to 1974, Big Boy. Well, I'm surprised it was there that long but i it uh the other place that it still exists that was a maybe an original talent you guys talked about

it was the hot oven yeah and and they're still using the same recipe for those meat pies and uh it it um you know can't overemphasize the meaning for people who live in that area, especially older citizens who basically that place. I don't know why they just didn't turn the Target store into an old folks, seniors residence. You know, it's all walkers and wheelchairs. because, you know, it's all walkers and wheelchairs. But for them to meet in a place like that hot oven and have that meal had great meaning beyond just the delicious pies. It was something about it. It bonded people and I'm sure will be missed when they revamp them all.

Yeah, for sure. And again, once this pandemic clears up and they can all return to their uh their stomping grounds there if you ever if you ever do bill like if you ever want to feel young right just take a stroll through cloverdale because you'd be one of the uh the puppies uh one of the oh yeah yeah now me with my gray beard now i blend right in uh but it it uh it certainly has an elderly population and you guys touched on it when you talked to your buddy a lot of those people who live in those houses

they stayed there and they're still there and I think that's why the population is as it is so that initial Cloverdale Mall deep dive I did with Andrew Stokely when he heard that there was going to be a sequel here with the slightly more seasoned Bill Brio, he said, classic, he writes, he says, I hope he can describe the fountain that was there. I know there was one. I just can't fully describe it.

Was there a fountain near this snail, maybe near the snail slide or something like that? Do you have any memories of a fountain? Yeah, he's right uh there were fountains in the middle there was all kinds of stuff down the middle that was all broken up and removed when they closed over the mall when they built closed it in uh i think and and i may be confusing this but it was tiled in teal and greed and blue uh little uh ceramic tiles um similar and if folks remember plantation bowl oh my god which is now gone too but i used to right expect joe and i went there a hundred times i think yeah okay so when i was a kid i could literally just the most dangerous thing was crossing dundas street but i would cross the street and go to Plantation Bowl. And they had five pin and ten pin bowling. And they had all that crazy aquamarine tiling there.

You know, they would still have three goldfish left that hadn't died. And so whoever had the tile concession in the West End cleaned up at Cloverdale and the Plantation. Oh, I now realize I finally have someone on this show that might actually remember this place. I remember, yes, Plantation Bowl and Dundas, of course. But for a while, we would literally leave high school, me and a bunch of buds, and I think Joe was part of this gang, for part of it at least, and we would go down Islington to O'Connor Bowl.

Do you remember O'Connor Bowl on Islington? Islington and what? You know, it's probably where the townhouses are, like a little bit north of Norseman. Wow. I don't. Oh, yeah. You know what?

I think so, vaguely. Okay, because I know many an afternoon, like I'd leave Michael Power. I never had a car at high school, but somebody, Joe often. I know Joe an afternoon, like I'd leave Michael Power. I never had a car at high school, but somebody, Joe often. I know Joe had a car. That's why he was so popular. But I know it was the kids at the car in high school. Those were the popular kids.

But drive, just drive down Islington and we would bowl at O'Connor Bowl. Like during days, which was off peak hours, it was like 99 cents a game, I think, or something like that. It would not have had a lot of lanes though, right? I know, it was like 99 cents a game i think or something like that it would not have had a lot of lanes though right was i know it wasn't very it was definitely smaller it was not nearly as big as plantation bowl but it was it's a great little and again i believe that it's where all those townhouses popped up like maybe 20 years ago that took over but when i mean how long we're talking i guess uh early 90s i guess is my michael power years and it was open then so o'connor bowl i gotta find out more information about it i i vaguely remembered i don't think i ever bowled there believe it or not and uh but i do know that neighborhood because my

parents my grandfather had a confectionery business otten. And it, he started out across from the St. Lawrence center downtown. And when my dad moved it out to the West end, they had, they moved it to a, one of those sort of industrial little mini factories there on Six Points, I think. Okay. Not far from there. And I love, you know, if you nose around those streets, um, if, if you've got a Saturday afternoon and you want meat, fish, baked goods, uh, you know, bread, you'll find the best places. Dimplemeyer is still there. Dimplemeyer. Yeah.

Yeah. You're right. You're right. It's a, it's a real, I would, again, in shopping for my parents, I would make the rounds and, uh, grab a lot of stuff there. And Bun Master, I think is on Kipling. lot of stuff there. And Bun Master, I think, is on Kipling? Not too... Used to be, I think. I think it might be going now, but I used to get

cheese buns there or the cheese sticks. Man, you're bringing me back here. I think, shout out to Sweet Olenka. I feel like on Jutland or one of those, like you mentioned, those industrial streets that connect Islington to Kipling. They've got their... They're making all their delicious stuff there.

And I think Pizza Pizza has their university there. They do. In fact, when I was at the Sun, I was invited to come in, and they were involved in that show where the head of the company would go and disguise himself and then go on TV. What was it called? Undercover Boss. Undercover Boss. So they invited a few of us in the press to come in and make pizzas.

So I got to make a pizza at that pizza university. In fact, I have a little video of it up, I think, on my Instagram site or something. But it was a fun experience for sure. Well, my sweet little Michelle, who was, believe it or not, she was a beaver because at some point they allowed girls to be beavers.

And they once made pizzas at that Pizza Pizza University because I remember she made me a little pizza and it was the most delicious pizza I ever ate was the one little Michelle made for me. But okay, I digress here. And now she's almost 17 years old. See, time passes through the hourglass here. So Paul Hockyard, who actually chimed in in real time, he had previously sent me a note to say, tell them the story how in the mid-70s, a bunch of students from BCI, what do you know,

what is BCI? Bermthorpe Collegiate Institute. Oh, okay. I should know that. Okay. So a bunch of students from BCI supposedly swiped the big boy mascot from the restaurant at Cloverdale and put it on the roof of the school. So I think he was involved in that. I don't know what the statute of limitations are on these high crimes and

misdemeanors, but that's Paul Hockyard if the cops are looking for him. That's a great story. That is a great story. And Deb just wants to point out that Cloverdale Mall was her high school hangout when it was outdoors. And I'm glad you're on to

educate us kids about what it was like when Cloverdale was outdoors. What's Deb's last name? I've got to go back to, it was a tweet, so I've got to check if it was on Twitter. The BCI, I think that's where Catherine O'Hara went to school, and from Kids in the Hall, Dave Foley, you know, there was a few folks there for sure. That's, you know, it's funny because I love SCTV, and the only show I might love just as much might be Kids in the Hall, so you're hitting

my sweet spots there. All right. That's our Cloverdale Mall. Is there anything else that you got in the cranium there about Cloverdale you want to spill into the part two? That would prevent me from needing a part three. Something will pop up, but for now I think we've covered it. And putting Big Boy on top of that school

puts the cherry on the top. That's literally the cherry on the cake there. So if you were here, Bill, and you're not because you're in Brampton That school puts the cherry on the top. That's literally the cherry on the cake there. So if you were here, Bill, and you're not, because you're in Brampton and you're Zooming in because we're in a pandemic. I guess you heard about that out there, but I would be giving you some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery.

Ah, my misfortune, that's for sure. Great Lakes, yeah. Okay, I have to chime in once in a while when I see the real-time comments come in, because apparently, yes, Catherine O'Hara, but also Robin Duke went to BCI as well. Wow. Another,

she was at that night where they saluted the SCTV gang for sure. Yeah. You're just trying to, you're trying to rile me up is what you're trying to do. Robin Duke is one of the few people and O'Hara too briefly who worked for both Saturday Night Live and second city um i know martin short did because i still remember him doing ed grimley on yeah but but duke did both and uh i was a regular uh on saturday night live of course uh but uh was on the bench a lot for uh

the setv show and o'hara was hired. And then she bailed at the last minute and went back when SCTV got a final season in pay TV. I mentioned Michelle earlier because she made me that nice pizza when she was in Beavers. But she also, I got to blow her mind with that meme that was going around. I just said to her one day, like I said,

you know, I just thought for sure she'd know, but I just decided to go with it. And I said, you know, Michelle just, you know, I just thought for sure she'd know, but I just decided to go with it. And I said, you know, Michelle, I said, the mother from home alone is the mother from Schitt's Creek. And she honestly, it was like she hadn't, and she's seen both, you know, both properties quite a bit and she had no idea they were the same person. So at least I got to blow her mind with that one. When I went to, I mentioned Our Lady of Peace grade school, that's where the O'Haras all went.

And so I knew Catherine's younger brother, Michael, Mickey O'Bara, Michael O'Hara. He was a year older, but she was a few years older again. But they were a big, one of the big Catholic, Irish Catholic families who went to that school. Sure, absolutely so uh the beer i'd be giving you would be courtesy of great lakes and you would love it damn it because it's delicious and it's fresh and i would get you some palma pasta lasagna i'm hope i'm holding out hope that in december 2021 that maybe we can have like a tmlx like a holiday tmlx at palma pasta obviously too early to say for sure.

We'll keep our eyes on everything and the rules and regulations. But that would be amazing because if you could pop in, it would be great. You would get you some delicious, authentic Italian food from the Petrucci family at Palma. Well, that would be worth driving in for. Mike, you treated me to that the last time and I will happily testify it is delicious. Palma pasta is fantastic, and so I heartily recommend it and hope to have some more. And actually have bought some since being treated to you. It went down there a couple times. Well done.

Well done. That's great to hear, by the way. Thanks for sharing that. I should have recorded that. It was so good. Uh, that's great to hear, by the way. Thanks for sharing that. Uh, I should have recorded that. It was so good, but sticker you.com. If you ever do finally get those brio.tv stickers that you should be getting, uh, or decals, you go to sticker you.com. They're located in Liberty village, but if you buy it locally, I think Brampton might be close enough. Uh, Barry Witkin, who founded the,

uh, purple onion in Yorkville in the early 60s, there was a great coffee shop in Yorkville that had like, Joni Mitchell played there when she was Joni Anderson. Buffy St. Marie played there. David Crosby. Lightfoot? Gordon Lightfoot played there. Yes, you're right.

And the founder, one of the three founders, one of them is actually Mel Lastman's brother, Al Lastman. That's another fun fact. But one of them is a guy named Barry Witkin who just came on Toronto Mic'd. Barry Witkin's son is Andrew Witkin, founder of StickerU.com. So clearly this founding interesting Toronto institutions

is in the bloodlines there. So shout out to StickerU.com. I want to thank Mimico Mike. So I know you're in Brampton and we just talked quite a bit about real estate earlier in this program. But if anybody's looking to move to Mimico, looking to buy, end or sell in Mimico,

Mimico Mike is your man. Just want to dig up the, get the right URL here before I send you off to some. Yes. Okay. So you go to realestatelove.ca to learn more. His motto is in the know in Mimico. He's been ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. Mike Majeski, or Mimico Mike, if you will.

And thank you to Ridley Funeral Home. I got a great story to share. I know Joe's listening. So at some point when Joe's ready to talk about this, I'm going to have him share this story because sadly, a student at the school Joe works at, a five-year-old passed away suddenly. Like this is tragic.

And the family didn't have a lot of money. This is obviously trying time, losing a child. I can't imagine what that horrific state would be like. But the good people at Ridley Funeral Home stepped up, and there's a great story here. We talked to Doug Jones at Ridley Funeral Home, and just what happened out of that is kind of amazing. So at some point, I'll share that story,

but just know that the people at Ridley Funeral Home, they're pillars of the community. They're at 14th Street and Lakeshore in New Toronto here. Joe just chimed in in real time. I see he said they were amazing. So at some point, Joe, when you're ready, we'll share more details with the FOTM. So here I am talking to Joe as I talk to Bill Brio

because that's how we're rolling here. And last but not least, if anyone listening is looking to outsource their IT department, Barb Paluskiewicz is the CEO of CDN Technologies, and you can reach her, barb, at cdntechnologies.com. Now, Bill, I wanted to talk to you about somebody else really quickly here, and I have a song loaded up for this. So let's listen for a few seconds to this jam. All right. She packed my bags last night, pre-flight. Happy birthday.

Right. Zero hour. I don't know if you can call this singing. This is not really singing. It's more like talking. And I'm going to be high as a kite. Bye then. I'll bring it down

and maybe I'll bring it back later, but of course you said happy birthday. Yeah, the great William Shatner is 90 years old today and that's on his early albums tambourine mr tambourine man or whatever he um was greatly you know justifiably ridiculed for those early records he did an album though um in the early uh 2000s uh called has been called Has Been. And I have to say, it is shockingly good. Like, you would not know it from what you're just playing.

Rocket Man. Yeah, like, it was original songs, and it was all... Oh, my goodness. He got together with this singer who produced it. I'm trying to remember who it was now but they just did a great great job um and uh i interviewed him at the time that that came out 2003 or 4 and the song has been it's from the point of view of um reviewers like siskel and ebert who would you you know, criticize movies that

Shatner and others would make. And the lyrics are very biting about thumbs up, thumbs down, and that's all you can do, and all this kind of stuff. And I was a phoner with Shatner, and I said, you know, I gotta tell you, that's gotta be the greatest F.U. to guys who cover

entertainment like me that I've ever heard. And Shatner heard into the phone, everyone but you, Bill. Have you ever met him in the flesh? Oh, yeah. In fact, if you go to Brio.TV today, the post that's up is a happy birthday to Shatner. And I just wrote a few memories of interviewing him several times over the years. He's been in Toronto the last five years. He did two episodes of Murdoch Mysteries.

One of them he played Mark Twain. He did two episodes of Jason Priestley's series, Private Eyes. And I interviewed him on the set of both. And he's a prickly interview like he doesn't suffer fools but he can also be adorable like i've always had a good experience talking to him i was never a star trek fan when i was a kid i thought it was just guys running around in pajamas i was more into lost Lost in Space. So I think that helps because I don't bug him with a lot of Star Trek questions.

But I have a great deal of admiration for anybody 90. And he's got a movie coming out Friday called Senior Moment. And he told me about it four years ago when I interviewed him. And so it's been a while to hit the screen. But it sounds kind of fun it's an old retired astronaut he gets pulled over and has his driver's license he's speeding in his Porsche and um you know he he isn't able to drive so basically um when I was talking to him I told him about my dad, who's since passed away. But when my dad turned 90, he had his license sort of pulled away from him as well.

And Shatner literally asked me for a pencil. He wanted to write down everything I could remember about what my dad said about that. Wow. So it's an interesting guy. I always, if I have an opportunity to talk to him, then my God, he's 90. But he's still at it. He's still doing stuff. And that movie opens on Friday.

It's funny. I only learned that this movie, Senior Moment, exists, I think maybe it was a tweet from you today, maybe about the 90th birthday. I think that's where I learned about Senior Moment, which is funny because literally this week, I'm launching a new podcast for Peter Gross in which he targets senior citizens. And the podcast that we're launching is called Seniors Moment.

Perfect. Yeah, I guess. At first, I was like, oh, that'll be confusing maybe. I don't know. But it was... Two guys forgetting their stories, probably. Right. So Seniors Moment.

And if the eager beavers want to search their podcatcher for Seniors Moment with Peter Gross, you might be able to subscribe right now. I don't know if I've said too much. I don't know. I have a note from Lieve Fumke, who's a great FOTM. And I don't understand the note, but you're going to explain it to me. She writes, tell him to reconsider the communist daughter. Tell me about what I'm talking about here.

Oh my goodness. You know, now and then I'll write something and it'll strike a nerve with people in the creative community. And they're very loyal bunch. So they don't like it. If you say, if there's a discouraging

word but there's a new um comedy series it's on cbc gem and it's called the communist daughter and it's set in 1989 so the berlin wall has come down and it's about a family where um they these and they're scottish folks One of the Air Force regulars is Jennifer Holmes as the mother. But basically they're Jessica Holmes. Jessica Holmes. Thank you so much. So talk about seniors moment. That's what I'm here for, Bill. But anyway,

the idea is that this poor girl, she's 15 at high school. It's 1989. And her pinko family is just a source of great embarrassment. And hilarity ensues. And the young Cameron, who is the young lady who is the creator of the show um she has spent a couple years developing this idea it started as a web series and now it's on cbc gem look for it there and um so i reviewed it on friday and said yeah you know great idea but it's i wish it was funnier and i and i preface

it by saying look people don't think letterkenny is funny or Schitt's Creek. Comedy is objective, and it's hard to be definitive. But for me, I wish it was broader and funnier, and that's as damning as it got. But you'd think I had said that it should be banished to Siberia. But no, please check it out. I applaud anybody who can make a TV, anything it's hard work. And, uh, I hope that this grows into something great and is around for a long time.

Well, I'm just excited to hear that there's some passion in the belly for people regarding a CBC gem show, because I am, I watch a lot of CBC gem and I, I hate this is going to sound ridiculous, but there are a lot of gems on CBC Gem. Yeah, yeah. Like, I mean, there's a little series called On the Record. Have you seen this?

Yeah. So, like, little things like that I'll stumble upon on CBC Gem, and I'll be like, this is, like, charming AF. Like, this is fantastic. I really enjoy it On the Record, and there's a bunch of others. There's one that's, like, it's a mock variety show, kind of like, and this is sort of like you're seeing like episodes through the decades of this mock,

like it's a pretend variety show and it's fantastic. I just can't remember the freaking name of it, but I can't. I don't know that one. Yeah, but there's just so much good stuff on CBC Gem and nobody talks about CBC Gem. Well, it's because we're overwhelmed by WandaVision and

The Mandalorian and all these other things. Oh, and WandaVision, if I may, you saw, did you see all the episodes of WandaVision? I did not. No, I still have some to see, but Okay, well, do yourself a favor. So I loved WandaVision when it was sending up the old TV shows. Me too. Yeah, so I actually

loved it. I think the first episode was I Love love lucy or something right and then uh i want to say brady bunch was second or third i got i can't remember what bewitched and there's a brady bunch one and there was like a family ties one okay anyway loved it when that's what the show was but then it turned into another boring marvel thing where people just like fight and and i kind of completely like got bored of the whole thing it just turned into another marvel movie well that's what i saw happening and so i haven't finished it and maybe for that reason i love the early episodes as well but uh you know if you're a marvel fan you probably feel just the opposite that you had to sit through three episodes for it to get going i know it's funny because once it got going and it

was like you know and it's always i find them all the same like these two in like these two superpowers neither can be defeated and they will now fight each other and it's just like you know what i mean it's like okay like yeah you know like tell me when it gets back to like satirizing uh i love lucy or something like that yeah no i i thought it was fun the performances were great there's another cbc gem show i would point people to called decoys i don't know if you saw that and it's uh i think seven episodes and it's literally was uh this guy out in winnipeg i think who made it can't remember his his name, but it's about, it's almost like Best in Show, except all the contestants are people who carve wooden duck decoys.

Oh, cool. It's the most Canadian, low-key little show. But it's not, it's like The Communist Daughter in that it's sort of a fish out of water tale. It's a lot of great talented people that are performing it. I just like decoys better. I thought the overall tone of that. I actually was very invested in and cared about who was going to win the decoy contest. I thought that one did a great job.

I'm going to check it out for sure. Do you have the inside scoop and maybe it's public knowledge and you just read it in the the publications or something but what what's why the hell is kim's convenience uh not getting like a proper farewell like why is it just done yeah you know it's a very simple story people want to see a lot of uh something nefarious and happening. And it's because they were given a sixth season. CBC ordered two more, five and six. And very rarely does anything end early under those circumstances. If you, why get off the gravy train while the gravy train is still rolling?

The, uh, the guy ends Choi who, who created this, the play. And then, uh, the series co-created the show um in his mind it was just five seasons and when they got to the end of the fifth he literally said look guys i'm done uh i literally have this is the story and i i don't want to milk it or water it down or drag it out so that was the story that was released and that is the story and they didn't in some instances a show would say okay step aside we're bringing in uh bullock and brio now to rewrite the next season and uh thanks for everything but no because it was this very personal story about a korean family in canada who were running a convenience store.

And it was so authentic, that voice and the tone and all the actors involved that they were just, that was sacred. They weren't going to carry it on in anyone else's hands. And that is why it is ending in the first week of April. But maybe there's some kind of a movie to wrap things up. I don't know how it ends because I don't think any of us have seen season five yet but uh i'm told there are you know like certain storylines father and son storylines that need some kind of a conclusion before we say goodbye to these people well one of the actors who's playing this the son um who's going on to do dc comics and marvel i think yeah yeah marvel right um he tweeted that out like he was very disappointed he wanted to resolve this fractured relationship between

father and son right but that was never in us's idea like this is in us's story and uh it it's based on his relationship with his dad. And it wasn't a happy ending in season six. And so he wasn't going to write one. It's fine for one of the actors to wish for that. And you're right. In many instances, a network would absolutely want to do a TV movie. And who knows? Maybe someday they do, but not now.

And that's a decision that really rested with the creator of the show. And look, you know, Carl Reiner wanted to end the Dick Van Dyke show after five seasons. They could have gone on for, if they'd gone to color, they could have made seasons. CBS wanted them to do season six and seven in color. No, they were done. Five was it.

They didn't want to water it down. So you have to respect the people who make the show, and that's what happened here. No, absolutely. Good point. I'm just looking for the schools out equivalent, okay? Because, you know, we had schools out as the TV movie that kind of brought us up to speed

with the Degrassi junior high and Degrassi high characters. And I mean, in certain circles, and maybe my circle, that show is still referenced on the daily, okay? School's out. That's where Caitlin called out Joey for, can I swear in front of you, Bill Brio? Can I swear? Yeah, please.

Fucking Tessa Campanelli. That was the big one. I think a couple of F-bombs got dropped on CBC that night. Well, he had it coming. Alright, so Bill, just before we say goodbye, and I've thoroughly enjoyed this, I want to... Me too.

This is a very big, open, broad stroke here, but I am serious when I say I never know what to watch. Right now, I'm watching March Madness, actually, so that's kind of bailed me out, but that's what I've been watching the last few nights and I'll be watching that tonight. But you know, if I'm with March Madness,

I only love the first four nights. Okay. The first four days of March Madness, I love. And then I start to lose interest as they get down to 16 and elite eight and final four. I really like it when you have these Cinderella stories that kind of pop up in early days. Do you have any teams left in your bracket?

Oh, I didn't even know. See, my wife did a bracket. My kids did a bracket. I didn't do a bracket this year because I actually realized I just like to watch underdogs win and I like them to win with like buzzer beaters. That's all I'm looking for.

So you're enjoying this. Yes. Oh, I'm enjoying it. Yeah, there's been some good ones. Okay, so tell me, Bill, what are some shows out there that you think I would love? Like, I'll keep it that broad.

Maybe just recommend a few programs. And I'll let you know if I've seen them or whatever, but I'd love to maybe recommend to the FOTM some gems that are out there. You know, it's funny. When I'm put on the spot, I almost draw a blank, right? I think that certain shows lately, you know it's funny you know when i'm put on the spot it's i've almost draw a blank right i think

that um certain shows um lately uh i watched hbo's four-part uh documentary on woody allen allen versus pharaoh pharaoh versus allen i saw it uh yeah so it's fascinating in that um it's a one-sided story yes very much representing pharaoh and her um offspring uh but boy it was a fascinating documentary in terms of making an argument i found myself very drawn into it and um really not very sympathetic to alan as a result but very sympathetic to Alan as a result, but because they don't have his side and they sort of captured his side in a bit of a sneaky way. It does sort of cut some of the power from that. I think,

I think it's a compelling, interesting production. I don't think it is a great, you know, objective documentary. Like it really does feel like a one-side production that's uh and i found it compelling though like yourself i really i did enjoy watching it but i'm not sure it's a great it's great evidence of uh you know a good documentary yeah no it's uh it's

a different thing you're right than just a straight-ahead documentary. But it was, yeah, that's what I certainly watched right to the end. And thinking I'll just watch the first, but getting very drawn into it. You know, and so beyond that, you know, there's all kinds of things right now, depending on what service you have to watch them on, right? Like it's hard to... What's your favorite service? Like if money was no object and they all cost the same amount,

like what's your favorite service? Do you have a preference? I kind of like Crave because Crave gives you HBO and HBO and Starz and Showtime. HBO and, uh, HBO and stars and, uh, Showtime. Uh, there's a lot of great, um, uh, comedy, uh, docs and specials there. Um, so that's what I really like. There's, um, and also Amazon it's, it's pretty deep. There's a lot of oldie stuff there. Like you can watch old episodes of just about anything, you know, laughing, you know, like it's got old episodes of just about anything you know laughing

you know like it's got a lot of crazy nooks and crannies to it uh so those two are good uh disney of course is coming on with all kinds of things yeah sure but the only thing i think i've ever watched on disney i know that my kids like it i have a how old is she now i have a five-year-old and a almost seven-year-old and they they quite like the Disney for the Disney stuff. But I personally, I think the only thing I've ever watched was that WandaVision. That's the only Disney thing I think I ever watched. The Mandalorian, I think, is pretty good.

It reminds me of the original Star Wars film. And they also have a new S.T.A.R.S. offshoot from it that has more FX programming, more adult than the usual Disney. So that might appeal to you. There's a documentary that it's on Nat Geo, a genius. They do a series where they look at different people. They're doing Aretha Franklin. It just started Sunday and it's very good.

Cynthia Erivo is playing Are franklin and she's fantastic um and a great singer so that that's certainly one to look for but you know it's just so vast it's hard um i'll flip around and just get stuck watching um you know real time with bill maher right now is something that i never miss every friday i just think he's one of the smartest guys on tv and calls it and says it and stirs things up and uh i find that show fascinating um so yeah i mean those are sort of the things i'm watching but well i'll recommend a couple of things to you since this is a two-way street here Bill so I recently on my daughter's urging she said dad you're gonna love this and I decided to watch it it's called we are who we are and it's an HBO series and honestly blew me

away like I absolutely love this thing it's by the guy who directed call me by your name did you ever catch call me by your name which was a movie from a few years ago which i also quite enjoyed and so i'm here to recommend that on hbo we are who we are and uh another hbo series also my daughter told me i would like and it turned out she was right once again it's called euphoria and that one's i guess that's might be even like maybe two years old but they have a couple of episodes they did during the pandemic to tide you over I suppose and those are good too so euphoria there's a full season then a couple of like pandemic tied me over many episodes or whatever and uh it was excellent another one I'll mention it's a great series, Louder Milk.

It's not brand new, but if people have seen it, it's been three seasons now. It's quirky. It's shot in Vancouver. Will Sasso plays one of the main leads. He's fantastic in it, and it's about a group of recovering alcoholics and their little support group.

I just think it's very funny. I think it's the farley brothers who are behind that one it's great it's the guy from office space too it's uh the guy stars in it is ron livingston i think his name is yeah he's very good and uh there's a lot of canadian talent some stand-up comedians play some of the guys in the group and um yeah it's just uh uh well written well acted well performed show and i hope it goes for four seasons and more well bill i hope your podcast goes for four seasons and more well i'll never catch up to 800 how many episodes this is 821 my goodness that's incredible congratulations and it's your third episode. I didn't even mention that we

counted down your favorite TV theme songs. That was the day The Power got cut and then we had to finish it on... Who would have thought? We finished it on... It wasn't Zoom, it was Skype. I think we finished it on Skype. And who would have thought that the next time we got together, it would be all done via Zoom.

Yeah, that was a lot of fun kicking out the TV jams. I loved it. I loved it. Yeah, it was fun. So we got to do this again at some point, but thank you for coming in and filling in those Cloverdale Mall cracks and then just shooting the breeze on some TV stuff. We really need that SCTV documentary or reunion. We need to get that out in the wild so we can consume it.

Absolutely. Fingers crossed. See if you can call some of those contacts you have in L.A. and see if we can make that happen. I'll get Marty on the phone and just see what's going on. Michael, tell him you're anxious, you want to know, and let's see what we can do. And that brings us to the end of our 821st show.

You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Bill, are you at Bill Brio? What is your Twitter handle? Yeah, on Twitter, Bill Brio TV. And please, yeah, follow along there. And even if you are angry about my review of The Communist Daughter, please let me know.

The people who are angry at what you say are the people who love you the most, I think. Well, that's one way of looking at it. But it's great to get input and, you know, certainly any kind of engagement, right? That's what we're all trying to do. Absolutely. Indifference is our enemy. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is our enemy. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies.

Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. And Mimico Mike, he's not on Twitter. He's on Instagram at Majeski Group Homes. See you all next week. Yeah, the wind is cold with the smell of snow group homes. See you all next week. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome

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