Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jason Priestley: Toronto Mike'd #1369

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

In this 1369th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Jason Priestley about his role as Gerry McNamara in Börje - The Journey of a Legend, Harold Ballard, Barenaked Ladies, Beverly Hills 90210, Call Me Fitz, Private Eyes, and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Electronic Products Recycling Association, Raymond James Canada and Moneris. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 So, VK on the beat, check. I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love.

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hosted by FOTM Al Grego, and Redley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto Mike debut, is Jason Priestley. Jason Priestley, welcome to Toronto Mike. Thanks, Toronto Mike. Nice to be here.

You can call me Toronto. I think that's the ultimate sign of respect. So first name Toronto, last name Mike? Yeah, that works for me. How do you feel about that? It's fantastic.

Speaking of Toronto, here's where I want to begin because the last two Jason Priestley things that I've consumed revolved around my Toronto Maple Leafs. Right. So I just watched, and I'm going to be very honest with everybody. I just watched the series, Bourdieu, Journey of a Legend, which you're in, and we're going

to talk about that off the top. But I just watched it. Like I got a screener link and I could watch it like top secret. I loved it. Oh, thanks. Don't act so surprised, Jason. It very good okay very good you play jerry mcnamara uh that'll lend itself some questions but i watched it i loved it but the thing i consumed prior to that that was a jason priestly thing was the harold ballard documentary i watched

on cbc gem so that's like almost back-to-back leaf things. It's true. And I don't know how that happened. It wasn't like I had a big master plan that at this point in my career, I was going to start focusing projects on the Toronto maple leaves. But it's just the way it worked out.

Now, you're from Vancouver. So I'm guessing, cause I know you're a hockey fan. I got questions about that too from listeners, but didn't you grow up, you're Canucks fan, right? Oh yeah.

Yeah, of course. I grew up being a Canucks fan. Um, and I love, I love my Vancouver Canucks, but I also, you know,

I spent a lot of time in Toronto. So I'm, so I've become a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. I mean, I live in New York and I was a New York Rangers fan. And I live in Nashville, so I'm a Preds fan. I got problems, basically. No loyalty from you. Well, yes, because at the end of the day, the Vancouver Canucks are my, you know, that's where I was born,

right? So they're my ultimate home team, but I've sort of discovered some other home teams that I could have in my life. How long have you lived in Nashville? I've been here about two and a half years. Okay. Is it as cool as it looks?

It just looks like a cool place to live. It is as cool as it looks. It's really awesome living here. We love it. My kids are super happy, which is the most important thing. Do you call it Smashville? Only when we're down at Bridgestone Arena. Alright,

so a couple of questions came in and then I'm going to dig in here. I will tell people, because I was telling people I saw, because we're very interested in Toronto about this series about Borea Salmi. of course there's great interest here and then people like mike how did you see it like how do i see it and i've been telling people so i'm going to just say this off the top which is it's streaming on via play and you can get via play this is a scandinavian streaming service and if you go uh I think it's $6.99 a month,

you can get Via Play at ViaPlay.com. So Via is just like V-I-A. They say Via Play. I would have said Via Play, but I'm Canadian. What do I know? But you can find this at ViaPlay.com. You can get it $6.99 a month. The series, it's great. Like straight up,

I absolutely loved it. Everyone would always say, boy, I won't scare you to nothing. Sometimes I'd have to yell at him. Why you gotta be so goddamn stubborn? That's how I was made, Smokey, it's a.

Oh, big time. Dette er en av de fleste filmene jeg har sett. Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det. Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det. Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det. Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det. Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det. Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det. Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det. Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det. Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det. Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det.

Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det. Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det. Jeg har ikke sett noen som har gjort det. And Kevin Hart will be the next to take the crown. The world is his own. You'll be safe. Mr. Solming, my name is Terry McNamara. I'm a scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Would you be interested in coming to Canada to play hockey in the NHL? I turn the stereo on

And every sound Predicting your face The time is speeding up strong But it ain't coming on Sonic, close the gap! The problem is he can't understand what his coach or his teammates are saying to him. He didn't factor in language

when you were convincing us that this guy might be worth fighting. So is everyone here married to one of the players? It's like a cult, except instead of drinking blood, we all eat Yorkshire pie. This is the reason we've been kicked out of the quarterfinals three years in a row. We don't have enough players who are willing to get their hands dirty. Salma getting into it with one of the toughest players in the NHL We're both working class self-made men and we know the value of loyalty

this game deals in blood okay that's the gig that's why it got huge pay with it you get paid with it just the way it is How are you? I'm good. Take my gown. I'm doing this for you too. I just want you to be well. I'm not going to play any role if you don't come with me. I'm asking in dark, do my light and my spark.

I'm in heaven, why my groceries arise? To cure your sighs. Borea, is it true you had a meeting with the league's upper management? What can you tell us about your punishment? You here to learn how to cut skates? Or are you going to tell me what's wrong? Borea Solving has quickly become a fan favorite in Hogtown. It's power. It's about power.

It hasn't got a single ounce of hockey in it. I'm going to go out there, I'm going to put the work in, and I'm going to get the job done. As should you. Winter's getting cold You're hunting your ground And you're gathering your pound Or you break your bones For a piece of gold Won't you tell me Let me tell you something about Boreas,

I mean, no matter the odds, that guy, he never gave up, and I mean never. I guess I want to find out, before I get back to Boreorea journey of a legend. What made you interested in the Harold Ballard doc? I personally have been fascinated by all the Harold Ballard stories I can consume. But what made you, a Vancouver guy, interested in Harold?

Well, I mean, Harold was such a figure and dominated the front page of not only of the Toronto Star, but of papers all across the country for years. And so I was very familiar with who Harold Ballard was and the sort of very controversial figure that he was. And so when me and a couple other guys were trying to put together a scripted, fictionalized version of Harold's life, and the idea to do a full-length, deep-dive documentary sort of came out of that and uh and we discovered that no one had ever done anything uh on him like that so we decided that that as part of our research for the for the other project we would uh we would try to uh do a documentary and we went in and we pitched it to the cb and they bought it in the room because they were obviously hockey fans too.

And so we went and made it. It took us about a year to put it together, but I think the final product's pretty good. It's unbelievable that there was nothing quite like that out there because if you talk, you know, we have younger kids. I talk to my 21-year-old, my 19-year 19 year old and i tell them about this character we grew up with who just existed in our world around us it sounds like we're making it up right like yeah i mean i mean the whole thing seems like it like you know if you put that in a script no one will believe it

you know this this crazy mercurial owner of a professional sports franchise that moves into the arena that they play in because he never wants to be away from his team, like the whole thing. And he left his house in the West End. So he stole, he stole all this money from the Toronto Maple Leafs to remodel that house in the West End. He gets caught. He goes to jail.

When he gets out of jail, he doesn't go back to the house that he went to jail for stealing all the money to renovate. He moves into the Maple Leaf Gardens. The whole thing, it was just crazy. You've got to win. That's the only thing I know.

The Toronto Maple Leafs won in 1967. But since then, there's been no show for Harold and his boys. I have to sit through an entire winter of this garbage with the Maple Leafs. This team is never going to get any better. He didn't play by the rules. You crossed him, you paid the price. You sure that fat guy upstairs?

If Harold Ballard existed in 2022, he would have been cancelled. Why don't you like Harold Ballard? Because of what he had to say about women. You want to get offended at that? It's stupid. All he cared about was having people in his seats and making money. Harold needs me. When I first signed my first contract, Harold was in jail at that time. A lot of people think you're the problem here. Get out of here.

This was him. You're unrepentant. Totally unrepentant totally unrepentant absolutely oh man but yeah so great job on that that's on cbc gem so to walk me through it like like how did you get the gig in the boria series which is not a documentary it's fictionalized but are they like hey this guy seems to know leaf stuff let's get him to play jerry mcname no i i don't think it was not it was nothing like that because we were still working on the on the ballard doc when i uh when they approached me about playing jerry i think i i i think that they wanted someone uh someone canadian who could also who would also have an international presence as well. And I mean, there's Bill Shatner and there's me, probably. And Ryan Reynolds.

Like, that's it, right? Right. And Bill and Ryan weren't available. So it came down to me. Well, you did a great job. I'll say you did a great job in this series. And again, basically see it. Like if you're a Leaf fan

or if you have even a mild interest in Borges Salmin, I just love it when TV shows or movies, they recreate the 70s and 80s. Like that sort of like gets me every time. And there's such a great job. You get that feel down, you know, the browns and the other shades of browns. And the plaids and the shag carpeting and all of it.

And the guy who plays Borea is one of the Skarsgård. Like they're like the Swedish, you know, one of the big acting families. And I can't keep track of them all, but they're all amazing. They are. And Walter is no different. He is super talented, really nice kid,

just really starting out in his career. I think he's got a big future ahead of him. He's tall. He's like all the stars. It's almost annoying, right? Yeah. It's Nordic. Another good-looking Swede.

Move on. Like I was happy to see, uh, so FOTM means friend of Toronto Mike, Jason, you're now an FOTM. All right, cool.

That's cool. Awesome. Along with him. Well, I'm working on like t-shirts or something, but, uh, fellow FOTM is Jim McKinney.

And yeah, sure. There he's, there's a character, there's an actor playing Jim McKinney, Howie, you know, who played alongside Borea. But I noticed a cameo for Jim in this series. You get to see Jim McKinney doing play-by-play.

That's right. That's right. There's a cameo by him. There's a cameo by Daryl Sittler, by Lanny McDonald, Tiger Williams. Yeah, the director of Amir, did a great job. Oh, and Jerry McNamara. He has a cameo too.

There's a question for you on that. I'm glad you sent it out. So I'm going to burn through a couple of hockey things that lead up to it. One is that Philip wrote in when he heard you were coming on Toronto, Mike, to know, A, he wants to know, do you still play hockey frequently? And if so, who do you play with and what position do you play uh i don't play hockey uh very frequently at all these days um which which i'm sad about but i'm just i'm on the road all the time and i'm working all the time and it's just too hard um but i played left wing

and center when i played okay matthew wrote in and said, do you follow the Maple Leafs? And this is a real question that came in for you, Jason Priestley. Will William Nylander re-sign with the Maple Leafs? Oh boy. That's the million dollar question, isn't it? Well, I think it's like

a $13 million question. Yeah, copy that. Yeah, I do follow the Leafs. I was actually last week in Stockholm. I was there in the Toronto Maple Leafs. I got to go to the Toronto Maple Leafs-Detroit Red Wings game, which was super cool. Yeah, do I think Nylander is going to re-sign?

I think, look, I think he probably wants to because he plays with a bunch of great players on that team that make him, that give him the opportunities to be as good as he is. But Toronto's going to have to back up the brakes truck. Yeah, I say pay the man. Let's do it. You know, of course, 100% pay the man. What was that like in Stockholm? I was following it from here in Toronto, but just even the hockey game seemed almost scripted in how well William Nylander played in front of his home crowd. And I loved following a lot of hockey writers

have been on the program and I follow them on Twitter and just seeing Borea's wife there and the family and the tie-in with your excellent series what was it like being there yeah it was it was cool i thought that um i thought you know i thought the nhl you know did a great job um playing the games over there and and the the presence that they had in stockholm was uh uh it was it palpable. Like it was, they were all over the city, which was, you know, it was the NHL series. And then it was the Borea mini series. And, uh, and those, those were the big, the big ticket items, uh, last week in Stockholm. It was,

it was really kind of cool to see. You can't buy that kind of publicity. You know that, right? No, that's right. Well, you could, I betman would probably sell it to you but you probably don't have that budget hey everything's for sale so i hear so i hear okay coming back to jerry mcnamara because uh some people might not know the man is still with us and he's still sharp but craig m writes in and says i understand jason is playing Jerry McNamara in an upcoming movie. I'm here to correct Craig and say it's not a movie. It's a series. And it's called Borea Journey of a Legend. And it's on Viaplay. Go to Viaplay.com. It's like $6.99 a month. And there's a lot of other cool stuff there. But I would get it for the Borea series. Okay. But back to Craig M he says, I'd like to know what went into that.

And if Jason was able to spend much time with Jerry, Jerry at 89 years of age is still incredibly sharp. Did you meet Jerry? He is. I did. I, well, Jerry was one of the, the interviewees that I had come in to talk about Ballard for my Ballard doc. So I got to spend a day with Jerry um while we were doing that uh and and uh and I'm you know and I'd interviewed the guy like I you know and so when they sent me this miniseries and said you want to play

uh Jerry McNamara, I figured who's better to do it than me? Because I've already done a bunch of my research on the guy. Imagine you didn't get the gig. Well, I mean, the biggest thing was that I don't look anything

like Jerry McNamara. So, you know, contacts and hair and, you know, I was in the makeup chair for an hour and a half, two hours every morning. It was quite a journey to get me there. Yeah, but they already had an actor to play Jim McKinney. So they said, oh, you might as well take Jerry. That's right. All right. Before I, I'm dying to get to a Toronto band that you had some interaction with because this band is a big deal in the TMU. That's the Toronto Mike's universe.

But Scott Bannister wants to know, when you did that documentary about Harold Ballard, we talked about earlier, were you able to get any Dave Keon quotes, any Keon quotes at all for that? Uh, no, no,

Dave, Dave wasn't one of the guys that we talked to. Yeah. He's been a little, uh, it's been a tough go. I think Keon's still a little bitter about some things, but he did,

he is showing up at, uh, ceremonies now, but for a long time, you wouldn't touch any, any Maple Leaf. Right. All right.

Tongue in my cheek. When I congratulate you, uh, well, I'll take the tongue out of my't touch any maple leaf. Right. All right. Tongue in my cheek when I congratulate you. Well, I'll take the tongue out of my cheek. What the hell, right? Why do I have to have my tongue in my cheek? But you did get nominated. I just want to shout you out for getting nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Supporting Role

in a Television Series for Sister Kate. And I want you to know, I actually watched an episode of Sister Kate when I was prepping to chat with Jason Priestley. So congrats on your Young Artist Award nomination. Yeah, I was really heartbroken when I didn't take on that trophy. That's early days for you, though.

That's early days for you. That was early days. That was my first uh tv series in america that was when we shot that show in uh in 1989 um myself and stephanie beecham and a bunch of little kids it was uh i mean you watched the episode what do you think of it it's uh like you know a comfort you know it's like eating craft dinner with hot dogs in it or something you know like not good for you, but it's comfortable. You don't want to have a strict diet of Sister Kate,

but I didn't think, oh, I have to bail on this. I was fascinated by it. I don't remember Sister Kate. Hey, Todd. Yeah. Have you seen the girl naked? Huh? Where? I don't mean now. I mean ever. Oh.

Once I saw Father Thomas standing in a driveway wearing just a shower cap. So? What are you asking for anyway? Well, I just thought you could give me some suggestions on how to get a girl to take her clothes off. And what are you going to do if she does? I'm going to draw her. Huh? See, it says here in this book that capturing the nude female figure is one of the most difficult yet rewarding challenges for any artist.

Yeah, tell me about it. The thing is, how do you tell a girl you want to see them naked but convince them it's for a good cause. You can't. And believe me, I've tried. No, not many people do. We were on on Sunday night against 60 Minutes,

and nobody was watching. Just so you know, 15-year-old Mike, I don't think he was watching 60 Minutes either, but who knows what I was watching. But there is another show I just was watching this episode called A Piece of Cake. It was an Airwolf episode. The sins of a gangster father are visited on the sun on the next all-new Airwolf, next Friday at 7. Oh, right.

Yeah, that was from like the mid-80s. on the next all-new Airwolf next Friday at 7. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah, that was from like the mid-80s. That was a long time ago. Before we get to some more recent fare, and I will just tell the listeners that they're used to these, like, I think I've groomed the Toronto Mike listeners to, when

someone comes on, we'll see you in 90 minutes, okay? So I just want to let everyone know, Jason's a very busy man doing lots of stuff on, we'll see in 90 minutes. Okay. So I just want to let everyone know, uh, Jason's a very busy man doing lots of stuff. So this won't be 90 minutes, but so maybe I'll get there right now. I just talked myself into going there right now. I kind of need the detail here. This is very important to me, Jason, you, again, we talked about this. You're like a British Columbia guy, but you're in L.A. doing stuff. Everybody knows you got the role of Brandon Walsh on 90210. I could probably spend, you know, 90 minutes talking to you about that.

But I want to know, like, when did you discover music from Barenaked Ladies? I got introduced to Barenaked Ladies, a friend of mine who I went to high school that I graduated from high school with he was living in Chicago he still lives in Chicago trading on the on the Chicago mercantile exchange and I was I was going through Chicago for some reason. And so I reached out to him and I was like, hey, dude, I'm coming into town. Let's get together. So I went over to his apartment where he was living and he was playing Bare Naked Ladies.

And he gave me a CD of Gordon, of their, I guess it was their first or second album. That's their first studio release. Their first studio album, right. There was the mixtape before that. And then that was their first studio record. Um, yeah. And he, and I was like, dude, who's this? He was like, you don't know. That's very naked ladies. But of course I'd been living in America and there's no way I would have known. So he, he gave me the CD the cd and I I listened to it all you know wore that thing out if you could still do that and um and I really just fell in love with

the band and then and then they they were coming to LA to play in LA and I went to go see them and uh and then I you know we I got backstage and you know I started hanging out with the guys and um and then every time they came to LA I wouldA., they would call me and we'd get together and have dinner and have laughs. And then sort of the idea to make this documentary. The documentary came out of all those kind of experiences, but the documentary was supposed to be different. The documentary was going to be, it was sort of the way that I pitched it to them and to everybody else. I said,

here's a Canadian band that in Canada sells out the Maple Leaf Gardens and sells out the Pacific Coliseum, sells out all over the country. And they're playing in, you know, big arenas and it's a big show. And then when they, the minute they go South of Buffalo, they're playing in you know big arenas and it's a big show and then when they the minute they go south of buffalo they're you know they're playing in bars and there's four people

there like what's that like and and and i wanted to show that juxtaposition because i thought there would be a lot of comedy to come out of that and of course while the year that I'm setting up that to shoot the documentary, uh, bare naked ladies go and record stunt. And of course, stunt comes out and one week becomes the number one single on the planet, I think. And all of a sudden everything changed and the whole, the whole trajectory of the documentary totally changed. That's amazing, Jason. That's amazing, Jason. That's amazing because I like the idea for that first documentary, but that's all blowing

up when you go to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. This tiny Canadian band you never heard of has now got the number one song in America. Yeah, it was crazy. Needless to say, it all came crashing down after that, but then came crashing down after that.

But then, you know, but then, you know, there were some other things that, you know, all of a sudden Kevin got sick. And, you know, we spent a lot of time talking about that. And but, you know, it's it was that that original idea that I had, I kind of there's a little bit of me that wishes I had the opportunity to shoot that. And that was, of course, this is a bare naked in America is the name of this, this thing. And I, you know, you could have taken the idea that you had for the original bare naked lady documentary that when they hit number one and you had to kind of change it, you could have made that doc.

I think you could have made that documentary about the tragically hip. Yeah, that's, that's true. Like the hip never broke through in America in a major way, which is a tragedy. They're a great band. They're all super talented. I don't know why their music didn't translate

south of the 49th parallel. I don't know either, except I'd argue, I think everybody would agree, that Tragically Hit much bigger than Barenaked Ladies in Canada, and, you know, subsequently, of course, yeah, never did seem to strike a big...

But back to Barenaked Ladies, of course, you know, I'm taking all my time now, I have Barenaked Ladies, but the... Just a couple of specific things, and I think I have them in the right order but you direct the video for the old apartment yeah so is that simply you go to the guys and say you want it you're interested in directing how about i direct a video is it that simple uh well no i was i was already directing a lot of things i was directing you know

multiple episodes of beverly hills 9 to 210 every but, but one, one of those nights that I was in LA with the band, um, we were all having dinner. They were complaining about, you know, the amount of money they're having to spend on these videos and the videos don't turn out very well and they don't get any traction and they can't get any airplay in uh in america so i said to them i said i said i'll tell you what guys i'll come to toronto i'll direct your next video i'll you you'll you'll get you'll get a lot of bang for your buck but i said i'll also walk it into um mtv and bh1 in new york and and do my best to get you guys some airplay in America. And they said, deal, done. So I went to Toronto and I shot the old apartment video. And when it was done, I walked

it into MTV and VH1 and said, here's this music video I just shot of this band, this Canadian band that you guys are going to want to know about. And they bought. And that was so, the old apartment was the first of their videos to get Airplay in America, which was, you know, thrilling for them and thrilling for me. Like, it was good. Broken to the old apartment This is where we used to live Broken glass, broken hungry Broken hearts and broken bones This is where we used to live Why did you paint the walls?

Why did you clean the floor? Why did you plaster over The hole I punched in the door? This is where we used to live Why did you keep the mouse trap? Why did you keep the fish shack? These things used to be mine I guess they're still alive I want them back

Poking to the old apartment 42 steps from the street We walk into the old apartment 42 steps from the street Crooked London, crooked landlord Narrowly with the wet crooks This is where we used to live Why did they pave the way? Why did they change the law? Why did I have to break it?

I only came here to talk But this is where we used to live how is the neighbor downstairs how is her jump police yeah I turned off your TV and stopped on

the floor just for fun Brandon Walsh finally making his Toronto Mike debut woo this is only happening thanks to Great Lakes Brewery if you're in Ontario you drink Brandon Walsh finally making his Toronto Mike debut. Woo! This is only happening thanks to Great Lakes Brewery.

If you're in Ontario, you drink fresh craft beer from Great Lakes. That's an order. Delicious Italian food? Palma Pasta. Go to palmapasta.com. They're hosting us for TMLX 14 on December 9 from noon to 3 p.m. Join me. Recyclemyelectronics.ca. That's where you go. If you have old electronics you need to dispose of, they'll tell you where to drop it off to be properly recycled. Speaking of proper recycling, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. And if you're looking for a couple of amazing podcasts,

you want Yes, We Are Open. They're wrapping up season five, inspiring stories as told by award-winning podcaster, Al Grego and the Advantage Investor Podcast from Raymond James Canada, hosted by Chris Cooksey. Subscribe to both right now. Now back to my good friend JP.

I love it and there's a reference of course in the old apartment to the Danforth so I love that hyper Toronto reference and I love the fact they go number one with one week and at the end it's Birchmount Stadium home of the Robbie. Like this is said at the very end of that song,

which is the most hyper-local Toronto reference, shout out to Scarborough, that you can imagine. And there it is sneaking into a number one song. But okay, I just saw the time. So Jason, I'm going to cook with gas here. When I saw Barenaked Ladies playing Peach Pit After Dark, I know that's all you, but what? You just, you go to somebody and say i have an idea

like how did that come to fruition yeah well i you know i was i was uh you know like i said i was directing so many episodes of the show then i was also a producer on the show and so i just i and uh and there was uh uh larry mullen who was one of our executives on the show, he's from Toronto. So, uh, Larry, and so I was talking to Larry, I said, Hey, you know, because we were trying to book musical acts to come in and play at that Peach Pit after dark. Uh, and so I said to Larry, I said, you know, Larry, I can, I can get us bare naked ladies. And he went, he went, what, what do you mean? And I said, you know, I'm friends with the guys. And, um, I think we could probably, it would probably be good for them, you know,

and I think they'd probably jump at the opportunity because they're trying to get exposure in America. And Larry said, great, I'll write it. And so he wrote it, and I, you know, sent it to the guys, and we were able to figure it out. 🎵 You know who I met before? Yeah, in my nightmare. You gave me the brush off ten minutes ago. That was my evil twin.

I'm sorry. I'm Kelly. Pete. What changed your outlook? Let's just say it's not enough that I'm happy. My enemies have to be miserable. All right. you're the best friend a band ever had okay quick hits now you you don't get more than 60 seconds on each one.

The first one's only going to take you six seconds, though. What is your favorite Barenaked Lady? This is for Tom Hicks, who I think is in Buffalo, actually. So he learned about Barenaked Ladies from CFNY, I'm sure. But Tom Hicks wants to know your favorite Barenaked Ladies song. Alcohol. Oh, yeah. Good one. Okay. By the way, I'm seeing Stephen page with the trans Canada highwaymen,

uh, at some point in December at the horseshoe. If you want to come and hang with me, let me know. Oh, that's great. Okay. I saw him at the,

uh, I saw him at the Commodore ballroom in, uh, in Vancouver last year. They're great. Yeah. No, it's the best of four worlds.

Okay. Quick hits. How did you get the, um, Roy Orbison video for, I drove all night. They, uh, they just offered that to me they just asked me if I would go out to the desert and spend

a couple days with Jennifer Connelly and of course I said yes they were just going through their copy of Teen Beat and they said he'll do exactly that guy get that guy Nicholas wants to know, what episode of 90210 did you find the most challenging?

It's a tough one. It might take more than a minute. That's a good question. There was an episode. I know what it is. It was Luke Perry's last episode. I directed it. When he left the show in season six. It was the tenth episode

of season six. So I directed that episode. That was hard for me because I knew that my good friend was leaving the show. And then the episode itself had a lot of challenges too.

There was, you know, it was rain, you know, I had rain towers, and people were getting shot, and it was a very un-90210 kind of episode. I know you do. Lock up the place for me, will you?

Sure. I guess I'll see you around. I guess. I love you. My condolences. I'm sorry for your loss. We lost Luke Perry far too soon. Yeah. Sorry about that. Yeah, it was tough. Brian K., any thoughts on the movie Clueless?

Based on Beverly Hills but the character Christian Stovitz he says is modeled on Jason Priestley but he put a question mark at the end do you have any thoughts on this I don't I don't I don't know about I mean it was you know

was Clueless based on 90210 I'm not sure I mean that's probably speculative if I'm putting on my lawyer hat. Those are speculations. Right. I think the biggest similarity they have is they both take place in high school.

You could say Mean Girls was a 90210 spinoff too then, right? And that character is just another handsome guy. I mean, yeah, there's three of us at least. Me, you, and that guy. Alright, I gotta get cooking here. Toronto Jeff just another handsome guy. I mean, yeah, there's three of us, at least me, you and that guy. So yeah. All right.

I don't, I get cooking here. Uh, Toronto, Jeff, when Jason was making tombstone, was he aware that there was another very similar movie being made at the same time? A hundred percent.

Yeah. We, uh, we on tombstone knew about wider and, and the wider people knew that we were making tombstone. Um, and, and there, and so the Wyatt Earp costume department rented every bit of Western vintage wardrobe in Arizona and I think in Los Angeles too.

so our costume designer and his team had to make everything that we wore in the movie which was an unbelievably daunting task but they did it and they did incredibly well Hamilton Mike says

whoa please ask him about Call Me Fritz one of the greatest and most underrated dark comedies I've ever seen. And I love how his character is so damn against type for him. He plays that sleazy character with so much relish.

It's so damn entertaining to watch and rewatch. You've probably heard of me, Richard Fitzpatrick. But you can call me Fitz. Hottest pre-owned car salesman in this side of Detroit. Hey, shit sack! Sell my car already!

Relax, I'm on it. All I gotta do is keep looking out for number one. The world is my car, love. Look out! Oh, ding, ding, baby. Oh, Richard. Who the fuck is that in my office? Larry.

I am your conscience. I am the good part of you, and I will make you whole again. You think you're my conscience? It's your destiny that I, the last good sliver of your soul, have become manifest in order to save you from the slow, horrid descent into a permanent world of cremature. The Fitz family. The Fitz family, together again! Scotch.

Bourbon. Tequila. Vodka. I'm a paleontologist! What the fuck is that? I don't know, but he's hijacking your shakedown. Fuck you, Dick Fitz. You and your dealership are going down.

My specialty. You like that, Mr. Pants, do you? No, no. I don't want to kiss you. I don't want to kiss you either. Douchebag. Right back at you. People can't change.

Oh, yeah? Just watch us, lady. Go break some fucking rules, Fitz! Woo! I don't need to change who I am. Because I'm Richard fucking Fitzpatrick. But you can call me fitz it's true uh call me fits was a masterpiece there's 48 episodes of that show and each one is its own little gem um that show was super fun. I loved playing Richard Fitzpatrick

because there were no guardrails, right? And there were no rules with him, which was super fun for me to get to play. Amazing. I'm going to close this chat in a couple of minutes with a different show that you played a character on for five years. But Moose Grumpy just wants to know, will you ever return to an ownership role in auto

racing? I don't think so. You know, we did okay on Rubicon Racing. And, you know, we were moderately successful, but it's, it's an incredibly difficult, um, job, uh, being a team owner. And, uh, and it was, I, I just found that the, the, the amount of work that was necessary for the paltry returns that we, we got, it's sort of, it's sort of, you know, I, I'd rather redeploy my time and my energy other places. Fair enough.

I mentioned the Danforth earlier because you directed the video for Old Apartment by Barenaked Ladies. Francisco wrote in to say, Jason's filmed a ton at the Linsmore Tavern. What's his favorite place to eat on the Danforth? Do you have a favorite place on the Danforth to eat? No, not any one place that pops into my head. No. Mass, now we just talked about Luke Perry. Mass says, does he have any relationship with Luke's son?

And what does he think about his professional wrestling career? I do. I mean, I was the first person to hold Jack after Luke and Minnie brought him home from the hospital. I have a little bit of a relationship with Jack, but I love watching him wrestle. He's an amazing athlete, and he can things that that mortals can only dream of wow all right penultimate question that's a big word you can google it later jason uh no no i know what it means i know what it means i know i'm sorry some guy named gear wrote me that line okay kevin in alberta says do you watch Jason, do you watch the new Quantum Leap and do you have any memories from the original Quantum Leap?

I do not watch the new Quantum Leap. But I remember vividly shooting the episode of Quantum Leap that I did. The original Quantum Leap. It was super fun. Um, uh, I think I still might have one of those nomad jackets around too. Like it was,

uh, it was really, really fun. They, they made me a, they made me an ID card on like a, like a driver's license. And so my character's name was pencil in the episode,

but on my driver's license, it was first name pencil, last name neck. Well, was first name Pencil, last name Neck. Well, my first name is Toronto, so I get that. Alright, quick reminder, because you know where I'm closing, right Jason? But I'm going to let people know Viaplay is where you can

stream Borea Journey of a Legend. Jason's in it. It basically covers the kind of discovery of Bore-Solman. He comes to Canada. You get great footage from the 70s and 80s recreating the Leaf teams. You mentioned Lanny and

Daryl Sittler and of course Jim McKinney and all these normal men. They're all there. Honestly, I did legitimately enjoy it and I was kind of looking forward to not loving it and then I watched the damn thing and I go oh it's really good Jason did it again what a jerk okay but here's so everybody should get

via play so they can watch 48 Journey of a Legend but here's where we're closing you Jason played Matt Shade in Private Eyes buddy I know what this looks like my first appearances can be deceiving don't eyes. track down that manager to clean you out because I feel for you man, really do. You're a loser, Shade. You're running around like you still got a career when all you've got is one kid who was stupid enough to think that you could help him.

Cory's at the hospital and none of you know what happened? You saw Cory coming for your spot and you decided to do something about it. You don't hit kids. Especially kids I'm trying to talk to. He let a girl stop me, dude! He let a girl... Really? A girl? Baby, who the hell are you? I'm Angie Everett. PI your dad hired.

Apparently your dad and my dad crossed paths back in the day. I know hockey. I know every dirty little thing about it. What do I need a PI for? There's millions of dollars at stake here. If whoever did this new book was aneurysm, that's attempted murder. I can help you get information. I'll look into it and see what I can find out. Whenever I need the inside scoop on hockey, I'll be in touch. What are you doing in here? Honey, I think we

might be in the wrong hotel room. Is that Matt Shade? You guys really don't recognize who this is? It's Kim Kardashian. Tell her you liked working with her and asked her for a job. Together. You and me. Yeah, why not? So, so many reasons, but I'll choose one. You're not a P.I. Matt Shade. That's a P.I. name if I ever heard one.

It is, isn't it? I like the sounds of that. Partner? Associate? No. Colleague? Definitely not. Teammate?

Not happening. I can see when your career ended. Back off! Back off, I can do this! You're fine. Thanks. Thanks a lot! You're reckless, and most frighteningly have no grasp of how much you don't know yet. It means the world you're telling me this in person. Everyone is suspicious around here. Hey, stay back man!

What exactly are you looking for? Why are you whispering? I don't know. It just seemed appropriate. Are you nuts? My car. It's a rental. When did you get into the P.I. Pest? It's still kind of new.

Wow. What have you done with Angie? Eyes up here. You're drooling on my floor. That's pretty cool what you do. You could be arrested at any minute. I love it. Most kids would be proud to have a PI for a father. Think of me as a modern-day Thomas Magnum. Who?

as a modern-day Thomas Magnum. Who? What can you share with us about your five years playing the character Matt Shade in our series Private Eyes? And what do you think of the guy who wrote the source material, some guy named Gare Joyce? Any thoughts on Gare Joyce and Private Eyes? Yeah. Well, look, Gare might have written a piece of material

that we you know built a basic framework on but we had to get rid of all that eventually because it just it wasn't ready for prime time you know what i mean it wasn't very good right You know what I mean? It wasn't very good, right? No, Gare's an awesome guy. I love Gare. And we had a great time making that show. It was really fun.

And I was sorry to see that one get canceled the way that it did. Well, you know that's bullshit, right? We all think that's bullshit. What a great show. And it should still be making Privatize. Thanks, man.ized thanks man no i appreciate that thanks so thank you for that uh thanks for at least throwing a few bucks gears way because he must have got a couple of dollars right he's like yeah yeah i think i think we threw him a couple of shekels to uh to get the rights and he's no gary gary's great man he used to come down to the set all the time because we were

always filming in the annex and he would just be walking his dog and come by and say hello. It was really funny. Well, dude, you were amazing in your Toronto Mike debut, but we're going to have to do at some point, we'll have to do like a sequel because as you can tell, there's some

other ground I need to tend to here. But this was amazing. Congrats on the new series. And I can't wait for your next Maple Leaf-based project. Right on. Thanks, Toronto. I'll see you next time.

And that brings us to the end of our 1,369th show. You can follow me on Blue Sky and Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. This is made possible. This real talk with Jason Priestley was made possible by the good people at Great Lakes Brewery. Palma Pasta, Moneris, Raymond James Canada,

Recycle My Electronics, and Red Lee Funeral Home. Read Andrew Miller and wander around And drink some Guinness from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold, but the snow wants me today And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine

And it won't go away Because everything is rosy and green Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years

it's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears and I don't know

what the future can hold or will do for me and you but I'm a much

better man for having known you Oh, you know that's true Because everything is coming up Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Wants me today

And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who Yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize I wonder who, yeah I wonder who

Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of grey Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah I know it's true How about you? All them picking up trash and then putting down roads And they're brokering stocks, the class struggle explodes

And I'll play this guitar just the best that I can Maybe I'm not and maybe I am But who gives a damn? Because everything is coming up rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms me today. And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and green Well, I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain

And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Shakhtar Khor But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow warms us today

And your smile is fine And it's just like mine Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms us today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Cause everything is rosy now, everything is rosy, yeah. Everything is rosy and gray, yeah. Oh, dear grace.