Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Retrontario and PJ Fresh Phil: Toronto Mike'd #1272

Episode Date: June 12, 2023

In this 1272nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike records live from Myseum of Toronto with Ed "Retrontario" Conroy and PJ Fresh Phil. They talk Friendly Giant, Uncle Bobby, Polka Dot Door, Today's Special, Degrassi, and so much more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, the Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Moment Lab, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

This is CFTO-TV in stereo. Channel 9 in Toronto. Cable 8. Welcome to the show. It's your show. And on your show, we have your friends, Ruth Winkler. Welcome to episode 1272 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta.

Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Season 4 of Yes, We Are Open, the award-winning podcast from Moneris, hosted by FOTM El Grego. RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past.

The Moment Lab, brand marketing and strategy, PR, advertising, and production. You need The Moment Lab and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, live from Myseum, Toronto, it's Retro Ontario's own FOTM Hall of Famer, Ed Conroy. Good day, sir. Welcome back, Ed. Thankroy. Good day, sir. Welcome back, Ed.

Thank you. Good to see you. You're in the FOTM Hall of Fame. You're the inaugural member. You're wearing a much music pin. Where is your FOTM Hall of Famer pin? I was never given one. What?

What an oversight. We're going to remedy that ASAP. Let me tell the listenership that we have like sitting on standby fotm pj fresh phil so pj fresh phil is waiting in the wings but ed introduced me to uh our guest here um miss pennypacker of course we have uh the wonderful Heidi, who is really the boss of Myseum. She's the queen bee. I think, yeah, we need to tee this up. We need to talk about what amazing work is going on here at the Myseum.

So I just biked in the pouring rain. I was dripping, soaking wet when I got here. And I just took a look around. I saw the polka dot door to my left. I saw FOTM M dot door to my left i saw i saw fotm muffy mouse to my right there's sam the security guard from today's special i took a photo um the the friendly giant uh the the set from the friendly giant has been replicated like the nostalgia that hit me right between the eyes when i walked in and i'm'm not just talking about PJ Freshville here.

It dried me to the bone. I'm dry as a bone now. Like the nostalgia dried me. Good, I guess. And it's old Heidi you're telling me. I'm at 401 Richmond. Beautiful location, great location. Tell me, maybe I had to ask our new friend, FOTM Heidi,

how did this museum, this like oasis, this fantasy, I'm a Gen Xer, I feel like I walked into heaven here. How did this all come to be? Talk to me. Well, I mean, we reached out to Ed. That's an obvious one to make this exhibition happen. But Myseum's been around for about seven years. We have been shaping stories of Toronto. We bring voices and talent and expertise together to tell who we are, why we live in this great city, and what is phenomenal about this place. So this show is exploring the, as you know, 50 years of the incredible talent and brilliance that was here in Toronto that shaped our early children's TV.

And Ed Conroy was your first call. Ed was our first call. And only call. And only call. We have been, we program here in the Myseum space, which is at Richmond and Spadina. We program across the city. We've just been doing some sidewalk walks, which are unique. We explored Little Manila on Sunday,

where you could taste a bit of Filipino dining. And next weekend, we are doing Love Stories of the Humber. And our Johnny Davencourt is doing some record dining. FOTM, Johnny. Dovercourt. Dovencourt is doing some record diving. F-O-T-M, Johnny Dovercourt. Dovercourt. Dovermen. Is doing some deep dive into the record stores. Oh, he'd be good at that.

Yeah. I mean, these are all these people, these names you're dropping, like all of this is like the fabric of the city, and this is what I'm trying to like drape myself in as I dry off from that rain here. So Ed, when you got the call from Heidi, like, I mean, you live and breathe this stuff.

This is the easiest gig you've ever had. Am I right? Did you do any work? Like you just pull it out of your brain, out of your collection? Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of stuff. Low hanging fruit, I guess you could call it. But no, I've always been a huge fan of Myseum,

what Myseum is trying to do. I mean, the idea that Toronto doesn't have its own dedicated museum of culture is frankly unacceptable. So I've supported Myseum from the beginning. And I love when they were in the pop-up era, but I love it even more now that we're in this sort of physical space era. And the remit was to make an exhibit that that as you described it sort of punched you in the head as soon as you walked right between the eyes buddy with like a nostalgia atomic bomb yeah that was the idea i'm still recovering like it's wild like i'm as i think over your shoulder is my female is just sitting there like she's just right there she actually rules my zm she's

well you know you have a you have a night yeah uh peck what's her name peckinpah sammy peckinpah peckin i was calling her penny packer penny packer you know that clip you sent me of the um the dying butterfly oh yes yeah so i don't know if i had permission or not but i i put on my youtube channel and i get comments every day from people like who learned about death like you know where we, it was Mr. Hooper for us. Like, the butterfly was... The butterfly. It traumatized, really, a generation.

Because it was, you know, this innocent program that we all watched to learn about feelings. And we were confronted with the stark reality of death via this butterfly that befriended Muffy. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. But these shows, that's what these shows did, though. They talked about those kind of social, emotional feelings and introduced them to kids. And Toronto TV was notorious for that,

was doing it before it happened on Nickelodeon, before it was happening on a lot of those American programs. We were doing it first. Yeah, and I mean, that's what got me really excited when I got the call from Heidi was, you know, people talk a lot about Canadian children's television and Canadian this, Canadian that. Of course, this stuff is all Canadian,

but it was all made in Toronto. And so it's a very Toronto story, you know, and it's like the greatest hits of what you would consider Canadian children's television, whether you're talking about Dress Up or Friend polka dot door or, or today's special, they were, they were all made in Toronto by this sort of Motley crew of Toronto folk who were learning the art of television sort of on the fly. Like this is before you could go and take a course in how to make a television show, right? These guys were like, literally these guys and girls were making it up as they went along.

And they changed the rules of the genre. And we don't think they get enough credit. I mean, Mike, you and I have talked about this a lot, this sort of weird undercurrent of not getting the props that are due. The fact that today's special was the number one program on Nickelodeon in America for almost a decade, people still think it's an American program. It's not cool. So we're trying to redress that balance. We're trying to redress

that balance and make clear that sort of DIY, I think, aesthetic as well, that you talk about the nostalgia, but the other thing that you can see when you look around is this sense of a kind of happenstance. You know, we're using the artifice of TV at the same time that we're using a kind of happenstance you know we're using uh the the artifice of tv at the same time that we're using a kind of what is the true form and that was very much the protocol then it was super like let's try it let's figure it out let's you know explore and experiment and the show really feels like that as well and and big shout outs to christine uh elson elson who designed all this i was so impressed because when we were having the initial talks about how do we lay all this out, I think Christine's first

thing was she pulled out the Marshall McLuhan book and said, this is what we're talking about, right? I mean, the medium is the message. So that's what this is all about. And this lifelike model of PJ Fresh Phil is so lifelike. Like, I think it just moved. Oh, my God. That's unbelievable. It's unbelievable to me. But Heidi, before you depart here, and we give that mic to PJ Fresh Phil,

like, what are the nuts and bolts of this? Like, if I want to tell my friends, you got to get to 401 Richmond. Like, when is it open? When can the public come in? How long can we do this? Open Wednesday to Saturday, 12 to 6, all the way to August 19th. Check us out on Myseum of Toronto on the web,

because we are building a city museum. And we are trying to give props, as Ed said, to all that amazing creativity and smarts that exist in our city and has in the past and will in the future. So that's the work that we're doing. So come on down, visit us or check us out online. Well,

Heidi, we're building something here. We're building it from scratch. All the pieces matter. Thanks for being here. You're now an FOTM. Well, from one FOTM to another,

I'm going to slide in the, the fresh one, PJ fresh fill. We're going to catch up with him. We got a lot of audio that we're going to play as we talk about some of the specifics here. I have a question about the Elmer, the safety elephant that I see over there.

Check. One, two, three. Check. Okay. Didn't I mosh with you at the Phoenix? Maybe. I did. I did. Here's some Toronto news. I used to go-go dance at the Phoenix. Yeah, I know. did here's some toronto i used to go go dance at the phoenix yeah i know i can talk about it now listen to your episode of toronto mic we went into great detail about this uh 410 sherbourne yeah i used to have a bad memory really no is that a recent

okay so phil thanks for doing this uh you have been on toronto mic but it's been too long like i often thought you should come back and kick out the jams with me like we should still do that I won't give out your address but he lives in this beautiful neighborhood not far from the water that is correct that is true I am near the lake I love your neighborhood I biked here today how did you know you were talking

about I was like from yeah I know where you bike from parts unknown right is that like they say in the WWF from parts unknown Ed why don't you tell me Yeah, I know where you bike from. From Parts Unknown, right? Is that like they say in the WWF, from Parts Unknown? Ed, why don't you tell me why is PJ, I know I would have him on any episode to be honest, PJ Fresh Phil, but there's an exhibit like beyond this wall. I can't look at it right now, but it's like the YTV Grog.

Like describe that one to me. Yeah, I mean, when we talked about the sort of setting this exhibit up, obviously we had to put some parameters. The first one being, of course, we were only talking about shows that were made in Toronto. But then we just set years. So obviously we started with 1952,

which is when television started. You were just a kid back then. It's just a wee one, 1952. But yeah, that's the very first broadcast in all of Canada, English Canada, was CBC, CBLT. And the very first thing that they showed was the logo, and it was upside down. So it was a technical difficulty from the get-go.

But then the very first character that you saw on English television was a puppet called Uncle Chichimus. And so that was like, okay, that's a no-brainer. That's where we're going to start. Uncle Chichimus. But the real hot take here, Mike, was where are we going to end this? Because there's a lot of debate about obviously, things changed. Things change in the industry. And where do you draw the line? Where do you say, okay, the golden age of children's television in Toronto? When did it end? And, you know, we looked at a lot of different things. Obviously, YTV premiered in 88.

And it really took a couple of years to get going. I don't think Phil started doing the PJ thing until 90 or 91. I think 90, 91. Yeah, around then. But it happened. I mean, it amped up so quickly. So by 94, you had these other puppets called the Grogs

that were co-hosting the zone with Phil and the other PJs. And they did this amazing programming stunt on Jan 1 of 94 where Warren Grog, who was like the leader of the Grogs,

but he was kind of bad, I guess. He was grouchy. He was grouchy, but he was slightly villain. Like Oscar the Grouch, grouchy? Yeah, grumpy and, you know. I was just watching, I don't know why, of bad i guess he was grouchy he was grouchy but he was slightly like oscar the grouch grouchy yeah grumpy and and you know i was just watching um i don't know why i was i was just watching festival of friends and his his thing was like oh you morons like you know for little kids i was like

wow like a little eddie yeah kind of kind of like that who was on toronto mike last week yeah well and again green right i mean it's like the Uncle Chichemus line there. As we say in wrestling, he was over right away. Like, the kids loved him. He was just over. But he turned real heel on Jan 194. We're coming back to wrestling, Phil, later, because I heard something about that.

Okay. And the Grogs, they hijacked YTV. And they took, like, Warren Grog took over the signal. And he, you know, the idea was he just showed what he wanted to show. And the CRTC was okay with this. Well, I mean, it was this really punk thing to do. And like you said, I was kind of out of, you know, at that point I was in high school. What was I doing watching YTV?

But I was like, this is actually really interesting what they're doing. And, of course, Phil and. You were watching me in high school? Yeah, of course. No wonder you talk like this but so we're like you know that was a real punk moment and then things kind of changed because the day after that i think the grogs were never mentioned again on ytv they just disappeared they brought in snit uh eventually which obviously amazing character i have a clip here because you know

you sent me some great audio and you're gonna call for it when it's appropriate but there's one called warren grogg should i play that now yeah okay let's listen and we'll get phil's reaction here listen morons hi and welcome to wtv yeah i'm the w as in Warren, in the WTV. Yeah. And let me tell you, I have thought of absolutely everything. I am absolutely brilliant. I've got the cables. Cables. I have the genius.

The genius. And I have certainly the attitude. Oh, yeah. To pull off WTV. I am absolutely a genius. He's a genius, man. Warren, you know what you're like to me? What?

You're like pond scum. You know that green slimy stuff at the bottom you don't want to walk on? And believe me, that's a big compliment coming from me. Gee. Thanks, filth. So that was filth. That was Warren's sort of henchman, right?

And that was the voice of James Shannon. He's lackey. I think, well, yeah. I think what they did when this happened was like, okay, what are the bad puppets? The bobcat Goathwaite and the grouchy green guy. And it was Jason Hopely and James Shannon. They did all the Grog characters. And so, yeah, that takeover, they called it WTV.

To me, it was like that was the obvious place to kind of draw the line in the sand because not long after that, of course, it changed. Chorus bought YTV, everything got very corporate. A lot of these productions that were happening in Toronto then became co-productions with American broadcasters or production companies. And so there was a big influx of American production and British production. And so, you know, there's nothing wrong. Children's television in Toronto is still amazing and still is, but it is very different.

It doesn't have that sort of Toronto vision that it really had from 52 to 94. So those were the parameters of this exhibit. Of course, P.J. Phil was the amazing P.J. Phil that influenced all of these viewers' lives during that time period. He is a legend. He's an absolute legend.

And, you know, nary a day goes by where I don't hear from somebody who watched a clip on YouTube says, thank you so much for putting that up on YouTube because that meant so much to me. That was my life at the time. I learned how to play guitar. I was inspired by Phil to do this, that, or the other thing. So yeah, it's great.

These people need to be recognized, you know? Well, I'm going to recognize him by staring into his beautiful eyes right now and ask him, how's it going? I haven't seen, I guess I saw you last summer at that Speaker's Corner Lake. And Ed was there. Yeah, Ed was there. And so was Jay Gold. Right. Who else was there?

A lot of, it was like Doors Open Toronto. Right, Doors Open. Box, box. Box, box. And I did, I saw mine aired. Like I did a thing and I said, I remember I said, we should close all streets in Toronto and make it for just pedestrians and cyclists.

Like no cars allowed on any streets in Toronto. And they aired it. Wow. So there you go. Oh, great. We'll see if, what happened. I think they call that rage bait, Mike. Rage bait. Yeah, I didn't have my left

wing pink goat t-shirt on, though. Hey, I have a clip here before I get back to Phil, because I want to ask him how he's doing, but should I play YTV The Zone? Yeah, of course. I don't know what's going on. Here we go. You listen. Here we go. Yeah, what's up, what's up, what's up? All right, you're back from school. It's not time to start relaxing. It's time for action.

Put away that homework desk for a little while and let Phil take you through the zone. We've got Samurai Pizza Cats in the house, Super Mario Brothers, Dennis the Menace, Captain Planet, Batman, and the Power Rangers every day of every week in the zone. Weekdays 3 to 6 on YTV. You know, I realize now.

Hey kids, don't do your homework. That's what I heard. I didn't remember that. You know, PJ Freshville. Don't do your homework. Kind of a big deal. Kind of. Thank you.

A huge deal. Huge deal. So, you're doing well? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I just turned 52. Yeah. Congratulations.

I'm 52 years old. I got married at 51. Wait, did you? I did. That's exciting. I did. So yeah, I'm at this part of my life. I'm a married man.

You're disappointing a lot of women right now who are listening that you're off the market. Who? Why? Who are you talking to? Who? I get notes. Is there one out there? Do you know her? You shouldn't even

isolate the gender. All genders are going to be disappointed. I'm at the time in my life where now it's like time to open up a hospital wing in my name. Just keep checking those lottery tickets. Yeah, Harold Ballard did that. I go to St. Joe's, my hood in Parkdale, I'm going to open up a hospital wing in my name. Just keep checking those lottery tickets. Yeah, Harold Ballard did that.

Because I go to St. Joe's, my hood in Parkdale. And there's like the Ballard wing and all this going on. He's rich. Where's the Conroy wing? It's here. It's in the FOTM Hall of Fame. This space. Temporarily.

Okay. And I got to ask you about wrestling in a minute. I got a whole bunch of ground to cover here. But I'm going to get my money's worth here. I had to come through the rain for an hour on my bike and get all my gear at 401 richmond here so we're gonna record for six seven hours that's okay phil seven seven you're paying for the rest of the work like the space it's the this is the coolest space in the cool neighborhood in downtown toronto like uh i i think we we have a room in this space for the Toronto Mike studio. So people, we could do it here.

We're doing it right now. We'll put down some carpeting so it's roomy. But we're doing it right now. But this is exciting to me that I'm here in the space recording with you instead of in the basement. Well, you know, it's good to change it up. And I think what Myseum is doing with this space, like the previous show, I think it was called 10 of

Toronto. And I came down to see it. And I mean, I totally unrecognizable. Like I feel like I'm in a different city now. But it just goes to show you that future exhibits can can make use of what is maybe at first glance. You said my museum, but it's actually not your CM, it's MyZeum. Let's get that straight here. It's our Zeum. It's our CM. Is that domain name available? Excuse me, I'm going to pick it up right now.

But yeah, no, it's been a blast and obviously people are responding very emotionally. I think people are coming in to check it out and having their minds blown. Can I tell you a couple of FOTMs listening who are late? Last week, Rob Pruce and Emotionally, I think people are coming in to check it out and having their minds blown. Can I tell you a couple of, you know, FOTMs listening who are late.

So last week, Rob Pruce and Bob Ouellette were in my basement for toast. And Rob had just come from my museum. And he was showing me pictures and he was talking about it on Toronto Mike. So we had a little taste of it. And then that weekend or whatever, shortly thereafter, Cam Gordon sent me pictures

of Muffy Mouse and Sam. They're the new toast, he says. They're the next one. I get my third installment of toast. It's going to be those two. I'm looking at them right now. I can't believe I'm looking. Like, where did you get the Muffy Mouse?

Oh, that's from the personal collection of Nina Keough. F-O-T-M, Nina Keough. Who was Muffy Mouse. Of course. And who donated a lot of her ephemera, some of these today's special merchandise. I see like puzzle and vinyl

and is that wine? Today's special wine? That's from the wrap party from the last episode. Are you kidding me? Cigarette butts on the ground? People's business cards? Call me! Sure. And there's VHS cassettes.

There's polka dot door cassettes. I think we wanted those out here to show people. Nowadays, when you make a kid's show, the merchandise is like the first thing you talk about. I think the show is structured after you figure out the merchandise. But back then, merchandise was like an afterthought. Like He-Man. Yeah, exactly. And so there wasn't, you know, people loved these programs but you couldn't go

to Toys R Us and buy like plush dolls from any of these shows. So it was special. It was special when you saw it. It was today's special. Absolutely. Today's special.

So I got a question. So Nina Keough, of course, Muffy, she helps out with, yeah, she's a legend but she, remind me again,

I was a little old so I didn't watch it but remind me, she also helped out with the book mice, right? Yeah, so. Because that was her bag her bag too yeah book mice also is towards the end of the when is book mice is it 90 91 and it was tv ontario and it actually started as it was called the magic library and then it turned into book mice but the idea was that it was a show that you know taught kids how to read has pagan been here been here yet? I don't know.

I can text him right now. We'll get him here in half an hour. He absolutely should be here because I know he digs this stuff, right? He would come. I feel like there needs to be a MyZM episode of The Agenda. Oh, yeah.

Have we hooked that up yet? No. I'm going to make this happen, buddy. Well, we've got loads of time. It's not closing until August 19th. Yeah. But let's talk about Nina for a minute. Yeah, that's what we're doing. Nina Keough effort of the show but nina is like nina is the

connective tissue of all of these programs because her parents of course made puppets for the earliest cbc programs so like howard the turtle on on razzle dazzle was was made by her parents um and then she worked on Friendly Giant and she was the very first female host of Polka Dot Door. She worked on Dress Up. She worked on Bookmite. She worked on Uncle Bobby Show. Like you name a show.

My brain just splattered over the walls. Okay. And she's still around and she still remembers every detail. So of course, who are you going to call when an assignment like this comes up? Nina Keough.

Nina Keough. Legend. And she's a sweetheart. Absolutely. And I want to play this because... And you can, you know, hit the post. Is there a post to hit?

You want to hit the post on this? What is this? Yeah, what is this? I don't know anything of what you guys are talking about right now. He was too busy dancing at the Phoenix. Yeah. I was sleeping when Bookmice

was on. Now you're only 52. I hate to break it to you, but Ed and I are like knocking on the door. So we're all the same vintage here. But today's special. And that is Oscar Peterson. Oh.

Jeff can sing, eh? He was on Broadway or something like that? Phantom of the Opera Right Well, listen to me Today's special Hold on A world for us to share

And friendly faces Hoping that you'll want to meet us there For today's special It's about to appear Friendly faces hoping that you'll want to meet us there. For today's special, it's about to appear. It's about to appear. Today's special, shout it loud and clear. So that's Oscar Peterson? That's right, yeah.

The Oscar Peterson on the keys. I thought PJ Fresh Phil was a legend. Oscar Peterson. Yeah. Legend. Does he have streets? In my neck of the woods, in my neck of the woods,

there's like a wall mural and his face is there. He's like a lakeshore idol. Big deal. That's a big deal. I think his daughter does stuff on Jazz FM, I feel. Celine Peterson, maybe?

Anyway, let this jam close up. Today's special. Shout it loud and clear. Today's special. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'd say, you know, Mike, we've talked about this to death, but today's special, a big part of the appeal,

if you were watching that program in the 80s, was the fact that you knew what the Simpsons department store was. So when you were in it or when you were near it, you imagined, you know, today's special gang was there too. Right. That gave it an extra edge, I think, the Today's Special gang was there too. Right. That gave it an extra edge, I think, over other programs. It felt hyper-local.

Totally. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. Sort of like Degrassi. Yeah. So we're going to jump around. We won't keep it to chronological order because that's too much work on my part. But I want to talk.

Let me start with this, actually, to introduce us. I know what that is. Yeah, it's amazing to think that Drizzy was born out of that, eh? Yes, yes, absolutely. I know, I used to work for a German software company, and they didn't understand how I could connect the dot from that jam to Drake, and then, you know, but we know, right? We know, we know. So that's the kids of Degrassi Street. So maybe tell us, like, what do we have from the world of Degrassi at my ZM? Well, yeah, the most i think the coolest part of the exhibit is all these old uh tube television sets we have uh how many are

those from moses no uh they're mine did you steal them from no i didn't steal those are moses cast offs man he wouldn't have he wouldn't have those those are too new man those are from the 70s but we have all of those TVs. When the exhibit is open, they're all playing episodes of Kids of Degrassi and Degrassi. Wow. And I think what we really wanted to show was, you know, it's great to have a 60-inch flat screen 4K TV in every room in your house. Like, it's great. It's the best it ever was.

But there's something really magical about those old 19-inch tube TVs. Like, when they're on and they're showing that old content, right. It's like magic is happening. Cause it's, it's a time machine. Totally. No,

a hundred percent. A hundred percent. And so with Degrassi, because it was such, it's such a mammoth empire, really starting with kids in 79 and going, you know, right all the way up till today,

uh, there was just so much content. It was, it made sense to have the TV showing, you know, multiple episodes 24-7. And proper four by three. Original four by three. So Degrassi Street,

the kids of Degrassi Street, goes back to the 70s. Yeah. See, that's a bit of a mind blow. I mean, yeah. Like, the real mind blow, Mike, I don't know, do you know the origin? I'll be the judge of what's real.

Do you know the origin story of Kids at Degrassi Street? I mean, it's pretty wild. Blow the mind, and then I'll let you know how it splattered everywhere. Oliver Muffy. It was this very famous lady, Linda Shuler. Yes. And she was a teacher. Right.

And I think she was a teacher, not ECI, but it was in the west of Toronto. And she was trying to teach media studies. Now, this is like long before there was such a thing as media studies right Earl Grey High School there you go I cheated I saw it on the board over there and she's trying to teach kids how to shoot films on on super 8 you know film stock and there's limited resources. So she gets friendly with the librarian at the school says, Look, I'm trying to teach the kids how to use a movie camera. Is there any books that you know about? He says, Well, I order books from England all the time. And you know, this is

1974 75. So there's no computers. It's it's like you literally got like a list from a photocopied black and white sheet. You're trying to determine, is this a book that my students could use? There was a book called Ida Makes a Movie. That sounds kind of good. That would be something we could use. So they order this book, and it finally arrives three months later. And unfortunately, it's like a preschool book

illustrated about a little cat, a little kitten, I guess, who makes a movie on Super 8. They're like, you know, this is a great story. So Ida's the cat. Ida's the cat. They're like, this is a great story, but, you know, the high school students aren't going to be cool

with reading this preschool book. So why don't we buy the rights to this book and actually make a movie using real kids? Wow, yeah. So they shot this movie called ida makes a movie using not actors using students and kids that lived around the neighborhood right and that was near degrassi yes because the the house that they shot it in was on degrassi okay and so that the street has a space between Duh and grassy.

Did you notice that? Like it's Duh space grassy, the street, right? But the grassy doesn't have a space. The grassy Arctic, they got rid of the space is what I'm telling you. Well,

no, the original ones, you see stock footage of this, the original streets. So the space is there. They didn't have the money to get the extra rights to Duh grassy. I'm looking at the name right now. Like for all my life Degrassi has been one word.

But the street is actually De-space-grassi. There's a lot of De-space-grassi. Where is Linda and why hasn't she been in my basement yet? Well, she just published her memoir a couple months ago. I need her in the basement. I realize now

I need to dive deeper into Degrassi. It's an incredible story. I mean, there's a lot more to it than that. But I love the idea that Drake came out of a children's book about a cat that wanted to make a movie. Wait, so how much were the rights to Degrassi? $50. $60. Yeah, probably $0.60.

I mean, some old lady wrote that book and sold it for nothing. Happy to get $0.60. She should have gotten 2%. Oh, yeah. No. I just want 2%. This is like when you find out Michael Jordan got a percentage of all Air Jordans that would be sold for all eternity. Imagine that woman

who wrote the book, Ida the Cat. Nobody thought like that. I know. I'm reinventing history. We thought our stuff would have no value. It was like the news. It went out once. I don't know why we keep these videotapes who cares but now I think we should have kept it all

because the 90s is now 30 years ago and we have some great archives of stuff from the 90s I look at the comic book show I used to do like who was rolling cameras on comic artists in the 90s nobody anti-gravity room Anti-gravity room.

Yep. Anti-gravity room. What? Anti-gravity room? We did not predict the value of the anti-gravity room. There's no space. Alright, speaking of the no space Degrassi, which as you know, as you know, Ed, because we've talked about it many times, can I call you

Ed? I feel like I should call you Mr. Retro. No, you don't. Call me whatever you want. I'm going to call Phil PJ Fresh Phil. I like Sir. Sir will do fine. Have you been knighted? You shouldn't do it. I think Charlie should put that sword in his shoulder. My umbrella's right over there.

We're going to listen to this, and then I'm going to remind you first before I press play on this, that they would, where I went to school at Jane and Bloor, they would walk us to the Runnymede Library, and we'd go in a room, and they would air on one of these, I think that TV right there, I think.

Actually, I think that's the TV. They'd roll it out, and we'd watch Kids of Degrassi Street. And you'd see wheels, but he would be Griff. Griff, yeah. Okay, so who's in 79? I know the age of the Degrassi people. They're toddlers, aren't they? Am I, is my math bad?

Um, no. 79 feels early. So the thing is, no, no, no. Kids of Degrassi Street was, was, was not really serialized. Like the later shows, Junior High and High and everything after that was more, more kind of like a soap opera. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Kids of Degrassi Street. Coronation Street for kids. Kids of Degrassi Street was likeation Street for kids. Kids of Degrassi Street was like an anthology show. So every episode you have a different character but there would be people

in the background and then the next episode they would. Okay, because Caitlin's in it but she's not Caitlin. She's not Caitlin. It's not considered the same universe really

of Junior High and after but I liked it. My headcanon it is all the same universe. Right. Griff just changed his name to Wheels. And his stepfather is the same actor

that played his brother. And, you know, there's weird connective stuff that goes through all of it. But look, at the end of the day, the kids of Degrassi Street was so revolutionary because they didn't make it

like a TV show. They shot it like a documentary, really. And they didn't have actors like a TV show. They shot it like a documentary really. And they didn't have actors. They were just kids. Right. And it was written by social studies, social science people. So it was,

you know, it was more realistic, I think than anything else at that time that was aimed at people that were sort of 10 years old. It was a big deal to me. Like I, it was appointment viewing. Like I didn't miss my Degrassi,

love Degrassi. I'm going to just play another from the Junior High series. And then there's somebody that's not... This is my era. This is my era. Let's listen to PJ Freshville's era of Degrassi. This is grade 8, right? So I'm going to start dressing more mature. If you vote for me.

Can Stephanie's new image get her elected student president? Degrassi Junior High premieres Monday, September 28th. This is CBC Television. All the way with Stephanie Kay. We should have t-shirts. All the way with Stephanie

Kay. That was a big deal. That was the very first Junior High, right? I mean, the idea that that whole empire came out of that really low stakes episode, but that's what they were doing. Right? And it was a huge deal in 86. Well, they must have promoted the hell out of that really low stakes episode, but that's what they were doing, right? And it was a huge deal in 86. Well, they must have promoted the hell out of it in this smaller media landscape

when we had like, you know, the four stations or whatever, the CBC promotion machine, because I was there for episode one. Like I was all in and it hooked me right away. Totally. It hooked Phil too. Well, and there was nothing else like it,

you know, at the time. It was good. Girls my age. Right. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, you're 52. On TV. Well, and there was nothing else like it, you know, at the time. It was good. Girls my age. Right. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, you're 52. On TV. Yeah.

For sure. And you pick your favorite person. Her character, yeah. You know. Human? Human? Yeah. Okay.

You know. The twins went to Jarvis with me, by the way. Oh, no way. Wow. One of my classes. My third born named Jarvis. See, by the way. Oh, no way. Wow. Erica. One of my classes. My third born named Jarvis. See, it all comes full circle here. Phil, work with me, buddy.

That's amazing. That's a mind blow right there. There was a band called Blue Dog Picked. Does anyone know this band, Blue Dog Picked? I do. How do I know that? Blue Dog Picked played my high... Bands never played in my high school.

Like, I talked to... I have people on the show with them. Oh, yeah. Like, Triumph played my high school. Or Gato played my high school. Like I talked to, I have people on the show with them. Oh yeah, like Triumph played in my high school or Gato played in my high school. Who are they? I know that. It was a band with like not big players,

but smaller characters on Degrassi were in this band Blue Dog Picked. And when they played my high school, Michael Power High School, original location, the big news was that other members of the Degrassi cast were coming out to support them.

And the twins were in our high school. This was a big traveling through the hallways. The twins are here. The twins are here. The twins are here. To see Blue Dog Picked. Nice. How did I know that? Because they were like a thing in the early 90s. Like shoegaze? What genre

are we talking about here? I don't remember. I don't remember anything about it. Indie rock? But I just remember the name, Blue Dog Picks. Yeah, me too. So you probably Googled it. It was a big deal.

So we're going to pay tribute to a children's entertainer who is not represented in the museum because this gentleman was not a Toronto guy. This guy was a Buffalo guy, okay? We lost.

And some people are like, this was, and we'll talk about this now but uh commander tom has passed away joel's yeah ed talk to me about commander tom yeah i mean commander tom you cannot understate the influence that character had for many generations of people in this city obviously people in america um not only was he you know the best weather guy on wkbw uh i learned about the lake effect if you know from weatherman tom joles which is a good great lakes beer by the way lake effect but on a sunday morning uh you know there's not much else going on. Back then, there was no dedicated kids channel. You had to take what you could get. Commander Tom's world was on for hours and hours on a Sunday morning.

You'd get Davy and Goliath. I don't know. Hercules. You'd get, you know, reports. He'd go and visit schools. And he was just this really, like, nice guy, right? Like a nice grown-up. So, let me ask you this.

And then the commercial would come on. Carvel ice cream get your ice cream at carvel cookie puss cookie puss ice cream come to carvel remember those commercials of course western new york carvel ice cream shout out to steve tasker but hold on here this is important so we're all similar vintage. And I have the same memory. In fact, somebody said, oh, they Googled it when Commander Tom died. And they ended up on my blog. Because I wrote about this a hundred years ago.

Yeah. Because on a Sunday morning, so I'm not quite 50, but I'm only a couple years behind Phil here. But on a Sunday morning, there was nothing. It was like religious programming and news programs. And I had no interest in either. Yeah. Color bars. Right.

Irv Weinstein. But Commander Tom would come on. And you color bars. Or Weinstein. But, Commander Tom would come on and they're, you're right, we'd have Davy and Goliath, which I had no idea that was like

religious propaganda. Right. I had this chat with Stephen Page, like, how old were you when you figured it out? And I'm like,

I'm in my 30s maybe. Wait, what? You didn't know there was something slightly off about it? No, I didn't know.

First of all, I went to a Catholic school, so like church was a part of the whole deal or whatever. So it didn't seem that out of place or whatever. In hindsight, it's like, but I was stupid, so that's part of it too. But this whole, it's yeah, Church of Latter-day Saints or whatever propaganda

in this show. But I loved it because it wasn't the church show and it wasn't Meet the Press or whatever. This was something I could watch on a Sunday morning. Shout out to Commander Tom. Shout out. And Oasis. And you know, he was the last of the big three

out of WKBW, obviously. Irv Weinstein, Rick Azar, and Tom Jules. Now they're all gone. God bless them. But I got to say, Mike, there was a lot of action, of course. They brought up a lot of kids in Toronto. They did.

Oh no, they were huge here. They were totally huge. But if you're older, this is the thing. So I've noticed some baby boomers or older Gen Xers are like, yeah,

I remember him on weekday nights. So when, that's how you can kind of find out how old somebody is by which, when did Commander Tom

hit him? Like for me, it was always Sundays. Yeah, yeah, because that was the 80s, the later era.

Shout out to the 80s. But I got to tell you, the funniest comment, somebody left, you know, of course, I was posting about this on social media when he passed away. Somebody said that the Commander Tom show was like Uncle Bobby without the smell of urine.

That summed it up pretty nicely. We are pretty much like, I did the cold open, but Toronto Mike, when Retro Ontario on is like your one-stop shopping for all things Uncle Bobby. Like there's not a lot of outlets paying tribute to the great Bobby Ash, right? Like this is a big deal. It was Bobby Ash, right?

It was Bobby Ash. That was a big part of me wanting to be involved in this exhibit as well, was to put Uncle Bobby in the proper context. That isn't just about the jokes of him smelling like scotch. Is this Shaggin' Wagon somewhere nearby? The Shaggin' Wagon was not available to be an exhibit. You could have parked it in the proper context that isn't just about the jokes of him smelling like scotch. Is this Shaggin' Wagon somewhere nearby? The Shaggin' Wagon was not available to be an exhibit. You could have parked it in the corner there.

No, you know, Mike, I don't know if we've ever talked about this, but one of the things, Toronto Mike, that is fascinating about Uncle Bobby, aside from all the funny stuff, is that that was the very first program in all of north america that had sign language through bev marsh so even though we can take the mick about uncle bobby and all the you know dodgy stuff that was happening behind the scenes consensual adult dodgy stuff i always want to preface that consider what happened in england okay right but also just the cheapness of it in the the you know smelling smelling like scotch, you know.

Right. I would expect nothing less, please. But this is important. When you came over, well, you didn't come over. You zoomed in, Ed. You're getting lazy on me, but we did a Christmas Crackers. We do it every December, Christmas Crackers. And they're very popular because people love it when Ed Conroy comes back to Toronto Mike.

Last time we did Christmas crackers, I got a note right away from Cam Gordon. Okay, he's also in the FOTM Hall of Fame. One day Phil will get there. Just keep it up. You're going to get there one day. What's FOTM? Get off my microphone, you son of a bitch.

Come on. It's a friend of Toronto Mic'd. Oh, yeah. You're going to get there. Okay. I have high hopes. But Cam Gordon, his mind was blown when he discovered something. Then I need to talk to you now that we're talking Uncle Bobby, okay? So I'm going to play this, and then we're going to talk about it.

Because he didn't know, and I don't think I knew, and I know you knew, but we never discovered it. But listen to this in your headphones. Bimbo, Bimbo, where you gonna go? Bimbo, Bimbo, where you gonna go? On the Uncle Bobby Show. Bimbo, Bimbo, does your mommy know? That you're going down the road to see your little girlie-o? Bimbo is a little boy who's got a million friends. And every time he passes by, they all invite him in.

He'll clap his hands, sing and dance, talk his baby talk with a hole in his pants. As he's sticking out, he's just big enough to walk. Bimbo, Bimbo, where you gonna go with your bimbo, bimbo? What you gonna do? PJ Freshville, Retro Ontario's Ed Conroy. Okay, so we hear that song and we all hear the bimbo, the birthday clown from Uncle Bobby. Did you know it was a cover?

Yeah, of course. Did we ever talk about it? Yeah, but we never talked about that. I think we did. You're holding out on me? Come on. No, because that was the joke, right? That was a cover of Jim Reeves

and the opening that we started the episode with is Jean-Jacques Perret, right? It's a move. They were just making music all over the place. But if you don't share the joke, we don't know,

we're not in on the joke. You can't keep all this stuff in your head and not share it with the FOTMs listening at home. So Cam didn't know that Jim Reeves, this was a cover,

this bit, but we thought it was like an Uncle Bobby song created for the birthday clown. No. But this is like a standard? Yeah, well, it's like Friendly Giant, right? Early One Morning, same idea. It's an old song been around forever.

Yeah, that's really old. That's really old. Okay. Wow, okay. So it was free. They didn't have to pay for it. That's right. That's why. Wow, okay. I'm still reeling here. Here, let me give you guys a quick gift here. Oh, I can't.

Yeah, I'm going to give you a gift, Phil. Oh, what? This is a wireless speaker. It actually sounds amazing. And I got one for Ed as well. Oh, get out of here. And that was sent over to me to give to you by Moneris, because Moneris would like you to listen to season four of Yes, We Are Open,

which is hosted by FOTM Al Grego. Al's been traveling the country talking to small business owners and capturing their stories, sharing it with us on this excellent podcast called Yes, We Are Open. So now you have a great wireless speaker. Thank you. Maneris, a true friend of Toronto Mike. Again, Maneris.

And while we're there, do you do voiceover work? I just did. You owe him 50 bucks. I gave him a speaker. When you guys come back to the TMBS Basin studio, this is what I will give you when you come back, Phil, to kick out

those jams. And Ed, you're welcome anytime. Even if you move to the boonies, but that's okay. You're welcome anytime. I have, of course, I have fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brew. I thought you might bring some. You know, I wish you had told me because I was pouring rain. I was packing up. I don't have any Great Lakes. And I wasn't sure, can we drink here?

It seemed like, I didn't know if we should drink in front of Muffy Mouse over there. I don't know. But delicious. I had three. Do you guys like baseball? Yeah. Do you like baseball? Yeah, I like baseball.

I see you got a Jays cap on. Okay. So what if I told you Dave Perkins, Bob Elliott, and Larry Milson together in my basement chatting on my microphone last night? That's like Mount Rushmore style. It really kind of blows my mind. Those three gentlemen came over at the same time, same space. Nobody's zooming in. Okay.

They're there. I could reach out and punch each other. But man, Dave Perkins got a case of a, got a six pack of Great Lakes beer during his first visit and he changed his beers.

He only drinks Great Lakes now. Wow. He knows his beer. So shout out to Great Lakes. Shout out to Palma Pasta.

Lasagna for you guys when you come over. Delicious, authentic Italian food. And recycle my electronics.ca. That's where you go, Ed, when you got to

get rid of these TVs. No, we're not getting rid of those TVs. But I should go there and see if someone else is getting rid of those TVs. You know what? Yeah, go find the nearest depot to you. Recycle my electronics dot C-A and see if you can find somebody's CRT monitor there. Okay, so that was the Cam Gordon mind blow, which did not blow Ed's mind. Did it blow your mind, Phil, that that's a cover?

The bimbo is a covered you mind blown manaris okay can we talk friendly john i grew up with that song and yeah but i don't know as a kid you never thought on it i wonder if this isn't a no no no you don't know did you watch uncle bobby i watched uncle bob what did you what did you think about it? I mean. I took in anything I could get. You know what I mean? Like there was not much for kids. Right.

When Chitty Chitty Bang Bang came out, you had to go to Chitty Bang. You know, you had to go see whatever, whatever was there for you. Like you sought it out. You know, Flintstones at lunchtime. Like any of it, you know. Jetsons. And then YTV came in and ruined that all. I'm just kidding kidding but did you ever

think something was a raw like when you were watching uncle bobby like it just didn't seem right somehow like there was just something weird about it no i loved it i would as a kid i was a little kid i sat back with my scotch i just just sipped i don't know when nina was on your show if if she told you her Uncle Bobby experience. Oh, she visited the Shaggin' Wagon? Well, no, she was a puppeteer. Right. And she hated it because he did something that is like in the business,

unforgivable, okay? And this is the way it was set up to me. I was like thinking the worst. But you know what he did? She was on there operating a hand puppet, and he pulled the chair away so that the kids could see it was a human with a puppet on their hand he destroyed the illusion of the puppet which is like you do not okay cross the streams this this saturday i was at the grilled cheese challenge okay this is a local festival uh they have a grilled cheese competition this was just this past saturday and there's a guy

who walks around he's supposed to be like the lakeshore village mascot of some sort so he's the guy in a costume and i was there my my seven-year-old daughter morgan shout out to morgan love you morgan so we're there this guy in the mascot i saw him he was crouching under a table like this he's under tables crouching down like taking off his head and he was crouching under a table like this he's under a table crouching down like taking off his head and he was and i look over and i was like oh there's like i guess there's no privacy for him whenever he needed a drink or something he's gonna pass out but seeing this beheaded lakeshore village uh creature of sorts i don't know how to describe this mascot but i was like i was thinking to myself like no that's that's not allowed like my seven-year-old is going to see your head and you got to keep the illusion. Like this is a

cardinal sin. So I know what Nina is saying. You never do that. Don't ruin the illusion. Yeah, but he's a human being. Sometimes you just need to hack a butt and have a beer from Great Lakes Brewers. They were. That was the brewer of record for the Grilled Cheese Challenge. And I want to shout out

Ridley Funeral Home because they finished second in this grilled cheese challenge. Ridley Funeral Home. They actually won last year, but they finished second this year. What was the cheese made out of? Soylent green? Too easy. Too easy.

It's like we're playing t-ball here. Just take your cut. Ridley Funeral Homes. Where comfort is number one. How are you not on TV today? Do you have opportunities to be on TV and you're just like, no? Thank you for your applications to Rogers Media. Although your resume was very intriguing,

we decided to move on with another applicant. Thank you for your application to Bell Media. Although we decided to go with someone, another applicant. And then I watch TV and watch them fumble with the words. Gynecological doctor.

And I'm like, the news is supposed to be a public service. Learn how to speak. Yeah, really. You know, I don't know. Yeah. Hey, I'm on this. how did you get this guy sell yourself too short i'm on toronto mic trying to get my my pin hall of fame membership don't sell yourself short and how okay and so

tell me this so obviously uh heidi we heard from he Heidi earlier. And Heidi explained that her first and only call was to Mr. Retro Ontario, Ed Conroy, because of this exhibit we won at Myseum. How do you rope in the great PJ Fresh Phil so that he's here today? Because let's face it, this Myseum is our exclusive. We can run around naked or whatever. It's not even open. Do you want to do that later? It's not even open to the public today.

This is literally open for us to record this episode. And you have PJ Fresh Phil here. How did you land Phil? Trash the place. Is he sleeping in your boathouse? No. Cato Kaelin style? Phil's been a friend for a long time.

We worked on other things together over the years. And of course. It began with Junior J's. Junior J's. Yeah, right. Back in the day. And when this opportunity came up- Wait, but tell me the Junior Jays thing.

Like, how are you involved in Junior Jays? I wrote those comics back in the day. The Dr. J. Dr. J. Dr. J, who was basically a rip-off. Trademark pending. You'd see him at the cheese sandwich festival with his mustache off, with his big mustache off.

Ruining. You know, it's funny. The guy who played Dr. J, his name was Roger Clown. He's best friends with James B because he was in James B's band. Is James B famous? No. He's in The Look People? No, not Look People.

One of the other, one of the lounge acts. Oh, yeah, yeah. During the Jump, Drive and Whale revival of the early 90s. Absolutely. I love it. Okay. Shout out to Kevin Hearn

who was in Look People. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Friendly Giant. Yeah. I think that's my, like my first memory

of like all these shows we're talking about. I feel it's a Friendly Giant. Like I feel like that was my show. I loved it when he put out the chair for me, and I loved Rusty would show up. I just loved everything about The Friendly Giant. Should I play this clip?

Yeah. Here we go. I just like toys to me because I'm a giant. And the animals like me because I'm a friendly giant. You like my farm. And you like my castle, too. You haven't seen my castle, have you? That's a good place.

I have lots of books and records and lots of pictures and some friends. Shall we go to my castle? All right. Now, I'll hurry over and go in the back door so that I can open the front doors and let down the drawbridge for you. You ready? Here is my castle. that gets me like right in the feels. And that's crazy.

That's like the orchestrated version of the theme. In the later era, it was just him on the recorder, like solo style playing that tune. But no, that's a, you know, the Friendly Giant connection to all of this, very important story that is not really celebrated as much as it should. And I do apologize if i've told it on

your program before never apologize for that but uh if look in the eyes and tell me you understand don't you ever apologize for retelling a friendly giant story okay i used to be a go-go dancer at the phoenix did i tell you have i talked about that there there was a guy uh long lost guy uh but he's a big part of this exhibit. His name is Dr. Fred Rainsberry, okay? And he was from a place called Enniskillen in Ontario. He was a schoolteacher. And he was one of the first people that was actually writing academic papers about television,

like in the early 50s, about the effects that television would have. But he focused on kids, right? Marshall McLuhan and a lot of the other academics that were writing about it were talking about grown-up stuff. But Rainsbury was talking about kids' shows. Thankfully, somebody at the CBC clued into this guy and said, we should basically just give this guy the keys to the children's department.

Let him pick all the shows. So they hired him. And he had, like, no television experience he's just a school teacher right anyways he ends up going down to america he recruits bob hummy the friendly giant from wisconsin right he recruits uh ernie coombs he recruits fred rogers he recruits lw he just goes down but how do you mean fred ro doesn't come back, does he? Yeah, they all come back. Mr. Rogers started on CBC. He ran for one year on CBC. See, the thing about these, you blow my mind with those kind of tidbits,

and then I forget, and then I have my mind blown again. Because I don't think I remember Fred Rogers. It gets whitewashed out of the Tom Hanks movie. They don't even talk about that part. But the characters that Friendly Giant and Mr. Rogers and Mr. Dress-Up, we've talked a lot about this in the show, they spoke to you like you were a friend. They didn't speak to you like a grown-up talking to a kid.

Most kid shows back then, it was very patronizing. Hey, kids, today we're going to color a picture, and you're going to like it. It was that kind of tone. But all those dudes had this very sort of congenial friendly approach to speaking to you and i think as a viewer you that's why you got drawn into those worlds like even him saying come and look at my books and records yeah okay let's go what are we waiting for and as you've you know what i did that i did that that's how i talked to

yeah totally right totally you know you so I got a speeding ticket this weekend. Guys, here's the thing about speeding tickets. Like that's what Bill's talking about. It's real talk. Make sure you have your insurance in the car when you start driving. Yeah. Because you'll get this thing called a 24-hour notice. Now, what that is, and I've had people come up to me,

man, now I understand what you were talking about. I got a holdover audio, though, because I just heard the beautiful voice of PJ Fresh Phil. I'm going to play this. Oh, God. This way, guys. Oh, no. Are you all right? I hurt my leg.

You're a big deal. Uh-oh, let's freeze it right there. You shouldn't move a person who might have a serious injury. If this happens to you, go directly to a house that has this sign in the window. Oh, I know, yeah. Mike was smart. He went to get help. Life isn't a video machine.

When trouble happens, block parents are there. A video machine? Video. What's a video? A video. A video. A video. A video. A video.

A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video.

A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video.

A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video.

A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video.

A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video.

A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video.

A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video.

A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video.

A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video.

A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. A video. I still see the sticker sometimes, the Block Parents sticker. Yeah, I think they canceled that program because there was some trouble, right? Well, I think anyone could get a Block Parents sticker.

If you wanted to lure kids into your house, you would put up that sticker. Where can I get one of these? It's just a sticker, right? They don't go check you out, your background, check you out. They just give you the sticker. So that's fascinating. The Kids Help Phone was real, though. I'm proud of the Kids Help Phone stuff I did.

But explain the video machine. Is it like a video game or is it to play video? I think it was just badly written copy, I think. But no, to go back to what Phil was saying, I think even though I was in high school and I was way out of the age demographic for YTV, I did watch The Zone because I thought he was a cool guy. And I'm like, what's he going to do today?

Anything could happen on The Zone. You never know. And it was like the new munch music environment. Instead of VJs, they were PJs. Right. And they were showing, I think what's cool about YTV in that time too, they were showing new programs like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But there was also old black and white shows and Lone Ranger

and Rocky and Bullwinkle would be mixed in with Samurai Pizza Cat. So it was kind of like a retro channel in the early 90s. I'm right here, guys. Okay. I'm here. Can we get off YTV already? Use me. Can we get off YTV already?

I know we covered today's special. But I didn't get to say anything. You want to leave it now? That's an inside joke. All right, okay, let's get out. The FOTMs know that's what Gino Vanelli said to me when I was asking him too many questions about black cars.

He looked at me and said, can we get off black cars already? So please. Gino Vanelli said that. Can we talk about Polka Dot Door for a moment? Polka Dot Door. I'm looking at, I'm actually looking at the door right, I can't believe I'm here. My ZM, 401 Richmond.

When's this open? When's this open? It's open from noon until 6pm Wednesday through Saturday, I believe. Okay, I'm going to stay here till Wednesday's opening. Yeah. Because I want there to be an exhibit. Oh yeah, it's great to see people come in and interact and get their minds blown at these different

stations because everybody is obviously different age, different backgrounds. They remember some things, they don't remember other things. It's like, take your pick. What's the most recent thing in this museum right now? The YTV. Me. Phil is an exhibit unto himself.

He just sits in a corner. I'm going to come back and pretend to be a wax statue. Yeah, you'd scare the hell out of him. Oh, it looks just like him. Honestly, get that on camera. Should we point out there is a fourth person in this room? So there is cameras on us, but they're not my cameras. So I don't know if they'll be used for nefarious purposes or not.

But I just want to recognize that. Yeah. These are my friends from Block Parents. Don't worry about them. Mike was smart. I checked the resume. There's a video machine over there I got my back against the video machine

Okay Polka Dot Door Let's start with this The Polka Dot Door The Polka Dot Door Let's peep through the Polka Dot Door Songs and stories and so much more Through the Polka dot door. This is the time we always say.

Get ready, get set for imagination day. We'll tell some tales. We'll pretend and play. So come in. The polka dot way. What can we say? Brought to you by Moneris. I grew up on that one.

Takes you back. That's it. It was very leisurely storytelling, right? It was like hanging out with those hosts and the toys. They'd read a book. They'd play in the sandbox. They'd do a craft. Humpty Dumpty, Marigold, and Bear.

Yeah, and then later on there was Mitsu, the French cat. Bye-bye, Mon Cowboy? No, not that one. But yeah, they had to get progressive. Yes.

We needed Mitsu. Okay, I had tapped out by then. Yeah, that was, it was a French-Canadian cat. And so the idea being they were learning some French.

Ida, the French-Canadian cat. Because that would be good if it was like, you could connect that or whatever. No, Polka Dot Door,

I mean, we might have talked about this before. That was actually based on a British kids program called Play School that had the same idea, except instead of a Polka Dot Door, it was a window, and they had the same stuffed animals, the exact same stuffed animals. They had the same male female host. See, we do talk about this, and then again, I forget,

and then I blow my mind again. But the one thing that the Toronto version added, obviously they retitled it, but they created Pokeroo. There was no Pokeroo in the British version. Right, okay, so on that note, let's listen to this, and then I have some Pokeroo questions. What star? This one.

The Pokeroo gave it to me. Pokeroo was here? And I missed him again. The Pokeroo is here. The Pokeroo was here? And I missed him again the pokaroo was here the pokaroo was here and i missed him again the pokaroo here and i missed him again oh pokaroo was here and now he's gone i think pokaroo was here and i missed him again the pokaroo was here yes he just came back from a trip oh i missed him again. Pokeroon.

Little audio sting at the end there, man. I loved that. That's, you know, clearly the guy, whoever the male co-host was, was Pokeroon. He was Pokeroon. I don't believe that, man. I thought that as a kid. Yeah, I mean, as a kid. I know. So how can you keep Mystic?

Obviously, it's because he is Pokeroo. But you see, what a cool little conceit to put in a show that just makes you still think about it all the same. And that is, that's our, that's a TVO original that has. Totally. So yeah, and Pokeroo belongs to TVO. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure he still goes out, right? He goes out with Steve Paikin,

and when they do like Word on the Street. I think Paikin is Poker Room. I've heard that theory before. That's my theory. I'm working on that. No, Nina will take you to task if you ever say that, because she was the first female host of Poker.org, and she used to wear the costume sometimes.

So I think maybe that later era, it was the dumb men that went away and missed him. But in the early ones, sometimes it was the women. Phil, what do you think? Hmm? Where am I? Honestly, you guys know some... This is like Charlie Rose of...

Who? Nina? The other thing I like... I haven't been able to say, yes, I know Nina. I've been sitting here for an hour. Nina Keough has never visited your home and sat in your basement for two hours? I don't remember her coming to my basement. You haven't lived.

Ed hooked me up with Gina, by the way. She came to Scarborough? I love... New Toronto. I loved that I would... Predicting which circle had the hinge on it

that the camera was going to bust through. And you knew that you could only see... I remember there was only a couple that had a hinge on it. Like, as you get older and you realize, oh, it can't be a circle that doesn't have a hinge.

But still, you're kind of like early gambling. Yeah, totally. I got 10 bucks on that. I think Peter Gross used to gamble on which circle the camera would go through. Peter Gross calls me every Sunday. Oh, wow. Living legend.

He is the latest inductee into the FOTM Hall of Fame. Oh, good. He did my VL, I think, when I was inducted. Yes, he did his own. So we inducted him at a TMLX event at Palmer's Kitchen, and he actually did his own voiceover to induct himself, which I wrote it. I thought it was pretty clever.

Yeah, meta. Yeah, I love it. I love it was pretty clever. Yeah, I love it. He's a good man. And here with an early look at crime is Jojo Chinto. The puppetry to walk into this, beckers. Now do Howard Hussain.

Minus 15 in Goderich. We'll be looking at a mix of sun and clouds, so if you're going down to the island, make sure in Goderich. We'll be looking at a mix of sun and clouds. So if you're going down to the island, make sure you bring an umbrella. Yes, please. I can't continue. Shulman helps. Watch it, buddy. Silverman.

Silverman helps. Watch it, buddy. Yeah, Phil does a one-man production of the City of Poles. Can you do more? Gordon Mar Poles. Can you do more? Gordon Marneau. Can you do Jim McKinney? Rock Wazine. What about Jim McKinney?

Who was the environmental guy? Hunter. Yeah, Hunter. Hunter goes green. Do you remember that? I don't know how I saw this, but it was like a city Christmas reel. Yeah, yeah. I've seen this too.

It's something like where he's- The Rock Wazine jokes? city christmas reel yeah yeah i've seen this it's something like where he's the rock for a scene jokes yeah like he's like they have him like peeing and peeing he's peeing in like the dawn river he's like oh would you drink this water and then it cuts to him peeing on the ground he's like would you drink this ground bob hunter yeah is that? It's the same one in Ben Chin, like falls into the swamp. Right. Yeah.

It was like stuff like that. So Jojo Chinto almost came on, like he was going to come on Toronto Mike, but it was before, back in the day. I love Jojo. Yeah. And his kids were doing some athletics in the States or something. And at the time I wanted him to physically come on.

Pre-COVID, you couldn't like zoom it in or whatever. But now I want to revisit it because I would let him zoom in today yeah you should man oh you gotta get jojo and what's harold like what's the status of harold hussein i haven't heard of him in a long time he's retired i mean his daughter follows me on instagram and anytime we post clips can you ask his daughter yeah yeah i'll connect you. I'm sure he would. I need these cats. And Lorne Honickman, do you do a Lorne Honickman? Oh, Mark Daly. Let's hear Mark Daly.

I can't remember Mark Daly. Well, no, I know the voice. I don't think I can do it. You're all warming up here. Hold on, here we go, here we go. He's just gone. The following program contains adult themes, nudity and coarse language.

Viewer and parental discretion is advised. Yep, Mark Daly. I can't do that voice. But I do remember one of those like, you're watching City TV everywhere and I think for some reason

they had a camera like on Bay Street at six in the morning and it's Keith Richards and he's like, hey man. It's like, you know he's not.

It's like six in the morning. He's like coming home from somewhere. Do you do a John Gallagher? And they somehow caught. Yeah. I don't do it. Keith Richards?

You don't do it? But yeah, You don't do a Gallagher? But yeah, Keith Richards is like, hey, man. That's so good. With like sunglasses on. That's amazing. But I do, yeah. You know what I remember is like City TV and like the late. Like you would see these great movies.

Not blue movies, but just crazy movies. No, like Porky's or Revenge of the Nerds. Christian F. Or like these crazy. What was that one with that animation with the blue people? Oh, yes. You'd see that stuff. What's this?

Oh, Forbidden. Planet. Savage Planet. Savage Planet. Forbidden Planet. Fantastic Planet. Fantastic Planet. You know what I mean?

That stuff. Logan's Run. Logan's Run. That would come on. Westworld. The Daryl Hannah Greek Islands movie what's that Summer Lovers

Summer Lovers oh yeah they're going on to the yacht and that song's playing jet set jet set that's amazing

jet set that's amazing you guys are a good dynamic duo actually okay so I want to talk because it's just been you two talking

I don't know is there is there room for a third in your duo jeez oh tough crowd wow okay mr dress up yes another uh one of my favorites ec where does ernie combs and mr dress up so where does that come out of like we talked about the friendly giant. My memory has it like, does he take over for the friendly giant or the concurrent? No, no, no.

What happened was, I was watching both. There was a program called Butternut Square, okay? And that came on after Mr. Rogers. And Mr. Rogers decided he wanted to go back to America. So he effed off back to America and then suddenly, Pittsburgh, he wanted to go back to America. So he effed off back to America and then suddenly... Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh. Suddenly, CBC is left with a giant hole in their schedule. And he said, what are we going to do? So before he left, okay, they had a meeting with Mr. Rogers and he goes, you know what? Give Ernie his own show.

He knows what he's doing. So that's how Mr. Dressel came out of Butternut Square. Okay. Real quick though, because it's in my head right now. Friendly Giant, you once told me the Friendly Giant didn't do any appearances live because he didn't want the kids to know he wasn't a giant. That's why he got sacked.

That's amazing. That's why he got sacked. And it was so sad because he found out by literally opening up the newspaper and seeing that his program was being replaced by Fred Penner. Okay? Because Fred Penner was happy to go to the mall or go to a school. Yeah, because he wasn't a giant. And sign autographs. But Bob Honey... He had a giant beard. That's right. Penner. Because Fred Penner was happy to go to the mall or go to a school and sign autographs. He had a giant beard.

That's right. So for many years, poor old Fred Penner was known as the Giant Slayer. The Giant Slayer. Oh, he's a good guy. He is a good guy. And I think it upset him that he was known as that. I'm a Fred head. Yeah. Okay, wow. So back to the scene of the bass.

Okay, we have Mr. Dress Up. Can I play the remix? Yeah, that was a cool thing. Somebody sent that to me when they, I guess they had visited the exhibit. This Myseum exhibit. This Myseum exhibit and had been very inspired. Does this exhibit have a name?

Yes, it's called From Mr. Dress Up to Degrassi. It's a great name. It's great for SEO. Right. All right, let's called From Mr. Dress Up to Degrassi. It's a great name. It's great for SEO. Right. All right, let's play this. Punctuated by PJ Phil. Steel Jones. Wow. Wow.

It's like the Day in the Life remix or whatever. Wow. Wow. Wow. Jazz. Wow. Wow. That's fantastic. Very Brubecky.

Now, I will shout out Rob Pruess again, because again because rob pruse who was a keyboardist for spoons during their glory days uh rob pruse played tmlxx at great lakes brewery which was our 10th toronto mike listener experience and he played the mr dress-up theme get out of here amazing oh that's it was absolutely also from honey honeymoon suite please yeah yeah but only one album only one album. Only one album. And that's the album I had. I actually interviewed them and everybody was there but Rob Pruce.

But the new guy signed over his face. He was like, I'll do it. Yeah, whatever. That album had the Lethal Weapon song. Right.

Because that was, Rob was on that Lethal Weapon song. Oh, that's some good residuals. Yeah, I don't know. I should ask him that when he's over next week. I like your Martha and the Muffins shirt. Thank you.

I got it from Martha and the Muffins. They came over. Yeah, Martha and Mark. That Black Station's White Station's. If you want your stereo to sound really good, play that song on vinyl. I asked Mark, like, what's up? We all know Martha and the Muffins,

but then Black Station's White Station's comes out and it's by M&M. M plus M. And Mark said he was tired of being a muffin. Oh, really? They're delicious. and the muffins but then black stations white stations comes out and it's by m and m m plus m and mark said he was tired of being a muffin they're delicious yeah muffins are amazing right like who could ever be tired of being a muffin but he's like yeah i got tired of being a muffin so m and m and now they're back to mirth and the muffins because of branding etc etc etc asmr you know what that is ed uh i think i do do you know phil isn't that a that's a song on the uh risky business soundtrack i think it's prince

it is it's it's a very popular thing now right it's this idea that there's sounds that uh relax your brain and certainly the way people talk. Do you guys want to start talking like this? Yeah. I mean, do you have any felt? Can I play some Mr. Dress-Up ASMR noise? Yeah, because it's a big part of it. All right.

Quiet on the set because you do need to listen closely. Here we go. There we go. Down here. I think, you know, whether you were a kid that was watching mr dress up because it was your age or you were an older kid and you were home from school sick you know drinking chicken soup and laying on the couch those noises of the crayons and the markers and the scissors the scissors absolutely chilled you out yeah absolutely thank you for uh sharing that that's amazing i just saw like we're gonna burn through a whole bunch of shows but we can't go as

deep into these shows as we have been because we don't have that kind of time but i do want to thank the good people at the moment lab if you're looking pj fresh phil for uh representation from a pr standpoint getting your name in the news, helping you with your PR strategy. You need the Moment Lab and I'm happy to introduce you or anyone else listening to Matt and Jared from the Moment Lab. They work with good people like Rick the Temp and Stu Stone and Donovan Bailey and a whole bunch of great FOTMs like that. I know two of those guys. Which two?

Stu Stone and Rick Campanelli. How well do you know Stu Stone? I was recently talking to him about an idea. Plus, I met him at a convention at the Niagara Falls Comic Con and he sat next to me for Magic School Bus. Right, Magic School Bus. He's also Donnie Darko.

And my pet monster. He's got a new story. Wayne and Schuster. He was basically featured in a documentary called Jack of All Trades. Oh, he directed it? Yeah. No, Harv Glazer directed that. Oh, did he?

Okay, okay. Another guy. Right. Yeah, so, yeah, yeah. But regardless, remember, to handle your PR needs, it's The Moment Lab. Shout out to The Moment Lab. All right.

Dear Anne Agnes, did I tell you the story? Heather Conkey, right? Heartland. I reached out to have her on, and she punted me to CBC PR. This is going back pre-pandemic, so a few years. And they said, no. She wasn't available to be on Toronto Mike. I don't understand the logic. Can you help me out with this? What's the logic?

I was actually just going to talk to her about D-Rant Agnes. Yeah, of course. She doesn't like to talk about those things because she's a big producer now, right? So does she tell, does she use PR as the bad comp so she can stay good? Does she basically say, hey, tell them I don't want to do this Bozo show. Where's the, she basically say, hey, tell him, I, you know, I don't want to do this Bozo show.

Where's the Bozo wink? But like, maybe you had her on with you and Ed and you ignored her completely. We're not ignoring you. I can't tell her. Phil, that mic is open,

man. I'm scared. I'm just scared of talking. When you open your mouth, we shut up and listen. Really? I'm not good at that. I'm not good at that.

I'll just, I'll just wait. Here's some Dear Aunt Agnes. This is TV Ontario Dear Aunt Agnes Remember You said you'd help me out if you could Well my job is taking me far away To move the children just wouldn't be good

If you will stay, you will come and stay You'd be the best standard girl ever had Dear Aunt Agnes, dear Aunt Agnes Won't you come and stay? Dear Aunt Agnes, dear Aunt Agnes Won't you come and stay Dear Aunt Agnes, dear Aunt Agnes Won't you come and stay

Dear Aunt Agnes See, I don't know what that, what is that? That was Dear Aunt Agnes. You know what it is? I don't know any of this stuff. What was Aunt Agnes? I remember Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. It was 85, 1985.

Yeah, I remember this one well. It took place in the mean streets of Rosedale. And it was about a rich family where the mom and dad got divorced and left. And they brought in the aunt to look after the kids because at the time there was no programs really for what you would now call tweens, like 11, 12, 13.

Who had this? TV Ontario. TV, oh. Who had this? TVO. TVO. And it was on a lot. I mean, in the 80s, it was on all the time. I watched Mary Tyler Moore and Rhoda. That kind of reminds me of that kind of stuff.

Is that wrong? I'm looking in the Myseum. Where's the Rhoda exhibit? Was it like Too Close for Comfort? Was it like that kind of that? It was a drama. Ted Knight. Yeah. I used to watch too close for comfort.

I think it was probably closer to Miss Doubtfire. No. Monroe. But yeah, I mean, Heather Conkey, though, let's,

she was a host of polka dot door. Oh, right. She was also report Canada, which was that little interstitial that ran every day on TVO, taught about Canadian history. So she's a huge part of her childhood. I know, that's why I wanted her on Toronto Marriott. I know, and I've tried to get to her before, too.

She's a tough nut to crack. Okay, so now I feel better. She's a tough nut to crack. For sure. So shout out to Dear Aunt Agnes. You ready for this intro? I like to look at Phil while I play these intros to see if it resonates with him at all. It's kind of part of the fun.

Hit me with another one. Look at Phil while I play these intros to see if it resonates with him at all. Hit me with another one. Children's Underground Club of United Missing People. For enthusiastic reporters. Children's Underground Club of United Missing People. For enthusiastic reporters. You know this, Ed? Yeah. Who is it? There's a banger.

Cucumber. Cucumber. Cucumber. It's where John Candy got his first TV gig. But what years did Cucumber air on TVO? So Cucumber was on from the early 70s, but it was rerun all through the 80s and even into the 90s. I told you I saw The Silent Partner, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Candy's in that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, Candy was a busy guy even before SCTV. He really wanted to be an actor. And he plays Superman, but he's like a weather Superman in Cucumber. But a lot of SCTV folk were hanging around TVO.

Martin Short was on Cucumber. Was Dave Thomas on there? No. Because he's an FOTM. Have you heard the Dave Thomas episode? I listened to some of it, yeah. Just some of it. Not good enough to listen to the whole thing.

You got Dave Thomas? Nice. Yeah, no, he's a legend. Not in the basement. Not in the basement. Oh. No, those shows, the reason Cucumber is important in the grand scheme of things is it was created by Clive Annenberg, who went on to create today's special.

Right. And did all kinds of other great stuff at TVO. I love it how all the pieces fit. That's why Ed's here. That's why this exhibit is here. And I suspect that it opens at noon wednesday yeah at noon there's gonna be a lineup for like kilometers i'm just trying to put it at noon i feel like i can't tell him let's talk about phil for a minute ed you and i talk

about phil pretend he's not here okay i can't tell if he's doing a bit or if he actually feels like uh we haven't given him enough mic time no no, no, no, no. I just don't know. I just really don't know the subject matter. You guys know it so well. Well, Ed's the curator of this museum. Of course, Ed knows it. I'm just the curious. I'm the host of the show.

This is not Toronto filled. Yeah, I don't know these names. Oh, I mean, Phil's one of the few people that I can geek out with about a lot of stuff. We can talk about music or we talk about movies. Do some more Jojo Jinto. Yeah, let's do that. You'll appreciate this, Mike. One thing I learned out of this exhibit that I did not know about before,

but is TM crazy, okay? Trademark, not Toronto Mike. Not Toronto Mike. There is a program called Howdy Doody Show. Of course. You know that, right? Of course, yeah. It was the American Howdy Doody Show in the 50s.

Right. With, hey, kids, and all that stuff. What time is it? When Fred Rainsbury took over the children's department at CBC, he said, we've got to stop showing this American crap, okay? If we want to show Howdy Doody, let's make our own version of Howdy Doody. So they started doing a Canadian version version same name but different characters and they had shatner was on there and james doohan all these people were on there wow but what they used to do is they would create

their own puppets and they would show these old stock like bits of stock footage and film and each puppet would introduce like today we're going to learn about how you get salt out of the bottom of the lake or, you know, something educational. Sure. But one of the puppets they created was called Mr. X, okay? And Mr. X was this kind of mysterious old man who you couldn't see his face, but he was used to introduce historical footage because he had a little box that he would go into that would

travel through space and time and he would introduce these things this is from 1759 or this is from the future yeah on and on and on this is in uh the mid 1950s okay at the time cbc director programming was a guy named sydney newman i don't know if you've ever heard of him before but he ended up getting stolen away from the cbc by the bbc in england and he went over to england 1962 sydney you got to come up with a with an educational show for kids because i got a great one dr who wow but there's a lot of evidence that dr who is basically just mr x from howdy duty but there's no footage of it so that's the problem. It's like you're dealing with people's like 60

year old memories. We need to interview old people. They're all gone. I had them in my basement last night. Who, Mr. X? No, old people. Shout out to old people. I hope to be one one day. Yeah. Like this is the goal. We're there. Can you imagine? Let's do this again in 30 years and see how the nostalgic trip goes.

You said Doctor Who, so now we can't have of the TV when Doctor Who started and it had that scary what is that called? It scared the shit out of me. I was traumatized. I still can't watch Doctor Who. But I think, Mike, that you just hit something that is an important part of this whole exhibit.

Back then, we were saying, kids only had little pockets of entertainment, right? So you'd get an after-school block, you'd get a Saturday morning block, and then you got Commander Tom on Sunday. Right. Right? So just because you were watching a kid's show

and then a grown-up show would just burst right into the end and mess you up. Nowadays, that doesn't happen to me. You've got kids, right? They're siloed. They're watching Disney Plus or they're watching YouTube for kids. They're not getting the intrusive, weird, grown-up stuff.

They aren't stumbling upon this thing that they never intended to see. So in the exhibit, all these screens that you see usually are showing clips from the programs. So on Wednesday, when I come back, they'll be showing this stuff. They'll be pumping out nostalgia, but they're also peppered with commercials and news pieces

and public service announcements, just to give that context of what it was like to watch TV back then. Okay, any commercials with Stu Stone? Is it the Kraft Dinner one? There's an epic... Oh, yes. Alpha, Alpha... He's not the Alpha Gitty Goblet guy, but that's another epic one epic one was something that was a big one wasn't it like yeah he would i thought he was uh i love my dad or whatever like he's in i think it's i want to say craft dinner but it uh

could be ketchup or heinz ketchup or something like that but there's a there's a epic stewstone commercial you would know from back in the day oh my god is this gonna be the first retro ontario episode where we don't talk about the, the drunk dad and the general with the general. Oh, drunk dad is on here. Yeah, for sure.

So I'm going to come back Wednesday. It's on the eighties TV. Yeah. Go to bed. I drop it with my, you know, each of my kids got it. Go to bed now.

Yeah. Go to bed. Wasn't that scary? And that kid looked like me and it was the same age as me. And I had a general league car. Right. I can lose my arm. You can't.

There was a one. Yeah. I can lose my arm. You can't. There was that one. A-Star. A-Star. That's a big one. And don't put it in your mouth. Right. We kicked that out on a pandemic Friday with Cam Gordon and Stu Stone.

Nice. Wow. Okay, let me kick out another jam and see if Phil recognizes this. You ready, Phil? Okay. Trust me. Wow. Hook it to my vein. trust me read along? close close An adventure is unfolding, so why not get involved?

Come on and read all about it. Wow. Listen to that. Spooky, eh? We actually have the read all about it novelization, which is super rare, is in one of those glass cases. I'm going to smash that glass and take it home with me. If you do find out Sam the security guard is missing, it's probably Phil

who took him. He's guarding the joint man. Phil probably took it, not me. Even though you'll see it in my basement studio next time you visit. There's Sam right there. I thought they were free. I thought it was a free there. I thought they were free. I thought it was a free sample. I thought it was free.

Sam Crenshaw. So, Mike, did you see, read all about it in school? Yes, 100%. But in school, I don't remember seeing it. I think I saw it on TV. It was part of curriculum, right? Okay.

And teachers would photocopy the newspaper that the kids made and they'd teach you. What year would this show have been? Late 70s. Late 70s. Yeah. Ran all through Late 70s. Yeah. Ran all through the 80s as well.

It was on a lot, but it was also in school. Okay, so that was Read All About It, but Phil's guess is interesting because... Welcome to Read Along. Mm-hmm. Put yourself in a book, enjoy the story inside. Read along with us and read along and Ride, Ride, Ride. Because reading is a lot of fun and easy too.

So join us here at Read Along. You and you and you and you and you. Wow. So that's what you were thinking of with Read All About It. Well, I don't know because as soon as it came on i was like well my programming's done it was one of those like indicators where i like yeah i'm done you know like one on sunday when mutual of omaha came on it's like yeah electric circuit you know electric uh electric company's done i saw spider-man yeah and uh mutual of omaha's on i'm gonna go outside and play now

yeah i know man for sure that would that was a big part of it i mean i think those themes though mike are um indicative of that era it was kind of uh it was earnest right like they actually they're giving it on those songs i think you watch kids shows now everything is so post-modern it's like uh you know the closest thing to read all about it now your kids might watch this as a show on tvo called the odd squad and it's kind of like a science fiction show about kids solving mysteries and but it's got huge budget big special effects you know all this stuff and it but everything is winking at you like we know it's just a show you know but you watch read all about it it's like they're playing it straight right it's like a horror movie because we were dumb back in the 70s no it's not that we were dumb it just it was it was post-postmodernism, right? I mean, it was

just taking it seriously. Was there a show called Right On? Right On? Right On. I'm sure there was. I do remember this. Is that like a typewriter? And then there was an exclamation mark at the end. That was the guy with glasses and blonde hair and he had a boss

and they were like... Wasn't that MathNet? What's MathNet? Math Patrol? MathMakers? blonde hair and he had a boss and they were like uh wasn't that math net what's math patrol math makers that was a pbs thing i think math net i used to see yeah wow and what was the billy van doing uh oh i mean a ton eureka was the science one uh um did you know when peter gross got fired by uh cfny uh billy van delivered his severance check oh Oh, man. I mean, that kind of makes it okay, but... I'm just a reporter here. Those guys were just taking what paid back then. No, I know.

It's just wild. Now, speaking of Billy Vann, a lot of people are rolling through here and then writing me and saying, I love the exhibit, but why don't you have any hilarious... Can I guess? It's Hamilton.

That's right. I know. These people are stupid. Send them to me. Okay. Same with You Can't Do That on Television. Another amazing program shot in Ottawa. Right.

Alanis Morissette from Ottawa. That's right. Did you know Alanis Morissette was in You Can't Do That on Television? I did. I did. I did a weird show with her once. It was all these vignettes about trying to stay in school. It was one of the first things i did when i first started ytv i can't remember the name it was called is this post too

hot like this is after too hot video dropped it was after too hot before she was glenn ballard yeah glenn ballard speaking of the hill bellard it was these vignettes about staying in school it was called borderline high see if you could find this. Do you have it? I don't, but a lot of people What is your white whale right now? She hosted it. She hosted the parts in between the vignettes and I remember meeting her and hanging out with her

but me thinking, lame dude. I spent like two hours in a room with her. I was like, that's a girl with her I was like that's a girl she thinks she's gonna be a musician forget it I'm not talking to her

I have another intro I want to look at Phil's face for this but first I gotta ask my character not wanted to leave high school because he thought he could make money playing pool that was my year yeah it was like a 90s thing one girl was pregnant.

I thought I could make a career of pool hustling. You know, there's all these dropping out of school stories. You know, in hindsight, though, probably would have been a smarter move, probably like to be a pool shark. You probably could have done quite well. Everything back in the 80s, because we're all similar vintage, but it was all about you got

to go to university and get a degree or you're going to be a loser right but now that's when i played all my pool in montreal i had my own where did you go to school and i discovered the color of money and that's when i was trying that where you went to school montreal um for a year which school concordia yeah i've heard of concordia. Okay, because my daughter goes to McGill. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where the smart people go. She is smart, but way smarter than me. What's your white whale right now, Ed Conroy?

What are you searching for that maybe someone can help you with? Borderline high. Come on, borderline high, obviously. No, there's another program I had never heard of, but in getting the exhibit ready, learned a lot about, was a TVO program in the 70s called The Secret of the Samurai. And apparently it was shot on location at the ROM.

And it was another one of these kids, you know, go into the museum at night. And I guess there's ghosts and some of the exhibits are coming to life. And so there's like samurais and knights and all this. It sounds incredible. Probably had no budget. So it would have been that

spooky kind of read all they forgot to record it uh you know it's not easily available it's around well if someone knows where this is uh we want access to this you remember the movie i loved it as a kid it kind of haunted me a bit secret of nim of course yeah well you just when you started that title there i started thinking of the secret of nim loved it yeah love the secret great and great book too that it was based on. Oh, I only just recently learned to read,

so okay. I want to play this intro. Phil, I'm looking at you. Will this resonate with you? Is it Judy Blume? You know the nice thing about being a turtle? You never have to

carry an umbrella. Phil Carrera. Here's the show for kids and turtles. 30 minutes of razzleazzle with Michelle Finney, Howard the Turtle, and Al Hamill. How old would I have been? How old would I have been? That was before you were born.

Is that before I was born? That's before you guys were born. Razzle Dazzle. Razzle Dazzle. Yeah, I didn't see it either. It's another one of those programs that people of a certain vintage remember it well. Where was it? Shot in Toronto. It was on CBC.

It was on every day. And it was like a news magazine for kids. So they would have skits and they would show bits of movies and all this kind of thing. But what's crazy looking back at Razzle Dazzle now is it was doing user generated content before that was even a thing that people understood. Kids would write their jokes, kids would write their skits, and it would come to them via fan mail. And it wasn't because they were like trying to do something new. They're just like, we don't have enough hours in the day to write scripts. So we're just going to produce the kids scripts and that became a thing and and you know very very impressive absolutely absolutely i can see there's a like a an elephant show uh right up i'm looking at now

and i can see the sharon lois and brahm uh bram he got mad at me so who passed away lois right uh or who passed away uh sharon sharon passed away okay my art my uh my apologies if i so the surviving members came on toronto mike like recently and i did know it was bram and i still said bram and he called me out on it right away and i felt like a bag of shit yeah i can see why bram don't. Bram. Even before he was telling me people call him Brom. It's Bram. He seemed really like this is important. I'm sure it's happened before, yeah. Yeah, so I screwed that up, but it was still

I always just say, I'm sorry. Excuse my accent. It's my East Coast Maritimes accent. That's my stupid accent. Did you watch their program, the Elephant Show? I remember more the songs. I don't remember watching the show,

to be honest, but I absolutely, I think I had the album. Yeah, everyone had those records or cassettes. They were peers of mine. Really? I got a question for you. How come YTV,

was there ever any talk about putting out a PJ Phil album? That seems like that would have been a total no-brainer there was nuclear donkey after me with carlos and uh sugar there was always and they were always putting yeah they were doing compilation compilation cds with dan but i mean i was never i was never really a music that was not part of what i did i mean i did album reviews for rock Talk, but that kind of thing was like later on, you know. You know, my stuff was like hats and T-shirts and they gave them away.

You know, there wasn't any of that kind of marketing kind of stuff yet. And you got to remember, mine wasn't about that. What I did wasn't about commercials and selling and stuff like that. You never sold them? Well, we did contests sponsored by hasbro that's how it all started or popsicle pete i remember popsicle pete yeah so what's it like

dr j yeah when i met you last time i met you we were at the zoomerplex yes so what is it like for you to visit the zoomerplex because that's the that's the ytv building right yeah like what is it like for you do you have any like when you walk through the zoomerplex because that's the, that's the YTV building, right? Yeah. Like, what is it like for you? Do you have any, like when you walk through the Zoomerplex, are you like, I remember when that was, well, like,

is it nostalgic for you? Uh, yeah, yeah. The, the place, it's, it's changed a lot,

but, um, yeah, it's, it's, you're like the, the tape library used to be here. Right.

The, um, smoke room was this place. The smoke room. Yeah. Well, there were smoke rooms back then. Right and uh yeah the cafeteria yeah yeah it brings back memories but the memories in my my brain are clear like i gotta tell you i walk in there it's just like you know that the satellite on top of that building still has like a very faint ytv uh ghost ghost logo yeah, yeah.

A little faded. That's a long time ago now. 1990. Long time ago. Long time ago. What's next for you, PJ Freshfield? Well, when they continue this, what will it be after this? 1993 to 2023?

I should be off the beginning of that one. So that's the big thing. Well, that's that's the big well that's true i mean really your your era of ytv went like gonzo in 94 95 like because i was it changed like i said like i was watching um festival of ytv festival of france and in the mid 90s all of a sudden it became it wasn't like that it was like cycle Psychoblast, and it was like Hanson, and 98 Degrees, and do you know what I mean? It wasn't Kidio, and Fred Penner. Raffi?

What was she called? Sherry Lewis. Lewis, yeah, the Lamb Drop. Sherry Lewis. Yeah, yeah, the song that never ends. Oh, that's a great story, the Sherry Lewis. Oh, Sherry Lewis? Tell that story.

Yeah, Festival of Friends friends so i think me and pj rob and the other pjs like we did a little thing where we we sang a song with the grogs and we were in our in our like little mobile dressing room and beside us was sherry lewis and lamb chop and did you swear on the show yeah so so i think i can't remember what the song was but we're practicing it and throwing in bad words. You know, you're a kid. You're in your 20s. So it's like, And all of a sudden we hear a knock on our door

next to where Sherry Lewis is. We hear this. Hey, guys, it's Sherry Lewis next door, and Lamb Chop can hear you. But Sherry Lewis was a full-on she might as well have been like lucille ball or elizabeth taylor she was so old school and the way she came in and just a pro like if you watch her if you watch her do that act on festival of friends it's like this amazing vaudeville act, you know, her and the puppet.

It's fantastic. She's super talented. Like you see everybody else go, but then she comes on. It's like, oh, wow. That's how it's done.

You know, she was a pro. She was like, yeah, you know, real legend that one. So Ed, on August 19th,

the finale, the final day of this exhibit of yours at my museum, do we know what's next for this space? I think the next exhibit is about sports in Toronto. So that should be a good one for you to cover. Well, Donovan Bailey versus Michael Johnson in the 150 meter at the Sky Dome. Well, or back to back or, you know, the drive of 85. I mean, take your pick, right?

I'm sure you could fill the space with sports momentum, but I got to say quickly before August, before August 19th, we're actually going to be doing a bunch of really good events here. So I think we're going to be announcing that very shortly, but we're doing like a, like a old school YTV night. We're doing a panel discussion, Degrassi night with some Degrassi alumni going to come by. Nina Keough and the great Bob Dermer

who played Sam Crenshaw are coming to talk about today's special. Wow. You know, these are licensed events. Like, it will be a party atmosphere.

There'll be, you know, a good scene going on. So, you know, keep Myseum's website locked. I will be promoting it on Retro Ontario.

Well, what is the website? Myseum.com? Myseumoftoronto.com. I know on Twitter it's Myseum's website locked, I will be promoting it on Retro Ontario. Well, what is the website? Myseum.com? Myseumoftoronto.com. I know on Twitter it's Myseum of Toronto because I've been tagging it. You'll find it, people. Use the Google machine.

So what is your, if you had to pick one exhibit in this Myseum right now, like Ed Conroy, and then I'll go to you, Phil, but right now, if you could just pick one and everything else would disappear, which is the one you'd pick?

Yeah, Ed, if you could just pick one. See, you disappear, which is the one you'd do? Yeah, Ed, if you could just pick one. I feel like I already said this. For me, it's watching the old content on the old TVs because I think that's the heart of it, right? It's just streaming your YouTube channel, right? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's on the monitors.

But the actual old tube TVs are shown to grassy. And I think that just gets to the heart of this, which is, yeah, it's no, no. That's on the monitors. Okay, I see. The actual tube TVs are shown to grassy. And I think that just gets to the heart of this, which is, yeah, it's Marshall McLuhan. The medium is the message. That's what it was like. That's what hits home, you know? A lot of us have this idea that AIDS isn't our problem. Most of us don't know anybody who has it,

so we figure we're safe. Wrong. If you're sexually active or even thinking about it, get informed and watch Talking About AIDS. Monday on CBC. Shout out to Joey Jeremiah. Pat Mastroianni. Yeah, that's him.

Has he been on your show? Yeah. Nice. Yeah, yeah. He was in Godzilla. Was he? Yeah, he played a fighter pilot. Wow, wow. Okay, we're winding down now, but Phil, if you, I mean, you can't pick the YTV exhibit, okay? Because that's like you're biased.

But if you could only keep one. I agree with that. I love the CRT television sets presented in original format. And I watched a grassy, you know, for Caitlin. Now Sesame Street, not a Toronto production. Well, there was Sesame Street

Canada. Listen to that. But, yeah, the breaks, man. You couldn't do an exhibit about kids TV and not talk about the great Sesame Street because it changed the whole genre. I liken it to like when the Beatles showed up. It just changes everything.

Love Changes Everything was the big hit off that Honeymoon Suite album you're referring to that had Rob Pruse on keyboards. Love Changes Everything. Oh, Lord! Hey, hey, hey! Love Changes Everything. I love this stuff. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Love changes, changes everything. Ah! I love this stuff. It was an interesting note about when they did the Canadian version of Sesame Street.

It was called Sesame Park. Do you know why? No. Because in America, kids play on the street. In Canada, kids play in the park. You did it again, Ed. You did it again. This is why you're in the Hall of Fame.

Well, that's a Clive Vanderberg. I mean, he's the OG. He came up with all that stuff. Good work on these exhibits. It's just lovely. I loved my time here. I'm going to take some photos. Phil, we've got to take some selfies.

We've got to find some good backdrops, take some nice pictures. I'm going to take some photos. Phil, we've got to take some selfies. We've got to find some good backdrops, take some nice pictures. I'm going to write about this on TorontoMike.com. This episode, I'll drop it like ASAP. I loved every minute of this. I love the audio. I love what you're doing, man. They called, Heidi called the right guy.

First, she called me. Ed's the only guy. I said, no, you want Ed Conroy. And I said, call him. He knows what he's doing. But you did a great job. You should feel very proud of yourself. Thanks, pal. Ed's the only guy. I said, no, you want Ed Conroy. And I said, call him. He knows what he's doing. But he did a great job. You should feel very proud of yourself. Thanks, pal. Ed Conroy. Ed Conroy, everybody.

You guys rock. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for having me on, boys. I'm glad you were here. You really I would have been bored if it was just Ed, but having you here just added that extra spice. I loved it. Thank you for your application to Toronto Mike podcast. However, we've decided we're moving on.

We're going for a walk. All right, how would Harold Hossein say that? The perpetrator came out of this Toby's restaurant and fleed into the Frankfortiers. and feed into the Frankforteers Joel's Gourmet Pizza

I'm out of these old Toronto things Gold Gold Shout out to Joel Goldberg and that that brings us to the end of our 1272nd show live from Myseum Toronto that brings us to the end of our 1,272nd show. Live from Myseum, Toronto.

You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Phil is at PJFreshPhil, I believe, on Twitter. That's where I'm at. Oh, yeah, I have that. You still have that? That I have. Thanks for reminding me. Now, of course, Ed Conroy is at Retro Ontario.

You do great work. I hope you know that. He's the master. He's the man. Thanks, man. He's the man. Great Lakes Brewery. They're at Great Lakes Beer.

I know, Ed, you love your Great Lakes, and that's why you got to get your ass over so I can give you some more fresh beer. Delicious. They're hosting TMLX 13 on the last day of August, whatever that is. So, make plans to come to TMLX 13 at

Great Lakes Brewery. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Mineris is at Mineris. Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada. The Moment Lab are at The Moment Lab. And Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. See you all soon when my special guests are Richard Griffin and Scott MacArthur. I wonder who. Yeah, I wonder who. We'll see you next time. I know it's true How about you?

All that picking up trash And then putting down roads And they're brokering stocks The class struggle is over