Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Retrontario: Toronto Mike'd #167

Episode Date: April 13, 2016

Mike chats with Retrontario about Gord Martineau, Jennifer Peck Valentyne, the Amber Alert, Hammy Hamster, Blinky, Elmer the Safety Elephant, Uncle Bobby, Heather Conkie, Ron Oliver, Sam Taylor, Magic Shadows, Seeing Things and much, much more.

Welcome to episode 167 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. I'm Mike from TorontoMic.com and joining me this week is Ed Conroy, better known and maybe even more loved as Retro Ontario. Even though they share the O, I think I asked you this last time because it's Retro Ontario. That's right. How do you say it?

Retro Ontario. So pretend there's two O's. Retro Ontario. Retro Ontario and retro right off the bat. If you aren't familiar with Retro Ontario. So like Ontario and retro right off the bat. If you aren't familiar with Retro Ontario. So like, yeah. So what messes my head up is reading it.

It makes sense. Retro Ontario. But you got Retro Ontario. They share the O. So when you're going to the website, you should buy the other domain. Do you own Retro Ontario? I do. Okay.

Like redirects? You know what? Stupidly, i haven't done the redirect yet but that's a good idea hey that's what i'm people come to me for the good ideas like last week uh blind eric told me he he had at blind eric where he had all his followers and he just let it lapse in some like russian viagra factory or whatever bought picked it up because i'm like why would you just you don't have to use it, but just own it, like to control it, right? He just let it go.

He's at Derek Welsman now. So people come to me and I give them this. So you get redirectretroontario.com to Retro Ontario, which is fantastic. Thank you. That's why you're back for a second. Thank you. My pleasure to be here.

People who want to hear the original, fantastic. I still get, like people still write me notes about how much they love the, the episode with you because it's like, if you're like our age,

it's like, safe for work porn. I don't know how to describe it. It's just like, wow, man, like bring on the Polka Roo talk. Let's do it. So episode 117, which coincidentally is exactly 50 episodes ago.

So every 50 episodes, I'm asking you back. My pleasure. So if I were better at math, that's 217. You'll be back for people who come back in the future. So episode 117 is the first appearance by Ed. And right off the bat, like I remember you told me a story last time. So I'm going to give you an update on something

and then ask you if you can help me out. So you're friendly on some level with the maestro. I am. Not the Seinfeld maestro. That's a different maestro. No, the Six Godfather, I assume. Yes, he's sixth godfather now. So I've had, like, not with his,

I don't even think he has a PR person, but I've been dealing directly with the man. With the man himself. That's how he rolls. Yeah, which I love. And he was like, let's do this at the end of March.

And he was all psyched about it. So I sent him a nice note, like, hey, you want to, like, pick a day and time? And he's like, he said, I'm going to get back to you on this day with a day and time. And I'm like, that's awesome. And then that day was like a week ago. And I just sent him another like, I don't want to be a pest. I don't want to be a pest to the sixth godfather. That is not what I want to be. But like, maybe we could book that day and time now. There he is.

And I haven't heard back yet, so I'm trying not to be like a super pest because then he'll be like, well, I'm not going to this guy's basement. This guy's bugging me. So as a guy who knows the maestro, do I just be patient here? What do I do?

Because he was into it and 100% coming in. Yeah. And he still is, I'm assuming, but I can't seem to get to that, hey, let's book a day in time. Yeah. I mean, he's a super busy guy. And like you said, he doesn't have a manager. He doesn't have a PR person. He does everything himself. So I would just recommend keep up, keep in touch, and he'll definitely show. Where's that test line, though? So right now our preferred communication right now is DMs on Twitter. This is where we're at now.

So I sent the last DM. Do I have to wait like a week before I send him another one or do I just wait till he replies or like what do I do there? I don't know. Send him today's episode and say your buddy Ed was in and we were talking about you and we'd love to have you on. Done. See you're my gateway to the maestro because i'm telling you when i many moons ago when i had

this vision of this podcast i i could see in my mind my mind's eye i could see wesley williams the the great maestro the sixth godfather sitting where you are right now and us talking about Let Your Backbone Slide. That's what I envisioned. And the man has got stories that you wouldn't believe. I want those stories. Because I never met, I've seen him in concert. And actually last time I saw Public Enemy, he came on stage.

Which was great. Were you there? I wasn't there, but I saw the clip. He was rapping about Rob Ford and stuff. Yeah, well, and Mishy Me was there too, who helped inspire my first first daughter's name believe it or not and uh yeah it was great and uh yeah i gotta get him in okay yeah no sorry i mean a very close friend of mine is uh is this guy joel goldberg who you might remember he directed all the original maestro music videos and he did mishimi and Dream Warriors. And he also created the television series, Electric Circus.

So this guy, you know, he is steeped in original Toronto hip hop. So he's another guy you should have on, by the way. You know, I'm changing up the order. This week featuring dancehall reggae with Shava Rice,

the rap sounds of Hardcore, and a special Lombada demonstration, plus new video from John James, this week's top 10 video countdown, and the EC Dancers. Now live from the lobby of 299 Queen Street West, here's George Lagerdennis and Monica Deol. Hello everybody and welcome to the Electric Circus. Hi Monica. You took the words right out of my mouth, you know? Fantastic. So that's 1990, that's the intro to Electric Circus. Hi, Monica. You took the words right out of my mouth, you know? Fantastic. So that's 1990. That's the intro to Electric Circus, which you sent me last night. That's amazing because I got

an email from a DJ named Young Bruce. And Young Bruce, he writes, he's DJing. He's progressed to spinning videos in local nightclubs for an older crowd, which is 35 plus. That's probably because the young people don't go to clubs anymore. You got to cater to us now. And I would love to get my hands on some old electric circus footage with decent quality. I'd like to use it for songs that I don't have in audio format only. I think it would resonate with the crowd and bring back a lot of memories. Any ideas? So Young Bruce sent me that. I literally got that yesterday from Young Bruce. He reached out to Toronto Mike. He needs some electric circus footage and i said well i said as luck would have

it i got a guy retro ontario and he's like of course he's heard of you so i'm posing the question to you like if this guy was looking for some electric circus footage with decent quality what's his best bet if he wants to score that? What does he do? Young Bruce. I mean, unfortunately, the only place you can really get that is on YouTube. And the quality is not always great. The master tapes of Electric Circus apparently still exist, but Bell owns them now.

And there's so much headaches with the music licensing of the songs that they can't, they couldn't repeat it. They couldn't do anything with it. So, you know, even Joel has tried to get clips. Like we were making a doc about Maestro and it unfortunately never materialized. We couldn't get the funding. And we wanted to license the clip of Maestro performing Backbone for the very first time on Electric Circus. And it was like one of those moments in time. It just so happened an American record label

was at Electric Circus with one of their acts, and they saw and were blown away by Backbone, and they literally signed Wes on the spot. And that is a killer story. I mean, like that's the abbreviated version. That's going to be the first question I ask them. It's killer. But we tried to license that clip, and we couldn't even license that clip i mean it's it's that it's guarded like crown jewels you know but when you mention this i it reminds me of the chum charts okay so uh there was a great online archive of chum charts when chum before tsn radio takes over 10 50 i guess okay so they and it was all like official and whatever and i remember uh when they switched to tsn radio 10 50 all the chum charts were pulled from the web

and like i i rank highly if you google like chum charts i rank and i get a lot of like quick questions like do i have the chum charts people just want to look at the old chum charts and i remember bell said they were gonna do something and this was years ago and they never did anything. Like, so Bell's sitting on, Bell Media is sitting on like a bunch of like stuff that has no value except for the nostalgia, I suppose. And it would be nice if they would start to give us access to this. Yeah. I mean, that's sort of, you know, a big part of what I do now is try and get this stuff back out into the public. And, you know, there is a lot of people obviously interested in this. I think there's a huge appetite for certain things. There is in this room right now.

It's off the chart in this room. But, you know, these companies are run by bankers, essentially, and they don't see, unless they see a huge amount of profit, they're not interested, unfortunately. Yeah, it is unfortunate. These bean counters are ruining my day. But when you post a clip of Electric Circus onto your YouTube channel or whatever, does Bell Media ever say,

hey, you can't do that? No. No, I mean, with my channel on YouTube, I sort of put it up front that it's out there. I'm not profiting from it. It's out there for educational purposes, essentially. Again, though, it all comes down to music rights. And, you know,

the record labels have these bots that just go and look on YouTube and they flag videos. So sometimes it's not even anything to do with Bell. It's some weird record label in America. Right, right, right. And for these bots, it's content over context.

They don't have this context. They aren't intelligent enough yet. Despite what I saw in the movies, some good movies in the 80s, they only see content. They don't see context. Before we dive in deeper, there's a lot of great stuff

you've brought and I can't wait to get to. But I want to point out that the beer in front of you, the Great Lakes Brewery beer in front of you is yours. Oh, lovely. You can drink it now. Yeah.

Because I know you didn't drive here, so you can get wasted if you want. Yeah. And you'd fit right in on Lakeshore there. Because at this time of day, staggering around Lakeshore is commonplace. Sure. So go nuts.

Also, I just point out to everybody, if they want to crowdfund toronto mic'd it would be awesome and you can do that at patreon.com slash toronto mic so please go to patreon.com slash toronto mic or you know there's a link on toronto mic.com if you you know people don't like type in URLs anymore. They can think they'll go to my website and then you can click through and, and even a dollar a month would be awesome to help keep this going. So, so do that. Are you ready? And can I call you retro Ontario? Sure.

No, you call me whatever you want. If I were you, I would only go by retro Ontario. Like even with like loved ones and like, just, me Retro Ontario or don't call me at all. I was thinking like I just hosted a playoff pool here and I'm Mike and I was like, I could be that guy who says, please refer to me as Toronto Mike. Okay, let's go there. You're Retro Ontario. So let's start with some recent news.

I just want to chat with you about. let's start with uh some recent news i just want to chat with you about in one of the um pieces of news kind of in toronto media recently is that uh breakfast television parted way with jennifer valentine yeah and i believe we knew her like she was around forever right like and considering she's not very old forever is is is really forever like she was j Peck, right? And then she got married to somebody, I believe, a cameraman, I believe, at the same company, I think at Rogers or something. And then she became Jennifer Valentine, which always sounded like too good to be true.

What a great name that is for what she does, like Jennifer Valentine. Totally. That's amazing. So what are your thoughts on the fact that Jennifer Valentine is no longer on Breakfast Television? You know, obviously we're going to get to him in a moment, but it's the same reaction when I heard about Gord, Gord Martin. It's just that's the connective tissue that was, you know, taking us back to the old days is pretty much all gone now from that and by old days we mean like pre-rogers yeah not even the moses days well the moses era yeah sure

um and it's not like you said it's not even that long ago um and i don't know it's like logan's run there's some rule where you you know when you're over 30 you're done now and uh i don't like the way that that's going really it's uh certainly not making better television so maybe we'll yeah use that as a good segue into gourd martineau so uh gourd goes you know as jennifer goes back to like late 80s or whatever she was like on much music right as the uh the prize girl or whatever we call her and uh before i think in 92 she starts on breakfast television but uh gourd goes back to the 70s. Yeah, OG.

Yeah, except for like this brief stint at Global, I think, that we never talk about. For one week, yeah. Right. So do you want me to play the spectacular Gord clip? Yeah, because I think it sets it up really well. Okay, let's hear this amazing clip. And by the way, somebody wrote on Twitter

that when they hear you're coming on the podcast, they envision that you come with like crates of vhs tapes and i thought that was a great like like vision of like ed sorry retro ontario showing up in my door and he's got these dusty old crates of vhs cassettes and we just we just play them so gordon martineau on city pulse here we go as city pulse anchorman i'm constantly challenged by the question, how is this show different? What makes it unique besides its length? I say without hesitation that it's our people-oriented, street-based mandate. It's laid out by executive producer Moses Neimer and implemented by a dedicated, exciting news team high on Toronto, running hard to keep up with a galloping, fascinating city. Moses insists that City Pulse be more than just a chronicle of passing events. I agree with him. Our idea is that

life is more than hard news and that each show is a daily installment in the real-life saga of what it means to be living in a wonderful town on the north shore of Lake Ontario at the center of Canada and determined to be great. That's beautiful. Yeah. He nails it there. Moses must have written that. Yeah. I mean, that was from one of the very first episodes of City Pulse in 1977, I believe. It's like a mission statement, right? Yeah, it was the ethos of original City Pulse was Moses said, it has to be a soap opera. I don't want to just do news. I want characters that are out of a soap opera. So, you know, when this whole Gord situation is kind of hilarious because I've always likened him, if you're going to extend the metaphor to soap operas,

he's like Victoror newman of city paul yes and i'm sorry but when victor newman leaves y and r he better have a better exit than what gourd got i mean he just disappeared there was no uh you know wrap-up okay let's break that down because when and i just like blind eric and i had a quick chat about this ourselves and we compared his departure to mike cooper's departure okay so mike cooper works for another entity of rogers media and he's also a legend in this city on on the airwaves and his exit was very like uh celebrated if you will he got to say goodbye there was cake he got cake gourd did his night cast and i mean i watched i was excited to see

the clip of how he signed off on his last newscast. And it was like a normal newscast. Well, the saddest thing is the very last thing he said was coming up next, Modern Families. That's right. That's the last thing he ever said on City TV. So, I mean, are we, I guess, first of all, do you know anything?

Are you just speculating? Do we know what happened there? Are we to assume he was basically pushed out? And did he know that was his last newscast? You know, I've heard differing stories. I'm sure he knew. Who knows what actually went down? There's no doubt that Rogers is trying to cut money, cut salaries where they can.

And I'm sure after all this time, he was probably a very expensive guy to have on the payroll. Him and Jennifer, I understand, were the two highest paid Rogers Media personalities. For sure. They were worth every penny, I might add. Yeah, I was thinking, though, what does it cost to sever Gord fairly if he's been there since the 70s? Like,

that severance is going to be massive, right? Probably. But, I mean, I don't know. Do you watch City Pulse on the reg still? Or City News? You know, my thing is, it used to be my go-to. And now I'm strictly like a CBC News guy. I watch CBC News with Anne-Marie and Dwight Drummond. And I had Mike Wise on here recently,

because if I ever am awake, I'll watch him. And yeah, I have a lot of radio news lately, too. I bike to the news at 6. The previous day is news at six. Like I just heard it at the news. I'm always a little behind on my news. But if there's breaking news, I mean, that's where I go to Twitter

for my breaking news. But yeah, I find, I used to write about this extensively. Like when Ed DeSoc was kind of gone and then the Speaker's Corner shut down and then like Silverman Helps was gone. And all these like interesting uh like moses elements of of city tv were kind of stripped away and it seemed like they were sanitizing it and it became like this corporate like it

seemed like anything else it looks like ctv ctv now it just looks like yeah i mean it's funny too because city pulse in 77 was a reaction to the fact that every newscast looked exactly the same. Yeah. So I think we're due for a new City Pulse now. It ain't going to be coming from Rogers. But it's going to be a web-based thing, right? You know, I don't know. I mean, TV is the new TV, right?

Is that right? That's what I heard. I'm going to make a T-shirt. That's perfect. I'm going to make a t-shirt. That's perfect. So what I found interesting in the Gord Martineau departure was that Gord posted something on Facebook about how he's not retired like he wanted to make,

because it was starting to be reported he retired. First of all, come on, we're not stupid. You don't just do your thing as normal, and now I'm retired, I don't want fanfare. I don't, maybe, but I don't think so. And he's screaming, I'm not retired, which tells you he was pushed, he didn't jump. To me, it's clear. They're messing with the high price guys because they spent all that money on the hockey is that right yeah that's probably likely yeah do you ever watch you watch any hockey

uh any rogers hockey no i don't no i'm wondering if if there's if there's any big on-screen changes at rogers hockey and uh if if maybe if maybe, if Strombo does other things, which he's passionate about, like music and things, and then maybe Ron McLean comes back or something. But you're the wrong guy to ask these hard-hitting Rogers Hockey questions. All right. So Gord Martineau, we miss him. I miss him.

I didn't watch him. I wasn't watching him but i i like knowing he was there yeah absolutely i mean he was that connection to the past and he gave city pulse that credibility that they they'd lost really uh when rogers took it over so and we still have that great footage of him uh hit the fucking bent oh yeah you know that that's a funny clip because that was way before youtube or anything and people sent it around on an email chain and it was like a tiny postage stamp sized video like an avi file yeah like a tiny little avi and then somebody put it on youtube it's you know terrible quality but uh you know those guys that used to work at city tv

the editors and the cameramen you know they, they've got the real gold, right? Because they would cut these Christmas party tapes. And very recently, actually, one of the things I was very glad to finally come across was the Speaker's Corner Christmas tape. Okay, great. Unfortunately, there's nothing really I can do with it because it's essentially pornographic. So I couldn't put it on YouTube. That's a good point. All the stuff that they simply can't air.

Yeah. For a loony, these guys got, you know, just to F with the people who would see it or whatever. Yeah. So you've seen this stuff? I have it, yeah. And it's been talked about over the years. It's sort of this like Zapruder kind of mythical footage.

And I wondered if it existed. Finally, I can confirm it does this is like the rob ford crack tape yeah you know it kind of was seen it and you can describe it in great detail i might actually i one of the ideas i pitched my editor at blog to was to do a transcript of it sort of like before the hulk hogan tape hit gawker they did this transcript which was kind of hilarious so maybe we'll do something like that i I can tell you. You've got to do that. The very first scene in it is these guys with real guns, and they're in the speaker's corner,

and they've got nylon over their head. And they've got a guy who's got a bag over his head, and it just says Moses. And they said, put Star Trek back on at 7 o'clock every night, or we're going to fucking kill him. I love it. Yeah. Does Moses know about this?

He probably saw it, yeah. I don't know if I've repeated this story, but I used to, for a brief, I think 2007, okay? So for the calendar year 2007, I was running out of the running room at High Park in Bloor. And I would often see Moses walking High Park. So that must be his-

He lives over there. Yeah, that must be his hood. Yep. And never once did I have the gonads to go up to him and tell him I missed the environment. That's what we used to call him, right? The environment at Queen Street. Yeah. All right.

Not too long ago, we had an amber alert in this city. And I'll set it up like this. So I think I watched something sports related. And then it ended, maybe a Raptors game. And then I went, of all places, I went to CNN. There was a Democratic debate. And then Hillary Clinton was talking. And this is like just a little time before I was going to go to bed.

So I'm watching this debate because I just finished the Raptors game. And then like this sound emanates from my television, like a sound I've never heard before. I should point out, it's not the volume of my TV. It's like 10 times louder than that. And it's sound is the siren starts going. And then I get a scroll that is scrolling at a snail's pace. So I'm sitting there. Something's happening, and it must be really important because the siren, and I have a kid, a toddler, sleeping upstairs, and I don't want to wake him up. That screws up my whole night. And this thing's going, like the siren's going, and I'm like, maybe there's a nuclear attack. Maybe there's a chance to kiss your kids goodbye

because we're done. But of course, this scroll going so slow i'm i'm never going to find out what's wrong so i pick up my phone which is beside me and then i go to twitter and then i very quickly learn that you know the details like somebody saw kids was being taken into a car and he didn't want to go into that car or something like that i can't remember anymore it turned out to be the kid's dad or something like that so i wrote something i'm. It turned out to be the kid's dad or something like that. So I wrote something. I'm not against the Amber Alert. Don't shoot me.

I'm not against the Amber Alert, but maybe this tone is excessive. And I'm trying, you can see it, it's on torontomike.com, but oh, poor Mikey. His debate was interrupted or the programming was interrupted because a kid was in danger.

Oh, poor babies or whatever, like totally missing the point, which is that maybe, maybe there's another tone we can use. That's all. Or maybe like the beep, beep, beep, and then just put it on my screen or whatever. What did you think of the Amber Alert? Oh, I, you know, it was, it was crazy, man. I, okay. So I was watching The Walking Dead. I think that night it was like, you were either watching The Walking Dead or Downton Abbey finale or The Debate, right? So everybody's watching TV. And, like, you said it best. I mean, it was just ear-piercing, screaming siren, and you had no idea what it was trying to say.

Right. Is your provider Rogers? It is. Okay, so I'm Rogers, too. Yeah. Because I have heard it was different on different providers. Yeah, yeah. And it was on to say. Is your provider Rogers? It is. Okay, so I'm Rogers too. Because I have heard it was different on different providers. Yeah, and it was on the radio and stuff. I mean, it was like totally,

I get it now, the context of what was actually happening. But as a child of the 80s who grew up with these EBS warnings, of course your first thought is kiss your ass goodbye. The nukes are coming. Right, we're done.

It was that loud and terrifying, and dogs are barking, and children are waking up, and it was just mayhem. And then, so there was that piece of the story, which was crazy. And then, like you said, the whole, anybody that complained about it

was an asshole. Oh, yeah. Oh, I hope your kids get kidnapped. And it's indicative of this crappy Twitter culture where there's outrage about everything, but it was just really a shock. Like you're a pariah. Like I felt like, I think I'm not against kids. I don't want any kids to be harmed. I don't, you know, I would want people to look for my kid if he was kidnapped. But see, that was the other thing, right? It happened in a far away place. Oh, really?

Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. And so I'm in Scarborough, and it's 10 o'clock at night. What am I going to do? Go out in the street in a snowstorm and look? And the other thing was the description was so vague. Oh, yeah.

He was 8 to 12 wearing yellow pants. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, let's go look for that guy. I mean... It was just... And yeah, you're right. The biggest issue I had was if you raised any element of complaint, it was akin to like,

I hope all children are murdered tonight. You know what I mean? We've lost our sense of gray. You know what I mean? I don't say 50 shades of gray. That's something else completely. I understand. But yeah, it's like a weird thing.

Maybe it's Twitter. Maybe it's just social media in general. But it's this weird thing where sometimes, especially after Rob Ford's passing, there are certain things you want to share because I've been sharing stuff forever on the blog. But now it's like sometimes I just can't. I just delete it because it's just not worth it

because no one's going to read the context of what you're saying. They're only going to see oh you said a negative thing about a person who just died of cancer he's a father he's a son he's a husband you are you know the worst of the worst you are literally hitler that's what they're going to say you're literally hitler so a lot of times now i just don't bother but i did share a little something on that Amber Alert. You mentioned the emergency broadcast system. Yeah. Is this a good time? Should I play this wonderful thing?

Let's scare some people. Let's scare the shit out of everybody. This station is conducting a test of the emergency broadcast system. This is only a test of the emergency broadcast system. The broadcasters of your area, in voluntary cooperation with federal, state, and local authorities, have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency, the attention signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news, or instructions.

This station serves the western New York area. This concludes this test of the emergency broadcast system. Sunday at noon... Oh, now I want to hear the rest. Wait a minute. You guys don't work here? Hold on. This food is for people who work here now. Scram.

Anyway, first of all, I apologize. I didn't realize how long that was. But that was what we would hear. Yeah. And that was because, you're right, they were afraid. It was like Russia versus U.S. arms race or something. And the nukes. You're right.

We were all prepared for the day after. Yeah, the day after. Exactly. And you were conditioned that if you heard that, that that was it. So there was that lingering 30 years later, that noise comes on. Just us guys. Because I did, initially when it first happened,

I sent a tweet. I did not delete it, so it's still out there somewhere. And it's something to the effect of, if I ever hear that sound emanating from my television again, there better be like a nuclear attack. Something like that. And I met somebody right away.

This is the worst tweet I've ever read. Unfollow. That exact thing happened to me. Oh, yeah. It was the same guy. I tweeted. I sent a tweet. And I never do this.

Because I really don't use Twitter for that. But I actually went out of my way to send a tweet saying to Rogers, come on. We get it. But turn the volume down. And a bunch of people said, unf on, we get it, but turn the volume down. And a bunch of people said, unfollow, unfollow. Because somehow that meant I was against saving the child. Yeah, yeah, we bled followers that day.

Our honesty cost us. Well, you know what? I'm starting from the bottom here, just like Blind Derek. Instead of the Russians taking over, I just decided to shed them all myself. Yeah, you know, once in a while like uh during the religious season i'll send a tweet that'll get me unfollowed by quite a few people so i'm used to it but yeah anyway you learn live and learn i guess but uh followers small or is who cares about them anyways so uh did we have another amber i mean that was a sunday night like you, and there was stuff going on that had people tuned in.

So like everybody seemed to be on, you know, watching TV that day. But have we had one since then? You know what? I think there was another one. I didn't hear that one. It was at an earlier time in the day, and they didn't go nuts on the noise. Oh, that's interesting.

So we can hope they learned from this ridiculous thing. But, you know, a little bit of warning of this thing even. I mean, I never knew my box could make that noise. Okay, that was like, so if you're overriding my volume, you're clearly like bypassing the television part. Like you're going straight through the receiver, right? Yeah. So come on, at least, at least I know what they're saying.

If you're in the other room, you won't hear it. I wish like maybe beep, beep, beep, beep, and then put it on my screen. We'll hear that, right? And thanks for ruining the ending of a really good Walking Dead episode, Rogers. I only watched the very first episode of Walking Dead, and I didn't

dig it, and I never watched the second one. I've made a huge mistake, as Joe would say. I hear so much shit about the show. Results may vary. It's pretty good's a you know what it's a soap opera with zombies okay you know a lot of big zombie guy i think that's the thing the zombies are really window dressing it's really about the humans are the walking dead that's the irony of the time you just that's it okay well thank you you saved me hours of having to watch that show uh and i sometimes i'll see in twitter like oh a character and he's like oh that's the guy from

the wire like yeah lots of Wire people. I like to see Wire people on TV. For sure, for sure. But I tried one episode and it didn't take, so to speak. But the other show, there's a few shows like that where like,

it seems like everyone's watching them and I'm like out of the loop. And then The Walking Dead night happens and I see my Twitter thing explode on Walking Dead, this and that. And it's like, Game of Thrones is the other one, but I haven't started it.

I haven't watched a minute of Game of Thrones. But for some reason now, I feel like just through osmosis in the pop culture atmosphere, I feel like spoilers have penetrated my psyche. I feel like I know things now. So I don't know if there's any point in doing one. Yeah.

You do that one too? Oh yeah, I rock it. It's a good one, right? It's fantastic. I got to tell you up front, my wife works for do that one too? Oh yeah, I rock it. It's a good one, right? It's fantastic. I got to tell you up front, my wife works for HBO, so I got to say nice things about it. Wow.

It actually is a really good show. But they do good shit. It's almost like a good housekeeping seal of approval. When I see a show is from HBO, I give it, I'm going to try that out because HBO is doing it.

I even hate, I've heard it's good, right? It's really good. I hate watch girls. I hate watching because I actually hate the show. But it's good, right? It's really good. I hate to watch girls. I hate to watch it because I actually hate the show. But it's an easy half hour and I do it once a week. My wife and I do it.

I'm so current I watched the last episode from Sunday, but I hate to watch it. All the characters are horrible except for Ray. Ray's the only character I like. Give him a show and I'll watch that. But I'm going to try Vinyl. Yeah.

You'd love it. I know I could talk to you forever about HBO because like all my favorite shows come from HBO because I love Six Feet Under and I love Sopranos and my favorite show is The Wire. They're all HBO shows. So let's pick it up from Six Feet Under. Did you know that there's an episode of Six Feet Under

that has a clip of Hammy the Hamster in it? First of all, I did not know that, but I can't believe I didn't know that because I loved Hammy the Hamster as a kid. Yeah. Like I loved it. Yeah. And there's a cool like Toronto origin story for Hammy the Hamster, right? Totally.

Totally. Let me play some Hammy the Hamster and then you're going to tell me that story. Does Mike have Hammy the Hamster stuff loaded here? Hold on here. You know what? Do I not have Hammy the Hamster loaded? I'm so disappointed in myself. Why don't you tell me the origins? Why don't you tell me the name of the movie you want to see? It's kind of, you know, I keep coming across these, what I call sort of pop culture tragedies that emanate from Toronto, where something got popular, something got really famous, but it was never accredited to the people who made it. And a lot of them would come from

Toronto. So Hammy the Hamster is this worldwide phenomena, and everybody thinks that it's British. And if you go on YouTube and look and pull up any clips, it's got a British narrator. It's permeated books in the UK and Hammy merchandise and tales from the riverbank. the riverbank but it was really a guy from toronto by the name of paul sutherland and his friend who was a brit this guy dave ellison and they were working at the cbc in the 50s and they had been working on a french production that used um larger animals so like horses and pigs and they destroyed the studio and the production was a disaster. But these two guys got the idea, hey, what if we did a similar idea but with rodents that we could control and build these sets and all this stuff. So they actually rented a garage in Etobicoke.

Etobicoke? In Etobicoke. They went to Eaton's, which at the time sold hamsters and gerbils. And they bought a hamster from Eaton's. Amazing. And built this little set and they bought a hamster from eaton's amazing and built this little set and uh they shot a pilot episode so the riverbank is like in etobicoke it's in etobicoke that's

amazing and uh here's the another part of the tragedy they took it to the cbc and the cbc looked at it and said uh we don't think that kids are going to buy into animals that talk. So we're going to pass on this one. Wow. And the British guy went over because he had connections to the BBC and BBC said, this is amazing. Here's a bunch of money. BBC said kids love talking animals. I know.

I mean, come on. I know. And so they bankrolled it, but they kept Paul Sutherland on as the narrator and the guy who would always say, but that's another story. That was his catchphrase when they syndicated it to North America. So the version that I presume you and I grew up watching every morning was this the so-called Canadian version that had footage of the Canadian shield at the very beginning. And, you know, I just always presumed it was, you know, not in our backyard kind of thing, but then flash forward 30 years and, you know, I've spent ages trying

to figure this all out because, you know, you go on YouTube, it's all British. It's all, you know, it looks like a British series and everybody remembers no no there's a Canadian one blah blah blah so I finally I mean sadly both of the guys passed away I was able to speak with the widow of Paul Sutherland who told me the story and just all the unfortunately those two guys had a big falling out and you know the rights are all in a mess and all this stuff. But it was all thanks to this one Retro Ontario fan who had a tape of one of the episodes from Global. And he emailed me and said, hey, do you want this? And I couldn't believe it because it was like-

And you ran to him. And I put it up. And I knew it was going to be popular, but I had no idea it was going to get that big. I remember the day you shared it because I jumped on it. I think I posted it on always giving the credit to the great retro Ontario who I bow before right now, but I shared it immediately because man,

the nostalgia overload, like it just coming on my ears. I love that show. And if I were any host of any decency, I'd play the clip. I don't have a clip. Oh no. I know. Oh boy. I were any host of any decency I'd play the clip I don't have a clip oh no I know I know I know I even searched my email I just never I don't know

what happened with the hammy the hamster clip people go to retroontario.com don't even go to torontomic.com to view this go to retroontario.com he's got this hammy the hamster the one the Canadian one we all remember I got a question though yeah as a kid i'm like wow like they get the animals to do the script like this is amazing but then i start growing up as we do it and i then i think it's the other way

around i realize they just film the animals and then they write a script to match what the animals do yeah so there's there's no script until they've got the footage, right? It's all post-production. They don't say, Hammy, go in the boat now and go find the rat. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, you know, the other funny thing about Hammy is, I don't know if you ever heard this, but I would hear these anecdotal stories where people said

that Hammy was bad because kids would put their gerbils in their Barbie car or something and try and recreate what they'd seen. But I don't know. I never saw that happen. No, I don't. No, come on. Give us some credit here.

But I want to know where in Etobicoke this was filmed. Do you have any idea of that? You know what? I will find out because I'm keeping in touch with The Widow and I can tell you, sort of announce this on Toronto Mind, that we're looking at doing a new version of Hammy. You know what?

Great idea, because I can't imagine a less expensive show to produce. No, I know. Okay, like $10 for the animals. You create the set. You film it. You make up a story for kids. And I got a two-year-old, so I'm seeing a lot of these. These stories are weak, man.

Kids enjoy anything. I'm big on lot of these. These stories are weak, man. Kids enjoy anything. I'm big on a show, How Stuff Is Made or something. It airs on TV Ontario. And it's like my favorite show he watches. And we saw how peanut butter is made. And they're just going to the factory and filming how they make the peanut butter. And it's mesmerizing. And the kids love this stuff.

Can you imagine a cheaper program? The only thing cheaper than filming the peanut butter being made is these hamsters. Yeah. Well, I showed my two-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, a clip from Hammy, and she was enchanted by it. So, you know, it's one of those things. Bring it back. Yeah, it's got to come back. Bring it back.

Another thing, and you can tell me if this is still around, maybe, is Elmer still the safety elephant? He is. You know, the whole program has kind of collapsed because it's not done anymore by the police it used to be elmer and his buddy blinky blinky yes part of the same kind of gang if you will there was also barney who was the ttc beaver safety beaver and the three of those guys would go to fairs and schools and malls and they would talk about uh about safety Yes, I have fond memories of Blinky and Elmer. The beaver, not so much. I don't have a lot of memories of the beaver.

Yeah, no, I have evidence that he was part of that team. He was part of the trio. He's like the other guy, another Seinfeld reference or whatever, where you got Pavarotti, and there was the other guy. So, in fact, every time I took my oldest to the Santa Claus parade,

we went for like 10 years in a row, the downtown Santa Claus parade, Blinky was always showing up and he was looking worse and worse every year. Like one eye wouldn't open and he had a stroke or something. And he couldn't drive himself. Like he's being told.

Nothing sadder than Blinky, the old yellow cop car. I felt he never transitioned when they phased out the yellow dodges. You know, when they switched over to the white cars, he never looked quite as menacing when he was white than when he was yellow. I do have a Blinky clip. I may have missed out on Hammy the hamster, which will haunt me, but you're going to come back for episode 217.

So we're going to be loaded with Hammy the hamster stuff then, but let's hear this. This is a great clip of... You know what? What the hell is this? It's dead air. That's Blinky the talking police car. If, uh...

It's a 17-second clip from 1979 of Blinky the talking police car. It's when he-second clip from 1979 of Blinky the Talking Police Car. It's when he wasn't talking. You know, that's two strikes. If there's a third strike, I think we shut this down and we just drink this beer. We just crack one open right now. Well, look, I mean, Blinky was created by an actual sergeant

in the Metropolitan Toronto Police by the name of Roy Wilson. And, you know, he never got a penny for any of that stuff. And at one point, all the toy manufacturers in Canada wanted to make dinky cars of Blinky. Sure. But the Toronto Police wouldn't allow it, unfortunately. But, you know, Blinky, he certainly, I like the fact he's still in the parade. I mean, again, it's connective tissue to the old Toronto. But it is getting sadder, isn't it?

Can't we, all I ask, and I understand there's like a ceramic front or whatever. I always closely examine like how this Blinky's put together, this whole thing. But can't we get it to drive itself? Like if it was just, I think that'd be a big deal. Like instead of towing Blinky, like don't we have mechanics to drive itself? Like, if it was just, I think that'd be a big deal if we could, like, instead of towing Blinky.

Like, don't we have mechanics in this city that could fix a car? Yeah, no. Like, restore it. You used to do that, too. I mean, maybe this is a segue, maybe this clip. You know what? I'm open to it. I'm scared to proceed.

Continue, please. Blinky used to show up all the time on the Uncle Bobby show. Uncle Bobby. The Uncle Bobby show was very friendly to law enforcement. They would have police on almost every episode to come and hang out with Uncle Bobby and his friends

and talk to kids about safety. You want to see if I go over three? Let's go. We're having a lot of fun in the studio today. We hope you are having a lot of fun at home. We'd like you to be happy. We've got a birthday picker, and here she is. I'm going to show you the words on the hat there they are birthday picker and it's darlene and darlene is bunny's babysitter aren't you yes very good care of them oh of course you do thank goodness you do because bunny is along today to read the bunny books there's the

brolly hanging on the hook. Do you know how to shout when I knock the door? Open up Bimbo, please. Come on out, Bimbo, please. Ah, we get the words right. Yeah. Oh, come on out, and you can all shout with darling. Go! Come on out, Bimbo, please! Come on then, baby, you can do it. Here's an introduction

just for Bimbo. Introducing Bimbo, the birthday clown, the son of happy you know i let this go for no other reason than you crack. Which beer did you crack open? This looks like the Red Leaf Lager. It's lovely. Good.

Good. Enjoy. This gets more interesting. The more you drink, the more interesting the episode becomes. I learned that with Mike Richards. Okay, that's my Mike Richards pro tip. First, two things. One is Uncle Bobby is, of course, much like the Hammy the Ham.

Like, it's British. He's a British guy. Well, he was a British guy. That was all made in Scarborough at the, it's not CTV, but it was CFTO. Is that the Asian court? That's right. Right. And a lot of stuff came out of there.

Yeah, tons. But Uncle Bobby was produced between 1967 and the early 80s. And it was on every day, Monday to Friday. And it's another one of those stories that I'm kind of obsessed with it because there's no information online. There's hardly any clips. Everybody of a certain age has an Uncle Bobby story,

most of which are quite salacious. Bobby Ash was this British guy who was from a vaudevillian family. And he came to Canada and started doing the Uncle Bobby show. And he liked his drink. That's above board. That's on record. But he didn't get paid very much to do the Uncle Bobby show. So he would shoot it in the morning.

And he was a school bus driver in the afternoon. So you can imagine these kids that were watching him on TV in the morning, and then he's driving their bus in the afternoon. And apparently he had a trailer that was out the back of the Agent Court CFDO studio because sometimes he would sleep there. So this trailer was affectionately known as Uncle Bobby's Shaggin' Wagon

because he would bring quite often mothers who were bringing their kids to watch Uncle Bobby into his trailer. That's fantastic. There's just all this great stuff. Any truth to the rumor, he would scout mothers from the Just Like Mom production, and he would recruit them to the trailer. I think that was a little bit later. A little bit later.

The sad thing, so apparently Bobby Ash's drinking got worse, and the times were changing. This was the late 70s, and what happened was obviously Star Wars came out in 1977, and the producers of the Uncle Bobby show said, look, you got to change with the times. So they got rid of all of these sort of puppets and policemen and Blinky. They brought in a bunch of robots. Oh, right.

Because they thought, well, robots, Star Wars, that's what kids want to see. Kids like robots, for sure. And I've never seen any of these, but I can just imagine how sad it would have been at that point seeing Uncle Bobby hungover, grumpy, dealing with robots that weren't working

and then it got cancelled so all of the episodes are gone from CTV and like I said the only ones that exist are these little snippets that are on YouTube so interesting, when I heard that Bimbo the Clown song it just brought me back I remember that Bimbo the Clown song,

it just brought me back. Like I remember that song so well from like your childhood. And somebody, when I mentioned you were going to come on, I think I tweeted that we were going to talk Uncle Bobby and somebody immediately sent me their Uncle Bobby story, which was basically that he wasn't a very nice guy. He was mean, yeah. Like he's a mean, mean old British guy. It was weird because he did have a Pied Piper sort of sense about him that kids were mesmerized by him.

And actually, my Uncle Bobby story is I was at a Christmas party as a kid, and he was the host of this Christmas party. And he was mesmerizing, but he didn't like kids. Wow. Yet he's not only hosting Uncle Bobby show, he's driving a school bus. This guy picked the wrong vocation yeah it's kind of weird but the thing is everybody that watched Uncle Bobby that would go up to him and say

I love your show or can I get your autograph he would tell them to fuck off you'd never get away with that now of course and then I reply just please don't ruin Mr. Dress Up for me because I couldn't handle that like Uncle Bobby's one thing replied just please don't ruin mr dress up for me because i couldn't handle that like uncle bobby's one thing but if you ruin on mr dress up for me i'm that's it yeah uncle bobby was the the drunk uncle to mr dress ups you know stout father

uh blind eric was talking about how uh little paid people are in the canadian media world right and then i think there's no better anecdote to that that our Uncle Bobby, we were watching every day, had to drive a school bus to make ends meet. Like, what does that tell you? And live in a trailer. I mean, it's awful. Trailer.

Uncle Bobby. No, that's awesome. Not awesome, but the Hammy the Hamster story, the Blinky story, the Uncle Bobby story, I can't wait another 50 episodes to have you back. I might have to do it every 10 episodes or so.

And we're just warming up here because Dear Aunt Agnes, this is another theme song that should take people back here. 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 I've ever had. It's actually slower Dear Aunt Agnes, dear Aunt Agnes Won't you come and stay

Dear Aunt Agnes It's actually slower than it is in my memory. Like my memory of that theme song, it's a little faster pace. Tell me about Dear Aunt Agnes. Dear Aunt Agnes. So Dear Aunt Agnes was played by Heather Conkey, who you might know better as the producer and head writer of Heartland, which is a famous CBC show about horses.

Not to be confused with Homeland. Not to be confused with Homeland. There's no ISIS in Heartland, just horses. Which I know best because, yes, when I watch CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, you might see a promotion. If it's not the Murdoch Mysteries, it's going to be Heartland. Yeah. This is pre-Schitt's Creek, understand.

It's classic sort of CBC Canadiana. But Heather Conkey, back in the day, she was kind of like the Edith Prickley of TV Ontario. She would go on all the pledge drives. She was a host on Polka Dot Door. She was the Goldie. She was like the Goldie Gardner. But she also was in a lot of these shows.

So Music Box, I think, was the first one. And then Report Canada, which, again, that's one that is sort of on the top of my most wanted list. I've still yet to track down even a single episode, even though it was shown every day on TV Ontario. And quite often it was shown in classrooms because TVO had this relationship with the Ontario government where they would pipe the programming directly into class. And it was a show about geography and Canadian history and all this stuff. Again, a really good, memorable theme song. But I think what happened was she had sort of built up her stock at TVO

and was given carte blanche to come up with a concept. And this is around the time, sort of mid-'80s, when shows about teens and gritty teen drama was starting. Like a Degrassi type. It was a little bit before Degrassi Junior High, but it was Kids of Degrassi Street. Yeah, it was that kind of era. But TVO, of course, could never really get down and dirty, right?

So this was like a sanitized teen drama with Heather Conkey made up as a much older lady who was this sort of sage. She was the Edna Garrett of the year. Yes. Which is, believe it or not, the second episode in a row I've referenced Edna Garrett. So that's a podcast record.

That's hardcore. So Darren Agnes was, you know, she had her wisdom and it was sort of homespun wisdom and she would help the kids out with their sort of problems. And their problems weren't that bad. It was like somebody cheated on a test. No teenage pregnancy. No.

There was never any. I think the most risque they got was somebody drove the car around the block without a driver's license. And the thing is, I think you actually made this comment when I put the clip online years ago. That you watch it now and you think, how did I ever watch this? you actually made this comment when I put the clip online years ago that you watch it now and you think, how did I ever watch this? Cause it's really bad. Sounds like me.

It's like, you know, the theme song is great. I think it, it needs to be a little faster though. But yeah, I hear you. But the show itself is very,

very slow and very, very, very boring. But you know, you know, that's, you can say it about a lot of things though. The show itself is very, very slow and very, very, very boring. But, you know. You know, you can say that about a lot of things, though. Like, there's a lot of stuff that I remember from, like, the early 80s. And then I'll be hunting for it.

And then it's almost like don't find it. Like, the trick is not to find it. You know what? I think in some cases, for sure. But in other cases, I think these things totally. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. Of course. But, yeah, Heather Conkey, dear Anne Agnes.

Yeah. And, you know, so she, I mean, she's a fantastic talent. And again, I think another person that deserves a lot more recognition and credit than she gets because she sort of did all these great shows at TVO and then she went on to CBC. And, you know, I'm hoping to interview her for the Toronto Star at some point. Oh, nice. So about you for a moment. So you write for BlogTO. Write for BlogTO.

And sometimes for the Star. Yeah. So what's the deal with the Star? Like, is it just like you pitch them ideas and they either say yay or nay? Well, I was hired originally to write for StarTouch, which is the iPad. The one I can't download because I don't have a – I can't do it. And I think what they liked about my – they basically gave me a column, which was every Saturday. And they were attracted because I was able to include video clips with the stories, which is StarTouch was all about going beyond just the written word.

So, yeah. I mean, we'll see what happens. I know they haven't been thrilled with StarTouch, how it's turned out. I don't think it's been nearly as popular as they had hoped. And they're changing a lot of stuff. So I don't even know how much longer I might still be doing that with them. But it's been a lot of fun. And it's certainly, when you get published in the Star, it's suddenly you're legit.

Well, it is. I believe it's the highest circulation of any paper in the country. Like the country. Yeah. It's a big deal. Well, and I had written about Hammy the Hamster for them. And that was how The Widow found out about me.

Yeah. Especially of old people. That's a good point. old people really read the newspaper it's true about smart touch uh smart touch star touch i'm i'm actually the kind of guy i think i'm the target audience like i think i'm the guy who i would love to download it and try it out okay i really can't like all i don't own a device i do not own a device that can have can download star touch yeah it's annoying it i don't own a device i do not own a device that can have can download star touch yeah it's annoying it i don't have a tablet that runs android or ios i am a smartphone guy and a laptop guy those are my two yeah even this thing where i take the notes on this actually runs windows believe it or not it's uh yeah it's uh it's windows but uh yes i don't i don't it is annoying to me that i

cannot try this new medium like it's just if i can't get it how many others are like me that I cannot try this new medium. Like it's just, if I can't get it, how many others are like me that can't actually download StarTouch? Yeah. But your content, I'm sure, is fantastic over there. Yeah. No, I mean, it's, again, the whole sort of ethos that I work under is that there's all... And that's the second time you said ethos. That's a great word.

There's all these great stories about toronto pop culture specifically that go over into other fields but um let's make hay about it you know there's so much man and you're the only i mean there's a you're the you're the main guy doing it like you're that's why i have you on twice and i'm gonna have you on 25 more times because all this stuff we're talking about there's a great void here like no one's doing it i know it's so weird is it because it's not very lucrative? No, no, no. I think it's the opposite.

I think it's super lucrative. It's too lucrative. It's too lucrative. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's that to some people it's too recent. There's a lot of guys in Toronto that write about Toronto history

that's sort of turn of the century and the riots at Christie Pits and stuff like but when you get into sort of the 70s and the 80s and the 90s it's there's just nothing like no one's writing about Ron Oliver okay this is a good example now I remember him I met I loved his show on YTV which what did he call it? The Ron Oliver Show? The Ron Oliver Show. Yeah. Good name, too, because his name's Ron Oliver.

And I think it's one of these hidden treasures. It's almost like when I used to watch Buzz on Cable 10. Oh, yeah. Back in the day. He's coming on, by the way. Now, Mr. Moe, I've got to find out where Mr. Moe is at. Darren is from Jones. Nice.

He is coming on. He was a PJ too. He's lots of things, eh? Because he's actually based in LA right now, which is why it's tough to kind of coordinate his visit. That's a long drive for him to come for this beer.

But we're going to get it done. But I digress. So Ron Oliver, let me play a little Ron Oliver and let's talk about Ron Oliver because no one's talking about Ron Oliver. No.

Just us two. So let's talk about Ron Oliver because no one's talking about Ron Oliver. No. Just us two. So let's hear this. Dull. Boring. Stupid. I think this needs a visual, but let's hear it anyway. I don't get it. How come there's nothing intelligent on TV?

I can't. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ralph B. Happy Contest Goose, and I will be your guide for the next 25 minutes and 56 seconds. You know what? This is Oliver's twist, right? Because I couldn't find the Ron Oliver show. That was my problem.

Yeah, Oliver's twist was like a compilation of the best of the Ron Oliver show. And it had that stupid thing talking right now. It was like a sock puppet. That's what it is. I was saying, this needs a visual.

Yeah, it's a bit dry. So who's Ron Oliver? Where the hell is he today? And how come this show seems lost to like the annals of history? Yeah, it's really

a tragedy. The most incredible thing to me about Ron Oliver is that he was patient zero for YTV. He was the very first on-air host long before the PJs. Before Phil. Long before Phil. Long before even they had a show called YTV Rocks with Laurie Hibbard and Michael Quest.

And they were, you know, even those two get forgotten all the time. But even before them, they had Ron Oliver. And as YTV, and that was like when YTV was really ghetto and things were, you know, shown in the wrong order and things weren't on that were supposed to be on. But he kind of held it all together. And, yeah, he had this kind of irreverent sense of humor and he would do these gags. Yeah, he was hilarious. He was so funny.

Yeah. But in a very Canadian way. But yeah, almost like when you'd watch the Tom Green show on cable 10. Remember that kind of a vibe going on? Like it's just, like it's anyone else getting this because this is low budget, but just funny. Yeah, hilarious.

And it was on, you know, late at night. And as YTV started to gain legitimacy they kind of they packaged up a lot of his stuff and called it oliver's twist uh and then he just disappeared and and he was no longer associated with the brand now i can tell you he's actually now a very uh famous film director in in los angeles i'm happy to hear that i was just hoping he was alive yeah no he's alive And he does a lot of these kind of like straight to DVD kind of tween thrillers. I think the biggest movie he did was Harriet the Spy.

I heard of that. They did a feature film of that. So he directed that? He's a director, yeah. Ron Oliver directed Harriet the Spy. You can go to IMDb. I'm good. Pull up his full filmography.

Wow. And you can find pictures of him. He doesn't look the same. He's bald and very skinny and older. I feel like he was bald then. Like, am I misremembering? I'm picturing my head. No, he had blonde hair.

But he had the Hulk Hogan thing going, maybe, where there's, like, bald on the top. Maybe something. I'm just picturing. No, and, you know, that's cool that you remember him because I don't think many people do. Yeah, there was a period of time there where I was doing Buzz and Tom Green on Cable 10 and then Ron Oliver

my sense of humor that was all hitting my sense of humor at the time and I want to say this is like the turn of the decade or whatever like 1990 kind of time frame something around there but yeah that was the shit that made me laugh and I was listening to on Sunday nights I was listening to, on Sunday nights,

I was listening to the Sunday Night Funnies on Chum FM and listening to what was played by Roger, Rick, and Marilyn. Roger, Rick, Rick, Rick Hodge. That's how I remember it. No, Rick hasn't been on that show in a long time, but I still call it Roger, Rick, and Marilyn. Yeah, for sure. Well, that time period that you're talking about,

that was a lot of, you know, the Wayne's World stuff. Right. It came from Mike Myers watching Scarborough Cable 10 and watching those- Like Ed DeSoc is another guy coming out of this time that I just thought was hilarious. Yeah, no, it was definitely a really big thing. So why don't we, like in Canada,

why don't we appreciate this talent and then make them stars like they do in the US? Why do we always, like, you know, you mentioned Ron Oliver's directing in LA now. The guy from The Buzz is based in LA right now. Yeah, they all gotta go there. This is a serious brain drain issue.

Come on. Well, I'll tell you a funny story. Where I work now, it's a production company in Liberty Village. I produce short form video content for a website called sessionsx.com. And one of the hosts that we have is PJ Phil, Phil Guerrero. And so quite often I'm out in the field with him and he does sort of street interviews. We stop people and ask them what their favorite bands are and what their favorite albums are. And it is absolutely amazing going out in the field with that guy

because everybody knows him. It's like a rock star. People are yelling out of cars. Older people are like, my kids grew up watching you. Young people know. Everybody knows P.J. Phil. Yet, he's not a huge guy. If P.J. Phil. Yep. Yet, he's, you know, he's not a huge guy. Like, if P.J. Phil was in an American program or was an American host on Nickelodeon or something, it would be a different situation.

Yeah, absolutely. You should get him on, by the way. You know, I tried to invite him via Twitter and I didn't hear back. But because I used to go to Monday nights at the Phoenix, 410 Sherbourne Street. I used to go to Strange Paradise, which was hosted by Andy Frost of all people. But they basically played Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots and Beastie Boys and Rage Against the Machine and that stuff. And that's what I liked. And I would go there and every Monday night, PJ Fresh Phil by himself was in the middle of the room, just like sort of solo moshing.

I don't know how to describe it. But every Monday night, he was just there doing his thing to the same tunes like i would love to have pj fresh yeah he's he's he's an absolutely classic classic guy he's got a gazillion stories as you can probably imagine no you're gonna get him and maestro those are your two take-home assignments although my show's all i can't give you full credit because i've done most of the legwork there it's like when you tight the lid is is stuck and I pass, I can't quite open the lid and I give it to my wife and she pops it open and I loosened it for you. I've

loosened my stroke, but PJ, we're going to do a fresh show. Yeah, man. He'd be great. No, I'm down. Speaking of these personalities from the past, another one, earlier than the Ron Oliver years, but I used to listen to Video Hits. It was on CBC, right video hits that's right

and samantha taylor was the the host yeah and this was like i remember because toronto rocks was on city and video hits was on cbc cbc and uh they were both kind of your your pre-much music video shows if you will when you needed your fix of like helix or whatever. Yeah, well, I mean, it's funny because Sam came out of Q107 and actually before even, long before Much Music, before Video Hits and before, what was the other one you mentioned? Toronto Rocks.

Toronto Rocks. Toronto Rocks. It was actually Channel 47 Cable 4, CFMT, who pioneered the music video show in Toronto. Oh, yeah. They had a program called Metro Music. It was hosted by Bob Segherini and Sam Taylor, who were Q107 jocks. And you see, at that time, nobody knew how to program music video shows.

So they essentially had them standing there as if they were on the radio saying, coming up next, Duran duran hungry like a wolf sure and it was very boring to watch but then you know they started getting more having more fun with it but yeah if you didn't have much music it was it was all about uh about those shows and sam taylor was just again one of those personalities that was larger than life and beautiful and great voice i was gonna say because in this cfmt show or whatever like how she must have been young she was super young yeah and you see video singles was the show that video hits was a ripoff of and they sort of stole her

away from that gotcha i mean it's really when you talk to the people from that era it really was like open warfare. It's like radio. They're stealing, poaching hosts and backstabbing people pissed off. And one of the weirdest things to me is why John Major, Toronto Rocks, and Sam Taylor weren't VJs on Much Music. Yeah, interesting. They were like the original hosts. So how come they didn't translate into Much Music?

I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. So what became of Sam Taylor? Where is she now you know what i i i pretty sure she had a family and just sort of bowed out she's on facebook um because i know she posted one of the stories i wrote about about her show um she's still beautiful you know you should try and get her on yeah that might be your third homework assignment um you're gonna have a lot of work to do after this you had to earn those beers uh yeah i mean totally like she must be sick and tired of guys my age coming up and telling her how much we loved watching her after school she must love that yeah. Yeah, for sure. Now, one of the super fans of Toronto Mic'd, I'm going to call him that now, his name's Rob J. And he heard you were coming on and he mentioned

that he wanted you to talk to him about seeing things. So I'm going to play the intro because the intro is fantastic. This is one of those shows that, you know i i saw more promos than i saw actual episodes like i remember i used to watch i saw a lot of promos for seeing things but i maybe i was a bit young for seeing things i'm thinking maybe so i remember the song very well but i don't remember a whole lot of detail but the show let's play that song visions are for crazy men, I mean for goodness sake, but I'm seeing things, I'm seeing things. seen before My little things deceive me Like when you threw me

out the door I couldn't believe my eyes Firstly, that's a fantastic theme song. That would be a hit. Yeah. I would be hearing that. They'd be playing that on CFTR 680 back in the day. Totally.

Tom Rivers would spin that track. So I'm putting you on the spot here because you didn't know Seeing Things was going to come up here. One thing that surprised me about Seeing Things is that the star is not Canadian. That was the first kind of mind-blowing fact. Right, he's from New Jersey. He's an American. Louis Del Grand. But you know what?

He actually made a big deal about the fact that he was sort of born again in Toronto. He did a great show on CBC that was called Louis Del Grand's Toronto. And it was about, like, he was kind of the Jersey guy, you know, talked really fast. But he came up

and he loved Toronto. And, you know, seeing things, brilliant show, totally ahead of its time. It was kind of a mix of supernatural stuff because he had this, it was a bit like the dead zone. He would get these visions of murders and things. And he was a reporter for the Toronto Gazette, which was basically meant to be the Toronto Star. And his wife threw him out.

And the thing about Louis Delgrin, he's kind of a schlub, right? Like, he's balding, and he has a really lousy sense of dress, and he's kind of a loser. And you'd never see a show like that now with a leading man that looked like that. That's true. Or behaved like that, because he was a loser. But he would get involved in these in these things and i

think uh the people that remember seeing things uh remember that it showcased toronto in a way that a lot of programs don't do anymore so you know every episode had major landmarks in it and they were involved in the story and it's funny when they repeated it in the 90s on, I think it was Showcase, they put up a disclaimer at the front of every episode saying, basically, this show was made in the 70s when men were assholes to women, so don't get offended. Right, right. Because it's like, yeah, okay. It's like when you watch the old Bugs Bunny and whatever, and they'll be like, this was a different time. Yeah, just reminding everybody. The blackface, we wouldn't do that today.

Yeah, we're not necessarily like, we don't agree with this, but we're going to show it. But you know what? If you look at it now, I actually put an episode up recently on my YouTube channel that has Billy Vann from House of Freidenstein as the main guest star. And I think it holds up. It's a really weird show. It looks like Toronto. If you remember Toronto in the late 70s, early 80s.

A lot of parking lots, right? A lot of parking lots, but it was dirty and gritty. And that show captures all of that. So big ups to the guy who likes it. Because, again, you don't hear many people talking about seeing things. No, and Louis Delgrand, what's he up to these days? He's gone back to the States, I believe. You know what?

I don't know. You can't get him on the show, can you? He's gone back to the States, I believe. You know what? I don't know. You can't get him on the show, can you? He's gone back to Jersey. Probably not. No, I wish I, I want a time machine

because I want Bruno Gerusi on my show. So I need a time machine. There's a few time machines I'm going to need. Okay. Tell me about Laurie Bauer and the Laurie Bauer singers.

Maybe you want me to play the season of, is it season of Young? Is that what this is? Season of the young. Yeah. And it's the season of the young.

It's the people on the street in blue jeans. Long hair, short hair, all shapes and signs of youth and peace. Looking pretty, shopping through the city. On Yonge Street, where the people gonna look at each other walking by. And have a picture took by a guy standing on Yonge Street.

Toronto's number one street. Toronto's fun street. Toronto's number one street. Toronto's one street. He's Yonge. It's groovy, man. I'm digging this. Yeah, it's dynamite. And in the season of the Yonge. Where the heck did this end up?

It's an interesting story, this one. It came on a record that was given away free with a Saturday edition of the Toronto Star in the late 60s because that's the kind of stuff they used to do. And it's a concept album where every song is a different genre and each song is about Toronto and in between each song they have this narrator talking about toronto history so this obviously is the dope cut that kicks off

the first side well it's like an austin powers vibe going oh yeah swinging definition kind of yeah i'm digging it yeah no it's dynamite and uh the Laurie Bower Singers was a famous collective of Toronto artists. Did a lot of groovy stuff. I think the reason I sent it to you is two of the people in the Laurie Bower Singers, Bill Beisner and Stephanie Young, went on to do the theme song for today's special, which is another classic Canadian Toronto show. That's going to require its own hour to talk about that show. First of all,

you know, you can see the security guard, Sam, he's playing solitaire on some computer in the opening credits slacking off and everything.

That's, yeah, that was, so that was, that was filmed at the Eden Center, right? That's right,

at the Bay. Right. Oh, it used to be Simpsons, right? It was Simpsons. Yeah, yeah,

Simpsons. That's where they shot. Right, when my uh first daughter was born so my second born kid she was born in the like at women's college hospital at like three in the morning and i was driving home from the hospital that night and i was on bay and where the old simpsons was and they had changed that building to look like madison square gardens in the 30s i think because they were filming cinderella man oh yeah that's right yeah so like i was stopped and i could see like you know oh what year is this and it's like i see madison square gardens and there's the old cars and everything and they're filming some scene or whatever at that the old simpsons which is now

a bay so yeah there's my story but uh yeah um that's a that was a cool track and i can't believe they used to like hand out records of with with newspaper yeah i mean you know this again part of the thing that all that comes up a lot um with this kind of thing is is the sense of fun that used to exist in in the city right and um that's just, to me, that's a cool promo. We're just going to include a record of all these songs that are talking about how cool Toronto is. That song is about how great Yonge Street is and how all these young people are on Yonge Street.

And I know it's maybe a little bit hokey now. You couldn't get away with doing something like that. I got an idea. I got an idea. We're going to put together a compilation. We're going to call it something like maybe Views from the 6th or something like that, okay? That is a good idea.

Is that a good idea? That sounds good. But we drop it. It's the 16th year, right? And this is the fourth month. We drop it now, 4-1-6, okay? Wow. And maybe we got like maybe Drake or whatever,

whoever the kids like these days. Yeah, rapping about Toronto. You want to do it? That sounds like a good idea. Yeah, don the kids like these days. Yeah. Rapping about Toronto. You want to do it? That sounds like a good idea. Yeah. Don't steal it from me. It's my idea. You know,

we don't have much time left, so I want to play a song that brings me right back. TV Ontario. And again, and not that I watched, like I don't remember watching too many of the films because I was younger, but I would see, I would hear and see this and it would

mesmerize me as a young man, like hypnotize me. So let's listen to what the heck Mike's talking about. Shadows moving faster than the eye Passing faces, places never ever seen before They'll take you to the sky Right upon a silver screen where pictures seem to flow Like magic, magic shadows. This was a much trippier city back in the day. Oh, yeah. What's going on, man?

Well, you know, Elwee had a lot of friends in Hollywood because he would go down there for Saturday Night at the Movies and he would interview all these people that were involved in classic Hollywood. And one of the guys he knew was a fellow by the name of, I think, Herbert Klein, and he was an animator designer. He did a lot of openings of like 60s TV shows. And he said, hey, I'm starting a new show magic shadows can you can you pull together something for me and that animator went away produced what i think is one of the greatest trippy psychedelic opening you can't hear that song without visualizing that yeah that opening it was just totally mesmerizing and you're right like as a kid um it was terrifying but then you know like a black and white boring movie would come on so you'd lose interest right away that no doctor who was terrifying i think we talked about that

yeah we went into great depths there but this was just like hypnotic and mesmerizing but yeah i never i had no interest in the black and white film that was about to be shown or whatever. But that opening. Yeah, and Elwie too. Elwie's a guy, I liked him. I liked seeing him. He just seemed interesting and smart. And I don't think I ever stuck around for one of his movies as a young man.

So I missed out. But yeah, and his son is Graham Yost, right? That's right. He wrote, was it Speed? And what the heck was he writing? He wrote Speed. He also, the show justified and uh the americans which is a great great show i hear good things one of the many good shows i'm missing out

on you would love it because it's all set in the 80s but um no the other thing about magic shadows uh it's to me one of my most uh greatest unsolved mysteries for me because I've been able to figure out who did the animation, but nobody knows who did that song. Wow. And clearly it's a riff on the Beatles. Yeah, it's got the... Press the Universe kind of vibe.

Absolutely, absolutely. But nobody knows. And I don't know if it was an in-house guy, a TVO, or somebody just whipped it up one afternoon, but I would love to find out. Well, that's okay. Then that's the... So you got homework. Now I got homework. I'm, but I would love to find out. Well, that's okay.

So you got homework. Now I got homework. I'm going to use my powers to find out, yeah, where that song came from. Because absolutely, it's riffing on that Beatles song, Cross Universe. But who else did that? Who are the songs from the big chair?

Cheers for Fears. Remember, what was the song they released? The big hit. This great, great podcast moment here is the common man on a dun dun anyways they had a big hit of a song that was that was a similar similar vibe which is this is a terrible segue unless i play it but anyways it go dig it up but uh we're gonna find out who composed the song for magic shadows because it's amazing. It's amazing. It is. And there's nothing like that again anymore.

People show films on television. There's no more fanfare. I'm a big fan of those old movie openings. City TV had amazing ones. Because that was part of the deal. You get people excited. You have animation of popcorn or whatever. Yeah, it was a big deal when they had a new one, too.

I remember when they launched the new one with the gargoyles or whatever. That's right. It was a big deal. And you always had The Voice was always going to accompany it. Always Mark Daly. And we didn't even comment on this, but the clip that I sent you of him introducing Electric Circus was amazing just to hear him say, Shabba Ranks. Yep, and Shabba Ranks brings that music back, too. Ranks.

Yep. And Shaba Ranks. That brings me back to Mewanga. That was, he had a big hit, like a mainstream hit with Maxi Priest. Right. Called House Call.

Yeah. Because I remember, because all the stuff was pretty heavy, like dance hall reggae stuff. And then he had this like pop hit out of nowhere, which, yeah, which was pretty interesting.

All right, man, that, that's a full show. That's pretty big. You're going to come back. But I got to ask you about my VHS cassette. So I had a storage bin I've been carrying around for decades now. And it has these, what is there, five there?

There's five VHS tapes. And I kind of labeled them so I get an idea of what's on them. Like the last game at Maple Leaf Gardens and the last game at Exhibition Stadium. And there's an 1991 All-Star game because it was at the Dome. and there's an all... The 1991 All-Star Game, because it was at the Dome, and there's a bunch of stuff there. So what's the best way for me to get that digitized to find out what the heck is on there?

Well, I might know somebody. Who do you know? You know, this guy, this crazy guy out in Scarborough. He's doing God's work. Yeah, I think I could help you out with that. All right doing God's work. Yeah, I think I could help you out with that. Alright, that is awesome.

And that, Mr. Retro Ontario, brings us to the end of our 167th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike and Ed is at Retro Ontario. One O combining those two fantastic words, retro and Ontario.

See you all next week. I want to take a streetcar.