Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Retrontario: Toronto Mike'd #851

Episode Date: May 17, 2021

Mike catches up with Retronario's Ed Conroy.

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And Mike Majewski, or as I call him, Mimico Mike. He's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike. From torontomike.com and returning to the podcast after far too long in absence is Mr. Retro Ontario himself, Ed Conroy. Mr. Boone. Welcome back, Ed. How the hell are you doing, man? I'm doing great doing great man and i'm doing much better for being

back in your presence oh you're too kind uh why the hell are you not in my backyard right now it's like a sunny 20 degree day why am i doing this on zoom with you um i know it's killing me it's killing me to see those those great legs brewery tins on your desk. You know, a lot has changed since we last crossed swords. And I got to break the news to you. I'm actually in the middle of moving right now. So unfortunately, I couldn't make the trip out. You know, what's so frustrating was, you know, I wanted to come on Toronto Mike last year and I kept putting it off

because i said i don't want to do this over zoom right you know i want to i want to hang out and i put it off and i put it off and now i'm in a position where you know i unfortunately for the foreseeable future i think this is probably the only way i can okay so back up the truck here let's uh you said you're moving are you moving to mimico did did mimico Mike put you in a nice Mimico home? No, I'm actually not going west. I'm going a little bit further east. I don't know if you've noticed this anecdotally, but there's an exodus going on.

I know that a lot of people who used to go into an office downtown or whatever are now working from home because I don't know if you know, there's a pandemic. And these people that no longer need to go downtown to go in an office are sort of leaving the city because it's so ridiculously expensive here. And if you can work from home, you could be like, as you know, my last Zoom guest was Maestro Fresh West. Dude moved the fam to New Brunswick. Yeah, I mean, you know what? I think it's that's a big part of it. Of course, working from home, you can work from anywhere. because the last year made a lot of people kind of look back, take stock of their lives,

and maybe realize that the rat race, being in the city, all that stuff maybe wasn't as important as spending time with your family, being outside, being in the great outdoors. It's time to reflect on a lot of that stuff. So how... I don't know. I just want to tell the so how like i i don't know i just want to tell the listenership that i actually don't know the answer to this so you said you're moving east are we talking like the dirty schwa or are you gonna move are you moving to kingston are you moving to uh prince edward island like how far east are you moving uh not that far east

i mean i'm in scarborough now so i'm like from where you're sitting that's pretty far east already but yeah that's pretty east yeah i i bought a lovely farmhouse uh out in port perry i don't know if you're familiar with that that help me out uh where is give me some like other nearby cities i might know where they are like um oxbridge you know oxbridge oh is that like east of markham uh it's it's sort of east of pickering uh east of uh northeast of the schwa okay but it's a lovely lovely community okay um it's it's farmland but it, it's become, you know, it's, it's kind of hip. I, I, I hate to say that, you know, it's trendy to live there now, but it's a lovely little old, you know, main street and lots of history there and lots of farmlands. And yeah, I, you know,

it was, it was, it was time I had to, I had to move. And I also, you know, I've accumulated so much equipment over the years that my little house in Scarborough, it just couldn't contain all of it. So one of the perks, the property I bought, there's this massive converted barn, which I'm going to basically turn into a studio slash living archives. Wow. It could be like a museum. Yeah. Yeah, that's the idea oh my god dude so okay so whenever this shit blows over man i can uh i can't bike there that's too far i'll have to get in an actual car and drive to you by the way it's been so long since you were here uh i looked it up it was uh christmas crackers volume three that was uh episode 558 way back when uh december 2019

so uh and then i think when you were here i probably drove you to the ghost station in my old mazda that car i buried that car last june so that's that's been you know so that's how long it's been since you've been here oh that was that was like the blues mobile, man. That thing never died. That's amazing. It didn't die. That's the thing. One of the things with the pandemic is that I didn't need that car. I just don't need this hunk of metal in my driveway.

I didn't need it. So it didn't die. I should just point out, it started rusting away, but that car ran beautifully the day i said goodbye but all this is to say is i'll get in an actual car and drive to port perry just to like visit the the museum slash retro ontario archive studio like that's awesome yeah i'm excited but it's it's thrown a bit of a wrench into my may and my j. So unfortunately, I couldn't make the trip out. All of that to say we have enough more than enough to catch up on. I can't believe the last time I spoke with you is before the world fell off the cliff.

I mean, we were we were probably sitting around going, oh, you know, another year, you know, 2020. What what nonsense could possibly happen? and here we are now so oh yeah so much to cover uh one thing though that uh really boils my potatoes here is that if we were gonna do this zoom like we're doing right now we could have done christmas crackers volume four yes like i feel like if i had if i had a time machine like some people like oh man i'd go back and kill hitler no man we're going back to to December 2020 and we're doing Christmas Crackers Volume 4. Why don't we reboot Christmas Crackers for 2021 and take it in a new direction?

That way, that leaves the original trilogy untouched. Okay? I like how you think. Okay, I love it all, man. So much ground to cover that I want to dive in. So some of these questions are coming from mutual fans and listeners of toronto mike to love your appearances and some of this stuff you've seeded but a whack of stuff is going to hit you here but i want to read this comment from 51 51 photography on twitter he writes no questions just total respect to two self-made men who are doing what they love

and are actually good at it. And he put good in all caps. Wow. What an awesome comment that is. It's all, that's what it's all about, right? So I guess, I mean, I always assume people know Retro Ontario and have listened to all your previous appearances,

but in a nutshell, bring us up to speed of like what you're up to in the Retro Ontario arena there, and then I'll start peppering you with questions. Yeah, I mean, I still, Retro Ontario started, as you know, as a YouTube channel. That's still, I tell people, that's the mothership. If it was, if I was to boil it down to something, it's a YouTube experiment. The idea was to salvage and exhibit as much ephemeral pop culture from Toronto and Ontario and Canada.

The material that I saw as sort of disappearing is getting lost in the shuffle. sort of disappearing is getting lost in the shuffle. Everything from television commercials to television series and films and all the stuff that, you know, other countries have organizations devoted to preserving. But here in Canada, if you don't do it yourself, it's not going to get done. And it's funny, I was invited to speak at a historical conference a few weeks back over Zoom. And, you know, I talked a lot about this, this idea of what I call a citizen archivist. And I think you're one as well. It's basically the idea that you're nostalgic, but you're also sort of coming at this from a somewhat academic perspective and you're preserving this material, whether it's a podcast or a YouTube channel or a

blog or whatever the hell it is. But you're doing it not because you're getting paid or, you know, you're, you're doing it because you want to be famous. You're doing it because you actually legitimately love the material. And if you weren't doing it, nobody else would be doing it. So yeah, that's it. Oh, amen. I was the reason I was so attracted in the beginning to the, what was it? W N E D 17. Was that the youtube channel that i first discovered your stuff was yeah so i mean the early days my my goodness the early days of youtube that's like 20 years ago well that's i was on board that's when i was on board i you i was on board with you because you were doing what i was trying to do except you were doing it much better

than me and then i the other dude that was in the mix that i was discovering was kind of archiving all the shit that i wanted collected was you know who mr mark wiseblood from 1236 so you know i had wiseblood in the backyard last week and i'm catching up with you now and it's kind of awesome that here we are in 2021 and we can we're still doing our thing yeah no it is amazing and you know i gotta say your blog because I think it was before Toronto Mic'd started, you would occasionally post some of the WNED videos. And it really took a couple of months before I, but then I started to realize, oh my goodness, you know, maybe there is an interest in this material. It's not just, you know, myself. Oh, so did I play any role in you uh, you continuing with this and having the, absolutely. Wow. That's that's awesome. So, so much to cover. Uh, I'm going to start though with, uh, something. So I had Bill Brio on like a couple of months ago,

Bill wanted to talk about the Cloverdale mall. I've been doing these mall episodes. So we, I gotta do a mall episode of you at some point what would be the mall episode you would do like i did the gallery a mall because i worked there for five years and then i did cloverdale mall because it's kind of my local interesting mall but if you had to do a mall episode which mall would you cover oh i would do uh warden woods which was a great scarborough mall that is sadly no longer it was uh bulldozed and turned into townhouses many years ago but it looked it looked exactly like the mall in back to the future more more so the parking lot looked like the twin pines or whatever it was called

um and so as a kid i remember other kids in our class bullshitting and saying, oh no, they filmed Back to the Future at Warden Woods. And of course, oh, okay. As a kid, it made sense. Right. Awesome. Well, at some point we got to do that. But what did Bill and I talk about? We were talking and I just said, hey, what the hell happened?

Because Bill covers TV and stuff. What the hell happened to the Martin Scorsese SCTV reunion? I remember they filmed it, and I know Rick Moranis was there, and it was a big deal. And then us SCTV fans just kind of wait for this thing to drop on Netflix or whatever. You know, Scorsese's putting it together. Like, this was a big fucking deal.

And then it seemed to just die on the vine. Anyway, what's up? I know Joe Flaherty sent some cryptic message that it was done and then brio covered that and then apparently it's not done do you have any idea what's going on with our sctv reunion yeah i heard some some weird stuff you know i think anybody that was lucky privileged enough to be at that recording which was what two years or three years ago now yeah um you know i knew a few people that were there and, you know, it would be like seeing the Beatles, right?

I mean, it was just, it's just magic. What I understand, what I think is probably the most likely thing, and it's maybe the lamest is, is just Marty Scorsese is a, is an old dude. I mean, he's, he's pushing on and he's got like 50 projects on the go. As always, he's a workaholic. So he's editing stuff. He's getting stuff in development. He's filming stuff.

And this seems to have gone on through some kind of hiatus. The debate is about why. Is it something to do with Andrew Alexander, the SCTV producer that sort of got into a bit of trouble last year? Is it to do with uh andrew alexander the sctv producer that sort of got into a bit of trouble last year is it to do with something else i i'm glad mr bro pointed it out because it got you know out into the into the world that there was some kind of issue but uh yeah if if i was to guess it's it's marty marty's age yeah the man the man's working on a hundred different things and then the priority list I guess SCTV just kind of dropped but it's not obviously it's

not dead on uh it's not DOA but it's uh sort of sleeping I I don't think it's DOA because Netflix are not shy about telling you things that are DOA so if if it was, I'm fairly certain we would have gotten a very clear, this project is no longer in our wheelhouse. But we haven't got that. So I think it is alive. Hey, here's a good comment that ties into what you're up to at Retro Ontario. But Mark Vendramini, that's easy enough.

Okay, so let me do it again. Mark Vendramini says, I have recently noticed what seems to be an uptick in local Toronto history. Do you, Ed Conroy, notice the same? also think there's maybe a little bit of negative about that. The good obviously being that Toronto now as a city that is on the world stage, that has this wonderful history, has come alive on social media. And I think a lot of certainly young people, I encounter all kinds of young people writing me emails and asking me about things on retro Ontario, because they're actually really interested in, in what happened in the city, you know,

in the, in the sixties or the seventies or the eighties. And there wasn't this kind of ecosystem before that, that exhibited that material, right? If you wanted to see pictures of the Eaton center in the seventies, you had to go to like a library or the, or the reference library or something.

Right. But now it's all on Instagram and it's on facebook and it's all over the place yes so that's great that's to be uh celebrated that there are there are many people out there working in the trenches looking for this material you know know, getting their hands dirty, finding it. What gets under my skin a little bit is this whole, and it's not just with Toronto history, it's with anything on social media. You have this kind of sub subsect of social media users who are just solely interested in clout, right? They just want a million followers and they want to be on blog to, and they want to get all this fame. And how do they do it? They do it by essentially stealing other people's content. Right. And there are some, you know, I don't want to name names. There's people that have been on your podcast that behave like this.

Name names that I got to know who we'll be talking about. Reprehensible. Well, you know, it's funny's funny uh you know it gets compared there's one guy in particular and he's a good guy i've worked with him i produced one of his shows a few years ago um but he gets in a bit of hot water as being somewhat akin to a joke thief right you know in the world of stand-up comedy the joke thief is the is the person that lingers around and they they steal the work of other people and then they go out and they get all the credit for it um there's somebody like that uh operating in the in the tm universe uh and he he gets a lot of props for having like a million twitter followers and uh you know is this guy from winnipeg? I don't actually know where he's from.

No, I don't want to get in trouble. But I know, you know, I see that kind of behavior. And obviously, it's just disingenuous to me because it's not people that legitimately give a shit about Toronto or Toronto history there. It's so obvious to me that they're doing it to either exploit the material financially or as i say just to get clout and so what i saw happening was a lot of my stuff was ending up on other places a lot of the work of other people that i know like people like chris bateman or derrick flack uh who like i say they put their time and they went into the trenches and dug these photos out and scanned them and researched them. And then some asshole comes along and puts it on

Instagram and puts his logo on it and gets the accolades. So that stuff I don't like. And there's nothing you can really do except for when you see it, it out um but yeah overall there's certainly a huge uh resurgence in interest in toronto history because make no mistake like you're putting in this is a lot of work like this is you know you got to do your your due diligence to dig this up i know that when i you know when i want to find out you know about carol pope's experience recording tears are not enough like i got to to get Carol Pope on the line and I got to ask her the question, right? And she's got to answer it.

Like there's a whole bunch of stuff involved to get that nugget you're looking for. Like Carol Pope getting the call about Tears Are Not Enough. Yeah. And I mean, you know, I wrote, I still do write for BlogTO many, many years. And a lot of those articles, I reached out to people

and was given copies of some of their photographs but it was on the condition that it only lived in the article so that it was the it was contextualized so then so then i saw you know these photos that were just basically being plundered out of blog to articles with no context, with no even reference to, Oh, this came from the history of the Metro zoo in Scarborough or any, anything like that. And it's like,

it's infuriating because not only is the person getting kind of ripped off, they're not able to see there's more pictures or here's the story. It's like, Oh look, I've got this. I've got that. You know?

And when I, when I turn off the recording, you'll give me this name, right? Oh yeah. Okay. Make sure. Okay. By the way, Charles Brandt,, you know? And when I turn off the recording, you'll give me this name, right? Oh, yeah. Okay, make sure. Okay, by the way, Charles Brandt, who's a listener, just said he wanted me to ask you,

why did it take so long for you to revisit Toronto Mike? But obviously it's because of the pandemic and you didn't want to do it on Zoom. You wanted to do it in person. So we were waiting that out. And then you are doing it on Zoom because you're moving and there's a whole bunch of stuff there.

So that's why it took so long for Retro Ontario to return to Toronto, Mike. Well, and I also think the whole concept of time no longer exists. Frankly, I don't know. I don't know what it's like for you, but you could tell me that it's September and I would be, okay, I guess it is. It doesn't even make sense anymore. No, that's a good point. Malalfurious. I do remember meeting Malfurious at a TMLX event at the patio of Great Lakes Brewery. I know, Ed, by the way, you're a big fan of Great Lakes beer. So next time I see you,

even if that's me driving to Port Perry to check out the museum, I'll bring you some fresh beer from Great Lakes. Excellent. But Malfurious writes, you've covered this before but why was the Doctor Who theme so friggin terrifying five-year-old

me was just finishing up Polka Dot Door on TVO and this monstrosity comes on so Ed before you say a word though I'll just let the listenership go we've talked about

this in great go back and listen to all the Ed Conroy appearances because we've explored this in great detail because it truly traumatized me like uh i'm not even gonna not even understating this at all to say that i was tbo was like i was just left in front of tv ontario and i loved dr polka dot do and polka dot door and then when that opening to the Doctor Who that was kind of happening in the late 70s, early 80s, like it really did scare the shit out of me. Yeah. Oh, my God.

I mean, this is something you and I talked about years ago, but I still hear this all the time from lots and lots and lots of people, cross section of people, even people that now you know on on their instagram account have got pictures of horror movies and things and they tell me about how they were absolutely traumatized by the the doctor who theme song coming on as you say right after polka dot door or or today's special right um and i always say look uh the the theme song was composed by this incredible electronic artist by the name of Delia Derbyshire, who was one of the few at the time women that was working in that field. And she cut, you know, there's a brilliant documentary about her that I saw, but she was basically experimenting with the kinds of stuff that modern musicians now just, I guess, take for granted from samples and whatnot, music, concrete. And she was just creating these real otherworldly noises and

pieces of music that helped make Doctor Who this kind of spooky science fiction program. And so, you know, if you were watching Doctor Who in Britain, it was on quite late in the evening on a Saturday and you would you know, it wouldn't be so, you know, it wouldn't stand out. It wouldn't be so jarring, like there wouldn't be five year olds watching it. after school block and then there are sort of early evening uh adult block and doctor who was like the siren that told you to if you were a kid like go go to bed or go do your homework i'm on the retro ontario facebook page right now and i know you have i'm looking at it i'm going to play a bit of it here i'm fat so there's this is sort of the well this is exactly the today's special into doctor who again courtesy of you. By the way, I always give you credit because I do share a lot of stuff.

I appreciate it. Always. From day one because I would like people to give me credit when they steal my stuff. Okay, here we go. I bet they can. Really, I bet they can. Hello down there. Sam Crenshaw is in a plane, I see, or a helicopter here.

Okay, so Today's special's ending. Shout out to Muffy, who's an FOTM. So we've got the closing credits to today's special. So you're still in that today's special mode. Thanks to Simpsons. Okay. Today's special's over. I'm looking out for TV Ontario's Sunday morning shows for kids.

Polka Dot Door. Fables of the Green Forest. Oh, I love the Fables of the Green Forest. Sesame Street. Love Sesame Street Love Sesame Street Dr. Snuggles Oh my god I love Dr. Snuggles This is my jam right here Oh man

Cucumber Of course Kids World Of course. It's still very children-friendly. We're seeing all our favorites. Don't remember too much about Ludwig. Oh, Simon, the Land of Chalk Dragons, of course. Okay. Oh, Simon, the land of chalk drawings, of course. Okay. Be on the lookout for all these great shows Sunday mornings on TV Ontario.

Oh, my God. Okay. This is Channel 28 in Kitchener, Waterloo, Channel 18 in London. Okay. So I'm sitting here watching this. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. and it's not just it's not just the audio man it's that visual like that tunnel thing they do and the guy of the the tom baker yes the big hair anyway okay you know i love talking about that

because i think too you must remember it was also on wned out of buffalo um it was on a little bit later on on that station but the thing as a kid uh not only the theme song was frightening, but the whole show was a cliffhanger show. So there was never any resolution. Right. It would be like, you know, the monster would come out of the, you know, from behind the curtain and start attacking somebody. And it would go right into that music. And then the next week they would get out of that, you know, adventure.

And then, you know, somebody else would attack them. And so it was just ongoing peril and as a kid i think that's what fucked me up was like there was never any resolution but you could get into it i couldn't get past the theme song no no i didn't see like full episodes but i just remember like channel surfing and seeing oh what's oh's Doctor Who. And then it would be something really horrific, always a monster or a robot or somebody being attacked. And then it would be that music. So yeah, I mean, overall, it's pretty tame. If you look at it now, everything we've seen since has desensitized us. But in the chill, early 80s television world, it was pretty intense.

And I mean, I know people I know and trust in their opinions on television tell me that the chill early 80s television world. It was pretty intense. And I mean, I know people I know and trust and their opinions on television tell me that it's a really good show. And there's a lot of good iterations of Doctor Who. Neil Tennant, I think, is in one. And there's a big deal, Doctor Who. And now the woman from Broadchurch is Doctor Who. But I would never give it an opportunity.

Never, even to this day. I won never give it an opportunity like never even to this day i won't give it a minute because of that damn memory i have from the late 70s early 80s uh fair dinkum mate i like i said i think it's a very common bit of trauma for our generation oh man that's like if you got the astrazeneca shot you might remember this basically okay neil jenkins says excited to see retro ontario back on the show question for ed what franchise or brand would you want to see fotm retro kid uh he means eric bowser i guess is the fotm eric voice of bugs bunny but uh feature on a line of t-shirts so i know that eric mentioned this but what is this there's some kind of retro kid

retro ontario alliance yes um well you know i might as well let the cat out of the bag it's uh we we have a line fast um i will certainly uh give you my best description of of the items if you're down but uh yeah retro kidder a great outfit it's it's eric bowser and steve gaskin and you know steve hit me up years ago and told me, you know, he was a fan and he was really into the retro stuff and he really wanted to do these these lines. And they started, I think the first one was House of Hilarious House of Frightenstein. And it was just amazing. I could see right away the quality of the garment was really high. You know, a lot of these things, you see bootlegs of old retro TV show t-shirts and they're kind of on shitty quality, you know, material. And you wash them once and they're like, you throw them away, you know? But the retro kid stuff was really high grade.

And then they went on, they did all these different lines. They did a TVO line. They did a CBC retro. They did Mr. Mr. Dress up and just really, really cool shit. And so we started talking about what could we do together? And we went through a bunch of different crazy ideas and we landed on on, I think, the best. And so, yeah, that's all going to come out next week. Any Uncle Bobby stuff in there? No. I think with Uncle Bobby, Mike, it's a dangerous time to be talking about Uncle Bobby. But Uncle Bobby had consensual relations with the moms right but

you know it's i find even with each passing day right uh it's it's it's scary out there and uh you know just be grateful with the moms that's what i say like right right but it's it's it no longer the truth doesn't even really matter anymore. It's the perception. But that's what's wrong. That's what's going on with with just like mom. I can tell you right now if I. Well, yeah, I mean, look, we can go back into that. But it's it's sad.

It's really, really sad that you can't. You know, I I know that there's a huge segment of retro Ontario fans that love just like mom or they were on it. You know, like Wise Plot. And I can't put a clip on the Facebook page or on Instagram or on anything without it degenerating into accusations that are really bad, that are really intense. Because of that video, the super cut

of kissing the young girls. That's right. And so with uncle bobby i mean there's a lot of smoke there right and there's a i mean we laugh about it and you know it is funny but also just the way things are going you can't really make light of of situations where young people felt terrified by an authority figure which is what he was. No doubt. By the way, here's a fun little connection to just like mom.

I think it's fun. Anyway, I just had a children's entertainment duo called broccoli and sunshine. So broccoli and sunshine were just on Toronto Mike. Actually, they sent me a cool hoodie and I remind me to get back to my Eric Bowser hoodie story in a moment. But the father of broccoli was the producer of just like mom. hoodie and i remind me to get back to my eric bowser hoodie story in a moment but uh the the

father of broccoli was the producer of just like mom oh cool uh buford burford i can never say this last name but anyway paul burford or anyway but uh there's a connection to just like mom is the father that's a long way to go for that but uh, uh, should I get over the fact that when, when Eric Bowser was on my show and it was awesome, like he was amazing on Toronto Mike, like just the best guest. And he was amazing in the episode. He promises he's going to send me a byway shirt. Okay. So this happened in the episode during the recording. He says, I'm going to send you a byway shirt. Okay. I don't, I don't know what to do. Like, I'm not going to bug him and say, where's my byway shirt, but it's been several months and there's no but I just no byway shirt coming should I just accept this that this is like when you're recording and you're promoting something you say you're going

to give something or should I be like don't say that like don't tease me like don't say you're going to send me a byway shirt unless it's going to come to me well I have some good news and I have some better news uh the good news is that the Byway shirts, I believe, from their last print run, the classic ones, were, I think, sold out. I mean, they were like collector's items. So as part of the Retro Kid, Retro Ontario line, we're doing a re-release of Byway. So there will be a huge amount of restock Byway.

So I'm very excited about that. And I will make sure that you get one, Mike. Thank you. The better news is that in addition to the Byway t-shirt, like I said, there's six other items that that we're releasing and i'm really the byway one i'm excited about i'm really excited about some of the other ones so maybe uh we can get back into that later i did send you some audio yeah yeah yeah so so okay around or we're gonna yeah we'll get back to yeah that'll come back because i'm gonna play

all your audio actually uh real quick some more quick questions. So Kevin matters. And I think Kevin does matter, but his name is Kevin matters. He said, that's a great name. Kevin matters. Uh, what song will the hip play at the Junos?

So those, for those who don't know the tragically hip, the surviving members of the tragically hip, cause it's hard to think of the tragically hip without Gord Downie, to be quite honest with you. Uh, but the tragically hip without, Hip without Gord, of course, I think Feist is going to be taking Gord's spot

for a performance at the Juno Awards. What do you think they'll play? I'm probably not the best person to ask. You are, clearly. I tuned out of the hip around the time of road apples which i think is quite wow that is to me road apples is like peak hip um do they have any instrumentals or i mean i can't imagine well feist isn't going to be there to she's going to be there to sing right so it could be like it could be courage it could be something like courage or whatever but i

will say but road apples uh we just i do since the pandemic started 62 weeks ago i've been doing these pandemic friday recordings with uh cam gordon who by the way cam gordon gifted me that he's from twitter canada he gifted me that byway bag so shout out to cam and stew stone and we've been doing this every week with like kicking out thematic jams and we just did girl jams like a couple of weeks ago and I kicked out Cordelia in the girl jam episodes because I love road apples too. So I'm with you on road apples.

I think they could play Courage or something like that. I guess we'll find out. But okay, thank you, Kevin. Now, Davenport and Oakwood, that's his handle or her handle. There was an old commercial I was looking for,

but now I forget what it was and that was the whole tweet so do you get a lot of hopefully this guy or gal remembers what they're looking for but do you get as most of your email from fans like people looking for a certain retro ad yeah i get i get a lot i get a lot of that my wife always jokes you know if we charged uh you know a dollar for me to answer these things we could probably live in forest hill um i i try i say my hit rate is probably like 80 some of it is just there's there's no way i mean i you know the the information i get to work with is so limited like oh i remember a show it was on somewhere between 1980 and 1995. And it had a monster with blue hair. I mean, it's like I have no idea.

But then you get people that, you know, they have a very strong recollection of some piece, whether it's a show or a commercial. And then I can work with that and I can figure it out. I love solving those mysteries. So it's kind of fun for me and and there's nothing better than like a slam dunk like when somebody and i'll tell you the one that always always comes up is is read all about it from tv ontario and it's probably because it was shown in class like it was part of curriculum so i get probably once week, what was the show where the kids make a newspaper and there's like a scary silver head that chases them. And it's like,

read all about it. And you send them the link and they're like, Oh my God, I've waited like 30 years to see this. And that's great. Right. That's the drug. The first taste of the drug.

Oh my God. Nostalgia is a potent drug. Hey, William Dunlop is, uh, Oh, by the drug, the first taste of the drug. Oh, my God. Nostalgia is a potent drug, man. Hey, William Dunlop is... Oh, by the way, did you know I had Caitlin Ryan on the program since we last talked? I saw that. That's amazing. I only thought of Caitlin because my class, and I was going to primary school near Jane and Bloor, and our class used to walk to the Runnymede Library, and we would go in in the room and they would play an episode of kids of degrassi street yeah and anyway so

shout out to k she was actually she had a different name on that show but stacy mystician was in kids of degrassi street as you know okay william dunlop says ed do you have any toronto nightlife footage uh in the 1990s oh yeah tons tons what i mean there there was a wonderful cbc show that was on in the early 90s and i think it was called after hours and it was hosted by uh the prince of love uh david bronstein before before he was the prince of love wow um and it was basically him and a lady who i don't remember who she was, but they just went around Toronto to different nightclubs and they'd say, oh, we're at the, you know, this place tonight. on broadcast television at least. And it was on for like two years. And when I interviewed David Bronstein, he said that show allowed him to build up the network,

which he then employed to do the late night infomercials. Amazing. Speaking of those late night infomercials, I recently just started thinking about the Blue Blockers rapper. Yeah, Geek. Geek, yeah, MC Geek, right. know then once you kind of i think i uh well i know i blogged about it and i tweeted about it and then all these people kind of filling you in of course he passed away mc geek but uh and apparently uh it wasn't compensated other than getting to keep his pair of blue blockers was

never compensated for that uh appearance in the infomercial. But, well, and you think he probably was on television more times than most celebrities, you know, well, he had a lot of, yeah, sorry, go ahead. Blue block,

blue blockers infomercial. I think it was 90 minutes and you know, it would be on every night, seven nights a week on multiple channels for years. So, you know, you do the math how many times, and I hope he was able to at least exploit that a little bit.

Yeah. He, I don't know that hopefully yes, but I think his late night career lasted longer than a FOTM Ralph Ben Murgys. Yeah. Oh yeah. And William also wants to know, what do you know about Bay City Beat from CKVR? Does that mean anything to you, Ed? Bay City Beat.

Yeah, yeah. Bay City Beat, I think, was this one-off movie that CKVR and Barry made. And it was just awful. But it was shot on video as opposed to film. So it looked like, you know, a soap opera in the 80s. I want to say 86, 87 era. And it was just I mean, you can imagine probably the news division in CKVR. Barry filmed this thing and it was like written by probably a student and it was trying to be

really gritty like a like a hill street blues kind of cop thing but it was in Barry um and all I've all I've ever seen of it is I found the commercial for it and that is on the retro Ontario YouTube channel right it's like 30 seconds but nobody has ever ever been able to find the actual well maybe maybe kevin frankish has it in his personal collection he would know about if anybody knew about it it would be him well he takes my calls i'll find out see that's what we're doing man that's what we're doing here that's cool paul hawkyard uh mike uh ask him about the flying food circus restaurant on cumberland in the late 70s and 80s. I used to go a lot, but I can't find any info online.

Like it didn't exist. Do you know about this Flying Food Circus Restaurant on Cumberland? Do I? That is a legendary, legendary Cumberland eatery. Where to begin? Unfortunately, now, if you go there, I think it was like around 80 Cumberland. There's just a hole. That whole strip is completely dug up. It's gone. But at the time, they had like 15 different kinds of burger you could get. I remember that as a kid.

There was like a burger menu. Now, again, that probably seems like a big deal. But in 1982, that was a huge deal that they had that many kinds of burger there. And it was kind of like a rock and roll place. I'll tell you who used to basically live there in the early 80s was FOTM Bob Segherini. Wow. That was like his hangout place. And the craziest part of the story is that that restaurant, and I believe it tried to be a chain, was owned by Andrew Alexander, the SCTV guy. Oh, my God. Creative SCTV.

It's all connected, man. It's all connected. But Segarini made me, I got sad. I have to just confess. I had him on the program during the pandemic, Bob Segarini. And I got sad because he said that if chorus would just put uh the edison twins in syndication because bob segurini wrote and sings the theme song he said if they could just put that in syndication he told me he could get his teeth fixed and i my heart just sunk like the whole this whole notion uh so i'm just

shouting out uh bob segurini and i mean i almost want to like cut him a check and say get your teeth fixed buddy well you know it's criminal what they've done to edison twins and i've i've spoken to bob about this and you know not just the theme song he's in an episode probably the best one uh where he plays a rock star in a in a stretched limousine and i forget gets entangled in an adventure with them but uh yeah chorus treats their archive like shit uh they use shows like edison twins when they need to fill like for years and years and years rogers had a it was sort of a streaming service it was more like an on-demand service and you know it was sort of a streaming service. It was more like an on-demand service. And it was part of, if you were a Rogers subscriber,

you could access these subsections. And so they had a kids TV section and they had every episode of Edison Twins. In theory, that's great, but it wasn't great because they didn't promote it. You only, if you spent like three hours going down rabbit holes, you finally found it. And then they pulled it eventually.

And it just confirmed like everything else. They just look at that stuff as filler. They don't care about it. They'll never do anything to promote it. So it's hard. It is heartbreaking. You know who else? Small world, of course.

But who else played a role in the Edison twins twins is uh my buddy stew stone from pandemic fridays oh i mean stew stone is like all over early 80s can con i think he's also in a wayne and schuster special he played all the little kids on wayne and schuster yeah that's right and uh and so you know once you recognize him you start to see him in all these commercials and shows. And then his voice, of course, he was like on My Pet Monster and all these, you know, it's there's a lot of people like him that it's like once you figure out who they are, they're just in everything. It's great. Well, my mind blew when I saw and I can't remember if it was you exactly. Maybe it was you.

But the old Kraft Dinner ad, there's like a like a light one. I think I would say early 80s, I'd say and I can't remember if it was you exactly, maybe it was you, but the old craft dinner ad, there's like a, like a light one. I think I would say early eighties, I'd say, I think, but it was a craft dinner ad that Stu Stone appeared in that was tattooed in my brain, sort of alongside the alphagetti gobbler, which haunted me for years until I finally found a kid who was in it. And this is way back when, and he sent me the video but okay so shout out to stew stone um where do i go next i want to play your stuff but we had a passing i want to recognize i think this is the program to do it although of course wise blood and i did cover it but here's a jam we both love and then we'll talk about a gentleman who passed away 439-4-4- oh, oh, Pizzanova It's the real Italian pizza With flavor you can savor

Get a mille grazie Now do yourself a favor So pick up the phone and call us Pick up the phone and call us now Oh, Pizzanova, pick up the phone And get a chow 439, and the four zeros Wow. Isn't that incredible?

I mean, it has no business being that emotional but it is i know and it's it's epic because it's doing its thing and then it gets into the four three nine it's like holy is this an opera like this is yes it basically is i mean that's what i am so fascinated about with all these jingle guys and girls from that era is that they put so much effort into it. And they whether it was for, you know, a soap detergent or a pizza, it's going to come out epic like that. And I mean, look at Toronto. We have the pizza Nova, but then you have pizza pizza, which is another one that Mike McCurley, I believe, was the the jinglist behind that. And, you know, again, it's something that is absolutely like burned into a generation psyche. And it was something that was probably done in like 40 minutes, you know.

So Sid Kessler is the gentleman who passed away. Any any words you can say about sid here uh well yeah i mean look he i like to say tommy ambrose was the godfather of jingle of canadian jingles but if he was the godfather you know sid kessler was like the underboss i mean he he was running ting and you know he there's so many great ones and And another person, you know, that really didn't get his due until he died. And then suddenly all these obituaries are talking, oh, this guy did this and he did that. And you remember these ones. I loved a lot of his work that he did for not chains, but for restaurants.

You know, we were talking about the flying restaurant earlier. There was another experimental Toronto restaurant around the same time and actually relatively close to it called Ginsburg and Wong. I don't know if you remember that it was, it was Jewish Chinese fusion. Okay. It was totally crazy for Toronto early eighties. They had like the best hot dogs that were the biggest hot dogs you've ever seen and milkshakes and all this cool stuff. But Kessler did all their radio ads and I put a few of them up when he died. And of course, immediately all the comments were like, oh, that's so racist.

And and it's like, no, it's the guys who actually ran the restaurant. One was Jewish and one was Chinese. And they're kind of playing on stereotypes. But they have license to do so. Exactly. And how unfair is it some asshole in 2021 gets to tell that guy that he's being racist because it's his own restaurant right it's it's crazy but anyways you know Kessler was a genius is a genius and whenever I find his work I immediately put it on my channel because it's gold I mean and of course uh that was Alfie

Zappacosta on vocals there and he was uh invited to partake uh to participate in the tears are not enough recording and this is going to be a loaded question ed this is coming from me this one and just i just want the truth and i can handle it did you listen to the extensive deep dive that cam gordon and i did on tears are not enough for toronto miked i did not um because i'm very familiar with tears are not enough and i saw that you were doing it and you know it's it's just one it's one of those things i will eventually listen because you know that is a train wreck of epic proportions not your podcast the well sometimes it is. My podcast is. But I knew that was a loaded question,

but I only thought of it because I was playing Zappa Costa. So I'm going to take a break. So Sid Kessler, and I'd love any excuse to play that Pizza Nova jingle. I do want to ask you about like Dick Smythe and Jeff Ansell.

Like those are a couple. And Tom Gibney, you know, you've been gone too long. Like Tom Gibney, did you know, and you probably do know you've been gone too long like tom gibney did you know and you probably do know this but i only learned this from wiseblood the other day that tom gibney isn't even a tom he's a gary right yeah i did know that and then i and then i learned and i learned this shortly after he passed that for the last several years of his life he was uh since he retired from cfto he was a car jockey like he would i didn't i didn't

know that yeah like and i don't i don't think he needed the money like i think he just wanted something to do something to do sure but you're welcome i mean we've sorry i think we might have talked about this before but with him obviously a huge presence at cfto, you know, on the news world, but his role or small role in network, which is just an incredible film that gets better every year, more, more true every year. You know, he, he's the announcer and I don't know if you and I talked about this. I know I talked to Wiseblood about this before, but it was sampled by, you must know, the Steinsky from Double D and Steinsky, one of the very first turntablist samplers in the 80s. That's like Bronx hip hop.

Wow. Then, of course, hip hop being the way it is, people would sample there. They wouldn't do it over, you know know they would steal other people's samples so tom gibney got sampled by steinsky and then other people would sample steinsky and so he got xeroxed over all this hip-hop and i always thought he probably doesn't realize that like his voice is on all these underground bronx hip-hop records you know that's i did not know that but i will say that when wise blot was in my backyard, uh, not the most recent episode, but a month earlier, when

we talked about the passing, uh, of, uh, Gibney, we did play the entire Tom Gibney part of, uh, of that movie. Uh, and, and that's the mad as hell. And I'm not going to take it anymore for those who are wondering, like, what's this movie and you're right it's awesome so and it was filmed at the I guess an aging court where was it filmed up there that's right Uncle Bobby was there when it was being filmed I mean you cannot get more on point than that

okay when I met I mean basically anybody I've met from CFDO they talk in revered tones about where network was filmed because it was a big movie that year. It won Academy Awards. And frankly, anybody listening to this podcast that hasn't seen Network, really, I know you hear this a lot, but stop what you're doing and watch that movie because it honestly is so prophetic about everything that has happened

and certainly everything that's happened in the last five years is in that movie okay and that's 1976 so you know absolutely uh breaking news uh because i just got the text right now so i'm a little the clem as i say this is kind of exciting that my uh my oldest daughter just got her first vaccination shot minutes ago. They had a Downsview Clinic. So my daughter, she's only turning 17, but they were doing 16 plus in certain postal codes. So that means four of my six family members now have one vaccination shot in them.

Excellent. So just very excited I had to share that. That's great news, man. That's great news. Let's play some of your clips before I wrap up all my stuff. You can call which one you like. I have all four ready to go and I kind of want to play them all, but which one would you like me to play first?

Since we're on a podcast, I have questions for you about podcasts. Maybe I sent you this clip to ready or not. Play the whole thing. It's 2.30. I'll do the whole thing. It is a bit long. We can step over it, but there's a few funny bits in it,

but yeah. Okay. Here we go. On February 20th, a Facebook page called retro Ontario posted a photo of busy and Amanda with a heart emoji. That's it. Yeah.

And the ready or not online universe. I'm not going to say it exploded. It bubbled a little bit. It got some, I was looking at their other posts and like that post got quite a lot of interaction compared to some of their other ones for sure. Oh yeah. Let's just say there were a lot more people talking about Ready or Not in the last few weeks than there usually is. Yeah, I'll say like their other posts have like 60 comments, 45. That Ready or Not post had like almost a thousand. They posted on Instagram as

well. They have an Instagram account too. But what is Retro Ontario? Well, essentially, from what I can gather, well, they have a website, they have Facebook, they have Instagram. It's just, I think they're essentially just sort of pop culture curators, sort of bringing back lost and found relics of the 90s in Ontario. Because I thought they had something to do with like removing old shows from VHS tapes and like digital. Yeah. There was something like that. And I didn't fully dive into that.

Cause I was just more curious about like looking at what they're posting. Like, Oh cool. An old, like shot of like polka dot door. Like the fun stuff was more interesting to me. Oh, yeah, that's good. But this like I was I was enjoying there like the way they speak. They got that teenage girl reflection there.

But well, that's that's why I torture you with this, because somebody sent it. Somebody said, oh, you got to hear this. This ready or not podcast that was talking about you and you know i i'm a pretty progressive guy i have you know a daughter i i i remember ready or not i mean frankly it doesn't seem like it was that long ago but i guess it was like 25 years ago or something um but i had no idea that it it generated this kind of fandom um and it was just it was funny to me yeah to hear the kind of like uh you know retro ontario they like touch vhs like they digitize vhHS or something? It just slayed me. But yeah, I mean, I wanted to ask you,

since I've known you, podcasting became this massive, massive thing. I want to say, I felt like 2017, 2018, it was like on the front of magazines and it was being hailed as the the biggest thing since blogs the serial effect yeah totally serial and and you and i am i remember once talked about like this very different worlds of the serial sort of documentary on audio versus the let's hang out and shoot shit right yeah um but it definitely feels uh and maybe this is just me but like in the last year it's almost like it's they're still around and there's still a big deal but it's not quite as crazy busy as it was and things like tiktok now are kind of what are sucking all the air out of the room you know yeah or now that the big thing

now is the uh like uh what are they called again boardroom not boardroom uh oh the audio room yeah what do they what's the big one called i have a client who all his guests are people he meets in soundboard no no keep going launchpad no like it's like yeah i know what you mean but it until like a week ago it it was for iPhones only. So I actually didn't even like peek at it because I'm an Android guy. I didn't have an iPhone to peek at it. But now it's opened up. But there's that one.

I know Twitter's got one. Facebook is going to have one. Like that. See, and it's funny how I can't remember these names. But I almost wanted to call it meeting room or uh boardroom or whatever anyway but what i like when i i personally like it when i hear other podcasts like what is this toronto mic thing and i always like it when they say they like i noticed they did that for you like they do this they do that but tell is there a team at retro ontario or is it just you yourself and uh well yeah i mean it's funny because i don't know that people picture like a

team of like white-coated scientists like in a big laboratory and right there's vhs getting digitized in every corner of the room and if if people want to think that i will that's cool yeah it's cool because it makes you seem big like yeah like no no one man could be responsible for all this retro ontario all this shit all over the internet. It's got to be the royal they. So yeah, I'll take that. But no, I actually have a Ryerson postgraduate student who's apprenticing at retro Ontario right now. Amazing.

Yeah, it is amazing. And she's brilliant. And she does a lot of the social media posts. She transfers a lot of the material. She's fascinated by 16 millimeter film. And this is a millennial that we're talking about. So I still have faith that we haven't lost a generation. Love it, buddy.

Love it. Okay. That was fun. I love it because I love it when they're talking. I think they do this and I think they do that. But it is technically a they apparently. So I was just, sometimes I get, like I hear someone reference the Toronto Mike team

or TMDS, they do this and that. And I'm always like, yeah, me, myself and I, like that's the team there, but awesome. Hey, I have an announcement to make if I can play the Toronto Tees clip you sent. And I'm looking at it. It's a bit quiet, but I'll boost it in post here. But good.

I'll make my announcement afterwards. And maybe you can tell us more about your tees. But here we go. Everywhere you look this summer, people are wearing Toronto tees from City TV. Get into Toronto tees and have a city summer with shirts and shorts in the latest styles and colors. If we spot you wearing your Torontoonto tea you can win tickets to movie premieres concerts and more and you can win the grand prize a 1982 camaro two-door sport just fill out a ballot at the toronto tea display at any bay location

available only at the bay okay so you remember the toronto tea right mike i don't just remember the toronto teas i literally i think last week posted uh a toronto teas ad from city tv because i've been thinking about toronto teas forever but i've been thinking about it so much lately which i'll explain why in a moment but uh of course i remember the toronto teas yeah so for those who don't remember uh basically the toronto Tee was around forever. It started in the late 70s. They went through several iterations throughout the 80s, and it ran until the early 90s. And the idea was that you wore the Toronto Tee.

You could get it at the Bay or sometimes at Stitches. And if the team, the City TV team that was always everywhere saw you wearing it, it was usually Ziggy, I believe. Yeah, Ziggy Lawrence, FOTM. FOTM Ziggy would get out there and give you concert tickets or, you know, other prizes. So there was this obvious reason you would want to be seen in one. However, I, you know, I, you know, I I'm fascinated with city TV and the history of city TV. And the more research I do, the more I realized that, you know, they're, they're not given enough credit on a number of things, but I want to say that one of the things they did in the seventies that is

not referenced enough is that they made the city of Toronto marketable on t-shirts. Okay. Because the Toronto T was the first time that you had that, you know, now everywhere you look, Oh, Toronto versus the world and Toronto, this Toronto, you know, the six and all this shit, but the Toronto T and if anybody out there knows of instances before then, where there was a mass produced garment that celebrated toronto basically said i the toronto is amazing there wasn't one okay the toronto t was the og and i've been obsessed with it for a long time i kind of missed out on it because i was a teenager in the 90s just as they were fading away and they're basically impossible to find because you know they were worn worn out and thrown away uh they do turn up once in a while on ebay and they go for like 300 bucks so they're

impossible to find so i wanted to be the first person to tell you that that was what i'm doing with retro kid uh we sat down and we said, what could we bring back? That would be super cool. And we said, let's bring back the Toronto tea because the Toronto team needs to come back. Okay,

dude, we're on the same wavelength here. So you're bringing back the Toronto tea. Cause I agree. It needs to come back. So I've been thinking about not bringing back the Toronto tea. Cause that's what you're doing. And that's totally awesome.

But introducing, and I literally pressed the button on this this morning to go live with it so I'm making my big announcement that finally because enough people have asked me for it over the years Toronto Mike teas so I'm just figuring out like if I because I bike the city every day if I ever see somebody in a Toronto Mike tea like what can I give them like I'm working on all these details because I want to be like Ziggy and I want to like spot people and give them some prize for wearing it. But if you go to torontomike.com right now, I added a link to the top that says tees and T-E-E-S, not T-E-A-S-E. But if you click tees to see the t-shirts, you can now buy a Toronto Mike tee. Like this just happened today. So I'm all about the t-shirt, as can now buy a Toronto Mike T. Like this just happened today.

So I'm all about the t-shirt, as you know. I'm wearing the Lost Indie City T right now that Pete Fowler gave me. And I love what you're doing with the T's. I got to get myself a Toronto T and now there's Toronto Mike T and we should all be buying all of this. Yeah, so there's a Toronto T winging its way to you in the mail what should should be there

sometime this week oh my god you know i'm actually kind of nervous now because now it sounds like we got some tough competition that i did not anticipate uh we might have to up our our prizes if we see people wearing a trinity yeah let me know what your prizes are and i'll just go like that plus one or whatever yeah we might have to issue a beat down on somebody wearing a Toronto mic versus a Toronto tee, but no, look, it's a,

it's, it's needed. I think we're coming out of this long period of feeling like shit and anything that is going to get people happy again. And, and, and, and,

you know, remember the glory summers of the eighties when you would drive an 82 Camaro or you could win an 82 Camaro. So yeah, we're, we're doing the Toronto tea. But I did want to mention some of the other, the other stuff. So we're doing the byway. We're doing a knob Hill farms t-shirt, which is really cool for those that remember shopping shout out to steve stavro in the uh toronto maple leafs mr savro um we're doing a

wizard's castle t-shirt now that's a bit obscure wizard's castle was an arcade chain they had a video game arcade in the scarborough town center that again, people of a certain age, it was, it was the Shangri-La of Scarborough, but it was a really kind of, you know, it's like the, you see these places now they recreate them in stranger things. And, and they're, you know, it's hard for younger people to understand how important video arcades were back in the day. So we had to do a wizard's castle. We are doing a Sam the Record Man hoodie,

which is my favorite. It's gorgeous. It's so hot. Like it's perfect for, you know, cool summer nights. Love it. And by popular demand, we sort of looked at all the sort of retro posts that I had done over the last year. What were the ones that people were

reacting to most passionately? And we wanted to do sort of a food or beverage that was something that people had fantastic memories of. Mother's pizzeria. Well, Mother's came back, right? Oh, yeah. I forgot it came back. Half-assed kind of came back so it was in contention for sure the other one i wanted to do but i kind of chickened out because i wasn't sure um if there was going to be enough um interest was um frank vittarri's pizzeria right um because

you know there's like a line in the sand when i think it was pizza hut bought up the frank vittarri chain it's like you never heard another sand when I think it was Pizza Hut bought up the Frank Vittarri chain. It's like you never heard another word. You saw the glasses occasionally. People have those still, but it's a very 70s thing. So anyways, we settled on a product that some people say is back, but it's not really back because it's called something slightly different. We like the logo. We like the look. We like the feel. is back but it's not really back because it's called something slightly different uh we like the logo we like the look we like the feel so we went for a tahiti treat hoodie oh nice yes

tahitian treat is the thing that you can go to the store and get now but it's slightly different from the og tahiti treat which was made by canada dry so next uh next time you introduce new shirts or whatever consider sluggers because uh stew stone's dad ran sluggers and i know he can uh he's got some like real deal retro slugger shirts that he whips out once in a while but uh who wouldn't want a slugger shirt but all those choices you made are excellent excellent thank you well i like i said i i'm sending you a toronto tea i hope you might oh i'm gonna wear the shit out of that thing are you kidding me i might not take it off man i love it i can't wait love it i love all this man and uh i love the can i play

the blue jays locker commercial oh yeah perfect okay here we go hey lloyd where'd you get that at the blue days locker what come on i'll show you Okay, here we go. Hey, Lloyd, where'd you get that? At the Blue Jays locker. What? Come on, I'll show you. Hi, George. Fantastic. It's all official Blue Jays merchandise. You've got it, Rans, and fans can order now.

Pick up the phone and call these numbers. Great Walmart, Lloyd. Tell us more. Check. It's dead. Wow. The Blue Jays Locker Catalog features only official Blue Jays merchandise, like our best-selling 100% nylon shell. Looks great, and it's practical, too. This lightweight jacket is wind-resistant, waterproof, and warm. The Blue Jays nylon shell comes in all men's and youth sizes

and features the official Blue Jays crest. Now available at just $29.95. Call now, 1-800-268-6364 and use your credit card. And listen to this. Order your nylon shell today and we'll include a Blue Jays Locker catalog. Call now 1-800-268-6364 and use your credit card. The Blue Jays Locker catalog is available at all participating shoppers drug marts in Ontario. I love that.

Yeah, some pretty stellar acting from the, was it the 85, 86 team? Well, here's a moment. I'm going to play this. Hi, I'm George Bell. You listen to Toronto Mike. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, that's the real deal, buddy. Yeah, George Bell, I mean, he was in some McDonald's commercials around that time. He was a real, I think, interesting was in some McDonald's commercials around that time. He, he, he, he was a real, I think, interesting life in advertisements and, and,

and he couldn't act very well, but he just brought his persona. Who was the first voice I heard in that? Cause I couldn't see it. I can only hear it, but who's that first voice? It's Rance, isn't it? You know, Rance Malnick's son went to my primary school for a little bit. That aforementioned Jane and Bluer's school, it's called St. Pius X. Rance Malnick's son went to my primary school for a little bit. That aforementioned Jane and Bloor school, it's called St. Pius X. Rance Mullinick's son went there for a little while. Well, Rance Mullinick is like the worst actor.

It's like he's reading, wow, I can't believe there's Blue Jays merchandise. And then, of course, Willie Upshaw was in there. Wow. First Blue Jay to 100 RBI's. Go ahead. It's a classic bit of merchandising history. I kind of wanted to talk to you if we have a minute about that. Oh, yeah, yeah. Are you kidding me? This will be six hours. Eat your heart out, Mark Weisblatt. Here we go. Well, I know you're also a fan like I am of sort of the iconography of the 80s Jays and the old teams and the merchandise and all of that.

And I won't mention his name. I'm not sure if he's been on your podcast, but a friend of mine is actually working on a book right now about weird Blue Jays stuff, like stuff that happened off the court, as it were, merchandise, television commercials, appearances where Jays would show up at other things. Because again, it's all very different now. All of that stuff I'm assuming is managed through the team or through their agents. Whereas back then it was Wild West. You'd pay George Bell to show up at some strip club or something.

Absolutely. And it was always cash deals. Even to get interviews, I know Hebsey tells me stories like you had to give him a $50 bill for the interview or whatever. It's a whole different time. There's all these great stories. This guy was

going to do a long-form interview with me about Catch the Taste, about the uh mccain fruit punch and we had set this up like months ago that we had blocked out this time and he was really excited because he actually had spoken for like i think three hours uh to alamar about the making of the fruit punch commercial okay and then of course what all that stuff happened what i guess a month ago or you know three weeks ago yeah and you know the publisher of this guy's book said okay just expunge that whole chapter it's like it's gone

and it got me thinking you know uh it's kind of messed up to me that somebody who was like i think in the in the top tier of of that that whole vintage jay's pantheon is is now gone and uh not only his achievements like in for the team playing playing but all of his uh extra you know pop culture appearances now they're going we just delete. Yeah. He's just erased from history. And I'm sure that something horrible happened. But again, it's slightly disconcerting

that we're not even trusted to know what happened. It's just, oh, you got to just trust us on this. It's so bad. It's so bad. I'm glad you're bringing this up because Mike Wilner wrote something

for the Toronto Star, FOTM Mike Wilner wrote something for the Toronto star FOTM, Mike Wilner. And the, the basically the, the spirit of it was sort of like that the back to back world series are completely tarnished. Like they never happened because somebody who was a key part of that might have turned out to be an asshole.

Right. Like I just, of the opinion that we are like smart enough, like we've always done this in music, but can't we separate the art from the, the human being? Like, can't, of the opinion that we are, like, smart enough, like, we've always done this in music, but can't we separate the art from the human being? Like, can't we say, yeah, that guy was a prick, but he wrote this beautiful song? Like, both can be true. Like, you don't have to delete that song from the, I just, I'm okay celebrating Alomar's home run against Dennis Eckersley without celebrating the character of the man who hit it.

Yeah, I think we have talked about it with music, with people like John Lennon or filmmakers too, right? Or Phil Spector. Like Phil Spector in The Wall of Sound. It's okay to say like, my ears like this. This is a great piece of art. Even though Phil Spector murdered a woman, right? This person is not somebody to emulate, but that particular piece of music that that artist created, it's okay to look at that separately from the man and say, this is a

good piece of art that I can celebrate. Yeah. And it's weird in the sports world because you have people like OJ Simpson, right? Who become sort of a mini franchise onto his own. But with Alomar, it is slightly disconcerting to me that it's just, you know, all that stuff seems to be gone for the time being anyways. No, I'm with, I'm with you. And the whole notion that I, I, I have tremendously important and wonderful memories of the back-to-back world series. Like I was the right age. I was already a diehard Jays fan.

My, you know, you heard, I played the George Bell clip and Hebsey got that for me at a golf tournament because George Bell was my favorite blue Jay of all time. And I can, I can totally look back at those back-to-back World Series wins and have these wonderful memories of that that have nothing to do with the fact that, like I said, a member of the team,

maybe the most important member of the team, did some terrible things in his life. Like, I just, I'm mature enough to separate these two things. But yeah, so I mean, yeah, back-to-back, baby, you can't take that away from me. That's what I'm saying here. Funky Express, uh, anything to say before I press play on this? Uh, no, just play it and then we can, we can talk about it. Okay, cool. Thank you. so that was um that was used on a city tv show and there's an open invitation to all toronto

mic listeners if anybody anybody can tweet out the correct answer of what City TV show used that as its theme song, they can get a free Toronto TV show. I don't think anybody will know the answer. It took me almost 24

years to figure it out. Do you think Peter Gross would know the answer or no? You know what? He literally calls me every day. So I feel like I believe that it's from a little bit before his time. I mean, he wasn't OG, right? He's 75, 76. Right.

Maybe he maybe he does. The guy I will give you this clue. Yeah. They might give it away. clue yeah uh they might give it away the guy who hosted the show that used that as its theme song was the first kind of big name host they had city tv that is the shulman files this is morty shulman oh that would have been super cool if it was the shulman the shulman theme is actually really cool too but this one uh took me years and years and years to figure out what it was uh this of course this piece of music is from one of those library records where it was bought by a tv station and they just used it where they saw fit and you know you and i've

talked about this before with sports they were always like playing these really sick tunes and then years later you find out it's called like track 71 silver that's what i when i found out what the prime time sports theme was it was just in like a on a library of like royalty free music or whatever yes i know and you think yeah i know it's funny so yeah it's it, it's always a fascinating world. And I mean, what a great, funky song that is. Hey, can I blow your mind about Morty Shulman for a moment here? A client of TMDS, that's Toronto Mic Digital Services, a client of TMDS is the daughter of Morty Shulman.

Holy shit, that's huge, man. And she, whose name is Dr. Diane Sachs, she was a showman, she married a Sachs. She is one of the most world-renowned environmental lawyer, and she was the last environmental

commissioner of Ontario before Doug Ford said, I don't need this person telling me what I'm doing wrong in the green world. So, commissioner of Ontario before Doug Ford said, I don't need this person telling me what I'm doing wrong in the, in the, in the green world. So there's your fun fact. And her podcast is amazing. It's called green economy heroes.

Does she ever talk about her old man? Okay. So I went to her backyard last summer during this pandemic and I did my deep dive with Dr. Diane Sacks and I spent the first half talking about Morty Shulman. So we extend it because you know a TV show was it that was... Wojak. Yes.

Right. Wojak. And then what American show is modeled after Wojak? Oh. Yeah. Is it Quincy? Yes. Yes. Okay. So good for you. I'm glad you got that because i was going to google but quincy and so you could draw a direct line from morty shulman to quincy md and of course john vernon played wojack and john vernon has the connection to animal house so it's it's it's

crazy and shulman falls frankly was another one of those early city TV shows that is when you watch it now, you realize how shocking that would have been to see it living in Toronto in the 70s to turn that on and see like skinheads or, you know, bikers or, you know, Mayor Crombie on there getting grilled by him. It was like it was like Geral uh geraldo but way before that was acceptable uh and then sadly i think he got kind of washed out when city tv turned 10 in 82 there was a little bit of a spring clean where they kind of got rid of all the legacy shows except for city pulse right i think god and and showman Falls was kind of a victim of that. Did you hear, there was a Facebook post or something from Gord Martineau celebrating Jim McKinney that people thought that Gord was announcing

the passing of Jim McKinney? Yeah, I saw that. Anyways, so he's very much alive and well. I'll just let people know. Yeah, but you know, it's funny with social media because I'm sure you see people trending and it's horrible, but your first thought is,

that's what it is, right? Right, but you know, no guest of Toronto Mike has ever passed away yet. So I'll just let you know that. And shout out to, just because we're talking City TV and we both celebrate City TV and we're inspired by it, but Lorne Honickman has a great new podcast on the TMDS network that you should check out. Really good, called Judgment Day with Lorne Honickman has a great new podcast on the TMDS network that you should check out.

Really good. Called Judgment Day with Lorne Honickman. So shout out to Lorne. Are you producing that? Yep. Yep. What do you cover on that show? So he's a lawyer, as you know.

And it's very time-sensitive lawyer stuff. Like he brings on another lawyer as a guest. And they go deep into the cases that are ongoing or in front in front of the supreme court it's very timely very smart and like lauren does a great job of taking something complex some complex legal thing and a dummy like me can come completely understand it because lauren's so good at translating it into uh lay speak so uh he's very good at that as you know and his podcast is fantastic so people should uh check it out yeah that's uh just quickly there's a lauren honickman city pulse story that i think it's on my channel that is really remarkable where he uh it's early 80s where he

spends the night in a toronto homeless shelter um just because he's a reporter and he says i want to see what it's like and he took the cameras in there. And again, this was stuff that nobody had really done. And I think the story itself is like maybe two minutes, but it's a very effective two minutes. Like it's a, it's a, it's a mind blower. And that was the kind of stuff they just did every day back then in city halls. You wouldn't find anything remotely looking like that on news now.

You're so right. And I miss that old that old city TV environment and what they were up to there, like all the stuff they were doing at, well, 99 Queen East and then 299 Queen West. Just very cool stuff. What's up with your buddy Gallagher? Because I heard a rumor that he's exodusing out of the city. I don't even have that update. I know Peter talks to him periodically, but that's the only show I produced that went on hiatus for the pandemic because I couldn't get Gallagher to record. They did a little phone thing, but it wasn't the same thing. Gallagher and Gross Saved the World, which I think is awesome, is kind of paused right now. But I did not hear that Gallagher news. He's been living in that nice, I don't know, Avenue Road. He's got a very nice home he bought a long time ago, but I did not hear the news that he was leaving the city.

Is he going to Port Perry with you? Oh, I wish. I don't know, actually. I just, you know, to circle back to that, maybe a nice note to end on, but I think it's going to be a really interesting new world that we all go back into. Because I think because of Zoom and because of people leaving the city, I don't know where it's all going to net out. But I think it's going to be exciting just because it's going to be very different. Okay. And you can't get away quite that easy. Cause I just want to read one more thing.

Neil, brother Neil, brother Neil says, not a question, but tell him that's you. I'm a huge fan of his pizza delight, his pizza delight content and the retro snacks pop in general. Oh man.

Pizza delight was incredible. I don't know if you ever had it's a small town ontario thing right like i used to have it in like no no no no i mean they they lasted longer in the small town okay because there's still one i went to recently in grand bend ontario they had a piece yeah i think there's one or two and there's one in i want to say in uh midland ontario yes but so i always associated pizza delight with like smaller town ontario when i'm driving through they have a pizza delight but uh well mike they had a huge huge outlet across the street from maple leaf gardens uh you remember the golden griddle yeah before golden griddle it was pizza delight see i remember it as a golden griddle okay

all right all i remember that because when i would get to a game in the grays as a kid i remember the smell of weed like i now even to this day if i bike by a waft of like pot smoke i think about maple leaf gardens in the early 80s so that's awesome no pizza delight used to use i think it's a mediterranean recipe where there's a little bit of sugar in the dough so it kind of had a sweet taste and it was absolutely delicious. And I think the people like myself that loved it and miss it, when you see that logo, your taste buds get super fired up. So that's cool, Brother Neil. I will try and post more Pizza Delight content.

Okay, two more questions. Second last question. The penultimate question is steve kersner aka ed the sock he's raising money from the fandom uh to kind of create a new much music i absolutely i have to get your opinion on this because i know you've spent so much time in this arena uh what do you think of this plan from Ed the Sock? Well, full disclosure, Steve did talk to me about it a while ago

and I actually helped him source some of the clips that are used that sort of give, I guess, people the quick history in a couple of clips, like what was going on and why Much Music and certainly the forerunner to Much Music, the new music on City TV. Shout out to Christopher Ward, who was on the show two weeks ago.

So important, you know, for so many reasons. The New Music Express, no, what's it called? The New Music Network, I think is what Steve's series is called. Or is it a channel? I don't know. I'm torn, mate, because I did spend several years of my life, as you know, working with Joel Goldberg and other FOTM on a documentary About the history of Much Music. And unfortunately, it was canceled by a big media corporation who I won't name. I wonder which one it could be. You know, I spent a lot of time with that material. And I think it is a very important story that needs to be told. I don't know if in 2021,

music videos and that format would be the same. Well, it wouldn't by its very nature. There is no real linear broadcasting anymore. Everybody watches stuff on demand and we can yell at the clouds, Mike, all we want. And we will. In our day, it was so much better to do it that way. And some days I agree with that. And other days I think, you know what? It's ridiculous to fight it because things change. They always have. They always will. Those people were all legends and heroes at the time. And I'm so glad I got to experience that that world. But you know what? My kids look at YouTube. I'm sure your kids do as well. And that's the currency. And best of luck to Steve. And I hope he can get his project up and running.

But I don't know, frankly, if it's a viable business model. All right. Final question, because this is a recurring question and debate that happens when I have guests on like yourself. Is James B. famous? Well, I hope so, because I'm actually working on a documentary about his life right now. Do I know that? No, I'm telling you right now that's fucking mind-blowing that yeah because i was always going to close with that question because it's some it's a you know

that debate is james beefy you're asking the wrong guy because i think he absolutely is he he's he's a bit of a a kismet character right i mean he's he's touched all these lives he's been magically uh you know involved in all these stories and this movie called being b is actually directed by joel uh joel goldberg fucking amazing i did not i want to just tell the listenership i actually did not know this i just because it's gonna seem like i closed on this on purpose but wow wow. Yeah. So I don't know when it will be finished. The pandemic slowed everything down, but you know, we believe obviously as you do that he's a fascinating character and he's got so many wonderful stories and intersections in his life where he helped bands and actors and creative people to get to where they needed to be.

So I have high hopes for that. I'm also working on another documentary about the Mad Hatter birthday parties. Your other mate, Stu Stone, I'm hoping I've spoken to him a bit about appearing in that because he went to the Mad Hatter. So my worlds are colliding. Of course, the worlds are colliding. Wow. Well, the world's always part of what I loved about doing. I mean, I talk about like the past tense,

but I'm just warming up here. But 851 episodes in, nine years of doing this is that all the pieces matter and they all fit together. Like it's a big jigsaw puzzle. I mean, on my studio table right now is a can of Electric Circus beer great lakes brewery and i look at it and i remember of course on the cover here is the cowboy you know k pompeii and we know he's obviously he's the father of dalton pompeii etc we've covered that extensively here but jay gold

joel goldberg your buddy you just referenced uh shout out to joel goldberg I mean not only did he bring Ziggy here and Ziggy came up earlier but he's one of the founders of Electric Freakin Circus like it's just and he directed Maestro's best videos right he directed of course and shout out to Dwight Drummond who's got the cameos in those but

yeah man he directed Maestro Fresh West's best videos and he was my previous my last Zoom guest before you. Dude, all the pieces matter. I'm so like glad you're doing your thing at Retro Ontario because you're such a key cog in this wheel, man. Like I sometimes talk about the Mount Rushmore of like, especially not just Gen X nostalgia,

but particularly like you're right up there, buddy. I'm so glad you're doing your thing, man. And I'm so glad we could finally get you back on after far too long an absence. So your next appearance can't be 18 months from now. It's got to be much sooner than that. It will be much sooner. And I owe you a beer, my friend.

I look forward to seeing you in the flesh whenever we can. And I promise it won't be as long as that. And I can't wait for my Toronto tea. I'm going to wear it at the very next opportunity. I love it, man. Love it. Love what you're doing. And yes, thank you.

James B is famous. I think case is closed there. God bless, Mike. And that brings us to the end of our 851st show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Ed is at Retro Ontario. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

Palma Pasta, they're at Palma Pasta. Sticker U, man, we got to get some Retro Ontario stickers from stickeru.com. They're on Twitter, sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at RidleyFH and MimicoMike. He's not on Twitter. He's on Instagram, at MajeskiGroupHomes. See you all next week. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started.