Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Rob Salem: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1489

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

In this 1489th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Rob Salem who spent 40 years writing about entertainment in The Toronto Star. He also played the minister who married Snake and Spike on Degrassi! And did I mention he snorted coke with Mel Gibson? Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Yes, We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1489 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball team. The best baseball in the city outside the dome. Join the club and purchase a membership today at Mapleleafsbaseball.com.

RecycleMyElectronics.ca. committing to our planet's future, means properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Advantage'd Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed and focused on long-term success. Season 6 of Yes We Are Open, an award-winning Meneris podcast hosted by FOTML Grego and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto mic debut is Rob Salem. Welcome, Rob.

Hello. Hello. Hello. Good to see you. Good to be seen. Look, you know, I did meet you. I met you at a David Kynes Hollywood Suite event. Oh, the breakfast. Good to be seen. Love, you know, I did meet you. I met you at a David Kines Hollywood Suite event. Oh, the breakfast. The breakfast, yeah. I can't remember who introduced us,

but somebody introduced me to you, and I was like, I gotta get Rob on Toronto Miked, and here you are. And here I am. And how are you feeling today? To be quite honest, I'm a little hungover. What happened last night? Can we talk about that?

Well, yeah, I've been teaching at Humber and they've suspended the program as of yesterday. So I'm actually technically retired, although I'm doing some auditioning acting stuff, but I'm actually technically now officially retired. I was at the Star for 40 years. Wow. And I've been teaching for the last 18.

And now I'm a man of leisure. Now I am a burden upon society. Okay. So let me understand this. So school's out for summer. So this was just the end of the semester. Yeah. They're just not starting again next year.

Oh, so you were told like your services are no longer required. Basically. Yeah. They said suspended, but that's for future consideration. But I'm not. Why is that? Give us a little more detail. You know why it is?

I'll tell you exactly why it is. Low enrollment, and it's because we've been denied most of the international students that really made up the bulk of the program. And that brought it along with its own problems in terms of, because it's a writing program. So, and that brought it along with its own problems in terms of, because it's a writing program, so. Well, interesting. So is this, I mean, part of my ignorance,

but is this like a new rule or law? Yeah, new law, new law, limiting the number of international students that can. What's the rationale behind that? Like what's the method to that madness? I'm not entirely sure. I guess, obviously, to keep things open for Canadian locals. Yeah, but I don't know that there were international

students to the exclusion of Toronto students, but yeah, it's just a general immigration issue. And I'm sure there are very good reasons for it. But are you kind of, is any part of you happy that you've been forced to actually retire? That sounds like a pretty good- Well, no. I mean, it's slipping all the way and this is very near where the school is. Yeah, so it was the Humber College South Campus by the lakeshore.

Yeah. So I won't miss that. Although next year I was going to be all all online again as I was during COVID. But yeah, I'll miss it, I'll miss it. It's really great to be able to take this arcane knowledge that I've assembled over these last 15 years, useless for just about anything other than criticism and teaching others.

You know, it is useful for podcasts though. Yes, that's true. Now we're meeting, you know, we met each other briefly at the Hollywood Suite event. Yeah. But now we'll, you know, spend some real time together. And again, I was just realizing though, you'd have to schlep your way down to the lake shore again

to pop over now. It was sort of nostalgic, given that this all came down yesterday. And anyway, that's a long way of explaining why I'm hung over, to pop over now. It was sort of nostalgic given that this all came down yesterday. And anyway, that's a long way of explaining why I'm hungover because we had a few cocktails to toast the What is your drink of choice? Bloody Caesar.

Bloody Caesar. Okay. Or bourbon. Do you ever drink a beer? Or no, you're a I know I do. I have been known to drink beer. Okay.

I would love to send you home today with some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. That would be lovely. So that's going home with you. You got some lagers, some Canuck Pale Ale, very popular. And that actually might be just the thing for the hangover. Little hair of the puppy. Hair of the dog that bit you. I think there's a song about that. Okay, so also just while I'm giving you your your drink and grub here and we're gonna get to know you, I gotta know what was going on at the star. I'd love to hear I mean, I love we're gonna find more details on the class at Humber College is it TV history?

It's I'm teaching TV history. It's the program was TV writing and producing. So it was basically a showrunner's course. So my job was to acquaint them with 50 years of television, amazing from I love Lucy to the sopranos, and just show them Roadrunner's course. So my job was to acquaint them with 50 years of television. Amazing. From I Love Lucy to The Sopranos and just show them stuff and then have them criticize it and analyze it. I love it. Can you just teach me this course? Like what would it cost for me to hire you as my personal tutor? I wish, I mean, I don't remember classes like this, but I did take

a pop culture class at U of T, which was pretty fun. I did an essay on Babe Ruth, for goodness sake, so that was pretty cool. But TV history, that sounds amazing. Oh, it is so much fun, and it's great. This is the part that I'll miss, watching the light go on in their eyes. Because, for example, this is a group of students,

they're all post grads, so they're in the mid-20s. Most of them have never seen I Love Lucy. And that was the template for every situation comedy that followed, or at least multi-camera situation comedy, to this day. And I'll get, occasionally, I will get emails from students after the course saying, oh, you turned me on to this, and I'm now watching Colombo obsessively,

or I'm now watching this. So that's exciting, that's fun. Let me just hazard a guess as I got a couple of kids, one, I have four kids, but there's the two older kids, I kind of look at them and their behavior versus mine, where when I was growing up, I'm a Gen Xer, like we watched what was on the TV at the time in front of it, right?

Like what was on, that's right. So I love Lucy, I saw a lot of I love Lucy. I saw a lot of stuff because it was what was on and you watched it. But meanwhile, my kids are, everything they watch is, they purposefully select it and watch it on demand. So there's, I can't imagine they would just voluntarily say, let me try this black and white thing

from before my dad was born. Yeah, no, and it's, well, the whole paradigm has shifted much the same way that it did when HBO first started doing like Sex and the City and The Sopranos. And prior to that had been only like pay-per-view boxing and movies. And Dream On, which I quite enjoyed. And Dream On, which was great. In high school, yeah.

That was a great show. That was the first sitcom to use insanity. It was not, it was very popular in my high school because it was like a funny show with boobs. Yeah it was like perfect yeah. Yeah anyway so HBO changed the paradigm and suddenly they became the boutique source for yeah for all the really good television TV better than TV and then now the streamers have come along and upset the Apple cart again but the big change in the paradigm is this being able to watch what you want when you want. And I found it hard to make that adjustment

myself because I still record things when they air to watch later. But I don't actually want something. I don't think I can remember the last time I watched live television. Other than sports, because I still am guilty of tuning in to watch, you know, leave playoff games and live sports. So sports has to be live for me. But other than that, I'm gonna just think on this. I don't remember the last time either,

unless it was like the Oscars, but even that we pause it when it starts and then we get the kids to bed and then we sort of catch up and skip commercials and stuff. So it's sort of live, but maybe Oscars, maybe something like if I was watching the Grammys or something like that, but television, television? Hmm.

No. Long time ago. Yeah. Long time ago. And the other thing is, and it's gonna be hard to make the separation. I would watch all the new stuff just to keep up on it with the students. Right.

I don't have to do that anymore. But I still watch like a lot of television. So may I ask, like, I'm gonna pick a show that my daughter turned me on to, and I actually really like, so I've been digging it. But Euphoria, for example. Which I have not watched. So okay, I was gonna ask you if this is the kind of,

you know, you gotta, what the kids are watching. Yeah, I should have watched it and meant to watch it. But the thing is, there's just too much stuff. If I was a TV critic now, and I haven't done it for like 10 years, but if I was a TV critic now, I couldn't cover it. There's just too much. You know what, we're gonna talk about all,

so I was like, I think I was mid-sentence giving you a lasagna there, and then we got sidetracked. That's gonna happen, Rob. I love it when that happens, actually. But I do have a lasagna for you It's in my freezer right now. It's courtesy of Palma pasta They're in Mississauga and Oakville delicious Italian food. So you're taking that home with you It'll go nicely with that will be wonderful. And I'm a big Italy fan. We

Up until this year we went every kind every year for the last 20 years Lucky guy love Italy any particular part of Italy? Tuscany. Oh yeah, you know what? Lucky man. A little village called Anghiari. It's just, it's the 12th century walled village on the side of a mountain.

See, they figured it out. Like that's the lifestyle. That's exactly it. They know what life is about and they live it. It's wonderful. Listen, let's go, man. Let's go and we'll write it off by recording podcasts there. And speaking of hangovers,

you don't really get a hangover from the wine because there's no cell fights in it. Look, pro tip. Love it. Delicious food, great wine. You're all set here. Now, I do want to let the listenership know, and you Rob, that TMLX 15, that's the 15th Toronto

Mike listener experience, is happening at Great Lakes Brewery, the Southern, you'd have to schlep, I like this word schlep, like you said the word schlep, right? Like I'm using it like now all the time, like it's my word. You got to schlep your way to Southern Etobicoke. It's down the street from the Costco. So the street's called Queen Elizabeth Boulevard, number 30 to be precise, near Royal York. Royal York, say that quickly. Royal York. Royal York. I find it tough to come out of the Royal into the York, but I have trouble

with some basic words, Rob. But basically everybody is invited June 27 from 6 to 9 PM and Palma Pasta will feed you. Great Lakes will buy you your first beer and you'll just hang with great FOTMs. We're gonna have a good time. So everyone's invited, including you, Rob. June 27th, 6 p.m. Sounds like fun. Come on out, man, come on out.

All right, well, we'll give you more gifts later in the program, but maybe bring us back. Like when did you realize you could get a gig? Like this sounds like my dream gig, entertainment critic and columnist and editor at the Toronto Star well it's interesting actually and they used to run an ad in the paper promoting the column saying yes he gets paid to watch TV and no there are no openings I started out I was an actor not in a

stand-up comic and not particularly good at either of those things but like like what? Like Danger Bay? What were you in? Little Hobo? What's going on? Actually, I got more acting work once I started writing for The Star, but I was on a Degrassi. I've actually acted with Drake. Oh, The Next Generation? Yeah. Okay. What did you play on that show? I was the priest in Married Spike and Snake. Honestly, that's a... The Jewish Honestly, that's a fun fact. They're called rabbis, right? Yes, but in this case, it was a minister. Oh, it's a minister.

Okay. But it was weird because it was an actual minister's like from an actual clovier to religious people. It was a real minister's cassock. So just so I don't pass this by here. So of course I was the OG Degrassi viewer. I never missed that. That might be the last time I had to be in front of my TV.

I think it was Monday nights at eight or something like that, but loved my Degrassi. But Snake of course, who's one of the zit remedy members. Okay. One third of the zit remedy. Snake marries Spike who had that baby with Shane. Okay. One third of the Zitromy snake marries Spike who had that baby with Shane, right? Shane, uh, sadly drug addled. Uh, I think, uh, he took two, I don't know what happened to him, cocaine or LSD. I can't remember now, but he had a drug problem and he got, I think he thought he could fly. I'm trying to remember if I'm conflating my stories,

but bottom line is Andy will correct me later. She's the biggest Degrassi fan. I know she's listening right now, but you're the person who married Snake. I married Snake and Spike. Spike, which is amazing. You're a part of Canadian TV history. Absolutely, and you know what? I still get checks. Really?

Yes, I still get residual checks. Last one was like 45 bucks, which is huge for residual checks. It's like that Seinfeld episode when Jerry keeps getting the checks from that Japanese ad he was in. Yeah. Whatever it was. That's funny.

But it's always, I framed the first one and I've cashed everyone since. So yeah, might as well cash that Degrassi money. So is that your, that's your biggest role to date? Um, well- No shame in that game. I was in a couple of movies, Revenge of the Radioactive Reporter. I did not play the I haven't seen that one yet. Is it good? No one's seen that one and it's a good thing and put it this way

I did it under a pseudonym Mel Asbore, which is my name backwards. Oh, yes, it is Well done and I did like Lost Girl. I Whatever shows have I done? I've done a lot of biographies, like Canadian biographies, like Candy, and some of the Mr. Dress Up movie. Oh, where you play yourself talking about the show. Of course, you're like the talking head. Anyone who's really interested in this,

I do have an IMDB page. Well, people are gonna be interested. I'm friendly with, went to my high school, many years before me, I just wanna point out, we become very good buds is bill brio. Oh bill I'm doing radio with bill tonight actually what radio? See I UT news talk news talk 1010 with bill brio tonight. Okay, that's wild bill brio Yeah, good buds plays hockey with my good friend Joe Cini. Lovely, lovely man, known him for years.

So do you guys, is it when they're making, I don't know, a documentary about something like Mr. Dress Up and they need somebody to speak to it, do they decide, am I gonna go Brio or am I gonna go Salem? He actually, when I left the star, he took over most of my gigs, because I was like news channel,

and I had fairly regular gigs on a lot of different news shows. And as soon as I was no longer the official TV critic, that all dried up fairly quickly. That's why it's so nice to do something like this. And Bill took over those, so more power to him. And Bill's got a website. Of course, b TV. Yeah.

Brio.tv or something like that. And I do, we'll say, I produced the humble and Fred show and I booked Bill Brio once a month to pop on humble and Fred and tell them what they should be watching. Yeah. He's so enthusiastic, Bill. And it's such a sweet man. And he collects these 16 millimeter films. He's got, and he does these regular TV on film nights where he shows stuff. Cause a lot of this TV stuff was circulated to the stations on 16. No, wow. Wow. Okay, so Brillo if you're listening your ears are burning. This is why Rob and I are chatting about you here, but back to Rob Salem

So, okay, so you were an occasional actor I was that was my Goal was but what is the stand-? You were at like yuk yuk's and stuff? Yeah, I was taking second city workshops being taught by none other than John Candy and Joe Flaherty. Whoa. Both sadly left us but John was the one who suggested I go into stand up, which I think was just his way of saying you don't work well with others. And I did I did stand up for a while. I was very mediocre. Met my wife though. Oh that's good.

Yeah. So is this this is a Mark Breslin's Yucky Yucks and like I'm wondering can you name check any of the other comics you picked? Would John Wynne be one of them? Howie Mandel started the same night I did. Jim Carrey who I actually wrote for at one point. That's a big name should dropped in there. I noticed on your list of guests Ralph Ben-Murky he was a comic then. Yeah yeah. A lot of guys. He was hosting a lot of those shows as I recall. Like so John Wing is he one of the guys? Yeah John Wing was there when I was there. And I'm trying to think Larry Horowitz? Larry Horowitz he was he was the master he was like they just the he did the same exact

set every time, but it was always flawless. So you couldn't fault him because it was a great set. All right. Now I got to ask you about the most comics who were on that scene. Their favorite comic was Mike McDonald. Oh, Mike was brilliant. Mike was just brilliant. Yeah. I didn't really know him that well personally, because I was still very low-escalon comic. I would go on after midnight. I'm wondering if Larry Fedorik was on the scene

at that time. Yeah. Okay, Larry Fedorik, who I produced his podcast later that same life, so it's a small world there. He went into radio, so you went into newspaper, he went into radio. I went into newspaper, yeah. So I got a job in order to support my stand-up comedy career,

which then paid even less than it does now. Which is difficult. Yeah, and again, I was not that good. So I could have gotten better if I'd have, I'd like to think that I could have. You don't have any recordings of a set you ever did. I do, and I've been afraid to play them. Because I want to share it with the world. I do have a recording of a set. Because we and no one I do and I've been afraid to play them because I want to share it. I do have a recording of a set because we're going to do tangents

and because you mentioned John Candy and Joe Flaherty, which are pretty awesome teachers to have. Oh, you're at SCTV. That's wild. They were both real mentors to me. So six years ago yesterday, I believe six years ago yesterday, there was an SCTV reunion. John, of course, not there already passed, but Joe was there. And this was by, I've talked to many people, including, who have I talked to? Dave Thomas and many people like that who were at the event. I was at the event. So by all accounts, this was a good three hours, right? Yes, it was astounding.

Yeah. So I'm hearing it went well. And this is six years ago. This was all recorded. Martin Scorsese was directing this. Jimmy Kimmel was astounding. Yeah. So I'm hearing it went well and this is six years ago. This was all recorded. Martin Scorsese was directing this. Jimmy Kimmel was hosting it. Do you have any insight into why this will likely never see the light of day? What happened? Do you know?

I think Scorsese got busy with other stuff. Remember there's a whole... The Irishman? Yeah. Well, yeah. And also the pandemic came and that put everything on hold. And it's just, it's languishing. It's the last I heard was that there is actually a possibility one day it will get made. But, but the longer you wait, the less likely this becomes like

already we've lost, you know, Joe Flaherty, for example. So when this comes out, it is, I mean, it's going to be time stamped now. Yeah, well, except, and I learned there's also teaching and teaching showing the students, which was another thing I did as an actor, by the way, I was an extra on SCTV. Do you remember the skit? Skits, many skits, Bob Lope Desert Classic, the Alki Stereopolis Pool Tournament, Sid Dithers, Johnny LaRue. Oh my goodness. Classics. Okay. Yeah. So what were you saying there? You learned something? So I, the last I heard was that it might happen. But where did you hear that? Well Joe and I don't think he had any real knowledge. See Dave Thomas doesn't

think it's going to happen. I've had a couple of long chats happen I've talked to him about it, too. Yeah. No, I honestly I don't think it's gonna happen I think that footage may get released someday. Is it gonna be like get back where I'll be like 80 years old Yeah, yeah, we'll have to get Peter Jackson to put it together It'll be like in the far-off future one of the best things about this thing was they had a crane, a camera crane, and it had Johnny LaRue written on the side of it, which if people who watch the show will remember he was always after the crane shot. Right. You know what? I'm like, I'm getting angry again, because six years is a long time

for this footage to just languish on. So I don't know in some crate somewhere. And it sounds like the event went well. And I mean, you got Rick Moranis out for this, right? That was a big deal because as far as I know, Ian Thomas had a benefit for his son who was badly injured in an accident. And Rick, of course, came out to that and reunited with Dave Thomas. And you got your Bob and Doug McKenzie, but I don't believe other than some radio ads for beer, but other than these radio ads for beer. Yeah, but other than these radio ads for beer Which were directed by an effort Ian by the way, but other than that, I don't think I think Larry McInnes directed those

I don't believe there's any Rick Moranis SC TV anything that's happened in quite a while. So the fact he was there should make that footage rather valuable I would think he hasn't really done anything other than raise his family and record a country album. Oh really? So left field. Out of nowhere. Out of nowhere he did a country album. Beyonce's doing it, Rick Moranis is doing it. Michael O'Donoghue did a country, at least a country song I don't know about it. Wow okay I'm learning a lot. So you have no, you think you might see the light of day at one day but we don't know anything. Because Martin Scorsese ever on the public record said anything about the SCTV doc.

No, nothing since he was there obviously. Um, but no, he has not said anything since. He doesn't mean busy. Like, yeah, he's busy. He's got the killers of the flower moon or whatever. Like he's got lots of stuff going on. Well, you know, at this point it's an editor's job and he's got like one of the best editors in the business. I'll give it to my buddy buddy Stu Stone for goodness sake.

Oh sure. Anyway I don't know if we'll ever see it. I'd like to tell you being there was just spectacular. Do you wish now you had, and they probably had strict rules against it, but you had secretly recorded some footage like so you could just leak that to people? Yes, yes I wish I had. If you had known right, if you had only know Martin Scorsese was never going to produce this documentary you would have secretly recorded video and you would have been very popular for doing that. Yeah, but you know who knows in some form it could show up I mean you know now with the

multi-platforms and it could it could research. So who owns the footage? Scorsese own this footage? I'm assuming yes. I don't know who funded the documentary. I don't know if it was like for Netflix or something. I think it was HBO, but I may be wrong on that. See, I wonder if it was to coincide with some streaming platform, maybe Netflix was also going to,

you know, this kind of happened with Kids in the Hall, right? Yeah. They made the doc, shout out to FOTM Paul Myers, they made the documentary. Shout out to FOTM Paul Meyers. They made the documentary and it coincided with kind of a new season and the old stuff being on Prime. Like there was a whole so I feel like maybe this doc was tied to some kind of a streaming having all the SCTV stuff restored or whatever and available on demand. And then something business wise fell through with that. And then it made it. Yeah, I think it's a kind of a complicated,

they are, some are available on video. Most SCTV sketches, including by the way, all the ones that I'm in, are available on YouTube. I noticed that when Joe Flaherty died, it's a lot of good stuff. All right, so take us back to how you end up at the Toronto Star. Well, again, I'm doing standup, not making any money,

moved out on my own, dropped out of high school. I was like 17. What high school did you go to? Very many, because I moved around a lot. But mostly George Vannier. Okay. With Maurice LaMarche, the voice of the brain and Pinky and the Brain.

That's a fun fact. Yeah, so he and I were best pals. Anyway, I was on my own, I needed to pay rent. My father played poker with one of the execs at the Star and got me a job as a copy boy. And this was, in fact, I am the last copy boy to work his way up through the ranks from copy boy No one else has done it since because I go to J school and you know be like

Have a degree and stuff and I actually worked my way up and just by making myself a total pest I just hung around the entertainment department. That's the way we used to do it, right? That's the old school way get into the mail room or something and then you see this in the movies all the time Okay, it doesn't happen like that anymore. Well, yeah, and remember this was like the 70s. So this was like all the president's men era of newspapers and it was a very exciting time. Well any, like who was at the Toronto Star that you remember when you got there? Peter Goddard, the late great Peter Goddard who also mentored me.

Clyde Gilmore was the movie critic. Sid Eilman wrote the gossip column. Later went on to become the editor. Who else was there? Ron Bass came in, movie critic. Bruce Blackadar. It was an all-star. Christy Blatchford used to work there.

In fact, I sat next to her. Wow. Before she went to The Sun, she was at the star. Bruce Kirkland, who also at the Sun, was at the Star. It was William Littler, Regina Mallett. It was the entertainment meetings once a week were like the Algonquin Roundtable. It was just so stimulating and so interesting and there were such interesting, eccentric people. And it's an era that, I mean, they don't really even have an entertainment section anymore. No, I don't think so,

because Peter Howell does freelance work, and Ben Rayner is not there anymore. Shout out to Ben Rayner. Yeah, he's still doing a few pieces now and then. Yeah, he works in a record store in East York, I wanna say, on the Danforth. I love Ben, I love Ben. What a good writer. Yeah, me too.

What a good writer. I'm a big Ben head here too. Shout out to Ben Rayner. Yeah. And I like Peter How I'm a big, big Ben head here too. Uh, shout out to Ben Rainer. Yeah. And, uh, I like Peter Howell too, actually. Yeah, I like Peter. Peter actually took, I was a movie critic originally and Peter took over my job when I went to TV.

These are the fun facts I'm looking for my friend. Would you say a few more words about Peter Goddard? Like, uh, sadly never will be on Toronto mic'd, but, uh, he was incredible. He was a genius. Um, he, it was interesting to me because he was the first one to really befriend me as a young puppet, the star. And as a teenager, he was the enemy to us,

because he would go to these concerts that we all wanted to go to or went to, and would be critical, when appropriate, which was a lot. And he was the enemy, everybody just hated him with a passion, and then you meet him, and he is the sweetest, most lovely man, or was. It was another interesting, later on, when I was an editor, I was editing his copy,

which was always an adventure, because he was so brilliant. He would complete thoughts in one paragraph, and then start the thought four paragraphs later. So you had to juggle the whole thing around to make it make sense. Like a Tarantino film. Yeah, yeah, very much. It was like a jigsaw puzzle.

But just, the other thing that was interesting to watch him work was when he was trying to sort of order his thoughts, he would go to the supply cabinet and count blank pieces of paper. Interesting. It was very interesting. I should try that.

It seemed to work for him, but that's what I interpret him doing, because he did it all the time. Interesting. But amazing man, just to add, and again, a real mentor. He had me reviewing rock concerts, which I had no idea how to do, because how do you criticize a rock concert in a sort of objective, subjective by definition. And so much is tied to your personal musical taste. Exactly, subjective by definition.

So it's tough, but I did it. And he also, I will never forget, when I was still a copy boy, the Rolling Stones played the El Macombo. Right. And Peter called in and I was, one of the copy boy jobs was taking copy over the phone. And he called up and said,, you know, one of the copy of which I was was taking copy over the phone. And he called up and said, why don't you come up?

And I was too new, too young, too timid. I didn't go. I missed the Rolling Stones and the Yelma combo. He regrets you have a few. That's a big one. But that's one you can mention. Yeah, but he actually, I mean, this young snot-nosed kid at the copy desk,

he actually invited me to come up. So he was a great guy. I think Weckerle is still trying to get the Stones to come back to the Elmo. So if you have any contacts there. Yeah. Speaking of Scorsese, you'll always hear a good Rolling Stones song in a Scorsese movie.

Okay, soon I wanna talk movies with you. So you're Copyboy, which is like an entry level thing because of a connect. It's all who you know, right? Right. So yeah, it was who I knew or who my father knew. And then I sort of weren't my way into doing the listings, the event listings. So there'd be a calendar and I would. So I knew all the clubs and knew everybody who was booking everything.

So that was a really good background. And then eventually I started the man who is now my next door neighbor, Kevin Boland, gave me a gig writing, first story I wrote was about stand-up comedy, actually. Okay. What was like, what specifically? It was how to be a stand-up comic. And I used Howie Mandel as the example because he was just burning up right then. And then after that, I have this really bizarre obsession with Superman. I collect Superman. I saw your shoes. And I've got the shoes on today.

So you and Jerry Seinfeld have this obsession. Yes, we share it. Anyway, so I wrote a story when Superman movie came out in 77, I wrote a story about the history of Superman. Which involves the Toronto Star, right? Yes, Jerry Siegel, sorry, Joe Schuster, the artist, was born in Toronto, grew up in Toronto. At the age of nine, he was a Toronto Star newsboy, right downtown, and he based his design for Metropolis on the Toronto skyline.

And the Daily Planet was originally the Daily Star star and it was based on the Toronto Star Love it. What were those little vignettes? We used to watch Historical moments or what were they called? Moments in history. Yeah, there's so many either burned my brain. I remember Superman one. Yeah. Yeah See it all come to full circle here. So but you a you were a Superman fan before you worked at the Toronto Star Yeah, that was the weird thing I became a meek mile man reporter for a great Metropolitan newspaper and it didn't know that Superman is well Maybe by then I did I was I've been a Superman fan since I was a little kid and my mother

Eventually threw away all my comics and it's warped me for the rest of my that's another regret I'm counting them for you, Rob. I'll leave here with a good annotated list. Heritage minutes. Heritage minutes. Do you have a favorite heritage minute? Oh, that one. Absolutely.

That one for sure. For you. I got a well, the one the burnt toast Dr. Penfield is like, I just every time I smell burnt toast, I'm worried I'm having a stroke, okay? I think we all do that. And the explosion in the Halifax Harbor there, there was the biggest explosion in North American history and the guy who's doing the Morse code to warn people,

but of course he ends up dying. Yeah, there's a lot of great, those heritage minutes. Yes, for a fairly young country, we've got vast and complex heritage. Laura Secord, not just a lot of great of those heritage minutes. Yes, for a fairly young country, we've got vast and complex. Laura Secord, we're not just a chocolate woman. Nothing no, not just for chocolates, but Laura Secord warning the the Brits that the Americans were planning that surprise attack. That's a heritage minute.

OK, lots of great ones there. OK, so I'm keeping track of these jobs. So you're doing listings. So you're a copy boy. Now you're doing listings. I'm doing listings and I'm told by the editor at the time, I can't use verbs. So I go through that period and then Kevin Boland lets me freelance this piece on comedy and then Superman. And the greatest thing about

writing for a newspaper is it's really basic writing. It's like who, what, why, when, where, you've got to, people have to know what's going on. By the way. Just the facts, ma'am. Exactly, well, and then you go to the next step and you actually inject some personality into it. That's columnist, right? Yeah, yeah.

But it's the best way to learn to write. So I was always, of all the classes that I took in the various high schools I went to, English was the one that I excelled at. Yeah, bottom line is you could write. Yeah, I could put a few words together. You were a gifted writer. I was a voracious reader when I was a kid.

Right. Even though you didn't have a high school diploma. No. You were a gifted writer and the Toronto Star recognized that. Yeah, well it got to the point eventually that it didn't matter that I was in high school drama because I'd been there for like, you know, 30, 40 years. Right. It's like, there's a certain amount of credibility that comes with that. I mean, they didn't fire you, so you must be good.

So, what's your first real writing job, like full-time writing job? Like, entertainment critic? Yeah, it was entertainment. Again, I made a pest of myself. I hung around the entertainment department. Mostly I remember because I really, I was jealous of all the freebies that they got. Yeah. You know, just like, like when I was a kid, I would go to a place called Cinebooks, and I would go buy press kits for movies, because they had movie posters and press kits and stuff. And then I went on to have this job where my desk was piled four feet high with them, and I was throwing them out by the armful. But so I was always had that interest. So remind me what calendar year do you become a copy boy at the Tronstar?

77. 77. Okay, so I'm just doing the math. So the Christopher Reeve Superman came out also 77 come out at that time, right? That's the first one, right? Yeah. Okay. I made the jump fairly quickly.

Yeah. So it I made the jump fairly quickly. Yeah. So, but it was a process. I mean, so I started doing the listings, no verbs. Then eventually they let me write more and more and more. And then God had really got a hold of me and got me doing concerts because there were so many concerts to cover. What an amazing life you've led. You realize how blessed you are that this happened to you. We, we, Rita and I, Rita Zekes is my wife. Of course.

Another columnist. Yeah, who should be a Toronto, an FOTM like you. Like I grew up in a Toronto star household, so I was reading all of you. Yeah, but Rita and I, I forget the point I was gonna make. Basically how blessed you are. Oh, right, yes.

Rita and I discuss that all the time because we started- I'm keeping track here. We started to reminisce about just the people that we've met and the stuff that we've got to do. And it's, it's such a rarefied privileged place to be a journalist, particularly an entertainment journalist. But you're an entertainment journalist with Canada's largest newspaper. Yeah. And it's, you get access to everything. I've met all of my heroes. Um, I really, who are these heroes?

John Cleaves, uh, Bob Newhart, William Shatner. All three still with us. Look, no shouts out to Ridley Funeral Home. Yeah, I co-wrote for William Shatner. They made him editor for a day and I ghost wrote his column. Okay. I got to introduce him at Massey Hall, so it was two huge milestones. I got to refer to Bill Shatner as Bill in front of an audience, and I got to go on the stage at Massey Hall. Amazing. Two times.

Again, you're right. I had to buy best expenses. So you're covering the entertainment critic and columnist and editor at the Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper in an era when newspapers mattered. Yeah, especially the Star. Yeah, especially the Star. Largest circulation in the, still the largest circulation in the country, but that's the shrinking pie.

Yeah. Yeah. So what year do you retire from the Toronto Star? 2000, well, 10 years ago, 10, 11 years ago. And again, I got to say it was not my idea. Well, this is the, on Toronto Mike, We ask if you got the tap on the shoulder. Well, they're very devious about it. They transferred me.

They transferred me to the city desk because they needed me there. They said, yeah, it was not. And I tried to get stories into the A section and they just wouldn't take any my assignments I basically it was I mean, I can't say this officially Why can't you if they were squeezing me out as they did most people who?

I think you can say that like you I you can say that you were squeezed out in your opinion You were squeezed out. That's what's the difference. They weren't yeah. Yeah, they were encouraging me to leave And I had because I was so such a workaholic, I had like six months vacation time owed. So I took that, I took half a year off. Okay. And then came back to the city desk, couldn't get anything in the paper, eventually just I was beating a dead horse. And they were starting to de-nacker the Entertainment Department at that point. So there were people leaving willy-nilly and shortly thereafter they left the building. Were you barely severed? Yes, I got a good deal. That's everything at the end of the day. I got

a good deal and I continue to get good pension. So I'll cancel this phone call I'm making to my lawyer, Lauren Honnickman. We don't need it. Lauren Honnickman. I know Lauren. Say hi for me. Shout out to Lauren Honnickman. I have right now Say hi for me. Shout out to Lauren Honickman. I have right now, you'll love this, I think you'll love this, that there's a legal issue with my dear friend, Peter Gross. Oh yes, Peter.

Who I, we'll get back to this when I give you this book, but I spent quite a bit of time with Peter on Sunday. But he was here last week actually for an episode of Toronto Mic'd and more, which people can hear. I had to, I got in trouble for this episode. Hopefully I won't get in trouble for the episode I'm recording right now. But I actually like, it's very rare in the Toronto Mike. This is almost episode 1500 and I can tell you, I only once had to kind of go in and edit something. And that was because Ed Keenan of the

Toronto star started sharing what happened in court with the Rob Ford crack video. And then after the recording, he looks at me like he saw a ghost and Ed says, there's a publication ban. And I said, yeah, like I don't care. Like, I just don't care. He's like, no, you have to anyways, we took it out just because I like Ed Keenan and I didn't want anyone to get in big trouble here. But then I had to with this Peter Gross and we'll

get back to where I'm going with Peter Gross, but uh, we had content in this episode that was illegal, which sounds exciting, but it's true. And I had to censor it. So there you go. But Peter Gross, who I spent time Sunday, I'll type that in a minute, but he, uh, is getting some, a pro bono help from, uh, his his city TV buddy Lauren Honigman. Yeah

We're helping each other out here Bob. You're now in FOTM. Okay, glad to hear so did you enjoy the City TV era the Moses I did and I hung a lot. Well, actually I ended up working for Tom television Driving classics. I was a host on driving classics Which is a station that could not exist today because it was just so politically incorrect. But yeah, I hung out. Six years you did that. Yeah, I did that for six years.

And I hung out with those people, I mean that was the scene then. I spent most of my time on Queen Street West. 299. Which was happening then. Steve Anthony was like my best pal. Well still is. That man's been over a few times, I love that guy. Yeah Anthony was like my best pal. Well, still is. That man's been over a few times.

I love that guy. Yeah, he's a sweet man. He drinks, speaking of sweet, he drinks, gotta get it right, he drinks coffee. The coffee he brought in had six sweeteners in it. And he says, in the middle of the episode, he says, and I said, like, that's ridiculous. He goes, try it.

I took one sip. Oh my God, six sweeteners. Like, and I drink my coffee black, but even back before I did, I couldn't do a full sweetener. Like it has to be like a one third of a sweetener or whatever for my coffee. But, uh, yeah, you know, I guess, and like I said, David's better than doing Coke, like cocaine, not Coca-Cola, but, uh, how is, uh, Steve, did he move back to Toronto? He's actually in Calgary right now visiting his sister. But yes he did move back to Toronto. He was in Prince Edward County for a while. And he's back. Yeah he had a B&B for a while. Yeah I remember this. But now he's back

but he's currently in Calgary. Okay I dig that guy. In fact he came up recently because the program director at CFNY who put Humble and Fred together talked about, Steve Anthony was the morning show. So between Pete and Geets and Humble and Fred there was a period of time when it was Steve Anthony on CFNY. Yep. The song, The Boy in the Box, the Cory, what's his name? Cory Hart.

Cory Hart's song. That was about Steve. Yeah, it was at Showm FM. Showm FM, yeah. Yeah, that's one of the great stories. Okay, so who else at City TV were you buddies with? Um, well, gosh, just about the whole space crew. Um, Mark Askwith, who was the producer there. Um, so all those people, all the driving people, um, who else? Well, you know, just the whole gang, I mean, who's there? Who was there?

It's a campaign on the spot here. You didn't know this was City TV cast Yeah, Mark Daly and the voice Marilyn Dennis hold on you said Mark Daly which means I'm now obligated to play this I'll do the following program contains adult themes nudity in coarse language viewer and parental discretion is advised Oh, that just warms me all over another Another lovely man, you're bringing up all these people who I absolutely adore and Mark was certainly one of them. By the way, there's a picture of Brian Linehan to my right here.

Someone else I adored. Okay, well tell me about these people. I sadly can't get those people on Toronto Mic'd. Brian, Brian, well you can't get Brian because he's dead but. Or Mark. But he, I remember he was during the days of SCTV and he and I were on our way to a movie junket.

He used to do all the junkets too. And he was talking about Marty doing his Brock Leinahan character. Of course. And it really upset him. Like he was crying while he was telling me about it. Like, do people really see me that way? And I'm going, it's a compliment, Brian.

It's good. It's like Barbara Wawa on SNL. And later, Marty says he was totally fine with it. But it was just an interesting chink in his armor because Brian was always, he was the man. I mean, he was the guy that everybody deferred to. He got all the good interviews and the research was insane. Yeah, pre-Wikipedia.

Yeah, he was Wikipedia. Absolutely, absolutely, he was astounding. He was astounding. And Mark Daly, I hear nothing but good things about Mark Daly. Mark Daly was a lovely man. I wrote a play, a musical, based on the brain that wouldn't die. But there was a part for a newscaster in it and I did a reading and Mark was going to do it and then he got ill, notically ill but not the cancer yeah no the cancer but um Gord martino ended up doing it Gord martino also an FOTM so got him yeah and morskowski too I had an Morskowski and Gord did not get along you might know

this as an insider yeah actually wait a, wait a minute. I did know this. I did know this later on. Well, she said that Gord only talked to her when the red light was on. So things were a little frosty there. And it's interesting that her fiance is a gentleman who's behind the Festival of Beer that happens at C&E at the Banshell. And he was here for an episode of Between Two Fermentors, which is the Great Lakes Brewery podcast. So I spent some time with him recently. And I said, you know, Anne Ruskowski delivers good podcasts. There's a woman who delivers the real talk. I loved my convos with Anne, but I'm loving this so much. Okay. So we will do tangents now and

then. But since we talked about the SCTV talk doc being shelved, I'm going to ask you if you were at the Toronto premiere of the 299 Queen Street West documentary. No, because I was busy promoting Mr. Dress Up at the time. Which was great. And you know, the much music thing, lightning in a bottle. I don't know how many people are interested today, really. It's me and a couple others. And we're all going to get together in June 27. Those who live through it, yeah. But we're a dying breed, literally.

Well, no, but okay, so speaking just for myself, you know, when I start to fall in love with music as like a, you know, a 12 year old or whatever, and then basically that period of time through, I would say like 19, like there's that seven core years. That's like when music is the most important thing in your life. And for that period of time, I really had three sources for music. Okay. I had what they played on CFNY 102.1. I had what they played on much music. And then I had what I owned or borrowed from buddies who said hey man You got to check this out. This is really good. You'd like this like those were like the three places and That that means much music is very important to a guy my age

Yeah, well, and you know the other thing is the music videos themselves Here's and here's the much music. Yeah, that's like from David Kines But David Kines is somebody else I know from back then. And Jay Switzer, oh the late great Jay Switzer, I love Jay Switzer. What a wonderful guy. Anyway, the music itself, because it had such an influence on the pop culture at large, the pacing of a music video sort of came out of advertising, but the pacing of a music video and the attention span of the viewer has shrunk and ever since then, but that and the techniques of music video

were adopted by film and then by television. Like David Fincher for example. Yeah, yeah, the actual creators went on to become major creators. So it was a hugely, I'm not discounting it as a hugely influential thing. And it was, I mean, they were the hip people in town. If they were at an event, you knew it was a hip event.

But this is an interesting thing, Moses, who else? Moses confessed to me once that when they were early starting up, and it was like, you know, that'll be city TV everywhere. So in order to be everywhere, they actually had one wooden camera. Wasn't real, but it had all the logos and stuff on it. And they would take that to events just to have a presence at the events,

which is so smart. Which is so, so Moses there. I think so Moses, so Moses. Now just, I have to know if my buddy, Ed Conroy from retro Ontario knows that fun fact because I know Ed, you know, all of the same people. I know it. Now that I realize Ed was at the same event that breakfast. Maybe he introduced us. Maybe he introduced us.

He's working on a Electric Circus documentary. Wow. By the way, I will have to fix that in post. I don't know if that's public or not, but he's working with Joel Goldberg, who is one of the founders of Electric Circus on what was originally City TV, I believe. And this is a weird thing, and this what was originally City TV, I believe.

And this is a weird thing, and this is part of their problem, I think, is that, not a problem, but it's a thing that you wouldn't have anticipated back in the day. But of course, Chum City owns City TV and Much Music, and there's a lot of back and forth. It's all coming out at 299 Queen Street,

the same damn company. But at some point, as you know, City TV becomes a Rogers property, and Much Music becomes a Bell property. So now when you're doing something regarding electric circus, you've got to like the two cable giants that are sort of there. I don't know. Not prone to collaborate. Put it that way. Only on like M L S E.

And how's that going for them? Oh, the Raptors won in 2019. So, you know, like, you know, yay for the Raptors here. Are you a sports fan at all? Not in the least. So no interest in baseball? None. Although, another good story. Yeah. I was doing, I ran a film festival, the Bee Festival.

Okay. Well, it was around the time of the first- Co-film and video festival. Yeah, co-film, that was the second- Oh, that's that one, it was the Toronto Bee Festival. It was the oh that's that was Toronto Bee Festival anyway we're doing I did my homework like line of hand yeah wow and so we're showing is this is when the Blue Jays won the World Series for the first time at the time was 92 we're showing this German necrophiliac movie this art film favorite genre art film with real

corpses it was just, it was a bad thing. But we're showing that and basically the audience is like heroin addict college students and all dressed in black. So the game is going on at the same time and I'm running up to the front of the theater and just quietly but writing on a piece of paper on the wall what the score is and of course nobody there could care less. Yeah, otherwise they wouldn't be there. And the moment, I will never forget this, I was up in the booth, and there's a climactic scene

literally in the movie is this guy stabbing himself in the stomach while he's masturbating. And while this image is on the screen, I'm looking on the monitor, the projectionists back when they had those, it's got a little TV going and the winning run. Oh my god. Hey, it's synchronized It's synchronized and then I go out and I stand on top of the marquee and it's on Bloor Street It was at the Bloor Cinema. Yeah, which is now hot dogs and watching this parade of humanity Look like Mardi Gras right?

It was the most surreal evening of my entire life and I've had many. That sounds surreal and that way it's synced up sounds like when they say, okay, when the lion roars in Wizard of Oz, dark side of the moon. Yeah, exactly. What a night. Okay, so you don't give a shit about baseball, but you might be interested in Toronto history. Yeah, that aspect of it. Here, I'm working my way to just hopefully this doesn't end up in the recycling bin because there's a book I'm giving you

on the history of Toronto-made beliefs, baseball, not hockey. They play at Christie Pitts. I actually recorded live from Christie Pitts on Sunday, the home opener. It was an amazing time. Quickly gonna shout out people that I talked to on Toronto Mic'd. This was episode 1487.

I got a shout out and these names won't mean much to you, but you know them. Wendell Clark. Yeah, I know that name. You had to know that name. He's actually right here too. So Brian line, I hand Wendell Clark, Stu Stone, the great ones are here. Maestro, fresh West, George and under the giants on this guy here. Okay.

Doug Flutie is over there. Okay. Under the Giants on this guy here. Okay, Doug Flutie's over there. Okay, so Wendell Clark, Rick Vive, Rick Emmett from Triumph, are you a Triumph guy? Yeah, I'm Mike E. Levine, he's a good friend of mine. I'm all choked up here. I gotta get Mike on the program, actually.

Yeah, he'd be a good guest. Who else, quickly shout out here. Let's see, Mark Hebbscher, Steve Paken, Peter Gross, Stephen Brunt. We started things off with Stephen Brunt. He was amazing. Rod Black, the owner, Keith Stein was on the microphone. We had Cam Gordon and MF and that's MF making her Toronto mic debut. If you know what MF stands for, you're in the know. But a lot of these amazing people I saw Blair Packham there but I didn't get him on the mic but anyway that was recorded so go listen to episode two before this and you'll hear all those people chatting me up at Christie Pitts an amazing day

for baseball about 2 000 people there it was unbelievable and I will be back at Christie Pitts recording live at a 2 p.m. game. This is Sunday, June 2nd. So stick that in your calendar and come by. It's free. It's Christie Pitts. There's no ticket.

You just come on by and enjoy some high caliber baseball, great atmosphere, get a hot dog, get a beer and maybe chat me up. Rob, you should do that too. Yeah. Well, I am often taken for a baseball fan because my friend Howie, my great friend Howie, gave me a New York Yankees leather jacket and I wear it proudly without any idea who's on the Yankees.

Well, George Costanza worked for the Yankees. Yeah, that much I remember, yeah. And that was Larry David's voice, by the way. George Stimber, yes. It's didn't, once a curb debuted and I loved curb. Then I realized, yep, George Steinbrenner is Larry David and it all, it all connected here. Yeah. Yankees actually are tribal of our Toronto Blue Jays, but, uh, people should come out and check out the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. I've had people yell at me, uh, by, or one guy yelled at me driving by,

go back to New York. You know, I noticed the Yankee cap has become a fashion symbol, and you'll see a lot of people kind of donning it as their wardrobe, with no allegiance to the team at all. Yeah, well that's me. That's me with my jacket. Oh, I gotta tie up a loose end here,

because I mentioned the 299 Queen Street West documentary. So I saw it debuted at Roy Thompson Hall like last September, I think. You know, Eric M, Michael Williams, a lot of interesting people involved. Steve Anthony was there, a lot of cool cats. But it was promoted to stream on Crave and they promoted it and they said it would be available

this day, which was like a Friday, I think. And it never did drop on Crave. This is now a few months ago and there's a, I did some digging. Apparently there was a issue with licensing the music that you hear in the 299 Queen street West. You think they would have covered that? Well, the guy who directed it, Sean Menard is an FOTM. He's been over to tell me about the doc. And I haven't been able to get it like a comment from him on this, but it is interesting that this thing

has never actually streamed anywhere. And I think some other Gen Xers who have fond memories of much might enjoy just seeing it. I just, I take it you have no idea anything about the 299 Queen Street West documentary. Yeah, well, it's, you know, it's, I forget where I was going. It's okay, you don't have any.

You know what, you never know. You got Rob Salem in the basement. You got to ask him all those questions you have about's okay, you don't have any. You know what? You never know. You got Rob Salem in the basement. You got to ask him all those questions you have about to be, you know, you know, I did have something very cogent to say, but it's gone. It's gone. Well, whenever it comes back, just spit it out here. Okay.

So highlights. You spent, you said you spent 40 years at the Toronto Star and then you got the tap on the shoulder and they severed you fairly but it all came to an end Maybe you weren't done, but they were done with you Yeah, and and and and I'm sort of in a weird way now that I've had some time to lick my wounds Yeah, I'm sort of grateful just in this. I mean I miss it but but I'm I couldn't cover television today too much, right? This is too much much, right? There's just too much. I agree.

There's just too much. It would take at least three people. I struggle with the paradox of choice. Like I actually, personally, there's too much. We subscribe to Crave and my wife has Disney Plus because my youngest is addicted to Simpsons and which I quite like too. But then we have a Prime because she gets deliveries

and it came with some prime other, it get bundled up with, so there's all this stuff and I find it very overwhelming. Like there are certain shows I actually like and I look forward to, I watched the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, I'll see the next season of Euphoria, like there's certain shows I'm into, but I'm drowning in this content

and I end up watching like nothing. So what do you personally enjoy that's an active television show? Well, again, my whole perspective has shifted because I'm not trying to sort of stay on top of everything now for the first time in my life. But Ripley, as an example, Ripley is just, it's like walking in, it's shot in black and white,

and it's like walking into an art gallery photo show. It is so beautifully shot based on the talent of- The talent of Mr. Ripley, which was great. And Andrew Scott, who is an incredible actor, stars in it. This the guy from Fleabag, the priest? The hot priest from Fleabag. I watched a movie recently where he starred in. That was fantastic too.

Yeah. He's good. I can't remember the name of that movie. It was a gay movie. Yes, yes, yes. London, I think. Yeah, it was, yes, exactly. Oh, and it's very surreal, that movie.

And I quite, what's real, what's not one of those bad boys. And I dug it. So shout out to that movie, whatever it's called. Yeah, and Ripley is just, again, gorgeously shot and beautifully acted and just a piece of art What else am I watching? Try to think new shows. Well, we started watching just because we loved her all of us strangers I believe is the name that's what it is a terrible title, right? Yeah, that's a terrible I sometimes I see I go that's a terrible title like Ripley's a good title

Yeah. That's a terrible title. Sometimes I see it, I go, that's a terrible title. Like Ripley is a good title. Fleabag is a good title. All of us strangers is a terrible title. Yeah. It doesn't tell you anything. Just, and it won't stick to you.

It doesn't tell you anything. It won't stick to you. They should just call it strangers. Yeah. Okay. I might remember that. Okay. Sorry.

Oh, I would say, the show that I'm both disappointed in and watching, it's Elspeth. This is a character played by Kerry Preston, who was on The Good Wife and then The Good Fight, which were both brilliant shows. And now they've given her her own show and it's sort of an iffy premise, but she's wonderful and the character is wonderful. And it's Robert and Michelle King, who produced the previous two series. Okay, but you're underwhelmed by it. I mean, it's the premise is a little thin, but it's getting better. But she's just so wonderful and so appealing and such a great character.

We're watching Hacks. I watched that with my mom, like that's the show because my mom doesn't have Crave and we save hacks for her. She's like you call it the Joan Rivers show. But of course, it's only loosely based But it's brilliant gene smart is the goddess Watch Rita watches a lot of British procedurals, of course one Australian procedural Lucy Lawless's show. She's a friend of mine really Really? Xena? Yeah. The warrior princess?

She was just in town. So what, she comes over for dinner? You meet her for coffee? We went out to a matinee of gentlemen prefer blondes at the Fox Theater. Okay, something current, okay. It was wonderful. Not bad.

But how did you become friends with her? Just met her on the junkets or something? 20 years ago, yeah. Well, actually I did. When Xena was over, I wrote a cover story for Star Week magazine that was basically an open love letter to Lucy Lawless. I'd never met her.

And I find out after the fact that her people made sure she got it and she had read it. So I was totally humiliated. You communicated with her through Star Week. Yeah and then she was in town shooting a Tarzan series and I was working on the Gilda's Club Gala, it's always something and I got her and Eric McCormick, who who also met on the job, to sing in this show. And she did a bare naked lady song. Which song? I don't remember because she had no time to rehearse because they wouldn't let her offset so she actually went up and screwed it up.

Oh! I felt so bad. But, but this is to her credit. They were giving, they were doing plastic casts of all these celebrity guests' hands. Glad you said hands. I was ready for whatever Jimi Hendrix got, the penis caster. Well, this is close because Lucy offered to do her boobs and did. Okay. It was my job to stand outside the bathroom and make sure nobody went in while Lucy was

plastering her boobs. So she's just so much fun. I think that and the Degrassi, Marion Snake and the Spiker, your two claims have been there. Anyway, but Lucy was here with the documentary. She's directed a documentary on Margaret Moth, a CNN camera woman.

Interesting. That's really good. And so I think that's her new phase. But she does have a show called My Life is Murder. It's on Acorn TV. Okay, that's Australian. That's an Australian procedural, okay So we're bouncing around a little bit because I realize you mentioned Star Week and I wondered if you could tell me a little Bit about the late Jim Baudin Jim Baudin. That's another one. He was we called him the Phantom

Used to he was the only one he because there was a trip to LA twice a year for the TV critics convention that I ended up taking over, but Jim used to go, and he was the only person who would ever come back from LA paler than when he left. And he was always lurking around the office late at night. He was a prolific gossip, loved to tell stories about other people, and was a huge champion of Canadian television. And to the point where I wrongly,

and I shouldn't have, but I tended to overlook Canadian television unless it was something that was like really good. But Bodden covered all those other struggling shows that I, there just wasn't the room to cover them in my column, but he took up the slack there and covered all the Canadian stuff Do you think Canadian television is getting better?

Yes, well, I think Schitt's Creek was the real Deciding factor or that's not the word I was looking for but Schitt's Creek is to me the perfect Canadian show because it first of all it makes use of our greatest natural resource Which is a comedic talent, right? and they don't have to go to the states to do it and it's It's is a rural show which Look at corner gas. I mean shows like that They tend to be sort of they're both a microcosm of the real world so you can deal with those issues plus

It's like what how silly these small town people are but on on top of all of that, it was an exportable show. It was a sellable show internationally. And when it hit, first hit a cable station in the States, then it hit Netflix and went, but no one's ever done this before. They won every single comedy Emmy. Unbelievable, right? Who would have saw that coming? If we go back in time when,

uh, well, and you name your crappy Canadian sitcom of the day or whatever. Uh, geez. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, and that's the two, it helps that the stars of the show, the two stars were famous to Americans. Yeah. Yes. So you know, it was in that thing as I recall. I loved Get a Life. Yeah, I did too. I did too. I loved his sensibility, although that one movie he did was horrible. But Cabin Boy. Yeah, no, no, no. Cabin Boy.

Yeah, Cabin Boy was OK. There was another one he did. That was so bad. I don't remember it. I just remember David Letterman had the cameo in Cabin Boy. Yeah. Want to buy a monkey? Yeah, something like that. But Chicks Creek is the

high mark right there and to shoot for that a show that's finding on its own merits and exportable to the world because we're a small market. That's the problem. Unless we can sell to the states or internationally, it's not a viable commercial proposition. Well, I just read the canceled or did not renew, I don't know the proper semantics on this one, but Runnin' the Burbs, which was not a spin-off, but had an actor who was in Kim's Convenience. Another show that didn't get a proper send-off,

they got robbed of a proper finale because the creator of the characters Mr. Inns, I can't remember his first name right now, but basically pulled the plugs and surprised surprised the The see the CBC that happened so much and it's always about something other than the actual show and who's watching it But CBC is notoriously bad at promoting its own stuff I CBC is notoriously bad at promoting its own stuff. I mean, there are shows like, the last time there was such this confluence of great comedy talent was Michael Tuesdays and Thursdays,

which was Bob Martin, who's gone on to become like a Broadway writer. Okay. I don't even know the show. Exactly, because it didn't get any promotion. Don McKellar was involved. I know Don McKellar, sure. He's got a new series, The Sympathizer.

Okay. So that's... The big Canadian comedy I'm aware of, not watching, I don't know what that says about me, but I hear good things is Son of a Critch. Yes, I hear good things about that too, and I also have not watched it. We don't support our own, Rob.

We're part of the problem here. We never have, and the fact that I wasn't covering more Canadian material when I was a critic is is not a mark of distinction by any stretch. It's it's an it's a Short-sightedness on my part. I mean again if there was a show that I thought was worthy of being championed like Michael Tuesday and Thursdays or Kyle Mockery had a show with his wife called getting along famously and they were at that SCTV documentary filming. Yeah, yeah they were there.

I asked them if it was good and they said it was great. Yes, yeah. And again, two absolutely lovely, wonderful people, but I really championed their show. It was an interesting experiment CBC did where they commissioned a whole bunch of pilots and aired them all and the ones that got the best ratings People like a reality show. Yeah. Yeah or project green light, right, which is a reality show, but um But I thought that was a really good way to plumb the vast resources we have and Colin and Deb show didn't go that long, but it's too. But they're lovely people. They are absolutely lovely people.

Sweethearts. All right, let me give you a break here and I will let the listenership know about a couple of podcasts that they should subscribe to. And you get a gift here too, Rob. You're getting so much swag. It was worth the schlep, okay? I love this. I love this.

There is a wireless speaker there. In fact, should I go up and get you, You can have either a beer or a glass of water. I can do either. No, I'm good. You're good. Okay. There's a wireless speaker here from Monaris. There's a QR code there that will help you subscribe to the advantage to invest.

No, actually. Oh my goodness, Mike, that QR code will help you subscribe to yes, we are open. And I learned that the latest episode has dropped. Al Grego hosts this thing. It's an award-winning podcast. He talks to small business owners and gets their great stories to inspire you. And he shares them on this podcast from Minaris. But he was in Alberta. But now this episode is actually Niagara Falls. Okay. I can bike to Niagara Falls. I can't bike to Alberta, but he goes down to Niagara Falls. He visits Andrew Virgilito. He's the owner of Italian Ice Cream, a business his parents started 47 years ago.

And he chats with Al Grego about it over some delicious espresso and gelato. And you can check out that story on Yes, We Are Open. And yes, you can also subscribe to the Advantage Investor podcast. Whether you already work with a trusted financial advisor or currently manage your own investment plans, the Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada provides the engaging wealth management information you value

as you pursue your most important goals. And last but not least, actually, this is penultimate, so there is a measuring tape for you that green. I noticed that's from Ridley Funeral Home. What do they measure? I'm afraid. What would you like to measure with that? It's yours now.

What you do with it is your business. I don't need to know all the details. What's a fun fact is that, and I know you're not a baseball fan, but if you make your way to Christie Pits to see a Toronto Maple Leafs game this summer, and everybody should, it's great time, you will see that the official funeral home of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball is Ridley Funeral Home. That's a fact.

Like, okay, I run a funeral home. I'm thinking, what am I gonna sponsor? What works? Baseball, absolutely. Well, you never know. It's an exciting new era for the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. And Brad Jones from Ridley funeral home is a great FOTM himself. And then now last but not least, recycle my electronics.ca.

If you, Rob have a drawer at home, maybe you got old cables, old electronics, boxes and boxes. Don't throw it in the garbage because the chemicals end up in our landfills. You go to recycle my electronicsElectronics.ca, put in your postal code. They'll tell you an accredited depot where you drop that off and they will properly recycle your electronics. So that's your homework. What, like, this is a tough question, but you were 40 years at the Toronto Star. Do you have a couple of highlights? Like maybe these pinch, I can't believe this is happening

pinch me moments. Yeah, Lucy was one because she came to me to the TV. Critics. Oh, Lucy. Oh, yes. Okay. I see a ball. No, no, no. That was an unforgettable moment. Um, there was one of my major heroes is Sean Connery and I had the chance to interview him at a press conference and it was just it wasn't it didn't satisfy. I finally got a one-on-one chat wasn't one-on-one it was a round robin so it was me and six other journalists at a table but the movie was The Rising Sun which he produced there he was a co-producer on right written by Michael Crichton for him in fact the character's name was John Connor, so it was clearly him. Anyway, there was a lot of complaints about this depiction

of the Japanese business community. So, Connery comes in, it's 8.30 in the morning, I'd been up all night at a bar with only my friend. Just like last night. Yeah, really. I'm noticing a trend. I want to say I don't drink that much, but that's not true, I do. Anyway, so I'm noticing a trend. I want to say I don't drink that much, but that's not true, I do. Anyway, so I'm hungover, like, I'm still drunk and I'm hungover, because we were up all night. And I walk in, it's 8.30 in the morning,

Sean Connery walks in, if you've ever read an interview with Sean Connery, he just eats journalists for breakfast. He's the crankiest man. So he walks in and he's clearly in a bad mood. But he's wearing a short sleeve, like a polo shirt, sits down at the table, and I notice he's got tattoos up and down both arms.

And I'm thinking, like, how many times have we seen this man with his shirt off? Never seen the tattoos, obviously. Put makeup on. Anyway, so, unable to form sentences at that time of the morning in my condition, I just sort of pointed and went, tattoo. And there was a moment of silence where he glared at me

and it felt like five minutes. It was probably like five seconds. I was hoping you would do a Sean Connery brogue there. I was about to. See, now you've totally ruined the surprise. Oh, I was waiting, okay. He finally responds. You're the standup.

My timing is off. What seems like minutes go by and then he finally responds and he says, no, I did not wake up one morning next to some ugly hooker. And again, I'm thinking, this could be good response or bad, he might like me. And it turns out he just loved me. And the other six journalists ignored them.

It was just him and me at the table. Because you were just the right level of disheveled. Yeah, exactly. And it's like, well, I got this one on the Merchant Marines and this one's artificial. And, you know, it was like him and I, and we actually got onto more substantive subjects from there, but that broke the ice. And that's really the key. If you want to know how to be an interviewer, that's the key. Ask the unexpected question. Okay. Explain your tattoo that I see on your right arm. It's actually, it's a whole thing, you know. Okay, he's taking off his shirt everybody. It's

dripping in the basement. Oh, it's a Superman thing. So it's the shield, the belt and the boot. Okay, very cool. There's a whole Superman on my arm. That's amazing. You know, you and Shaquille O'Neal, I feel like he's got that. I think Shaq's got that. He's got the Superman symbol amazing okay big John Bon Jovi I knew about Jerry Seinfeld of course everybody knows about that but I didn't know about John Bon Jovi I just heard him on Stern I have borrowed a car Hyundai Palisade to drive to Montreal and I had a serious XM in this car I don't normally have serious exam but Howard Stern was chatting up bon John John Bon Jovi almost called Bon John Jovi, whatever

But did you know he got his and I already kind of knew this from another podcast I listened to but his first ever musical anything was the Star Wars Christmas album he worked on the Star Wars Christmas album as like a teenager and that's his first like musical credit Not related to the Star Wars holiday special I hope. No not related actually. I showed that to my students every year too. I did. Oh yeah, Bea Arthur's in that one.

Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman, it's horrifically awful. Well they disowned it right? George Lucas Wood said if he could have one wish it would be to take Slythe Hammer to all existing copies of that and there are are copies, it's on YouTube. It's not to get rid of Jar Jar Binks. He's got that one wish and he's going to let Jar Jar live. Yeah, Jar Jar is okay, but the holiday special. Yeah, you can find it on YouTube.

And there's a really good 20-minute cut down that just has the worst parts. Okay. If I remember correctly, they're trying to get Chewie back to his home planet because there's some light festival. The light festival, yeah. And there's a scene at the end where Carrie Fisher sings the theme from Star Wars. And is clearly, and she has since admitted.

Bill Murray did that on Saturday Night Live. Yeah, but did not like that. It was just like the actual song with actual lyrics. And she has since admitted, and it's very clear from watching it, she was high as a kite when she did it. Wow. Yeah. Keep dropping those fun facts. and it's very clear from watching it she was high as a kite when she did. Wow! Yeah.

That, keep dropping those fun facts. But yeah, this is unrelated. The big song off this album is, what do you get a Wookie for Christmas when he already owns a comb? So you can find that on YouTube everybody. That's the big jam from there. That has to be a country song. I think I can sing it for you, but it's better for you.

I don't, but you can pass. Okay. So we've got Lucy Lawless, we've got Sean Connery. Yeah, that was good. And you're still friends with Lucy Lawless, which is wild. She's wonderful. Is she the most famous person who will answer your text? Who's the most famous human on the planet? Globally famous, not Toronto famous.

Who will actually reply to your text. And don't worry, I won't make you prove it. No, I, she may be, she may be a big one though. She's, she's famous. I mean, I, I regularly text with Colin Mockery. He's not exactly well, he's internationally famous because he was on who's not line is it anyway, which was a big in the state. He's a good friend. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, most of the SCDV people, got a big hug from Catherine the last time I ran into her. The thing is, when you do what I did, it's your whole life. So it's your social life.

So all of my friends were in the entertainment business. And it was a valuable lesson and a hard lesson to learn that once I did not have that power to get them in the paper A lot of people fell by the wayside. That's when you find out who your real friends are You can't get them free press. Yeah, and I'm pleased to know that most of the people I really loved out of that group Are still my friends So a lot of the phonies dropped away, which is good Like now you're right if I shut down Toronto mic will Steve Paikin still reply to my texts? Probably not. What is the thing on your neck?

Oh, it's just headphones. Oh, that's earphones. I'm going, is that another Superman thing? I'm trying to remember. I got to say, what is it? Office Space references the plot from the third Superman, which is, that the who's the stand up comic? Richard Pryor. Thank you. Oh my goodness. Yeah, not so good. But I will say young Michael enjoyed it. Like it was only when I got older and watched it, I realized, oh, that sucks. But I did like it as a kid. I was pretty young. You have Superman for I was on the junket for that. And it was so bad. It was the only movie in 40 years nuclear one What is that? That's the nuclear man? Okay, but in 40 years of journalism

I never went on a junket where the movie or TV show was so bad They did not show it to us before the interviews that happened on Superman for a quest for peace Asked for peace. That's right. I will say I prefer Superman 2 to Superman 1. Yes, yes. Although the Donner cut, I've got an autographed copy of that actually. Richard Donner was originally doing both movies and in fact shot most of the second one while he was shooting the first one. And then he got canned by Ilya Solkin and they brought in whoever the hell, Richard Lester? Someone else. But there is, they, they actually have done a donor cut of the second movie, which is vastly better than the one that was released.

So Superman one and two were intended to be one movie. Was that going to be like a seven hour movie? It was always going to be two movies. Two movies shot at once. Okay. Like they did the back to the future. Two and three. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Cause in kill bill one and two, of course we're shot. Yeah. Same time. Okay. Interesting.

Okay. I love that. Like we didn't have like this whole, my kids are living in this Marvel universe. Okay. When I was growing up, if you wanted a comic book movie, you had, these are your options, you had this, those Superman movies we're talking about and you had, Howard the duck. Yeah.

Oh my God. That was, I went and saw that at the Directors Guild in LA and it's creating and my friend, Irick and I were driving back, coming up with bad puns for my headline. Lucas lays an egg, Howard's a turkey. I mean, it just, it just wrote itself. You could use Ducking Awful if you wanted. I could have, but it's the Toronto Star. They

would not have gone for that. Best headline that Rita ever got away with. Rita wrote the best heads. Best headline you Rita ever got away with. Rita wrote the best heads. Best headline she got away with, there was a show at the Imperial Room and it was in a water tank and it was like swimming, dancing, swimming thing in a water tank on the stage of the Imperial Room, which is like a nightclub. And Rita's headline for the story was, tanks for the, oh, it was topless. It was topless. Oh yeah. So Rita's headline was tanks story was, tanks for the, oh, it was topless. It was topless.

Oh yeah. So Rita's headline was, tanks for the mammaries. Very good. Okay. There's another one she almost got canned over. It was the film center picnic at the festival and it was Fran Drescher and Kim Cattrall and Fran Drescher had her dog tucked under her arm

and Rita's cut line under the photo was three bitches in heat. Oh! It was a hot day. and Kim Kutral and Fran Tresher had her dog tucked under her arm and read his cut line out of the photo with three bitches and he it was a hot day. Kim Kutral has never forgiven her. There's a photo of Pierre Elliott Trudeau taking Kim Kutral to some kind of a some kind of a party or function or something, maybe Juno's or something like that. Anyways, I've seen that circulate all right. Kim Kutral, okay, one little thing here. So we because you did say sex in the city. No, it's sex that circulate. All right. Kim Cattrall. Okay. One little thing here. So we, cause you did say, uh, sex in the city. No, it's sex and the city. People always screw that up, right?

I always used to screw it up. So sex and the city is fine. I have a client named, well, her name is Diane Sax. She's a city counselor and she's launching a new podcast and she, they're calling it sex Sax in the city is what they're calling it. And I, I gave them this pedantic like, well, it actually should be sacks and the city. Cause the show and like this whole thing, it's like, why do I bother? Like just, just whatever. Okay. But I reason I brought up sex in the city is cause they rebooted it. And just like that is what it's called. And

I did watch most of it out of curiosity, but they were promoting that Samantha was going to return for a cameo in the finale of like season two or something and of Course, there was a falling, you know, the famous falling out Kim Cattrall who plays Samantha to falling out with the other actresses She's not part of this reboot. So I'm like, oh, I'm curious Like I was just I'm gonna watch this and see like oh the return of Samantha. So she literally phoned it in it's literally like Carrie is holding a phone and you see a phone conversation, like a video of Kim Cattrall saying, sorry, I can't be there.

They're not even in the same place. No. Even if they're in the same city. She could have, literally, Kim Cattrall could have filmed this on her iPhone and emailed the file to the producer. That's the cameo. Definitely not in the same, don't have to be in the same country. It was the closest that they could get them together. They do not like each other.

I wonder, I just wonder like, so Kim agreed to do this little video where she says, I love you, Carrie, good luck or whatever. And nice things like that. Sorry, I can't be there. Wonder what she gets paid for that. Probably a whole lot of money. Because it's, it's, it's worth it just for the publicity. Yeah. Just for idiots like me who hear about the cameo appearance by Kim Cachal and tune in to see it. Yeah. Geez, they got me. Okay, I won't bite again. I won't bite again. I got to say, Rob, this

was amazing. Like, is there a final story that on your way here, you were on the bus or something and you're like, I would love an opportunity to share this story or anything, because you've been amazing in your Toronto Mic debut. Well, I'm honored and thrilled. The Sean Connery story is pretty much my favorite. You can't top that. I can't top that. Oh, that's a big deal.

That's a big deal here. There are so many stories. Oh, there is, well, the punch line is actually the whole story, but doing cocaine in the blues can bathroom with Mel Gibson. That's a great story. Yeah.

Well, that's it. That's basically the whole story. Well, there's actually more to it. But the fact so, so you did cocaine because this is I did a lot of cocaine back in the day. I was very, very bad. Well, that's how you became friends with Steve Anthony. No comment.

Peter Gross tells me he did cocaine in a limo with fashion, Jeannie Becker. Really? And I was kind of, I was hinting, I had Jeannie Becker on the show, I was hinting at it and she was not biting. Like she was not going there. So whatever happened in that limo with Peter Gross that, you know, off the record. But it's, you know, the City TV 299 Queen and before that it was 99 Queen East, but that's notorious for drugs. Yeah, it was, it was, it was a heady time. No, I got, I got, I got quite screwed up on it and it took me years. But you're clean now?

I am totally clean. Clean as a whistle. Good, except for the booze. Except for the drinking. And weed. I smoke a whole lot of weed. It's better than better than coke man You know every time I hear about like a oh George Michael dies of a heart attack in his 50s

I'm like, that's the coke. Yeah. No, I know I saw so many people that I've known of have died friends just not getting their act together John Gallagher still alive I just want to put that on the public record has spiky He's in Halifax now. Yeah, he's in Halifax. Post a lot of stuff on Facebook. He took selfies before people had. I know he's got selfies with everybody. Because I used to produce his podcast. It's called Gallagher and Gross Saved the World.

Rob, you got to listen to this thing. It's just Peter Gross and John Gallagher sharing stories. Oh, the two of them are hilarious. How many women he's bed. He tells stories about, you know, drugs and Moses. And it's unbelievable. You got to listen to Gallagher and Gross Saved the World. You would love it. All right. I will. And then John moved out. Well, COVID happened and it kind of messed up John. And he ended up moving to Halifax and

everything. But why am I bringing up John Gallagher? Oh yeah. So he's told me, I could ask him, why are there pictures? Like if OJ dies, I'm going to see a picture of OJ Simpson with John Gallagher. It's because he had those disposable, he bought a bunch of those disposable cameras and he kept them in his glove compartment. And anytime he was anywhere where anyone famous was, he got the disposable camera and took a pic and he's got pics with everybody.

Yeah, one of my great regrets is that I spent a whole day with and night with William Shatner and didn't get a picture. Yeah, I'll take your word for it. You look like a trustworthy guy. Would your wife do Toronto Mike'd? I'm sure she would. We're going to make that happen.

All right. I'm going to get on that. But thanks for doing this. It was a pleasure. What a joy. Don't leave without your lasagna and we'll take a photo by the Toronto tree. And again, you're now an FOTM.

You can add that to your bio. Okay. Friend of Toronto Mike'd. Good. I need something. The bio's getting a little thin now. But are you looking for a gig now yeah I'll tell you see do you need money I that's private question I know but some people are you know I'm good and some people are like yeah I gotta keep earning yeah gotta keep earning okay got to get out there and hustle yeah but I have a very comfortable pension so

that that's right 40 years at the star soabby. And that brings us to the end of our 1489th show. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky. I'm all over the place. I'm at Toronto Mike. Where's the best place to learn about what's going on with Rob Salem? Facebook, Instagram. All the meta properties. All the meta properties.

Basically, I'm a meta guy I'm still on but you did coke with Mel Gibson the greatest anti-semite I know I know you'd be okay on Twitter okay then he was such an asshole whoo Jodie Foster still likes him though yeah well so does Graham Green another friend of mine Graham Green Greene likes him. Well, if Graham Greene liked Greene, I'd have him on Toronto Mic'd. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery.

Can't wait to take down a Sunnyside Session IPA later today. Palma Pasta, taking care of Robbie here. RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Raymond James Canada, the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, get your butt to Christie Pitts and be sure to be there on June 2nd and hang out with me. Monaris and Ridley Funeral Home, see you all Friday when my special guest is Jean Champagne. See you then. Maybe I'm not and maybe I am But who gives a damn? Because everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow warms me today

And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away Cause everything is rolling great Well I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places I better not name