Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Now, you cannot talk about Television Canada and its success around the world without someone on our staff who happens to be a bit of a big deal in Canadian TV and knows the ins and outs, everything going on. Brady, how are you, my friend?
[00:00:24] Speaker A: I am doing well, Jim. I would not say I was a big deal. Deal. Well, am a big deal or was a big deal. I'm not the best there is the best there was and the best ever will be in Canadian television.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Nice Bret Hart reference, by the way.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: No, I did. I did a lot of work in a very short time in the 90s and early 2000s.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: So we're going to get to some of your. Your canon, your OOV as it was your resume. But when did my back one of your shows and you were mentioning it still airs around the world.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Yeah, the last time I checked it was 75 countries. Someone out there could probably correct me if it's more or less at this point, but it was being distributed everywhere. It was on Bravo, I think in the early mornings, weekdays. It played for about 20 years on Bravo just in Canada. It's on the Christian networks, It's in some subscription subscription services online in Europe and things like that. So, yeah, it still has a very big life. The DVD sales are still big on their website, which people are still buying blu rays and DVDs, which is bonkers.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Well, we are at the cottage. A lot of people, I guess that's what we end up doing. We don't have any other cable or that, so we get VHS and DVDs and watch old shows like that. Because when you're out in the country, out in the cottage, out in rural Canada, that's kind of what you do.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: But I've always kind of tried to figure it out myself. Why is it still playing?
[00:01:40] Speaker B: You know what I think we need to see this is as Canadians, we don't give ourselves enough credit for our abilities, our abilities to create music and art and culture and television. And no one's harder on Canadians than Canadians.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: That's part of our constitution, though. And we say sorry and we have insecurities.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: But when John Candy's a star in sctv, it's one thing. And then when he's on SPL and Stripes, then he's a big star and it's. We can see that time and time again.
You can be the best musician in the world, but all sudden you're on Saturday Night Live or you're on a big American production, well, then you're a star. And I think what's happened with streaming is people around the world have discovered these cool Canadian shows, Wind in My Back, old SCTV episodes, Trailer Park Boys, Letterkenny slash Shorzy. And now people are wrong.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: One of those things is not like the other.
We say, okay, because when did My Back, if anybody's watching, doesn't know, is part of like a trilogy of the Kevin Sullivan entertainment. So it started with Andy Green Gables. That put it on the map. And then Rodav and Lee ran for years, which was a big Sunday, Sunday night show in Canada. And then when In My Back just kind of scrolled in at the end of it and somehow kept its life as I feel like Road Dab and Lee kind of fell into obscurity and Anna Green Gables and Wind at My Back kind of held strong.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: I tell you why it still streams around the world and why it's so popular. As a parent, to find a show that's slightly entertaining is a little cheeky at times, but you won't offend young children is hard to find.
And so a show like that, Anna Green Gables, Roy, Wind at My Back is made for young families who are looking for something different than animation to watch, who's not going to be doing anything offensive. Goodness knows, when the kids get older, they're going to be exposed to everything and anything. But at least when you're watching a family show, know you're going to be safe checking it out.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: That was a family show, but it was pretty dark.
Like, I don't know if you remember Wind in My Back, if you actually watched it, the very first episode is like the dad dies and it's during the Depression.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: Right.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: So now it's a single mom taking care of the. Of the family type thing. That's how the show.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Language.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: No.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Is there nudity and sexuality?
[00:03:51] Speaker A: No.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: So not.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: Not on camera.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Not on camera. Right. Thank you. But that's the reason, like. So I think that's part of the appeal. Part of the appeal of Trailer Park Boys are there are young people who get a laugh out of these crazy guys from Nova Scotia and their antics because there's a little bit of Trailer Park Boys and people around the world.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Worst case Ontario, my friend.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Worst case Ontario. That has become part of our vernacular.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: It is part of our vernacular. Yes.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: And so Americans, people in Scotland, people around the world, and to the point that the cast, the main cast of Trailer Park Boys are doing these live event shows around the world because of the streaming.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: I've done a lot of comic cons in Canada.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Yes. Show called Goosebumps yes, we all remember that now.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Goosebumps had a big run and they did five, six seasons, whatever they did the original run, I just happened to be in one episode that ended up being popular. So I would get booked on all these comic Cons across Canada, Yukon, wherever I was. Right.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Really?
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Yeah. I've been pretty much across Canada doing every little Comic Con for the past 10 years. I stopped doing them a couple years ago after the pandemic. Like, the pandemic kind of killed them. And I just never went back. So I would always run into them. They would take the. The Shipmobile with them, so that would be there. Then they'd be signing autographs. And they were there just as long as the rest of us. Like, they were there from the beginning until the end of these cons, all the days. Like they are on the go, on the grind 24 7, those guys.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: And I've met them a few times through work and they're basically in character all the time.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: The. The jump, all tromble. Julian, he sort of dropped character for a second to say hi when I was shoot and. But Ricky and Bubbles are almost. Ricky especially is almost always in character. But the appeal about them, the amazing thing is when they started, they shot that. It was a short to the Canadian Comedy Channel. They were told, thanks, but no thanks. Showcase picks it up and it becomes a big hit.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Well, they had that doc, like kind of documentary episode where they robbed the bank.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: And the very first season kind of opens up. They're completely different characters, realistically in that black and white series that they did or that one shoot.
But the show opens up with the bank kind of like it's like the same story, but it's. It's not. I don't know how the show really did get developed and had the run that it.
That first season you thought would have been thrown off the air. It doesn't matter if it's funny or not. It just went so far into the.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: Deep end, especially for Canadian television at that time.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Unreal.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: It was unheard of.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: Kenny versus Spenny was probably the closest thing. Yes, you would have got to.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: But then they develop Mr. Leahy and Randy and all the characters. And Mr. Leah, rest his soul, the best drunk ever. His memes live on.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: When he fell into that bath and he turned blue for like an hour, the entire episode. Oh, my goodness.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: This is the amazing thing. So this is where as Canadians, we think, oh, you know, blah, blah, blah, the show. And then when American stars are at award shows and they're quoting lines from Canadian shows and they're name dropping Jared Kiso and Letter Kenny, which was Brad Pitt. And they're talking about Snoop Dogg going on TR Boys. All of a sudden the rest of Canada goes, well, it must be good, right? Because that's how we are.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess. I, I think the, I think it's Trailer Boys may be different, but I think we all kind of knew.
Holy crap, if this gets another season here, this may be one of the biggest shows. Like now did, did I know that it was going to go into the States and get syndicated and become a huge thing on DVD and all that? No, I had no idea. I didn't think the States would even get it.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: But they're, they're about to celebrate their 25th anniversary next year.
They just wrapped up another season.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: They got a deal with Netflix. They had Swearnet for years where it was their own subscription service, which I know a lot of people that were involved with that and they, everybody made money with them.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: And I know Jonathan Torrens, I've got to know him over the years who's J Rock and now has spun off and done a lot of the Roc. Yeah. His own production with different shows including Volleys in Nova Scotia. So they've created this cottage industry of television movie production in the Maritimes thanks to that show.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Yeah. That's cool. That's cool. It created a whole movement down there, right?
[00:08:02] Speaker B: It really did. And it's the same thing going on in Sudbury with Jerry Kiesel and Letterkenny and now Shorzy, where here was this guy from Listowell who did an amazing job as the Don Cherry portrayal on the CBC miniseries tries to get in Hollywood, can't get in. It's like, well, I don't know what I'm going to do. Why don't I make my own thing? And now he's on a multi season deal on Crave for Shoresy because the show's become so popular.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: So explain Shoresy to me because I'm so busy I haven't had a chance to even check it out yet. So. Because I've heard Trailer Park Boys, Letterkenny and then now Shores, he's being thrown into this category. So it must be good.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: It's very well written. It's very good. So Shoresy is, was an offshoot character from Letterkenny, this crazy hockey player on the Letterkenny Shamrocks. And now he's part of the Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: This fictional semi pro hockey team, Perry Bulldogs. And they have three indigenous hockey Players in the same line, all named Jim. The three gyms, okay, including former NHL are Jordan Nolan and John Morasty. And it's the hijinks of this crazy semi pro hockey team. Life in Sudbury, life in the minor leagues, life in Northern Ontario.
Different languages, different backgrounds, and in a sly little way, Jerry Kissel. His writing is so well done. They touch on different subjects and inclusion in that without throwing it in your face. And it's very subtle how they do it.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: So is it ruthless, like, is it full on, like. Because I know Letter Kenny gets pretty graphic. Trailer Park Boys obviously is the worst, most foul thing you've ever watched in your life.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: It has its moments.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Yeah, it definitely has its moments. But there's some of the best things that YouTube that you shouldn't watch at work is when Shorzy is a referee for high school hockey in Sudbury and he's tripping the kids and he's throwing in the penalty box and the kids are yelling back at him. And sometimes if you just need a laugh in life and you're stressed and life is getting you down, look up Shoresy ref chirping on YouTube and just laugh your head off. Because it's, it's. He's so talented in the. The writing is so good, Brady, that it just, it makes you laugh. And here's a great example of. It's a purely Canadian show. There are a bunch of guys playing semi pro hockey in Sudbury, which is about as Canada as you can get.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: And Canadians are hilarious.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Well, they are.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: We're like Florida people in a lot of ways.
I'm going to speak for Ontario, just specifically for Ontario. When you get past Barry. Oh, try to go to Rules Florida.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Go to rural New Brunswick and rural Nova Scotia. I got family there.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Just because I'm not from.
Talk about murder. Peg, like, people are crazy in Winnipeg.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Yeah, but. But there's also, in a good hearted way, the great people. Yes. They get like if you were driving across Canada, you were in the prairies and something happened, they would drive out of the way to help you.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Well, most people, especially up north in Northern Ontario, you're all a team. Oh, yeah, the web against the Wild.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And the weather and the elements.
But this is where social media and YouTube and streaming have created an audience for Canadian productions and Canadian television that didn't exist 10, 15 years ago.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: And now to the point that memes on your iPhone are all Trailer Park Boys or Shoresy or SCTV who have now created this whole new audience of people who weren't even Born when it was on the air.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: And it's going to get a, A, a fourth life soon because John, the John Candy documentary is coming out. So I guarantee when that comes out in the fall, when obviously you're watching this, that's going to blow up SCTV again.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: And people realize what a genius John Candy was. And as how brilliant SCTV was, Mr.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: Jim Lang, you know, the one show we didn't mention yet.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: No.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: That has a massive life still in the States. Kids in the hall.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: Oh, unbelievable. Unbelievable.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: That was one of the very first ones to kind of break the barrier and say, like, I knew. I think it was bigger in the States than it was up here.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: And they were just a bunch of guys in Queen street west doing sort of fringe theater and comedy.
[00:12:01] Speaker A: They were doing improv. Yeah, doing improvs.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: And I've met, fortunately, a couple of the guys from the show over the years, and they are so quintessentially Canadian and normal. Dave, you would never know.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Dave Foley may be the best comedy writer ever that doesn't get the credit that he, like. I know that people in the industry know how good Dave Foley is, but, oh, my goodness, that guy's ability to write comedy.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: He was also an astronaut on the miniseries From Earth to the Moon, and he was brilliant.
[00:12:28] Speaker A: And he's just, he's a talent. But that's, that's what you get in Canada. We're funny people, and me and you, not so much everybody else.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: And I remember talking to Kim Coates about this, and people know him from. He was in Black Hawk down and Sons of Anarchy. Okay.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: Very, very accomplished actor.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: That's my favorite from Saskatoon.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: The only reason I got through that Son's anarchy show was his character.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Well, and he's such a, a brilliant talent and has done so many different things. And he was in Goon Jay Baruch, Ell's hockey movie. And he talked about, you know, like, I'm from Saskatchewan and I went to University of Saskatchewan to study drama and theater, and he paid his dues for years before he even got on camera.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Yeah. And look how talented he is.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: Very talented. And because Canadians have to scratch and fight to make a living, I think that gives them a work ethic and an appreciation for when they do start to do things.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: So I had a substitute teacher in grade eight. I was a child actress. I was barely ever in class, and I had a substitute teacher that came in, and she was a very elderly lady probably the last couple years of, Of Doing teaching. And maybe that's the reason why she was a substitute. She was already retired. And I went to a country school. And so I. I had her for the very first period. And she goes, I was Jim Carrey's teacher.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: When he was in New Market at Burlington.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: I don't know, because he probably. Burlington, I would assume because I went to school not far away from Burlington, so.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: Well, that must have been an experience.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: And I said to her, I'm like, am I anything like him? She's like, no. He was funny.
I was like, whoa, okay, old bat. I ain't coming back to school tomorrow.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: Just an aside. It reminds me. I was from my sports media life. I was in a celebrity golf tournament. I brought home a photo of myself with the foursome and my wife said, who's the celebrity?
Welcome to marriage.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Other shows, they know how to roast.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Better than everybody that live on thanks to social media. Schitt's Creek. Degrassi.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Oh, don't get me started about Degrassi, Jim. That's one of the shows I turned down.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: I know, I know. But the fact is people around the.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: World watch it actually without getting negative and like, because I know that we. We've talked about this before, and I usually gonna get the tear in my eyes and talk about it. I had just got off of a TV series. I was doing it for about three and a half years. My agent calls and said, hey, these guys are relaunching Degrassi. And I'm like, well, I never really watched the original one. I was a little too young. Saved by the bell was the era I was in, right? So I'm like, I. I don't know too much about the original Degrassi. I can't see this making any money. And I'm like, I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna go to high school. I don't want to do the show. And man, that was a dumb. But that blew up so many people's careers were now the biggest streaming artist and the biggest artist in the world inside of music came from Canadian tv.
Drake got his spot. That's right, from Canadian tv.
That's what got him into the circles in Toronto to start handing out his. His tape at clubs and pay the guys. You know, he had a budget from his acting to be able to fund his beginning music career. That's all he wanted to do was be a rapper. And he would go to these nightclubs and give them the DJ 50 bucks in his mixtape and say, please play this for like 30 seconds. Because he had the ability to fund it and do it. Yeah. Not have to bring in money from the street or wherever else. Right. So even something like Degrassi, a remake of a show, put a massive spotlight and ended up turning out one of the best music musical acts in my generation's history, Brady.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: I remember when Schitt's Creek was first launched by cbc and a lot of people kind of rolled their eyes, you know, the tongue in cheek name and all. And then it started to build momentum. Gets picked up by American streaming. Then it starts winning Emmy awards. And everyone in Canada's like, oh, my God, it must be good.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: Remember Corner Gas?
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Oh, that became huge in the States.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: Massive.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: Based on a gas station in rural Saskatchewan.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: And even Canadians didn't give that a chance. No, it first came out.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: No. But this is so typical of how we are. And then when it gets to be so popular on a wider audience around the world.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: Oh, man, that's us. That's us. Let's take credit for it and watch it now.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: Did they not actually do a quarter gas animated, too?
[00:16:27] Speaker A: I probably. Yeah. I think at one point everything was animated.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Well.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: And Red Green. It was brought up in my interview how big Red Green show got on pbs.
Massively popular. That became.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: I didn't go to set one day because I was supposed to meet Red Green at Jumbo Video, an old VHS rental place in Cambridge, Ontario, and I waited an hour for him and he didn't show up.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: No.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: You owe me an autograph.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: It's too bad. I met. I met him and Very nice man. But he actually seemed like Red Green in real life.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: Oh, he is. I think that is him.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: So here's. I guess the big question is we have so many major Hollywood productions now being shot across the country, including Nobody two with Bob Odenkirk was just shot. It's coming out. It was shot in Manitoba.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: Between the Manitoba tax breaks and all the stuff being shot there through Ontario, through the Maritimes, I think it's just a matter of time before we have another big show Show, a Canadian show, ends up becoming big in the States and around the world.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: Well, I. I try to tell people all the time because they're like, how are you so busy as a kid? Why are you an actor anymore as an adult? I said, I never got my gigs. It took me a minute to realize it, but I didn't get my gigs because I was a good actor. I got my gigs because not only was the industry coming up from the States into Toronto at the time because it was cheaper to be here because the dollar. The dollar just everything. Yeah. It was cheaper to shoot on location here like these, these productions that were coming up from New York and la. It was just much cheaper to do here than even because Vancouver's rates had went up and they used to shoot in Vancouver a lot of the time.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: To save money because it's a short trip from la.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: So that and the fact that I looked so young. I was a 10 year old that looked like a 6 year old.
That's why I was so busy and did so many commercials and such a.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: How many commercials did you do?
[00:18:14] Speaker A: Technically? On paper, I shot 160.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Really?
[00:18:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: So what was your favorites?
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Well, I think the big one that still gets played every couple summers is a Gushers commercial where a dog's head turns into a cherry. It's me and a kid in the backyard.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: That's you?
[00:18:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm the watermelon.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: No kidding.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Yeah. So that one is probably my favorite. Just because I get to watch it. And I was a teenager, I.
When I did the. When I got the role, I stopped doing auditions so the casting directors would just book me.
[00:18:44] Speaker B: Right, Just because you had done so much.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And a one minute demo reel was enough to kind of just book this. Booked a gig.
So I went in there and they thought I had naturally brown hair because I have naturally brown hair. But Eminem was a big thing at the time, huge. So I went and bleached my hair and you can see it in the episode of them, like whatever they did to try and get it to look like highlights. But my hair is just atrocious in it because I just showed up on set with bleached hair. They're like, oh my goodness, what?
We got to shoot this today.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: But if you go back and look at probably my favorite 10 or 11 year old Brady doing all these commercials and these shows. What advice? If you could go back and give them advice, what would you give them?
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Stay in school, don't work as much, don't be.
I would probably. I would. Honestly, I think I would go back and say I wouldn't change anything because I think at the time if anything was changed, it could have been worse. An outcome could have been worse. Or maybe I did what didn't work as much and I put in more just as much time but didn't get as many gigs. Like, I don't know, like I did a commercial, a Frosted Flakes commercial When I was 10 years old with Mike McDonald, comedian Michael Yes. Yeah. And he was in such a bad mood when we shot that commercial. And somehow at lunch he just got up at the table and just did like a 20 minute set for everyone.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: Because he's a stand up comic.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Because he's stand up comic. One of the best in Canada.
And not Mike McDonald from Mad TV. Mike McDonald, Canadian comedian. Look him up.
[00:20:09] Speaker B: He has like a Dracula haircut.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: Yeah, he passed a couple years ago. But it took me a minute to realize then that those memories that I have of stuff like that I would have done for free.
So it made it all, it made that made all the good stuff worth it or all the bad stuff worth it. Was stuff like that.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: I think you should talk about Shirley Douglas, who is a Canadian icon in movies, theater, television, was married to Donald Sutherland, Kefir's mother. And you had some good experiences with Shirley Douglas. I think you should share.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: Yeah. So I, I showed up and went in my back. They were already two seasons in. And the boys, Dylan, I love you to death. Tyrone, I love you to death. But they were kind of the traditional child actors.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Very. They were brats. Right?
[00:20:55] Speaker A: That's. I was kind of a brat. They were more pretentious.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: This kind of like just very child actory. And Shirley spent a couple years with them. And I show up on set and I come in the makeup room the very first day and it was just something about whatever I was saying or having that conversation that Shirley just took to. And she goes, I just love you. So every day I would go in and I would get my makeup done in her room. Oh, with her.
Right. So I spent Just hang out, just hang out with Shirley Douglas and not talk about acting, not talk about Keefer. Because at that time I didn't care about that stuff. I still don't really care about that stuff. I liked Donald. I was a big fan of walk up with Sylvester Stallone and he played the. The warden, the mean warden. So I was like this big Stallone mark. So I would like tell her it's like I'm in love and not realizing it's her ex husband.
But it was probably the innocence of me too. Right. At 12, 13. So. But I really hit it off with her. She was a very nice lady. She made sure that anytime I was shooting a scene and she was in the studio or in the room that she took time to make sure that I was, I was good with the scene. And she would watch my dailies. Like she was just a really invested, nice human being. And like Kether would Come on set quite a bit. And he was in between big gigs at the time. Kiefer's obviously a superstar, but he was in between myself big gigs.
And she had talked me up so much with him that by the time he had came on set, I was like, just making fun of him. I was like, oh, you're wearing your release jersey again.
You should probably wash that if you're gonna wear it every day. And I would just roast them. Right. But Shirley was a.
So something like meeting Shirley Douglas.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: Yeah. It made it all worthwhile.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: Everything. Every. Every travel day and every four or five hour drive to Toronto because I lived outside of the city but would drive in every day.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: So tell us and tell everyone about the classy gesture by Kiefer Sutherland years later.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Okay, so I run into. I'm. I'm at this point, I'm a promoter in Canada promoting, like hip hop acts. And I. I work on an ICP tour in Canada, the first time they'd ever been up here. So I'm booking all these shows for.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: I'm saying Clean Posse or Clown Posse. Anyone doesn't know.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Yeah, icp. The Insane Clown Posse. Yeah.
Yeah. So I'm booking. I'm booking this across Canada and I'm working with the agency and the guys and I do a show in Sarnia. So I'm there the night before because they spray bottles of pop. They spray 6,000 bottles of pop every show.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: 6,000.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: 6,000 they bring.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: I knew it was a lot. I didn't know it was that much.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: Diet fago they bring in from Detroit on a Tripolos. Yeah. For the Juggle. So they spray these people. So I go in the night before to figure out what I need for disaster relief team, because I always have to hire a disaster relief team at the end of the night so the place doesn't burn to the ground and plastic the. Plastic the place out. That was my job as a promoter. So I went in the night before. Well, Keith had his band there.
[00:23:34] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: And it sold out a show. So I walk in and he's like, Brady. And I'm like, how do you even remember me? This is 20 years ago. He's like, when am I back? And so either he has the greatest brain ever or that impression that his mom and our relationship had.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: I love. I just love hearing stories like that, that he was super gracious enough and classy enough to remember you and have. And strike.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: Shouldn't have Jim. Yeah.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: No, because at that point, I mean, we're talking 24 and the movies and like he's a list.
[00:24:02] Speaker A: It's not even about status. It's about the time that went by.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: By.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: Well, yeah, like, how would you remember some kids from a set when your mom did that? But that was his. Like, he really loved his mom. Like, loved her to death. So that was her big last kind of show that she did. So he was probably. So he was probably more invested in winning my back than I was acting on set with.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: Did you have any other really positive experiences with actors or actresses that you sort of look back fondly on?
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Yeah, there's. Bo Bridges was a good one. John Urquette was a great one.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:24:33] Speaker A: So I spent. I did a movie movie with them, a quick like four day shoot or whatever. But I got to play basketball with Bo Bridges all day. That was kind of cool. He was a really classy gentleman.
[00:24:41] Speaker B: Very accomplished resume. What an actor.
[00:24:44] Speaker A: 14 years old. I smoked more cigarettes than I probably ever did because I was just sitting there with John Larroquette all day.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: And at first he didn't really like me. He's like this kid. He had some demons going on at the time. Right. And he's just like this kid. But by the end of the day he's like, so what's lingo? I'm gonna write a book about teenagers, I think. And I want to know, did he ever do it? I don't think so. But he was like, okay, so what do you guys say? Like, oh, okay. Yeah. What do you call each other?
So like, we were, we were like this by the time the set was done. But I, I, yeah, I had a lot of those experiences and I think even like Gordon Pinson. I got to work with Gordon Pinson.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: Well, what child actor ever gets to work with Gordon Pinson?
[00:25:19] Speaker B: I mean, he is on the Mount Rushmore. Canadian actors.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: He chiseled it out himself. Yeah, right. Like that guy was the rowdy boy.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: And he's like an iconic figure in theater and television in this country.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I got a little to work with a lot. Neil Crone, another guy.
[00:25:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I've met Neil a few events. He's a great guy.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: I've done like, I think out of the, the small time that I was in it, I did like four different things with Neil because not only is he another one of those like unsung heroes of Canadian tv, but like, he was just always on stuff, commercials. John Boylan was my acting coach.
[00:25:54] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:25:55] Speaker A: Who's now like head up and actor, but John Boylan. I got to spend time with him to the point where, like, I still. The stuff that I learned from John, I use every day in my life. That has nothing to do with acting.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: Just as a life coach, because he.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: Would teach me how to become a character.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: And he goes, the only way that you can become a person is if you understand how their mind works. So then. And then I applied that into business, where I'm like, if I understand how people's minds work, I can either avoid them or do business with them. Things like that.
[00:26:23] Speaker B: You were a child actor. I have to ask you, how often do people recognize you?
[00:26:29] Speaker A: I think because of Wind at my back, I still get a lot on social media.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: Oh, you do?
[00:26:33] Speaker A: I try to ignore it. Okay. I think a lot of friend requests and all I can. I just deleted it.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: But it's nice interactions.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: They're trying to add Pritchard Flett. They're not trying to add Brady. Brady Wet. I'm doing a Goosebumps reunion podcast in a couple weeks. So, like, there's still some steam from it, but I. Most people, if they see me in person, they're like, you look familiar. I think we've met before. Yeah. It's not like I watched you sell me toys and McDonald's hamburgers my whole life.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I get that. So, you know, in a nutshell, I. I've always had a soft spot for Canadian television. My father was in the Air Force.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: We moved around a lot. We lived in a lot of rural Canadian military bases that really only had a few channels. And often sctv or. I can vividly remember Jeannie Becker and JD Roberts and the new music. Seeing that in high school, it was a revelation that this Canadian production from Queen street in Toronto were interviewing the Ramones and Motorhead and the police and talking music. I thought they were the coolest people ever. And, you know, we as Canadians sometimes forget the talent, the accomplishments, and how good we are at doing things like that.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: I think the other thing that we forget, too, like, just for my generation, is how important stuff like YTV was absolutely tvo. Yeah, right. Like, I know that TVO kids, that was a big thing. Pingu. And all these shows that wouldn't normally be seen, that would come from around the world, would kind of be distributed here. And then YTV was starting to do a lot of the Nickelodeon stuff, but they still had original programming like Squawk Box. And that started, like. That's why I think Canadian TV is so crucial, is because there's. I work with, like, ytv, Phil and Paul and like, he used to be the host.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: Double thumbs up and we'll walk down.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: The street in Toronto and people, grown men stop and cry.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: Because they're like, you were my babysitter.
[00:28:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:20] Speaker A: I'd get home from school and I'd stay and watch you guys until 6, 7 o' clock at night.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: When I was a kid in the 70s, Sunday night was the Beachcombers.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:29] Speaker B: Because that was the. Really, the only original Canadian television. And to me, that was life in British Columbia. Until I went there for work, I thought, this is not like the Beachcomber is in Vancouver. But that's what I thought.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: I know we've been sailing the ship of not going negative here with some of my stuff, but, Jim, why do you, like. Do you think we're gonna lose that kind of nostalgic Canadian thing if we just keep focusing on streaming and not creating new Canadian content?
[00:28:55] Speaker B: I think there is a consistently, I'm being honest, a place for both, like.
Like a stream, a Canadiana stream, Canadiana television stream that has great shows.
The hilarious House of Franken Frightenstein.
[00:29:14] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:29:14] Speaker B: With Billy Van.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:15] Speaker B: And the Beachcombers and all that kind of really classic Canadiana stuff. And then to the Next Wave or wrote to Avonlea Wind at My Back into some of the modern stuff. There's so much Canadian Mosque on the Prairie.
[00:29:28] Speaker A: That was another big one here too, right?
[00:29:31] Speaker B: Hobo for years.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: Yeah, a little. So. Yeah.
[00:29:32] Speaker B: Right. So all those kind of shows were Kim's Convenience, which did very well.
[00:29:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I forgot about that too. Yeah. Kim's Convenience. And that's another big.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: Did well in other countries as well. So I think we need to say, hey, pat ourselves on the back sometimes, put it out there. You'd be amazed how many people would watch it and enjoy it and how popular it might become in other venues. Because, as you're right, sometimes they're just putting stuff on streaming just for content when we have so much available. And maybe, maybe some of the people, the performers and actors and producers and directors who were part of it, maybe get a little bit of extra residual money off it.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: I would probably.
I don't even know if I should do it to you. But do you know, do you understand how much money from the grant system that is given to produce Canadian comedies that have 0% ratings on rotten Tomatoes?
[00:30:17] Speaker B: Oh, our producer. Dozens.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: Our producer that is producing this show right now literally knows all of the stats, has dug into it and basically made a little documentary on where and why is this happening.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: But. But see, this is why I think the show, Nick. Yeah, but the Trailer Park Boys and Letter Kenny and success stories like that stand out because they basically did it all on their own.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: That's what I'm saying. They're not using the grant system and creating a weird grant comedy that no one's ever heard of before.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: And whatever provincial tactics, tax breaks they got shooting because it promotes film and television production in Nova Scotia, in Northern Ontario, has been paid back tenfold, long time ago, like well past.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: So I think it's a good idea if we start some sort of petition where we stop giving grant money.
We have to actually give it to talent and screenplays and scripts and ideas again, as opposed to just like, hey, you. You meet all this criteria, here's a bunch of money, no one's ever going to see it.
[00:31:18] Speaker B: See, in the late 1970s, Pierre Trudeau decided to kickstart the Canadian film industry.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:31:26] Speaker B: And they called them tax break movies. And David Cronenberg, who's a big racing fan, people don't realize Cronenberg is nuts, man. He did Fasco about drag racing in Canada.
Yeah. And there was one called Highballing with Peter Fonda and Jerry Reed. And so they would have one or two American stars who they easy money.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: Just to piggyback it off of them.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: Yeah, piggyback them. Hire five or six Canadian actors to build their resume, like Nicholas Campbell and Helen Shaver and all that to help Gordon Pinson. Jordan Pins.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: Don Franks. I love Don Franks. So that would build their IMDb and then all the crews got experience and so they found the foundation for crews for decades to come because they had all this real world experience with all these established actors and directors.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Well, if that's what his dad was doing, what was the kid up to then?
[00:32:16] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:32:17] Speaker A: That's for a different show.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: No, but I just think if I. If people are saying, what do you want your tax dollars used for? I don't mind a little tax break to promote Canadian actors, screenwriters production.
[00:32:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:28] Speaker B: Not just funding the whole thing, but give them a tax break to shoot it. Because there's many performers around the world that maybe are looking for a good gig that more so than you think and would come here and shoot stuff for a few weeks. And I think it's good for everybody.
[00:32:42] Speaker A: One of the things that I really like what's going on with before Vice just ran into its thing, look where they were doing the documentary series like Dark side of the Ring, and they were shooting that here and things like that. Like, I Thought that we were about to hit another boom in Canadian content. But I don't know if it was the pandemic. I don't know if it's just a sign of the times right now, but I do feel like there's a bit of a fall off. Off again.
[00:33:01] Speaker B: And we are due for a resurgence. We are 100% Brady. And whether it's a documentary on you, there's so much like, I. My sister just retired as a nurse. I would love to see a doc on what a nurse goes through in Canada every day, because I know from my younger sister, like, by the time she was done, she just couldn't do it anymore.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: That's going to be hellish.
[00:33:22] Speaker B: And it's got to be. So first responders, a nurse, people. People working in these. Some of these different professions and how tough it is. My cousin's a fire captain, and we always joke that I can't imagine when it's 40 degrees with the humid X having to throw all that gear on and go into a house fire.
[00:33:40] Speaker A: So those all sound like comedies to me, though. And I think that's the reason why I do. Well. Yeah. Because the reason why Trailer Bar Boys worked is because that life should be tragic.
[00:33:50] Speaker B: Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah. But we laugh at it all the time.
But there is a sense of a lot of people in Canada who live that life.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: Right. So they'll relate to it and laugh. You know, I used to hear all the time. Because I never worked in an office at the time when his show was going on, but the show, the Office, how many people related to that show, not only because the writing was great and the comedy was great, because it's like their life.
[00:34:10] Speaker B: It.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: They were. They're like, I have got a guy in my office. It's exactly like that.
[00:34:14] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: Or this just happened yesterday. The same argument that's happening on the show just happened.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: HR meetings, or the health and safety.
[00:34:20] Speaker A: Meetings, or the warehouse guys having a war with the office guy.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: Right.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: Like, it was all relatable.
[00:34:26] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:34:26] Speaker A: So a nurse show. Go. I would like to see a documentary, too, to know what's going on. But I'd also like to see a show take place.
[00:34:33] Speaker B: I mean, look at Superstore.
[00:34:34] Speaker A: In a hospital, in an underfunded Canadian hospital.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: That was a Canadian show, Superstore.
[00:34:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:34:40] Speaker B: And that did well.
And it was.
I always forget his name. But one of the actors from Kids in the hall was one of the leads, and they had a whole bunch of Canadian American actors on it. And it was you know, it was about what it is in the break room, the staff room at one of these big department stores.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: So if I gave, if I said to you what are the three things that we need right now to get a resurgence in Canadian content? Whether it's documentaries, comedies, whatever, cartoon, whatever it is, what do you think those three things are?
[00:35:11] Speaker B: It's definitely a tax incentives, tax breaks to do more production here because by that way you have to hire X amount of Canadians as cast, as crew. They're getting real world experience and building their resume and learning from others. I think definitely a lot of the major networks need to say hey, this is not bury the Canadian made show the Cancon at Sunday at 10pm so no one sees it.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Actually put it as a follow up because once upon a time they had. I think it was Friends, Cheers and Seinfeld or something to say.
[00:35:47] Speaker A: I like Seinfeld like the rest of everybody, but I don't need it at a prime time slot on Canadian channels.
[00:35:53] Speaker B: No, but you can put a Canadian production at a better time slot. Yeah. You know and, and sometimes we're doing Canadian versions of American shows which is fine. But how about maybe getting some talented people and getting a Canadian made show that isn't a remake of something else?
[00:36:13] Speaker A: Well, that's a whole. That, that could take 90 minutes to discuss just why remakes keep happening and happening and happening whether it's in Canada or just in the film industry. But yeah, I think you may be right. I think maybe some tax breaks and things like that bring that back into play. Maybe lower the rate of shooting again and locations and set locations and things like that try to lower those rates.
[00:36:32] Speaker B: Down because the small it when they're the show or the movie is shot there, it becomes the biggest thing.
[00:36:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Cambridge, Ontario did Silent Hill. They do Murdoch and things like that.
[00:36:42] Speaker B: They did the Queen's Gambit.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And they. Every time that happens, because I'm originally from Cambridge, Ontario, the whole city starts talking about it.
[00:36:49] Speaker B: Of course. Look at when they shot some of the Reacher episodes in Stville.
[00:36:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: That was a huge event.
[00:36:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it does, it does kind of create a buzz.
[00:36:57] Speaker B: So yeah, let's, let's. It's like, hey, we're all talking about promoting Canada. Well, we're going to do. Let's be serious about it. Let's have some Canadian, more Canadian made productions and options. I'm not telling people you have to watch it. I'm never going to say that, but at least you have the option to watch it.
[00:37:12] Speaker A: I know where you can find out lots of information about TV shows in Canada.
[00:37:16] Speaker B: That's TVA TV, ehtva.com they are fantastic. And they've been doing it for about 20 years. And Brady, you're a good man. Thanks for this, brother.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: Thanks, brother.
I was going under the table.
[00:37:29] Speaker B: I'm so white.
