Comedian John Morgan, star of Royal Canadian Air Farce, dead at 74
TORONTO (CP) - John Morgan, who played the dim-witted Mike from Canmore on CBC's The Royal Canadian Air Farce, was remembered Tuesday as "eccentric, talented, prolific and funny."
Morgan died Monday of a suspected heart attack at his home in Toronto. He was 74.
"He was . . . the most memorable friend and colleague any of us will ever have," Morgan's Air Farce colleagues, Roger Abbott and Don Ferguson, said in a statement.
"He was a performer with whom audiences loved to laugh."
When Air Farce moved to television in 1993, it quickly became one of the network's top shows. Before that Morgan, Abbott, Ferguson, Dave Broadfoot and Luba Goy had become a staple of Canadian radio.
Besides Mike from Canmore, Morgan's other Air Farce creations included Jock McBile and the Prophet on the Mount.
"He was surprised to find himself a television star at an age when most men are thinking about retirement," said Abbott and Ferguson.
When asked once about the success of the show, Morgan said: "You know what they say: we use satire against our leaders; Americans shoot theirs."
In 1992, the Air Farce team became the first Canadian inductees into the International Humour Hall of Fame.
Ferguson, who knew Morgan for 34 years, said he was a natural clown.
"He was a terrific raconteur. He was really completely engaged in life. He flew a plane, drove a sports car, he loved opera," Ferguson said in an interview Tuesday.
"He knew everything there was to know about tangos. He didn't dance, but he knew the music ... he had these weird interests - you know, you wouldn't expect a guy who was a comedy writer to fly a plane and be an expert on tangos, but he was."
As well, Morgan was a voracious reader.
"Every time he sat down to write a comedy sketch he had all of his little peculiar quirks and interests floating around in his brain, and he could draw upon all kinds of information - arcane and otherwise - to make a script work," Ferguson said.
Morgan also co-created the CBC Radio series Funny You Should Say That and wrote the pilot of the popular TV series King of Kensington.
He served as script consultant and writer for several other CBC-TV comedy series.
In England, he had his own BBC Radio series called It's All in the Mind of John Morgan.
Morgan retired from Air Farce in 2001, telling colleagues that after 35 years of writing comedy it was time to step down.
He had been healthy in his retirement, and his death came as he was preparing to go on a Bermuda vacation with his son.
The news came as a shock to his CBC colleagues.
"We've been between tears and laughter all day ... one minute we're all reminiscing about what John said and we're killing ourselves laughing, and then in an instant we start weeping," Ferguson said.
Ferguson said Morgan had spent his winters in Europe since retiring, and had been planning to go there again at the end of November.
Morgan, who was born in Wales, was an only child. His wife died in the early 1990s and he never remarried. He is survived by his daughter Sarah, who lives in New York, and his son Chris.
There was no immediate word on funeral arrangements.
"I know that John wanted something very small - small enough to be invisible would have been his preference," said Ferguson. "He was a reluctant celebrity. He hated all the fuss."
David Lee Roth Trains to Become Paramedic
NEW YORK - Rocker David Lee Roth, the former Van Halen frontman, is taking up a new trade.
Instead of screaming "Jump," he'll be yelling "Clear!"
Roth, 50, has been riding for several weeks with a New York ambulance crew in training to become a paramedic, The New York Post reported Tuesday.
"I have been on over 200 individual rides now," said Roth. "Not once has anyone recognized me, which is perfect for me."
The singer, who spent a decade with Van Halen before embarking on a solo career, except a collaboration with the band for two new songs on a greatest hits album, has been riding along with crews in the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn several nights a week.
His training seems to be going well.
Several weeks ago, Roth saved the life of a heart attack victim in the Bronx by using a defibrillator.
He takes his work so seriously that he did not want publicity so that it would not "diminish what I am trying to do here." He has said that he did not want the neighborhoods he was working in named so that he would not draw attention to himself or co-workers.
"You would never know you were dealing with a rock-'n'-roll guy," said Linda Reissman, Roth's EMS consultant and tutor. "His commitment really is touching. He wants to help people."
The Couch Potato Report- November 16th, 2004
If you are a person who likes to laugh and enjoys music from the 80's, then you will be pleased with what's in The Couch Potato Report this week.
If you like former SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE star Will Ferrell's films, then you will really be pleased with The Report this week.
Because Ferrell's holiday gift from last year is now available on video and DVD.
That holiday gift is a wonderful film called ELF.
ELF is a well written comedy about Buddy - a 6 foot tall human who is adopted and raised by Santa Claus and the Christmas elves.
Eventually Buddy returns to the human world to find his father, and both comedy, melodrama and heart ensue.
James Caan from THE GODFATHER and MISERY is Buddy's reluctant father and the lovely Zooey Deschannel is buddy's love interest.
Both actors warmth and personalities help make the movie wonderful, but without Will Ferrell's incredible performance it wouldn't be nearly as great as it is.
It seems his work in OLD SCHOOL, ANCHORMAN and ZOOLANDER was just the tip of his comedic iceberg. In ELF he lets us see the whole thing.
Thus, instead of coming across like just another fish-out-of-water character, Ferrell's Buddy is an endearing outsider in a world that doesn't understand him.
And the result of that is funny. Very, very funny
If you think of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, A CHRISTMAS STORY and CHRISTMAS VACATION as perennial Christmas movie favourites, then you now have one more to add to your list.
ELF is a very funny movie with some much needed Christmas spirit.
There is nothing about THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK that is needed, unless you were a fan of the film PITCH BLACK.
That film came out in 2000 and it was the one set in the distant future, where a spaceship crash landed on a hot, humid distant planet. The people then had to survive deadly creatures from the planet and a convict from the spaceship named Riddick.
Vin Diesel from THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS reprises the character of Riddick as his career continues it's downward trajectory.
In the movie Riddick is now a hunted man who finds himself in the middle of two opposing forces in a major crusade.
Canadian actor Colm Feore plays a warrior priest who is the leader of a sect that is waging the tenth, and perhaps final crusade, 500 years in the future.
Dame Judi Dench - yes, the same Oscar winner Dame Judi Dench from SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE and CHOCOLAT! Dench plays an ambassador from the Elemental race. She is an ethereal being who helps Riddick unearth his origins.
Now, it isn't that THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK is a bad movie, but PITCH BLACK was just a poor man's version of ALIEN and no one I know ever saw it. Here we have a sequel to a movie no one saw. The fact that hardly anyone went to see the film in theaters confirms my thoughts that the movie is a bit unnecessary.
But, if you've seen PITCH BLACK then you should see THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK.
If you haven't, I can't think of one reason why you would need to see this movie.
I can, however, this of many reasons for you to watch this week's other major new release.
Many of them involve laughing.
The brilliant and devastating comedy of The Office is brought to a satisfying conclusion in THE OFFICE SPECIAL, set three years after the end of the faux-documentary's second season.
This may be the funniest thing you watch this month. Pick it up, press play and enjoy!
On July 13th, 1985, we all enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime concert event, even though we knew there were serious connotations behind it.
Now, LIVE AID is available as a 4-DVD Box Set so we can enjoy it again.
The set has over 10 hours of performances, including sets from David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Sting, The Who, U2, Neil Young, and many, many more.
All of the royalties from the sale of the set will go to benefit the Band Aid Trust, which continues to provide direct hunger relief in Africa.
ELF, THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, THE OFFICE SPECIAL and LIVE AID are all available now at your favourite local video store.
COMING UP IN THE NEXT COUCH POTATO REPORT
SEINFELD - SEASONS 1, 2 & 3 will finally be available on two separate 4 disc box sets or in one big box set that features all 41 episodes from the first three seasons of the show, plus an Original Script, Salt & Pepper Shakers, and Playing Cards. Other than the SCTV BOX SETS, this is the comedy release of the year!!!
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN sees Harry and his friends enter their third year at Hogwarts. The original cast of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson is intact.
And in THE TERMINAL a Balkan immigrant who is confined to an airport falls in love with a flight attendant. Steven Spielberg directs Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones in this film that never really takes off.
I'm Dan Reynish and I'll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next week on The Couch!
Townshend, Daltrey plan new Who album
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Who may be returning, again.
In a posting on his Web site, Pete Townshend says that he and singer Roger Daltrey are planning to get together for the first Who studio album in over two decades.
"Roger and I (will) meet in mid December to play what we have written," Townshend, the guitarist and primary songwriter of the group, writes. "If we move ahead from there, we may have a CD ready to release in the spring. My working-title for the project -- Who2 -- is only partly tongue-in-cheek."
Despite famously proclaiming "hope I die before I get old" in the song My Generation, The Who have frequently reunited to perform since disbanding in 1983. But the new album would be the British band's first studio recording since 1982's It's Hard.
The possible new album, Townshend says, would not be a rock opera like the band's Tommy or Quadrophenia. A concept-less album, he says "is, in itself, a concept for me."
Townshend, 59, is also working on an autobiography, which he says, "offers me a chance to lay down my life story and place recent events in proper context."
In 2003, Townshend was arrested as part of a crackdown on Internet child pornography -- but was eventually cleared of possessing pornographic images of children.
The rock guitarist was placed on a national register of sex offenders as part of the formal police caution that he received for accessing a website containing images of child abuse. Townshend has said he only visited the site for research purposes.
The other two members of the original Who, drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle, died in 1978 and 2002, respectively.
Mann Channels The '70s On 'Forgotten Arm'
Singer/songwriter Aimee Mann revisits an earlier time and place on her next Superego album, "The Forgotten Arm," due in March. "It's a concept album and the concept, the vibe of the album, kind of dictated it," she tells Billboard.com. "It takes place in the '70s, and there were these sort of pictures in my mind that led me to a really specific sound."
The Superego release marks a departure from past Mann albums in that it was recorded very quickly and with a live studio band, which required very few overdubs. Tracks include "Dear John" and "That's How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart."
"I'm really excited about it," says Mann. "For me, it's a very different way to record and I think the songs are a little bit different. I never know if that difference really translates to other people, but to me it seems pretty radically different from my other records."
"The Forgotten Arm" is the follow-up to 2002's "Lost in Space," which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart. Mann says she will likely begin touring around the release date, which may include an appearance at the annual South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas.
However, fans can get a sneak preview of sorts on the recently released DVD/CD "Aimee Mann Live at St. Anne's Warehouse," which includes new album tracks "Going Through the Motions" and "King of the Jailhouse."
Mann says filming the obligatory behind-the-scenes and interview footage for her maiden DVD was a unique experience.
"It's always hard for me to believe that people really want to know the minutiae of what my favorite song is or what the band thinks about playing with me," she admits. "It's hard for me to think that would be interesting for anyone but I have to remind myself that anyone who buys a live DVD is probably interested in the artist enough."
Mariah 'Emancipated' On New Album
Mariah Carey returns to her pop and R&B roots on her new album, "The Emancipation of Mimi," albeit with major dollops of hip-hop. On several tracks previewed for Billboard.com, Carey offers less vocal acrobatics then on recent efforts, proving that less can indeed be more.
Due March 29 via Island Def Jam, the new set will be preceded by the single "Say Something," produced by the Neptunes and featuring Snoop Dogg. Due to hit radio outlets in January, the slinky, sensual hip-hop jam sports intermittent machine gun-styled beats,
A longtime supporter of club remixes, Carey has commissioned David Morales, Peter Rauhofer and former Pound Boys member David C. to remix "Say Something."
Other album tracks previewed for Billboard.com include the Jermaine Dupri-produced "Get Your Number," a feel-good, dancefloor-primed R&B number that smartly references Imagination's early-'80s top 30 R&B hit, "Just an Illusion." It spotlights the vocals of Dupri, who also helmed the track "Shake You Off."
Carey handled the bulk of the writing on "The Emancipation of Mimi" and also produced the power ballad "Mine Again." Less adult contemporary and more Gladys Knight, the old-school song is signature Carey.
The album also features contributions from producer Kanye West and rappers Nelly and Twista. It's the follow-up to 20002's "Charmbracelet," which debuted at No. 3 on The Billboard 200 and has sold more than 1.1 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
New Tunage!
Here are the new music releases for Tuesday, November 16th, 2004
Pete Anderson Daredevil (Little Dog)
Audio Caviar Transoceanic (Thump)
Axehandle Axehandle (Small Stone)
Badlands The Killing Kind (Victory)
David Ball Freewheeler (Wildcatter)
The BellRays Red, Black & White (Alternative Tentacles)
By the Grace of God Three Steps to a Better Democracy (Initial)
Cherish the Ladies On Christmas Night (Rounder)
Chingy Powerballin' (Capitol)
The CMA All Over (Legendary)
Collective Soul Youth (El Music Group)
Lee Coombs Breakfast of Champions (Finger Lickin'/K7)
Corrosion of Conformity America's Volume Dealer (Silverline)
Destiny's Child Destiny Fulfilled (Columbia)
Detroit Jr. Blues on the Internet (Delmark)
E. Town Concrete Made for War (Ironbound)
Earth, Wind & Fire Live at Montreux, 1997 (bonus material from ‘98) (Eagle Vision)
Eighteen Visions Vanity (Trustkill)
Eminem Encore (Aftermath/Interscope)
Fitalic Disillusions/Fields of Motion (EP) (Pangea)
Freya/Hoods Split (EP) (Victory)
Glory of This Adoration (Indianola)
Goo Goo Dolls Live in Buffalo July Fourth 2004 (w/bonus DVD) (Warner Bros.)
The Green Pajamas Ten White Stones (Hidden Agenda/Parasol)
Robert Henke Signal to Noise (Berlin-based electronica) (Imbalance)
Josh Hodges Sexton Blake (In Music We Trust)
The Innocence Mission Now the Day Is Over (Badman)
Joy & the Boy Soaking Wet (Liquid 8)
Mike Keneally Dog (Exowax)
Lansing-Dreiden A Sanctioned Beam (Hollywood)
Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz Crunk Juice (TVT)
Lil' Wayne Tha Carter: Screwed & Chopped (Universal)
Lydia Lunch Smoke in the Shadows (Atavistic)
Man Man The Man in the Blue Turban Without a Face (Ace Fu)
The Methadones Not Economically Viable (Thick)
Mocky Are & Be (Fine)
The Monoxide Project For Smokers Only (Psychopathic)
Ofer Moses Short Story Long (BWR/Doghouse)
Ms. Kra-Z Lyrically Insane (Setting the Page)
NOFX Ten Years of Fuckin' Up (Fat Wreck)
OM Trio Gospel Positioning Record (Black Beauty)
Lee "Scratch" Perry and the White Belly Rats Panic in Babylon (Selekta / Dampf Music)
Rammstein Reise, Reise (Universal/Republic)
Red Giant Devil Child Blues (Small Stone)
The Royals Dubbing with (Pressure Sounds)
Rusted Root Live (DKE)
Roni Size Return to V (Thrive)
Skating Club The Unfound Sound (Kimchee)
Luke Slater Fear & Loathing 2 (Resist)
Dave Specter & Steve Freund Is What It Is (Delmark)
This Providence Our World's Divorce (Rocketstar)
Transmissionary Get Down (FILMGuerrero)
Rufus Wainwright Want Two (Geffen)
Wayne Warner Doing Something Right (B-Venturous)
VA Alias - Season 2 (music composed by Michael Giacchino) (Varèse Sarabande)
VA Axis of Justice: Concert Series Volume I (w/Pete Yorn, Flea, Chris Cornell and more) (Columbia)
VA Cuban Lounge (V1)
VA Moro No Brasil (Milan)
OST Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (Geffen/UME)
OST Danny the Dog (music by Massive Attack) (Virgin)
OST National Treasure (Angelo Badalamenti score) (Hollywood)
OST Ultra Noir (Milan)
DVD Jamie Cullum Live at Blenheim Palace (Verve)
DVD The Darkness The Long Wince Home (Atlantic)
DVD Hilary Duff Learning to Fly (Hollywood)
DVD Erasure The Tank, the Saw and the Balloon Live! (Mute)
DVD Steve Hackett Once Above a Time: Live in Concert (Eagle Vision)
DVD Norah Jones and the Handsome Band Live 2004 (Blue Note)
DVD Edwin McCain Tinsel and Tap Shoes: Live at the House of Blues (DRT)
DVD Nocturnus A Farewell to Planet Earth (Music Video Distributors)
DVD A Perfect Circle aMOTION (Virgin)
DVD Primus Hallucino-Genetics Live 2004 (Prawn Song/Fizzle Fry)
DVD Rooney Spit & Sweat (Geffen)
DVD Snoop Dogg The Puff Puff Pass Tour (Eagle Vision)
DVD Story of the Year Story of the Year (Maverick)
DVD XDoaneX The Shape of Videos to Come (Victory)
Saga of 1951 Stanley Cup hero Bill Barilko retold in new Kevin Shea book
After all these years, the saga of Bill Barilko is as compelling as ever.
Barilko scored the overtime goal to earn the Toronto Maple Leafs the Stanley Cup in 1951 and died in a plane crash that summer at the age of 24. The Leafs did not win the NHL title again until 1962, the year Barilko's remains were discovered in the Northern Ontario bush outside his home town of Timmins, Ont.
The tale has been previously told in print, put to music in The Tragically Hip's 1992 recording, Fifty-Mission Cap about the club's failure to win the NHL title during the 11 years after Barilko's disappearance and the current Leafs had BB 16 embroidered on caps during their playoff run last spring.
Now, Kevin Shea has written Barilko: Without a Trace, which is the most complete presentation of the hockey icon's brief life. Film rights were recently purchased.
Shea's project came about after a conversation around a coffee machine at the Hockey Hall of Fame, where Shea works as manager of special projects and publishing.
"Somebody said that he couldn't believe that Bill Barilko was still a topic of conversation, and a third request had come in that day for the photo of the Barilko goal," Shea explains. "I'd long been fascinated with the Barilko story, and Bill's sister is a volunteer with us here at the Hall so . . . "
Anne Klisanich's extensive scrap book collections of practically every newspaper and magazine article ever written about her brother proved invaluable to Shea's research. Her insights into the Barilko family also were prime assets with which to work.
"The story has been told so many times that I wanted to put a new face on it," says Shea. "I wanted to find out more about the person than the guy who scored that one goal.
"Talking to neighbours and minor-hockey teammates in Timmins and his pro teammates was fascinating. It was intriguing to find out about the guy behind the goal."
Shea, Klisanich and Mayor Victor Power will participate in Bill Barilko Day in Timmins on Nov. 19. Then it's off to Alfie's Cigar Store for book signings.
Shea's previous hockey books include one on the Smythe Family and one on former Leaf Ron Ellis.
"I enjoyed this one so much," says Shea. "But it also was the hardest one, not necessarily to write, but just that there were so many Barilko stories out there and I was getting people calling up right till my deadline.
"It was just wonderful to have that happen, to try and fit it all in was a wonderful task."
Barilko and his chums frolicked on outdoor rinks in the Porcupine gold mining region in the 1930s. Those were hard times and he quit school at age 15. He'd listen to Foster Hewitt's play-by-play of Leafs games on radio and always dreamed of making it to the NHL.
But he was no teen star. When he turned pro at 18, the Leafs sent him to a fourth-tier affiliate in Los Angeles, where he played for the Hollywood Wolves. From the wilds of Canada to Tinseltown - that was a trip.
A tough defenceman who could rock opponents with hip checks, he picked up nicknames such as Bashin' Bill and The Basher.
He got a huge career break when Toronto boss Conn Smythe, looking to rebuild with young players, promoted him ahead of more experienced players at the team's top affiliates. Barilko was playing for the Wolves in February 1947, and sipping champagne from the Stanley Cup that spring.
"It's that great Canadian story - from rags to riches," says Shea.
Barilko's 1951 Cup-winning goal, scored while he was in the air horizontal to the ice, was captured by the late Nat Turofsky's photo that is the most requested from the HHOF archives. The goal gave the Leafs a fourth title in the five springs Barilko was with the team.
Dr. Henry Hudson, a dentist friend, piloted a light aircraft that he and Barilko rode in towards James Bay for a last fishing trip before the start of a new NHL season. His mother pleaded with him not to go. They were leaving on a Friday, and Barilko's father had died on a Friday five years earlier. She didn't want her son flying into the bush on a Friday.
Barilko and Hudson weren't heard from again. A massive search turned up nothing.
"The family never gave up hope," says Shea. "They washed his shirts and would put them on the clothesline."
The wreckage was spotted May 31, 1962, just north of Cochrane by a pilot inspecting timber. The remains were removed on June 6 and interred in Timmins Memorial Cemetery on June 15. A gravestone is decorated with twin maple leaves, hockey sticks and pucks. Under the surname is a head-and-shoulders photo of Barilko wearing a Leafs sweater.
"He was becoming an outstanding player," Shea says of what might have been. "He was getting better and better and probably would have eventually been in the Hall of Fame. But that's all conjecture."
Barilko memorabilia in the possession of the HHOF includes the sweater he was wearing when he scored the unforgettable goal, the puck that went in the Montreal Canadiens net, a stick he used during that season, a pair of his skates, a fishing rod he once used and a small bench with a wolf's head carved on each end that he made when he was a boy.