International Association Of Independent Journalists Inc.

[JL Meneses]

A Triumph for Small Time Independent Media.


By JL Meneses



I am doing this review of The Life and Times of Donald "Boots" Brasseur because it is so rare to have honest portrayals of people in our community on TV these days. By all standards a D-Day Veteran that landed on the beaches of Normandy and then became a world class harmonica musician from the last days of vaudeville playing along legends like Bob Hope and Perry Como, should have the credentials for a TV special. But sadly this is the exception and not the rule. So hearing the ads for the TV show on community radio (CIUT - 89.5FM in Toronto) and having seen FOF’s first show back in 2005, I decided to review the show and send it in to IAIJ.

First of all the big thing with this show is that it ran on CTV as daytime television on Sunday at 10:30am (July 26, 2009) which is a far cry from the 2:30am in the morning of their first show (The Fortress TV Show) which followed Saturday Night Live reruns on the morning of September 18, 2005 on the Global Television Network. Having said that the production values of the new show outstripped that of the first and in return they got a better spot. The Life and Times of Donald Boots Brasseur is divided into two parts with his war time experiences in the first and his musical career in the second part. The first part is a chronological expose’ of Don’s journey to D-Day filled with maps and war footage available from the Canadian Government. The second part of the show is more personal with a trip through Don’s scrapbook with vignettes of his performances and photos and such of those times and Don’s place in them. It all ended with Don Brasseur standing at attention at the Armory in downtown Toronto beside a WW2 howitzer and the flag flying half mast.

The big question for me is why big broadcasters like CTV can’t find it within them to produce this material on their own instead of small money strapped operations like this one (Fortress of Freedom Inc.). In terms of interest this show was on par with anything else at this time slot with all the crazy things Don did like playing cufflinks that are actually harmonica’s to his musical gloves that he played at Roy Thompson Hall here in Toronto. The show is definitely a step up from The Fortress TV Show with carefully setup sets as opposed the gorilla style outside camera work of the first show. But both shows are a refreshing change from the same old stuff that we get on our TVs every day. It is just a pity that it took them four years between shows due to the realities of small independent media. You see these shows occasionally and very few take notice or write a review about them because they have no influence in the television industry. So here is one.