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lifestyles magazine fall 2012

Profile Liza Fromer

nslumping yourself, according to Dr. Seuss, is not easily

done. The line is from Oh, the Places Youll Go!, the last book Theodor Seuss Geisel published, a year before his death in 1991. Its also one of Liza Fromers favorites. Though she seems to have become a semipermanent fixture on Canadian morning television, it wasnt always the case. After a rapid ascent and an ill-advised moment with a bottle of dye, she slipped into a serious slump, slinging nachos and beer to drunken businessmen and wondering where her once-bright future had gone. Now co-anchoring The Morning Show on Global Television, Fromer, having long since unslumped herself, gets out of bed at 3:30 in the deep, dark a.m. in order to be at the station an hour later. The show runs from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m., and post-show discussions, including pitches for future shows, keep her at the office until about noon. For the record, she doesnt mind queries about her sleep/wake schedule.

Not at all, she says. Its the number one question I get asked. By everybody. But its also what I ask when I run into other morning show people. Okay, so do you stick to the earlyto-bed, early-to-rise routine on weekends, too? When I was doing Breakfast Television, which I did for five years, I was single, with no kids, and found that I could almost revert to a normal schedule on weekends, go to bed late, sleep in. Now, with kids: no, gone, done. Im a little bitter on Friday nights, when I fall asleep on the couch at 9:00 p.m., she says, laughing, and sounding anything but bitter. Born and raised in Kitchener, Ontario, Fromer is the only child of David, a salesman in the printing business, and Liz, who worked with an insurance company. She had what she describes as a relatively idyllic childhood. I grew up in the same house my dad grew up in, she says. And my parents are still in it. After high school, she moved to Toronto to pursue a degree in radio and television arts at Ryerson University, and it was around 1990, in her third year of the program, when she landed her first gig in broadcasting, driving classic-rock radio station Q107s Community Cruiser to various events around town, giving away prizes and doing two one-minute spots each day. For a girl whod grown up listening to the station, the opportunity was a godsend. I was like, Are you kidding? I thought all the DJs on it were so cool, and now they were letting me do it.

That led to her first job on television, as co-host of two shows on the YTV network: Video & Arcade Top 10 and Clips. Straight out of Ryerson and shes in front of the camera, fulfilling the good doctors prediction: Youll be famous as famous can be / with the whole wide world watching you win on TV. Except, of course, when they dont. Because sometimes they wont. Because sometimes, after doing two shows for several years, you dye your hair black, they have a corporate heart attack, and decide that, Ms. Liza, you will not be allowed back. It was the craziest thing, she says of the reaction to the dye job. They flipped out (they being the outside production company that produced the two shows). The company refused to countenance her return to work even if she re-blondified herself. Blackening her golden tresses was a deal breaker. Amazing, huh? You might have had a human rights complaint. But I was 23 and what did I know? Was that a frightening moment in the arc of your career, which until then had traced a rising curve? Its funny because my roommate at the time was Stacie Mistysyn, who played Caitlin on the Degrassi series, so she was very well known, and had a Gemini for best actress in her bedroom, and we were both waitressing at Joe Badalis. It was scary because I thought, Have I already reached the end of the road in this career? That did scare me, for sure. Say what you will about Joe Badalis
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Profile Liza Fromer

Ristorante Italiano & Bar, but its not typically considered a promising way station for a budding broadcaster. I was a charming yet sucky waitress, Fromer recalls. I think I was really nice to people, but I remember asking patrons to open their own wine bottles because I couldnt do it. I could never carry the plates along my arms the way good servers do. Math is not my strong suit, so making change was a nightmare. But, as she acknowledges, she was fortified with the optimism of youth and, sure enough, a year and a half (and countless spaghetti carbonaras) later, her best friend, Martine Gaillard (now on Sportsnet), was then a host on Canadas The Weather Network, and was about to transition out of hosting and into a reportorial position. Gaillard suggested that the producers audition Fromer. They did, and from 1995 to 1997, Fromer greeted the sleepyheaded citizenry of Toronto with cheery predictions about the days weather. This was followed by three years in Calgary, reporting for and anchoring a morning news show on A-Channel, and then a brief sojourn in Los Angeles. I was actually dating someone who was also moving there, from Calgary. So we moved down together. I was there for a year. And did freelance reporting for CBS. She shot a pilot while in L.A. for a talk show that was very similar to The View, with Jane Pratt, who had started Sassy magazine. It was based on her magazine. But the problem was it was for ABC, which aired The View and which felt that Fromers pilot was too similar. It was then, in 2001, that she received a call from a friend, whod read that Ann Rohmer was leaving Breakfast Television, the

Toronto morning show juggernaut on Citytv. She sent in a tape and got a call from Bud Pierce, the shows creator and producer, who told her that hed initially tossed her tape in the garbage, but had had second thoughts and retrieved it. He told her that Citytv had a number of qualified internal candidates, but that if Fromer had a reason to be in Toronto, hed meet with her. Well, she replied, when would you like me to have a reason to be in Toronto? She flew down, did an audition at 5:00 a.m. with co-host Kevin Frankish before the show went on the air, and was kibitzing with Pierce when the second of two planes hit the World Trade Center. When the dust settled, Pierce asked her to do another, more serious audition, to see if she could handle the weightier moments that occasionally intrude on the usual morning show lineup. Shortly after returning to L.A., she got the call: Shed be the new co-host on Breakfast Television, a prized position that she held until the birth of her first child, Samson, in 2006. In the interim shed met Josh Gerstein, a Toronto-based investment banker, whom, she readily admits, she lustily pursued around a downtown club on the evening of their first encounter until he finally got the hint and asked for her number. Gerstein, she says, is very anafall 2012 lifestyles magazine 125

Profile Liza Fromer

lytical, so the romance wasnt quite a whirlwind, more of a soft summer breeze. Maybe thats why were married, she speculates. That said, they were engaged 11 months later. The wedding was delayed, however, so she could complete her conversion to Judaism, which involved weekly classes for both her and Gerstein. I had to learn to read Hebrew and learn about the religion. You had to take a test at the end. And I do believe I scored better than my husband. Given your schedule, when do you see him? I barely do during the week. Maybe thats a recipe for success? It may well be. We had Connie Chung on and I asked her, because shes been married to Maury Povich for so long, What do you attribute the success of your marriage to? And she said, Not seeing each other very much. Fromer laughs. But, she says convincingly of the father of her (now) two children (Samson has a little sister, Ever), Hes just great. I knew from the get-go. Josh was always supercool about her demanding schedule and continues to be. Between BT and The Morning Show, Fromerin addition to adjusting to life as a motherhas done a stint on Torontos Newstalk 1010, served as a spokeswoman for the international charity SOS Childrens Villages, which provides shelter and care for the worlds orphaned and abandoned children, and (because why not try your hand at everything?) has coauthored a series of childrens books with her sister-in-law, Dr. Francine Gerstein. The series, which focuses on childrens relationships with their bodies, saw two books published last September, with two more scheduled for release this fall.
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How do you feel about them? Staggered. Im a huge reader and have huge respect for authors, so the fact that anyone would refer to me as an author just blows me away. She hasnt read the staggeringly good Olivia series, by Ian Falconer (though she promises to), but she confesses to really digging Jamie Lee Curtiss Is There Really a Human Race?, Robert Munschs The Paper Bag Princess, and, of course, Seusss Oh, the Places Youll Go! Back to The Morning Show, which debuted in October of last year. Whats your impression of how the program is faring? Its so interesting because with BT, I joined a very established, popular show. It still evolved while I was there, but it had an incredibly strong foundation. But this has been from scratch. So the evolution has been so interesting to watch as we get to know one another betterthe four hosts and as the audience gets to know us and starts to participate a little bit more, and as we discover what works and what doesnt, what people want to see. So were getting to a really good place now; were really starting to figure it out. Highlights? Day One. Just getting it on the air. I was astounded by how smoothly things went. And we had Jim Cuddy on, who I think is fabulous. Having Regis Philbin here was a huge highlight. Who are some of the models that you look to in terms of morning show hosts? I love Matt Lauer. I think he is just phenomenal. He is so conversational, so approachable, but he can also do a really serious interview and ask really hard questions without seeming

confrontational. Any Canadian models? I dont know if I can single out one person, per se, but I think that so many shows do certain things so well. Jian Ghomeshi, on the CBC, is a great interviewer. I listen to him a lot. You can tell hes done a ton of research. I think, as a storyteller, he works in the States now, but hes CanadianKeith Morrison. The way he tells a story as a reporter is phenomenal. Other non-morning TV shows that you like? House. Totally addicted. Mad Men. Love with a capital L. And I worship Tina Fey. And have since well before the Tina Fey bandwagon started, if I may say. But this season of 30 Rocks been a bit disappointing, no? I think Im so in love with her that she can do no wrong for me. What do you think you need to work on as a host? I started in TV when I was 20, 21, and now Im 42, so its been over 20 years. So its more a big-picture thing where Im trying to figure out, Am I being honest? I hate watching television where people seem like theyre so aware theyre on TV. How do you divorce yourself from that superconsciousness? I really have a respect for our viewers and I dont want to waste their time, and so I dont want to ask a B.S. question, and I dont want to talk nonsense. We do talk about some very frivolous things, but I want it to have some purpose. I always try to picture myself as that person sitting on the couch. But its exceedingly difficult to picture Liza Fromer just sitting on a couch. The places shes gone. The places shell go.