TV, eh?

The town reels with several shocking revelations and Crim’s fate is decided.

Tonight Rick finds out first hand how the Toronto Marine Unit makes harbour ice rescues and later goes to an Outdoor Adventure Show where he does some white-water rafting, rock climbing, and learns to scuba dive.

This week on 22 Minutes …

The Tonight Show returns with Jay Leno (Mark Critch). ‘Art Break – Olympic Blues’ with Bob Bobertson (Gavin Crawford). And Raj Binder (Shaun Majumder) reports from the Atlanta Motor Speedway NASCAR races.

22 Minutes with audience favorites Shaun Majumder, Mark Critch, Gavin Crawford, Geri Hall and Cathy Jones airs on Tuesday, March 09, 2010 at 8:30 pm on CBC Television. Unfair and unbalanced. The news will never look the same. Armed with political satire, sketch comedy and parody in this 17th season beloved characters return and new characters emerge to share the spotlight.

From a media release:

Series Premiere of THE BRIDGE Wins Time Slot and Locks Up One Million Viewers on CTV

The series premiere of the new CTV original series THE BRIDGE debuted #1 in its 9 p.m. timeslot in Canada Friday night on CTV, with one million viewers. THE BRIDGE becomes the most-watched series premiere for a Canadian drama this season, based on preliminary overnight data.* The audience peaked at 1.25 million viewers, with nearly 3.5 million Canadians tuning in to some part of the two-hour premiere. In Toronto, THE BRIDGE was the #1 series of the day with Viewers 2+ and Adults 25-54.

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From a media release:

Production Begins on TODD & THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL

• A New Original Television Series for SPACE

Aircraft Pictures, Corvid Pictures, and Frantic Films in association with SPACE are pleased to announce production has begun on SPACE’s newest original series. Todd & The Book Of Pure Evil will be shot over ten weeks on location in Winnipeg. The result will be a 13-episode, half-hour supernatural comedy that brings the age-old phrase “high school is hell” to life.

“Getting to make this series is proof that The Book Of Pure Evil is real and actually works!” says co-creator Craig David Wallace, “We’re super excited that SPACE is supporting our belief that ‘80s flavoured Heavy Metal and Black Magic are back, and more evil than ever.”

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8 p.m.

Millie (Nancy Robertson) runs into trouble with the head of her strata council while Taylor (David Ingram) struggles to hold up his end of a bargain with Joyce (Laura Soltis).

8:30 p.m.

What was going to be a straight-forward race for Mayor gets complicated when more candidates come forward, but luckily Dan’s (Fred Ewanuick) good friend Jeff (Paul Bates) is there to help him run his campaign.

Amaar decides to remain in Mercy after he is fired and Baber takes over as Imam with disastrous results.

A fight between Phil and Tara forces Jessie and Tom to take Phil on as a roommate.

Amy faces a tough moral dilemma when she discovers Mr. Hanley has abandoned his horses and is on the brink of losing his farm.

From a media release:

DRAGONS AREN’T BORN, THEY’RE MADE

• SEASON FINALE OF CBC-TV’S DRAGONS’ DEN “THE ROAD TO RICHES”, MARCH 17 AT 8 P.M.

The Road to Riches, the special season finale of DRAGONS’ DEN, airs Wednesday, March 17 at 8 p.m. on CBC Television and retraces the Dragons’ emotional journeys to self-made success. From humble beginnings and darker days, to the joys of personal and professional milestones, this distinctive finale reveals the Dragons like never before, by providing an intimate and compelling look at the defining moments in their lives and how the past has shaped who they are today.

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From CBC:

• New CTV series modelled on Toronto police union boss
  “In his portrayal of Toronto beat cop turned union chief Craig Bromell in the new series The Bridge, actor Aaron Douglas says he channeled Tony Soprano, ‘if he was a cop.’” Read more.

From Michael Posner of the Globe and Mail:

• ‘It has to be the most authentic cop series going’
  “Former officer and Toronto police union leader Craig Bromell says The Bridge captures the complicated nuances of a cop’s life” Read more.

9 p.m. – THE BRIDGE – TWO-HOUR SPECIAL SERIES PREMIERE
After the rank and file unanimously vote tough and dedicated street cop Frank Leo (Aaron Douglas) into office as head of the Police Union, he begins his quest to put street cops first and clean up the force from the ground up. But the old boys’ network running the police force and the city’s self-serving politicians are not about to sit idly by while a former street cop makes up his own rules. Leo walks the thin blue line as he battles criminals on the streets, corruption in the ranks and the politically motivated department brass, letting nothing stop him from fulfilling his unwavering vow that when cops are in trouble, he will be there to protect the protectors.

From Victoria Ahearn of the Canadian Press:

• Former Toronto police union head says cop series The Bridge is fictional
  “In the new cop series The Bridge, debuting Friday on CTV and CBS, Aaron Douglas plays a tough police officer turned union head battling top brass and an ‘old boys’ network’ as he cleans up the force. Though the storylines are inspired by the insights of outspoken former Toronto police union head Craig Bromell, the events and characters are purely fictional, he insists.” Read more.

From Joshua Ostroff of Eye Weekly:

• Who watches out for the watchmen?
  “The Bridge leads to grey areas behind the thin blue line. ” Read more.

From Joe Warmington of the Toronto Sun:

• From street cop to TV producer
  “‘Bully Bromell’s’ scripted antics and continuous blurred blue line was the stuff of movies and those same politicians, who spent thousands of dollars looking for bugs in their offices, will be in front of their TVs on CTV Friday at 9 pm to watch this two-hour premier movie because ‘The Craig Bromell Show’ continues in the form of a hot-looking new cop drama called The Bridge.” Read more.

From Glen Schaeffer of the Vancouver Sun:

• The Bridge inspired by former police union leader
  “A scene in the first episode of the new Toronto-set TV drama The Bridge has a group of police officers emptying their guns into a fleeing pickup truck, after which one of them jokes blackly with investigators probing the shooting. ‘Americans love that,’ says Vancouver actor Aaron Douglas, who stars in the show as that scene’s joker, a uniformed cop and police union leader named Frank Leo. ‘I’ve shown the pilot to friends, a couple of cops, and they think that’s just the best scene in the show.’” Read more.

From Alex Strachan of Canwest:

• Moments of real intensity
  “It’s an open question, though, how many of those viewers will stay in the following weeks. Because the sad truth is that, while there are moments of real intensity– the opening scene, for starters — The Bridge looks and feels very much like a work in progress. The Bridge is well worth a look.” Read more.

From Bill Harris of QMI Agency:

• Cdn ‘Bridge’ has American feel
  “The atmosphere of this Canadian series is very, very American, right down to the accents of some of the characters. That’s an interesting result, given the Canadian pedigree of The Bridge. It was inspired by the insights of former Toronto police union head Craig Bromell, who serves as an executive producer.” Read more.