TV, eh?

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family:

• Half Million Catch Hiccups, See Dan Exit
  “Hiccups and Dan For Mayor got a bit of a bump each for their season finales Monday night. Hiccups drew an overnight, estimated 498,000 viewers across Canada and Dan For Mayor pulled 516,000.” Read more.

From Myles McNutt of Cultural Learnings:

• Season Finale: Dan for Mayor – “The Return of Wheel-o”
  “While it may not be the best comedy on television, I’d argue that Dan for Mayor makes a strong case for being one of the most confident. While some shows spend their first seasons in a state of becoming, the series seemed to spring fully formed from the minds of Mark Farrell, Paul Mather and Kevin White – the initial premise had potential which played out throughout the season, and from the beginning it was intertwined with the interpersonal relationships which make the series more than a clever premise.” Read more.

8 p.m. – HICCUPS – “You Schmooze, You Lose” – SEASON FINALE
Millie (Nancy Robertson) is not happy about being nominated for an award and Joyce (Laura Soltis) gets a lesson on social skills from Taylor (David Ingram).

8:30 p.m. – DAN FOR MAYOR – “The Return of Wheel-O” – SEASON FINALE

As Election Day approaches, Dan (Fred Ewanuick) and Claire (Mary Ashton) struggle to express their feelings for each other while Dan’s election fortunes take a turn for the worse thanks to a surprise rival. When the votes are in, Dan is forced to make a choice that will affect him and the city of Wessex.

From Rob Salem of the Toronto Star:

• New comedies aren’t Corner Gas, but I’ll give them another shot
  “Neither one has turned out to be the next Corner Gas — despite CTV’s best efforts to convince us otherwise. But all the building-sized billboard images of Hiccups’ reunited Brent Butt and Nancy Robertson, together with Dan for Mayor’s Fred Ewanuick, cannot change the fact that both these new sitcoms have fallen considerably short of Gas’s admittedly unattainably high standard.” Read more.

From a media release:

2010 CANADIAN COMEDY AWARD NOMINEES ARE ANNOUNCED!

The race for the 2010 Canadian Comedy Awards is on! Canada’s finest comedians will go head to head for the coveted BEAVER statuette this October in Toronto, as The Canadian Comedy Awards Foundation in association with The Comedy Network today announced the nominees for the 2010 Canadian Comedy Awards. At a media conference held at Yuk Yuk’s in Toronto, emcees Deb McGrath and Colin Mochrie highlighted the nominees in all 21 categories.

Winners will be declared at The Comedy Network Presents the Canadian Comedy Awards & Festival Awards Show on Monday, October 18 to be held at the Isabel Bader Theatre.

To view a complete list of the 2010 Canadian Comedy Awards nominees and to access nominee bios, please go to www.canadiancomedy.ca.

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From Jaime Weinman of Maclean’s magazine:

• The Perils of Hiatus
  “The shows have turned into kind of an interesting case history of what can help and hurt a new show in its quest to find viewers. CTV promoted these shows very heavily to begin with, and it paid off with high ratings for the first part of the season. Then the network had to decide whether to keep the shows on in May, putting them up against the very tough U.S. competition, or bring them back after the sweeps period. They chose the latter; they even delayed their return longer than originally intended so these shows wouldn’t be competing against widely-watched sports events. But as Bill Brioux noted, Hiccups and Dan finally came back a couple of weeks ago with a tremendous drop in viewership.” Read more.

8 p.m. – HICCUPS – “Dream Gig” – NEW EPISODE

Stan’s (Brent Butt) dream analysis idea backfires with Millie (Nancy Robertson) and Taylor’s (David Ingram) new talent agency doesn’t sit well with Joyce (Laura Soltis) or Crystal (Emily Perkins).

8:30 p.m. – DAN FOR MAYOR – “A Date with Vengeance” – NEW EPISODE

With days to go before the election and hardly a Dan for Mayor lawn sign in sight, Dan (Fred Ewanuick) gets some help on the campaign trail. Jeff (Paul Bates) gives Claire (Mary Ashton) career advice.

8 p.m. – HICCUPS – “Autograph Hound” – NEW EPISODE
Millie (Nancy Robertson) and Stan (Brent Butt) go to great lengths to track down a young autograph seeker while Joyce (Laura Soltis), Anna (Paula Rivera) and Crystal (Emily Perkins) team up to mess with Taylor’s (David Ingram) head at the office.

8:30 p.m. – DAN FOR MAYOR – “A Cleanse Getaway” – NEW EPISODE

Dan (Fred Ewanuick) gets some unexpected help in the campaign that gets both he and Jeff (Paul Bates) into hot water. Meanwhile, Claire (Mary Ashton) deals with the fall-out from her decision about the wedding.

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family:

• Can Hiccups be Cured?
  “Why aren’t there more new Canadian scripted shows on Global, Roger and CTV next fall, asks Scott. Exactly. We linger over the dismal ratings Monday for Hiccups and Dan For Mayor.” Read more or listen here.

From Bill Brioux at TV Feeds My Family:

• Break No Boost for Hiccups, Dan For Mayor
  “Hiccups drew an overnight, estimated national audience of 297,000 at 8 p.m., with Dan For Mayor getting 309,000 at 8:30.” Read more.

From John Doyle of the Globe and Mail:

• Some home truths about Canadian TV
  “Promotion matters more than anything. CTV knows this and has benefited enormously. It has promoted the hell out of Hiccups and Dan For Mayor. It made sure that every Canadian knew about Flashpoint and The Bridge. Maybe this was a lesson learned from the launch and success of Corner Gas, but the presence of Canadian shows on CTV is inescapable.” Read more.

By Diane Wild
Article first published as Dan For Mayor Returns From Exile on Blogcritics

It’s been over a month since new episodes of Dan For Mayor aired on CTV. Over a month since Dan broke up with Brianna, his ex-girlfriend Claire broke up with Mike, and the campaign – with Dan and Claire on opposite sides – was heating up.

“It bugged me in that Canadian shows take a backseat to American shows for sweeps,” said co-star Mary Ashton, who plays Claire, of the May shutout. “But I’m glad CTV is coming back with a push to get people to watch it.”

Ashton and I spoke the day after an ACTRA protest targeting Global for spending millions on American shows while finding room for only one hour of scripted Canadian drama – the new Callum Keith Rennie series Shattered – on their fall schedule. We also spoke the day before CTV announced it was renewing its entire Canadian scripted lineup, including Dan For Mayor.

“It ended in a limbo, where both Dan and Claire are between relationships. She just liberated herself, so who knows what’s going to happen.”

Of course, Ashton knows; the season had finished shooting even before the first episode aired. She’s filled her time waiting for a season two with theatre work, including an upcoming show at the Toronto Fringe Festival – I caught her during a rehearsal lunch break at Kensington Market.

“I loved this episode,” she enthused about Monday’s Claire-centric half hour. “The writers gave me a chance to have some fun. I think it was the most ridiculous for my character, in that she was totally vulnerable – she was trying to figure out what was going on with Brianna and Dan – so she was obviously jealous, but at the same time excited. She was trying to keep a poker face about it all, until she finds out they’ve broken up. I think maybe it’s just a fulfillment of her own ego that she wants to find out he broke up with her for her.”

She also has to contend with Dan professionally as well as personally, after taking a job with Alan, another mayoral candidate. “I think it was a mistake that she worked for him because it was retaliation against Dan, and it kind of adds up in this episode.”

Her character is largely defined by her relationship to Dan, but Ashton sees greater depth in the role than as simply the lead’s ex and possibly future girlfriend. “It is a sitcom, but I think she was well developed in that she has a nice storyline where she’s trying to live up to her own expectations and not to everyone else’s.”

“There was never anything literally written down, but in my own preparation, I think she has issues with her parents. As you get to know them more, I think you see she tried to live up to their expectations.”

The Dan For Mayor audience will finally get to know all the characters better as the last four episodes of the season air this month, starting Monday, June 7.

8 p.m. – HICCUPS – “Model Patient” – NEW EPISODE
Millie (Nancy Robertson) is jealous of Stan’s (Brent Butt) new client and Crystal (Emily Perkins) tries to sabotage Anna’s (Paula Rivera) opportunity to become “the dirty duchess”.

8:30 p.m. – DAN FOR MAYOR – “Revenge is Swifty” – NEW EPISODE
While taking part in the candidate’s debate, Dan (Fred Ewanuick) gets embroiled in a career-ending muffin issue. Jeff (Paul Bates) is in trouble at his own work.

By Diane Wild

I’m selfishly grateful for the six-week gap between Dan For Mayor episodes, since it gave me time to write up more of my months-ago interviews with the co-creators (some quotes were included in an earlier article). Mark Farrell, Paul Mather, and Kevin White are the writers behind the successful CTV series, which just got a second-season renewal, and all also worked together on Corner Gas and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Dan For Mayor returns Monday night.

During the CBC strike of 2005, the three colleagues pitched show ideas to CTV. One was Dan For Mayor, and that’s the one CTV put into development. “It was one of those anxious falling asleep moments where I was thinking, oh God, I have no show to pitch,” White said. “I was thinking of an Australian series called The Games , about the preparation leading up to the Sidney Olympics. I thought, what if you did a small scale version of that, a guy running for mayor, and it was leading up to election night.”

“We continued to develop it, and wrote three scripts over period of three years. They weren’t going to move on it until Corner Gas was done, if they were going to move on it at all.”

Farrell explained how the three writers’ careers entwined starting with 22 Minutes , the show that launched his own successful writing career. He credits “a lot of being in the right place at the right time. I don’t have some sort of Tony Robbins plan – wish for this and visualize it.”

A former stand-up comic, Farrell has a supporting role in The Newsroom and caught the eye of 22 Minutes producer Michael Donovan. “I was such a good actor, he wanted to hire me as a writer,” he quipped. Farrell ended up running the satiric news show, hiring Mather and White along the way.

“It’s a place where you can break into the industry,” Mather said of 22 Minutes. “There’s a lot of gifted comics, but half of it is showing up on time. If you can get people in a place where they can work within a system, there’s so much talent out there. There are so many professional entertainers and I wish we could tap them for TV — it would really help Canadian TV. 22 Minutes helps people make the transition and Mark was always good about going out and finding people instead of just hiring his buddies.”

When Farrell joined his friend Brent Butt to write for Corner Gas, he brought White and Mather to that show as well. At some point in its run, each of them acted as showrunner. With Dan For Mayor , they’re sharing that duty.

“Maybe we’re not friends after this, but before this we were,” joked Farrell. “We have the same sensibility so that part hasn’t been hard at all.”

“We managed to run it by consensus, which is different,” said Mather. “This is the first time I’ve co-showrun and I was a little worried about that.”

“Before I was in comedy troupes so this is a little like that, or being in a band,” continued the former Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie member. “You have to put egos aside a bit and come to a creative decision. I think what you get out of that is more than what any individual would come up with. We’ve worked together before, but this is the first time where it’s not one guy in charge and the other two contributing.”

“We’re all fairly assertive and picky so we don’t shy away from letting each other know what we think,” said White, who also started in sketch comedy – his partner back then was Mark Ellis, the co-creator of Flashpoint . “We’ve had some pretty big battles,” he said of sharing the boss duties three ways, “but they’re always good battles. We’re always on the same page and we’re fighting over the important things, which is getting the stories right.”

White revealed that the last episode of season one is election night, and Dan is not leading going into the vote. Mather pointed out why the audience is rooting for the hapless candidate. “It’s a guy who’s let life pass him by and he’s decided to reinvent himself, ostensibly to impress an ex-girlfriend, but I think really he’s trying to prove to himself that he’s worthwhile. You root for him because you want to see him do that. Comedy still comes out of it, but the characters are vulnerable.”

Because of the long development process, Farrell, Mather and White wrote all season one episodes, but “knock wood – knock asbestos filled walls – we’ll get more writers if we go on,” Farrell said before the show’s premiere. “We like writing scripts. I don’t know if we’ll like writing them next year.”

With CTV’s announcement this week that the show would see a season two, they’ll now get to test that theory.

From Alex Strachan of Canwest News Service:

• What’s wrong with the Canadian TV dramas on the networks this fall . . . and what’s right about the comedies.
  “Canadians are watching Hiccups and Dan For Mayor, in other words, because there isn’t a same-but-better version on NBC or CBS.” Read more.

CTV Announces Industry-Leading 2010-2011 Canadian Television Package

• CTV renews entire scripted slate: more FLASHPOINT, more THE BRIDGE, more HICCUPS, more DAN FOR MAYOR, more THE LISTENER
• CTV announces new daytime series THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW, debuting this fall
• Season 3 of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE CANADA to premiere August 15
• New international co-production drama THE BORGIAS joins CTV and Bravo! in 2011
• COMEDY NOW! is back for Season 13, ETALK returns for Season and W5 marks Season 45
• THE JUNO AWARDS, THE GILLER PRIZE and WE DAY all return

Following one of its most successful seasons ever for original Canadian programming, CTV unveiled today its 2010-2011 Canadian television package. The network has renewed its entire scripted slate of five original series, ordered a new daytime series, and confirmed the premiere date for its award-winning Top 20 hit dance competition series. Delivering more viewers to Canadian programming than any other network, the roster of original programming totals nearly 100 hours of prime-time Canadian programming on CTV alone during the 2010-2011 season.

With the majority of the original productions due to go into production this summer, CTV’s original series will premiere throughout the network’s 52-week schedule in 2010/2011. However, CTV confirmed today THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW, a new daytime series starring Gemini Award-winner and CHUM FM personality Marilyn Denis, premieres this fall. The series airs daily at 10 a.m. following LIVE! WITH REGIS AND KELLY and prior to THE VIEW, providing an uninterrupted flow of live programming on CTV each day from 6 a.m. – 1 p.m.

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From a CTV media release:

For the 2009-10 season, CTV had:

• the most-watched Canadian drama, FLASHPOINT (1.5 million viewers);
• the #1 new Canadian drama, THE BRIDGE (1 million viewers);
• the #1 new comedy programs (Canadian or American) of the year, HICCUPS (972,000) and DAN FOR MAYOR (913,000);

DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION – Sundays at 7 and 7:30 p.m. ET beginning May 30 – NEW EPISODES

Sav and Anya have been planning for their Spring Formal for as long as they can remember. That’s until Sav’s parents announce that their family friends the Hassans are coming for a visit that night and are bringing their daughter Farrah – Sav’s maybe-possible-future wife. Unable to come clean with Anya, Sav digs himself deeper trying to please his family. Will Sav go to prom with Anya? Or is the girl his parents chose for him the solution to all his troubles?

HICCUPS – Mondays at 8 p.m. ET beginning June 7 – NEW EPISODES

Continuing on HICCUPS, Millie (Nancy Robertson) is jealous of Stan’s (Brent Butt) new client and Crystal (Emily Perkins) tries to sabotage Anna’s (Paula Rivera) opportunity to become “the dirty duchess”.

DAN FOR MAYOR – Mondays at 8:30 p.m. ET beginning June 7 – NEW EPISODES

As the election draws nearer, Dan gets embroiled in a potential career-ending muffin issue. Meanwhile, campaign manager Jeff (Paul Bates) is in trouble at his own employment. Toronto Mayor David Miller makes a cameo appearance.

COMEDY NOW! – Saturdays at 10 p.m. ET beginning June 12 – NEW SEASON

Entering its 12th season, this hilarious all-Canadian, star-making stand-up series has won awards all over North America. A TV calling card for comedic success, COMEDY NOW! has featured some of Canada’s most successful comedians, including Brent Butt, Jeremy Hotz, Harland Williams, Shaun Majumder, Gavin Crawford, Gerry Dee, Nikki Payne, Roman Danylo and Russell Peters. Starring in the all-new 12th season are Ian Bagg, Dylan Rhymer, Dave Hemstad, JP Mass, Allyson Smith, Darcy Michael, Debra DiGiovanni, Ivan Decker, Kelly Taylor, Nick Beaton, Dana Alexander, Tyler Hawkins, Trent McClellan and Simon King.

From Canada Media Fund:

• Behind the Comedy Scenes with Dan for Mayor
  “Getting Mark Farrell on the phone is a great opportunity to pry for some inside info on Canadian comedy success. After all, Mark is the guy, together with Paul Mather and Kevin White, who created CTV’s new hit series Dan for Mayor, and he’s also been head writer and showrunner on Corner Gas, chief of the writing room for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, was Ken Finkleman’s man of letters on Married Life, and the scribe behind some of the best live-broadcast Gemini Awards shows. So we have to ask, what is the secret to making top-rated, critically acclaimed, audience-adored comedy?” Read more.

8 p.m. – HICCUPS – “Hippy Anniversary” – NEW EPISODE
Millie’s (Nancy Robertson) anniversary gift puts Stan (Brent Butt) and Anna (Paula Rivera) at odds with each other, while Taylor (David Ingram) and Joyce (Laura Soltis) try to quietly take on a case of copyright infringement.

8:30 p.m. – DAN FOR MAYOR – “The Podium Conundra” – NEW EPISODE
Jeff (Paul Bates) has trouble convincing the other Mayoral candidates that Dan (Fred Ewanuick) should take part in the upcoming televised debate, while Dan and Brianna (Agam Darshi) decide to go public with their romance.