Tag Archives: CBC comedy

Season 2 of CBC’s My 90-Year-Old Roommate is a buddy comedy worth seeing

Mall walking is back and cooler than ever.

CBC’s My 90-Year-Old Roommate—all 12 episodes of Season 2 are available now on the network’s website—is a comedy series created by Ethan Cole (he also plays Ethan in the series). Based on the viral web series starring Ethan and Joe Cole, Explaining Things to My Grandfather, Season 1 oaired in 2016 (catch up on Season 1 here).

If you are a newcomer to My 90-Year-Old Roommate, here’s a little flashback to what happened in the first season. Ethan (Ethan Cole) moved in with his grandpa Joe (Paul Soles). Jobless, slacker Ethan is always seeking love via dating apps. The one thing he wants to do for sure is get laid and have fun. On the other hand, his grandfather is more traditional. He tries to teach his grandson how to be a well-mannered man in modern society. The combination of watching these two worlds, modern and old-fashioned, through the lens of My 90-Year-Old Roommate is truly addictive. But there is more than just a relationship between a grandson and grandpa. It’s a mirror of two generations that try to coexist.

The first season was lively, bright and unfortunately ended really quickly. I’m thrilled CBC greenlit a second season.

Season 2 starts with an episode about live streaming when Joe learns what it is and its potential. And Ethan, the wonderful grandson that he is, makes live videos from all the important occasions Joe doesn’t want to attend, whether it’s a funeral (if you’re watching from home you can eat candy!) or a circumcision ceremony. One of the live streams doesn’t end very well, but it’s for you to find out which one! Upcoming storylines see Ethan and Paul double date, transform a knitting club into an e-commerce venture and explore self-diagnosis via Web MD.

Season 2 of My 90-Year-Old Roommate is available on CBC’s website now.

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Creative comedy Earthling House Huntress lands real estate on CBC Comedy

Last year around this same time, I spoke to the creators of three potential series—Earthling House Huntress, Hit on Me and Free Space—looking for help from the Independent Production Fund. And though the folks behind Earthling House Huntress didn’t get the funding they’d hoped for, that didn’t stop them from going ahead with a first season of the series anyway, available on CBC.

Created by Ivy Johnson and Jordan Himelfarb, Earthling House Huntress takes place in a world where space travel is simple and aliens are coming to the Greater Toronto Area in search of real estate with curb appeal and a great price. Enter Liz Klein (Tess Degenstein), who specializes in helping ETs find a forever home.

Inspired both by Johnson’s real-life experience as a real estate agent’s assistant and the pair’s observations while buying their own home in Toronto—a good real estate agent spends a lot of time with people and has to be able to make friends with anybody—Johnson and Himelfarb thought Liz Klein would be the perfect ambassador to Earth, able to really be super-charming with the most bizarrely imaginable creatures. The bubbly introduction by Liz sets EHH‘s wacky tone.

“Do you fear an encroaching black hole?” Liz asks. “Want to take a dip in an ocean that isn’t boiling? If you’re an alien with access to high-speed intergalactic space transit and are looking to relocate, I can find your terrestrial forever home.” Nothing stops the ever-positive, endlessly energetic Liz from finding an alien a home. That’s evidenced in Episode 1 when she shows three properties to a bearded, wrinkle-faced laser gun-toting alien named Gorm (Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll) who hates bright, open spaces (his enemies could attack him at any moment) and accuses a collection of twigs in a vase of mocking him.

Part of the fun of EHH are the reactions the aliens have to things we’re used to. A platter of cookies is a potential threat, using remote car door locks are a challenge and a bathtub could be a bed. I may be looking too deeply into it, but I felt like EHH is, through the eyes of these otherworldly beings, shining a light on what new Canadians feel when they come to this country. They feel out of place and out of sorts, needing a Liz Klein to help them feel at home.

Future “Aliens of the Week” on EHH include Anders Yates and Nelu Handa (pictured above alongside Degenstein), as well as puppetry from Brad Cook and voice work from Tyler Murree. The series is directed by Simone Stock.

All four Season 1 episodes of Earthling House Huntress can be streamed on CBC now.

Image courtesy of CBC.

 

 

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Crank it up! CBC Music releases Crawford’s playlist

Music is a huge part of television. The right orchestral piece can add incredible drama and the correct bit of rock can add pop to a scene. Crawford definitely uses music to that advantage.

Available for streaming via CBC.ca and the CBC TV app, Crawford centres on a dysfunctional family headed by Cynthia (Jill Hennessy), an award-winning cereal executive trying to juggle work, her husband Owen, and her lover; and Owen (John Carroll Lynch), a former police chief who suffered a bullet wound on the job and communicates via an app on his smartphone. Adding to the nuttiness are siblings Don (Kyle Mac), a musician who returns home following an emotional breakdown; Wendy (Alice Moran), Brian (Daniel Davis Yang) and a family of raccoons. Yes, you read that right. Raccoons.

Now CBC Music has teamed with Crawford co-creators Mike Clattenburg and Mike O’Neill for the ultimate playlist. The series’ original soundtrack, along with additional songs from TUNS, The Weeknd, The Tragically Hip, A Tribe Called Quest, Tracy Chapman, Prince, Holy Fuck and Rush make up a list of 92 curated tracks. Check them out below.

“It’s what would happen if some of the of the people who worked on Crawford, including me, took turns playing music at a party. Some of it is thematic some of it is personal,” O’Neill says. Clattenburg, O’Neill and executive producer Laura Michalchyshyn, and cast—Jill Hennessy, John Carroll Lynch, Kyle Mac, Alice Moran, Daniel Davis Yang—share some of the music that served as inspiration while writing and filming the series.

In the below video, O’Neill and Clattenburg discuss how they scored Crawford‘s original soundtrack.

 

Crawford‘s first season is available for streaming via CBC.ca and the CBC TV app. It will be broadcast on CBC later this year.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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Just For Laughs ComedyPRO and CBC Comedy team-up for CBC comedy originals pitch program

From a media release:

Just For Laughs and CBC Comedy are looking for the funniest new voices in Canadian comedy with the announcement of the CBC Comedy Originals Pitch Program — an open-forum pitch event which takes place Thursday, July 27th during the leading industry event of the comedy business – Just For Laughs ComedyPRO.

The CBC Comedy Originals Pitch Program will offer five selected Canadian creator and producer teams the opportunity to pitch their original web or TV concepts to a panel of senior development executives and key creatives from CBC Comedy.

The event is open to Canadians, 18 years of age and over. Deadline for submissions is May 15, 2017. For details and guidelines visit: http://comedypro.hahaha.com/submissions/.

Series that have originated from Just For Laughs ComedyPRO include hit CBC digital original comedies My 90-Year-Old-Roommate and Newborn Moms.

All interested applicants will be considered for both the CBC Comedy Originals Pitch as well as the relevant short or long-form Stand Up & Pitch pitch programs. The deadline for Stand Up & Pitch has been extended to May 15 to accommodate the new program. Guidelines are posted at http://comedypro.hahaha.com/submissions/.

The CBC will also host ‘CBC Comedy Funny Lunch’ where delegates can meet Canadian comics, creators and representatives from CBC Comedy.

Just For Laughs ComedyPRO runs from July 26 – 29, 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Montreal, part of the 35th annual Just for Laughs Festival, which takes place from July 12 – 31st, 2017.

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