Tag Archives: Knowledge Network

Children's Programming

Knowledge Network announces Knowledge Kids’ first-ever original animated series Luna, Chip and Inkie: Adventure Rangers Go

From a media release:

British Columbia’s trusted viewer-supported public broadcaster, Knowledge Network, is excited to announce the debut and first-look of their first ever original animated series Luna, Chip & Inkie: Adventure Rangers Go, featuring their longtime mascots of the same name. The series, for children aged 3-6, will premiere in Spring 2022 on Knowledge Network in B.C., and across Canada on the Knowledge Kids app and website. TFO is excited to air the series in French beginning September 2022. Along with the announcement, the Knowledge Network has released a first-look image and teaser video of the new series.

The made-in-Canada production has the financial support of the Canada Media Fund, Shaw Rocket Fund and Epic Story Media, who is also the global distributor of the series. The music-filled series is based on the well-known animated characters, Luna the owl, Chip the beaver, and Inkie the octopus, who have appeared in Knowledge Kids branding, books and video games since 2008. In each episode, the trio of enthusiastic helpers tackle problems in their town, but not before they experience some hilarious flops that require them to look for different ways of unlocking a solution.

“Creative problem-solving, resilience and teamwork are central to the mission of Knowledge Kids content,” said Michele Paris, Senior Manager of Children’s Programming and Executive Producer on the series. “Luna, Chip and Inkie will help kids see new ways of approaching a problem and persevering to get the job done!”

Set in the forests, mountains, lakes and ocean near the fictional town of Eagle Creek, the series is inspired by the rugged, natural beauty of the Pacific West Coast. “Kids worldwide have spent more time than usual indoors lately,” said Paris. “This series is a love-letter to nature. We hope it’ll remind kids of the incredible adventures that await them when they head outdoors.”

The beautifully animated 2D series is written and produced entirely in Canada. Paris is joined by Pat Ellingson, retired head of TVO Kids, in script development with Executive Story Editors Shelly Hoffman and Rob Pincombe (Ollie and Moon, Camp Lakebottom). Renowned education and child development consultant Cheryl Gotthelf is advising on scripts, as is J’net Ayayqwayaksheelth, an Indigenous Arts Educator from the Nuu-chah-nulth tribe on Vancouver Island. Series writers include a number of preschool veterans, along with a diverse group of emerging writers, including graduates of the BIPOC TV & Film Kids TV Writing Bootcamp. Composer on the music-driven series is the Emmy-nominated Daniel Ingram (“My Little Pony”). Each episode includes an original song, which will also stream on the Knowledge Kids platforms in short music videos, encouraging kids to sing along.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: British Columbia: An Untold History is a crash course in the province’s diverse story

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I’m always up for furthering my knowledge of Canadian history, especially when it comes to the provinces west of Ontario. And, thanks to the appropriately titled Knowledge Network, I can do that with British Columbia.

Debuting Tuesday at 9 p.m. PT on Knowledge—and available to stream for free on the channel’s website—the four-episode British Columbia: An Untold History digs deep to trace Canada’s most western land. Written and directed by Kevin Eastwood, whose excellent “Humboldt: The New Season” was broadcast on CBC Docs POV in 2019, the four-parter is a dramatic retelling of the province’s history, warts and all.

“As a settler who has lived their whole life in B.C., and went to school and university here, I thought I knew a lot about this place, but making British Columbia: An Untold History taught me I didn’t really know that much,” Eastwood said in a press release in support of the show’s debut. He notes that over 70 people contributed to it through interviews with authors, historians, knowledge keepers, elders, families, and descendants of historical figures. Indigenous, Chinese, Japanese, Punjabi, Black, and European stories are complemented by archival photography, film artifacts and footage to make for a fascinating series.

Tuesday’s debut, “Change + Resistance,” traces the Indigenous resistance to oppression in British Columbia. With the gold rushes and establishment of the new colony, Indigenous leaders resisted settler laws and challenged unsanctioned expansion into First Nations territories, only to be forced onto reserves. First Nations endured more losses when the federal Indian Act and residential schools criminalized Indigenous culture.

British Columbia: An Untold History airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. PT on Knowledge Network. It can be streamed on Knowledge Network’s website.

Image courtesy of Kevin Eastwood.

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Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Documentary series following British Columbia’s paramedics and dispatchers takes viewers to the front lines of emergency health care

From a media release:

Knowledge Network has commissioned a 10-part documentary series on the work of paramedics and dispatchers at BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) responding to emergencies in the greater Vancouver area. Through real-life stories from the 911 call to the paramedic response on-scene and the ambulance ride to hospital, viewers will have an inside look at the challenges that dedicated professionals face daily.

BC Emergency Health Services provides pre-hospital emergency services and inter-facility patient transfers throughout the province, and oversees the BC Ambulance Service and BC Patient Transfer Services.

Careful protocols and privacy measures were established and followed during filming and in post-production to ensure patient care was not compromised while respecting staff and patient privacy. Knowledge Network has leveraged funding from the Canada Media Fund and the TELUS Fund to help finance the project, and has partnered with B.C.-based Lark Productions to produce the documentary series, who also produced Knowledge Network’s successful documentary series Emergency Room: Life + Death at VGH, taking viewers behind the scenes in one of Canada’s busiest emergency departments.

Lark Productions’ Louise Clark and Erin Haskett serve as Executive Producers on the series. “Building on our rewarding relationship with Knowledge Network, we are privileged to now work with BC Emergency Health Services and share their stories,” said Erin Haskett. “This is a unique opportunity to provide viewers with an inside look at the work of the paramedics and dispatchers, share their daily experiences and directly see the impact they have on our community.”

The world premiere is planned for broadcast on Knowledge Network and Knowledge.ca in spring 2019.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Children's Programming

Hi Opie! takes Toronto by storm

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It’s one thing to be told Opie is a smash with kids, but it’s entirely another to see it up close and personal.

That was the case Sunday at Toronto’s Word on the Street Festival celebrating literacy and the printed word. TVOKids’ superstar Opie was on hand alongside Gisele to encourage imagination through storytelling—Opie starred in his own bedtime story as Opie-naut, where he encountered aliens called Purple Lurples—and the kids in attendance ate it up. While some preschool aged kids bopped, bounced and bellowed, others stood in rapt attention as Opie, sporting a helmet constructed of aluminum pie plates, told of his otherworldly adventures.

Those adventures extend to Season 2 of Hi Opie! Currently airing on TVO, City Saskatchewan and The Knowledge Network (see airtimes below), Hi Opie! continues to educate and entertain as he helps children transition from home to school. A creation of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the orange-skinned kindergartner is voiced and operated by Jordan Lockhart. It’s quite a kick to hear Opie’s voice come out of the mouth of the lanky, sunglass-wearing Lockhart; he says it took time for him to figure out how Opie would sound and act.

“There was a lot of sweat, blood and tears put into finding the voice and the character,” Lockhart admits. “I think we started shooting [Season 1] before we really landed on what it is now. I’m really happy with the way the character has developed over these last two years and I’m excited to see where he goes from here.” Lockhart landed the plum gig after meeting with legendary puppeteer Rob Mills at an event. Mills told Lockhart to introduce himself to longtime Henson show producer Lawrence Mirkin; the two connected and struck up a relationship. A year later, Mirkin contacted Lockhart to send in an audition tape, followed by reading a script and then a callback for his latest production: Hi Opie!

Lockhart is constantly amazed not only by the quality of scripts he encounters on the set—the series expands to multiple classrooms this year—but by the child actors he interacts with on-set. Unlike most actors, he’s quite happy crouched down and out of a camera’s line of site and takes pride in an odd circumstance unique to puppeteers.

“It’s incredible to see these little people but into the illusion and it’s enormously gratifying to me,” Lockhart explains. “They are completely unaware of my presence and are locked into Opie. You have to really be present and listen to these people, and what you end up seeing is a complete abandonment of reality.”

Hi Opie! airs weekdays at 6:15 a.m. ET, 10:30 a.m. ET and 1:50 p.m. ET on TVO, weekdays at 9 a.m. CST and 11 a.m. CST on City Saskatchewan and weekdays at 11:50 a.m. PT on The Knowledge Network.

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