All posts by Greg David

Prior to becoming a television critic and owner of TV, Eh?, Greg David was a critic for TV Guide Canada, the country's most trusted source for TV news. He has interviewed television actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes folks from hundreds of television series from Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He is a podcaster, public speaker, weekly radio guest and educator, and past member of the Television Critics Association.

Link: Say Yes to the Dress and the glory of frock opera

From John Doyle:

Now me, I haven’t been to a wedding in years. But I do enjoy the bridal shopping experience every week.

It is totally true. On a regular evening when I’ve done the dishes and finished the ironing, I’ll relax with an episode of Say Yes to the Dress. (Sometimes it’s Four Weddings Canada, which is outrageous, simmering with snark, but that’s another story.) The SYTTD franchise is one of reality television’s great triumphs. There’s a genius to it. Continue reading.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Danielle Graham Announced as New Co-Anchor of CTV’s ETALK

bell_media

From a media release:

New year, new ETALK! CTV announced today that Danielle Graham is the new Co-Anchor of ETALK, Canada’s most-watched entertainment news program. Formerly an ETALK senior reporter, Graham begins her new role alongside Anchor Ben Mulroney tonight, as they get ready to kick off ETALK’s exclusive awards season coverage. Graham will be front and centre for all the action with the biggest stars in the world, starting with THE 72nd ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE® AWARDS, airing live across the country Sunday, Jan. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CTV (visit CTV.ca to confirm local listings). ETALK’s Graham will be positioned alongside Mulroney as the only Canadian outlet to have an exclusive platform on one of the biggest red carpets of the year.

With close to a decade of national TV experience, Danielle Graham’s charming personality has put her face- to-face with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, covering high-profile events both here at home, and around the world. In recent years, Graham has interviewed the likes of Ben Affleck, James Franco, Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Aniston, Beyoncé Knowles, and most recently Taylor Swift. Graham has also made her mark on red carpets around the world including the Toronto International Film Festival® (TIFF), Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, Elton John’s annual post-Oscar® bash, and THE 65th PRIMETIME EMMY®AWARDS. Graham was also the first ETALK reporter to go on the road with the CTV smash-hit THE AMAZING RACE CANADA during its inaugural season, and co-hosted THE AMAZING RACE CANADA after-show, INSIDE THE RACE.

Graham got her start in broadcasting in 2001 working at various broadcasters before making her on-camera debut on YTV’s weekly music countdown show THE HIT LIST prior to joining Bell Media in 2005 as an entertainment reporter for STAR! DAILY. She officially joined the ETALK team in 2007 as a reporter, and was promoted to Senior Reporter in 2013. Born and raised in Guelph, Ontario, Danielle Graham graduated from Seneca College with a diploma in Radio and Television Broadcasting.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Harris and Talbot battle budgets and property costs on Love It Or List It Vancouver

Todd Talbot wants to go on the record with a pitch for a new series starring he and Jillian Harris for W Network. He even leans in close so my iPhone records it loud and clear.

“I think there is a better show out there with the stuff that hasn’t aired,” he says with a mischievous smile. “We have been gunning for it. For the record, whoever is listening, we’re game!”

In the meantime, the duo will stick with the formula that has made them household names with the W Network crowd, Love It Or List It Vancouver, returning tonight with a new season. Once again, Harris and Talbot descend on Vancouver homeowners who are looking for a major change. Will they heed Harris’ advice and renovate their family home or will they side with Talbot and sell the joint and find a new abode? While the structure of Love It Or List It Vancouver hasn’t changed, Harris says the flavour and tone certainly has.

“Now that we kind of have a grasp on things this is more organic and the camera style is looser. I think people are going to be able to relate to it even more,” she says. “The first two seasons we were trying to figure out the formula.”

“I’ve been having to deal with you,” Talbot counters to his co-star. “It’s taken me a year to do that!” The snappy back and forth between  the feisty Harris and acerbic Talbot is entertaining as heck, and serves as a balance to the stresses of watching homeowners agonize over staying put or moving somewhere new. Those stresses are shared by interior designer Harris and real estate agent Talbot, who must struggle within the confines of limited renovation budgets (she) or an exploding housing market driving more and more Vancouverites to the suburbs (he).

“It has gotten ridiculously expensive to live in Vancouver,” Talbot admits. “You almost become numb to the pricing. You don’t even bat an eye at a million dollars. The biggest challenge is faced by those families with young kids who are moving out of their condo and into a detached house because those homes have skyrocketed in price. They want to move out of the densified downtown and into a family neighbourhood and the cost barrier there is ridiculously high.”

The solution? Income suites in homes and laneway housing, the former of which aren’t always legal and the latter a mini-house built where a garage used to be on a century-home’s property. Or people are staying put and renovating. Enter Harris, who has her own challenges to face.

“I think a lot of people come on the show because they want to renovate,” she says. “But there is only so much that I can do with their limited existing space, so they move.”

“My biggest challenge this season are the fricking character homes,” she continues. “The homeowners want to have them renovated and sometimes it’s just cheaper to knock them down and start over again. We have so many off-camera conversations with the homeowners to tell them that, and they don’t care. They want us to renovate.”

Sounds like just the sort of stuff we’d love to see on the proposed show Talbot is hoping for.

Love It Or List It Vancouver returns Monday at 10 p.m. ET on W Network.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Tonight: Lost Girl, Pirate’s Passage

Lost Girl, “It’s Your Lucky Fae,” Showcase
When an oracle goes missing, Bo poses undercover on a Fae dating website to lure the suspect.

Pirate’s Passage, CBC
Set in 1952 Grey Rocks, Nova Scotia — a centuries old town that was famous 250 years ago as a favoured port of pirates – PIRATE’S PASSAGE follows the story of 12-year-old Jim. Fraught by the death of his father and forced to endure schoolyard bullying each day, Jim manages to carry on, buoyed by his optimistic imagination and fueled by his sense of adventure. His widowed mother struggles to keep their livelihood, the Admiral Anson Inn, from being sold. It is an ongoing battle until the sudden arrival of Captain Johnson, whose small sailboat has been thrown off course by a storm, changes the family’s life.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Preview: Sutherland’s magical Pirate’s Passage sails onto the small screen

There’s no better way to learn about history than to be immersed in it. Literally. That’s what young Jim learns when Captain Charles Johnson sails into his life in Pirate’s Passage.

Based on the Governor General’s Literary Award-winning novel of the same name by William Gilkerson of Mahone Bay, N.S., CBC’s Sunday night animated TV-movie was produced, co-written and voiced by Donald Sutherland. Sutherland and Brad Peyton (Republic of Doyle) have weaved an entertaining story and, paired with exceptional animation from Sheridan College grads Jamie Gallant and Mike Barth, created one heck of a good time. (Check out the teaser below.)

Sutherland voices Captain Charles Johnson, a scallywag who magically jumps from the 18th century to 1952 Grey Rocks, N.S., where he sails ashore and befriends 12-year-old Jim (Gage Munroe, PAW Patrol). Jim has been assigned a school project on pirates, so Capt. Johnson’s arrival is fortuitous. Jim learns first-hand about pirates through the old codger’s stories, detailed adventures that not only entertain Jim (and viewers) but also educate via a stop amid the Vikings and a visit with Calico Jack (Paul Gross, Slings & Arrows). (Jim does, after all, have to learn enough to win over his teacher.) He’s also educated in how to handle bullies. Jim’s mother, Kerstin (Carrie-Anne Moss), learns that too; she’s battling with the town’s most powerful man, Roy Moehner (Kim Coates, Sons of Anarchy), who wants to buy her ramshackle inn and turn it into a luxury location.

Other Canadian actors voicing characters in Pirate’s Passage include Gordon Pinsent as the town barber, Megan Follows as saucy Meg O’Leary and Colm Feore as Jim’s father.

The A-list talent is almost outperformed by the animation, which takes on the effect–to me at least–of watercolour paintings on the move. Flying snow and seagulls a blurred shapes in the sky and piles of melting snow are smears of white on top of green grass. The characters move amid a cool palette of colour highlighted by stunning greys the make up the churning sea off the coast of fictional Grey Rocks.

I’ve never read Gilkerson’s book, but thanks to Sunday’s flick, I’m going to.

Pirate’s Passage airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBC.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail