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.
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Corner Gas: The Movie gets super-simulcast on CTV & CTV Two

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From a media release:

Ten years after the debut of one of Canadian television’s most beloved comedy series, CORNER GAS returns to CTV Dec. 17, it was announced today. CORNER GAS: THE MOVIE makes its super-simulcast network premiere just in time for the holidays on Wednesday, Dec. 17 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV, CTV Two, and CTV GO. In the not-to-be-missed two-hour film, the fine folks of Dog River, Saskatchewan return home to the network that made them household names as they face their biggest crisis ever. CORNER GAS returns to CTV following its series finale on April 13, 2009 when more than 3 million viewers said goodbye to the hit comedy – five years later, still the largest audience on record for a Canadian scripted series.

Leading up to the network premiere of the movie is an all-new ETALK preview special, ETALK PRESENTS CORNER GAS: THE MOVIE, premiering Friday, Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and CTV GO. And if that isn’t enough to fill the tanks of viewers craving more “Gas”, CORNER GAS: THE MOVIE debuts Monday, Dec. 22 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The Comedy Network, following an all-day marathon of fan favourite episodes, starting at 6 a.m. ET. A special sneak peek of the movie is also airing on The Movie Network on Monday, Dec. 8 at 9 p.m. ET. 

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Canadian comics offer up laughs and Too Much Information

Too Much Information is not Comedy Now. It’s certainly not The Ron James Show. It’s even more ribald than Funny As Hell. Too Much Information is, as the title suggests, a lot of shocking–and mostly sexually-based–talk from some of Canada’s hottest comedians.

“That’s the kind of the beauty of having the show on something like Super Channel,” TMI host Norm Sousa says. “Obviously there are some standards that we have to uphold but for the most part anything goes.” Inspired by such English panel shows as Never Mind the Buzzcocks and 8 out of 10 Cats, Sousa introduces episode subjects like “Sex,” “Fitness” or “Porn” and then moderates the controlled chaos that spews from the mouths of homegrown comedians like Carla Collins, Lauren Ash, Mark Forward, Sitara Hewitt, Fraser Young, Aisha Alfa, Boomer Phillips, Marty Adams, Justin Landry and Nicole Arbour, to name a few. Over 30 funny folks were chosen to participate; then Kathleen Phillips, Pat Thornton, Luciano Casimiri and Sousa teamed in the writers’ room to come up with what he would say as host.

Many of the talent involved are improv performers and don’t have the opportunity to tell stories on-stage like stand-up comedians do. Sousa spotlights Ash as an example; the Second City Toronto veteran used the TMI forum to regale the live audience with her outrageous life encounters. Divided into two teams of three, the comics use the spotlight to unveil more private sides of their lives thanks to the questions Sousa opens each part of the discussion with. There is a rough points system that Sousa uses to declare a winning team, but he’s fast and loose with that power, admitting he sometimes secretly awarded a team the overall win as soon as they said something he really liked.

Production of Lone Eagle’s TMI had the air of a long stand-up road tour: 39 episodes filmed in 10 days. Sousa laughs when he recalls not being able to read the cue cards on the second Thursday during taping of the day’s fourth show. What got him through?

“What really helps you get through it is that the panelists are so fantastic and so hilarious that we were having a good time,” Sousa says. “And, at the end of the day, I knew when I went back to the dressing room there would be a beer there waiting for me.”

Catch Sousa at the Toronto’s Comedy Bar where he appears Friday nights in Catch 23.

Too Much Information debuts Tuesday at 11 p.m. ET on Super Channel.

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