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.
Industry News

Courtney Campbell named new president of JV Productions; Kirk Hipkiss new executive VP

From a media release:

Toronto-based JV Productions Inc. announces the appointment of Courtney Campbell as the unscripted company’s President. Campbell takes over the role from founder Vyvyan Campbell, who recently retired after starting the company almost 21 years ago. Kirk Hipkiss has also been appointed to the role of Executive Vice President. Both roles are effective immediately.

As JV Productions’ new President, Campbell will spearhead the further development and growth of the company’s creative and strategic direction — including content development and production for a variety of markets and buyers in Canada, the US and abroad.

“There are so many exciting opportunities out there — whether we’re talking OTT or linear, non-scripted or scripted, regional or global,” says Courtney Campbell, President, JV Productions. “I want to see JV make the most of all of it.”

Under Campbell’s direction, the company is already in development on a new real estate format with HGTV US. They are also developing talent for a new adventure series with a major US broadcaster, negotiating their first book option deal with a UK publisher, and pitching and developing multiple projects in both the unscripted and scripted space.

Campbell has worked for JV Productions Inc. since its start in 1997. She has developed, executive produced, directed, and done script work on a wide variety of projects since the company’s inception — including their most popular lifestyle series: Selling New York (HGTV), Curse of the Frozen Gold (Animal Planet & History Canada), and Yours, Mine or Ours (Bravo US). Campbell is a journalism school graduate of Ryerson Polytechnic University. For Courtney Campbell’s full bio, please click here.

As Kirk Hipkiss moves into the position of Executive Vice President, he will continue to execute the creative style and vision for JV’s new development and future series, as well as spearhead new scripted opportunities for the company.  Since 2000, Hipkiss has acted as Executive Producer, Director and Editor for JV Productions Inc. Kirk’s full bio can be found here.

About JV Productions
JV Productions Inc. is an innovative production company based in Toronto, Canada. The company has been making high quality, entertaining and original documentary, reality and lifestyle programming since 1997. JV has produced hundreds of hours of television for networks around the globe. Highlights include Selling New York (HGTV), Curse of the Frozen Gold (Animal Planet & History Canada), and Yours, Mine or Ours (Bravo).

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Bletchley Circle: San Francisco, Industry News

Citytv to broadcast original Bletchley Circle: San Francisco

From a media release:

Imagine a prime-time schedule packed with more programming that stirs excitement and captures the hearts of Canadian TV lovers. Today Rogers Media unveils Citytv’s 2018/19 schedule, anchored by last season’s proven hits and strengthened by highly-anticipated buzzy new shows. Rick Brace, President of Rogers Media, Colette Watson, Senior Vice President of Television & Broadcast Operations, together with the executive team, will present Citytv’s new Fall and midseason schedules to advertisers and media this afternoon at Toronto’s iconic Massey Hall.

The new Citytv schedule boasts 11 new shows, the return of 16 fan favourites, 3 live events and specials, and underscores a renewed investment in the 10 p.m. timeslot with two nights of compelling new dramas. While Hockey Night in Canada reigns supreme on Saturday nights, viewers will discover exciting new shows every other night of the week during the 2018/19 season.

Stories with Heart:

Whether bonded by blood or by choice, the power of family and friendship runs deep through Citytv’s 2018/19 lineup, with dramas and live-event programming that explore these complicated, messy, and tender relationships with the people who – for better or worse – matter the most. Rocked by the sudden loss of one of their own, Boston friends support each other through love, loss, and life in A Million Little Things – the fall season’s most anticipated breakout hit drama. New drama Manifest explores the unsettling lives of the long-missing passengers and crew of Montego Air Flight 828 as they try to understand what happened to them – and what they’re meant to do with second chances. Parenthood is tough – and family life in the Marvel Universe is no exception when mom and dad discover their kids have mutant super powers in the new-to-Citytv family adventure The Gifted. And renegades with retro style are coming to Citytv this Fall, as the code-cracking crime-solving Bletchley women take their formidable skills stateside to tackle new mysteries in the Citytv original The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco.

THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE: SAN FRANCISCO
60-minute scripted Citytv original drama series
Fridays at 8 p.m.
Meet the original women who code. The first Bletchley Circle series followed a group of four female codebreakers at the elite Second World War code-breaking centre Bletchley Park, who used their skills to investigate a series of complex crimes. This new season picks up three years later in 1956, as Jean and Millie depart London for San Francisco to investigate the murder of a close friend. They are joined there by North American code-breakers Iris and Hailey who, like their British counterparts, find themselves undervalued and overlooked despite their indispensable war efforts. With renewed purpose, the code-breaking-turned-crime-solving team teases out an array of mysteries in the Bay Area.

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Produced by Omnifilm Entertainment in Association with BritBox and World Productions
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Brian Hamilton, Jake Lushington, and Michael MacLennan
CAST: Crystal Balint (Prison Break), Julie Graham (Doc Martin), Chanelle Peloso (Level Up), and Rachael Stirling (Detectorists)

Citytv’s Fall Schedule
All times ET/PT; s=simulcast

Monday

  • 8 p.m. Dancing with the Stars (s)
  • 10 p.m. Manifest *NEW* (s)

Tuesday

  • 8 p.m. The Gifted *NEW to Citytv* (s)
  • 9 p.m. Lethal Weapon (s)
  • 10 p.m. Mom
  • 10:30 p.m. Mom

Wednesday

  • 8 p.m. Black-ish (post-release)
  • 8:30 p.m. Cool Kids *NEW* (pre-release)
  • 9 p.m. Modern Family (s)
  • 9:30 p.m. Single Parents *NEW* (s)
  • 10 p.m. A Million Little Things *NEW* (s)

Thursday

  • 8 p.m. Bad Blood *Citytv original*
  • 9 p.m. Mom (s)
  • 9:30 p.m. Murphy Brown *NEW* (s)
  • 10 p.m. Mom
  • 10:30 p.m. Mom

 Friday

  • 8 p.m. The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco *NEW Citytv original*
  • 9 p.m. Hell’s Kitchen (s)
  • 10 p.m. Mom
  • 10:30 p.m. Mom

Saturday

  • Hockey Night in Canada

Sunday

  • 8 p.m. The Simpsons *NEW to Citytv* (s)
  • 8:30 p.m. Bob’s Burgers (s)
  • 9 p.m. Family Guy (s)
  • 9:30 p.m. Rel *NEW* (s)
  • 10 p.m. Mom
  • 10:30 p.m. Mom

 

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Awards

Link: Diverse storytelling wins big at final night of 2018 Leos

From Sabrina Furminger of YVR Screen Scene:

Link: Diverse storytelling wins big at final night of 2018 Leos
A feature film about life in Afghanistan, a music-driven documentary about the fight for Indigenous rights in Canada, and a short about four Arab teens on a quest to find a public pool in their new city took home the top prizes at the 2018 Leo Awards.

The Leo Awards recognize excellence in the homegrown film and television industry, and Black Kite – a gripping feature-length drama about a father in Afghanistan who defies the Taliban’s ban on kites in order to bring some joy into his daughter’s childhood – won Best Screenwriting and Best Direction for Tarique Qayumi, and Best Motion Picture for producer Tajana Prka. Continue reading.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: APTN’s Queen of the Oil Patch is the story of triumph and acceptance

Until a screener landed in my inbox, I wasn’t sure what Queen of the Oil Patch was going to be about. According to the press release, the documentary series, debuting Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. ET on APTN, tells the tale of Fort McKay resident Massey Whiteknife and his alter ego, Iceis Rain. Whiteknife’s business empire was shattered when oil prices took a tumble followed by fire sweeping through nearby Fort MacMurray. Cameras capture Whiteknife as he attempts to get back on his economic feet.

But Queen of the Oil Patch is so much more than that.

When we catch up with Whiteknife, he shows off his two businesses in Fort Mac, Tatonka North Contracting, a construction company and Iceis Safety, a full-service occupational health and safety consulting business. But at night, Whiteknife becomes someone else … Iceis Rain. Iceis is a critically-acclaimed recording artist, booking dates across the country, and was nominated at the 2014 Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards, where she also performed. She’s also an anti-bullying advocate, speaks to suicide prevention and has a wicked wiggle.

Whiteknife’s plan? To spend a year transitioning fully into Iceis Rain. How will that go over in Fort Mac? Will being a woman ruin his day-to-day business? Whiteknife is willing to take that chance to be who he is.

Kah-Kitowak Films, a Vancouver-based production company that works in partnership with Great Pacific Media, has captured something really special in Queen of the Oil Patch. Métis producer-director Neil Grahn and producers Kelly McClughan and Mark Miller have gained the trust of their subject. The result is an intimate, honest portrait of a person who is passionate about what they do and wants to help their fellow First Nations people find full-time jobs while becoming who they truly want to be.

It’s inspiring, meaningful and riveting stuff. Don’t miss it.

Queen of the Oil Patch airs Tuesdays at 10:30 p.m. ET on APTN.

Image courtesy of Great Pacific Media.

 

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: History’s doc series Bud Empire rolls up on pot sales as Canada heads toward legalization

1 Comment

I don’t—and have never—smoked marijuana. Growing up, I didn’t know anyone who did and when it was offered I declined. As a result, I don’t have any skin in the game as Canada inches closer to the legalization—voting on Bill C-45 is scheduled for June —of recreational marijuana in this country. But tuning in to History’s latest original series, Bud Empire certainly educated me in the drug and what being able to sell it as an entrepreneur.

Debuting Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on the specialty network, the seven-part Bud Empire—narrated by Will Sasso—introduces viewers to Bob Kay, the owner of Be Kind, the Okanagan’s original Compassion Club. Episode 1, with its guitar-driven soundtrack, introduces Kay as he reveals B.C.’s Okanagan Valley is dotted with pot grow-ops mixed in with other crops. It’s a $5 billion industry and Kay aims to be “the King of Weed.” That title comes with challenges in the form of robbery, extortion, violence and Kay potentially being arrested for selling.

But Bud Empire isn’t about the furtive exchange of money for pot in a shadowy alley or groups of stoners lounging in a room filled with smoke; the program explores not only Kay’s family life (including his creatively-named kids) but how he’s running and, hopefully, expanding his business. This could be a series about any entrepreneur wanting to sell a product; the hook is that Kay sells marijuana. Kay welcomes salespeople into Be Kind, analyzing and sampling their weed and deeming if it’s up to his high standards and worthy of being in his store. Watching bunches of twenties exchange hands over bags of pot is certainly something to see.

Kay works a grey area of the law but he believes what he and others are doing is really helping; medical marijuana helps alleviate chronic pain and other ailments. Still, rules in Kelowna, B.C., could put him out of business and in jail.

Produced by Screen Siren Pictures Inc. and HLP + Partners, Trish Dolman (Canada in a Day)—Bud Empire‘s executive producer and director—offers a wonderful, educational and heartfelt peek into the life of man eking out a business in a rapidly-changing landscape.

Bud Empire airs back-to-back episodes on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on History.

Image courtesy of Corus Entertainment.

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