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: How “ReBoot” predicted the future but got left behind

From Matthew Braga of BuzzFeed:

Link: How “ReBoot” predicted the future but got left behind
The future arrived in 1994 as a Saturday-morning cartoon. It crackled with the excitement of the early internet age: of modems and Windows and CPUs, the animated equivalent of dialing into AOL or Prodigy for the first time. It was the first computer-generated television show ever made — a show about computers, made with computers — and unlike anything else on air. Continue reading. 

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TV Eh B Cs podcast 55 — Cracking the Code with Joely Collins

joelyJoely Collins is a Canadian, award-winning producer and actress with over 20 years experience in the film and television industry.  Her most recent project is the multi award-winning digital series “CODED”, which is currently screening on the festival circuit.

Her feature film “Becoming Redwood”, a quirky, heart-warming, coming-of-age story, became an instant hit on the festival circuit and won Best Canadian Feature at the Edmonton International Film Festival and Most Popular Canadian Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival.  With her production company Million Faces, Joely is actively producing feature films, television series and digital media projects.

Joely is passionate about creating bigger and more challenging roles for women in film, on both sides of the lens.

Listen or download below, or subscribe via iTunes or any other podcast catcher with the TV, eh? podcast feed.

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Link: Dismantling or diminishing CBC is the most elitist position of all

From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

Link: Dismantling or diminishing CBC is the most elitist position of all
Leitch and Bernier are clueless. Television is the most important, influential storytelling medium of our time. Understanding it and why it has impact is rather necessary information to have, prior to denouncing any area of it. In the specific matter of CBC TV, to cite one example, Kim’s Convenience is not forgettable, irrelevant, or badly made; nor is it, in Bernier’s phrase, an example of “bad Canadian copies of popular American shows.” Continue reading.

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Kim’s Convenience’s Amanda Brugel on diversity on Canadian TV

From Hermione Wilson of The TV Junkies:

Kim’s Convenience’s Amanda Brugel on diversity on Canadian TV
“I think the explosion of the consciousness of the lack of diversity, particularly on social media, has really helped push things along. The younger generation especially is demanding that they are reflected on TV. I don’t think we’re near where we should be, but it’s progress.” Continue reading.

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Alexander Ludwig teases Vikings’ future adventures

It seems unthinkable to sign on to a television series based on what will happen several seasons in the future. There’s no guarantee a program will last one year, let alone several, so it’s a gamble. But that’s exactly what Alexander Ludwig did when he became part of Vikings.

“Season 4.B is what I signed on to Vikings for,” he says during a quick stopover in Toronto before jetting back to the UK to continue production on Season 5. “I was promised this season and now it’s finally coming and I could not be more excited. Viewers will freak out. It’s ridiculous the stuff that we’re doing. I’m so proud to be part of a production that has the balls to go for it and some of the stuff we’re doing has never been done before on television.”

With the latter half of Season 4 returning Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on History, Ludwig praises creator Michael Hirst with coming through on his promise big-time. Fans will follow Ludwig’s Bjorn Lothbrok as he sails new boats—designed, of course, by Floki (Gustaf SkarsgÃ¥rd)—into the Mediterranean and to Africa. He’ll also establish himself as an individual, distancing himself from Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) and evolving from the lovable dude we’ve seen into a more ruthless leader.

Vikings

“I grew up with this character and people are so invested in him, it’s just cool to be a part of it,” he says. Ludwig jokes things could have been very different if anything had gone wrong earlier in production when Bjorn went toe-to-toe with a bear while on his lone survival journey. Whopper, his ursine co-star, was just feet away from Ludwig and just a clothesline between them. As the Vancouver native tells it, Whopper believed the clothesline was electrified. It wasn’t. Filming took place in March outside Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and required Ludwig not only to battle the bear, but cut a hole in lake ice and go for a frosty dip.

“I was butt naked on the top of Lake Superior in front of all of the crew,” he says with a smile. “The actual dive itself was done in a pool, which ironically, wasn’t heated. I said, ‘Guys, we could have just done this in the actual lake!'”

Looking towards the next section of episodes, fans will see a changing of the guard, story-wise, as the grizzled, battle-worn Ragnar and Floki step back from the spotlight in favour of Bjorn and his brothers, Hvitserk (Marco Islø), Ivar (Alex Høgh Andersen), Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith) and Sigurd (David Lindstron) stepping into history. It’s five years since Ragnar abandoned Kattegat and not everyone is happy to see him back.

“There is an immense respect Ragnar and Bjorn have for each other,” Ludwig says. “But there is a lot they need to talk about. Bjorn’s main question is ‘Why has Ragnar returned after that long? I’ve finally got my shit together and am running this thing, and suddenly now you come back?!’ You’ll see an interesting power struggle between the two.”

Vikings airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on History.

Image courtesy of Corus.

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