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.
Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

HGTV stacks Sunday nights with new series from Scott McGillivray and Bryan Baeumler

From a media release:

Scott McGillivray and Bryan Baeumler, two of HGTV Canada’s biggest stars, team up for two-hours of can’t-miss television this fall with back-to-back series premieres of Canadian Original series Moving the McGillivrays and Bryan Inc. Beginning September 25 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, Canadians get a closer look at Scott McGillivray and his endearing family as he builds their forever home in Moving the McGillivrays. At 10 p.m. ET/PT, Bryan Baeumler invites fans to experience the trials and tribulations of managing a contracting business in Bryan Inc. With his wife Sarah Baeumler taking on the high-pressure role of project manager, the pair tackles two high-stakes renovations. Each series is accompanied by a robust digital component at HGTV.ca that gives fans a closer look at the personal and professional lives of their favourite HGTV Canada all-stars through digital short series.

In Moving the McGillivrays, viewers get an unprecedented glimpse into Scott’s personal life with his wife, Sabrina, and their two girls as they build their dream home. While involved in every decision and building detail, Scott and Sabrina also have to juggle being parents with two active kids. Scott’s worked on an incredible number of homes but now he’s working for his family, his toughest client yet. The McGillivrays haven’t lost sight of the fact that there are families who need support on the home front. Scott helps build a home for a hard-working family in need, all while making sure his new house is completed on time and on budget. There is laughter and a few tears when both homes are move-in ready and two families’ dreams come true.

After each episode, fans can visit HGTV.ca for two brand new digital short series featuring Scott with his family and never-before-seen rooms to be revealed later in the season. In the candid series Kick Back with Scott, the contractor’s family, including his mom, wife, daughters, brother and best friend all sit down with the star to ask burning questions and uncover never before heard stories. When he’s not busy being a contractor, Scott is busy being a dad and that means driving his two girls around. These trips result in hilarious and candid conversations between Scott and his daughters, with the best moments caught on tape in the new series Moments with the McGillivrays. Additional how-to videos and heartwarming personal stories from Scott’s life go live each week on the site.

HouseofBryan

The second-half of Sunday night’s stellar lineup stars Bryan Baeumler and his wife, Sarah Baeumler, in the new series Bryan Inc. Bryan and Sarah worked together to build their own home, but now Bryan has hired Sarah as a project manager at his construction company. Together, they’ll buy, renovate, and sell homes for a profit. Sarah may be the boss at home but it’s Bryan who has the final say at the office. While managing their roles as builder and project manager, husband and wife, Bryan and Sarah must also balance their busy home life with four active kids: “Q” (11), Charlotte (10), Lincoln (5) and Jojo (3). Working together is bound to impact their relationship as Bryan and Sarah’s competing tastes and differing visions cause hiccups, but their humour and signature banter see them through every struggle. They’ll have to overcome challenges and surprises together if they want to make a profit on two major flips.

At HGTV.ca, Bryan and Sarah host 39 short-form videos across two new digital short series. In The B Team, Canadians catch up with the family that they have come to love over four seasons of hit-series House of Bryan. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at their country lifestyle and hectic but always fun family life.  Sarah, who continues to juggle her role as mom, wife, entrepreneur, and now project manager, stars in her own digital short series Ask Sarah. In the videos, Sarah answers fan questions from her social media pages, provides advice, and reveals tips and secrets she uses to keep her busy life in check.

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Kim's Convenience

Link: Set visit: party time at CBC’s Kim’s Convenience

From Bill Brioux of Brioux.tv:

Link: Set visit: party time at CBC’s Kim’s Convenience
Headed out to Kim’s Convenience Tuesday but not for milk and bread. The comedy, premiering in October on CBC, is shooting in Toronto on seven standing sets spread across two large sound stages.

If you’ve been watching CBC’s Summer Olympic Games coverage, you’ve no doubt seen the promos for the series. Continue reading.

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Alias Grace

Oscar winner Anna Paquin stars in CBC’s Alias Grace

From a media release:

Halfire Entertainment, CBC and Netflix today announced that Academy Award-winning Canadian-born actress Anna Paquin (True Blood, Roots) has signed on to play Nancy Montgomery in the screen adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace. The six-hour miniseries is inspired by the true story of Grace Marks, who was convicted of murdering Nancy Montgomery and Thomas Kinnear. Alias Grace is written and produced by Sarah Polley (Take This Waltz, Away from Her) and directed by Mary Harron (American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol). The mini-series began shooting in Ontario on August 15, 2016. Alias Grace will be broadcast in Canada on CBC and globally – everywhere outside of Canada – on Netflix.

Alias Grace follows Grace Marks (Sarah Gadon) a poor, young Irish immigrant and domestic servant in Upper Canada who, along with stable hand James McDermott, was convicted of the brutal murders of their employer, Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery (Anna Paquin) in 1843. Nancy is Kinnear’s housekeeper and lover, and while she initially befriends Grace, she begins to resent Grace and becomes increasingly jealous of Kinnear’s affection for her.  Nancy eventually fires Grace in a fit of rage and is later found brutally murdered.

Alias Grace is co-commissioned by CBC and Netflix, produced by Halfire Entertainment and created by Sarah Polley. The executive producers are Sarah Polley, Mary Harron and Noreen Halpern. Producing alongside Polley is D.J. Carson.

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Featured

Can Train 48 get back on track in Canada?

Steve Levitan is trying to get Train 48 back on track, and now seems like the perfect time to do it.

“The format that, at the time, I thought was innovative today is even more strategically smart,” Levitan says.

For those who don’t recall, Train 48 was an anomaly on the Canadian TV landscape. Broadcast on Global from 2003 until 2005 and based on the Australian series Going Home, the soapy series followed the daytime commute of a small group of characters from Toronto to Burlington, Ont. Before cell phones became the norm, folks would travel on the train and talk about the day’s events, often amongst the same four people sitting together. Levitan and his writers mirrored that for Train 48, mapping rough conversations and then letting the cast go, free forming the discussions to make them more real. Among the cast on Train 48 were Krista Sutton, Paul Braunstein, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Joe Dinicol, Raoul Bhaneja, Amy Price-Francis and Lisa Merchant, who filmed an episode every weekday for two years.

Train48_2

“I sort of vaguely remember getting up at 4:30 a.m. to drive into the set,” Merchant, who played Brenda Murphy, recalls. “We’d get into costume and have a meeting with the producer, have breakfast, and then it was time to get rolling. We’d be finished by 2:30 p.m. and then would do it all over again the next day.”

“Even though those of us who did it have done a lot of things in our careers, we’ve haven’t done anything like it again,” Bhaneja, who portrayed Pete Subramani, says. “It was such a unique journey. We’d be picked up in a van convoy, climb into our fake GO Train set, film and then what we did would be on TV that night. It was crazy.”

As a daily commuter into Toronto myself at the time, I totally got what Train 48 was all about. Aside from being tonally different from what was on television at the time, Train 48 broke new technological ground as well. Levitan recalls how Global wanted to drive traffic to its fledgling Canada.com website; the show placed Pete on the phone his bookie betting on that night’s Toronto Blue Jays-New York Yankees game. Viewers were urged to visit the website to vote who they thought would win the game; Canada.com crashed for days.

So, why the attention for Train 48 after 13 years? Because episodes are rolling out on the show’s YouTube channel. The show’s distributor, Syndicado (a deal structured through Farrago Media Inc.), suggested they be posted online and Levitan said yes. Train 48 certainly works airing on YouTube, but it would be a perfect fit for Canada’s streaming channels CraveTV and shomi. Levitan thinks so too, but no broadcaster has been interested. He also believes the format is the perfect formula for television today. Levitan points to Orphan Black, which attracts 250,000 viewers for Space every week at a cost of millions per episode versus his show, which attracted 250,000 viewers or more every night of the week at a cost of $40,000 per instalment. The model, he says, still works today.

“There are lots of ways to keep doing Train 48,” Levitan says. “And there are lots of ways to update or change the creative focus of that format, depending on who your network or audience is.”

Check out all of Train 48’s episodes as they roll out on YouTube.

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