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Children's Programming

Sandy Jobin-­Bevans and Kylee Evans to host new family game show Just Like Mom and Dad

From a media release:

Award-winning global media production and distribution company marblemediais excited to announce husband and wife duo Sandy Jobin-Bevans and Kylee Evans as the new host couple of Just Like Mom and Dad, the modern remake of the hit 80’s series Just Like Mom.

Sandy Jobin-Bevans, a nine-time Canadian Comedy Award winner and actor, and actress Kylee Evans, will begin filming Just Like Mom and Dad this fall. Produced in association with YES TV in Canada and BYUtv in the US, the 20-episode primetime family game show will premiere across North America in January 2018. marblemedia secured all remake and development rights in an agreement with Bell Media.

Kylee and Sandy are no strangers to kids and family entertainment. They both appeared on YTV/Nickelodeon’s hit sitcom Life With Boys, where Sandy played the loving, single father and Kylee played their neighbour. Sandy was also the co-host of the hidden camera game show, Deal With It and Kylee is known for her recurring roles in Good Witch and The Stanley Dynamic.

Just Like Mom and Dad is shot before a live, energetic studio audience on a bright, dynamic set filled with flashy lights, giant moving video screens, and a bigger and more tempting prize wheel. Each episode of Just Like

Mom and Dad will feature three parent-kid pairs. The game starts with two exciting, interactive question- answer based rounds where parents and kids will be quizzed on each other. The third and final round will be an exciting bake-off in a new, state of the art kitchen coliseum, but in this kitchen the kids are in charge and the parents are the taste-testers.

Studio Audience Experience
Just Like Mom and Dad is inviting everyone to join them in-studio for the live studio audience experience! Want to join in on the fun? You and your family can be a part of the Just Like Mom and Dad live studio audience and watch all the fun first hand! It’s easy!

Sandy and Kylee are ready to lead you through all of the bake-offs, big spins and even bigger prizes coming your way on this season of

Send an email to audience@marblemedia.com saying you and your family would like to attend a live taping of Just Like Mom and Dad.

Please include how many tickets you would need, along with your first and second choice for show times.

LOCATION
YEStv Studios
1295 North Service Road
Burlington, Ontario L7R 4X5

WEEK ONE
Friday, October 13, 2017 | 4:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Saturday, October 14, 2017 | 9:45am. – 1:00pm OR 3:00pm – 6:00pm
Sunday, October 15, 2017 | 9:45am. – 1:00pm OR 3:00pm – 6:00pm

WEEK TWO
Friday, October 20, 2017 | 4:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Saturday, October 21, 2017 | 9:45am. – 1:00pm OR 3:00pm – 6:00pm
Sunday, October 22, 2017 | 9:45am. – 1:00pm OR 3:00pm – 6:00pm

For more information, please visit www.justlikemomanddad.com.

 

 

 

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Children's Programming, Featured

Strong girls battle evil in YTV’s animated adventure Mysticons

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When it came to finding a critic for his new series, Mysticons, creator Sean Jara didn’t have to go far. He turned to his young daughter.

“She is definitely a fan,” he says with a laugh. “We started watching the animated storyboards and she’s seen every iteration of them … she’s getting a crash course in animation school.” Jara, whose resumé includes writing for Degrassi: The Next Generation, Falcon Beach, Naturally, Sadie and Johnny Test has made a splash with the high-profile animated fantasy program Mysticons, about a quartet of fierce girls who become legendary heroes and battle a dangerous foe.

Airing Sundays at 11 a.m. ET/PT on YTV, Mysticons comes from Corus Entertainment’s legendary Nelvana and promotes strong, confident, smart and funny girls. The 40-episode series boasts the voices of Alyson Court as Arkayna Goodfey, Drake City’s princess who just wants to be a regular teen; Nicki Burke as Zarya Moonwolf, a street-smart gal with charm (and a pet foz named Choko); Evany Rosen as Emerald Goldenbraid, an engineer and Arkayna’s best friend; and Ana Sani as Piper Willowbrook, an optimistic street kid who is best buds with Zarya.

And while Mysticons is aimed at young girls, the project didn’t originally start out that way. At its inception, the project was boy-centric to focus on a male audience.

“I was hired because I’m one of the go-to people when it comes to boy’s action, but after a few years of development Nelvana saw an opportunity to develop a more girl-centric show,” Jara explains. “We talked about it, made the decision and went full-steam ahead with this new point of view.” Jara says his original idea—based on the game Dungeons & Dragons—was scrapped and he thought, “What would my daughter watch?” The result is something that became much more special and awesome.

(l-r) Piper, Zarya, Arkayna and Em

“It was about giving girls a really good adventure show,” he says. “And then we focused on the friendship between the heroes. You don’t often have that in a hero group; you usually have four or five guys and one girl.” Jara also overhauled his writing room once the gender shift happened, hiring on scribes like Shelley Scarrow, Amanda Spagnolo, Sandra Kasturi and Elise Morgan to get key insight into female friendships and break thrilling stories.

There is a lot jammed into Mysticons‘ first episode. We quickly establish the futuristic world of Drake City and are introduced to our quartet of future warriors. Turns out there was once a group of Mysticons who fought evil but they’re no longer around. That’s when evil descends on Drake City in the form of Baron Dreadbane (voiced by Mac Heywood) and an army of skeletons bent on taking over. Arkayna, Zarya, Em and Piper—after getting their hands on the fabled Dragon Disk—are transformed into a new team of Mysticons who defend their fair city and its citizens.

“It’s a fast-moving pilot and I’m really proud of it,” Jara says. “There is an A and a B story running simultaneously … I’m really happy with the way it came out.”

Mysticons airs Sundays at 11 a.m. ET/PT on YTV.

Images courtesy of Corus.

 

 

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Children's Programming, Featured

Ross Hull hopes Student Bodies Fan Expo reunion is first step to something big

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Back in February, Ross Hull hit up social media in hopes of connecting with fans who remembered Student Bodies, the Global and YTV series he co-starred on two decades ago. He and fellow Bodies‘ compatriot Miklos Perlus were gauging interest in a Student Bodies reunion … and maybe something more. Now, months later, the plan is coming together: the cast is reuniting at in Toronto at Fan Expo this weekend to celebrate Student Bodies‘ 20th anniversary.

“It’s mind-boggling to me,” Hull says of the two decades that have passed since Student Bodies debuted. “It does feel like a long time because many of us have gone in different directions and lived our lives. But, at the same time, I have vivid memories of that experience and it’s made for lifelong friendships as well.” Hull, who is the weekend meteorologist for Global Toronto, keeps in touch with many of the cast, including Perlus, who spearheaded the reunion idea. Hull says Perlus—now a writer and producer on TVO’s Hi Opie! and Opie’s Home—called on his industry contacts to put together a video (set to Green Day’s “(Good Riddance) Time of Your Life”) with Hull narrating. Word spread and now the Fan Expo reunion is happening. And, ideally, another Bodies project.

Created by Alan Silberberg, Judy Spencer and Michael Klinghoffer, Student Bodies aired on Global and YTV in Canada as it showcased the lives of students at the fictional Thomas A. Edison High School. It ran for three seasons and—aside from Hull—starred Nicole Lyn, Katie McIninch, Perlus, Jessica Goldapple, Mark Taylor, Jamie Elman, Victoria Sanchez, Dino Valiotis, Erin Simms, Jennifer Finnigan and Katheryn Winnick.

The cast will reunite on stage on Saturday, Sept. 2, at 5 p.m. ET in Room 701A at Fan Expo for a Q&A, photo-op and autograph session. Confirmed cast members for the event include Hull (Chris), Elman (Cody), Lyn (Emily), Taylor (Romeo), Perlus (Viktor), McIninch (Mags), Goldapple (Flash) and Victoria Sanchez (Grace).

Student Bodies has become a cultural touchstone for fans around the world and in Canada, but Hull says the program’s beginnings were anything but glamorous. The series was filmed in a decommissioned school that had been converted into studios. There was no studio audience, so the cast had to rely on the reaction of the crew to get a feel on whether jokes were landing and storylines were connecting. The trouble with that was the language barrier as most of the crew were French-speaking. So the cast tried to crack each other up.

“If one of the cast members was laughing, that was an indication it was working,” he says. “We were connecting with each other, but we had no idea it would be aired at least three times a day on Canadian TV. We all worked as a team and we were all friends off-camera and I think that really helped with the chemistry.”

The cast of Student Bodies is celebrating its past at Fan Expo, but Hull is hopeful of a future project. There have been some preliminary talks about what that might be—Hull says bringing the characters together 20 years later or a Degrassi-type reboot are two options—but wants fans to weigh in on what they want to see.

“We’re asking everyone at Fan Expo to get out there on social media and #StudentBodies20 and contact broadcasters,” Hull says. “I work for Global—so that would be a good one—and make your interest known.”

The Student Bodies reunion takes place Saturday, Sept. 2, at 5 p.m. ET in Room 701A at Fan Expo.

Would you like to see a new Student Bodies project? If so, what? Are you attending the Fan Expo session? Let me know in the comments below.

 

 

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Children's Programming

Link: 5×5 With The Hook: Patty Sullivan

From You’ve Been Hooked:

Link: 5×5 With The Hook: Patty Sullivan
“I hope this doesn’t sound too cliché, but I think Canadian TV has always been breaking ground, and still is. Back when I was a kid it was shows like Hilarious House of Frightenstein, The Friendly Giant, and later, Street Cents. Then we saw incomparable programs like Kids in the Hall and Second City TV. Not to mention Trailer Park Boys, Little Mosque on the Prairie, and Orphan Black. I could go on and on listing the great programs that Canadian productions churn out year after year.” Continue reading.

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Children's Programming, Featured

TVO’s Opie’s Home catches up with the energetic lad during summer break

My orange-skinned preschooler buddy has got himself a spinoff! Yes, Opie, who has been taking the fear out of kindergarten for kids and parents with Hey Opie! on TVO for the past couple of years, leaves school for a new series setting him at home.

Opie’s Home, debuting Tuesday at 10:50 a.m. on TVO, sends the friendly four-year-old—performed by Jordan Lockhart—home for the summer to spend time with his mom (Aisha Alfa), dad (Jim Annan), Gram (Claire Riley) and next door neighbour, Mr. Kabashio (Graham Greene).

TVO Kids, marblemedia and The Jim Henson Company have got educational and truly entertaining kids’ programming down pat and Opie’s Home is no exception. The first seven-minute instalment introduces trust and responsibility in an interesting way as Opie is allowed to handle his dad’s cell phone so he can take a “big boy” selfie. There are a few near-misses along the way—running on stairs with electronics in your hand isn’t the safest—but Opie is successful in landing “the funnest fun” selfie ever with some help from Snackasaurus. Episode 2 gets a little more serious, as kale smoothies don’t sound like fun at all to Opie and Gavin.

Opie’s Home airs Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:50 a.m. on TVO and anytime on TVOKids. The series will premiere later this fall across Canada on Knowledge Kids and CityTV Saskatchewan.

Images courtesy of TVO.

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