Everything about Featured, eh?

Bachelorette Canada, Featured

The Bachelorette Canada looks for love … and eligible fellows

At long last, The Bachelorette Canada will be a reality. After two go-rounds of The Bachelor Canada with Brad Smith and Tim Warmels, it’s time for a lass to seek love out of 20 available men. And after two seasons airing on City, the franchise jumps to Corus’ W Network; a much better fit for the reality program.

“This is a show that the W Network had been hoping to bring to their service for a long time and we’re thrilled,” says Claire Freeland, executive producer and owner of Good Human Productions, Inc., the folks behind the Canadian franchise. “It’s long overdue and we’re excited for Canada to see all of the eligible men from across the country.” Those men will be chosen from an open casting call taking place online now and during an upcoming cross-country tour set for January.

As for who the Bachelorette will be, Freeland is keeping that—and the locations the production will visit—under wraps for now, though she revealed cameras roll in Vancouver in March before jetting to national and international locations and wrapping in May. Those locations, Freeland explains, are chosen dependant on being a short flight or drive away in order to maximize different scenarios—beach days, high-adrenaline dates and romantic interludes—and are interested in having the franchise film there. (Bachelor Canada host Tyler Harcott has moved on to other projects and a new host will be named soon.)

And, like the locations they choose, Freeland has a checklist for dudes looking to participate in The Bachelorette Canada.

“We want to get guys from across the country who are at a life stage where they’re prepared to get engaged or settle down with someone,” she says. “We’re looking for guys who are prepared to be open with us. You have to be willing to share and be expressive, prepared to go through this process and experience the adventure of travelling around the world on this quest for love.”

And, one assumes, there for the right reasons.

The Bachelorette Canada will air on W Network next fall.

 

Are you someone, or do you know someone, who is looking for love and want to participate in The Bachelorette Canada? Head to W Network’s website to apply or nominate a buddy.

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Cardinal, Featured, Houdini & Doyle, Podcast, Schitt's Creek

TV, eh? podcast episode 194 – Fighting My Cats for the Friskies

Diane, Anthony and Greg look at the results of our year-end Favourite Canadian TV Shows of 2015 poll so far (cast your votes here), followed by a look at some of the shows ending their seasons and series in December.

After a side-conversation about our favourite holiday TV shows and films, we get back on track and cover the casting news surrounding Cardinal, some cool guest casting in Season 2 of Schitt’s Creek and co-production Houdini & Doyle filming their final two Season 1 episodes in Southern Ontario.

Want to contribute to the discussion? Post links and discussion topics on our Reddit page.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Featured, Schitt's Creek

Schitt’s Creek expands in Season 2

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One of the big surprises in Season 1 of Schitt’s Creek were the relationships. Far from being a formulaic comedy series hitting viewers with a rat-a-tat-tat of jokes, Dan Levy’s co-creation showed real heart among its characters … when they weren’t caught in cringe-inducing situations.

By the end of the rookie go-round, David Rose (Dan Levy) was speeding out of town in a stolen truck after breaking up with Stevie Budd (Emily Hampshire) and Alexis Rose (Annie Murphy) was trying to decide which man she wanted to be with: stoic, stable Ted (Dustin Milligan) or rough and tumble Mutt (Tim Rozon). Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy) and Moira (Catherine O’Hara), meanwhile, were plotting to get the family out of Schitt’s Creek. When Season 2 returns to CBC in January with two back-to-back episodes, three days have elapsed since David disappeared and Alexis decides to cut Ted loose.

“Ted returns a changed man after going on a honeymoon by himself,” Dan says with a smile while O’Hara cackles with glee. “Ted goes away to a sunny resort and learns a lot about himself.” The same is true of the other major characters; Johnny is plans to sell Schitt’s Creek but opens up an office in the meantime, Moira attempts to inject the town with some sophistication and David goes looking for a job. Now that the writers’ room members know more about the characters, they can interplay and explore other parts of the town.

“We definitely went into this season saying, ‘OK, let’s go with some different pairings,'” Dan says. “We see a really lovely episode between Moira and Alexis halfway through the season.”

“They wrote a great story,” O’Hara says. “Alexis gets sick and Moira doesn’t know how to mother her. There was always someone there to take care of Alexis when she was growing up. These are new experiences for Moira.” O’Hara is quick to point out Moira is forced into these mothering situations; there is no forethought or plan to make her a better mom. Or cook, as illustrated in Episode 2 of Season 2, when Moira’s attempt to re-create a Mexican dish from her own mom’s recipe turns into a fiasco in Jocelyn’s (Jennifer Robertson) kitchen.

David, meanwhile, goes on a job hunt, which leads to the introduction of a new character played by former Saturday Night Live and SCTV actress Robin Duke.

“David gets a job at a clothing store and she plays Wendy, the manager of the store,” he teases. “The store is struggling, so she is balancing the reality of an unstable business with having hired David, who wants to redo the whole store. His ideas are not coming from a business mind.” Also on tap? More Twyla (Sarah Levy), thanks to a group activity that starts happening in the town.

“Again, this was a way of showing our characters in different lights and providing a different through-line that was outside of the areas we’ve associated them with.”

Schitt’s Creek returns Tuesday, Jan. 12, at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Plus: Vote for Schitt’s Creek for Favourite Canadian TV Series of 2015.

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Bitten, Featured

Comments and queries for the week of November 27

Your favourite Canadian TV shows of 2015

It was a hard choice to choose but my No. 1 will always be Bitten. —Chris

Where’s The Stanley Dynamic? :) —Isabel

We just added it to the poll!

I had a really difficult time picking just five, but my choices were Orphan Black, Vikings, Rookie Blue, Remedy and X Company. The next five after those would be Degrassi, When Calls the Heart, Bitten, Mohawk Girls and Still Standing. —Ally

I could easily pick 10! So many good shows on CBC! —Kate

It was hard to pick five — I wanted to pick Love It or List It and Dragons’ Den and a few more. So many good Canadian shows… —Maggy

So many hard choices. You’ve reminded me I haven’t caught up on a few shows! —Iris

Season 2 of The Other Side returns to APTN

I’ve just watched the program on orbs and have two orbs pictures I wish that Jeff could see. Both were at the birthday of my husbands’ sister in 2010, two years after he passed away. One definitely has his face in it when enlarged and the second is a half orb between a picture of his siblings exactly where he would have fit in. I totally believe that orbs are spiritual. —Eleanor

 

Got a question or comment about Canadian TV? Greg@tv-eh.com or via @tv_eh.

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Featured, Frontier

Discovery heads into a new Frontier

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Allan Hawco is up front that Frontier is not “an Allan Hawco vanity project.”

He says that a couple of times during the course of our chat about Discovery Canada’s first foray into scripted television. Yes, he’s set to co-star in the six-parter about the fight for wealth and power in the North American fur trade of the late 18th century, but he’s not the lead. That honour goes to Jason Momoa. Instead, Hawco will remain largely behind the scenes, serving as an executive producer alongside his fellow Take the Shot Production partners, two of whom—Rob (on the right in the above picture) and Peter Blackie—actually conceived of the project.

“There are so many stories to mine from history around the world, especially here in Canada, that has never fully been exploited,” Hawco says. “That’s just bizarre to me. I think there is a real appetite from Canadians to hear their stories told in an interesting and thought-provoking way.” Hawco, who starred, directed, wrote and produced Republic of Doyle for six seasons describes Frontier as being the story of the birth of capitalism in North America, and the greed, blood and power that went along with it. Frontier begins with The Hudson Bay Company, which has a monopoly on what’s happening during the fur trade in the region that will one day be Canada. Smaller factions seek out their own piece of the pie; Hawco portrays Douglas Brown, who plots alongside his brothers to steal some of the HBC’s thunder.

Rob Blackie explains the idea for Frontier came about thanks to a chance meeting at MIPCOM between business parter Alex Patrick and Discovery’s Edwina Follows. The network’s interest in having more dramatic, scripted programming lead to the brothers kicking around ideas for a time period history-based series; they presented Follows with two projects and Frontier was greenlit.

‘It’s an interesting, super-violent part of Canadian history that not a lot of people know about,” Blackie says. “As soon as we started researching it, we were shocked at how little we knew and how conflictual the time period was. The deeper we got, the more interesting it got.” Momoa plays the series’ anti-hero, a part-Irish, part-Cree man named Declan who works with a gang and becomes an unlikely host to a boy named Michael who has been living on the streets of London. Other cast includes Alun Armstrong, Landon Liboiron, Zoe Boyle and Jessica Matten.

Production just wrapped filming in England and has set up shop in St. John’s until a Christmas hiatus. Then it’s on to Louisbourg, N.S., to film at the famous fort and Morrisburg, Ont., to capture action at Fort Wellington in February.

“Winter has an inherent beauty and, if you can capture it, an amazing production value,” Blackie says. “And it’s true to the story. Winter was an important part of the fur trade.”

Frontier debuts on Discovery Canada and Netflix outside of Canada in 2016.

(Photo credit: Duncan de Young on set of Frontier.)

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