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Digging for more Canadian history on Backroad Bounty

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You never know what will be uncovered during an episode of Backroad Bounty. Will hosts Marty Gebel and Peter “Bam Bam” Bamford procure a cool neon sign hidden in a disused storage room, a box full of collectible Matchbox cars aching to see the light of day, or an old stand used to hold cans for a long-forgotten brand of car oil?

What these guys find, what they pay for them with plans to re-sell—and the stories behind those items—are at the heart of the Cottage Life series as it heads into its sophomore season. I hopped in the car and drove two hours outside of Toronto to Ingersoll, Ont., where Gebel and Bamford were busy searching for buried treasure. I found the pair climbing around the cluttered, humid third floor of E. W. McKim Quality Home Hardware in Ingersoll’s downtown, calling out to one another—and to store owner Bob Mott—when they discovered something cool. There was plenty to chat about. Among the items the fellows were interested in? Old ice skates, wooden boxes, vintage hardware store displays and a sign that once hung in front of the store. And while the items the boys found had interesting stories attached to them, the future episode’s setting did too: Mott recalls how the hardware store was a buggy shop during the 1800s.

“Searching for items is in their blood,” Joe Houlihan, president of Our House Media, Backroad Bounty‘s production company, tells me during a break in shooting. “They’d be doing this whether there was a TV show or not.” Season 1 of Backroad Bounty saw Gebel and Bamford tooling around cottage country, poking around decrepit hotels, barns, overflowing basements and garages in search of finds they could fix up and re-sell; this go-round has expanded its boundaries.

Backroad_Bounty

“This season feels more like a buddy road trip,” series producer and director Marshall Kaplan says. “It’s about the characters they meet along the way. It’s always about the amazing stuff that they find, but there’s humour and more of a story, more meat to the bone this year.”

Houlihan points out Backroad Bounty “sneaks history” into each episode through the tales told and items purchased; he himself has learned an incredible amount of Ontario history from his program. Among the areas the duo visit in Season 2 are Grand Bend, Quinte West, Harcourt, Port Dover, Walkerton, Wiarton and Owen Sound where the pair entertain each other as much as they do viewers.

“Marty is Bam’s best audience,” Kaplan says with a laugh. “Bam is a really good entertainer and Marty laughs at every one of his jokes. They may be interested in different things, but at the end of the day they both love the hunt.”

Season 2 of Backroad Bounty will air on Cottage Life.

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Amazing Race Canada, Featured

Review: Devil in the details on Amazing Race Canada

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Missed locations, wrong addresses, half-completed tasks and a missing passport were the norm during the messiest Leg of The Amazing Race Canada so far. Last week, I commented that this third trip around the world has featured some of the most difficult challenges I’ve seen in the franchise. But while the Leg in Halifax wasn’t particularly challenging, it derailed several teams.

Unfortunately for Hamilton and Michaelia, it also spelled the end of their Race. The pair played catch-up for the better part of their time in Nova Scotia after Hamilton left his passport on the plane, meaning they had to return to the airport to get it before they could check in with Jon Montgomery. Halifax Stanfield International is a 40-minute drive from the city, meaning they lost almost an hour and a half in trip time, allowing even the slowest team—Nic and Sabrina—ample time to reach the mat.

Oh, Nic and Sabrina. The married pair who are so strong with linguistics have faltered in other areas. Nic’s lack of observational skills took the duo off-course and to an empty marina when everyone else drove to Citadel Hill. His indecisive attitude at the Bubbles Detour—he doesn’t like to get his face wet—cost them valuable time at Dalhousie University before they swapped and delivered beer to three pubs for Suds. One of the strongest teams early on has been humbled by small things and they need to pick things up.

Meanwhile, Dujean and Leilani—a pair who have battled each other in the past—pulled it together and were the first to meet Jon at the Halifax Seaport Farmer’s Market. Sure, Leilani’s knowledge of Halifax (it’s her hometown) was integral to their success, but I also credit them for staying positive and, dare I say it?, having fun while they raced.

It’s a trait that Brent and Sean have embraced since Quebec City and as a result they’ve been in the middle of the pack and a joy to watch compete. That, and a kinship with Michaelia and Hamilton, scored them the oh-so-important Express Pass.

Here’s how the teams finished:

  1. Dujean and Leilani
  2. Brian and Cynthia
  3. Nick and Matt
  4. Brent and Sean
  5. Simi and Ope
  6. Neil and Kristin
  7. Gino and Jesse
  8. Nic and Sabrina
  9. Hamilton and Michaelia (eliminated)

Notes and quotes

  • I really appreciate Jon Montgomery telling us Buenos Aires makes some of the best barbecue he’s ever tasted. Yes, I’m being sarcastic.
  • Did the BMO lady at the airport talk the teams into getting bank accounts?

The Amazing Race Canada airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

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Featured, Spun Out

Interview: Spun Out’s Paul Campbell on Season 2 and beyond

Paul Campbell hates feeling like the lazy dude among his friends. That’s why the Vancouver native, while chatting about Season 2 of Spun Out last November, had several other projects on the go. (One of those projects, Beyond Repair, came to fruition.) At the time we spoke, Campbell was in the middle of shooting Spun Out and reflected on the changes behind the scenes at CTV’s original comedy, including dropping the live audience.

What was your initial reaction when you found out Season 2 would be shot without a live audience?
Paul Campbell: Initially, I was super bummed. I didn’t really know what it would mean for the show. The Friday night live shows were such a unique experience. The reason I thought we were doing multi-cam was to get to that live show. But a friend of mine [Cobie Smulders] was on How I Met Your Mother for years and that’s how they shot that. I did go and hang out on set and saw how they did it, so in the back of my mind I thought, ‘Well, other shows do this, so there must be a reason.’

To be honest, I prefer shooting without the audience. There is much more freedom in the sense that we have the opportunity to really hone each joke. With the audience, I always felt like we couldn’t explore the laughs because they’d already heard the joke a few times. Now we can do a sixth or seventh pass on them. In that sense, the exploration is a bigger part of it than it was.

Let’s talk about Beckett. There was an on-again, off-again with Stephanie. Does that evolve in Season 2?
Absolutely. The relationship has always been fairly one-sided and there was a conversation early in Season 1 where Beckett copped to having some kind of feeling for her, but she established that she didn’t do work relationships, so that was it. In the final episode of the season he almost acted on his feelings.

For Season 2 that flame hasn’t gone away and over the course of the season they’re both dating different people but Stephanie begins to realize she can’t ignore the feelings she has for him and that comes to a head. What’s so fun is that you have this incredibly loaded relationship that has so much subtext. And that’s fun for the audience.

What was it like working with Russell Peters, when he played Nelson’s brother?
He brought his Russell Peters swagger to the set. He knows his comedy very well and brought something very different to the DLPR world. It’s great to have people come on to the show that know comedy and can bring their own character or enhance the character that was written.

Have you got some projects on the go that you’ll be writing and producing?
I’ve got several projects on the go right now and I’m hoping to be pitching them in the next few weeks. Things that could be on the air in Canada or the U.S. The development process is such a long process that to start now for something four years down the road makes complete sense. I’m so inspired by the creative community in Toronto, and when you see your friends doing their own stuff it’s really inspiring. You feel like the slacker if you’re not doing that.

Spun Out airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

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Featured, Rookie Blue

Preview: Six pictures teasing Wednesday’s Rookie Blue finale

This is it, Rookie Blue fans, but will McNally get to the church on time to say her vows to Sam? And who’s staying—or leaving—15 Division?

Here’s the official episode description for Wednesday’s Season 6 finale, “74 Epiphanies”:

“With the 15 Division restructuring looming, Andy and Sam’s wedding comes just in time for the gang to celebrate one last hurrah. But when Andy is taken off-course by a hitchhiker and then stranded on the side of a dead-end road with a dying man, she finds herself with no way to get help – or let Sam know she hasn’t bailed. Will she save the man’s life? Will she make it to her wedding?”

Here’s a handful of images to get you primed!

Rookie_Blue1

Rookie Blue‘s season finale airs Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Global.

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Featured

He Said/She Said: Does the CBC need fixing?

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Join Greg and Diane every Monday as we debate what’s on our minds. This week, we comment on the Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications’ report on how the CBC can succeed, titled “Time for Change: The CBC/Radio-Canada in the Twenty-first Century.”

He Said:

First of all, I’d suggest everyone read Kelly Lynne Ashton’s Wonk Report, explaining some of the document’s more interesting points. I totally agree with Kelly Lynne’s assertion that the report “seems mired in the Nineteenth Century,” or at the very least from before the CBC held its upfront presentation earlier this year.

If the members of the senate had been paying attention (or had been invited to that event) they would have seen and heard executive vice-president Heather Conway announce that, because of massive cuts internally and losing the NHL broadcast rights, they were already on the road to addressing challenges.

The senate report urges the public broadcaster to “emphasize Canadian artists and cultural events such as the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra … and the Orchestra symphony de Montreal.” Already on the books for the 2015-16 season in that category? Past CBC programming in The Canadian Country Music Association Awards, The CBC Massey Lectures, The Scotiabank Giller Prize and Canadian Screen Awards. The network’s newest CBC Arts strand will spotlight homegrown artists and musicians through series like Crash Gallery and Exhibitionists. The senate urges the CBC to air more “Interuniversity women’s and men’s sports, minor league sports, etc.” Do the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games fall under the “etc.” in the report? If so, they have that covered too.

I’m not saying the CBC is already doing all it needs to, but they’re clearly already a bit ahead of what the senate is proposing.

Recommendation 18 suggests “CBC/Radio-Canada focus on showing high-quality programs that are unlikely to be offered by commercial broadcasters,” and that was a bit of a head-scratcher. Does high-quality mean “done with a bigger budget,” using the separate “super-fund” proposed in another section of the report, or does it mean the arts programming already mentioned? I’d love to sit the members of the group down to hear what shows they’d like to see on the CBC. What would their network pitches be for possible comedy and drama projects that are different from what CTV, Global and City broadcast?

Does the CBC need fixing? Absolutely. But with the current programming lineup they have, and the new stuff planned for 2015-16, I think they’re on the right track. Do you?

She Said:

I look forward to the CBC’s upcoming report “Time for Change: The Senate in the Twenty-first Century“ — and I hope it’s one blank page.  

The Senate weighing in on the minutia of how our public broadcaster should adapt is possibly funnier than anything on CBC right now. And Still Standing is pretty darn funny.

The highlights of that Senate report in addition to Art Eggleton’s minority report issued shortly afterwards could be compiled into a volume called “Everything That’s Ever Been Said About How to Fix the CBC Since the Dawn of Time. ” So, not super helpful at charting a new course, Senate. 

And as Greg points out, some of the recommendations are already included in CBC’s five year strategic plan released this year: “Everyone. Every way.”  Which reminds me of the feeling I have any time I hear people’s grand plans to save the CBC: it can’t be everything to everyone, but it has to be everything to everyone.

I have my own plan to fix the CBC, but unlike the Senate I don’t think I know enough about the broadcast industry to believe I can offer detailed instructions. My report would be short: give the CBC all the money. Fund it up the wazoo with my tax money or a license fee like the BBC. Quit dragging the private networks kicking and screaming to the CanCon trough, make them pay into something like the Canadian Media Fund — or don’t, but then don’t provide them any sort of industry protection — and use all the money for CBC programming. I don’t care about the details. Just fund the CBC at least to the average level of other Western nations’ public broadcasters.

And don’t put any money toward a Senate that writes irrelevant reports and recommends Reach for the Top as the saviour of public broadcasting. Give that funding to the CBC, too.

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