TV, eh? | What's up in Canadian television | Page 1344
TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Saving Hope

Tonight: Corner Gas movie, Saving Hope

Corner Gas: The Movie, CTV and CTV Two
Ten years after the debut of one of Canadian television’s most beloved comedy series, CORNER GAS returns to CTV and makes its super-simulcast network premiere just in time for the holidays. In the not-to-be-missed two-hour film, it’s been five years and there’s still not a lot going on 40 kilometers from nowhere. But that’s all about to change as the fine folks of Dog River, Saskatchewan face their biggest crisis ever. Brent (Brent Butt) and the gang discover that the town’s been badly mismanaged, leaving residents with little choice but to pack up and leave. As residents make one last rally to save Dog River as they know it, they discover a devious plan by a corporate giant that would change life for Dog Riverites forever. An encore presentation of CORNER GAS: THE MOVIE airs Saturday, Dec. 27 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Saving Hope, CTV – “Days of Heaven”
In a must-watch cliff-hanger of SAVING HOPE, Dr. Alex Reid (Erica Durance), Dr. Maggie Lin (Julia Taylor Ross), and Dr. Dana Kinney (Wendy Crewson) spend the morning hearing celebrated surgeon Thor MacLeod (Currie Graham, DALLAS) talk about his near-death experience. When a fellow fan loses control and nearly dies, Alex finds herself in the hospital alongside Thor in an effort to save the man’s life. But when Thor’s connection to the patient is revealed, Alex can’t help but wonder if the doctor is truly who he appears to be. Meanwhile, Dr. Charlie Harris (Michael Shanks) avoids Thor’s “insights” and tries to bounce an idea off Dr. Shahir Hamza (Huse Madhavji) that could help solve the medical mystery of the patient’s spirit. Feeling less like himself than ever, Dr. Joel Goran (Daniel Gillies) escapes Hope Zion Hospital by immersing himself at the street clinic – only to face a day of bad news and heavy consequences. Plus, Maggie must find the courage to confront Dana on an issue involving her daughter, Molly Kinney (Eliana Jones, HEMLOCK GROVE).

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Uncategorized

Forgotten African-Nova Scotia stories the focus of CBC’s new Studio Black

1 Comment

From The Chronicle Herald:

Stories based on Fauset collection in production now, to be shown on CBC-TV

A new series on CBC-TV aims to “reveal, revise and reinterpret important forgotten stories” from African-Nova Scotian folklore.

Picture Plant Ltd. of Lunenburg began production on the four-part series Studio Black! at CBC’s Bell Road location in Halifax on Dec. 8.

The series is based on a collection of stories by Arthur Fauset, “who in 1923 travelled to Nova Scotia from Philadelphia, visiting many black communities, much like Dr. Helen Creighton,” a news release says. “He documented these stories and assembled them into a book published by the American Folklore Society in 1931.” Continue reading. 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured

Comedy is hard, says Corner Gas: The Movie star

After an extended stay in movie theatres, Corner Gas: The Movie lands on CTV and CTV Two tonight. Stripped of the pre-show and feature film credits, the two-hour flick takes on the structure fans of the series are more accustomed to, a super-sized episode of a project they loved dearly.

For those who didn’t venture out to the movie theatre, here’s a short refresher on what to expect: Dog River, Sask., has hit on hard economic times and is in danger of ceasing to be a town. Everyone has crazy ideas on how to make ends meet, from entering Dog River in a contest to win the cash to pay off debts to prepping for the end of the world. Coming up with a script for a 90-minute movie was a tough task according to creator/executive producer Brent Butt, executive producer Virginia Thompson, writers Andrew Carr and Andrew Wreggitt and executive producer/director David Storey, who took over two years to come up with something everyone was happy with.

Comedies are just harder to make says Butt’s co-star, Nancy Robertson.

“You laugh or you don’t,” she says during a press junket in support of the project. “In comedy, you don’t have the help of mood lighting or music. Those all help to set up a drama, but they screw up a comedy because they get in the way of the timing. It’s far more delicate.”

“I think when people see a comedy and they burst out laughing they think it’s a surprise,” the gal who played Wanda Dollard for six seasons continues. “There is nothing further than the truth. They have no idea of the work that has led up to that laugh, that smile. Because the laugh is impulsive, I think people think what led up to it was impulsive.”

All of that work has paid off. Corner Gas: The Movie is a wonderful salute to the fans who wanted more of Oscar (Eric Peterson), Emma (Janet Wright), Davis (Lorne Cardinal), Wanda, Lacey (Gabrielle Miller), Karen (Tara Spencer-Nairn) and Hank (Fred Ewanuick). The feature film structure allows for an expansion of a couple of characters, most notably Oscar and Davis. The former attempts to go full commando and live off the land (when he’s not calling people “jackass”), leading to several laugh-out loud moments. Davis, meanwhile, tries his hand at being a private investigator; the resulting scenes make me wish CTV, Butt and everyone else involved had the time and cash to pull of a Davis spinoff where he’s a small-town P.I. working in a big city like Calgary or Vancouver.

For now we’ll have to be content with Corner Gas: The Movie, a loving return to those odd folks in that little town where there’s not a lot going on, knowing that there was in fact a lot going on behind the scenes to make it happen.

Corner Gas: The Movie airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and CTV Two; and Monday, Dec. 22, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The Comedy Network.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Uncategorized

HBO Canada kicks off homegrown doc series Sports on Fire

From a media release:

– Directed and created by Pete McCormack and produced by Toronto-based Project 10 Productions Inc. and Vancouver-based Two 4 The Money Media –

Untold perspectives from moments when history and sports collide are revealed in SPORTS ON FIRE, a six-part, half-hour original documentary series from Movie Central and The Movie Network debuting Friday, Jan. 9 at 9 p.m. ET/MT on HBO Canada. Each episode of SPORTS ON FIRE brings a fresh angle and new insight into iconic moments in sport, through interviews and archival footage presented in a rapid-paced, hard-hitting style.

Directed and created by Pete McCormack (Facing Ali, I Am Bruce Lee), SPORTS ON FIRE digs deep into moments where some of the world’s greatest athletes are caught up in monumental events that change the course of history. These powerful stories are told from the point of view of elite athletes, key witnesses, experts, and historians including, nine-time gold-medalist and Olympic legend Mark Spitz, Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman, gold-medalist and Lance Armstrong teammate Tyler Hamilton and four-time Super Bowl champion Bill Romanowski.

In the series premiere, SPORTS ON FIRE gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look into the 1972 Summit Series, played at the height of the Cold War, as remembered by journalists, Russian historians, and three unforgettable hockey legends. Canadian greats Paul Henderson, Bobby Clarke, and Ken Dryden reflect on the Series, questioning the boundaries and the potential glory of the win-at-any-cost mentality that ultimately led to a stunning victory in Moscow.

SPORTS ON FIRE is produced by Project 10 Productions Inc. and Two 4 The Money Media, in association with The Movie Network and Movie Central. Pete McCormack is director and executive producer. Andrew Barnsley (SPUN OUT), Jeff Aghassi (The Games of 1940), Kim Arnott (Emmy Award® winner, R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour), and Kevin Foley (Four Days In April: The Mike Weir Story) serve as executive producers. The series is distributed internationally by eOne Distribution and is produced with funding support from the Rogers Cable Network Fund.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured

Preview: Ice Pilots flies into the sunset

For the last six seasons, viewers have been able to experience what it’s like–visually at least–to climb aboard a DC-3 and jet around Canada’s north. Now it all comes to an end as Ice Pilots NWT takes off for the final time.

Airing Wednesday night on History, the series-ender “D-Day” is unlike most episodes of Ice Pilots in that it was recorded in June–the polar opposite to the sub-zero filming in Yellowknife’s winter months–and the only cargo are human beings. But what a group of human beings. Mikey McBryan’s two-year dream of celebrating the 70th anniversary of D-Day in Europe has finally arrived. He’s got 12 Canadian troops and 12 American Green Berets flying up to Yellowknife to participate in the event, a commemorative jump into Alberta’s Abraham Lake from just 1,200 feet off the ground. Not only that, but Mikey and long-time Buffalo Airways employee Corey are jumping too, in a separate exit from the DC-3 at 12,000 feet.

ice_pilots

But, like the D-Day jump that was postponed due to weather, all of the planning and plotting Mikey had done seems for naught when Hurricane “Buffalo” Joe McBryan arrives on the scene and unhappy about the landing zone. Add to that a wall of bad weather and the entire project is set to be scrubbed.

I won’t ruin what happens next.

I was lucky enough to fly up to Yellowknife during a press junket for Ice Pilots NWT. The highlight, of course, was climbing into the back of the DC-3 and flying to and from Hay River with Joe in the cockpit. Bundled up in layers of clothing and packed into that fuselage, I realized I was one of a small group who’d had the opportunity to do it in real life. It was an experience I’ll never forget. Thanks, guys, for six great years on the air, and for welcoming a TV critic from the south into your lives for a day or two.

The Ice Pilots NWT series finale airs Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on History.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail