TV, eh? | What's up in Canadian television | Page 1494
TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Dramas and Comedies

Olympia Dukakis stars in OUTtv’s Sex & Violence

2 Comments

From a media release:

OUTtv has Sex & Violence

  • Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis Stars in and Executive Produces this original miniseries

OUTtv premiered Sex & Violence, its first original Canadian mini-series, this past Sunday night. The series stars Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck, Tales of the City), Gemini winners Jennie Raymond (The Associates) and Jackie Torrens (Made in Canada), Kerry Fox (Shallow Grave, An Angel at My Table), along with Canadian Idol alum Naomi-Joy Blackhall.

The gritty and graphic series looks at the lives of professionals who work in the aftermath of domestic violence: a social worker, a victim advocate, a prosecutor, a police officer, and a therapist. The show chronicles their struggles to maintain healthy, intimate personal relationships while working daily with people caught in violent and dysfunctional lives.

Sex & Violence highlights OUTtv’s commitment to Canadian television production. “As an independent Canadian channel, we’re delighted to be working with the multi-talented Thom Fitzgerald,” said OUTtv COO Brad Danks. “And it’s a thrill to have Academy Award® winner Olympia Dukakis involved both as the star and Executive Producer. At 82, she proves that there are still strong roles for women in television.”

Thom Fitzgerald (The Hanging Garden, Cloudburst) wrote and directed the six-hour Nova Scotia-based production. Sex & Violence is produced by Halifax’s Emotion Pictures. Film and Cultural Industries Nova Scotia and the Eastlink TV Independent Production Fund also financed Sex & Violence.

Encore of episode 1 airs on Friday, Nov. 22, at 10pm ET/10pm PT. New episodes Sundays at 9pm ET / 10 pm ET.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Canadian Pickers calls it quits

135 Comments

From a media release:

THE CANADIAN PICKERS HANG UP THEIR COWBOY HATS

  • Final Episodes of Canadian Pickers Air on HISTORY in December
  • All-Day Marathon Leads into Final Two Episodes on Monday, December 23

Scott Cozens and Sheldon Smithens, the Canadian Pickers, have picked their way from coast to coast, buying and selling unique pieces of Canadian history. Over the course of 52 episodes across four seasons, the Pickers have revealed diverse aspects of Canada’s fascinating past through the objects they bought and the people they met. This December, HISTORY concludes the final season of Canadian Pickers with four new episodes, and a special all-day marathon leading into the final two episodes of the series.

The distinctively Canadian series highlights the regions, people, history and traditions that make the country exceptional. Over the course of the four seasons, the Pickers have met Henri Richard, buying pieces of the tavern formerly owned by the famed Montreal Canadian hockey player; challenged each other to drink the notorious Sour Toe Cocktail at the Sourdough Saloon in Dawson City’s Downtown Hotel; and picked items for the Western-themed country home of Canadian country music star George Canyon. Each episode has told a different story about Canada, bringing to light both the iconic Canadian legends that have made history, and the little-known but equally remarkable stories of the country’s past.

The final four episodes include a first-ever Canadian Pickers event, which sees Scott and Sheldon traveling to the United Kingdom in hopes of buying an iconic Wild West collection with a Canadian twist. On a trip to Nova Scotia, the guys visit the ultimate man cave and make a staggering offer for the entire collection. And in the final episode, a pick from season three is brought full circle, when Scott and Sheldon travel to Kamsack, Saskatchewan to return the long-lost hunting rifle of a First Nations Chief to the Coté First Nation.

The first of the final episodes air on December 2 and 16 at 8pm ET/PT, and on December 23, an all-day Canadian Pickers marathon leads into the final two episodes of the series at 8pm and 9pm ET/PT.

All four seasons of Canadian Pickers can be watched online at www.history.ca, along with interview clips and behind-the-scenes videos. Fans of the series can also visit www.canadianpickers.com to join the Pickers community and browse items up for auction.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Podcast

TV, eh? podcast episode 158 – “Multi-Cam Unscripted”

CITF-LogoAnthony and Diane do a little post-mortem on the Canadian International Television Festival, ponder NBC’s decision to co-produce Working The Engels (Canadian producer paraphrased: “WHOO HOO”), briefly celebrate (or roll our eyes at, ANTHONY) the winners of Battle of the Blades, and marvel at the PR genius (no, really) of Bell releasing information on their development slate.

Episode 158: Listen or download or subscribe via iTunes or with any other program via the TV, Eh? feed.

Your hosts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes

New Tuesday: Rick Mercer Report, 22 Minutes

rick-mercer-profile-gallery-thumb-638xauto-274915

Rick Mercer Report, CBC
Tonight Rick is at the Toronto Zoo to assist with the feeding and caring of new resident Pandas, Da Mao and Er Shun and then he heads to Halifax to join the Paralympic Sailing Team.

22 Minutes, CBC
This Tuesday on 22 MInutes: The popular song “What Does The Fox Say” gets a Rob Ford-themed parody; a trendier version of the movie “Captain Phillips” is revealed, ejected Senators audition for Amazing Race Canada, and comedian Mark McKinney (Kids In The Hall) guest hosts.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Bitten, Dramas and Comedies, Featured

Industry Update – Adapting Bitten: From Book to Television

citf-102

Bitten was the focus of a panel discussion at the 2013 Canadian International Television Festival, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. I had the opportunity to ask executive producers Daegan Fryklind and J.B. Sugar about the show. The Bitten panel included castmembers Greg Bryk, Joel Keller, Michael Xavier, Paulino Nunes, and Steve Lund, and was hosted by InnerSPACE‘s Ajay Fry and Morgan Hoffman.

Cameron Archer: This one would be for Daegan and J.B. Sugar. How closely did you work with Kelley Armstrong in adapting the [Women of the Otherworld] book series to this show?

J.B. Sugar: Kelley was involved in the early stages a lot more heavily, when Daegan delivered her first couple drafts of the first and second episode scripts, as well as the show bible. I think the best news for us, as creatives adapting her work, was to have her kind of give us her blessing and say “Daegan really got the world, and the voices, and the characters”…I  think that was an amazing blessing to get, and let us move forward with confidence. (whispers to Daegan Fryklind) Expand.

Daegan Fryklind: And then Kelley did come to set, also, and met the writing team, and took a tour of Stonehaven, and our standing sets, and loved it. As J.B. said, to get her stamp of approval was really an honour. She was extremely busy during our production season with her newest novel, and touring a lot, so…

Steve Lund: (attempts a menacing tone) Omens. Check it out.

Fryklind: …but would throw us a lot of good feedback on Twitter, which was great.

Sugar: Random House Canada’s about to re-release Bitten in a new edition, and there’s a nice little burst on the cover, giving some props out to the show, saying “coming to Space”.

Morgan Hoffman (InnerSPACE): Cool!…[Women of the Otherworld is] such a beloved book series, and there’s numerous books within it. What would you say were the biggest challenges in adapting [the series] to a TV show?

Sugar: I’m sure Daegan has the right answer…Bitten the first season of the show follows closely to the plotline of Bitten the novel. The Otherworld series kind of jumps in time, and goes into backstory. I think the challenge was to take this wealth of mythology, and backstory, and character that needed to be crafted into a narrative that would work for the medium of TV. That’s something that Daegan and our writing team just did so brilliantly, so I’ll let her expand on that.

Fryklind: The novel itself also stays very closely to Elena [Michaels]’ P.O.V. – that’s internal monologue. In adapting the novel to a series, I had to really blow out character arcs for (refers to male cast attending CITF panel) each of these fellows, so that they had their own storylines, and so that when we were coming away from Elena to other storylines, we had B-plots and C-plots. We sorta blow out the world, blow out their valley, and create characters there, and Toronto, and Philip [Madden]’s world, and his family, and just give everyone their own throughline, and their own want and need throughout the first season.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail