Award-winning production company, marblemedia, in association with Cloudco Entertainment, a world-class entertainment studio, received a series order for Overlord and the Underwoods™ (20×30) from CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster, Nickelodeon International, ITV, in association with BYUtv.
The original half-hour, live-action, single camera family comedy follows the Underwoods, a North American family, whose life is turned upside down when their distant cousin, Overlord, the second most-wanted villain in the universe, seeks refuge in their home after being forced into intergalactic witness protection. After snitching out his boss, the evil Mega-Lord Supreme, Overlord is sent to live with his incredibly nice, distant cousins on Planet Earth. Over the course of the series, the evil Overlord and the very sweet Underwoods discover a thing or two about each other as they learn to treasure the value of family and the importance of true friendship, diversity, and compassion.
Created by BAFTA-winning showrunner, Anthony Q. Farrell (NBC’s The Office, CBBC’s Secret Life of Boys, CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie, upcoming marble and BYUtv series The Parker Andersons/ Amelia Parker) and Ryan Wiesbrock, creator of the Netflix Original Series Buddy Thunderstruck and the live-action adaptation of the Hulu Original series Holly Hobbie for Hulu and Canada’s Family Channel. The series features top talent and pre-production has begun in Toronto.
Farrell is compiling an exceptional creative writing team for the show including Kate Hewlett, Ryan Belleville, Jay Vaidya, Amanda Joy, Angelica Mendizabal, Caleigh Bacchus, Simon Owens, Sadiya Durrani and Richard Young.
Academy-Award winning FX expert, Roger Christian (Alien, Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace and Episode IV A New Hope) boards the series as Character Designer. Christian was responsible for creating the props and sets for Star Wars, including the infamous lightsaber. His designs for this show will be brought to life by MastersFX and include Overlord’s helmet and costume and his animatronic, robot sidekick. The team at MastersFX is the character effects company behind hit shows The Handmaid’s Tale and The Umbrella Academy, and they will bring Christian’s designs to life in Overlord and the Underwoods.
Production credits for the series include: Executive Producers Mark J.W. Bishop, Matt Hornburg, Carrie Paupst Shaughnessy, Ryan Wiesbrock, Sean Gorman and Ian Lambur; Supervising Producer Donna Luke; Series Producer Jim Corston; SVP Rights and Executive Producer, Diane Rankin; and Showrunner Anthony Q. Farrell. For CBC, Sally Catto is General Manager, Entertainment, Factual & Sports, Trish Williams is Executive Director, Scripted Content, Sandra Picheca is Director of Current Production, Comedy, and Greig Dymond is Executive In Charge of Production. Michael A. Dunn and Andra Johnson Duke are Executive Producers and Jim Bell is Supervising Producer for BYUtv.
The series is produced in association with CBC, BYUtv, Nickelodeon International with ITV/Citv, and with the financial participation of the Shaw Rocket Fund. The series was developed through funding from the Bell Fund Slate Development Program. Cloudco Entertainment and Distribution 360, a marblemedia company, hold worldwide distribution rights for the series.
[Spoiler alert! Do not continue reading until you have watched the Season 14 finale, “Everything is Broken, Part 2.”]
Things are mended for others, but the overriding theme of Monday’s Season 14 finale of Murdoch Mysteries lived up to its name. Or perhaps the episode’s alternate title could have been, “Everything is Up in the Air.” Not as catchy, but certainly apt. By the episode’s end, there was closure for some (Henry and Ruth welcomed a daughter, with a little help from Margaret), but that was it. If Season 15 is greenlit, there will be much to wrap up, from Watts and Jack’s relationship to Violet’s actions against Arthur, Bobby’s Brackenreid’s prison escape, and Effie’s kidnapping at the hands of Dorothy AND Amelia.
And, of course, we can’t forget William and Julia, the former who has left for Montreal—Harry in tow—to find Anna, leaving the latter shattered in an empty house.
In our final interview of Season 14, we spoke to showrunner Peter Mitchell about what has happened and what’s to come.
Congratulations! Season 14, despite the pandemic, has been a great mix of comedy and tragedy. Peter Mitchell: Thanks. Sometimes as the expense of the fans. [Laughs.]
Since you brought it up… when you are writing, do you write with the fans in mind or are you writing to entertain yourselves? PM: We are aware of certain episodes that are going to get an extra fan reaction, but we certainly don’t censor ourselves because the people who aren’t fans of humour are going to hate this one. We may actually ladle the humour on a little harder! [Laughs.] There is an awareness of what the fans are thinking and if some fan is actually thinking exactly what we were going to do, we change it if we have time. We still write for that four-quadrant group of fans who want the mystery, the ones who want the romance, the ones who want science and the ones who want Victoriana … or Edwardiana now.
You have been very active on Facebook lately leading conversation and playfully prodding the fans. You must love that. PM: It’s fun and it’s very rewarding for all of the writers to get their work noticed. I have fun with the fans and I think the appreciate knowing we know they’re out there.
You added two new writers to the room this year in Caleigh Bacchus and Christina Ray. They have been great additions. Was it always your intention to add new writers? PM: Yes, just to mix it up a bit. Caleigh is quite new to the game and brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm and was the story coordinator, so had to handle all of that stuff. She gained confidence and became a voice in the room. Paul [Aitken] and I had a brief experience with Christina Ray a long time ago. We were working on a proposal for an Alien Nation-type show with vampires. We had gotten to know her during that process and I had always wanted the chance to work with her because she is quite good at plot, and plot is something we need in Murdoch. It was difficult because we weren’t in a room, really. For a very short period of time, we were in a physical space and I’m not even sure Caleigh was part of that.
What’s the secret to your writing room success? How are you all able to continue writing compelling storylines? PM: For the last few years, we’ve ended the season with a bunch of questions. And when you come out of the gate [on a new season] I already have an advantage in that I don’t have to think of anything new, I just have to figure out how to answer these questions that I raised last year. That kind of gets your story brain going. With Murdoch, the stories just come.
At what point did you know Anna Fulford would be part of the season finale? PM: It was probably late-ish in the season. In the early part of the season, we were really concentrating on the reality of working in the COVID world and trying to tell stories that could be told within it. We really didn’t know how it would look [with social distancing] and then I saw the first few cuts and realized it really didn’t look any different. The closest we came to feeling uneasy was during [“Murdoch Checks In”] because there were more [COVID-19] cases going on and there was the reality of filming in August with a cloth mask on. But once we got through that and knew we were going to be fine, we started to figure out [the season finale].
I always knew, from the minute I saw Sarah Swire appear on the show [as Amelia Ernst] that she was going to be in the finale. She was on Frankie, and she was just f—ing great. I knew that we would have to circle back around on Bobby, and the twisted little relationship between Violet and Arthur we were pretty sure on very early. The Murdoch storyline may have come last. Once we realized we were going to do that, there was no way the physical Anna [Lisa Faulkner] would be in Canada, so we went with the memory of Anna. And, as you can tell, that story is far from resolved.
There are many storylines left to be wrapped up. PM: And, moving forward, the resolutions will be unexpected.
You joked on Facebook that if George finds a wife and gets married, that will be the end of the show. Do you really feel that way? I want him to be happy. PM: And, I think at some point he will be. But, you have to keep a certain amount of juice. Brackenreid and Margaret are married and we’re never going to split them up. Murdoch and Ogden are married … what do you do with a married George? What do you do with happy characters? They’re basically the death of a show. Nobody in the most feelgood show, Ted Lasso, was happy. Ted moved to England because he was getting a divorce and he still loved his wife. The woman who hired Ted was still smarting from an affair. No one was happy, but it was still a happy show. We need dilemma. The audience needs dilemma.
Having Effie trapped in a tree was genuinely scary. PM: Somehow, I got it in my head that I wanted a fairytale ending. Here we have the evil twin sisters and we don’t know or understand either of them. I had this image of Effie stuck in a hollowed-out tree, which felt like a very fairytale type of thing. It wasn’t until very late in the game that I decided there would be two [sisters]. I didn’t want to throw to someone with multiple personalities. And, you could argue that Dorothy is just trying to do right by her sister. I think that Dorothy is the truly evil one. Amelia just wants to marry George because she loves him and Dorothy is trying to facilitate that.
If you are renewed for a 15th season, do you address all of the storylines within the first few episodes? PM: We address a few of the continuing stories in Episodes 1 and 2, but not all of them. When we do get back to those stories, we will learn that things have progressed. We’ll learn that Jack is married but that Jack and Watts are still seeing each other. I want to have an ongoing murder case in the first episode, which will be Watts’ case because Murdoch is still trying to find answers. Brackenreid will be trying to figure out what happened to Bobby. Crabtree’s line is … well, I’m not even going to tell you. [Laughs.] For mystery fans, there will be a legitimate mystery. And Violet is left in an interesting situation as well.
What did you think of the Season 14 finale? Let me know in the comments below.
This season of MasterChef Canada has been like no other. By now, the teams will have gone outside for some kind of challenge. I’m assuming that to ensure everyone stayed safe, this didn’t happen. But, rather than missing that part of the show, I’ve relished staying in the studio and focusing on tough tests on-set.
The toughest so far took place on Sunday, as the remaining contestants were faced with Italian-themed challenges in a Pressure Test to eliminate at least one.
Following the Red team’s win last week, Blue team members Andrew, Jen, Mai, Andre and Barrie were welcomed by Chefs Claudio, Alvin and Michael, who informed everyone that one member from Jeremy’s winning squad would participate in the Pressure Test too … and he had to pick who. Whoa. I think if I was Team Captain and as confident in my skills as Jeremy is, I would put myself forward rather than someone else. Jeremy, instead, put Andy into the line of fire.
The two-part Pressure Test began with Chef Michael calling his son, Chef Oscar Bonacini, into the MasterChef Canada kitchen. And, whereas Oscar spent four months learning how to make hand-made pasta in Italy, the competitors had mere minutes to observe Oscar’s masterclass in creating three shapes of pasta (dimpled, braided, and curled), each more intricate than the one before it. Head-to-head battles ensued, with teams facing off to make one pasta and a traditional sauce to go with it. Red team’s Andy doled out the pairings this way:
Capunti with tomato sauce: himself and Barrie
Lorighittas in butter herb sauce: Mai and Andre
Trofie and pesto sauce: Jen and Andrew
The 25-minute deadline was definitely a challenge, though fresh pasta takes less time to cook. Everyone started in a frenzy, mixing the semolina flour with water to get just the right hydration and consistency. The sudden curveball that Barrie had experience making pasta threatened to derail Andy’s plan; Mai was confident she would beat Andre, but her Lorighitta looked less delicate than Oscars; and Jen opted to use her hands to shape the Trofie rather than use a fiddly bench scraper. With just minutes before the deadline, Andre’s water wasn’t boiling, Andy’s sauce seemed to have too much garlic and cheese added too soon, Andrew was bruising his basil in the blender, and Jen was taking too long prepping her basil with a mortar and pestle.
Andrew and Jen were up for judging first and Chef Alvin pulled no punches. Andrew’s pasta was inconsistent and his sauce was brown, but it had a nice flavour; Jen’s pasta was more consistent but small, but her sauce was delicious. Andrew got the win and moved to the gallery. Andre and Mai were next, judged by Chef Claudio. Though Andre’s pasta looked the most authentic, it wasn’t cooked all the way through; Mai’s pasta was pillowy and cooked to perfection but the sauce’s flavours weren’t as bright. Mai triumphed and moved to safety. Finally, Barrie and Andy presented to Chef Michael. Barrie’s pasta looked good and his sauce was vibrant, inviting, and on point; Andy’s pasta was within the size variance allowed and his sauce was darker and richer, and Chef Michael hinted there was an issue with it. The winner in the final round was Barrie’s better sauce.
Because of the teasers before the episodes rolled out, I knew an extra twist in the 60-minute test was coming. It arrived in the form of an added dish. Now the trio had to make a Contorno—a side dish—to accompany the Secondo. With just 30 minutes to go, I would have started crying, put down my apron, and walked out the door. Instead, Jen opted for a simple vegetable side dish, Andre a buttermilk-dressed salad, and Andy an orange and fennel salad.
In the final judging, the chefs gave a nod to Andy, sending him to safety in the gallery. That left Jen and Andre in the bottom and, ultimately, it was Jen who left the competition.
MasterChef Canada: Back to Win airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.
Canadian television is an interesting blend of homegrown material and foreign shows. Like anywhere else, some of these shows have managed to have a profound effect on pop culture here, and have proven to stand the test of time. These are some shows and series that have had a lasting effect in Canada.
Degrassi: The Next Generation The Degrassi series was a smash hit in Canada and was picked up by Teen Nick in the states. Even after 20 years, the legacy and impact of Degrassi is still felt. Degrassi Junior High was one of the first drama series in Canada that was directed with the teenage market in mind, and Degrassi: The Next Generation expanded on the concept in the early 2000s. This was the groundwork for many different shows that came later, and it is credited with launching the careers of many actors and performers, notably the incredibly successful musician Drake.
Degrassi didn’t shy away from controversial topics, and in fact it was one of the first televised series to shine a light on these issues that would later become widely discussed. It has a way of teaching empathy, and helping people understand different walks of life. In another light, this series has also become a blueprint for other drama series as it illustrates how to grow and build characters, and keep a series going through cast changes over years while fighting to stay relevant. Degrassi has proven to be an impactful and important series in Canada that is likely to live on for generations.
Ed, Edd n Eddy Ed, Edd n Eddy is the brainchild of Canadian cartoonist Danny Antonucci who is responsible for numerous animated series. The show was a massive success in Canada and globally, and became one of Cartoon Network’s most successful properties. Over a 10-year span, it had 70 episodes and won several awards like a Reuben Award, Leo Awards and a SOCAN Award.
If you ask people who grew up during the early 2000s, many remember this show fondly. It had a certain charm and an endearing structure that revolved around the main character’s whacky schemes to fund their love of Jawbreaker candies. There is something about this show that resonates deeply in Canada and if it were not for the success of Ed, Edd n Eddy, many later Canadian cartoons like Total Drama Island would never have had their chance to shine.
World Poker Tour While it may not be specifically Canadian, the live World Poker Tour series certainly was a massive inspiration for people across the country. Canada is known globally as a massive hotbed for poker talent, and the boom can be traced back to this live series that brought the game into the households of millions of Canadians.
The World Poker Tour was very enthralling and found a way to keep the audience engaged, even during the tedious segments. One of the big reasons for this has been contributed to the entertaining chemistry between co-hosts Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten who kept things lively throughout the program. This series really managed to capture the intensity and suspense of high-stakes poker games and the long term effects of the WPT cannot be ignored.
Trailer Park Boys Whether you love it or hate it, you cannot deny that TPB has had a lasting effect in Canadian culture. The long-running series has become a phenomenon at home and abroad, and there are legions of fans around the world supporting the many reboots, specials and spinoffs the comedy trio have produced. Somehow, even amongst claims of being stale and past its prime, TPB lives on.
Trailer Park Boys certainly does not represent all of the country, but it does have a specific Canadian charm that comes across in many of the jokes and dialogue that the series has become known for. Pop culture is rife with running jokes and references to characters that have appeared on the show and many millennials of today can say they grew up watching the TPB hijinks. The chemistry between the main trio of Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles and the oftentimes improvised script that plays out between the characters can only have proven to be a formula for comedy excellence that has managed to preserve over 20 years.
Super Channel is pleased to announce it has acquired two new innovative family comedies slated for their Canadian premiere on Super Channel Heart & Home this April. The Parker Andersons (10 x 30 min) and Amelia Parker (10 x 30 min) follow the life of one interracial family, blended by marriage. The two interwoven scripted series highlight events in the life of the Parker-Anderson family from two different perspectives. Produced by marblemedia and Beechwood Canyon Productions, both series were shot in Toronto.
The Parker Andersons will premiere on Monday, April 19 at 8 p.m. ET, followed by Amelia Parker at 8:30 p.m. ET. Each half-hour episode will also be available on Super Channel On Demand, the day following its weekly linear broadcast.
This completely new and innovative concept enhances traditional TV storytelling by creating two stand-alone comedy series, each with their own storylines and episodes, while still connected by larger overarching plotlines tying the two independent shows together. The Parker Andersons follows the heartfelt family moments and warmly comedic antics of a newly blended family, while Amelia Parker centers around the quietest member of the family as she navigates the world around her.
The Parker Andersons follows Tony Parker, a British widower and father of two (Nathan and Amelia), who moves to the United States, where he marries Cleo Anderson, the mother of two kids (Victoria and Charlie). The series follows this diverse family as they learn that their differences are exactly what they need to create a happy new life together.
Amelia Parker centers around the quietest member of the Parker Anderson family, a tween girl who has been selectively mute since her mother died a few years ago. If she’s going to participate in the world again, she’d better find her voice. In confessionals, we see that Amelia is actually an opinionated, vivacious girl, who openly explains her hopes, anxieties, and fears in virtual conversations with her deceased mom.
Anthony Q. Farrell serves as showrunner and an executive producer for both series. Farrell has written for The Office, Little Mosque on the Prairie and Nickelodeon’s The Thunderman’s and has developed shows for CBS Studios, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network, among others. He is also the creator of Secret Life of Boys, the BAFTA-winning CBBC series in its fifth season.  
The Parker Andersons and Amelia Parker stars Arnold Pinnock as Tony Parker (Cardinal, Coroner, Baroness Von Sketch), Kate Hewlett as Cleo Anderson (The Stanley Dynamic, Degrassi: The Next Generation, The Girlfriend Experience), Millie Davis as Amelia Parker (Odd Squad, Dino Dana, Wonder, Orphan Black), Agape Mngomezulu as Nathan Parker (Best Intentions, The Twilight Zone, Supernatural), Devin Cecchetto as Victoria Anderson (Ginny & Georgia, The Craft), Charlie Zeltzer as Charlie Anderson (The Handmaid’s Tale, Anne with an E), Sandy Jobin-Bevans as Roger Anderson (Designated Survivor, Just Like Mom and Dad, Good Witch) and Akiel Julien as Nick Parker (Utopia Falls, The Boys, What We Do in the Shadows).
Executive Producers for the series include Mark J.W. Bishop, Matt Hornburg, Carrie Paupst Shaughnessy, and Co-Executive Producer Donna Luke (marblemedia); Executive Producers Frank van Keeken and Yolanda Yott (Beachwood Canyon); Executive Producer and Showrunner Anthony Q. Farrell and Producer Jim Corston. Executive producers for BYUtv include Michael A. Dunn, Andra Johnson Duke, Melissa Puente and Jim Bell.
