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

Alfre Woodard joins Copper cast

From a media release:

MULTIPLE AWARD-WINNING ACTRESS ALFRE WOODARD JOINS THE CAST OF SHOWCASE’S COPPER

  • Previously announced new cast include Donal Logue and guest stars Eamonn Walker, Lee Tergesen and Andrew Howard

There’s a new face in the Five Points…Showcase, BBC America and Cineflix Studios announced today that critically-acclaimed actress Alfre Woodard (Steel Magnolias, Twelve Years a Slave, True Blood) will guest star in the second season of COPPER, the Showcase original drama set in 1860s New York City.

COPPER is created by three-time Emmy® Award-winner Tom Fontana and Academy Award-nominee Will Rokos and executive produced by Academy Award-winner Barry Levinson, Fontana, Rokos, Cineflix Studios President Christina Wayne and Thomas Kelly (Blue Bloods).

Winner of four Emmy® Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe®, Academy Award-nominee, Alfre Woodard joins the cast as Hattie Lemaster, a former slave who has recently arrived to the Five Points to start anew. Jarred by raucous city life, Hattie must reconcile her past against hope for a future.

COPPER, an American saga set in 1865 New York City, returns for a second season on the brink of Lincoln’s assassination – with shifts in politics and society altering the landscape for Irish immigrants and African-Americans. At the center, Detective Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones, MI-5) struggles to tame the wartime metropolis while wrestling with personal demons, including the betrayal of his wife and best friend. And when Tammany Hall’s outspoken General Brendan Donovan (Donal Logue, Sons of Anarchy, Terriers), returns from the Civil War to restore law and order in the Sixth Ward, loyalties will be bought and sold both uptown and in the slums of the Five Points as Corcoran, and those around him, fight to find their places in an unforgiving city.

Previously announced cast and season two guest stars include: Donal Logue, Eamonn Walker (Chicago Fire, OZ) as legendary abolitionist leader, Frederick Douglass; Lee Tergesen (Army Wives, OZ) as Philomen Keating, a wickedly intelligent criminal mastermind whose tendency for dramatic flair is offset by a penchant for brutality; and Andrew Howard (Hatfields and McCoys, Burn Notice) as James O’Rourke, the physically intimidating yet shrewdly observant manager of a budding criminal organization.

Returning cast includes Tom Weston-Jones, Kyle Schmid (Arrow, Being Human), Anastasia Griffith (Once Upon a Time, Damages) Franka Potente (American Horror Story, The Bourne Supremacy), Ato Essandoh (Django Unchained, Elementary), Kevin Ryan (Tripping Tommy, RAW), Dylan Taylor (Covert Affairs, Charlie Bartlett), Kiara Glasco (Haven, I’ll Follow You Down) and Tessa Thompson (For Colored Girls, Heroes).

COPPER is a Cineflix (Copper 2) Inc. production in association with Shaw Media and BBC America. Executive producers for Cineflix include: Sherri Rufh, Sam Berliner, and Katherine Buck. Larysa Kondracki is Co-Executive Producer/Director. COPPER is filming in Toronto, Ontario through July 2013.

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Awards, Featured, Heartland

Heartland’s Leila Basen on her WGC Screenwriting Award Nomination

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LeilaBasen2psThis year’s Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award winners will be announced on April 22. We’ve been catching up with many of the writers nominated in the comedy and drama categories. Heartland‘s Leila Basen is nominated for her episode “Life is a Highway.”

Can you describe the episode “Life is a Highway” and how it fit into the Heartland season?

“Life as a Highway” marks the return of Chase Powers, a charismatic but incorrigible cowboy who makes an unexpected visit to Heartland and puts Amy and Ty’s relationship to the test.

What was the biggest triumph in this particular episode?

Showing the human side of a basically unredeemable character.

What does this recognition mean to you?

Heartland has been going strong for six years on the CBC, and it’s great that this year we got two WGC script nominations.

If there was one Canadian show that is no longer on the air that you could see honoured at this year’s awards, what would it be? (If you have a specific episode, even better).

My vote would be Mental Block, a tween comedy that ran two seasons, 2002 to 2004 on YTV. (Full disclosure – Mental Block was a show I co-created and wrote with David Preston.) It was a WGC Awards finalist twice in the Youth Category, but didn’t win either time because (according to one of the jurors) it was too funny for Youth and should have been in the Comedy Category. It would be great if it could win an award, even posthumously.

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Arctic Air, Mr. D, Rogue, The Ron James Show

Wednesday: Mr. D, Ron James, Arctic Air, Food Factory, Rogue

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Mr. D, CBC – “Strip Club”
Gerry suspects that Dwyer is moonlighting as a stripper and decides to find out. Lisa makes a big deal of Secretary’s Day. Gerry tries to get in on the staff lottery pool.

The Ron James Show, CBC – “Science”
Ron puts the world of SCIENCE under the microscope. Special Guests: Alanna Harkin, Marty Adams, Jonas Chernick, Sugith Varughese.

Arctic Air, CBC – “Fool Me Once”
While a winter storm hammers Yellowknife, a couples’ weekend in Calgary goes sideways after the arrival of Blake’s sister and Krista’s discovery of Bobby and Petra’s kiss.

Food Factory, Food Network Canada – season premiere
In the season premiere, viewers are treated to a step-by-step look at how sweet and crispy waffles, tangy, crunchy Doritos nachos, dreamy dark chocolate milk, and an extravagantly cheesy Indian dessert get from the production line to people’s plates.

Rogue, Movie Central/The Movie Network – “Cathy’s Song”
Jimmy deals with fallout from the firebombing. Grace investigates Jimmy’s crew with Mitch’s help. Max negotiates with the Chinese. Alec tries to get back in Jimmy’s good graces.

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Murdoch Mysteries, Seed

Canadian TV: Safe or sexy?

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From DK Latta of Huffington Post Canada:

Is Canadian TV Too Safe, Or Too Sexy?
What one chooses to focus on depends on ones agenda. There is often a desire by some to promote the idea of dull, timid Canadians…and to embrace the mystique of the edgy and fearless American. Canadian would-be hipsters quick to sneer at Canadian TV as inherently tame compared to the shiny bauble that is American TV. In this recent interview, Adam Korson, star of the new Canadian-made sitcom, Seed, takes special aim at Canadian repressed conservatism, as though that’s the main obstacle in his series’ quest for ratings — a series about a sperm donor (with animated sperm dancing across the title) and featuring single moms and same sex parents. (The fact that I don’t think the series has landed American distribution at all seems left out of the equation). Read more.

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