In the news: Banff TV Festival

Norma Reveler picks out the highlights of the upcoming Banff World Television Festival:

Seven must-attend sessions
Panel – Big drama, small screen: changing the face of television
CTV’s Corner Gas and CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie prove that Canadian scripted TV shows can resonate with audiences. But what makes these shows winners, and what trends are developing around drama, the most expensive and riskiest of program genres? What dramas look most promising next season?

In the news: Jay Manuel of Canada’s Next Top Model

From Barrett Hooper of Now Toronto:

Canada’s next top ego: Top Model host Jay Manuel has no problem pushing his own brand
“Jay Manuel has become a brand. He refers to the Jay brand several times when we meet for an interview across the street from the CHUM building. ‘One of the things I teach the girls is that there’s Jay the brand and then there’s Jay; you don’t want it to over-inflate who you are.’ Riiiight. “

From Bernadette Morra of the Toronto Star:

He’s raising eyebrows
“‘In some of my contracts I’m not allowed to go back to my natural [hair] colour,’ Manuel explained. ‘It’s become my calling card.”

From the Toronto Star:

The model hopefuls
“The 10 aspiring models include a 22-year-old factory worker from Mannheim, Ont. and a 25-year-old travel representative from Toronto.”

Ann Marie McQueen of Sun Media interviews Debbie Travis:

Travis to Design new protege
“The home design guru plans to build on her Canadian Tire products with a line of Debbie Travis branded Condos and Homes. To do that, she needs a truly talented — if not necessarily classically trained — chief designer. So after a cross-country search Travis has landed on 14 eager proteges, who will face a series of design challenges and eliminations over the course of 10 one-hour episodes airing Thursdays beginning next week.”

Scott McLemee of Inside Higher Ed writes about Twitch City and Slings and Arrows on DVD (scroll down):

Beach Blanket Bingo
- “Adolescence isn’t just for teenagers any more. â€œTwitch City,â€ an absurdist sitcom that premiered on Canadian television in 1998, offers one of the funniest portraits around of someone determined to avoid the demands of adult life.It ran through 13 episodes before the show ended in 2000. The recent DVD release doesn’t provide many features. Still, it’s good to have the whole series available to those of us who weren’t part of its original cult following.”
- “Another product of Canada worth a look is â€œSlings and Arrows,â€ an ensemble comedy/drama that just finished its third and final season on the Sundance Channel. The first two (each consisting of six one-hour episodes) are now available on DVD.”

From Inside the CBC, quoting a letter from Richard Stursberg in the National Post:

CBC “forced” into airing Catholic sitcom pilot
â€œUnfortunately, because the pilot was financed with public funding, including tax credits and Canadian Television Fund (CTF) monies, we were required to put it on air. … Had we decided to turn the pilot into a series, we would have followed the same process we did when developing Little Mosque on the Prairie and worked with a consultant to ensure religious practices were treated sensitively. And the consultant on Little Mosque was hired only after we determined it was a show we were interested in proceeding with.â€