Tag Archives: Jennifer Whalen

CBC’s Small Achievable Goals and Son of a Critch embrace female stories

Howie Mandel has a joke/observation he told years ago that has stuck with me. In it, he is talking about being out on the town with his wife, who is dressed immaculately, interacting with guests and having fun. All this, he says, while she is menstruating.

“If we were the race that was menstruating, we wouldn’t go anywhere,” Mandel opines. “There would be no nights out. Your buddy could call you, ‘Do you want to come over for a beer?’ ‘No.’ ‘No? Why not?’ ‘Because my crotch is bleeding!'”

I couldn’t help but reflect on Mandel’s remarks while I watched the first episode of Small Achievable Goals because it plays a major part in world-building and character development.

Airing Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC and streaming on CBC Gem, Small Achievable Goals follows the adventures of Julie (Jennifer Whalen, top left) and Kris (Meredith MacNeill, top right), two women trying to navigate different stages of menopause. When they’re forced together to produce a podcast, Kris and Julie help each other through workplace challenges and office politics, dating disasters and relationship drama, health concerns and parenting woes. The project reunites co-creators Whalen and McNeill, who CBC viewers last saw on the award-winning Baroness Von Sketch Show. Whalen recalls how the pandemic caused her to reflect on her own menopause experiences and that a TV show could be made around it.

“I started to realize that some of my existential crisis was not actually just the pandemic,” she says. “Maybe I was in some stage of [menopause] and I realized that I knew nothing about it and what I did know was relentlessly bleak. I thought, ‘I can really use a laugh about this. I’m sure other people could.'”

The result? A series that is hilarious, shocking and touching. The first episode features Kris experiencing sudden, heavy perimenopause bleeding moments before she’s to participate in a photo shoot to promote her podcast … while wearing white. Kris’ emotions are already heightened thanks to learning a younger woman will be her podcast co-host (to pull in a younger audience, she is told), and furtively asking for help securing a tampon. The scene’s final, bloody conclusion may be shocking for some, but it’s about time the plight of half the population was shown on-screen. So too of Julia’s experience in that first episode, dealing with menopause hot flashes as she’s told she has, once again, been passed over for the top producer gig in favour of someone younger and, it should be said, male. What took it so long for this kind of storytelling to be shown?

“I think it is a function of our patriarchal society that it does feel like menopause is this dividing line that if you’re no longer fertile, you’re no longer a value to our society,” Whalen says. “And I think that a lot of people didn’t want to talk about it because you have a lot to lose by talking about it publicly.”

Claire Rankin as Mary on Son of a Critch

Ironically, CBC’s Son of a Critch is exploring a similar storyline. Season 4 of the veteran comedy, airing Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem, and based on Mark Critch’s award-winning, best-selling memoir about growing up in Newfoundland, is all about pursuing one’s passion. And for the character of Mary (Claire Rankin), that means entering a new stage in her life.

With sons Mark (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and Mike Jr. (Colton Gobbo) older and relying less on her, Mary is experiencing a loss of identity. Is she still a mother? Yes, of course. But what else? Upcoming storylines follow Mary as she goes back to school—igniting her passion for a possible career—and experiencing her first steps into menopause. The growth of Mary’s character came at the suggestion of Rankin herself.

“After the first season, Mark basically came to me and said, ‘You know, if you have any ideas please sort them out,'” Rankin says. “[I said] she’s going to need a menopause story, something that actually tells that journey.”

And, like Small Achievable Goals, Son of a Critch explores ageism through Mary’s eyes. An ego-boosting trip to have her pictures taken at a Glamour Shot-esque mall kiosk gets the wrong reaction from husband Mike (Critch) and her first college class results in trepidation until she’s called upon by the teacher.

“There’s still this unattainable standard that we’re somehow supposed to constantly be striving for in the sense that we even created a term ‘aging gracefully,'” Rankin says. “Do we use that for men? No. Guys are just allowed to age. They’re allowed to look rugged and wrinkles are kind of sexy in an older man, and so is gray hair”

“And yet we are somehow supposed to maintain this bizarre sense of looking 25 when we’re in our 50s.”

Son of a Critch airs Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.

Small Achievable Goals airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.

Images courtesy of CBC.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

CBC and Sphere Media start production on menopause comedy Small Achievable Goals from Meredith MacNeill and Jennifer Whalen

From a media release:

CBC and Sphere Media today announced that production is underway on new original comedy series SMALL ACHIEVABLE GOALS (8×30), co-created by and starring Meredith MacNeill and Jennifer Whalen. The series, which is currently filming in Toronto and Hamilton, will premiere in winter 2025 on CBC and CBC Gem. 

SMALL ACHIEVABLE GOALS follows odd couple Julie (Whalen) and Kris (MacNeill), as they are thrust together to produce a podcast while grappling with “the change” – aka menopause. The duo embark on a journey of transformation, helping each other through workplace challenges and office politics, dating and relationship drama, and some serious health concerns. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, they will be reborn as sexy, silver-haired, wizard women! Or at least wiser, less sweaty versions of themselves. 

“We want to make a joyful comedy about menopause because in this time of life we could all use a laugh,” said Whalen. “For those of us going through it, we see you. For everyone else, enjoy the ride!”

“Making something hot and bloody with Sphere and the CBC — everyone’s revved up to take it all the way home,” said MacNeill. “Normally one would say that we stand behind the message, but the message is so strong, we believe it stands behind us.”

“This series is at times hilarious, surprising, and revealing as it looks at a very normal part of aging that affects half the population but is still spoken about in hushed tones,” said Trish Williams, Executive Director, Scripted Content, CBC. “This workplace sitcom is bound to become a conversation starter as audiences relate – and react – to the experiences of Kris and Julie as they discover what it means to experience menopause.”

“We’re so thrilled to be working with the talented Jennifer and Meredith, and with CBC on this fresh, funny look at menopause and midlife,” said Elise Cousineau, Executive Producer at Sphere Media. “It’s hilarious, highly relatable, and we’re excited to be a part of bringing it to the screen.”

A CBC Original Series, SMALL ACHIEVABLE GOALS is produced by Sphere Media. The series is created by Meredith MacNeill and Jennifer Whalen (Baroness von Sketch Show), who also serve as Executive Producers alongside Stacy Traub, and Sphere Media’s Jennifer Kawaja, Bruno Dubé and Elise Cousineau. 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Radio One’s Because News brings laughs to primetime TV

When it came to creating Because News, Gavin Crawford looked across the pond.

“When we were first figuring out what will it be and what will we do, I was like, ‘Let’s steal the British ideas,’ because those are the shows I like,” Crawford recalls. Created by Crawford, Elizabeth Bowie and David Carroll, the long-running Radio One program recently made the jump to a new platform.

Airing Sundays at 7 p.m. on  CBC (and Saturdays at 11 a.m. on Radio One), Because News features host Crawford and a rotating panel of comedians, sketch performers and funny people who make games out of the week’s news.

Last week’s radio and TV episode welcomed Andrew Phung (Kim’s Convenience), Jennifer Whalen (Baroness Von Sketch Show) and comedian Martha Chaves, and poked fun at Halloween amid the pandemic, COVID-19 itself and the U.S. election. Best known for his work on The Hour Has 22 Minutes and  The Gavin Crawford Show on The Comedy Network, we spoke to the Second City alum and Gemini Award-winner about adding TV cameras to Because News, how the show is written and tight-turnaround times.

Did you always hope Because News would become a television show?
Gavin Crawford: When we first started doing the show, I always thought there was a possibility if it worked out it could translate, just simply because there are so many British ones that fulfill those same things. When we were first figuring out what will it be, what will we do, I was like, ‘Let’s steal the British ideas,’ because those are the shows I enjoy watching. And so we always tried to model it that way, that it would be modular. Then, I guess, partly because it’s me and I like to do voices and characters, we would end up making things like fake movie trailers. But I guess I always had in the back of my mind, if CBC ever wants to do cross-platform stuff, it’s something they could actually manage to do.

Was it you and Elizabeth Bowie who developed the show together?
GC: Yeah. Basically, Liz and David Carroll came to me and said, ‘We’ve got a green light to make a pilot of a news quiz, and we think you’d be a good host for that. Is that something you’d want to do?’ Once we had established, ‘OK, it’s going to be me,’ we tried to figure out what we wanted to do. In my experience of watching those shows, I wanted it to be about the comradery of the panellists.  wanted us to be able to tease each other. I don’t want the answers to be necessarily that hard or important. I don’t want to try and solve a refugee crisis. We want to take the ball of news that everyone has and have fun with it where we can and make fun of the people in power. But, in a weird way, they are less game shows than they are talk shows.

I always tell the panellists, ‘You don’t have to get the right answer. You can say wet socks and a cat, for all I care. Let’s be able to take the time to riff with each other and take up ideas and improvise, the way that a lot of the people on the show are improvisers and comedians.’ So that’s what we like to do and to try and make sure that there’s enough space for that.

How difficult was it to take this show that’s made for the radio and translate it to TV? 
GC: There are definitely difficulties that you don’t have on radio. But it wasn’t too hard, because we made a conscious decision not to reinvent the wheel. I like the show the way it is, and if it was on TV, I still want it to be that. The hardest thing was how do we get people in a studio together, with the pandemic, knowing that we have to space everybody eight feet apart?

There are little technical things like how do you just keep a comradery going when you know they’re going to cut to a wide shot, and it’s going to look very wide. Those are things that you have to think of. And then there are weird technical things. If you show a graphic or TV, everything has to be triply sourced and thrust through legal. The hardest thing is clearing everything from the team of lawyers, and being like, ‘We need this clip of Trump saying this funny thing.’ Whereas on the radio, that’s a five-minute job. And on TV it’s a day and a half.

I listened to the most recent episode on the radio and noted there were a few segments there that weren’t on the TV episode.
GC: The radio is always five minutes longer, so just from a time standpoint, there’s always going to be an extra round or something on the radio that doesn’t make it to the TV. I don’t actually mind, because it gives you a reason to see things on different platforms, as opposed to a show that would be the same from one to the other, and you just pick and choose where you listen to it.

You record and film the show on Thursday, and then you’re turning this around to be ready for television broadcast on a Sunday. 
GC: It’s a very quick turnaround. That’s why those British panel shows look like that because they’re very quick. You don’t get a lot of time to edit it and things like that. There’s a number of things that I’d love to be able to do that we just can’t do time-wise. So, we try to filter in what we can do. But it’s tricky because sometimes the news doesn’t even set itself until Wednesday night. And you’re pulling graphics on a Tuesday afternoon. And of course, everybody wants the most heads up they can get on everything.

You’re having to keep on top of things happening in Canada and around the world for the show. Do you ever just feel overwhelmed?
GC: Oh yeah. I call it Bad Mood Tuesday, where after a weekend of combing through what’s going on to see what we’ll have the next week, I’m always in a bad mood on Tuesday. Then we try and lift ourselves out of it. ‘OK, what will put us in a good mood?’ And then we get to joke around about things, and the other writers come in, and then we’re like, great. I feel that’s maybe how the audience also feels. Our job is to be like, ‘OK, well, here’s your good news,’ Sunday night or Saturday morning when all these things you’ve been hearing about all week. Here’s the way you can hear about them that maybe doesn’t make you want to hide in the woods.

Because News airs Saturdays at 11 a.m. on Radio One and Sundays at 7 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.

Images courtesy of CBC.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Aurora Browne dishes on Baroness Von Sketch and Great Canadian Baking Show

There are three big changes viewers will notice when they tune in to The Great Canadian Baking Show on CBC this Wednesday night.

Gone is judge Rochelle Adonis, replaced by Kyla Kennaley. And co-hosts Dan Levy and Julia Chan have been swapped out in favour of Aurora Browne and Carolyn Taylor. Browne and Taylor are also, as legions of fans already know, the writers, stars and executive producers of Baroness von Sketch Show, which returns this Tuesday night to CBC.

And while I will miss Levy and Chan’s roles on Baking Show, I was immediately smitten by Browne and Taylor’s witty cold opening and their natural rapport with the 10 new contestants.

We spoke to Browne ahead of both programs’ debut.

How did yourself and Carolyn Taylor end up hosting The Great Canadian Baking Show in the first place?
Aurora Browne: The Great Canadian Baking Show approached us, at the beginning of this year. Carolyn and I have known each other for a very long time, obviously. Long before Baroness, even. It worked out in our schedule to be able to do it with only minimal overlap. Why not? It’s such a fun show. It’s fun and lovely and to be honest, being paid to taste things is like a dream come true. I don’t think that was difficult for either of us.

We actually spoofed it on Baroness. There’s a scene in the third season with Jen and Meredith. The patient is talking about her existential angst and how she can’t let go of any of her anxiety. The psychiatrist advises her to watch a gentle British baking show. We had a little, 10-second insert. Of course, it takes two hours to film, so Carolyn was like the Mary Berry character and I was a contestant. On the day that we were doing that, we were saying, ‘Oh gosh, I could do that all day,’ just talking about food and looking at food.

Two women smile into the camera.Was what you did as hosts scripted?
AB: They do have a very talented writer Elvira Kurt who has been our friend for a long time. She has actually worked on Baroness as well. A bit of the show is scripted. We don’t come up with all those puns on our own, that’s the job of a talented person. We were doing the cold opens of the show. That kind of stuff is scripted. Also sometimes, to be totally honest, there is so much technical stuff for some of the baking things, especially the French patisserie, I really needed that in the script. It’s like texty sci-fi shows you are remembering all these things. Thank goodness for the script on those parts, but the rest of it is just us interacting with the bakers. I think the best training that Carolyn and I could have had for the show is just attending a bunch of parties because it’s a party in a way.

Starting off with 10 people and then fewer as weeks progress you just have to be comfortable going in and chatting to them, it’s just like that part in the party where you wander into the kitchen and the host is trying to get something done or trying to get something in the oven and you ask them questions. Except here on the show they must answer our questions.

They were very easy to get to know, they were just such lovely, lovely people. They are in the middle of this very stressful situation with cameras in their faces and we were just there to encourage them and Carolyn and I didn’t find it hard at all. We were just encouraging them to do what they loved and to sometimes have a good laugh with them, and occasionally commiserate with them if they were having a stressful moment, which of course happens.

Let’s switch things up and let’s talk about season four of Baroness von Sketch Show. What was it like having Jennifer Whalen as the showrunner this season?
AB: Jen Whalen is exceptional. I mean it’s a massive job because you’re the one person who goes between all the departments. All four of us worked very closely on the creative and talking with each other about everything. Jen Whalen, I see her being the CEO of something, before very long. But we also have been doing this for several years now, so we have how we handle the editing and that’s in place, how we work out the sketches that are in place. I’m always just like thankful and in awe of Carolyn and Jennifer being showrunners and how willing they are to just always take those calls and emails. I personally need a little bit of time at the end of the day where I just won’t pick up the phone. I need to not answer emails. I’m always very grateful that those two have been willing to helm such a busy, busy show because we are all so involved.

But they are both fantastic at it and I hope someday that Jen Whalen is captaining the starship and I get to be her XO, I would happily be her second in command for anything.

Two women on a climbing apparatus.There are some great sketches in the first episode. Binge-watching television and translating that into kids’ years. Tony Nappo in the sketch where he uses his kind words to make women smile. The blood pressure cuff. All great relatable stuff. The end credits featured a large group of writers and story editors.
AB: We have a structure that really allows us to welcome in voices and ideas even for a short amount of time because we have a core group of four of us are always there. Then we have some staff writers who are with us all the way through. For Season 4 we had Jen Goodhue who has been with us for every season. We had Monica Heisey in and then Allison Hogg, who had also written for us before. Then with the other people sometimes they will only come in for say three days or four days. That fresh set of eyes is really invaluable and it makes for a really fun room. I don’t think there was one person that came in that one of us didn’t know already.

It’s a pretty joyous thing. Even though it’s a large group it was manageable and it just means that you have these really funny, really talented people who are really thoughtful and interested in the world and are really ready to sit and roll around an idea to get at what’s the essence of this, what’s the funniest take we can take on it. And we were so happy always to be able to offer a paycheque at the very least to our talented colleagues who live and work in this city and the country.

We are very happy to be able to make this show where we live, and other people can too.

Baroness von Sketch Show airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBC.

The Great Canadian Baking Show airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Preview: Baroness von Sketch Show deals more hilarity in Season 3

Hot on the heels of Baroness von Sketch Show‘s well-deserved Canadian Screen Award wins and continued kudos from American attention thanks to IFC picking the program up, the funny Canadian ladies are back for Season 3 on Tuesday at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Once again, writers, stars and executive producers Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill, Aurora Browne and Jennifer Whalen simply nail it with hilarious characters and dead-funny views in sketches both timely and evergreen. While some Canadian periodicals write lazy columns decrying a lack of funny at the CBC, I say the network has never been stronger because of Baroness, Still Standing, Schitt’s Creek, Mr. D and Kim’s Convenience. (The jury is still out on 22 Minutes, thanks to behind the scenes shakeups.)

The return episode, “Is that you Karen?” bursts out of the gate with immediate laughs, as two ladies who haven’t seen each other in 20 years reconnect in the oddest and most ludicrous of ways. And that’s before the revamped opening credits roll. Then, in the rat-a-tat roll out of sketches, viewers get reflections on the rites of spring (with three of the four ladies dressed as dudes), the dangers of accepting a ride home from a co-worker, rogue cops and what could happen when the barista gets the name wrong on your coffee cup.

Whenever I speak to folks about the television shows Baroness von Sketch almost always comes up. There’s a reason for that. With tight writing, stellar performances (MacNeill’s over-the-top physical comedy is a standout) and truly relatable topics, the baronesses are hitting a comedy home run every week.

Baroness von Sketch Show airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail