TV Feeds My Family

This week's podcast: going Under the Dome

2013-06-19T12:35:00.001-04:00

Dome's Rachel Lefevre. Michael Tackett/CBS

This week, CHML's Scott Thompson wanted to know why I was heading to North Carolina. I'm en route to the set of Under the Dome, a cool new thriller premiering Monday at 10/9c on CBS/Global. Based on a Stephen King novel and with Steven Spielberg among the executive producers, the summer series is about a small town in Middle America that suddenly, for no apparent reason, is sealed off from the rest of the world by a giant, invisible dome.
They tried this with Brampton but Susan ("Canada's highest paid mayor") Fennel wanted to impose a hefty "dome" tax.
Among the ensemble is Rachelle Lefevre, a Montreal native who has been on a few other shows (still miss Life on a Stick) as well as two of the Twilight movies. She of the fabulous red locks plays the editor of the small town newspaper. There's a joke about newspapers early in the pilot which is less "ha ha" funny if you work in the newspaper business. Otherwise the pilot is pretty darn intriguing, as you'd expect from Stephen and Steven. Dean Norris, fresh off Breaking Bad, sinks his teeth into the role of the town's sneaky sheriff.
WARNING: Farmers and beef eaters may wince at the moment of impact when the dome slams into the earth. The special effects are udderly eye popping.
Scott and I also discuss my sweet trip back in time last Saturday with the kids from The Forest Rangers, the so-so Stanley Cup final ratings (Monday's tight third game between Boston and Chicago drew 2,536,000 CBC viewers in overnight estimates) and a bunch of udder stuff. (Holy cow, two udder jokes.) You can listen in to all the radio chit chat here.

Going back in time with The Forest Rangers

2013-06-18T12:17:00.000-04:00

Mountie Pinsent (centre) and The Forest Rangers

There's something about childhood memories and cherished TV shows that can turn adults back into six year olds.
I had just such a Cocoon moment Saturday in Kleinberg, Ont., home of the Cinespace Film Studio.
This very off-the-beaten track production centre is tucked into a valley in the woods off Hwy 27. about 20 minutes north of Toronto. Back in 1963 to '65, it was home to The Forest Rangers.
Canada's first weekly colour TV series featured a bunch of Junior Rangers who helped patrol and conserve the woods near the mythical village of Indian River. These kids also helped RCMP Sgt. Scott (Gordon Pinsent), Ranger Keeley (Graydon Gould) and local Metis-Ojibway guide Joe Two Rivers (Michael Zenon) round up the occasional thief, poacher and even a spy or two.
The jaunty theme, which makes you just want to skip a rock over an open lake, was composed by John Hubert Bath; you can watch the opening titles and listen to the theme music here.
The series presented a rustic, woodsy and ultimately wholesome image of Canada, much as Skippy The Bush Kangaroo--imported around the same time--offered an Instagram-tinged snapshot of Australia.
There were many busy Canadian guest stars, including Gerrard Parkes, Barbara Hamilton, Cec Linder, John Vernon and Jan Rubes. Cost per episode in the mid-'60s? $25,000. Memories Saturday? Priceless.

Rangers fansite head Clayton Self (left) with Susan Conway (Kathy)
reunion organizer John Deakin and Syme Jago (Gaby LaRoche)

All nine original Junior Rangers, plus Pinsent, gathered back at the studio to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the series. They were joined by 260 fans, some who had come from as far away as Ireland, London and the United States. The series was a very successful export, airing at one time in over 40 countries.
Organizing the reunion was dedicated fan John Deakin, who arranged for the gathering to be held at Cinespace--celebrating its 25th anniversary. Also in the middle of things was Forest Rangers fansite head Clayton Self.
I caught up with the Junior Rangers and Pinsent in the "V.I.P." area deep within the main studio building. They were getting reacquainted in Cinespace's long-standing White House set. (Filmmakers come from all over to use the Washington capitol replica.)
I found Pinsent in the Oval Office, behind the president's desk--not exactly where you'd expect to find a Canadian acting icon. Were the Rangers now working for the Feds?
The actor admitted getting a mite misty-eyed as he came down the tree-lined gravel road leading into the main studio. Little had changed at the entrance, where an old stone and metal gate still stands.
He told a story about how the producers dickered over the Sgt's main mode of transportation. After seeing Pinsent ride, a horse was ruled out. He actually had his feet tied together under the saddle for a scene crossing a river.
A car, it was decided. Did Pinsent want a standard? "What's the other one?" he asked. "Automatic," he was told. Pinsent didn't drive a car at the time, but actors never say no.
Eventually he was filmed barreling down the old ranch lane, veering dangerously close to a horse. The shot stayed in the series.
More memories came flooding back as Pinsent became re-acquainted with these mostly white-haired men and women, now in their 60s, actors he remembered as pre-teens.
Among them was Ralph Endersby, who played Chub Stanley. Endersby deals with Parkinson's today, but was happy to be back with the gang.
A fan asked during as Q&A session why the character was called "Chub"? The kid wasn't chubby. "It's a great name!" said Endersby. Mystery solved.
These Rangers, in many ways, were Canada's Mickey Mouse Club. Kids wanted to be one. Meeting them today is like coming face-to-face with '60s hockey stars like Dave Keon or Johnny Bower.
Syme Jago, who was nine when she was cast that first season, was just coming off a lead role in a Disney film also shot in Ontario: The Incredible Journey. Susan Conway, who played Kathy, was a year or two older and remembers where she was the day John F. Kennedy was shot--on the set of The Forest Rangers.
She remembers a group of actors huddled around a radio in the studio next door, taking in the terrible news. "It was the first time I had seen grown men cry," she recalled.
The actors and crew paused for a while but eventually they went back to work that day. Two episodes of The Forest Rangers, originally seen on CBC as part of the children's series Razzle Dazzle, were shot each week. There were 104 episodes in all, all shot on film, in colour.
The fact they weren't videotaped is why the series still exists. So many early Canadian TV shows shot on tape were simple erased or junked. Tape could be used again and again, and it was.
The first season of The Forest Rangers exists on a DVD box set. Those episodes are well preserved, but I learned that Seasons Two and Three were not stored properly and that the original film may be beyond a digital restoration.
The series kept resurfacing in Canada, however. The entire run was shown on TVLand Canada (now Comedy Gold) from 2003-05. Somebody up north taped them all--so a full set exists.
I was a child when they first aired but I remember Razzle Dazzle more for Howard the Turtle. Even though the series was shot in colour it was seen only in black and white until the late '60s when CBC and others started broadcasting in colour (to the few homes that had a colour set).
Watching The Forest Rangers in colour is a little jarring at times; skin tones look a little off today, as if everybody just stepped out of Snooki's tanning salon. The kids and adults were all caked in heavy makeup thought to read better on small, low-def TV screens. Pinsent said it was like wearing peanut butter. The child stars say they had to cover up even their hands and legs. "They kept putting me in rolled up trousers," said Jago. Her mom used to do her hair.

Pinsent with RCMP officer Terry Russel

The Junior Rangers all have fond memories of make up lady Valerie Shand. "She kind of looked after us, she was like our den mother," said Jago. Shand, as well as original editors, stunt doubles and other crew members, were at the reunion. Eric Till, who directed several episodes, also made the scene.
The original producer, Maxime Samuels, died in 2001. Exotic and eccentric according to many in the room, she was feared and admired by the child stars who tried their best to keep out of her office. Samuels nephew attended the reunion and described her as a woman who was as passionate about her series "as she was about her four husbands." An article published at the time and pinned up on a wall on the soundstage described her as the "Cleopatra" of the set.
A woman in charge of a TV series back then must have seemed exotic indeed.
Occasionally the kids would get called into the office for mischief. One recalled a game of hide and seek played way up on the old wooden skywalks high over head on the soundstages. If the insurance company only knew.
I spoke with four of the original child stars--Jago, Conway, Rex Hagon (who played Peter Keeley and went on to a stint as one of the many hosts of The Polka Dot Door) and Peter Tully (who played rich kid Mike Forbes).Tully admitted Saturday's experience was "unreal in a wonderful kind of way." Most hadn't been back to the site since the series was shot. "It's a time warp coming back."
The outdoor fort set is long gone, unfortunately. An old log cabin down near a river on the grounds may have been used in a few shots.
A fan who attended the reunion was scouring the grounds several years ago. The boy found something and gave it to his father. It was a knife with the word "Chub" on the handle.

Pinsent with Ralph "Chub" Endersby

The knife was presented to Endersby Saturday and he graciously insisted it stay in the hands of the collector.
Pinsent joked that playing a Mountie so often (besides The Forest Rangers, he donned the red tunic for Due South as well as A Gift to Last, which he also wrote) was on old actor's trick; wear red and you'll upstage the other actors.
An actual RCMP officer, Terry Russel, stopped by in full dress uniform to commend Pinsent for his performance on the show. The Mountie told fans Pinsent's crimson cop really rang true and was an inspiration to several RCMP officers who grew up watching the series.
Other fans also stood and offered testimonials about how the series led to a lifelong sense of conservation and love of the outdoors. Others said they got into scouting because of the series.
Hagon thinks the series offers a wistful window on a kinder, gentler time. "There's very little violence in The Forest Rangers," he points out. It's all about kids and adventure. The actors are all proud of the association and were humbled that the fans felt the same way.
The Forest Rangers was just so damn Canadian, a pre-Expo blast of the true north strong and free. That it all took place on several acres of woods north of Toronto--a valley where housing developments encroach ever closer--tells you everything about the changing face of Canada these past 50 years.
One little postscript: I have a personal connection to the studio grounds at the fabled Circle M Ranch. Back in the mid-'70s--a decade after The Forest Rangers wrapped--I snuck onto the studio grounds with some friends and we shot a little 16mm film on a western set standing in a field area. The film was called Saddle Sores, a Bullock, Brioux and Kerwin (BBK) high school production.
It was sort of a dollar-ten Three Amigos. A friend knew of the set because she stabled her horse nearby. We rented one other horse for ten bucks and I spent another $40 on B&W film.
The set was amazing, it had a saloon with swinging bar doors, a jail, plenty of barrels to jump in and out of and other wooden facades. We shot there, in the sunshine, one entire day and nobody said, "Hey you kids--get outta here!"
Thirty-eight years later, I finally put two-and-two together: we shot Saddle Sores on the site of The Forest Rangers. Cool!

News biz still a good gig at CJF Awards

2013-06-14T12:52:00.001-04:00

Have to thank publicist Nick Poirier and all at Global News for inviting me to join them at their table Thursday night at the 16th Annual Canadian Journalism Foundation Awards. The event was held at the Canadian Room at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto.
As someone who has worked in newsrooms--albeit in the "toy" or entertainment department--it was cool for a change to be able to sit at the big kids table with real journalists.The room was filled with A-Listers in the news biz--Tom Clark, Andrew Coyne, Dawna Friesen, Chantal Hebert, Lisa LaFlamme, Peter Mansbridge, Wendy Mesley, Kevin Newman, Steve Paikin, Lloyd Robertson, Paul Wells and many others.
Amanda Lang hosted and what a little snappypants she was, goofing on the young winners too shy to make a speech before this intimidating crowd of elders. She even had the comedic audacity to dismiss the dead when it came to a salute to journalists who had passed in 20012-13. The in memoriam video would not load, so Lang more or less said who cares, on with the show. First time I ever felt sympathy for Kevin O'Leary.
Too bad Lang could not come up with a single name from those who passed. She could have mentioned Henry Champ, Laurier LaPierre, Max Ferguson, Johnny Esaw, Greg Quill and Peter Worthington for starters.
Among the highlights was a well-deserved salute to Michael Maclear. Presenter LaFlamme introduced the retired broadcast journalist as one of her true heroes for his courageous and uncompromising reports, especially from North Vietnam during the most dangerous war years of the late '60s. Maclear was the Canadian voice caught between two cultures and he wasn't shy about reporting how cornered he was, resented at times from the Americans as much as the Vietnamese.

Lifetime Achievement Award winner Michael Maclear

"I've come to realize a problem with journalism," Maclear told the room full of reporters. "It's addictive." He was also lauded via video from his old pal Morley Safer from 60 Minutes.
Past recipients of the award include Joe Schlesinger, Knowlton Nash, Mark Starowicz and Peter C. Newman.
The CJF honorary tribute went to The New York Times, still regarded as the gold standard in terms of journalistic integrity and reporting. Culture reporter David Carr, so glib as the on-screen voice during much of the documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times, charmed the CJF crowd.
"I feel like you guys are honouring a Stanley Cup champion and some third string goon is standing up here," he said. Carr, who has confessed to his own problems with cocaine, goofed briefly on Toronto's mayor ("I feel for the guy," he added) and apologised for having one arm in a sling, the result of "running for a story," he claimed.
He was impressed with how many women were both in the room and winning awards, giving a hats off to the gender balance in our newsrooms.
He felt, despite all the doom and gloom, it was an exciting time to be in journalism, even in print, pointing out that the business of putting "the white paper out and people are giving us green paper back" is still working.
That good feeling about print continued towards the end of the evening when the Excellence in Journalism award went to The Winnipeg Free Press. The regional, independent voice beat out such heavyweights as The Toronto Star, CBC News, CBC Radio and Postmedia for the night's big prize.
Editor Paul Samyn stressed how important it was for his paper to have local reporters covering certain beats. The Free Press's TV columnist was singled out as an example of why your local paper should have your guy bringing you that local angle. That's a nice pat on the back of Brad Oswald, an ol' TCA buddy who has survived many a newsroom purge and has somehow managed to keep trucking down to Los Angeles twice a year looking for Manitoba angles in American television.
Too bad, however, Friday's report on the award win in the Free Press is credited to "Staff Writer."
Presenting the award to The Times was none other than Ken Taylor, the former Canadian ambassador to Iran sort of saluted in Ben Affleck's Oscar-winning film Argo. Do many people go up to him today and say, "Agofuckyerself?" A real reporter would have asked.

This week's podcast: Seinfeld back for Coffee

2013-06-14T11:07:00.001-04:00

Jer takes Sarah Silverman for a ride in Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

This week, CHML's Scott Thompson asks about something his family urged him to check out on-line the other day: Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
Jerry Seinfeld's web series just returned for a second season on Crackle, a multi-platform media entertainment site. Packed with content from Sony Pictures Television, videos of everything from the Three Stooges to old movies can be streamed there for free from both the United States and Canada.
Scott isn't alone in checking out Seinfeld's web series. Over 10 million people streamed Comedians in Cars on Crackle in Season One.
Just think how Rob Ford's fortunes could have changed if he was on Crackle instead of on Crack (allegedly).
Seinfeld's show is Crackle's biggest draw in terms of original series. It is basically what the title says: Seinfeld calls up one of his celebrity pals in the world of comedy and then picks then up in one of his vintage Porsche's or Ferrari's.
The first episode of the new season, featuring Sarah Silverman, is up now and can be streamed here at Crackle.com.
Each episode lasts anywhere from 11 to 18 minutes. There are one or two short ads for Acura, the only sponsor. Otherwise a wonderful, uncluttered visit with Jer.
The next guest is a big get: David Letterman. You can watch these two car buffs hang out starting June 20.
It's interesting to see a millionaire like Seinfeld reinvent himself on the Internet. The guy knows better than to try and make another sitcom; been there, done that, and how could he ever top Seinfeld? Better to sneak onto something new and become a player in a medium where there are no notes from executives, no scheduling headaches, just you, your idea and execution. Seinfeld told the New York Times he was "craving that little sandbox feeling we had when we were starting out." This is a fun sandbox to play in. Who wouldn't want to hang out with Jer and Silverman at a coffee shop for 20 minutes? Upcoming guests include Chris Rock, Don Rickles and Seth Meyers. Read more about the series here at this feature I wrote this week for The Canadian Press.
Interesting, too, that Crackle crosses the border but Hulu and other streaming services do not. The CRTC has indicated to the traditional Canadian broadcast networks not to look for the commission to keep playing by the old rules when the world is changing all around us. There are no fences around these Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and that kind of free flowing content is what Rogers, Bell and Shaw will be facing as we all move forward into a TV Anywhere universe.
Scott asks about some other stuff, including Donald Trump's hair. You can listen to Part One of the radio chat here and Part Two here.

Correction: Spun Out shooters 100% Canadian

2013-06-12T22:26:00.000-04:00

John Dynes and an all Canadian crew keep CTV's Spun Out in focus

Thinking of heading to the set of Spun Out to watch the taping of a sitcom? The CTV comedy stars Dave Foley and tapes Fridays at the Pinewood Studios in Toronto. When you look up at the four pedestal cameramen, contrary to an earlier report here, you will be looking at an all-Canadian crew.
Cameraman John "J.D." Dynes wrote to correct an impression left a few weeks ago by one of the producers on the sitcom. "The cameramen in question on the set are not seasoned LA professionals, they are actually a Toronto area group of 6-8 freelance professionals capable of doing intricate dolly moves on a pedestal camera," writes Dynes of JDCameraWorks Inc.
The producer speculated that, given how few four-camera sitcoms have been shot in Canada the past 25 years, there just wasn't a home grown team up to the task. Dynes concedes it takes "years of experience to be able to work on a sitcom or drama format such as you witnessed," but he and the other Spun Out shooters have been doing just this kind of camera work for over 35 years. "LA has no worries about shooting in Toronto," he says. "We've got you covered!"
Joining Dynes on the pedestal cameras are Simon Dalrymple, Steve Cruickshank, John Fox, Ted Hart and Frank Harbor. These guys go all the way back to the 1985 - '88 CTV comedy Check it Out, now being rerun on Comedy Gold. That series began as a four-camera, studio audience comedy but switched to a one-camera show without an audience when it became clear star Don Adams (Get Smart) simply could not remember his lines!
Other comedies and kid shows shot by Dynes and the other Canadian cameramen include The David Steinberg Show, Bizarre, Learning the Ropes (another late-'80s sitcom starring ex-NFL star Lyle Alzado), The Big Comfy Couch, Noddy, Super Dave Osbourne (another Comedy Gold staple), The Holmes Show, Sharon, Lois & Bram and Eric's World.
Dyne says they also covered soaps and dramas as well as multicam sports and music shows such as Kurt Browning figure skating specials. "L.A. isn't the only town with with highly-trained, experienced camera ops that know a thing or two about a thing or two," says Dynes. "As pedestal ops we truck, dolly, zoom and focus and usually at the same time! No extra crew required. We do it all!"
Happy to stand corrected John. Go Canada.
There are four more Spun Out tapings beginning Friday June 28. To request tickets, write to audience@project10.ca. The series premieres in the 2013-14 season.

SUNDAY: Hop aboard Donald Trump's private jet on season two of Mighty Planes

2013-06-09T10:53:00.003-04:00

Me and The Donald. His jet is tidier than his office

If you're into airplanes like me you'll want to catch the second season premiere of Mighty Planes. it takes off Sunday night at 8 p.m. on Discovery.
The first episode is all about Donald Trump's tricked out 757, an aircraft that makes Stephen Harper's new bird look like a Sopwith Camel. Trump's ride is one of the largest private jets in the world. Newly refurbished, it has all the excesses you'd expect. The 230 passengers seats have been replaced with plush leather couches, mahogany trim, a comfy bedroom and 24-carat gold-plated sinks and seatbelts.
The episode follows Captain Dunkin as he readies the plane for a trip to the U.K. There's the usual "Can we make it there on time?" nonsense, and part of the episode is an infomercial for Trump's seaside golf course in Scotland, but propheads will want to get on board.
One other note: the plane, unlike its owner, does not have a retractable lid.

Upfronts come full Cirque as CTV closes with Amazing Race host, stage full of talent

2013-06-07T13:09:00.000-04:00

Olympic hero and Race host Jon Montgomery accepts key to 2001 Sebring

What do Michael J. Fox, Will Arnett, Robin Williams, James Spader, Sean Hayes, Seth Green, Andy Samburg, Andre Braugher, Allison Janney, Anna Faris, Kirstie Alley, Toni Collette and Marg Helgenberger all have in common?
All headline big network series being imported onto Canadian prime time schedules next season. And none made the trip to Canada this week to help promote these shows.
Seems the Raptors, Leafs and Jays aren't the only ones having trouble bringing top talent to Toronto.
Even CTV, known for going all out in the past with Big Bang Theory, Sopranos, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy stars attending their upfronts, had to settle for mainly supporting players at their Thursday upfront in Toronto.

CTV filled their stage with talent, but many big names were missing

The biggest woww at the CTV launch was probably the appearance on stage of Snooki from The Jersey Shore. The petite, spray-tanned reality star tip-toed out onto the Sony stage on her 7-inch stilettos. She still looked like a mini-me standing next to the other actors on stage.
Snooki made the scene earlier Thursday at CTV's press sessions. I watched as she made her exit out the front door of CTV's 299 Queen Street West broadcast centre, pausing before ducking into a waiting limo to pose for a photo with a woman in a wheelchair waiting patiently outside in the rain.
Other talent at CTV's press conferences and one-on-ones included Satisfaction cast members Ryan Belleville, Leah Renee and Luke Macfarlane, Shawn Ashmore and Valorie Curry from The Following, Tate Donovan from the new series Hostages, Meghan Ory from Intelligence, Bethanny Frankel from the new daytime yakker Bethanny, Eric Dane from The Last Ship and kid stars Troy Gentile, Sean Gianbrone and Hayley Orrantia from the new sitcom The Goldbergs.

The cast of CTV's summer comedy Satisfaction. It premieres June 24

CTV's Upfront was peppered with several performances from the renown Cirque du Soliel troupe. It was all very artsy and colourful on the large Sony Centre stage but it went on and on and really had nothing to do with the programming. A set with a juggler handling several balls at once only made me wonder how Mike Cosentino was going to keep all those balls in the air in the fall between CTV and CTV 2. All those reality series carefully placed on CTV2 next season may be bouncing back and forth again if any of the limited series runs imported from the States start to falter or get moved.
The Cirque acrobats returned three or four times and closed the show with one pony tailed, shirtless dude twirling a large metal cube around and around. Nice trick, but by the time he was done, I just wanted to go out and kick a clown.
CTV execs said they were just responding to notes from advertisers the previous year suggesting more entertainment, less chatter, at the upfront. Programmer Phil King kept his comments to a minimum and let the clips speak for themselves.

EP Peter Mohan (2nd from left) and the cast from The Listener. It drew
close to a million again Wednesday. Can't kill this show with a stick

While King is a glib talker, this was a smart move. The clip reels shown by all three networks showed a season with more promise than the last. There was a sense in 2012-13 that the creative community just wasn't trying or had given up on conventional broadcasters. Too many high concept shows with monkeys, babe doctors and Men With Kids were a turn-off. The new series, in general, seem a little more exciting, with short run dramas and miniseries pointing to a more cable-like, adult viewing experience.
Mixology, in particular, is an intriguing new comedy CTV picked up. The mid-season entry is about one night in a bar, focusing on 10 singles. The 12 episodes takes turns showing what happened that night from the various perspectives.

CTV's red carpet outside the Sony Centre

All clips and no script, however, can still stall an upfront. The grouping of so many disturbing, apocalyptic dramas in a row towards the end of the CTV launch left me feeling a bit unsettled by the time they finally wound down. They also started to feel like one, big, sad, frightening, shoot-'em-up. Were the hostages trying to escape from The Tomorrow People? The clips just went on too long.
While true headliners were missing, what was impressive was the amount of talent CTV trotted out on stage at the Sony. Stars such as Delroy Lindo, Eric Danes and Bethanny Frankel walked and waved alongside the Canadian stars of Motive and the new comedies Satisfaction and Spun Out.
That was another thing CTV got right; blending the cast salutes and not segregating folks out into a Canadian ghetto.
Speaking with Bell president Kevin Crull at breakfast, he seemed genuinely eager to expand the amount of Can-con on a schedule which already boasts successful shows such as Motive, The Listener and Saving Hope. Played, from Bell Media and Muse, will be next. The drama, about an undercover swat team, boasts Vincent Walsh, Chandra West and Lisa Marcos among the ensemble. It will take the Thursday at 10 slot in the new year, a place where CTV has had good luck platforming Canadian shows.
As the other Canadian media bosses are starting to get, ramping up original content will be vital heading into the "TV anywhere," on-demand universe.
The biggest hand at CTV's upfront was saved for Jon Montgomery. The 2010 Vancouver Winter Games Olympic hero was just named as the host of The Amazing Race Canada (which launches July 15). Famed for gulping down jugs of beer after winning a gold medal, Montgomery took the stage and offered to share a full pitcher with Phil King. I interviewed Montgomery Thursday and he seems ready for his close up, friendly and personable and very happy to have traveled across Canada in May shooting the series.
Bell was not shy about heralding their almost-sealed association with Astral. A large Astral logo was flashed on screen and the Greenberg's were introduced. Bell boss Crull must be pretty confident this deal is in the bag but it was this kind of jump-the-gun cockiness that got Bell in trouble last time the CRTC was mulling over an application.

The cast of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

Bell's big "get" at this year's LA screenings was Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The big budget, comic book hero series, executive produced by Avengers director Joss Whedon, was literally kept under lock and key in Los Angeles. Armed guards stood by during the L.A. screening and CTV execs had to check their cellphones at the door. Programming exec Mike Costentino told me CTV got to the show first and that no other media buyer saw the entire pilot, including any foreign networks. The series will get plenty of residual buzz every time Disney releases another Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America or Thor blockbuster at the box office, which it plans to do in intervals over the next four years.
The clips for the series looks cool, but the new super heroes will have to step out of the shadows of the big screen crusaders. The biggest name in the series is Clark Gregg, who played the FBI agent in a suit in Iron Man and The Avengers. Didn't he get killed off?

Stars of the unsold crime fightin' pilot Salem & Wong

CTV has slotted S.H.I.E.L.D in Tuesdays at 8, and that should steal the few remaining A18-34 eyeballs away from Global's still potent NCIS. CTV targeted Tuesdays as their night most in need of an upgrade, with simulcast ABC comedies The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife following at 9. They also acquired Person of Interest from Rogers, a perplexing move given the series, heading into a third season, is busting out big time. It was drawing a consistent million-one on City last season. Rogers say they flipped the drama for rights to the new Chuck Lorre comedy Mom, which CTV briefly held. The trade makes some sense--the right shows are now on the right networks--but a) never give up a hit, b) never give the other guys a show that belongs on their network, c) POI is just going to grow, and maybe will last for years. Mom, who knows?
CBS's decision to move Hawaii FIVE-0 to Fridays creates a jump ball Mondays at 10. Global landed the drama with the biggest buzz heading out of the L.A. screenings, The Blacklist starring James Spader. Cosentino feels the show CTV snagged, Hostages, will ultimately have more "connectivity" with viewers. That series stars Dylan McDermott and Toni Collette.
CTV also failed to pick up The Michael J. Fox Show (which went to Global) or Robin Williams' The Crazy Ones (which landed at City). In the old Ivan Fecan days, Fox would have been given a stake in the Maple Leafs for coming home to CTV. Neither show may turn out to be a hit, but you can bet they'll both open big.
Fecan also would have reached beyond Cirque for a big stage wow. Hey, the Stones were just down the street, performing later that night at the ACC. Some of us were waiting for Jagger and the band to be wheeled out to the strains of Start Me Up.
Rogers had a band--Tegan and Sara--as part of their upfront presentation. That seems to be a smart way to connect with many of the 25-year-old ad buyers in the room. While their presentation was brisk, they also had a few mis-fires, including the clips chosen from the Wednesday night comedy addition Super Fun Night. There were a few gasps and "eews" from the ad crowd as Australian comic Rebel Wilson's clothes were ripped off in the bar-hopping comedy. (That pilot, by the way, is being re-shot.)
The Rogers design team may also want to re-think what words stay up on screen behind their execs throughout these sessions, as the photo below suggests. "Closer" is one letter away from the wrong message.

CTV's presentation lasted an ass-numbing one hour and forty minutes. Rogers took the brevity prize at a little over an hour. (Their on-stage countdown clock showed they got it done in 60 minutes, but the numbers, at they always are at these things, were cooked.)
I wasn't at Shaw-Global's Wednesday afternoon bash at the Elgin, but the consensus from everyone I spoke with who saw all three was that it was the most entertaining of the Canadian ad shows. Global apparently went the pre-taped video route, with execs and local talent mingling with the new stars in Hollywood. Bell needs to look at this next time to help show that their suits aren't just stiff corporate types. Showing Crull being held Hostage--by the CRTC--would have been good for a laugh.
Points were deducted from Shaw, however, for having Alan Thicke on stage singing Bohemian Rhapsody. I'll have to see the tape.
Rogers got laughs by having menacing pro wrestler R-Truth lift and carry president Keith Pelley right off stage.
Bell narrowly edged Rogers for best media brekkie. The omelet guy broke the tie.
The big loser this year (unless they had them at the Shaw deal) would be whoever makes those cookies with the icing that spells out the name of the new shows or has photos printed on them. No loss--they're even tougher to digest than most of the audience numbers thrown at advertisers.

Upfronts forced critics to get up early three days in a row. The inhumanity!

TONIGHT: Graceland premieres on Bravo, USA

2013-06-06T13:53:00.003-04:00

Swan and McLaren of Graceland

Elvis has left the building. In fact, he was never in the building, or at least on the set, of Graceland. The series premieres Thursday night on Bravo and USA Network.
Graceland is the name of a cool beach house in Malibu that is home to a gaggle of good looking cops. Two of them are played by Canadians: Brandon Jay McLaren (Fallen Skies) is from Vancouver, as is co-star Serinda Swan (Breakout Kings). Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me) and Broadway star Aaron Tveit (Catch Me If You Can) are also in the ensemble.
The joint is called Graceland because some drug kingpin who was a big fan of The King used to own the place.
The series is kinda Rookie Blue moves to Malibu.

On the set with fellow scribe Will Harris

USA and production studio Fox TV did not scrimp on the set, which I visited a few months ago down in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The DEA den is posh and inviting. Sure there are surf boards and throw rugs but the art on the walls is gallery level. The set also has an impressive kitchen and a beautiful Japanese garden.

Inside the house, “it’s very much about the characters, not necessarily the cases so much,” says McLaren, recently seen on “The Killing.” His custom agent is a little on the cranky side. Nobody’s allowed to touch his side of the fridge, for example. “Jake is very prickly,” he admits.

Beyond that tough exterior is a pussycat, however.

“He’s tough to get to know, but once you know him, he’ll be loyal to you forever.”

As often happens, swamped in the middle of a hectic Canadian Upfront Week, I haven't had a chance to check out tonight's first episode. So I don't know if Elvis would shoot up his screen at the sight of it or not. I'm typing this next to TVGuide.ca editor Amber Dowling, however, and she's seen it and loves it, so there's one thumb up.
I wrote more about this last week for The Canadian Press, you can read the full story here.

Upfronts Day Two: Global's got Mike Fox, Ironside, Dracula, loads up on specialty side

2013-06-06T01:04:00.000-04:00

Barbara Williams

Shaw Media is a dominant player on the specialty side in Canada. Channels such as History, Showcase and Slice all had big years.
Keeping them stocked with content is SVP Barbara Williams' job. Rivals say Williams was the big buyer last month at the L.A. screenings.
It doesn't seem that way when you just look at the new Global schedule.Eight new shows will air this fall. All those other networks add up to 60 new shows joining 90 returning series. Williams emphasized that it added up to 600 hours of Canadian content.
Again, not on Global, although two original dramas are in the offing for mid-season.
The Can-con was mostly on the specialty side. A big success was Slice's Big Brother Canada, which will be back and air around the same time next year. The Real Housewives of Vancouver, however, is "on hold" for a season and iffy after that. Williams says other cities are being considered.
Global owned much of the first half of the week on Canada in prime time in 2012-13. Some U.S. scheduling moves, especially at CBS, has given Williams simulcast headaches, however, especially on Monday night where Hawaii FIVE-0 shifts to Friday.
Williams plugs the hole with what she calls the big buzz drama of the year, The Blacklist. It stars James Spader as the FBI's most wanted criminal who turns on other baddies to help the feds. The Headless Horseman drama Sleepy Hollow also joins Global Mondays.

Jack Gore and Michael J. Fox. Eric Leibowitz/NBC

Wednesdays underwent the biggest makeover. Anchored as always by Survivor at 8, two comedies--Sean Hayes Sean Saves the World and The Michael J. Fox Show--air at 9. A remake of Ironside, starring Blair Underwood as a wheelchair-bound cop, closes the night.
Williams sees snagging the Fox show as "a big win for us." Certainly the sitcom should open big, especially in Canada, where Fox is gold. He plays a news anchor who returns to TV despite battling Parkinson's, a touching storyline that closes mirrors real life.
Thursday opens with two more comedies, Welcome to the Family starring Mike O'Malley as a dad (the premise sounds a lot like CBC's 18 to Life) and Will Arnett's latest attempt, The Millers.
Dracula stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the count. Global is well stocked for mid-season with the Greg Kinnear drama Rake, which plays like House as a lawyer. Jack is back on Global, too, with the re-booted 24 launching in the spring of 2014. Almost Human, a cool J.J. Abrams futuristic cop show, is also in reserve.

James Spader stars in the creepy NBC pickup The Blacklist

Williams says she loads up with Yankee simulcasts in the fall to platform Can-con in the Winter. Just ordered into full production is Remedy, a hospital drama from the team behind King, Greg Spottiswood and Bernie Zukerman. Cleaners and orderlies are as much a part of this series as the doctors. Williams called it Upstairs Downstairs Hospital.
Working the Engels is a new one camera comedy from sisters Jane and Katie Ford. Dad dies and family bands together and hilarity ensues, we are told.
As for Bomb Girls, Williams repeated all the talking points: it was originally only supposed to run six episodes. The 18 made told the story brilliantly. She will "absolutely make sure" it finishes up with a two hour finale this Winter.
Williams spun the season numbers her way, claiming victory in the A18-49 demo with six of the Top-10 shows for the season. (CTV says it had five of the Top-10 A25-54). Her shows broke 2 million 115 times last season, she said, with NCIS, NCIS: LA and Survivor pulling most of that load.
Global also claimed to have the No. 1 new show last year--Elementary. CTV says it is The Following. The truth is they both were strong draws, but Global's show was a true fall start.
Williams pointed out that The Bible, Vikings and Big Brother Canada all pulled a million plus some weeks on specialty.New highs were reached on Nat Geo, Slice and Food.
One specialty channel not doing so well these days--TVTropolis--will be rebranded as Dtour starting Aug. 26. Williams says it is about people taking detours in life. Brett Michaels was used as an example. Seems the sleazy rocker is now an RV expert.

Queen (of daytime?) Latifah

It was also announced that Toronto newscaster Leslie Roberts will be joining Global's Morning Show. He'll keep the 6 p.m. shift, too, which will make for long days.
It was also announced that Shaw/Global has teamed up with twitter for a groundbreaking venture in Canada. VP Digital Paul Burns says this "twitter amplifier" will offer viewers an enhanced viewing experience, with outtakes and links to new vid files adding to the TV experience.
A few U.S. broadcasters, notably ESPN and Fox, are already Twitter partners in similar deals. Newly minted Twitter Canada boss, Kirstine Stewart, is in on the caper. (Twitter Canada officially launches June 13).
Burns laughed at my suggestion for the Shaw-Twitter venture--"Shitter." probably best to see it as a Global-Twitter deal and call it "Glitter."
Also making the Shaw scene was guest talent Queen Latifah, who is hosting an upcoming afternoon talk show, Daniel Day Kim from Hawaii FIVE-0, who has spent 10 years in Hawaii now between Lost and this show, and Jesslyn Gilsig from Vikings. She says the first episode of the second season is "really shocking" and that "every single one of these characters is expendable." Sounds like Game of Thrones.

Dean McDermott gets Chopped

Blair Underwood talked about shooting scenes in a wheelchair as the new Ironside. Ana Ortiz and Susan Lucci--two of the Devious Maids, the new series from Marc Cherry--blabbed about that series. It starts later this month.
Blast from the past Alan Thicke was in the house with his young wife Tanya Callau. They're In the Thicke of It next season, going all Osbourne in a home set reality show. Thicke says it falls somewhere between "Larry David and the Kardashians," which is setting the bar high and low at the same time.
Shaw went for the biggest non-star at the upfronts award with Dean McDermott. Tori' Spelling's hubby will host the cooking show Chopped Canada.
Rob Salem asked the Elephant in the room question--how are things with the missus? There are tabloid reports of a rift. McDermott says "Everything's fantastic. Just consider the source. You know how magazines make money, right?"
Riiiiight.

Rogers goes to Seed, grabs Grammys, Mom and Nashville in Upfront Week opener

2013-06-04T13:02:00.002-04:00

Blog gold: Pelley shows off the Rogers' 'links

You can tell Rogers has arrived in the Canadian network upfront derby. The boss is wearing network cuff links.
It was easy to spot the red Rogers logo Tuesday at breakfast on President Keith Pelley's blue cuffs. The power 'links is classic Leslie Moonves. The CBS chairman is seldom seen at press tours without his iconic black eye cufflinks. Pelley had his custom made; so far they're the only pair.
Rogers had plenty to crow about at their morning press session. City finished the past season No. 2 in prime time in the demo, gaining over Global.
Rogers was first out of the gate Tuesday morning in a busy week of Canadian network upfronts. The City brand is adding eight new comedies and six new dramas for 2013-14. Among the new shows are comedies Mom, the coveted new Chuck Lorre comedy starring Anna Faris, and Dads, a multi-generational laffer pairing Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi. "We had to buy Mom once we had Dads," kidded programming EVP Malcolm Dunlop.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, an Office-like cop comedy starring Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher, Robin Williams new ad men series The Crazy Ones, teaming him with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Super

Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar are The Crazy Ones

Fun Night with Rebel Wilson and the Gomer Pyle-ish Enlisted round out the comedies.
The dramas are the lottery serial Lucky 7, spin-off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and murder mystery Betrayal; Killer Women, Crisis and Resurrection premiere mid-season.
Rogers also did some horse trading. They flipped Person of Interest for rights to Mom, briefly held by CTV. Pelley said they did not ask for a player to be named later. Dunlop's thinking is trade a popular but older-skewing drama for a comedy he feels will be a hit.
In a game changer of a five year deal, Rogers also snuck off with The Grammys. The Rogers boys see plenty of ways to play that up big on their radio and magazine properties. They also steal one of Global's goodies and gain a hefty promotional tent pole in February.
Rogers also picked up Nashville, a series Dunlop says he really wanted the year before. CTV gave it up after one season.

City will strip Modern Family five nights a week this fall

Another biggie: beginning in the fall, City will strip Modern Family five nights a week with back-to-back episodes airing at 7 p.m. If this turns out half as well as they way CTV has overplayed The Big Bang Theory, there will be Rogers bundles of joy all around.
On the Can-con front, Rogers defied the ratings gods and ordered another season of Seed. There has to be a casting bombshell coming in Tuesday evenings upfront presentation. Director of original programming Claire Freeland says they're tweaking and fixing but this show got the right slot on the right night behind a strong lead-in and simply did not take root. A re-Seed can be seen as a commitment to Canadian content, a shout out to the CRTC or a tremendous leap of faith.
Vancouver-based Package Deal has been moved back--again--to fall. The plan to rest Bachelor Canada until 2014 is still alive. Freeland says the next Bachelor won't be hand-picked, but will be part of the country-wide casting process.

Package Deal has been moved to fall

Freeland also announced a couple of new reality projects, including one Pelley was excited about: Meet The Family. Based on a UK series, the premise basically punks a new member of a family by putting them to a test. This happened to Pelley way back when he was dating this girlfriend--who happened to be the daughter of Toronto Sun crime writer Max Haines.
Haines cooked up a little plan around the dinner table when the rest of the family was n the kitchen; he'd fake a hate-on for Pelley. Pelley would finally have enough and push back.
"It happened," said Pelley, who earned those Rogers cuff links the hard way.
The network brought talent to Toronto's Soho Metropolitan for a series of brief press skirmishes. Former Desperate Housewive Eva Longoria granted five minutes. She's starring in an animated mid-season comedy called Mother Up! It's by Ottawa-native Greg Lawrence (Crash Canyon) and former CBC exec Fred Fuchs.
Longoria looks hotter than ever. Being a nerd, I used my five minutes to engage her in 'toon talk, but fearless KISS 92.5 camera-scribe Maurie Sherman had read on line that she no longer wears panties. "Is that true?" he enquired. Longoria shot down the rumour. "I'm wearing some now," she declared.
Now that's being upfront.

So you want to be a Pizza Pizza pie maker

2013-06-04T03:19:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago I was invited to join a few other journalists at a training centre in Etobicoke on a pizza-making mission. Assured we could eat what we made, I readily agreed.
The above video captures the results. It's all part of a new reality series called Be The Boss Canada, premiering June 6 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on W. The series puts employees from six Canadian companies in head-to-head competition toward a life-changing job opportunity. It's a bit like Undercover Boss Canada, except here employees are in the spotlight.
Pizza Pizza is featured in the opening episode. CMO Pat Finelli, often heard on those pizza ads, was at the media event. He joined the company in 1984, fresh out of Ryerson. He saw the company grow from 35 franchises to over 600 nation-wide today, where they stand as the country's biggest pizza chain.
They're so big, in fact, they can risk allowing me into their kitchen. I learned that the ovens are set at 550 degrees and pizzas bake in roughly seven minutes. There are 35 slices of pepperoni on top of the average large pizza. Judge for yourself, but I don't think I'll be awarded any franchise anytime soon.

Looking for Friday night fun? Sit in on Spun Out

2013-06-03T14:26:00.001-04:00

On the Spun Out set with director Brian Roberts

"Twenty bucks to the first person who can name the original bass player with Steely Dan."
The challenge was thrown out by Brian K. Roberts, executive producer and director of the new CTV sitcom Spun Out.
Roberts was crossing in front of the bleachers between camera set ups when he grabbed the mike from warm up guy Ali Hassan and offered the instant pay out.
An older gentleman sitting directly in front of me immediately shouted out the surprise answer (revealed here).
Roberts reached for his wallet and awarded the prize. "I've been asking that one for 15 years and you're the first person who knew the answer," he said.
It all took place at the mammoth Pinewood Studios at the foot of Cherry St. in Toronto on Friday. Spun Out premieres next season on CTV. This was episode five of 13 currently in production.
Dave Foley stars as Dave Lyons, PR legend. His firm is staffed by wacky underlings all trained to spin any PR disaster into gold for their celebrity clients. Among the nimble comedy ensemble are Paul Campbell, Rebecca Dalton, Al Mukadam, Darcy Michael and J.P. Manoux (Community). The sitcom is executive produced by Andrew Barnsley (Life With Derek), Brent Piaskoski (Radio Free Roscoe), Roberts and Jeff Biederman (Life with Derek) and produced by Colin Brunton.
Colin I've bumped into on several Toronto-based shows over the years, most recently on How to Be Indie. He pointed to the large bleachers and explained how the big, comfy, over-stuffed chairs were flown up from L.A.

Guest star Craig Arnold made a great Bieber clone

That's actually more important than you might think. Sitcom tapings can last anywhere from three to five hours and you want your guests happy.
To that end, a studio audience gets the VIP treatment these days. Pizza breaks, cookies and other goodies are offered (as they were in January when I was in Vancouver on the set of Package Deal, another, rare, four-camera comedy shooting in Canada).
Hassan did a good job keeping the crowd happy. He doesn't tell jokes but engages the audience, which must number around 200 visitors. Prizes are awarded, mainly T-shirts, although there was also a $50 gift certificate.
A couple of scenes called for longer set ups and two musicians were standing by to entertain: Shuffle Demons' Robert Scott and Great Bob Scott. You haven't heard the themes from The Flintstones or Gilligan's Island until you've heard it from this free-wheelin' sax/drum duo.
It was good to finally meet Roberts, a Hollywood veteran who has written for The Simpsons and produced and directed everything from Everyone Loves Raymond and The Drew Carey Show to CBC`s short-lived comedy series The Debaters. He and I exchanged a few emails over the later. Those conversations, alas, must stay in the vault.
Roberts did share a story Friday after the taping about writing the second-seasons Simpsons episode featuring Ringo Starr. Beatles fan Roberts naturally went to the recording session and even got the Fab Four drummer to autograph it.

Ringo on The Simpsons

Big no-no. Roberts got his ass hauled onto Matt Groening`s carpet the next Monday. "Didn't you see the memo?" barked Groening; seems all on the 20th lot were warned in advance not to bug the ex-Beatle.
As a consequence, Roberts was the only one to get Ringo's John Henry.
When it came time to do the DVD commentary on the early Simpsons episode, Roberts found himself sitting next to Groening and showrunner Al Jean. As they're yakking about the episode, Groening remembers Roberts and the signed script and gives him hell again!
Roberts' one regret from that taping was that they wouldn't let him bank any extra chatter from Ringo. His plan was to have him say hello to George Harrison and Paul McCartney on the chance that the other Beatles might somebody voice themselves on the series. Nobody thought the Simpsons would last 25 years and outlive another Beatle, so unfortunately, the Beatles reunion on The Simpsons never happened.

Journalist with prop. Photos: Barbara Kelly

Roberts told me the four Spun Out cameramen sitting high up on the mobile platforms were all seasoned L.A. shooters. Four camera shows are so rare in Canada few have the expertise needed for this job.
Foley is clearly the star of this show. He's just so watchable in person, very at home on the sound stage. He's a natural, but those five seasons on NewsRadio just elevated his game. Even the screw ups, ad libs and asides are fun for the live studio audience. After he tripped up on a long speech, he said, "well, I knew I made a mistake--that's sorta like knowing your lines, right?"
The taping had a nice improv feel to it. Every scene was shot at least twice, and second takes featured new lines, with writers on hand to tweak and polish. The episode, "Thrill of the Chaste" (about a virginal, Justin Bieber-like rock star), was written by Piaskoski's wife Barbara Haynes. Others, like my old buddy (and former Kids in the Hall head writer) Dan Redican, were giving notes from the wings.
The final scene, in fact, was written the day of the taping. An earlier bar scene was thrown out. The new ending, set on the large central PR agency office stage, provided an opportunity for a strong visual gag using a prop introduced earlier.
By the end of the night, I was glad I had turned down an earlier invitation from the producers to be a background extra as a reporter--too much of a a stretch. Sitting and watching the show was just right.
Anyone interested in attending a taping can send an email to audience@project10.ca. Tapings run Fridays through July 19th. Be at the studio by 5:30 and be prepared to stay until 10 p.m. Sounds like a long night but it flies by and you'll enjoy the experience. Plus, hey--it's free!

Hockey flight in Canada

2013-05-31T11:56:00.002-04:00

Hey, anybody remember hockey? The fastest game on earth? Little round disc, guy with loud jackets?
Seems if the players aren't wearing blue and white sweaters with little leaves on them, a lot of us just don't care. The ratings for the second round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs have been astonishingly low.
How low? A CBC Saturday broadcast between two Original Six border cities, Detroit and Chicago--albeit beginning at one in the afternoon to please NBC schedulers--drew 440,000 viewers (all data overnight estimates). That's about what Cracked drew this season on CBC.
Look at these tallies for other Detroit-Chicago round two games: 1,622,000 viewers May 20, 1,000,000 May 23, 1,548,000 May 27 (all in prime time). Hockey Night in Canada scores more viewers every week in season. And this for a hard-earned, come-from-behind rally by the Blackhawks.
CBC did do better with the one Canadian team still in the second round. Ottawa-Pittsburgh games drew 1,698,000 on May 17, 2,028,000 May 22 and a high of 2,306,000 on Sunday, May 19. With all the Canadian teams now eliminated, however, there seems to be less of an appetite for playoff hockey in Canada.
Look at TSN's numbers for Boston vs. New York Rangers, two fabled franchises with plenty of fans in Toronto and other Canadian cities. TSN drew 1,163,000 May 16 with Rangers/Bruins, 611,000 May 19 (for a 3 p.m. Sunday start), 1,158,000 May 21 and 1,088,000 May 25. Decent numbers, but for an exciting, close, seven game series, you would expect more.
The San Jose-Los Angeles series suffers from airing in a later timeslot, but there also seems to be less interest in West Coast American teams. Look at their totals on TSN: 580,000 (for a "joined in progress" game on May 16), 766,000, 789,000, 523,000, 767,000 and, finally, 1,177,000 on May 28. Those are, like, curling numbers.
In summing up round two, therefore, there were just a few games over two million, all involving Ottawa and one of the most exciting teams left in the playoffs, Sidney Crosby's Penguins.
That last Toronto-Boston round one game? Over 5.1 million CBC viewers.
Last spring, numbers sagged when the Canucks made an early exit. It's not the competition on other channels--TV viewership is down across the board. Is it the great weather? Rob Ford? Or is hockey losing its hammerlock on Canadians? What's up, Canada?

CityNews unplugged, CBC's Bristow bolts as shakeups continue in Canadian television

2013-05-30T15:30:00.002-04:00

CityNews. The '90s called, they want their graphics back

These folks in television, they wear pretty good poker faces.
Rogers president Scott Moore, for example, did not let on he was about to kibosh CityNews when he met with press at an FX Canada breakfast gathering Wednesday morning in Toronto.
A statement went out from Moore this morning that the CityNews Channel had already ceased operations. This was the multi-window local news service Rogers plunked into Ch. 15 after squatter Sun News was turfed into the triple digits.
Before that, 15 was the home of Toronto1. Talk about three strikes you're out. The number should now be retired. No. 15 gets less of a look than a hitchhiker with pets. More people have seen the Mayor Ford video.
For now, a busy screen full of ads, weather and traffic graphics remain and the audio feed is from Rogers' popular 680 News radio station.
Rogers also ditched OMNI stations in Edmonton and Calgary and an english language OMNI newscast. Blamed was "evolving viewer habits and the global structural shift in advertising." Translation: we can't sell this stuff.
Interesting, too, how some companies who are also carriers just read the bottom line and shut 'er down, others ask the CRTC for mandatory carriage.
Moore did suggest to me at one point Wednesday that Rogers was going to concentrate more on their core brands, especially the SportsNet channels and City. FX Canada must be a priority, too.
Earlier at the press conference I asked FX president John Landgraf why he was extending his brand to FXX and FXM at a time when NBC and others were shedding channels. A day later I could have used his Toronto press conference hosts at Rogers as an example.

Julie Bristow departs CBC

Last week, at the CBC 2013-14 launch, I had a one-on-one with Unscripted Programming boss Julie Bristow. Sitting on those interview room white sofas, I thought she looked unusually relaxed and serene considering the recent departure of Kristine Stewart.
Wednesday also brought news that Bristow was bolting the public network "with a view to taking on an exciting new venture." I'm surprised the news wasn't tweeted.
I asked Bristow last week all about the return of Battle of the Blades, about the new Antique Roadshows-meets-Dragon's Den pickup Four Rooms and other developments under her watch. She seemed quite plugged in and committed to the 2013-14 schedule.
Now you have to wonder if there aren't more executive dominoes about to fall at CBC.
I half-jokingly asked Bristow why she wasn't doing a CBC reality show with recent outer space sensation astronaut Chris Hadfield. "You're absolutely right," she replied. If producing Hadfield is her next gig, I want an exclusive, at the very least.

FX grows XL under Landgraf's steady hand

2013-05-30T00:02:00.001-04:00

Landgraf at FX's recent Upfront in New York. Brad Barket/Picture Group

Signed up for a TV masterclass Wednesday morning with John Landgraf. The FX President was in Toronto along with FX EVP Eric Schrier, to talk about the cable channel's latest content upgrade to FX Canada, as well as their ambitious plans back in the U.S.
FX Canada parent Rogers Media hosted the press breakfast at the Old Toronto executive club SoHo House on Adelaide, where Scott Moore, Rogers' Broadcast President, is a member. Moore, Rogers' EVP programming Malcolm Dunlop, programming director Hayden Mindell and, briefly, Rogers Media President Keith Pelley, all made the scene.
That there were bacon and eggs and those little sandwiches with the crusts cut off is usually enough to lure me out of Brampton, even in rush hour. Landgraf, however, was the real draw. He's as impressive an executive as you'll encounter in television--a savvy show launcher who understands both how to lure and develop talent and open and market a series. His track record speaks for itself. Very few FX shows fail.
He also seems to see the whole landscape and has steadily, in over a decade on the job, nudged FX into the upper tier of content providers.
Landgraf led Wednesday with the local angle: two of his new shows will be shot in Canada. Fargo is a limited series--something Landgraf preached we'll see more and more of on his channels--spun off from the Academy Award-winning movie. The Coen brothers are in on it, but the 10 episodes will feature new characters and a different story. It is written by Noah Hawley (My Generation), who even the Coen's feel has a spooky grasp of their own dense sensibility.
FX is still scouting locations but, according to Schrier, production will likely wind up in either Winnipeg or Calgary, and will begin as early as next winter.

FX stars W. Kamau Bell and Louis C.K.

Landgraf says this is an exciting time to be in television with an unprecedented migration of top theatrical film talent to the home screen. He says he can't think of a filmmaker who "hasn't been in our office in the last six months."
This wave of film talent isn't so much pitching to the heritage broadcasters, according to Landgraf, but to who he sees as the new Big Four: FX, AMC, HBO and Showtime. He backs that boast up with an impressive breakdown of Emmy, TCA and even Peabody Awards divided between those four cable networks in the past few years.
Limited series is the best path to migrate that film talent to TV, he feels. Sam Mendes is behind a drama called Grand Hotel. Paul Giamatti is in on Mayflower, which Landgraf described as a dark look at the Puritan settlers at Plymouth Rock and their clash with native Americans. Tyrant is from 24's Howard Gordon. The Middle East drama will shoot in Morocco or Turkey. Ang Lee was set to direct but had to bow out for personal reasons. "Best pilot script I've seen in 20 years," says Landgraf, a former NBC executive.
The other Canadian news was Toronto as the production base for The Strain, a vampire drama Landgraf says will not be anything like True Blood. "What The Shield (Landgraf's first FX success) did for cop shows, this will do for vampire shows," he says.
The teaser shown at the SoHo (all the FX clips were projected on an old slide screen, which warmed the heart of this 16mm film collector) had a Lost look: a commercial jet lands with a cabin full of dead passengers. Sketches showed the grotesque monster/vampires behind the parasite plague that follows.
Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) is behind The Strain, as is Lost producer Carelton Cuse. Casting is underway. A pilot will be shot in Toronto in a few months with the series good to go in January.
When FX Canada was launched a year ago there were promises that Canadian producers and creators would eventually break into the FX lineup with true, Made in Canada content. That hasn't happened yet, but Landgraf and Schrier were taking a few local pitches while they were in Toronto. (They turned down my suggestion: a sweaty, big city major is caught on tape smoking crack. Call it Canadian Horror Story). Besides their meetings here, they say a number of Canucks have come down to LA to knock on their door.
Hard to get in when you have the Coens, del Toro, Ang Lee, Giamatti, Cuse, Gordon and many others American A-Listers (even Billy Crystal has a project in development, as does Danny McBride) in line ahead of you.
Don't despair, Canada. Landgraf says the guys behind Legit, The Americans, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and others on his network all walked in without a previous series credit. An ability to spot and a willingness to back talent is something Landgraf prides himself in. As he also pointed out, "Citizen Kane was Orson Welles first movie."
Among the other announcements: FX Canada will finally be getting It's Always Sunny (starting with Season 8 on July 4), one of those shows previously seen on other channels in Canada. It's entering a 9th season, with The League (5th), Wilfred (3rd) Legit (2nd) and Louie all coming back, although the latter will be whenever Louie CK is ready. The comedian asked for an extended hiatus and got it. Schrier says new scripts are already written and production could ramp back up in September.

Keri Russell stars in The Americans

Landgraf is extending the FX brand into two new cable networks: Heavy on comedy, FXX--launching in Canada in January--will be aimed at 18-34-year-olds. FXM will be a new movie channel. This is not a "land grab," he says, but an "extended footprint." In order to fill out the schedules, FX will double its original content from 12 to 25 shows, putting it on par with heritage networks like NBC and CBS.
Some shows will move from FX to the new channels but most will stay put on the mother ship.
I asked Landgraf why grow networks at a time when networks are going the way of newspapers. There are rumours NBC and Fox are ready to go cable. Who needs FX-Y or Z when the big, on-demand change is a-comin'.
Landgraf admits that's a question that keeps him up at night. Don't worry, he's streaming all these goodies, too. But he also doesn't see the passive experience of enjoying television as something that is going to disappear anytime soon. He sees on-demand existing side-by-side with the old network system, and he says the advertising business backs up his theory, judging by their response so far to FXX and beyond.
As he often does, he pulled a few stats out of his head to back his vision of TV's immediate future. A survey pegged the number of channels most Americans had in their home at 129 in 2008. That grew to 179 in 2011--a jump of 50--yet the number of channels regularly watched only went up from 17.3 to 17.8.
With the launch of the new FX services, Landgraf is looking to grow within the "watched channels" realm.
To do that, he'll have to keep cranking out the kinds of innovative, critical darlings FX has been offering up till now. Sons of Anarchy, he says, is the network's biggest hit ever. Justified is another series they're pretty proud of at FX.

Sons of Anarchy's total weekly audience has hit a new high point for FX

The explosion of new content includes The Bridge, a crime thriller set at the U.S.-Mexican border. It launches July 10 on FX Canada. Chozen, an animated comedy about a white rapper, has McBride and SNL's Bobby Moynihan in the creative mix. How and Why, a half hour about a guy who can explain nuclear reactors but can't get a handle on his own life, hails from Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.)
There's more, and the list keeps growing. As Scott Moore said in his introduction of Landgraf, the big theme coming out of the recent upfronts and Hollywood screenings is that all the U.S. networks are ramping up their content, big time. If you don't own the content, heading into this God-forsaken, on-demand, TV-anywhere future, you are going to Hell in a handicam. Hopefully this make-your-own-shows mantra is another big lesson Landgraf's Canadian partners are taking to heart.

No Arrested Development spoilers here

2013-05-27T17:39:00.001-04:00

I honestly thought I'd be among the first to jump all over the new, resurrected, fourth season of Arrested Development, which premiered in the wee hours Sunday on Netflix. Haven't gotten to it yet, and not just because my money's in the banana stand.
This time of year, TV critics get bombarded with screeners. Most are for shows premiering in the fall and beyond. One I watched today was for Brooklyn Nine Nine, a Fox pilot from NBC-Universal that had a decided Cops-meets-The Office vibe. SNL grad Andy Samberg stars as a smart-ass detective, with the great Andre Braugher as his new squad boss. I think Braugher--trapped in that submarine stinker last fall--may finally have landed in something that will stick.
There are also dozens of spring and summer screeners to sort through, with the usual summer junk like The Bachelorette and 50 different hellish kitchen shows bubbling over every night, it seems. Then there are the last three episodes of Mad Men still logged into my PVR.
So, yeah, it would be great to just binge on The Bluths. Eventually, but for now I'm like everybody else, just dodging spoilers on Facebook and holding out for the right weekend.
Executive producer Mitch Hurwitz sent a note out to critics suggesting we try not to watch all 15 new episodes at once, that it would be a "horrible mistake." This will not be a problem for me this time of year, even for an AD fan who can't get enough of these characters and this series.

Stars shine in Behind the Candelabra

2013-05-26T22:24:00.000-04:00

Damon and Douglas

Michael Douglas does a great job of imitating Liberace in Behind the Candelabra (Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO and HBO Canada).

Not just Lee's nasal-y voice or his flamboyant mannerisms, but at the keyboard. Douglas' fakes a mean boogie-woogie.

The TV-movie does a great job re-creating the excesses of Libarace\s Vegas lifestyle. Many of the extravagant cars, costumes and jewelry come from the late showman's actual collection, preserved for years in a museum that was recently shut down to the public.Matt Damon is really too old to be playing Liberace's lover, Scott Thorson, who was still in his teens when the two first met in 1977. Liberace was in his mid-'50s. Damon looks a decade younger than his 42 years, however, and paired with 68-year-old Douglas, the age separation works.

The TV-movie is a love story and it doesn't have a happy ending.

It's based on Thorson’s 1988 autobiography Behind the Candelabra. The book detailed their five-year relationship, which ended in a bitter and public break-up.

Liberace and Thorson

The entertainer put Thorson in his Las Vegas show, dressing him up as a chauffer and having him drive his Rolls Royce on stage.

Executive producer Jerry Weintraub, who knew Liberace, got involved in the HBO project. Oscar nominee Richard Gravenese was brought in to write the script. Matt Damon, who has worked with director Steven Soderbergh seven times (including on The Informant!, Che and Ocean’s Eleven), was signed to play Thorson.

“It's really rare to even see a script this good,” Damon told critics last January at the TCA press tour. “What it felt like was if this was a relationship between a man and a woman, you'd feel at moments like this is too intimate, maybe I shouldn't be here. But it's between a man and a man, and I've never seen that movie before.”

Today, gay unions are legal in Canada and in many States, but the stigma of playing gay is still a hurdle for some actors. Douglas commended Damon for playing Liberace’s much younger male lover, “because I don’t think I would have had the courage at that point in my career to take this on.”

Douglas and Damon both shine and in fact carry this story beyond a script that relies to much on cliches and exposition.

There are some surprising cameos in the TV-movie. Dan Aykroyd plays Lee's manager, Seymour Heller, who has an even worse hairpiece than the boss. Rob Lowe plays a freaky plastic surgeon who can't keep a straight face. Scott Bakula is part of Liberace's posse. Debbie Reynolds is barely recognizable and terrific as Lee's doting mom.

It's a bizarre story, especially the parts where Thorson undergoes plastic surgery--to look more like Liberace.

The whole thing is like La Cage aux Folles meets Elvis. That it is all true is the craziest part of a bizarre tale.

Smith works a double as Rookie Blue returns

2013-05-23T17:24:00.000-04:00

Was out on the Toronto set of Rookie Blue several months ago and had a nice chat with Gregory Smith. The Toronto-born actor yakked about juggling acting with a directing assignment on the hit Global/ABC series, which returns for a fourth season Thursday night at 9 p.m.
This marks two years in a row Smith has snuck behind the camera on Blue. Look for his name in the director's credit on episode 11 this season.
Smith, 29, says his interest in directing sort of grew from being a camera bug. "When I'm not acting, I find ways to express myself with photography," he says. "I've traveled all over the world taking pictures and trying to tell a full story in a single image." Directing, he says, was a way to bring together "my two kinds of passions, right?"
Smith says he's constantly amazed at how passionate fans are about the series. "It's exceeded all of our wildest expectations, you know, and every year it seems like the scripts get better and the fans get more and more into it."
Especially last season, when Det. Jerry Barber (Noam Jenkins) was killed in the line of duty. "The reaction from people on the street, like I almost couldn't show my face in public for a couple of weeks," says Smith. "I would ride my bike through downtown, at 2 o'clock in the morning, people would be yelling at me and chasing me - 'Why did you let them kill Jerry?'"
Read the rest of my Canadian Press feature on Smith here.

Stewart's gone, but the CBC party goes on

2013-05-23T16:40:00.000-04:00

Interim CBC EVP Neil "Roger" McEneaney

What was missing from CBC's 2013-14 fall launch party Wednesday was as telling as what was on display.
The most obvious missing piece was Kristine Stewart. This party was planned around the EVP and showcases her schedule. When she bolted to Twitter three weeks ago, she left the party without a hostess.
Still, the show must go on, and the media half of the event was impressive given the continuing austerity measures facing the public broadcaster.CBC's media strategy of creating event buzz to distract from schedule blandness is still firmly in place.
There were no roller skating hockey players or rock bands playing to stars and critics on scaffolding as at recent launches. Instead, folks were herded into elevators up to the 10th floor studios and funneled into a large, dark studio space. All was black, except for giant screens on the walls and a simple but cool white podium with CBC's red logo on it.
Peter Mansbridge made a few, short, opening remarks. Up next came new interim executive vice president Neil McEneaney. He nervously welcomed the gathering and then got the hell off the stage.

Poorly dressed scribe awards Hawco a 2001 Sebring

A financial guy, McEneaney lacks Stewart's cool program diva vibe. As I mention in an article today for The Canadian Press, with his well-groomed white hair matching his starched white shirt, he does come across as a sober Roger Sterling.
An electric sizzle reel was shown on three of the four walls of the large sound stage. The surround sound and visuals reminded a few of us older cats of those landmark, 360-degree Expo '67 films. That notion followed us into the next stage in the presentation as the assembled wound our way through tented tunnels and into huge gallery spaces where giant posters of CBC radio and TV personalities looked down from above. A winding red carpet led past a photo op space, where Republic of Doyle star Allan Hawco and I interrupted our chat long enough to do the old "just won a car" picture bit. Another space was packed with sports memorabilia and audio visual displays reminding all that CBC has the Sochi Winter Olympic Games next February.

Cherry's jacket was at the CBC launch, but no Grapes

Impressive, but Stewart wasn't the only one missing from the launch. Arguably CBC's biggest stars, Rick Mercer and Don Cherry, did not attend the press half of the launch either. I asked McEneaney point blank about Grapes future with the network and all he offered was the fact Cherry's contract is extended year-by-year. Then again, with the NHL/CBC deal for Hockey Night in Canada elapsing at the end of the upcoming season, McEneaney probably has more on his mind than just keeping Coach's Corner.
CBC also missed a timely promotional opportunity, I felt. With a show called Cracked on their schedule, they could have had Rob Ford or at least a Ford impersonator at the event, clutching a crack pipe with a CBC logo on it. Hey, Fox would have done it.

I spoke with new Cracked co-star Brooke Nevin at the "white couch" portion of the press day. The series is returning but has just an eight episode order, which is sort of like asking the Leafs to win a playoff series with just four players. Nevin, a a Toronto-native who's bit of a Jennifer Lawrence look-a-like, was cast after hundreds auditioned in four different cities according to executive producer Peter Raymont. She'll play Det. Black's (David Sutcliffe) new shrink. Look for the crime drama to tilt a little lighter.

One of the large displays along the red carpet

McEneaney chuckled when I suggested my big idea to grow viewers at CBC--give the Leafs $10 million. Let them go out and sign a great defenceman. If they had one this spring, they'd still be in the playoffs, and those five million-plus audiences would still be following Round Two of the playoffs, instead of the 1.6 million who checked Monday's Detroit-Chicago game.

I also spoke with Ron James at the launch. His weekly comedy series is back for a fifth season, but his annual New Year's Eve showcase had been shelved. Air Farce and, this year, Mr. D star Gerry Dee, will usher in CBC's New Year.

Kurt Browning told me he's pumped about co-hosting a fourth season of Battle of the Blades, which will be returning to the MasterCard Centre. There'll be eight pairs but no casting news as yet. The series will air on Sundays, with results folded into the one night. Tom Harrington says Marketplace will be back with another full 20 episode order in the fall. Pulling a million-a-week on a Friday night tends to get rewarded at CBC. Murdoch Mysteries ace Yannick Bisson was also at the launch, deep in preparation as he's about to direct the first episode of the upcoming season.

CBC quietly dropped that supper hour helping of Lang & O'Leary, instead stripping the Best of Rick Mercer Report five nights a week at 6:30 p.m.

Some new "factual entertainment" shows have been ordered; more on that in a future post.

Not on Wednesday's tour: Wayne & Shuster's 10th
floor Comedy Wall of Fame. Those were the days

Pickler takes DWTS's Mirror Ball Trophy

2013-05-23T01:58:00.001-04:00

Head over to TheStar.ca for my take on Tuesday night's 16th season finale of Dancing with the Stars. It was a close, entertaining contest, and ended up being a pick-em between country singer Kellie Pickler and Disney girl Zendaya. For Pickler's pro partner, Derek Hough, it was his fourth Mirror Ball trophy, a record.

The news that ABC plans to cut DWTS down to one two-hour show a week should be welcomed by viewers tired of sitting through 59 minutes of filler to get to the next day results. Kudos to CBC's Battle of the Blades for adopting the same once-a-week format when that reality show returns for a fourth season on Sundays in the fall.

Ford, Toronto's gift to the late night talk shows

2013-05-22T18:18:00.002-04:00

Torontonians have known ever since they elected him that their mayor was a cartoon character. This week, Hizzonner Rob Ford made the funny pages in America, getting lampooned on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as well as Tuesday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The funniest thing about the Kimmel bit, above, is that the guy playing Ford looks more like W.C. Fields. The sketch also shows the difference in libel laws in the two countries. It's doubtful 22 Minutes could get away with identifying an actor as "Rob Ford Mayor-Toronto" and then show him behaving like Charlie Sheen post-Two and a Half Men. Kimmel gets away with it by waving the Ford impersonator off as "a reasonable facsimile."
In Canada, you can't mock with the same level of impunity. Here you've got former Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke filing a lawsuit, not against comedians, but people leaving snark on the Internet. Burke's beef is that commentators and bloggers have also spread rumours he feels are libelous.
Leave it to a politician, however, to see Burke's actions as a way of shutting down the great unwashed. Following several published reports citing Brampton, Ont. politicians as among Canada's highest paid, long-time councillor Gael Miles apparently was stung by comments left by Brampton citizens at The Brampton Guardian and Toronto Star web sites.
"We should know if we would be pursuing legal action in the future," Miles huffed at a council meeting last week, according to the Guardian. Brampton taxpayers--who already pay the highest taxes in Canada--would then apparently have to foot the bill for an action taken against Brampton taxpayers for venting their frustrations on political entitlement.
Here's hoping Kimmel and Stewart keep pulling down political pants north of their border.

This week's podcast: About a Boy and Blacklist among shows gaining early buzz

2013-05-17T22:23:00.000-04:00

Benjamin Stockham and David Walton from NBC's About a Boy

This week, CHML's Scott Thompson turns into Mr. Question Man. Among his queries: will ratings for the Stanley Cup playoffs tank now that Leafs are kaput? The answer, of course, is yes. If you are CBC, the playoffs are over. Goodbye 5 million, hello 2.5.

Spader at NBC's upfront in New York

Scott asks about the upfronts in New York and all the new shows just announced for the 2013-14 season. 24 run in 2014. The more I think about that one, the more I think it could be a mistake.
Can Michael J. Fox really headline another sitcom? I have to say yes, and playing a character with Parkinson's is the key. We also talk about Kiefer Sutherland's return as Jack Bauer in a 12-episode
Early word out of Los Angeles, as the Canadian network showbuyers attend the Hollywood screenings, is that a new NBC sitcom based on the novel and movie About a Boy is pretty good. Minnie Driver is in that one. So is David Walton, so good on the short-lived sitcom Bent. There's also some early buzz building about Blacklist, an NBC drama starring James Spader, who--no surprise--makes a creepy-good baddie. The series has already been described as Silence of the Lambs meets The Following.
Canadian nets will screen CBS shows Saturday, ABC/Disney shows on Monday, with parties Sunday and Monday night. The wallets come out Wednesday.
Scott also asks about Seth Meyers taking over Late Night once Jimmy Fallon moves up to The Tonight Show next February. Another 35-year-old white guy? The Scott admits he's already setting his PVR for Barbara Walters' year-long retirement-palooza.
He also brings up the passing of Toronto Sun founding editor Peter Worthington and asks if there isn''t a feature film in this guy's life. Not a bad idea.
News hadn't broken yet about Rob Ford's latest hilarious misadventures so there are no cracks about him teaming up with Cheech & Chong.
The podcast runs a little longer than usual, so you can start listening in here and find part two here.

Lehman finds her Motive in This Fair Land

2013-05-16T15:22:00.000-04:00

Because it gives away the "who," Motive was sold as a "how-dunit" rather than a whodunit.
Now that it has been renewed for a second season, it's an it-dunit.
The season finale airs Thursday night at 10/9c on CTV.
The Vancouver-based drama launched Feb. 3 (directly after CTV's power-out delayed Super Bowl coverage), opening to 1,354,000 total viewers (Live+7). By the time all the data was in, the next three Sundays also topped over a million.
Then the series was shifted to Thursdays, a strong night for the network but shifting a new show is always a gamble. Motive never really missed a beat. The first Thursday night episode March 14 drew a total of 983,000 viewers and it soared to 1,202,000, 1,240,000 and 1,193,000 the next three Thursdays. The series did another 1,019,000 April 25. In originals, it is averaging a rock solid 1.1 million a week for the season--hence CTV's order for Season Two.
The series gets its U.S. network launch Monday May 20 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC before moving to Thursdays at 9 May 23; savvy CTV will simulcast.
Tonight's finale finds Det. Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) and Det. Oscar Vega (Louis Ferreira) investigating the murder of a young adult just as Flynn's own son, Manny (Cameron Bright), heads off to college.
Lehman was bright and chipper when I spoke with her on the phone last week despite the fact that it was 7:30 in the morning on the West Coast. No problem, she said, her five year old had been up since 6.
On a roll since starring on AMC's The Following, the Toronto-born actress claims she stays "blissfully away" from the numbers but was pleased to hear things were good.
The ratings numbers, of course, are important to CTV, not just for its own welfare but because it can now hand the series off to ABC as an unqualified Canadian success story, the No. 1 new domestic scripted drama of the season.(Not that there was a ton of competition in that category in 2012 - 13).
Lehman says her hope going in was simply to be in something Canadians actually watched. "I signed on to do a Canadian show," she says. Having survived 10 or 12 years slogging through pilots and pickups in the U.S. before breaking through in The Killing, Lehman's own sense is that the business is even more fickle Stateside.
Now she's waiting to see "what this other giant country" thinks about the show. She feels the acting holds its own with any U.S. network fare and is proud of the natural rhythm she's found with Ferriera.
"It was just always there," she says. "ABC has said one of the things they really loved was the chemistry between the two characters."
Ferriera's Vega is the more quiet, soulful character; Flynn tends to wear her heart and passion more on her sleeve.
Getting that balance and energy right is something the two actors commit to "every morning in the makeup trailer," she says. "Louis and I work hard to stay really strongly connected to our characters. We encourage each other to stay as loose as possible so we can breathe life into the relationship."
Production on Season Two won't ramp up again until August. Until then, Lehman plans to immerse herself in her pet project, This Fair Land, an on-line magazine she edits exploring "living a creative life and an artful life in Canada." The 'zine is film, photography and lifestyle based, she says. There's a story up now on the Wildebeest Restaurant, a B.C. eatery that serves the whole animal "snout to tail," says Lehman, "although they probably don't describe it that way."

Upfront 2013: Sutherland, Fox, Helfer and other Canucks make U.S. network cut

2013-05-15T13:30:00.002-04:00

Kiefer Sutherland in, Kiefer Sutherland out. Canadian talent headlining American shows are breaking about even as the 2013-14 schedules are announced this week in New York.
Sutherland's Touch didn't touch enough viewers to stick around for a third season on Fox, but the network did announce that Sutherland is inked to reprise his role as Jack Bauer on a new season of 24. Plans to do a 24 feature film were scrapped, apparently, when executive producer Howard Gordon concluded a two-hour movie just didn't fit 24's real time format. Instead, the series will return with a 12-hour run to start the spring/summer of 2014.

Michael J. Fox is a big TV star many thought was done making a weekly series after easing out of Spin City 15 years ago. Recent stints on Rescue Me, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Good Wife have proved Fox is up to the task, especially if the show is shot in New York. That's where The Michael J. Fox Show will be based. The NBC sitcom stars Fox as a news anchor forced to step back from TV when diagnosed with Parkinson's but, with the kids grown up and bored sitting at home, he ventures back before the cameras.
Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) will headline the ABC drama Killer Woman. The Alberta native will play a Texas Ranger. Modern Family's Sophia Vergara is among the producers.
B.C. native Brendan Fehr (Roswell) returns in the mid-season NBC hospital drama The Night Shift.
Losing jobs are Matthew Perry, whose Go On was turned off at NBC. Elisha Cuthbert saw Happy Endings fade out of sight at ABC. Sarah Chalke did not get to keep on Living with Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life.
Most U.S. shows shot in Canada survived the cut, including Nikita and Beauty and the Beast shot in Toronto and Arrow and Supernatural shot in Vancouver. Cult was no surprise as a B.C. casualty. The fate of NBC/Global's Hannibal, a Mississauga, Ont. production left off fall schedules, still hangs in the balance, with hopes for a possible mid-season pick up.

Upfronts 2013: Night moves driving Canadian show buyers crazy

2013-05-15T11:29:00.001-04:00

Alex O'Loughlin jumps to Fridays next season on Hawaii FIVE-0

This is the week Canada's private network programming executives play shop till you drop.
Together, they'll drop between $600- to $800 million picking up American network programming for their 2013-14 schedules.
It all happens over a few jam-packed days spent in Los Angeles screening rooms and hotels. I spoke with Rogers/City's Malcolm Dunlop, Bell/CTV's Phil King and Shaw/Global's Barbara Williams a few weeks ago before they went down for the upfronts and screenings and wrote about their pre-game strategies here for The Canadian Press.
The Canadian plan is always to simulcast as many of the U.S. network pickups as possible to gain the maximum head count in the ratings, and thus gain a higher price per show for advertising. So far this week, the U.S. networks aren't making that any easier.
Williams will have to cope with the fact CBS just flipped Hawaii FIVE-0--a show that does better in Canada than the U.S.--from Mondays to Fridays. Fox did the same thing with another valued Global pick-up, Bones. Suddenly Williams has a two hour Monday headache she probably didn't see coming. Dunlop has to deal with CBS moving Person of Interest to Tuesdays at 10, NBC flipping Revolution to Wednesdays and the shelving of CBS' Mike & Molly till mid-season. ABC probably did King (and viewers) a favour by cutting Dancing with the Stars back to only one night a week, but he'll have to scramble to simulcast CBS' relocated Two and a Half Men.
That's why King says buy the best show and forget the timeslot, because it will change anyway. The U.S. nets will likely tinker further with their skeds before September rolls around.