Monthly Archives: April 2012

Dramas and Comedies, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary, Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes

New tonight: Rick Mercer Report, 22 Minutes, Martin Short, Buy.o.logic

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Rick Mercer Report, CBC – Season finale
Rick attends celebration festivities at the winning schools in the annual Mercer Report Spread the Net Student Challenge. Highlights include an extreme dodgeball game with students at an elementary school in Quispamsis, New Brunswick, African drumming at a high school in Peterborough, Ontario, and at Montreal’s McGill University Rick drives a ‘Baja’ off-road car on campus.

22 Minutes, CBC – Season finale
Shaun Majumder heads to the Junos as host of ’22 Morning Zoo’ to check in with some award nominees, we travel to Peggy’s Cove to look into the sale of an iconic lighthouse, and – after weeks of trash-talking – Mark Critch brings us the outcome of the Trudeau/Brazeau boxing match.  We also comment on the new federal budget, with Don Cherry (Mark Critch) weighing in on the cuts.

I, Martin Short, Goes Home – CBC
This one-hour special features a star-studded line up of talent including Fred Willard (Modern Family), Eugene Levy (American Pie), Andrea Martin (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Robin Duke (Saturday Night Live), Joe Flaherty (The Second City’s Next Comedy Legend) and CBC’s own George Stroumboulopoulos (George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight).

Buy.o.logic, OWN Canada – Series premiere
In the premiere episode, Isla and Dr. Dave examine the cause of bad breath and how different products work to combat the problem. They also hit the town to teach men to stop procrastinating on prostrate health. Allergies force Isla to figure out which vacuum cleaners suck. A flash mob puts five ab machines through a real workout and our shopping gurus Anna and Kristina discover the life changing joys of neti pots.

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Awards, Featured

WGC Award nominee Ben Joseph on My Babysitter’s A Vampire’s “Friday Night Frights”

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Leading up to the Writers Guild of Canada awards on April 23, TV, eh? will be posting a series of interviews with some of nominees. Ben Joseph nabbed one of three nominations for My Babysitter’s a Vampire in the Children and Youth category, for the “Friday Night Frights” episode. He shares his interesting back story …

“I was hired as a story editor on the show when it first got started. I wrote the first episode that got approved. I wrote a first draft … and then they fired me. Sure I was peeved but things happen — they just wanted to go in a different direction. Or so I thought. They never really gave me a good reason. Then 8 months later when I saw the actual episode, it was pretty much exactly the way I wrote the first draft. So that made me angry. So getting a nomination for a first draft that got me fired is kind of a nice karmic middle finger. That being said I wish the show well because I know most of the writers and they are quality people and all talented.”

Can you describe the episode, and how it fit into the season?

My episode revolves a ghost gym teacher who returns to the school and wants to finally win a trophy. He wants Ethan (the star of the show) to win it in wrestling – or this ghost coach will haunt him forever!

What about this episode are you particularly proud of?

I’m proud that all those years “researching” professional wrestling has finally paid off! R.I.P. Macho Man.

What does this recognition mean to you?

Getting a nomination is fun and all but it’s not like my scripts are curing cancer. Unless they are. Then I should probably get paid more.

And finally (imagine my best Joan Rivers impression): what will you be wearing to the ceremony?

I like to have fun at these events — I’ve gone as “Thriller” Michael Jackson, Belloq from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and last year as The Joker from the animated “Batman” series. This year I have something special cooked up but I don’t want to ruin the surprise (or have someone show up wearing the same outfit!).

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Featured, Little Mosque on the Prairie

Zaib Shaikh says farewell to Little Mosque on the Prairie

After six seasons — rare longevity in Canadian television — CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie ends tonight with the “Best of Times” episode.

“The show came into a landscape where nothing of its kind existed, and leaves the landscape having changed it,” said star Zaib Shaikh in a recent TV, eh? interview. “Now it’s up to another show, or a different take on this conversation, but the impact is still clearly being felt on a positive side.”

“The forces of negativity and fear still exist,” he added. “It’s amazing the show got in six seasons in that climate on a global level, where it stands out as a positive in the conversation between Muslims and non-Muslims.”

Shaikh points out the show’s purpose “was never to be a message. Its purpose was to have Muslims as characters — ‘look they’re people too.'”

Growing up Muslim in Toronto, he hadn’t seen a character that reflected his own experience before taking on the role of Amaar, the Toronto imam who relocated to Saskatchewan.

“That fish out of water perspective really worked well for the show on a comedic and entertaining level,” he said. “Now he leaves the show a proud member of the community, married into it. He’s not the pompous prick he was coming into it.”

Even with a primary goal to entertain, Shaikh believes the show couldn’t have launched anywhere but on CBC, especially at a time when 9/11 was fresh in the audience’s memory. He believes in a way that the Canadian show was able to begin a conversation that couldn’t happen in the US while they were still in trauma from those events.

“In Canada our supposed tolerance and congeniality led to the idea it could get done here,” he said, saying “that speaks to the country’s values.” Creator Zarqa Nawaz “had a hope — maybe it was a naïve hope” that the show would work, and CBC agreed.

“As a business model it’s a risky take on entertaining, on getting eyeballs,” Shaikh said before pointing out it debuted to 2.1 million people in 2007.

He calls this sixth and final season “a gift to our fans,” and has himself reaped the benefits of the high-profile role, having just filmed Midnight’s Children with Deepa Mehta and Salman Rushdie. “I don’t think I would have gotten that kind of experience if I wasn’t on a show like Little Mosque.”

Listen to the entire Zaib Shaikh interview, including his thoughts on the necessity of supporting the Canadian TV industry, here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Little Mosque on the Prairie, Mr. D, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

New tonight: Mr. D, Little Mosque on the Prairie, The Big Decision, Canada’s Got Talent

Mr. D, CBC – “Charity Day” (Season finale)
Gerry uses a boxing match at the school’s annual Charity Day to settle his competition with Mr. Dwyer for the title of Mr. D once and for all.

Little Mosque on the Prairie, CBC – “Best of Times” (Series finale)
In the series finale, the new Mosque opens with a surprising ceremony.

The Big Decision, CBC – “Tashodi + Hardy Buoys” (Season finale)
Hardy Buoys, a family-own fish processing plant in Port Hardy, BC, and Tashodi, an eco-friendly bath and body care company based in Toronto, both look to Arlene Dickinson to help save them.

Canada’s Got Talent, Citytv – “Semifinal Round One – Performance Show”
In the first round of semifinals, seven acts take the stage in hopes of securing enough votes to propel them into the final round. This week’s performers include: singer Christopher Charles, dance group Freshh, hip-hop trio H.I.X., opera singer Julie Lafontaine, fire poi artist Marissa Puff, rock band Pulp City Inn and martial arts group Wushu by Storm.
“Semifinal Round One – Results Show”
In the first live results show, two additional semifinalists from the YouTube ‘Last Chance Auditions’ will be revealed. Then, host Dina Pugliese will announce which acts are advancing to the finals.

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Little Mosque on the Prairie

Little Mosque says goodbye

From John Doyle of the Globe and Mail:

  • Goodbye, Little Mosque: Nice idea, not so funny
    Little Mosque on the Prairie, which ends its run forever tonight (CBC, 8 p.m.) has been called many things. It has been called, in e-mails to me, “an act of social engineering.” It’s been called “groundbreaking,” lighthearted” and “a chuckler.” Unfortunately the most apt description of Little Mosque in recent years is “dreary.” Read more.

From Jeff Dedekker of Postmedia News:

From CBC:

  • Little Mosque says goodbye
    CBC’s ground-breaking show Little Mosque on the Prairie draws to a close Monday night, remaining true to the “ordinary folks” portrayal of Muslims it has practised from the outset. Read more.

From Muhammad Ayish of TheNational.ae:

  • Lights go dark on ‘Mosque’, but its message still inspires
    When the Canadian sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie goes off the air after six seasons today, it will be remembered not only as one of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s top-rated shows, but also as a reminder of how religious and cultural diversity sustains western-Muslim co-existence. Read more.
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