All posts by Greg David

Prior to becoming a television critic and owner of TV, Eh?, Greg David was a critic for TV Guide Canada, the country's most trusted source for TV news. He has interviewed television actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes folks from hundreds of television series from Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He is a podcaster, public speaker, weekly radio guest and educator, and past member of the Television Critics Association.
Corner Gas, Corner Gas Animated, Corner Gas: Animated

The Comedy Network’s #1 Original Series, Corner Gas Animated, Returns Canada Day

From a media release:

As Brent Leroy announced today on CTV’s YOUR MORNING, Season 2 of CORNER GAS ANIMATED arrives on The Comedy Network this Canada Day, with a special guest star appearance from Michael J. Fox. The most-watched original series of all time on Comedy, CORNER GAS ANIMATED returns for Season 2 on Monday, July 1 with two back-to-back episodes beginning at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

The new 11-episode, half-hour season sees Brent (Brent Butt), Hank (Fred Ewanuick), and Emma (Corrine Koslo) compete to make viral videos; Karen (Tara Spencer-Nairn) and Davis (Lorne Cardinal) trying to scam the town at the annual Turkey Shoot; Wanda (Nancy Robertson) going power mad during Darts Night; Oscar (Eric Peterson) launching an eyebrow-raising website for the local paper; and Lacey (Gabrielle Miller) organizing a Bachelor auction and attracting high bids for Brent.

In the season premiere, “Dream Waiver,” (Monday, July 1 at 8 p.m. ET/PT) Brent recruits Wanda to help him figure out recurring nightmares about being attacked by Michael J. Fox. Then, in an all-new episode at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT entitled “Drone and Dumber,” Brent gets a new drone that he uses to terrorize Oscar. Meanwhile, Wanda and Emma set out to test a turkey’s intelligence.

As previously announced, Season 2 of CORNER GAS ANIMATED features an all-star lineup of cameos from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Chris Hadfield, Russell Peters, Jann Arden, and EPIC MEALTIME’s Harley Morenstein.

Leading up to the two-episode premiere, viewers can spend their Canada Day in Dog River as Comedy delivers a catch-up marathon featuring every episode of Season 1, beginning at 8 a.m. ET and repeating at 1:30 p.m. ET on Monday, July 1.

The first season of CORNER GAS ANIMATED became a ratings hit after debuting in Spring 2018 with the most-watched series premiere in Comedy’s history and concluding the season as the most-watched series of the broadcast year on Comedy among total viewers and all key demos (A18-34, A18-49, and A25-54). CORNER GAS ANIMATED won the 2019 Canadian Screen Award for Best Writing, Animation for the episode “Squatch Your Language,” written by series creator and star Brent Butt.

For updates on all things CORNER GAS, including CORNER GAS ANIMATED merchandise as well as Limited Collectors’ Editions, events, and news, visit cornergas.com.

CORNER GAS ANIMATED is an inter-provincial co-production produced by Prairie Pantoons (BC), comprised of Brent Butt and David Storey from 335 Productions; and Moving Mountoons (ON), comprised of Virginia Thompson and Robert de Lint from Vérité Films, in association with Bell Media, Canada Media Fund, Bell Fund, Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit, Ontario Computer Animation and Special Effects Tax Credit, Film Incentive BC Tax Credit, Digital Animation, Visual Effects and Post Production Tax Credit, Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit. Animation is produced by Prairie Pantoons, Moving Mountoons, and Smiley Guy Studios.

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Featured, Pure

Preview: Pure deals a second season on Super Channel Fuse

When we last left Pure, its characters—and the show itself—were in disarray.

Eli Voss, the Season 1 villain who had forced Noah Funk (Ryan Robbins) and his wife, Anna (Alex Paxton-Beesley) into ferrying cocaine through Mexico into the United States, was killed by Noah. But the Funk’s actions led to them being excommunicated from their Ontario Mennonite community. Noah, despondent and feeling like he had failed his family—and gotten his brother, Abel (Gord Rand), killed—left the community altogether.

As for the show, CBC opted not to renew Michael Amo’s creation for a second season. Thankfully, Super Channel stepped in and ordered six more episodes. In the U.S., Season 1 was broadcast on Hulu and then picked up by WGN America; the American superstation will also broadcast Pure day and date with its Canadian counterpart.

A woman stands, facing two men who are walking towards her.When we catch up with the Funk family on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on Super Channel Fuse, Noah is nowhere to be found. It’s a year since the events of the Season 1 finale, and Anna and her children Tina (Jessica Clement) and Isaak (Dylan Everett) are still on the outs with their community. In danger of losing her home, Anna pleads to the elders for help. Of course, the colony knew what Voss was doing at the time but still blame the Funks for the sins brought among them. Anna was forced to pick up the pieces after her husband left and has shown great strength in doing that. She’s very different from the woman we first met in Season 1.

Meanwhile, Det. Gates (Cory Bowles) has been searching for Noah at Anna’s request. And it’s while he’s doing it that Gates stumbles upon a crime scene introducing viewers to Hector Estrada (Victor Gomez) and his hitman Orff (Conrad Pla), two dudes that are just as evil as Voss and intent on getting the cocaine pipeline going again. We’re also introduced to Det. Valerie Krochak (Zoie Palmer), a former hockey player turned forensic accountant who becomes embroiled in the case.

After over a year since Super Channel announced a sophomore season, it’s good to jump back into Amo’s world. For such dark subject matter, Pure is rife with humour and heart. The scenery is stunning (Nova Scotia stands in for Ontario) and while much of the dialogue amongst the Mennonite characters are spare, a lack of words is made up in facial expression, body language and eye movement. And, when they do speak, it’s to say something truly important, heartfelt and with conviction.

Pure airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Super Channel Fuse.

Images courtesy of Super Channel.

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Mary Kills People

Link: Elizabeth Saunders on her Mary Kills People role and joining the cast

From Melissa Girimonte of The Televixen:

Link: Elizabeth Saunders on her Mary Kills People role and joining the cast
“She is this innocuous human being who walks the planet like we all are. She has not so much a dark side, but a complex, conflicted personality. People can read as very normal, nice and highly effective but there’s another side that they’re not fully conscious of.” Continue reading.

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Industry News

Sherry White, Kerri MacDonald and Omnifilm Entertainment adapting Ami McKay’s, The Birth House

Froma media release:

Omnifilm Entertainment has secured the rights to the #1 Canadian and international bestseller,  THE BIRTH HOUSE (Penguin Random House Canada)—authored by Ami McKay and inspired by the real-life Scots Bay midwife heroine, Esther Rebecca Steele. Creative team Sherry White (Maudie, Little Dog, Ten Days in the Valley, Frontier) and Kerri MacDonald (Frontier, Little Dog, Republic of Doyle) are on board to develop the television series adaptation.

The cover of the book, The Birth House.An arresting portrait of the struggles that women have faced for control of their own bodies, THE BIRTH HOUSE is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter in five generations of Rares. As apprentice to the outspoken Acadian midwife Miss Babineau, Dora learns to assist the women of a rural Nova Scotia community through infertility, difficult labours, breech births, unwanted pregnancies, and unfulfilling sex lives. During the turbulent World War I era, uncertainty and upheaval accompany the arrival of a brash new medical doctor and his promises of progress and fast, painless childbirth. In a clash between tradition and science, Dora finds herself fighting to protect the rights of women as well as the wisdom of the old ways that have been entrusted to her. Filled with compelling historic events and surprising detail—childbirth in the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion; unconventional relief efforts during the Spanish Flu epidemic in Boston; shared activism between the women’s suffrage movements in Canada, the US and the UK—THE BIRTH HOUSE is an unforgettable tale of women banding together to defend their traditions and create change in a world dominated by the politics of men.

Ami McKay is the author of three internationally bestselling novels—THE BIRTH HOUSE, The Virgin Cure and The Witches of New York, as well as the recent yuletide novella, Half Spent Was the Night. She began her writing career as a freelance journalist, writing and producing radio documentaries for programs such as CBC Radio’s Maritime Magazine, This Morning, OutFront, and The Sunday Edition, as well as NPR’s Soundprint in the United States.

This project is being pitched to potential buyers in the coming weeks.

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