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.

From a media release:

Corus Entertainment’s Emmy® Award-winning studio Nelvana, a world-leading international producer, distributor and licensor of children’s animated and live-action content, together with Lambur Productions, have started production on the third and final season of their popular live-action series The Hardy Boys (8x60min). Based on the books by Franklin W. Dixon, the Daytime Emmy® nominated mystery drama is produced by Lambur Productions and Nelvana, in association with Corus Entertainment, and started production in September in Toronto and Southern Ontario.

The third season picks up where the shocking events of Season 2 left off. The Hardy boys and their friends dig up even more secrets, conspiracies and threats as they piece together their great-grandfather’s long-lost map and race against time to uncover a powerful ancient relic before it falls into the wrong hands.

Bailee Madison (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, Just Go with It) guest stars on the final season as ‘Drew Darrow’, a fun but often frustrating new ally with a brilliant mind and appetite for magic and mysteries. Returning cast members of the beloved Hardy gang include Rohan Campbell (Halloween Ends) as ‘Frank Hardy,’ Alexander Elliot (Locke and Key) as ‘Joe Hardy’, Keana Lyn (The Yard) as ‘Callie Shaw’, Adam Swain (A Million Little Things) as ‘Chet Morton’, Cristian Perri (A Simple Favor) as ‘Phil Cohen’, Riley O’Donnell (Big Top Academy) as ‘Biff Hooper’, and Krista Nazaire (Before We Crash) as ‘Belinda Conrad’.

The first two seasons received strong ratings and reviews, winning two Canadian Screen Awards in 2022 for ‘Best Children’s or Youth Fiction Program or Series’ and ‘Best Direction, Children’s or Youth’, winning a Directors Guild of Canada Award for ‘Outstanding Directorial Achievement for Family Series’ in 2021 and earning a Daytime Emmy® Award nomination for ‘Outstanding Young Adult Series’ in 2021. The first season received additional nominations for CAFTCAD’s ‘Best Costume Design in TV Period’ in 2021, DGC’s Craft Award for ‘Best Picture Editing – Comedy or Family Series’ in 2021, Canadian Society of Cinematographer’s Award for ‘Best Cinematography in TV Drama – Non-commercial’ in 2021, and a Canadian Screen Award for ‘Best Photography, Drama’ in 2022. The series also gained a loyal fan following, with Season 2 securing the number one program ranking on YTV this past Spring* and currently the number one YTV show streamed on STACKTV**.

Seasons 1 and 2 of The Hardy Boys are currently available to stream on Hulu (U.S.), STACKTV in Canada and Disney+ internationally ( Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Latin America, and coming soon to Europe, Middle East and Africa). The final season will premiere on Hulu in the U.S. and YTV and STACKTV in Canada in 2023, with more international networks to be announced.

Season 3 of The Hardy Boys is executive produced by Lambur Production’s Joan Lambur, Suzanne Wilson and Madeleine Lambur, Corus and Nelvana’s Doug Murphy, Pam Westman and Athena Georgaklis, co-showrunner and head writer Chris Pozzebon ( Blindspot, Schitt’s Creek), and co-showrunner and head director Jason Stone (Riverdale, The Hardy Boys). Amanda Vaughan will serve as production executive for Corus.

*Source: Numeris PPM Data. SP’22 (Jan 3/22 – May 29/22) – confirmed data, 3+ airings. Total Canada, Mo-Su 2a-2a. Ind.2+ AMA(000). YTV.

**Source: Amazon Video Central Reporting

Murdoch Mysteries

Production begins on new tween Murdoch Mysteries spinoff Macy Murdoch for CBC Gem

October 12, 2022 Greg David 10 Comments

From a media release:

Shaftesbury announced today that production is now underway on Macy Murdoch (8×11), a new CBC Gem original tween series that follows the adventures of Detective William Murdoch’s time-travelling great-great-great-granddaughter. A spinoff of Shaftesbury and CBC’s hit long-running drama Murdoch Mysteries based on novels written by Maureen Jennings, the series is currently shooting in Toronto and will debut on CBC Gem in spring 2023.

Sixteen-year-old Macy is a forensic wunderkind who unravels a century-old mystery with the help of her two friends Zane and Billie. When a villain uses a time machine to frame famous Edwardian-era Detective William Murdoch for murder, Macy and her friends travel back in time to find the real perpetrator of the crime. Not only are the teens trying to crack a difficult case, but the trio are undercover, trying to solve a mystery in 1910 without the help of modern technology.

Macy Murdoch captures the playful, mystery-loving spirit of Murdoch Mysteries with Canadian Screen Award-winner Shailyn Pierre-Dixon (Pretty Hard Cases, The Book of Negroes) co-leading the series with Beau Han Bridge who plays Zane, and Raffa Virago as Billie. The series will have a special guest appearance by Spencer West, while Shanice Banton (“Mrs. Violet Hart”) and Lachlan Murdoch (“Constable Henry Higgins-Newsome”) from the beloved CBC series will appear in the series as guides to help the young detectives absolve Murdoch of a crime he did not commit.

The digital series is directed by Laurie Lynd with showrunner Jennifer Kassabian and Co-EP Robina Lord Stafford. The series was initially developed by JP Larocque and Jessica Meya. For CBC, Sally Catto is General Manager, Entertainment, Factual and Sports; Marie McCann is Senior Director, Children’s Content, CBC Kids; and Lisa Cinelli is Executive in Charge of Production, Children’s and Youth Programming.

Children Ruin Everything, Featured

Children Ruin Everything’s Aaron Abrams: “Their love is very present and they love their kids”

October 12, 2022 Greg David

Life with young children can be chaotic. There are school lunches to make, school to get to, after-school clubs to attend, play dates to coordinate, teeth to be brushed and bedtime stories to be read. It can be exhausting, frustrating, and maybe a little infuriating at times, but it’s ultimately rewarding.

That’s the main theme of Children Ruin Everything.

Now in its second season on CTV, the Monday night comedy stars Meaghan Rath and Aaron Abrams as Astrid and James, who are juggling work, going back to work, in-laws and friends when you have kids in your life. In the second season, siblings Felix (Logan Nicholson) and Viv (Mikayla SwamiNathan) are joined by an infant brother, meaning they’re now sharing a room. That, of course, results in conversations about sharing and privacy.

“This season, we really get into more chaos, obviously, because there is another baby,” Abrams says. Because of COVID-19, the first season of Children Ruin Everything was rushed and stressful. The sophomore go-round was much more relaxing, allowing for what he calls a “blooper energy,” between him and co-star Rath. That is evident on-screen too; there is an ease in their performances that is natural and easy to like and their physical comedy is unmatched.

The aforementioned privacy angle is addressed in Monday’s new episode, “Privacy,” where Astrid and her sister, Dawn (Nazneen Contractor), are convinced their mother, Nisha (Veena Sood), is keeping something from them. Meanwhile, a request to launch a new product at work leads James to agree to meet with Ennis’ (Ennis Esmer) sketchy cousin to consider his new gummy product, and soon they’re roping in more of James’ family to help with the pitch. Kim Coates drops by for the instalment, adding to an impressive list of guest stars that have included Anna Hopkins, MasterChef Canada winner Mary Berg and Aaron Ashmore.

There are many, many family sitcoms battling for primetime eyeballs, but nothing, Abrams says, like Children Ruin Everything.

“The show is about parenting, and the parents are emotionally intelligent communicative people,” he says. “To me, that was not only a new way of doing things—where they weren’t at odds and the dude isn’t some big palooka trying to watch the game and she’s a shrew—this is a couple who is a team. Their love is very present and they love their kids. And that, to me, made it funnier.

“They are smart people who are constantly being turned into idiots.”

Children Ruin Everything airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Image courtesy of Bell Media.

Baroness von Sketch Show

Link: ‘Baroness von Sketch Show’ star to lead figure skating comedy for Crave from Catalyst, Blue Ant Studios

October 11, 2022 Greg David

From Manori Ravindran of Variety:

Link: ‘Baroness von Sketch Show’ star to lead figure skating comedy for Crave from Catalyst, Blue Ant Studios
“Baroness von Sketch Show” star Carolyn Taylor will front a new unscripted comedy series for Canadian streaming service Crave, produced through Catalyst and Blue Ant Studios. Continue reading.

Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

CBC original series Race Against the Tide is renewed for a third season

October 11, 2022 Greg David

From a media release:

Leading international award-winning production company, marblemedia, is thrilled to announce that production is underway on an epic third season of the sand sculpture competition series, RACE AGAINST THE TIDE. Filmed on New Brunswick’s breathtaking and iconic New River Beach, on the Bay of Fundy, the summer hit will premiere on CBC in 2023. The stakes are higher than ever for season three, as the show introduces an all-new format, with more world-class competitors and an unforgettable season showcasing the strongest competition yet.

This series has quickly become a must-see, as it has consecutively ranked among the top of the Canadian TV ratings on Sunday nights each week*; and has seen resounding interest in the format from around the world.

Taking the series concept to a whole new level, season three will see 12 world-class sand sculpting teams of two tap into their artistic creativity more than ever before in the world’s toughest sand sculpting competition yet. Divided into two groups of six, the teams will dig, pound, carve and sculpt through four qualifying rounds. The top two teams from each round will face off in a sand-flying semi-final. In the end, only one team will reign supreme and walk away with the grand prize of $10,000…and the beach bragging rights of being crowned Race Against the Tide champions.

Returning as host this season is New Brunswick’s own, award-winning godfather of Canadian Hip Hop, Maestro Fresh Wes. Wes will be joined by returning judges, Karen Fralich, who herself has competed in over 120 master-level contests around the globe, and is a five-time World Champion; and Rusty Croft, a seasoned sand sculptor who holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the “tallest sand castle” as a member of the Sand Guys. He has also appeared on every episode of Discovery Channel’s Sand Wars and Sand Blasters.

Race Against the Tide is executive produced by Matt Hornburg and Mark Bishop of marblemedia; series producer and writer is Carly Spencer, and Donna Luke of marblemedia serves as co-executive producer. Co-produced with Hemmings House Films, for which Greg Hemmings serves as Co-Executive Producer and Stephen Foster as Producer. For CBC, Sally Catto is General Manager, Entertainment, Factual and Sports; Jennifer Dettman is Executive Director, Unscripted Content; Alexandra Lane is Senior Director of Production; and Ann-Marie Redmond is Executive in Charge of Production.

*Source: Numeris PPM TV, Total Canada, Ind2+ AMA, CBC Total, Sundays, July 10-September 11, 2022.

Image courtesy of Riley Smith.