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.
Children's Programming

Family Channel Celebrates girl power with the premiere of We Are Savvy, July 1

From a media release:

This summer, Family Channel dives into the world of pop culture with the brand new series We Are Savvy, debuting July 1 at 6:30 p.m. ET/PT. Hosted by three girls who are setting out to empower their generation, the magazine-style show features a variety of segments including inspiring peer profiles, crafty DIYs and interviews with pop culture leaders from the world of music, technology, sports and fashion. Plus, fans will be treated to special appearances by popular celebrities including Bailee Madison (The Fosters, Good Witch), Lennon & Maisy (Nashville), international recording artists Tegan and Sara, Alessia Cara, plus more.

Hosts Tehya, Sarah and Spencer are BIG fans of the internet and while they may differ in just about everything from music tastes to celebrity crushes, the three girls combine their unique talents to create a YouTube-inspired pop culture series that offers tweens a refreshing spin on the world around them. The cheeky (and stylish) magazine-style show is set in each of the hosts’ bedrooms and sews together feature stories with recurring segments. Each episode sees two of the hosts hanging out, while the third hits the road to entertain viewers with a unique look at the coolest venues and most coveted events including ComiCon, LUSH Cosmetics Factory, GoKart World and more. Together, the three girls aspire to create empowering content that caters to an audience who is fluent in “Emoji” and crazy for viral cat videos, but who also has an active life offline.

In the premiere episode, Sarah and Tehya share their Savvy tips for taking the perfect cell phone photos, while Spencer experiences the TIFF Bell Lightbox Digi Playspace Exhibit. Later, the girls play ‘kitten or cat?’ on the weekly Cat Chat segment, and design a DIY jean pocket organizer. The episode also features a special appearance and performance by Nashville stars Lennon and Maisy. Following the series’ Canada Day debut, new episodes will air regularly Fridays at 6:30 p.m. ET.

In addition to the aforementioned celebrity appearances, special guest stars include: Amy Sedaris (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt); Eden Sher (The Middle); Luna Blaise (Fresh Off the Boat); Simon Cadel (Raising Expectations); Sloane Siegel (Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street); Sixx Orange (The Kicks);  Canadian fashion expert Jeanne Beker; Canadian singer/songwriters Shane Harte (Lost & Found Music Studios), Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tyler Shaw; Australian singer Betty Who and classical crossover singer Jackie Evancho.

The girl power continues at Family.ca where kids can take the fun new quiz “What’s Your Savvy Style?” to find out which host they share the most similarities with. The dedicated show page also features more information about the series and its hosts. For a first look at exclusive video content including inventive DIYs and fun interview segments, fans can check out We Are Savvy‘s YouTube page. New episodes of We Are Savvy will also be offered on Family OnDemand and through the Family Channel App as they become available weekly.

Commissioned by DHX Television, and with international distribution handled by DHX Media, Savvy is executive produced by Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen for Banger Films’ kids division, B-Minors (Gaming Show (In My Parents’ Garage), Big Ticket Summer Concert) and is led by series producers Jeni Besworth (Grizzly Cup, Big Ticket) and Adrienne Reid (Fashion Television). Banger Films is an award-winning film and television production company based in Toronto. In its first 10 years, Banger has produced feature documentaries, TV series, live concerts and kids’ programs, which have been broadcast worldwide.

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Children's Programming

Odd Squad, hits movie theatres this summer; Season 2 premieres on TVO

From a media release:

This July, TVO and Sinking Ship Entertainment have joined with Cineplex Entertainment to bring Odd Squad: The Movie to theatres across Canada. A live-action educational series, Odd Squad features kid agents who solve math-related mysteries CSI-style. This is the first film for the award-winning series, designed to help kids aged 5 to 8 build their math, problem-solving, and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) skills.

Odd Squad: The Movie jumps off from the Season 1 finale, with agents Olive and Otto joining forces to defeat Odd Todd, a former agent turned villain. When the two leave to run their own squad, two new agents, Olympia and Otis, take their place. In the movie, Olympia and Otis are rivaled by a group of grown-ups, Weird Team, who are led by Weird Tom, played by 30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer. Armed with their wits, math abilities, and problem-solving skills, Olympia and Otis devise a plan to take back what’s theirs.

Odd Squad: The Movie will play in 90 theatres across Canada on Saturday, July 16 at 11 am and is part of Cineplex’s Family Favourites program. Tickets are available at cineplex.com.

Leading up to the film’s release, Odd Squad: Season 2 premieres on TVO beginning on Tuesday, June 21 at 4:55 pm. Season 2 features more creatures, gadgets, and odd occurrences to investigate, and agents Olympia and Otis, who are ready to solve the case. With math concepts embedded in each of their assignments, the agents problem-solve together and use their STEAM skills to set things right. Throughout the summer, episodes of Odd Squad: Season 2 will air on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:55 pm and repeat Saturdays and Sundays at 9:15 am. Odd Squad: Season 2 will also be available on tvokids.com and on TVOKids’ YouTube channel.

The release of Odd Squad: The Movie and Odd Squad: Season 2 are part of TVOKids’ Summer of Odd. Kids can stay entertained while learning throughout the summer months, with new episodes of popular children’s series airing in new time slots. TVOKids’ full summer schedule is available on tvokids.com.

Odd Squad is produced by Sinking Ship Entertainment in association with TVO.

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19-2, Featured

19-2’s Alexandra Ordolis hints at Justine’s Season 3 journey

When we last saw Justine Brouillard (Alexandra Ordolis) on 19-2, she had been beaten—once again—by husband J.M. (Dan Petronijevic). Though he had been trying to keep his anger issues in check, the Montreal cop backslid and assaulted his long-suffering wife, prompting her to finally level charges against him.

Now, with Season 3 returning to Bravo next Monday, we spoke to Alexandra Ordolis about Justine’s journey this time around and what she looks for in a role.

Justine returns for Season 3, correct?
Alexandra Ordolis: Yes, we see her in Season 3 and we get a little bit more into that storyline and what J.M. is dealing with as well, which is very exciting. I can’t say too much because I don’t want to give anything away.

As much as I enjoy J.M. the cop, I do not enjoy the scenes where he abuses Justine. It must be pretty emotionally draining for you and Dan Petronijevic to play those scenes.
Shooting that is a long day, but it’s wonderful working with Dan and the whole crew. Those scenes are tough to film, but also at the same time the way the scenes are written are so truthful. It’s wonderful to work with that kind of writing and that the show doesn’t shy away from these hard facts. It’s hard to get in there and shoot it, and it’s hard for the audience to watch, but it’s important and isn’t shying away from this issue of domestic abuse.

By the end of Season 2, Justine has pressed charges against J.M., and Nick had beaten J.M. up. Is Justine’s journey this season the result of her pressing charges?
We’ll see her keep going in that direction. We see where she’s at a little bit down the line and audience members will see she’s come a long way from where we’ve seen her at the beginning of Season 1.

It’s hard for the audience to watch, but it’s important and isn’t shying away from this issue of domestic abuse.

What about her relationship with Nick? That’s been hinted at since Season 1.
Her relationship with Nick has been hinted at, that they’re close friends. This season we’ll see less of that relationship and more of J.M. and Justine and how they’re dealing with their relationship.

Do you like the fact that 19-2 is written by a bare-bones room headed by Bruce M. Smith?
There is something amazing about the continuity of one or two people’s visions. Bruce’s writing really brings out the tone and the way that the characters interact with each other has built from season to season. That’s one of the strong things about the show.

Going back a bit, how did you end up on the show in the first place?
I came down from Toronto to Montreal and auditioned. I think I was the first person they saw for the role. I’m always nervous when I audition for a role and I let the casting director take the lead with respect to how the audition will go. I don’t know what came over me with 19-2, but we had finished doing a scene between Nick, Ben and J.M. and Justine and I said, ‘No, that’s not it.’ I had this feeling that I wasn’t there yet as to what Justine needed to do to get her feelings across to Nick and Ben. So we did it a couple more times. I walked out and I was pretty charged up about what we had done but I also worried I’d been rude.

You appear on both 19-2 and Reign, so I need to know: who has the better food?
[Laughs.] It changes, actually. I do have to say there was a fantastic caterer on Reign and everyone wanted to be on-set the whole time. But a lot of the caterers on 19-2 will bring cheese out, which I think is a Montreal thing. We always have a cheese plate with dessert, which I’m a big fan of.

What do you look for in a role?
In the beginning, it was paying the bills. [Laughs.] Now, it’s roles that challenge me. As an actor, I really like the journey of finding my way into a character. Sometimes I’ll read something and it jumps off the page and I feel a connection immediately, but other times I want to get in there and I’m not quite sure how to. It’s quite satisfying to do research and look at the person from different angles. Sometimes it’s music, sometimes it’s food. Roles that perplex me a little bit wind up being the ones that I want to play.

19-2 airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo.

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Industry News

Multicultural TV for All Canadians

From a media release:

OMNI Television announced today that it has filed an application with the CRTC to operate a new national multilingual and multicultural channel called OMNI Regional, the first of its kind in Canada. The national channel would be comprised of four feeds: Pacific, Prairies, and East, which would mirror OMNI’s local stations in those regions, and ICI Quebec, made possible due to a strategic partnership with Montreal ethnic television station International Channel/Canal International (ICI) to serve French-language ethnic communities in the province of Quebec. If approved by the CRTC, OMNI Regional would have priority access to basic TV packages (pursuant to section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act).  Today’s local OMNI stations in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver would continue to operate as free over-the-air channels, as would ICI’s local station in Montreal.

As part of its proposal, OMNI Television is committing to bringing back four daily newscasts in Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese and Punjabi, making it the only national ethnic programming service in Canada to provide daily newscasts, seven days a week, in multiple languages.

OMNI Television’s proposal also includes the following:

  • A commitment to devote 80% of OMNI Regional’s schedule to ethnic programming – a 20% increase over current – and maintaining the requirement to devote 50% of the schedule to third-language programming;
  • A commitment to devote a minimum of 40% of OMNI Regional’s annual revenues to the production of Canadian programming;
  • A commitment to maintain local daily current affairs shows in Mandarin, Cantonese and Punjabi languages;
  • The creation of a national cultural affairs series produced in Alberta that is designed to showcase important cultural and social contributions from Canada’s ethnocultural communities;
  • A commitment to re-establish in-house production in all of the markets served by OMNI’s OTA stations; and
  • The creation of four regional feeds that comprise the national network will be specifically tailored to ethnic Canadians living in B.C., the Prairies, Eastern Canada and Quebec by including English and French-language ethnic programming as well as third-language programming produced by local independent producers that reside in those regions.

OMNI Television expects the CRTC to post its application for public comment shortly.

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Featured, Still Standing

Still Standing celebrates more Canadian small towns in Season 2

Jonny Harris is back with Still Standing, celebrating small-town Canada with big laughs. Returning Tuesday with what’s quickly becoming a summer staple for CBC, the likable Harris sheds his Constable Crabtree duds and spikes his hair to hit the road, shining a spotlight on communities of folks ekeing out a living in the place they call home.

Tuesday’s return finds the young Newfoundlander in British Columbia, where the 800 citizens of Skidegate are struggling to keep their Haida culture intact amid a history of boom and bust.

Shop owner Rose Russ discusses the local artisans, tourism and an economy that once did well thanks to fishing and logging; Haida elder Diane Brown gives a history of the area and reveals she is one of a mere handful who still know their ancient language; and Jags tells of the once-thriving community of Skedans that was decimated by smallpox.

As with Season 1, Harris successfully tells the history of the community he’s visiting without a hint of malice. He’s there to point out the hard and good times, but there’s no meanness in his comedy. There are references to Europeans arriving in the area and promptly stealing totem poles (“How are you going to show that off to your friends and not look like a complete a-hole?”). And it’s not all bad news in Skidegate: Ben Davidson is a renowned local artist creating Haidi works, a heritage centre promises to educate the youth on their history and language and the Skidegate Saints kick butt on the basketball court.

Upcoming stops in Still Standing‘s season include Omemee, Ont., Inuvik, NWT., and Georgetown, PEI.

Still Standing airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

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