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Can Train 48 get back on track in Canada?

Steve Levitan is trying to get Train 48 back on track, and now seems like the perfect time to do it.

“The format that, at the time, I thought was innovative today is even more strategically smart,” Levitan says.

For those who don’t recall, Train 48 was an anomaly on the Canadian TV landscape. Broadcast on Global from 2003 until 2005 and based on the Australian series Going Home, the soapy series followed the daytime commute of a small group of characters from Toronto to Burlington, Ont. Before cell phones became the norm, folks would travel on the train and talk about the day’s events, often amongst the same four people sitting together. Levitan and his writers mirrored that for Train 48, mapping rough conversations and then letting the cast go, free forming the discussions to make them more real. Among the cast on Train 48 were Krista Sutton, Paul Braunstein, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Joe Dinicol, Raoul Bhaneja, Amy Price-Francis and Lisa Merchant, who filmed an episode every weekday for two years.

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“I sort of vaguely remember getting up at 4:30 a.m. to drive into the set,” Merchant, who played Brenda Murphy, recalls. “We’d get into costume and have a meeting with the producer, have breakfast, and then it was time to get rolling. We’d be finished by 2:30 p.m. and then would do it all over again the next day.”

“Even though those of us who did it have done a lot of things in our careers, we’ve haven’t done anything like it again,” Bhaneja, who portrayed Pete Subramani, says. “It was such a unique journey. We’d be picked up in a van convoy, climb into our fake GO Train set, film and then what we did would be on TV that night. It was crazy.”

As a daily commuter into Toronto myself at the time, I totally got what Train 48 was all about. Aside from being tonally different from what was on television at the time, Train 48 broke new technological ground as well. Levitan recalls how Global wanted to drive traffic to its fledgling Canada.com website; the show placed Pete on the phone his bookie betting on that night’s Toronto Blue Jays-New York Yankees game. Viewers were urged to visit the website to vote who they thought would win the game; Canada.com crashed for days.

So, why the attention for Train 48 after 13 years? Because episodes are rolling out on the show’s YouTube channel. The show’s distributor, Syndicado (a deal structured through Farrago Media Inc.), suggested they be posted online and Levitan said yes. Train 48 certainly works airing on YouTube, but it would be a perfect fit for Canada’s streaming channels CraveTV and shomi. Levitan thinks so too, but no broadcaster has been interested. He also believes the format is the perfect formula for television today. Levitan points to Orphan Black, which attracts 250,000 viewers for Space every week at a cost of millions per episode versus his show, which attracted 250,000 viewers or more every night of the week at a cost of $40,000 per instalment. The model, he says, still works today.

“There are lots of ways to keep doing Train 48,” Levitan says. “And there are lots of ways to update or change the creative focus of that format, depending on who your network or audience is.”

Check out all of Train 48’s episodes as they roll out on YouTube.

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Amazing Race Canada, Featured

Teamwork takes top spot on Amazing Race Canada

Haida Gwaii has become a hot spot to film Canadian television shows. First it was the Season 2 premiere of Jonny Harris’ Still Standing that visited the community; on Tuesday, The Amazing Race Canada teams blew through the area, soaking up culture and striving to arrive on the mat in first place. (Eagle-eyed fans of Still Standing recognized Desi Collinson and Ben Davidson in the episode.)

Perhaps it was the mysticism of the place that caused several teams to do the unthinkable: they helped each other out. The first Road Block challenge—to listen to the stories of six totem poles, then identify them and the artist to carved them—saw Ashley tell Amy and Kate the correct pole order and then Jillian, Julie, Rita and Amy all work together. (Learning the stories of the totems, though edited down for TV, was still fascinating and I wish there had been more time devoted to it.) Steph and Kristen had already shot ahead to the puzzle test in the forest, where once again Jillian and Emmett took a few extra minutes to aid their competitors instructing them in how the pieces fit together. I couldn’t help but be impressed by the team play, especially at this later stage in the game. I’d expect a little sharing off the top, but not so much as the end winds into sight.

This Leg of the Race was all Steph and Kristen, who vowed they’d land on the mat in front of Jon Montgomery. They made good on their word, never relinquishing the lead and only seeing other teams when they were leaving for the next stage. I admit I was cheering for them all along; they’re strong physically and mentally and are nothing but supportive of each other. (As an aside, those shots from and of the sea plane gliding over the water and land were some of the show’s most stunning ever.)

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As for the rest of the teams? They were in a figurative—and literal—log jam for the bulk of the Leg, with just Kelly and Kate the last team leaving the puzzle challenge in dead last. But The Amazing Race Canada has a way of equalizing things, and that happened during the second Road Block where the team member that didn’t complete the totem pole task had to operate a small tug boat and move rafts of marked logs—Beachcombers-style—to a dispatcher. That meant Lowell and his limited sight was behind the wheel of one boat while Kelly and her fear of operating machinery controlled the other.

Unfortunately, Kelly and Kate couldn’t recreate their luck last week and arrived on the mat last, where they were eliminated. Buy hey, they came in first place during one Leg and scored a trip for two to Los Angeles.

Here’s how the teams finished this Leg:

  1. Steph and Kristen (won trip for two to New York City)
  2. Jillian and Emmett
  3. Frankie and Amy
  4. Joel and Ashley
  5. Rita and Yvette
  6. Julie and Lowell
  7. Kelly and Kate (eliminated)

The Amazing Race Canada airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CTV.

Images courtesy of CTV

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Featured, Killjoys, Podcast

TV Eh B Cs podcast 49 — Tamsen McDonough opens the pod bay doors

Tamsen McDonough

Actor Tamsen McDonough continues her series regular role in Season 2 of the hit sci-­fi adventure series Killjoys currently airing on Space in Canada and Syfy in the United States. Tamsen provides the voice of Lucy, a small artificially intelligent spaceship owned by Dutch and used as interplanetary transportation as well as a working and living space for the Killjoys team.

Tamsen McDonough was born in Vancouver and began her formal acting training at Simon Fraser University. Her acting bug fed on student films as well as shorts and indie projects. Tamsen has appeared in various film and television projects, including The Incredible Hulk, Murdoch Mysteries, The Jon Dore Show, Motive, Lost Girl and The Bridge.

She is also passionate about writing and has recently created the comedy web series Miss Odette’s Modern Handbook to Manners in which she stars.

Listen or download below, or subscribe via iTunes or any other podcast catcher with the TV, eh? podcast feed.

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Featured, Motive

Rookie Blue’s Missy Peregrym guest-stars on Motive

Motive is nearing the end of its run, and everyone involved is clearly looking to go out on top. After weeks of strong stories and high-profile guest strs, Tuesday’s newest, “In Plain Sight,” not only boasts Tommy Flanagan, but Continuum/Intelligence actor Ian Tracey, iZombie‘s Aly Michalka and Rookie Blue‘s Missy Peregrym.

Here’s the network synopsis:

When an abducted woman returns and is later found nail-gunned to death, Detective Angie Flynn and the team discover that truth is stranger than fiction. Angie embraces her new relationship with Agent Jack Stoker, while Staff Sergeant Oscar Vega’s increasing frustration with the bureaucracy in the department drives him to look for other options.

Here’s what else we can tell you about the episode, written by Damon Vignale.

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Missy Peregrym as you’ve never seen her before
Rookie Blue viewers are used to seeing her as cop Andy McNally, but Motive poses Peregrym as the killer in this episode. It’s a twisting, turning case that involves kidnapping, an estranged father, bundles of cash and a private investigator (Tracey), leading to one shocker of an ending.

Betty and Lucas team up for Angie teasing
“Sure hope Stoker is ‘fitting in,'” mocks Betty. “Like a glove,” adds Lucas. Love it.

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Vega weighs his options
Fed up with being questioned constantly, Vega is considering another career. Based on his impression of Al Pacino, we think improv might be a good move too.

Motive airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CTV.

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Canada: The Story of Us, Featured

Set visit: Canada: The Story of Us

It’s not often you’re given the opportunity to step back into Canada’s past, but that’s exactly what I did last Thursday. The beach at Hamilton’s 50 Point Conservation Area was transformed into Normandy’s Juno Beach, the site where Canadian troops stormed ashore during D-Day.

With just a line of orange pylons separating filming from the public beach, a handful of actors dressed in the fatigues of the time darted up the dense sand countless times, diving behind Czech hedgehogs for scant cover as explosions (peat moss stuffed into metal bowls and then blown skyward) went off around them. The footage filmed portrayed how William “Boots” Bettridge and his fellow Queen’s Own Rifles land on the beach and call in aerial attacks on German tanks.

The segment, and 49 others, are part of Bristow Global Media’s massive production, Canada: The Story of Us, for CBC. Debuting next year to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary, other scenes filmed along Lake Ontario’s shores that day included Samuel de Champlain paddling a canoe and a re-creation of the struggle of Nguyen Ngoc Ngan, one of 60,000 Vietnamese refugees who came to Canada following the Vietnam War. Playing Ngan? His son, Tien Ngoc Ngan. Bristow Global Media president and CEO Julie Bristow says all the tales told in Canada: The Story of Us are personal ones.

“As a producer and journalist, this is the perfect combination for me,” Bristow says. “It’s mixing up modern ways of storytelling with CGI, celebrity interviews and re-creations of personal stories is a fresh take on documentaries. I really like doing shows that demand different skill sets and different teams.” She adds over 150 stories were pitched and 50 were chosen for the 10, 60-minute instalments to spotlight everything from Canada’s birth to where the country’s future lies.

“We like to say that, without the actions of that person, Canada may never have been the same,” she says. “It could be a small action, but without the bravery of some people that we don’t know, history might have been different.”

Canada: The Story of Us airs in 2017 on CBC.

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