The NBCUniversal-owned cable network has acquired 13-episode drama series Ghost Wars from Nomadic Pictures, with Simon Barry (Van Helsing) as showrunner and starring Vincent D’Onofrio and Kim Coates.
The drama, set in an Alaskan town overrun by paranormal forces, will premiere in the U.S. on Syfy and elsewhere globally on Netflix. Continue reading.
This year has been a tough one for community television. In February, Rogers announced the closing of one Toronto station and shuttered another in Mississauga, Ont., earlier this week. Shaw revealed it will be closing its community television stations in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. Not only does this mean folks out of work, but a silencing of a unique voice via programming spotlighting those areas of the country in a truly local way.
Wild Kitchen is a prime example of community TV done right. The series, shot and first broadcast on NorthwesTel Community TV, celebrates the Indigenous people, their lifestyles and history through food and storytelling in the Yellowknife area. At the centre of Wild Kitchen is actress and Juno Award winner Tiffany Ayalik (pictured above left), who is equally at home in a forest harvesting morel mushrooms, casting a line for a fish or gamely swatting away black flies and erecting a teepee all while celebrating the cultural practices of her upbringing. The brainchild of executive producer Caroline Cox, Wild Kitchen came about because of where she lived.
Wild Kitchen host Tiffany Ayalik
“I’d been living in Yellowknife for quite a few years and then moved seven hours from town to a remote cabin 150 kilometres from the nearest town,” Cox says over the phone. “I learned from my neighbours a lot about wild food harvesting. There was a call from the local cable TV channel asking for more northern content and I pitched the idea.” The former Southern Ontario citizen, who worked as an associate producer on Animal Planet’s Ice Lake Rebels, moved to Yellowknife after college and has called the area home for the last 11 years.
She’s met some pretty unique individuals—including “Pike” Mike, who takes Ayalik fishing in Episode 1—and wanted their recipes and back stories to be part of the program. Episode 2 is fascinating for its bannock and spruce tip jelly recipes but also because of Ayalik’s chat with Inuit elder Gerri Sharpe, who discusses the urbanization of Indigenous cultures and what it’s like to grow up in a city after living on the land. Wild Kitchen‘s formula can work in any community, but it’s particularly effective in the Northwest Territories.
Cox used the knowledge she gained from Ice Lake Rebels to make Wild Kitchen a visual stunner. Honestly, the program would look very at home on Gusto or Food Network, with smooth cuts and gorgeous shots of northern Canada. Her crew was a tight four-person unit consisting of a director of photography, Cox shooting a second camera while producing, a field sound mixer and associate producer/production assistant and Ayalik. Together they’ve created an informative and entertaining project about Indigenous peoples and their culture through food and stories.
“A big reason why I wanted to do this show is to inspire people to be more connected to the land and think outside the box when it comes to food sourcing,” Cox says. “There really is food everywhere if you know what you’re looking for.”
Wild Kitchen‘s first three Season 1 episodes have already been broadcast on NorthwesTel, but you can get recipes and see clips via the show’s Facebook page.
Following this week’s James Beard Award win for Gusto’s FISH THE DISH, Bell Media announced today that three new original Canadian series from Gusto Worldwide Media are set to join Gusto’s slate of homegrown programming in 2017/2018.
Celebrating all that is sweet and summery, the roster of new commissioned series all begin production across Ontario this summer in vivid 4K, including retro-themed baking series FLOUR POWER, helmed by Gusto newcomer Jessica McGovern; Ontario food market and local ingredient exploration series FRESH MARKET DINNERS; and barbecue cookout  WATTS ON THE GRILL starring chef extraordinaire Spencer Watts. Watt’s series FISH THE DISH recently won a 2017 James Beard Foundation Media Award in the Television Program, in Studio or Fixed Location category.
Gusto also announced today that it has begun production on Season 3 of original Canadian series and marquee production ONE WORLD KITCHEN. In its ongoing exploration of new and intriguing global cuisines, this highly-stylized series returns with a new set of hosts, this time shining a spotlight on modern and traditional Cantonese, Greek, Lebanese, and Vietnamese recipes. Episodes of ONE WORLD KITCHEN air Monday – Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET on Gusto. For information on Gusto’s series, chefs, recipes, how-to videos, and more, visit gustotv.com.
Further details about Gusto’s new original programming is outlined below:FLOUR POWER (13, 30-minute episodes)
FLOUR POWER (13, 30-minute episodes)
FLOUR POWER is a fun, playful, and super-stylish baking show that is all about sharing the love and joy of baking. From sweet cream pies to tiramisu, host, Gusto newcomer Jessica McGovern, shows viewers just how easy it is to make these recipes at home.
FRESH MARKET DINNERS (10, 30-minute episodes)
This fun road-trip series brings viewers to farmer’s markets across Ontario to discover local food products, before heading to a fabulous “glamping†site, where the audience is shown how to make irresistible using the fresh ingredients.
WATTS ON THE GRILL (13, 30-minute episodes)
WATTS ON THE GRILL is a mouthwatering new series celebrating all things grilled. Beloved Gusto host Spencer Watts (FISH THE DISH) shows viewers how to barbecue like a pro, from sizzling steak, smoked chicken, and steamy seafood, to even flavourful fruit, veg, and breads.
FLOUR POWER, FRESH MARKET DINNERS, ONE WORLD KITCHEN, and WATTS ON THE GRILL are created by Chris Knight, President and CEO, Gusto Worldwide Media.
To walk onto the set of Odd Squad is to be immediately immersed in the world occupied by the heroes of TVO’s kid’s show. A slide from the second floor here, a trophy room there, a hallway filled with a riot of coloured doors is steps away from a ball pit. It’s all designed, says co-creator Tim McKeon, to aid in the ease of filming, something he was inspired by when he was an intern on The West Wing during Season 2. Those legendary walk-and-talks brought viewers into President Bartlet’s world, so why not do it with Odd Squad?
TVO’s math-centred series is on a hot streak of late: Season 2 just wrapped production in Toronto’s west end and the program won five Daytime Emmys last week and McKeon captured a Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award for the second season script “Drop Gadget Repeat.” Not bad for what McKeon refers to as “a workplace comedy for kids” that incorporates the education angle to include math.
Ms. O’s desk hearkens back to President Bartlet’s
“You never see their home life,” McKeon says from Odd Squad‘s production offices. He’s just taken a group of families on a set tour in support of Make-A-Wish Canada. “That’s very deliberate and you never see them in school.” PBS approached McKeon (Adventure Time) and Adam Peltzman (The Backyardigans) about creating a math series for kids. Their first challenge? Not to make it lame. They sought to create a program about a secret world where kids were powerful and figured out strange, X-Files-esque math problems as detectives. Making the kids professional by dressing them in suits was the next step. The key for the pair was to have the agents—played by Millie Davis, Sean Michael Kyer, Dalila Bela, Filip Geljo, Anna Cathcart and Isaac Kragten—solve the problems for the adults rather than the other way around.
“Our secondary goal, along with PBS and TVO, was to put girls in charge and show diversity,” McKeon says. “This [second] season, we have four leads and three of them are girls.” What makes a program like Odd Squad unique—and children’s television overall—is how non-dramatic having female leads and a diverse cast is. Where primetime television is being criticized for a lack of those things, Odd Squad has been doing it for two seasons. It’s a natural part of the storyline and accepted by viewers without fanfare. Also natural? The math. There are no blackboards being pulled out with long division on them.
(l-r) Isaac Kragten as Agent Otis and Anna Cathcart as Agent Olympia
“I think the role of educational TV is to teach kids, but more specifically, to help them over bumps,” McKeon says. “We’re going to try our hardest to get across a concept so that kids can then go into the classroom and say, ‘I kind of already know this.'”
“It’s not only that Odd Squad is funny and has clever scripting, characters and wardrobe, they’ve made math the solution to all of the cases the agents have to solve,” says Marney Malabar, director of kids TV at TVO. “They didn’t make math a bad thing. They made it, organically, normal. It’s never a token learning moment. It’s of course, everybody should use math, rather than let’s just show you that math is important. Math is used to further the story because if they didn’t use it. they’d never be able to solve their problems.
Aside from working math into each episode, McKeon and Peltzman, knew one key to successfully writing for children is to never talk down to them or do “kid” jokes; strive to be funny for adults and the kids will get it too. The Odd Squad writer’s room has been an established core that includes co-executive producer Mark De Angelis and writer Robby Hoffman and a massive list of freelancers.
“Oddness is a pretty open idea,” Peltzman says of the writing process. “And once you’ve set this concept where there is oddness in the world—whether it’s dragons, dinosaurs or made-up creatures and weather phenomena—you’ve created a box where you can go to all of these different places.”
Odd Squad airs weekdays at 4:55 p.m. ET on TVO and online at TVO.org.
