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TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
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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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Omnifilm Entertainment begins production on Wild Bear Rescue

From a media release:

Omnifilm Entertainment is pleased to announce the start of production on a new documentary series for Animal Planet, Wild Bear Rescue. The 12 x 30 series follows a northern B.C. family that runs the only animal shelter in the world legally allowed to rescue and rehabilitate orphaned grizzly bear cubs.

The series, set in Smithers, British Columbia, features shelter manager Angelika Langen, her husband Peter Langen, their two adult children, and volunteers as they work around the clock to rescue bears and other wildlife in distress.

If a call comes in that a car has hit a mother grizzly, a hunter has killed a black bear with four tiny cubs, or a young bear has fallen out of a tree, the team at the shelter drops everything and rushes to the rescue. Once on the scene, Angelika will track, capture, and tranquilize the cub(s). If the cub isn’t doing well, she might have to take it to the vet. Next stop: the Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter.

Michael Chechik and Omnifilm partner Gabriela Schonbach are executive producing Wild Bear Rescue with David Gullason, who show-ran six seasons of the award-winning series Ice Pilots for History, and is currently executive producing season three of Jade Fever for Discovery. Series Producer Brad Quenville, who has written and directed numerous projects for Omnifilm including CBC’s The Dolphin Dealer, is directing and writing.

The project is being structured as a Canadian production but will be pitched internationally in the coming months. Wild Bear Rescue is slated to air in 2017 on Animal Planet in Canada. Edwina Follows and Heather Williamson serve as executive producers for Animal Planet.

Image courtesy of Northern Lights Animal Shelter

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Children's Programming

DHX Media and Amazon Prime strike U.S. exclusive on new animated kids’ series, Looped

From a media release:

DHX Media (or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: DHXM; TSX: DHX.A, DHX.B), the world’s leading independent, pure-play kids’ content company, has licensed season one of its new animated comedy series Looped, exclusively for Amazon Prime members in the U.S to stream or download via the Amazon Video app for TVs, connected devices including Fire TV, mobile devices and online at www.amazon.com/primevideo. This original kids’ series will debut on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 25.

In addition, DHX Media will add five seasons of the classic children’s series The Busy World of Richard Scarry, the first season of the much-loved Madeline series, and the feature special Madeline Sing Along with her Friends, to the U.S. Prime Video catalogue, bringing more popular kids content to the catalogue for Prime members to enjoy.

Looped – Ever wish your life had a reset button, or you knew you were having a pop-quiz before it was popped? Wish you looked like a hero in front of that super cute girl, or knew the star quarterback’s moves before he did? Spoiler alert! In the new animated series Looped, Luc and Theo can do all those things and more. That’s because Luc and Theo are stuck in a time-loop where every day is the same Monday! Produced at DHX Studios and commissioned by TELETOON in Canada, the 2D-animated Looped is filled with the kind of silly and hilarious fun that kids 6-11 love. Looped is created by Todd Kauffman and Mark Thornton of Neptoon Studios, award-winning veterans in the animation industry. (The pair created and directed Grojband. Kauffman also previously co-created Sidekick.)

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Alias Grace

Link: Sarah Gadon bones up on pioneer skills for Alias Grace

From Victoria Ahearn of The Canadian Press:

Link: Sarah Gadon bones up on pioneer skills for Alias Grace
Sarah Gadon is diving into what she calls “pioneer boot camp” as she prepares to play the lead in a much-anticipated adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.

The Toronto actor is in pre-production for the six-hour miniseries, which is inspired by the true story of Grace Marks, an Irish immigrant and maid who was convicted of murder in Upper Canada in 1843 but exonerated decades later. Continue reading.

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Orphan Black

Link: ‘Orphan Black’ showrunner on final season: ‘It’s better to cancel yourself’

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From Daniel Holloway of Variety:

Link: ‘Orphan Black’ showrunner on final season: ‘It’s better to cancel yourself’
“We sort of had five seasons in mind, and the thing that we just didn’t want to do is get kind of soft around the middle,” said executive producer and co-creator Graeme Manson. “We think that it’s better to cancel yourself than to get canceled, than to peter out.” Continue reading.

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