Tag Archives: Featured

Dragons' Den, Featured

Preview: Newbies breathe life into Dragons’ Den

It doesn’t take long for the newest investors to establish themselves as a trio who belong on Dragons’ Den. Now into its 10th season on CBC, the franchise—following the recent departures of Arlene Dickinson and David Chilton—brought in Joe Fresh founder Joe Mimran, Buytopia co-founder Michele Romanow and Minhas Breweries’ co-founder Manjit Minhas to play alongside Michael Wekerle and cagey veteran Jim Treliving.

And the new casting works.

Returning Wednesday night on CBC, Mimran, Minhas and Romanow aren’t afraid to spar with budding entrepreneurs—and their fellow Dragons—in order to make a deal. Things start off on the right foot when a young man pitches his all-natural drink mixes and four Dragons get into a bidding fray before he settles on one. It’s a tougher road of travel for a dude shilling coconut oil and another who gets a little cocky during the deal stage over his dragon models.

One of my favourite segments of Dragons’ Den returns, as producers spend several minutes catching up with a duo who’d signed a deal with Chilton for their curling pads.

But back to the new kids on the block. Mimran deploys a playful sense of humour to the proceedings, happy to offer his money and advice but equally thrilled to joke around and keep the situation light. Minhas and Romanow are equally at ease, though more reserved than personalities like Mimran and Wekerle, but they’re certainly business savvy. I learned a lot about their passion and smarts from the no-nonsense questions they asked of the entrepreneurs and the enthusiasm—or distain—they displayed during pitches. Romanow’s knowledge of new media lead to a spirited, extended debate with Treliving; he didn’t think it was that important and she did. It made for engaging TV.

Dragons’ Den continues to plug along with a recipe for success that hasn’t changed that much in the last 10 seasons. And by swapping out panelists every once in awhile, they’re keeping the series fresh.

Dragons’ Den airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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Between, Blackstone, Continuum, Dark Matter, Dragons' Den, Featured, Haven, Killjoys, Murdoch Mysteries, Orphan Black, Podcast, Sunnyside, This Life

TV, eh? podcast episode 191 – Out of the Doldrums

The Canadian fall television season gets its groove on, and Greg, Diane and Anthony spend the first part of the podcast discussing two weeks-plus of primetime chock-full of goodies like This Life, Love It Or List It, 22 Minutes, Rick Mercer Report, Dragons’ Den, Continuum, Haven, House of Bryan, Forgive Me, The Romeo Section and more. Check out our handy calendars to find out when everything debuts and returns.

We also chat about Blackstone‘s final season, reveal which Canadian network will broadcast Wynonna Earp and the ratings success of homegrown sci-fi series’ Orphan Black, Between, Dark Matter and Killjoys.

Want to contribute to the discussion? Post links and discussion topics on our Reddit page.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Featured, Young Drunk Punk

Young Drunk Punk Bruce McCulloch grows up

Originally published in Reel West Magazine winter 2014

Bruce McCulloch is an accidental marketing genius. His stage show Young Drunk Punk was touring the country while he promoted the book it spawned, Let’s Start a Riot: How A Young Drunk Punk Became a Hollywood Dad, and the TV series it inspired, Young Drunk Punk, which aired on City in the spring and is rerunning on CBC this fall.

“They’re very different but it’s the same kind of comedic and emotional material,” says McCulloch, whose last TV production was the Kids in the Hall mini-series Death Comes to Town for CBC. “People trying to find their place in the world, a young guy who doesn’t fucking know anything and thinks he knows everything.”

Young Drunk Punk the TV series stars Tim Carlson and Atticus Mitchell as teenagers Ian and Shinky in 1980s Calgary, “somewhere in the lost years between high school and ‘what’s next.’”

McCulloch calls it “more comedically and thematically autobiographical than literal,” but the series does film in the townhouse community he grew up in. “Literally the same place. So where I walked around having gobbled acid as a 15 year old we’re now shooting.”

Adding to the surreality is that McCulloch and his real-life wife Tracy Ryan play Ian’s parents. No nepotism there though: “Oh yeah, of course I auditioned her,” he says. “I auditioned her once for Superstar and she didn’t get the part. I’m a tough mofo.”

He didn’t write a part for himself, either, and it’s probably fair to say he didn’t audition for it. “I never act unless someone asks me to, I never audition. I don’t think of myself as an actor first. Even when I wrote this it didn’t occur to me to play this character. Other people were saying ‘you’re the dad, right?’”

While the stage show and book delve into some poignant territory amid the laughs, he describes the series humour as mostly silly. In the pilot, the boys are chased after trying to steal a stereo from a crowded party. But he’s also aiming for likeable and maybe more importantly, relatable characters.

“We’re all lost. Even the people who seem like they’re not are lost. The guidance counsellor is lost. You just keep going forward,” he says. “At 50 I feel like a punk maybe even more than I did then. I feel like I’m different from everyone else. Yes, but we all are. The guys in the TV show are years away from understanding that.”

McCulloch found his band of fellow outsiders in the other members of Kids in the Hall, a bond that continues 30-something years later. They’ve done shows this year in Toronto and the United States and McCulloch says they plan to work together again when the stars and schedules align. But he’s not yet looking for the next big thing, any more than he did back in the early days of his career.

“I thought I’d like to make a living writing, and figured we should get on TV. But I had no plan, I just wanted to make stuff,” he says. “My own personal journey in this world is to enjoy what I’m doing and not be on the next thing.”

The current thing is working within the big machine that is television production, adjusting as he goes to capitalize on what the actors bring to the part and what material lands the way he wanted it to. In the editing room in Toronto, McCulloch says he can now start to wonder about Young Drunk Punk “is this the coolest show ever or is it just really weird?”

“We have a lot of Canadian shows trying to be like American shows, to look like, talk like American shows. I have pride in this being Calgary in 1980s. We talk about the Flames and Oilmen. I thought Less Than Kind was wonderful for much the same reason – it felt like I was there.”

Does he worry about the show’s reception, given the scrutiny Canadian comedies are under lately?

“Never hope or you’ll get your heart broken,” he says before adding “I feel pressure with everything I do.”

“We don’t do many TV shows here, so I want this to do well for me but for the young actors, the executives, the fans, for everyone who wants to do TV shows.” He pauses. “Thanks, you’ve just heightened my sense of failure and doom.”

The first season of Young Drunk Punk re-airs on CBC starting Tuesday, October 6. 

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Featured, Saving Hope

Interview: Kim Shaw, Saving Hope’s newest doctor in the house

It doesn’t take long for Hope Zion’s newest junior resident, Dr. Cassie Williams—played by Kim Shaw—to make an impression on Dr. Alex Reid in Thursday’s new episode. Cassie’s bubbly enthusiasm and confidence attracts the attention of all. But this being Saving Hope, nothing on the surface is truly what it seems, and key facets to Cassie’s life are uncovered by the end of “Start Me Up.”

Shaw’s gig on Saving Hope is the latest in an impressive body of television work. The Windsor, Ont., born actress has appeared in sitcoms like Two and a Half Men, Anger Management and How I Met Your Mother, and high-profile dramas like NCIS and The Good Wife. We spoke to Shaw about her career, playing Cassie and winter weather.

You’ve had a really varied career. You’ve been on comedies like Two and a Half Men, Anger Management and How I Met Your Mother, and dramas like The Good Wife and NCIS. That’s a lot of high-profile stuff.
Kim Shaw: It’s been a roller coaster. You never feel like you work enough. I moved to New York when I graduated from high school and went to theatre school and kind of started working right out of the gate. I was very lucky to find people who wanted to work with me and put in the time, management-wise. Then I got sick of the cold and moved to L.A. about five years ago and, happily, haven’t had to waitress since I made that move. When you’re a comedy actress, which I kind of consider myself, you never really feel like you ever get a chance to show that darker side. And then when you’re doing a dark show, you just want to be light! [Laughs.] It’s been fun to explore all of that.

How did you get the role of Dr. Cassie Williams?
I’m a Canadian citizen but have been living in the States and I applied to have a Social Insurance Number. Saving Hope was the first audition I had after getting the card. It was a self-tape, so my boyfriend—God bless him—put me on tape about 20 times, just trying to get the takes right for the scenes they had given me. You send that away and kind of forget about it after it’s gone. I got that wonderful phone call that every actor dreams of—that they were interested—and they tested me out of Los Angeles and I booked it and flew to Toronto.

My best friend is a nurse, my mom is a nurse and my brother is a doctor, so I’ve had that repertoire in my system but have never gotten the chance to do it myself. I’ve played heroin addicts and things on the other side of it, but this is so challenging. Everyone on set has been so lovely … it’s lovely to join a well-oiled machine and feel like you fit in immediately.

Saving_Hope

How does your family feel about you playing a doctor?
I called my brother and told him, ‘I’m a doctor now! In your face! Mine happened a lot quicker than yours!’

Has anyone on-set, like Michael Shanks or Benjamin Ayres played practical jokes on you?
Wendy Crewson is the most trouble on-set. She is just the most fun; she is an amazing person and cracks everybody up. I have a couple of story arcs with her and I’ve learned so much from her, from who I want to be as a person and who I want to be on-set. Erica has just had a baby, so she has this glow and joy about her all of the time which is fun to be around. I don’t have a lot of scenes with Michael, but during the table reads he likes to throw in zingers and make everyone laugh.

Cassie certainly makes an impression when she appears on Thursday night. She’s spunky and ready to go.
She’s over-eager, but I think anyone—on the first day of the rest of your life—is excited to get started. I’m sure that’s how I came across on our first table read.

That excitement is tempered by an incident that occurs a little later on.
As medical students, I think you think you’re ready but you’ve only been cutting open dead bodies for the past four years and you crave that real OR. It’s overwhelming as an actor to be in the OR for the first time because you’re covered in plastic, the gloves are so hard to put on, you’re sweaty and your mask is on. I’m glad I got to show how I felt on the inside.

At the end of the episode, there is another incident, this time involving Dr. Curtis. How long will it take for that storyline to shake out?
It’s a little bit of a slow burn, but it’s a juicy storyline once we get into it.

What can you tell me about Cassie’s evolution this season?
The thing I enjoy about her the most is that she is extremely empathetic, which I can relate to, and she is going through this thing. She thinks she wants to be a doctor and realizes how hard it is to see a patient as a patient and not a person. She struggles with that, and how blunt she has to be. Doctors have to be really cold sometimes and she has a hard time with that. She is one of the smartest doctors—she knows her stuff—but she struggles with the emotion of the new job.

Saving Hope airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

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Featured, Murdoch Mysteries

Review: Murdoch Mysteries frees Crabtree

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All right Murdoch Mysteries fans. I think we all knew Constable Crabtree wasn’t really guilty of killing Archibald Brooks, but who did it and why were the questions I had bugging me all summer long. And, judging by the tweets I read with #freeCrabtree attached, I wasn’t the only one.

Those questions were answered during “Nolo Contendere,” Monday’s Season 9 premiere where Crabtree was exonerated, Murdoch got hit on the head and Emily planned her exit from Toronto in favour of London with Lillian. Turns out it was Simon who’d shot Archie, and he and Edna escaped Toronto for parts unknown, breaking Crabtree’s heart in the process.

“Nolo Contendere,” which is Latin for “I do not wish to contend,” began dourly, with Crabtree and former Chief Constable Giles wiling their day away in the prison yard. The murder of a fellow inmate named Foster who’d warned Crabtree people were looking for Edna got the copper’s mind racing. Who was looking for Edna and why? (I’m always amazed the way TV shows can transform a space to suit their needs, and MM is no exception, turning an old mill site in Guelph, Ont., into the Don Jail Crabtree and Giles rotted away in.)

Peter Mitchell and Paul Aiken’s script quickly shifted to the city as Murdoch and Higgins visited Edna’s old apartment, the site of a burglary. That visit, a chat with Crabtree and a slug to the back of the head later and Murdoch was untying a knot of evidence involving a raw diamond, assumed identities, bicycle grease, roquefort cheese and murderous army buddies.

I wondered how the writers would return Crabtree from a detective—and leaving Station House No. 4—to a constable, and they did it in an ingenious way. As Giles stated, Crabtree’s “Nolo Contendere” plea meant he wasn’t guilty of the crime and it closed the books on the case. Sure, he’s got to work his way back up to being a detective, but at least he’s allowed to be a copper.

And, really, that’s all fans care about, right? What did you think of the episode? Comment below or via @tv_eh.

Notes and quotes

  • It only took Murdoch and Julia one scene to get smoochy with each other, something Hélène Joy told me would be a common occurrence in Season 9.
  • I got a distinct Red and Andy vibe from Giles and Crabtree, didn’t you?
  • “I knew there was a reason I married you!” Judging by the way Hélène Joy reacted, I’m pretty sure that line was ad-libbed by Yannick Bisson.
  • I loved how Crabtree used his fellow inmates’ against one another to find out who killed Foster.

Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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