James Bawden

It was exactly 43 years ago that I arrived at The Globe And Mail for my second stint as a summer entertainment reporter.
There I was, eager, callow, hard working when I landed the plum assignment of covering the TV beat, substituting for the great scribe Blaik Kirby who was on extensive leave.
It was the golden age of Toronto's TV criticism so far as I was concerned.
Blaik held down the G&M fort although he also had to double as the paper's nightclub critic.
His proud boast was he watched as little TV as possible.
In fact when I once asked executive editor Dick Doyle why TV wasn't a full time beat Doyle drawled "I'm hoping it will all go away."
Over at the mighty Star Patrick Scott had reigned supreme as the nastiest critic on the block. His acid tinged review of a Sammy Davis Jr. show included the line about a one-eyed black Jew that was a new low in Canadian journalism as far as I was concerned.
But Scott had recently jumped ship to become a roving critic --his first posts were coming in from Australia.
So he was replaced by Jack Miller who'd been TV critic at The Hamilton Spectator since 1954 --I believe he was the first in all of Canada but Gordon Sinclair once told me he'd been there first.
The Telegram had Bob Blackburn as wily an old coot when it came to discussing the biz aided and abetted by entertainment editor Roy Shields who had once been the star's TV reporter.
First up for me was an assignment to cover the CBC's buying spree in Los Angeles.
In those days CBC had the money and position to buy any American show it fancied for the fall.
Programming pooh-bah Thom Benson would lounge by the pool at L.A.'s ritzy Beverly Wilshire hotel and have the programmers come to him with their wares.
Prices were ultra low. Benson boasted to me of his multi-year deal to nab Mary Tyler Moore for $2,500 an episode --today a Top Ten sitcom sells for over $100,000 an episode.
Note: Mary was such a stickler that when CBC insisted she records ads for her show debuting on CBC she balked at the line "8:30 in Newfoundland" and phoned the editor of the St. John's Telegram to ask how he pronounced Newfoundland.
Shows that Benson didn't wan? He'd say "Ship 'em to CTV" and the buyers would rush off to try to interest CTV president Murray Chercover in Benson's left overs.
Chercover stayed down the street at the less luxurious Beverly Hilton.
Sometimes a left over could become a smash --CTV had the first year rights to Laugh-In but Chercover spurned a three-year contract because he wasn't sure how the public would react to such skits.
When it took off Benson coldly bought away the rights for the second season --and three more years after that much to Chercover's rage.
In those days with cable TV still in its infancy there was no such thing as simulcasting.
Benson would likely plop a MTM on a day or so before its American run in a stunt he called "prerelease".
After CTV had shifted through its needs the bottom of the barrel shows would go to CHCH. In fact some shows back then never did get a Canadian release.
When I once asked Chercover why in those days there was no CTV fall launch he shrieked "Kid, my big Canadian shows are Littlest Hobo and Headline Hunters. You want me to promote that stuff?"
Over the next few years I'd dutifully trek out to CFTO's Agincourt studio to get on the set of such CTV Canadian content as Stars On Ice, Half The George Kirby Comedy Hour, The Pat Paulsen Show, Simon Locke MD, Police Surgeon. On the set of Pig "N Whistle I interviewed legendary dancer Jessie Matthews.
But I also dutifully covered CHCH's Canadian content outings with on set visits to Party Game, The Hilarious House Of Frightenstein, Ein Prosit and The Palace.
Remember any of those?
I remember hanging out with Rita Moreno and Shelley Berman on the Hamilton set of a game show the name of which escapes me. It was the pilot and never was seen-- except by me.
When I mentioned it decades later to Moreno she broke into a sweat and stammered "You saw THAT?"
My CBC set visits were equally composed of the good, the bad and the ugly.
I was on the set of a new series starring Barry Morse and Lois Maxwell titled Sleuth. The pilot seemed OK but it was never aired. and no further episodes were made.
Other CBC series I frequented early on include Delilah with Toby Tweed (she was a lady barber), a Frankie Howerd outing that cast him as a landed immigrant opposite Barbara Hamilton as his land lady,
a Kate Reid drama accidentally wiped by a technician and never seen, a police movie with U.S. imports Stefanie Powers and James Franciscus.
Hey, I could go on and on.
Obviously things have changed. Canadian programmers are now in L.A. buying up all new and returning U.S. series to be simulcast. They'll spend so much that there won't be much left for their Canadianb content shows.
Hey, that line sounds very familiar.
It seems to me more Canadian shows were being made way back then.
And it was my job to see them all which was kind of fun of in a strange sort of way.
But here's my question: Which era was golden for Canadian talent?
Forty years back or today?
I know but do you?

When the DVD previews of the new TV version of Father Brown arrived I elected to take a pass.
It was a horribly bad call I'm ready to admit.

First of all I'd loved the original TV series made in 1976 starring film fave Kenneth More and I just couldn't see Mark williams in the lead.
Then there was the disconcerting news the stories had been updated to the Fifties and firmly situated at Kembleford in the Cotswolds.
Weren't the original stories set all over the place?
But curiosity finally got the better of me and I plopped in the first two episodes.
And I'm now admitting to making a big mistake. Father Brown is rather fun of its kind and William aces the character as far as I'm concerned.
Up first is a juicy tale of sexual shenanigans and murder. called The Hammer Of God. Well, it's as juicy as could be allowed back in the Fifties.
This English village as an all white enclave where the only differences allowed are between the Catholic Father Brown and his Anglican counterpart.
There's a cute celebration to mark the instillation at the Anglican church of a new bell ringing device.
And at the subsequent tea party what should happen but a rather violent murder: the local bad boy gets his head bashed in by an anvil borrowed from the village smitty.
Williams' Brown is sheer delight. He's a very nosey parker indeed and one who delights in the pleasures of this life including nibbling on the award winning strawberry scones and chattering away to the well dressed ladies in attendance.
Pitted against this comical figure is the suitably dour Inspector Valentine (Hugo Speer) who must doggedly run through all the suspects, the motives, the means of murder.
It doesn't help that the blacksmith's perky wife Elizabeth has already made a false confession because she believes her husband did it.
And added are the regulars: the luxurantly dressed Lady Felicia (Nancy Carroll), the gossipy church secretary Mrs. McCarthy (Sorcha Cusack) and the hard working Polish refugee turned housekeeper Susie (Kasia Koleczek).
The mystery gets solved in a suitable leisurely fashion --there was no CSI in those days, of course.
Father Brown is a luxuriant exercise in Fifties revivalism. The cars look spotless, the village is graffiti free, the little shoips spin and span. Who wouldn't want to live there?
Everybody knows everybody else --the mayhem committed here is ever so gently applied. Even the killer has a point or two about him.
Father Brown, simply stated, hasn't enough to do, he's forever interfering in everybody else's business.
People who enjoy all those Agatha Christie remakes will willingly watch Father Brown.
There's a certain feeling of safeness here. Those who seem to be suspect are one by one ruled out.
The murder weapon is unusual. The setting by a babbling brook is perfect.
And at the end everybody gathers for one more great tea party. What fun!
By my count there are seven more new episodes to run over the next month and a half.
I know I'll be watching. You should try this one out, too.
FATHER BROWN RUNS ON BBC CANADA Thursdays At 8 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

Suppose CBC threw a big celebratory party and the guest of honor was a no show?
That's exactly what happened yesterday at CBC's Toronto headquarters as CBC rolled out the red carpet for its fall season of shows.
But the person directly responsible for all this hoopla went missing.
That would be ace programmer Kirstine Stewart who just jumped ship to become president of Google Canada.
But Stewart's fingerprints are all over the fall schedule.
For one thing CBC is building on success not failure for the first time in years.
A number of its hour long dramas are returning amid a higher ratings boom.
Let me start with the now venerable family series Heartland back for a near record seventh season.
I spoke to the two personable stars at the launch --Amber Marshall and Graham Wardle --who look remarkably young for such seasoned veterans.
But they're also facing the problem of success in being closely identified with such a huge TV hit.
Marshall told me she now has her own magazine and doesn't at all resent such a close identification with the character of Amy.
Wardle says he's guested on an episode of Supernatural for some contrast and just hopes the series continues delivering solid family entertainment.
"About being type cast I'll deal with that in the future."
Then it was onto Murdoch Mysteries which is also in Season Seven --not bad for a period drama that got dumped a year ago by Citytv.
In an unusual move CBC picked the series up and it now is recording record high ratings.
"Even the City reruns are way up in the ratings," jokes star Yannick Bison.
I recall I first interviewed Bisson on the set of the 1984 TV flick Hockey Night when he was 17.
"Actually I was 15," Bisson interjects.
He took over the role when it switched from TV movies (starring Peter Outerbridge) to the hour long drama format.
"This season we hit 1901," Bisson says meaning the death of Queen Victoria must be dramatized.
The set of Murdoch has had to be cut up and shipped to another film site twice and Bisson jokes "each time when it is reassembled it looks better with the additions."
And, yes, Murdoch does have a U.S. audience."We're on Netflicks already --I know from the fan mail."
Next up I'm chatting with Allan Hawco who is celebrating the fact "We survived on Sunday nights, the most competitive night of the week, yeah I know."
As a reward CBC is plopping ROD into the Wednesdays at 9 time slot.
"Ratings should pick up," Hawco is saying. optimistically. And he promises that Gordon Pinsent will be back "and maybe also Paul Gross if he can fit it into his schedule."
Hawco says the show is well received abroad "even in Britain where they wonder if my accent is Irish. It certainly is not."
ROD, he believes, succeeds because of its characterizations. "It's solidly Newfoundlander material. Selling it abroad is the icing on the cake."
And now over to Cracked which is the baby of the series bunch moving into its second season.
The first season was "hectic" allows star David Sutcliffe who returned to Canada for the role of Detective Aidan Black.
He started his acting career in T.O., moved to L.A. 14 years ago and has worked consistently (his U.S. last series was Private Practice).
"I'd agree the first few episodes were somewhat disjointed," Sutcliffe allows. But the show grew cohesive by the week.
Shouldn't Cracked really be a 10 p.m. show? I ask and Sutcliffe nods. But, of course, CBC News reigns supreme at 10.
"I'm amazed at the amount of violence we dramatized given it was on at 9 p.m. and on the CBC."
Cracked gets a new lady lady in Brooke Nevin who is best known as Ted Danson's daughter on CSI.
And just to point out not everything on CBC is a returning favorite.
New series include the comedy The Best Laid Plans, the crime drama Crossing Lines starring William Fichtner (Prison Break), a show about antiques titled Four Rooms and the reality series Recipe To Riches.

Talking to a gaggle of Canadian TV producers and one series emerges that's the envy of all.
It's Rookie Blue which is back for its fourth season as a summer pick up series carried on both ABC and Global.
Trouble is the Rookie Blue formula hasn't worked for such Canadian shows as The Listener, The Firm, Chasing Hope and Combat Hospital.
All these series crashed and burned in the ratings when shown on U.S. networks.
In the case of Combat Hospital Global pulled out of a second season whereas CTV has continued production of The Listener which is back for another summer run next week.
Rookie Blue is that marvel --a Canadian show that has U.S. legs.
Part of the appeal lies in the cast of promising young Canadian actors including Gregory Smith, Missy Peregrym, Charlotte Sullivan, Matt Gordon and Peter Mooney.
They're all bright, photogenic and ever so eager as the rookies.
I liked meeting them when I was on the set the first season.
I also enjoyed chatting up two of the executive producers, Ilana Frank and Tassie Cameron during season two.
Perhaps if the series persists much longer a title change would be in order --to Sophomore Blue?
Because you can't be a rookie forever can you?
Aaron Spelling had the same problem explaining why he continued to run a series called The Rookies. He persisted so long that the Canadian actor Michael Ontkean suggested being a rookie for years on end was debilitating for an actor.
Let's be explicit here: Rookie Blue is never going to be in the category of a NYPD Blue --it lacks the crackling dialogue and desperate situations.
But that's exactly part of the game plan of the cagey veteran executive producers Ilana Frank and David Wellington who once conspired on The Eleventh Hour a Canadian TV series that did not make it to U.S. network TV.
I'd say that Rookie Blue is a sort of Grey's Anatomy blended with the daily travails of policing. Sort of Adam-12 with romance added.
Let's look at the first new episode which takes up last year's plot--Andy (Peregrym) and Nick (Mooney) are on a six month undercover meth operation.
Both accepted the assignments without telling their romantic partners --Sam (Ben Bass) or Gail (Sullivan).
And guesting is the wonderful Louis Ferreira on vacation from his weekly role on Motive.
Then Andy and Nick must return to more mundane duties and try telling their mates what happened and why they were away for so long.
In other words the dynamic here is the relationships.
There's some genuine suspense in this hour but it's not the way a NYPD Blue would go. And that's because RB is really a 9 p.m. show and it's the raw emotions of love that are being peddled.
But this season ABC has decided to run it at 10 meaning Global will oblige by simulcasting.
One of the biggest characters in the series is the city of Toronto with all its diverse neighborhoods.
But it's also apparent these rookies are growing up fast.
They're still acting like starry teenagers in the love department.
But on the beat they're now seasoned professionals.
ROOKIE BLUE RETURNS FOR SEASON 4 ON GLOBAL AND ABC THURSDAY MAY 23 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ***.

"I never thought we'd hit a second season," Craig Olejnik, star of CTV's The Listener is saying on the phone.
"But here we are talking about the fourth season. There's a story there, really."
The Listener's fourth season revs up Wednesday May 29 at 10 p.m. and indeed it's a surprise given the disastrous premiere year.
The series about a telepathic paramedical Toby (Olejnik) took a direct hit with unfavorable critical reviews and outright rejection by NBC which ran the Toronto-made series five times before pushing the cancellation button.
"The comments were hurtful," admits Olejnik. "I haven't read any since then."
CTV persevered in showing the entire first year but Olejnik says he was "as surprised as anyone" when the order for a second season came through.
The second season took forever to come together and when filming commenced the basic narrative thread had been changed.
"We started off as a serial and were now a procedural. I think that saved the show."
Season Three offered its own surprise: the show finally started registering with audiences notching average audiences of 1.2 million viewers a week. There had been constant growth ever since its debut but only with Season Three could The Listener be termed a bona fide hit.
"Finally!" laughs Olejnik. CTV stuck with the show and so did Shaftesbury Films's cagey executive producer Christina Jennings who refused to panic after the initial whiff of very bad news.
Previewing the first new episode is a lesson in plot reconstruction. The team are off to Vancouver on an assignment --a costly trip for any series.
"Actually only exteriors were shot in Vancouver," says Olejnik's co-star Lauren Lee Smith. "The rest was done in Toronto and it's very seamless."
What emerges is a great, tension filled chase saga as the team must race against the clock to prevent a brilliant but mad young student from blowing up the center of the city.
By now Olejnik has settled down to give a compact, precise turn and he's ably paired with Lauren Lee Smith as Sgt, Michelle McCluskey as head of the RCMP's Integrated Investigative Bureau.
"I joined in season two," she tells me. "It's the hardest TV series I've been on, 13-hour days are the norm compared with eight hours I'd spend on CSI."
For the 2003 season Smith co-starred on CSI and compares the experience as "on CSI I had a small role and I'd sometimes have to wait for hours to do my scene of the day.
Yes, it's a well oiled machine, the second unit does a lot of the work. But you can't argue with success, yes, there's a formula but done to the hilt.
"On Listener I'm in many of the big scenes, the days are longer. But it's for 13 episodes not the 22 on CSI. But on CSI I'd get a charge just driving to Universal studios every day."
Olejnik was only 14 when he planed his breakout role opposite Helena Bonham Carter in the film Margaret's Museum made in Nova Scotia.
"I just aced the audition, I was exactly what they wanted and it made me realize this was where I could be. But there were hard times afterward when I had to go back to high school and I left for a bit and lived with Ken Welsh and his family. I did return to finish high school and then moved to Vancouver."
The story is true that originally Listener producers felt Olejnik's piercing blue eyes were too blue and thought maybe he should wear contacts --these days those blue eyes are one of the show's talking points among fans.
Smith had her own trajectory on her way to The Listener.
In 2005 at the start of her career she co-starred in the explicit fil romance Lie With Me acing the part of a blue collar worker and she followed with fine work in the TV drama The L Word ( 2004-06).
"I became familiar with controversy early on," she laughs. But just as compelling was the CBC series Intelligence (2006) before she hit the mainstream with CBS's CSI in 2008.
Olejnik, 33, says his four seasons on Listener "has been an amazing education how the business operates. It's been my university. One day it seems I was playing beach volleyball in Vancouver with a young unknown named Erik Karpluk and now she's guesting on the series I'm starring in. Amazing."
Smith , 32, who made three movies this year in her hiatus says working 13 episodes a year "gives me the space to do other projects. It's certainly not as fatiguing as working on 22 episodes a season."
"I think with Listener we're now hitting our stride. There's excitement we might get an order for a fifth season"
Adds Olejnik. "I didn't think a second season was possible and now I'm hoping for a fifth. In one way I liked not knowing--it makes us all work better."
THE FOURTH SEASON OF THE LISTENER PREMIERES ON CTV WEDNESDAY MAY 29 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

So there I was in the audience of a new CBS sitcom called All In The Family watching a taping at CBS Television City. It was in June 1972 and boy was the atmosphere volatile.
Carroll O'Connor and producer Norman Lear went right at each other.
But in the center of the storm co-star Jean Stapleton simply watched and waited.
After the first taping there was a two-hour wait followed by a second taping of the same episode with completely different dialogue.
And both times Stapleton was the one who shone out.
No doubt about it she was one of TV's best ever actresses.
Her death aged 90 on June 1 was a big loss for the industry.
I'd first glimpsed her as Judy Holliday's chum in the 1960 musical film Bells Are Ringing.
And Stapleton had long been a staple on Broadway and at husband William Putch's Totem Pole Playhouse in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania.
When Norman Lear came to cast Edith Bunker in All In The Family Stapleton was his first and last choice.
"We made the pilot called Those Were The Days for ABC," she told me. "ABC passed but CBS picked us up with a new title. It was based on a British series Till Death Do Us Part."
No doubt about it Edith was the heart and soul of that series. O'Connor supplied the bombast but Stapleton contributed the underlying love and sympathy.
I got to interview Stapleton at length several times.
She told me she never thought the sitcom would last and had settled for a hefty upfront salary in lieu of residuals.
All In The Family was shot as a mini play in front of a live audience with O'Connor and Stapleton demonstrating their solid theatrical credentials.
She openly flinched when one TV critic called Edith a "dingbat".
"No," Stapleton interjected. "She was terribly naive and trusting."
Her favorite episode came when Edith was raped, an experience she described as "terrible but it was a real acting experience."
Stapleton said she knew she was in a hit when people started coming up to her on the street and singing the theme song. "Almost all got that one line wrong about gee our old LaSalle ran great," she laughed.
Stapleton won Emmys as best comedy actress in 1971, 1972 and 1978.
I saw Stapleton on the stage at the Royal Alex in Putch's revival of the 1938 play Morning's At Seven.
It was such a hit a national tour was set up but Stapleton could not make it because of her AITF taping schedule. She cheered when I told her the replacement was going to be Kate Reid.
All In The Family ran from 1971 through 1979.
Following the departure of Sally Struthers (as Gloria) and Rob Reiner (Meathead), Stapleton reluctantly continued in the spin off titled Archie Bunker's Place.
However after the 1980 season she decided to retire from the show. The next season began with Archie mourning the death of Edith from a stroke a few months earlier.
CBS then ordered a new series be built up just for Stapleton.
"It was written by Peter Fischer and all about a detective. Titled Murder, She Wrote. But I said I didn't want to do an hour drama series. Too much work. So I passed.." she told me.
Instead Stapleton made such well received TV movies as Aunt Mary (1969), Angel Dusted (1981) and Eleanor: Woman Of The World (1982).
In 1990 she returned to TV sitcoms opposite Whoopi Goldberg in Bagdad Cafe.
Producer Lear summed it up best when he wrote on his blog after hearing news of her passing : "Goodbye, Edith darling."

I spent yesterday afternoon listening to a gaggle of City stars gurgling on about their new fall TV wares.
And City's lineup for the new season is pretty impressive.
For one thing I got to gaze at the beauty which is Eva Longoria.
I hadn't met her since she visited T.O. to tub thump her series Desperate Housewives way back when Logoria was just another promising pretty face. The year was 2004.
Now she's a mega TV star and how strange that her next series is going to be a Canadian made adult animation series called Mother Up! in which she voices the worst mom around.
Longoria told a gaggle of TV scribes it's nothing personal --she doesn't have kids of her own.
"She just has no parenting skills at all," she laughed.
Another promising Canadian offering is the new sitcom Package Deal in which three brothers must decide what to do when one gets a girlfriend.
It was good seeing Harlan Williams again --I once interviewed the talented Canadian comic on the set of Geena Davis's quite awful U.S. sitcom.
This time out he got some laughs at the presentation with his inventive shtick.
The bits that City showed us seemed chock full of possibilities.
City also renewed its freshman semi-hit Sperm starring Adam Korson as multiple sperm bank donor Harry and some of the children he has had with various willing femmes.
City will also begin production in the fall of a second season of Bachelor Canada.
Other new home grown product includes the reality series The Project: Guatemala hosted by marathon runner Ray Zahab in which nine well off young Canadians are tricked into participating in a new reality show --instead they find they've signed up to construct a new orphanage in Guatemala.
And there's the new hourlong reality opus Meet The Family based on the British TV hit Meet The Parents. The premise has a new love interest going to the home of a girlfriend or boyfriend and finding a family that is truly obnoxious. But relax --these are played by actors and they can become very nasty and annoying in a short time.
Then there's the inevitable spin off titled Storage Wars Canada set in the Toronto region. And we got to meet cast members who already were bickering on stage! I wonder if this version will avoid the rumors in the U.S. versions that items get planted in storage lockers to produce a more dramatically interesting story line?
Other big news: City has nabbed The Grammy Awards for the next three years.
Other new comedy series nabs include the sitcom Mom starring Anna Faris, Dads starring Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi, Brooklyn Nine-Nine a cops comedy with Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher, Rebel Wilson in Super Fun Night, a gal buddy thing, The Crazy Ones with Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar about a father and daughter in advertising, Enlisted, a military thing with Geoff Stults.
New drama series acquisitions include Matt Long in Lucky 7 (about lottery winners), Nashville (moving over from CTV), Once Upon A Time In Wonderland with Sophie Lowe as Alice, Hanna Ware and Stuart Townsend in Betrayal,.
Also there'll be a live broadcast of The Sound Of Music on December 5 as a holiday treat.
But the biggest star strutting around was James Wolk who has stolen whole scenes this past season on Mad Men as conniving Bob Benson.
The mood was certainly upbeat at the presentation before key advertisers. Last week City announced it was dumping CityNews Channel after only 20 months on the air. Also slashed was the English language South asian newscast on OMNI.
Canadian content appears to be growing and the sitcoms with Williams and Samberg could become big breakout hits.

Considerably more press attended Shaw Media's fall preview than City's the day before.
That's because Shaw has made a real impact on the media landscape.
The media giant rolled out a stay-pat schedule for its Global network.
Such top American TV hits as Bones, NCIS, NCIS; LA, Chicago Fire, Glee, Hawaii 5-0, Parenthood and The Good wife are back.
Indeed in the case of its Sunday night adult animation series --The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, Family Guy and American Dad the format has mostly remained the same for many years.
Global senior easily into the Global schedule.
This fall Global will be simulcasting 14 hours of U.S. series out of a grand total of 21 hours of prime time programming a week.
Williams says she's very high on the new sitcom The Michael J. Fox Show in which the veteran star plays a dad struggling with Parkinsons. She also likes the new sitcom The Millers showcasing Josh Arnett as a divorced guy living with his divorced mom.
Other new acquisitions include the reboot of Ironside starring Blair Underwood.
He told press guests he got into the mood by watching episodes of the original Raymond Burr series.
"But ours is different --we're shooting in New York and my character isn't desk bound but on the streets with an elite squad --while in a wheel chair.
"It's not a remake at all."
Global also bought the spin off of Chicago Fire called Chicago PD. Rake is a new series with Greg Kinnear as a criminal defense attorney whereas Reckless is a legal drama starring Cam Gigandet (The O.C.) and Georgina Haif (Fringe).
Later on there'll be a 12-episode return of Keifer Sutherland as Jack Bauer in 24: Live Another Day. And John Malkovich will star in the short term series Crossbones as legendary pilot Blackbeard.
Another short termer Dracula will star Jonathan Rhys Meyer.
Williams says the return of the family sitcom is one trend for the fall.
Another is the return of "event TV" --short run series like the great miniseries of the past. that create a vast audience.
At the Q and A Williams was asked the inevitable question about the fate of Global's highly popular Canadian series Bomb Girls which the network cancelled after only two seasons.
Williams promised a two-hour TV movie will tie up all the plot strands --but that's not what the fans want. They've been busy signing petitions to keep the well made show going.
Says Williams: "It was originally conceived as a six part miniseries. Then we did 12 more the second season."
But there are are no scripted Canadian drama series on the fall Global schedule at all.
In fact Global does have some fine scripted Canadian dramas --Rookie Blue is currently running and on Shaw cable networks there are Vikings, Lost Girl and Continuum. All have been picked up for another season.
Williams says she's ordered two more: from veteran producer Bernie Zuckerman comes Remedy which is set in a hospital but concerns all the staff just not the doctors.
And Global has also commissioned Working The Engles from Jane and Katie Ford (Material World)
a comedic look at a family trying to keep their legal business going.
Williams also pointed to the 600 hours of original Canadian content programming commissioned for such specialty channels as Showcase and HGTV.
One of the strangest new series In The Thicke Of It will star Canadian Alan Thicke and his Bolivean wife Tanya Callau.
"I'm Alan and this is not," quipped Thicke as he pointed to his wife.
He described his show as a weird cross of Larry David and The Kardashians.
Global also trotted out a slimmed down Queen Latifah who was promoting new new daily talk show.
And Soap opera queen Susan Lucci chattered about her new series Devious Maids which will rev up in the second season.
Dean McDermott said he was glad to be back in T.O. as host of Chopped Canada (on Food).
And Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii 5-0) and Jessalyn Gilsig (Vikings) and Canadian Diego Klattenhoff (The Blacklist) also made appearances.
Global has also reached out to Twitter Canada's Kirsten Stewart to join up on Twitter Amplify --the platform will take advertising as well as programming clips.
And Shaw also has another new lifestyle specialty channel called DTOUR. New shows include Rock My RV With Bret Michaels and Hotel Impossible.
All in all Shaw is on quite a roll.

Here's what I learned after a day of interviews over at CTV's Toronto headquarters about the network's fall schedule:
1. Bethenny Frankel whose new talk show Bethenny debuts on CTV this fall says "There'll be no topics off limits on my show. I think the topic vibrator virgins which we did on the pilot might have been too much in your face. But I guess I'll always be a reality star."
2. Tate Donovan says his new drama series Hostages will be different "because we'll only do 15 hours a year. I don't want to do 22 episodes for six years of a conventional series. The quality suffers. It's based on an Israeli concept --the Israeli version will actually be shooting at the same time."
3. Kevin Newman explains his new position as anchor at CTV's Question Period this way: "Tom Clark and I simply switched networks. I went from Global top CTV and he left CTV for Global. It's a rebranding problem I'm guessing. But we're both happier."
4. Meghan Ory is trying to explain her new U.S. series Intelligence as "a guy (Josh Holloway from Lost) is a U.S. cyber Commander with a microchip implanted in his brain. You understand that? And this I promise you --his shirt will come off."
5. Canadian Shawn Ashmore is chatting about his breakout hit The Following: "They won't tell me what's happening next. I really don't want to knopw. Working with Kevin Bacon is the tops. But we were told at the top our characters won't last forever. I'm not sure what will happen in the new season. No one can grow attached to their character here."
5. Troy Gentile, Sean Giambrone and Hayley Orrantia, kids on the new U.S. series The Goldbergs talk comedy: "I like that old show with Andy Griffith!" "No man, Malcolm In The Middle is great!" "All In The Family, is that the title, it's great!" "Our outfits (the show is set in the Eighties) are hilarious!" "My grandma says there actually was another show called The Goldbergs, am I right?"
CTV's fall schedule unveiled to a capacity crowd at the Sony Center offers few surprises.
Biggest news was CTV's purchase of Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. to anchor its weak Tuesday night line up.
CTV has also nabbed Person Of Interest away from City at 10 p.m. and will hammock two new half hour comedies The Goldbergs at 9 and Trophy Wife at 9:30.
According to CTV President Phil King the network will shift The Voice to CTV Two as it fights the hefty ratings successes of NCIS and NCIS: L.A. over at rival Global TV.
CTV Two also gets the rapidly sinking The X Factor plus Dancing With The Stars and Shark Tank, and Undercover Boss turning it into a reality weblet.
The main network holds firm on Thursday nights with top rated The Big Bang Theory, Two And A Half Men plus venerable Grey's Anatomy.
Other old U.S. series still holding firm in the ratings include Criminal Minds, CSI, Blue Bloods, Law & Order: SVU, The Amazing Race and The Mentalist.
With the cancellation of daytime talk show Anderson Cooper CTV will launch a daily domestic talk fest featuring Melissa Grelo, Lainey Lui, Cynthia Loyst and Traci Melchor which will go out live a la The View.
The View will be done before an audience like CTV's other local success The Marilyn Dennis Show.
If there's precious little Canadian content on CTV and CTV Two in the fall Canadian productions will shine on the specialty networks. Such local series as Saving Hope (back June 25), The Listener, Orphan Black, Motive, Degrassi have all attracted larege audiences.
CTV's 30 specialty channels give it enviable dominance of the market.
And CTV trotted out so many stars on the Sony stage one could only sit back and wonder.
Included in the walk around were Eric Dane, Snooki and even Shemar Moore who obliged by rolling up his T shirt as females in the audience collectively swooned.
I also met up with veteran producer John Brunton responsible for CTV's upcoming summer entry Amazing Race Canada starring personable Canadian Olympics star Jon Montgomery whose on air presence makes him a TV star of the future.

I've been covering TVOntario even before it came on the air.
First it was the Ontario Education Authority way up on Bayview Ave.
Then it morphed into regional network TVOntario on Tortonto's Eglinton Street.
I think I must have covered almost every TVO premiere over the last 40 years as TV critic first of The Spectator and later The Toronto Star.
So I'm happy to report TVO's new series Hard Rock Medical is the first commissioned drama series the network has ever done.
And I'm equally happy to add it's entirely professional and watchable. And completely Canadian.
You can check for yourself when Hard Rock Medical premieres Sunday night at 8 (repeating Friday nights at 8:30 and 10 p.m.).
First of all it's resolutely Canadian not a disguised version as so often happens in Canadian series shot here but designed for quick sales to U.S. TV.
The medical drama follows the lives and experiences of eight prospective medical students who have opted to study medicine in Sudbury with the understanding they will continue practicing medicine in Canada's North.
The show works for me and it's all due to the diligence of veteran producer-director Derek Diorio.
I phoned him up at his Ottawa based company (Distinct Features) to ask how he'd accomplished something TVO always said was too expensive.
First of all I remembered that distinctive name from way back when. I'd actually met him in Ottawa in 1985 when he was playing the character Haggis Lamborgini in the hit TV series The Raccoons.
During the Eighties Diorio was a member of the comedy group Ski Row. He later scripted such series as You Can't Do That On Television (1982-84).
To hear Diorio tell it he was making a series for TFO (the French language equivalent of TVO) called Meteo+ "and that was in 2010 and I heard about a project called the Northern Ontario School Of Medicine (NOSM) which deliberately trained home grown doctors because of a continuing shortage.
"Look, I'm a producer. I'm always thinking story. And this one was real and I could see all the dramatic possibilities right away."
After the success of Meteo+ Diorio went on to make another scripted series for TFO: Les Bleus De Ramville (2012013) perfecting a technique to make dramas at acceptable costs.
"TFO's budget is a lot less than TVO. So the idea that I could produce a quality drama series for relatively little was something I had demonstrated."
Both TFO series were also filmed in Sudbury which Diorio jokes is becoming the new Hamilton.
"Costs are relatively less than in Southern Ontario. " And Sudbury presents a relatively "new face" in terms of locations.
Diorio began researching and writing scripts. He discovered that within six weeks of enrollment " first year students are out in the field working with a doctor professor and with that they meet all sorts of patients in all sorts of situations."
TVO began collecting funds --sources included the Northern Heritage Fund Corporation, Canada Media Fund, Canadian Film Tax Credit, Ontario Film Credit as well as funding from the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) which has the second window.
Diorio says he had a huge talent pool to chose from at auditions. The only big name is Patrick McKenna (Traders) as one of the senior doctors.
"I had the freedom to chose the best actors and not go for names. I couldn't afford names anyway," he jokes.
Each episode is half an hour. "I estimate I'd shoot an episode every 2 1/2 days. Had to with the small budget. The actors had to get used to shooting out of sequence. We might do a scene from the first episode and then a scene from the sixth episode. The only standing set constructed for the show is the medical room at the university."
Most TV medical shows are glossy and focus on the romantic complications of the ultra handsome doctors.
"Our show can be funny at times," says Diorio. "Then it's gritty. A real slice of life. The new doctors are a bit older than usual --they've seen life and made a commitment to do this kind of work.
"We even have an aboriginal actor from Australia. His character wants to work with native people. It's a neat twist on the usual plot."
The fine cast includes Sudbury actor Stephane Paquette, Mark Coles Smith, Rachelle Casseus, Danielle Bourgon.
But the only actor beside McKenna you may recognize is Jamie Spilchuk as intern Cameron Cahill and that's because he currently stars in well received Rogers Phone TV commercials.
HARD ROCK MEDICAL PREMIERES ON TVO SUNDAY JUNE 9 AT 8 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

OK, so I'm a few weeks late.
But it's time to say a sincere Happy Birthday to Hamilton's feisty independent station CHCH-TV which officially came on the air on June 7, 1954.
Ah yes, I remember it well.
My parents had just acquired our first TV set and we had two American channels to chose from: WGR-TV (NBC) and WBEN-TV (CBS) both from Buffalo.
And there was Toronto's CBC affiliate CBLT-TV which was then located on Channel 9.
And that was it until CHCH came onboard doubling the number of Canadian stations we could watch.
At that time and until 1961 CHCH was a CBC affiliate because the law dictated only the CBC could run TV stations.
However. from the beginning it was a very loose affiliate and over the years CHCH ran more and more of its own selected programs. In 1961 it officially divested itself of any CBC affiliation.
Back in those early days the driving force was founding father Ken Soble who died suddenly and tragically aged 55 in 1966.
Soble got into the radio business when he was only 16 and four years later he created and produced Canada's first live amateur show called The Ken Soble Amateur Hour which was carried over an ad hoc network of Montreal and Southern Ontario radio stations.
In 1936 he assumed management of Hamilton's CHML radio station and eight years later outbid Roy Thomson for complete ownership of the station.
I well remember in the early Fifties tuning in to CHM: for the live show Main Street Jamboree which highlighted the talents of such up and coming western music stars as Tommy Hunter and Gordie Tapp.
In 1971 at the tender age of 25 I was named TV critic of The Hamilton Spectator replacing the great Jack Miller who went on to The Toronto Star.
And this is where the story gets personal.
As part of my job I had to cover every show running on CHCH.
I originally roomed at the Royal Connaught hotel right across the street from The Spec and on my first night in the dining room struck up a conversation with the first lady of CHCH, Jane Gray.
She was almost blind by then but still starring in the afternoon craft show and she'd been a mainstay at the studio since Day One.
At the station I chatted up the chief anchor Norm Marshall. CHCH was so tiny a station he did the live newscast with the aid of an automatic TV camera that he could manipulate from controls hidden under his desk.
That's right no camera operators were present.
I also met early on the station's chief announcer Bill Lawrence who was then taping a new children's show where he'd read favorite stories to the tots.
Lawrence, of course, was the host of the evergreen Tiny Talent Time which ran live on Sunday afternoons and showcased singing and dancing tots and garnered a huge audience --far larger than most prime time shows.
Lawrence later became a friend and said that yes there were kids who'd blubber on air and more than one moist accident resulted on air.
Very early on I remember covering a live taping of the pilot for a new game show that would star Shelley Berman and feature Rita Moreno as one of the guest panelists.
I thought it was awful and so did prospective advertisers --the series never emerged.
One show that was already up and running was the daily charades show Party Game featuring the talents of Jack Duffy, Billy Van, Dinah Christie and guests plus a host who originally was Al Boliska and later Bill Walker.
One day I sauntered over and interviewed William Shatner who was the guest. "Why Party Game?"
I asked him
"I have to keep up my alimony payments," he snapped.
In 1971 I ventured on the set of the Hilarious House Of Frightenstein starring Vincent Price with Billy Van playing most of the other characters.
Price joked the series was so low budget "I'm sleeping in the guest room at the producer's home."
The producer was the versatile "Randy Dandy" Markowicz who also made Party Game.
He saved the tapes of HHOF which are now selling like hot cakes in a boxed DVD set.
But every year Markowicz would order all episodes of PG wiped so they could be used again for the next season. Unknown to him Van's wife took five episodes and these are the only extant copies I'm aware of.
I was also on the set of Ein Prosit --taped at the German cultural club. "You vill have fun!" shouted the menacing MC.
And I also covered live CHCH coverage of the junior hockey games from the old Barton Street arena. Walking on the rickety catwalk scared me because of the presence of portly color commentator Joe Watkins who weighed in at over 350 pounds.
I can still hear those catwalk boards creaking away as Joe led the way to the announcing booth.
I remember being on the set of another CHCH local success: the hour long variety series The Palace taped at Hamilton Place.
The night I watched a taping the great Ethel Merman ran out onto the stage --and she kept running. In fact she fell into the orchestra pit and had to be taken to the Emerg. But not before receiving a standing ovation.
Another big CHCH Cancom success was Piere Berton's daily half hour interview show which he made for CHCH and stations across the country. Berton told me when he was on the road he'd record up to 10 interviews in one day.
Years later he phoned Screen Gems to arrange a retrospective and was enraged all the early tapes had been wiped. Exclusives with the likes of Vivien Leigh were gone forever.
But the reason for CBCH's big success in its first 25 years was simply due to one guy --Sam Jebscher.
In the Forties Sam had managed both the Palace and Capitol movie theaters in downtown Hamilton and later he also managed the Barton street Arena.
Soble hired him because of his knowledge of the movie business and Sam delivered big time.
After CHCH became completely independent Sam was able to land great movie after great movie. CHCH became the home of world wide movie premieres on TV.
Such biggies as Gone with the Wind, Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, The Poseidon Adventure, Dr. Zhivago and literally thousands more debuted on CHCH. How about that!
As long as CHCH remained a movie station it was on top ratings wise.
Then the station made a bad movie starting in 1982 to buy up all the Lorimar series (save Dallas) for big bucks. Many of these shows failed and so did CHCH's ascendancy as the movie station.
In 1980 I left the Spectator for The Toronto star.
Hamilton's CHCH was no longer "my" station --I still visited but it wasn't the same.
I 'd watch in anguish as the a station underwent a number of format changes and name changes.
These days everything old is new again --CHCH is back showing movies around the clock.
Long may it prosper!
As CHCH starts its 60th year of broadcasting what else can I say except Best Wishes for the next 60 years.

I'm trying to remember the first time I noticed the great character actor James Gandolfini who has died in Italy, aged just 51 years.
I certainly do remember him as Juror Number 6 in the 1997 TV movie remake of 12 Angry Men where he stood his ground against Hume Cronyn, Jack Lemmon, George C. scott and William Petersen.
In the same year he was in Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil unbilled as a waiter or so says IMDN. And I certainly don't remember him there.
But two years later there he was starring in The Sopranos and giving the performance of his life as Tony Soprano.
He was as good as an actor can get but in one mass interview session I attended he said he was afraid of getting typecast as an actor.
It was as if everything he had ever done was forgotten and now he was this great TV star and he rather resented the loss of that anonymity.
His greatest thrill on the set, he said, was acting opposite the great character star Nancy Marchand who played his mother. She was dying even as we spoke but not before she'd fufilled her contractual obligations for the season.
I spent years in Hamilton and thought The Sopranos could just as easily have been set there because both Hamilton and New Jersey had storied gangland pasts.
In the TV universe it's one character that makes a star and some actors never get away from it.
In person Gandolfini was feisty. I liked it when shock radio guy Glenn Beck complained Gandolfini had been rude to him in a New York city nitery.
I'm glad Gandolfini got such attention and awards for The Sopranos.
But I was expecting two more decades of film and TV achievements ahead.
Jim Arness was forever tagged as Marshall Dillon on Gunsmoke.
Jim Garner despite the multiplicity of parts was always Jim Rockford of The Rockford Files. Larry Hagman was always Dallas' J.R. Ewing.
Some huge TV stars from Dick Chamberlain to Mary Tyler Moore to Dick Van Dyke never quite shed their TV pasts to make it big in movies.
But Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood did so go figure.
We'll never know how Gandolfini would have fared. He had been searching for that big movie cross over role.
I know when I heard of his death I was not that surprised. I'd heard stories about his drinking problems. He looked much older than his 51 years.
He was always corpulent, wheezing, that's what made him such a fine character star.
I'll always wish he had simply taken better care of himself.

CBS goes way off its usual summer fare of reruns with the premiere of the Steven King mini-series Under The Dome.
The first episode (of 13) which is a must see premieres on Global (and CBS) Monday night at 10.
I'm used to the spectacular way King revs up a story line and this one is really spooky.
It starts deep in an American forest near dawn as a young man is glimpsed burying a man's corpse --presumably the man is the killer but in "Kingland" nothing is ever certain.
The mab's name we subsequently learn is "Barbie" and Mitch Vogel of Bates Motel compelling plays the lead.
But is it "Barbie" as in Klaus Barbie or Barbie the doll or what?
And then in the next scene a gigantic see through wall plops down from the sky sealing in the various denizens of the small New England hamlet of Chester's Mill.
They cannot get out and people on the other side cannot get in. They can't even hear each other talking.
The dome simply plops down cutting a cow in two and demolishing a forest and even bisecting farm houses. It's invisible but hot like a poker to the human touch.
Turns out the town councillor has been ordering tons of propane fuel to de deposited deep in the forest. But why?
The way the dome affects various members of the community forms the creepy and deeply disturbing line of the first hour.
King stories always start this way. As long as the author doesn't have to explain away the premise I'll be watching.
There are hints of some kind of vast government conspiracy which is par for the course in American horror stories.
One candy striper at the local hospital even figures the towns folk are like the goldfish she used to keep in a bowl. And then one day the big gold fish ate the smaller one.
Other familiar faces include Dean Norris as the used car salesman turned town councillor Jim Rennie.
Then there's Natalie Martinez (CSI: New York) as Deputy cop Linda, Britt Robertson (The Secret Circle) as candy stripper Angie McAlister, Alexander Koch (The Ghosts) as her teen lover named "Junior", Canadian Rachelle Lefebre (A Gifted Man)as newspaper editor Julia Shumway.
So far everything worked for me. Special effects were nicely done but tended not to dominate the story. The cast seemed duly confused and chilled out, the same way I was feeling.
With the premise in place there has got to be some kind of let down with time.
It's also no coincidence executive producer Brian K. Vaughan and director Jack Bender both hail from Lost. Because the set up does remind me of Lost in its slow, deliberate unearthing of quirky details.
Be aware author King approved a different ending for the TV series over the 2009 book. So go ahead and read the novel but that mwon't help you solve the ending.
The serial also gets a boost from the ongoing real life flap over the U.S. federal government's telephone surveillance of average U.S. Citizens. Nobody trusts the government these days anyhow.
When the ordinary folk peer through the barricades all they can see are U.S. army soldiers who are there for what?
CBS hints if the story scores with viewers there could be a second season.
UNDER THE DOME PREMIERES ON GLOBAL AND CBS MONDAY JUNE 24 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.

Mad Men is the series I used to watch avidly for season after season.
This year I found any reason not to watch. The show had become just another TV soap opera as far as I was concerned.
And Sunday night I hesitated again because I was in the midst of watching a superior Inspector Lewis on PBS's Mystery.
But my obligations as a TV critic finally kicked in and I'm glad I turned because MM finally delivered.
MM's Sixth Season was so very familiar. Maybe because I remember 1968 so well but I found the take on that period to be so so.
And let's face it everyone ages even Don Draper, even Peggy, even Pete Campbell with his receding hairline.
And 1968? It's the year the American people chucked out ole Southern Liberal Lyndon Johnson for the cynical conservatism of retread Richard Nixon.
And frankly after so many episodes what was left for MM to shock us with?
Don has had many liasons besides being married twice. Pete has had even more as his life has disintegrated into farce.
In fact Pete had a terrible season Six which culminated in the news his mom had been tossed overboard on a pleasure cruise and may even have married her male care provider just before "the accident".
And wasn't it mom Campbell who used the line he was as sour as a little boy as he is as a man?
The most talked about new character Bob Benson (played by James Wolk) was supposed to be some kind of government agent according to the fan sites.
But he turned out to be an accomplice for Pete. Whether Bob comes back for another season is problematic --Wolk has already signed for the new Robin Williams sitcom.
Other surprises: Ted (Kevin Rahm) wooed and won Peggy then his nice guy image surfaced and he gave it all up for love of his family --and coaxed Don into giving up a coveted job in California for him.
And Don? He had to confront his alcoholism and the idea he may have damaged his daughter who caught him with the next door neighbor.
But my favorite new character is Jim Cutler as sarcastically played by Harry Hamlin from L.A. Law --remember?
As the Sixties spin out of control the series gets darker and darker. Crime is everywhere and this gang have lived through three major assassinations and the start of the Nixon years.
That means next season, the seventh and last, must sum up a hell of a lot of lives in just 13 episodes.

I first met Ryan Belleville in a sleazy sex store located in a down and out strip mall in the wilds of Etobicoke.
No, it isn't what you're thinking at all!
That was two summers ago and Ryan andhis producer brother Jason Belleville were making a tiny perfect TV comedy series for Showcase called Almost Heroes.
The comedy talent behind and in front of the cameras included Dan Redican, Colin Mochrie, Lauren Ash and the result was as funny as all get out.
In fact Redican warned me that day that the whole thing might be too funny --there were precious few moments of down time for the TV audience to collectively catch their breath.
"I learned from it," says Belleville who is on the phone promoting his next series, a far more sedate sitcom called Satisfaction which debuts on CTV Monday June 24 at 8 p.m. and runs for 13 weeks.
"This time I'm dealing with a recognizable situation --three people in their late twenties are living together and trying to make it in the world out there.
"They genuinely like each other, two of them are going steady. I play the odd guy out, the one who's not quite as mature as the others."

At the recent CTV Upfronts Montreal-born creator Tim McAuliffe said his new series Satisfaction mirrored a time in his life when he was part of an apartment threesome. McAuliffe says the couple he knew subsequently married and then divorced.
"Tim wanted to go back to a very simple situation," Belleville is explaining. "He was the show runner on This Hour Has 22 Minutes and he worked on Jimmy Fallon and The Office. He knows what works and the first rule is audiences have got to like the characters or they won't tune in every week."
When I say the pilot reminded me a bit of early Seinfeld Belleville says "That's a compliment. If you watch early episodes of Seinfeld you'll see them still trying to decide what kind of show they should be doing. We're experimenting the same way."
In other words the search for the next great Canadian TV sitcom is underway.
After the enormous success of Corner Gas there was a brief burst of rurality --subsequent shows like Little Mosque were situated in rustic settings that hardly mirrored the Canada of today.
Then came such semi-hits as Dan For Mayor, Hiccups, Men With Brooms.
And now there's Satisfaction which plays as a room com stocked with crazies who inhabit the same downtown Toronto apartment block.
"I think the simple premise is our strength," Belleville says with a laugh. "These people are together because they're friends. They simply want to hang out."
Belleville reports he's currently filming episode 11 and Jason Priestley is set to direct two episodes.
"We had Jessica Pare (Mad Men)fly in to do an episode so we're getting big names. And I have this feeling we're coming together better every week."
The TV landscape is littered with stand up comics who couldn't quite make the jump to sitcom fare. But Belleville says such gifted comics as Ray Romano have made it seem easy.
"I have to play the character. I'm not playing myself. The humor comes out of the situations.
"Everything on Satisfaction is deliberately specific. It takes place in Toronto but it could be any large North American humor. There's are Canadian references, pop culture moments. It's very grounded but Lionsgate has already picked up syndication rights so anyone can watch it and enjoy it."
The story follows Jason (Luke MacFarlane from Brothers & Sisters) and his girlfriend Maggie (Leah Renee from The Playboy Club) and Belleville's character Mark Movenpick.
There's certainly more than a passing resemblance to Friends. Jason and Mark have been buddies forever and Maggie thinks Jason doesn't consider her an intellectual equal (he's a PhD candidate in plant genetic engineering).
Asked to sum up Satisfaction Belleville says "It's a funny show about an extended family. We have 13 weeks to get viewers interested enough to want to see more of us."
SATISFACTION PREMIERES ON CTV ON MONDAY JUNE 24 AT 8 P.M.
MY RATING: ***.

One of my favorite prestige Canadian TV series Nerve Center is back for a highly anticipated third season.
Two new hour episodes are being scheduled by Discovery Canada back to back on wednesday June 26 starting at 8 p.m.
First up it's the launch of Toronto's brand new Four Seasons hotel which does indeed include a fair measure of thrills as the hotel braces for its first ever guests.
But I far more enjoyed the second hour which examines all the intricacies involved in last year's grey Cup finale telecast from the Rogers Center.
Four more episodes are coming up as we learn the inner workings of Legal Sea Foods, Cedar Park Amusement, Barrett Jackson Collector Car Auction and Monster Jam will all be on later in the summer.
I know there might be a certain amount of cynicism involved in watching the Four Seasons hotel open its doors.
I somehow doubt I'll ever have the coin needed for a luxury room going at $1,500 a night.
But the background is fascinating: I liked the new machine the laundry staff have to automatically fold towels.
Or there's a visit with the new master chef who must get the staff up to scratch as he plans for the hotel's first wedding and must solve the traffic jam of waiters who must serve all the guests.
And right then the new air conditioning system goes on the blitz and all concernedat the wedding party begin sweating profusely --how it is all solved is part of the story,.
I liked the sights of hotel general manager Dimitrios Zarikos clocking the new 15-minute room service menu --the waiter gets the order delivered in 14 minutes with seconds to spare.
And what about the incoming guest who left her coat in a taxi?
Turns out the hotel has 300 surveillance cameras and one of them clearly shows the taxi pulling up including the taxi number at the side.
Showing how a live telecast goes off is always good for a feature. One of my first stories as TV critic was to cover the behind-the-scenes personnel responsible for Hockey Night In Canada.
Nerve Center focuses on the 100th annual Grey Cup and the coordination efforts are truly mammoth.
It takes 200 veteran technicians six days to unfurl the equipment and begin the countdown.
We get to understand how the sound technician can pull off a miracle, how that floating camera high up captures shots never seen on an NHL game and all the tension inside the broadcasting center during the actual game.
I found this one to be just about the best episode ever. But how will foreign viewers feel about such an intrinsically Canadian story?
So welcome back Nerve center with special thanks to executive producer Kathryn Oughtred and story producer Leslie Cote of Exploration Productions Inc.
NERVE CENTER: SEASON 3 PREMIERES ON DISCOVERY CANADA ON WEDNESDAY JUNE 26 AT 8 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

Erica Durance says there was a split second when she wondered if she could move to Toronto to star in the new CTV medical drama Saving Hope.
"My son's in Grade 8 and I couldn't move him. So the family stayed put and I move for the seven months it takes to film a season. It was a tough decision. But I'm back in Vancouver as often as possible."
The other day one web site voted Durance "the best ever" Lois Lane by virtue of her outstanding job on seven seasons of TV's Smallville.
"I'll take that compliment and run with it," she jokes. "But it's nice to be recognized that way."
Tuesday night on CTV Durance returns in the second season opener of Saving Hope which finds her character Dr. Alex Reid and her surgeon beau Dr. Charlie Harris (Michael Shanks) caught in a shootout at a transit-subway station platform.
Talk about unlucky!
Last season found Charlie in a prolonged coma after sustaining major injuries in a car wreck.
He also began experiencing an out of body experience where he would chat up fellow patients with life threatening injuries.
To this observer the appearance of such "ghosts" was a really radical way to make Saving Hope a different type of drama and Durance says viewers are divided on the issue.
And in the first new episode Charlie continues to see these apparitions --he must confront the spirit of a father-to-be who is slipping away after being caught in the crossfire of the airport shooting.
Durance says she's hearing conflicting testimony from fans of the show.
Her advice? "Just go with it. It's there but not always a big part of every story."
Durance's character Alex also has her own issues. Early on in the new season she viciously slaps a young girl who keeps insisting she wants to die.
Alex has learned the hard way how precious life really is.
As a vote of confidence CTV is upping the number of episodes of Saving Hope this year from 13 to 18 new hours.
Although the first season thrived on CTV the numbers on NBC were not strong enough to warrant an order for another season.
"It's a cultural thing, I'm sure," Durance says. NBC is a network that favors male oriented shows while Saving Hope is definitely in the category of attracting younger female viewers.
"I think with 18 hours we can explore relationships much deeper. And we're not fixated on making that American sale. I'm sure it will happen --there are many more options out there these days."
I noticed at the top of the first hour which I've previewed that Wendy Crewson's name has disappeared from the credits --she played chief surgeon Dr. Dana Kinney.
In fact in the last episode of the first season Kinney was told by hunky doctor Joel Goran (Daniel Gillies) that he was taking over her job.
Reports Durance: "Wendy is back in Season 2 and we feel lucky to have her be part of the show. Her character will pop up several times --I'm just doing an episode with her this week.
And in other casting news Erin Karpluk of Being Erica will have a recurring role as a single mom who survives a tricky operation (a bullet is lodged near her heart).
At 35 Durance has already survived seven seasons on Smallville. She says "For whatever reason there just isn't that much production in B.C. right now."
She's also onboard as a producer for Season Two, a job that lets her sit in on editing and script meetings --it's a move that should make for a more rounded career in the future.
CTV also has a companion weblet series called Last Call finding the doctors chattering on about personal issues. Check it all out at CTV.ca/SavingHope.
SAVING HOPE'S SECOND SEASON PREMIERES ON CTV TUESDAY JUNE 25 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

I was going to take a pass on Super Channel's latest British import Secret State because the preview DVDs arrived late.
But my curiosity got the better of me, I liked what I saw and I now think you should try ferreting it out because it's that good.
The second episode is on Tuesday July 9 at 10 p.m. but I'm thinking Episode One must be out there somewhere on Super Channel.
It's a four-part mystery that pulls out all the whistles and bells in its linkage of various conspiracy theories all boiled into one definite threat to the British state.
And the cast is a virtual who's who of British TV stars: Gabriel Byrne as downtrodden deputy British prime minister Tom Dawkins, Charles Dance as the always present Chief Whip John Hodder, Stephen Dillane as the influential head of gigantic energy company Petro Fex, Sylvestra Le Touzel and Rupert Graves as the combative ministers jockeying to replace the prime minister.
The opening scenes are of Dawkins strolling through the devastation of Scarrow Park, a British backwater where something terrible has happened --the buildings are razed, the inhabitants all dead and somehow Petro Fex is involved.
Turns out a blast at the Petro Fex chemical plant has killed many people and left the Prime Minister scrambling to gain compensation for the victims.
Dawkins must meet with the survivors who boo him and demand vengeance.
Shot brilliantly, the whole plot unravels with dark thoughts and many hints that today's modern government is listening into virtually every conversation made by politicians and their sources.
I can't give away too much plot except to say something very bad happens to the prime minister. Instantly Dawkins is seen as a possible replacement. His is a dour, haggard look on life and Byrne plays the character perfectly, all rumpled countenance --in fact he looks remarkably like former British PM Gordon Brown.
The plot is brilliantly complex --something is always about to happen to once again take us by surprise.
We find out what is happening along with Dawkins and we then see how this affects him as a man.
In fact the publicity handouts say it is a remake of the fondly remembered A Very British Coup starring the late great Ray McAnally.
But so much has changed in 20 years and the opportunities for state spying have truly multiplied. Add in such themes as destruction of the ecosystem, foreign wars from Afghanistan to Iraq, plus banking scandals and the influence of America on every aspect of modern democracies and you have a completely different set up.
Of course MI5 is monitoring Dawkins every conversation even when he's out on a park bench interviewing a crusading journalist played persuasively by Gina McKee.
Shot mostly in and around Manchester Secret State will have you hopping to keep up with its convoluted plotting. But it's so well done the journey over four hours is surely worth while.
SECRET STATE RUNS ON SUPER CHANNEL TUESDAYS AT 10 P.M.

Remember the days not so very long ago when TV networks switched to reruns until September's new season came rolling around?
No longer. Earlier this week the terrific new short form series Secret State debuted on Super Channel.
And Saturday night it's Bravo's turn with the new five-part psychological thriller The Fall starring Gillian Anderson (X Files).
I remember when Bravo debuted and used to devote a weeknight to British TV only to veer away when ratings proved disappointing.
Well, both State Secret and The Fall are British made. And both are must see this summer.
Anderson persuasively plays a kind of Jane Tennison detective despatched to Northern Ireland to help police unravel a series of disturbing murders --the killer slowly tortured and strangled his victims over several hours.
Unlike Criminal Minds which hunts sadists weekly and always comes up with a capture The Fall is far denser and creepier in tone.
For one thing we get to know who the killer is right in the first few minutes -- as played by Jamie Dornan, Paul is a handsome social worker, great dad and handsome and educated to boot.
But he loves torturing and murdering upscale brunette woman. First he learns out all he can about then and then calmly and cautiously sets upon a method of entrapment.
Anderson's British accent might quaver a bit but she aces her part, too, an often immoral detective who on one of her first nights on the job beds a handsome detective she fancies only to boot him out at dawn.
As Stella Gibson she's spectacularly successful in a profession still dominated by older men who initially dismiss her thesis all the murders have been committed by one man.
The veteran detectives on the beat (the location is Northern Ireland) don't know what to make of her deductive theories.
They've also been on the hunt for the wrong kind of male.
As the killer Paul Spector (played by Jamie Dornan from ABC's Once Upon A Time) is thoughtful, a good husband and loving father. But his mind is always elsewhere. In other words in this case his cover does not march his deep, murderous actions.
Fine acting dominates every scene. There's John Lynch as Gibson's superior who once had an affair with her (but who didn't).
The pathologist is aced by Archie Panjabi, the young lesbian officer who is Gibson's chief investigator is played by Niamh McGrady . Also, Bronagh Waugh is outstanding as Spector's completely unsuspecting wife.
Allan Cubitt created it and his biggest credit is Prime Suspect so it's no wonder the investigation looks like an update of PS at times. But some reviewers have called it a British take on the Killing.
I think Anderson is very successful but Dornan even more so as he gradually reveals the coiled killer behind his boy next door looks. this kind of casting against type is super creepy.
as he kills Gibson must up her game iof she wants to entrap him. A very demanding professional, she understands failure would blur the luster of her career.
And she very much needs the satisfaction of an arrest.
So the story becomes two pronged --Spector stalking victims and Gibson stalking him.
BBC has already announced a second season for the miniseries that is cool, creepy and oh so very slow compared with American TV's fast paced but facile police shows.
THE FALL PREMIERES ON BRAVO SUNDAY JULY 7 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.

All this week I've been watching new British miniseries and rather enjoying the experience.
First up there was Super Channel's U.K. remake of the old hit A Very British Coup titled Secret State.
My verdict: a big juicy hit.
Then Bravo unveiled its Brit acquisition with The Fall starring Gillian Anderson.
Again it made for compulsive viewing.
And now comes another Super Channel addition: the BBC2 five parter Line Of Duty and it just might be the best of the bunch. Part One is on Munday July 8 at 10 p.m.
This kind of challenging material would never make it to U.S. TV where crimes on CSI or Criminal Minds are always solved within the standard 42 minutes.
But Line Of Duty, superbly written by Jed Mercurio, looks inside a British police force and the deep levels of corruption that permeates this unit.
The details are fairly grisly even for British TV.
There is no her to root for. the deeply flawed head of the unit is played by the charismatic actor Lennie James and he is always compulsively watchable.
James plays DCI Tony Gates --he's a black cop who has made it to the top and he is deeply proud of his achievements.
But Gates knows how to get around the bureaucratic bungling and the massive amount of paper work needed to execute even the most mundane order.
Because his crime fighting stats are simply too perfect and he's being hunted relentlessly by the anti-corruption unit.
Head of this investigation is the boyish Steve Arnott --played by Martin Compston with the kind of zeal a young Gates would once have envied.
Gates has a lot to hide. He has a beautiful wife and darling daughters at home. But he also sports a deliciously devious mistress played to the hilt by Gina McKee.
Suspecting something is Tony's second, prickly DC Kate Fleming played by Vicky McClure. Whose side is she on? How about both sides?
The whole story hinges on James making us want to keep watching to see if Gate can extricate himself. Or will this lady of multiple crimes be his undertaking?
I'm not the only critic who was reminded of Richard Gere in that fine flick Internal Affairs.
There's the band of cronies Tony has assembled around him. surely they would know what is going on. But their success in the unit depends on his success.
And I like the recurring story thesis that nobody out there is completely bad or good.
Tony is being investigated because of his superior statistics. It's called "laddering" --meaning he tackles many minor crimes easily solved. It makes for great stats.
I like the way James is always the coolest guy around even when he's being followed all over the place by Arnott.
I watched the first three hours and only wish the other two had been available.
LINE OF DUTY PREMIERES ON SUPER CHANNEL MON. JULY 8 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.

Was TV's Golden Age Really Silver?

BBC's Father Brown: Well Worth Catching

CBC Has Much To Celebrate

Rookie Blue Back For Fourth Summer Run

CTV's The Listener: Back For Season Four

I Remember Jean Stapleton

Citytv: Making 'em Laugh

Shaw Media: The Momentum Is Upward

CTV's Fall schedule: Bigger And Better?

TVO's First Ever Original Drama Series Is A Hit

Happy Birthday CHCH-TV!

I Remember James Gandolfini

Steven King's Under The Dome Worth Catching

Finally Mad Men Delivered!

Ryan Belleville Is Simply Seeking Satisfaction

Welcome Back Nerve Center!

Erica Durance Returns In Saving Hope

Super Channel's Secret State Worth Searching Out

Bravo's The Fall: Must-See TV

Super Channel's Line Of Duty A Hit