Sept. 23, 2019 "Heartland's stars happy their show is 'comfort food'": Today I found this article by Bill Graveland in the Star Metro. I used to watch this this show from 2007 when I was 22 yrs old. It was on Sun. nights and after I had finished studying. I was in Professional Writing at MacEwan. That was my 2nd/ last yr.
I stopped watching the show around 2010. I wanted to watch other shows on Sun. nights like Desperate Housewives and Once Upon a Time. I guess I outgrew the show. I do like this article because it's about a Alberta TV show:
HIGH RIVER, ALTA.—Alberta born actor Shaun Johnston had already had a lengthy career when he auditioned for the role of the grizzled and sage patriarch Jack Bartlett in CBC’s family drama “Heartland,” which debuted in October 2007.
And after years in the business he also had been around enough to know how tenuous it is to move from a pilot to a full-fledged hit television show.
“Like any other pilot on the planet, the odds of it going to series are pretty thin, but not this one. It tested off the charts apparently and what a pleasant surprise it was,” said Johnston, 60, as he sat at the counter of Maggie’s Diner, on set in the fictitious community of Hudson, on the final day of filming the new season.
“Shame on me I didn’t know it was going to last this long and I didn’t really see why it could or would until again the penny dropped and it had nothing that was hot at the time ... speed, explosions, cops, robbers, doctors, nurses, low-cut blouses, high heeled shoes,” he added with a laugh.
“Who’d a thunk that? Like, oh my gosh. We just seem to pick up steam. It’s nutty.”
“Heartland,” follows characters Amy and Lou Fleming, their grandfather Jack and former bad boy and love interest Ty Borden through the highs and lows of life at the ranch. The show also stars Amber Marshall as Amy, Graham Wardle as Amy’s now husband Ty, and Michelle Morgan as Lou.
“I don’t know if Shaun told this story and I rub it in his face because he came in during the pilot and said, ‘You guys just relax. Often pilots don’t go to anywhere so just cool down guys,’” Vancouver born Wardle laughed looking at Johnston across the diner. The eatery was an actual business for decades, but after it closed the creators thought it would be a good addition to the show.
“You know every year I’m like, ‘I feel this is going to be the last year,’ and then like, it goes again ... You never know what’s going to happen so you just do your best.”
In 2015 “Heartland” surpassed “Street Legal” as the longest-running one-hour scripted drama in Canadian television history. Only Johnston was old enough to remember the 1980s-’90s courtroom drama starring Cynthia Dale and Eric Peterson; in fact, he says he once auditioned for that show.
With well over 200 “Heartland” episodes in the books and the number growing when the show debuts this Sunday, the show attracts fans of all stages because of its family-friendly status. About 20 fans were standing across the street hoping to get a glance or autographs from stars like Marshall, who shot the pilot when she was a teen.
“I was 18 years old and was just on the cusp of being an adult and really I’ve learned so many life lessons being a part of ‘Heartland,’ just the people, and it’s been such an amazing experience,” she said.
Marshall’s experience around horses and animals — she began riding at the age of 3 in London, Ont. and her first job was as a veterinary assistant — helped for the part as Amy.
“I thought this is the most perfect role for me and when I was told that I got the part I hoped it would go on for as long as it could. I never imagined 13 years and counting so this has been incredible,” said Marshall, who now lives on a ranch outside Calgary and has horses, dogs, cats, rabbits, birds and cattle.
Morgan, who grew up nearby in Calgary, isn’t surprised the show is so popular.
“Many people feel it’s their comfort food so at this point I’m not surprised anymore,” Morgan said.
“People feel like they’re part of our family. Somehow we have really created a world that is at once comforting and very beautiful and idealized but also realistic enough that people feel that they can relate to us,” she said.
“People love this version of Canada because this is a real version of Canada that not everyone gets to see.”
“Heartland” has a huge international following and is shown in 119 countries and also airs on Netflix.
Both Morgan and Johnston have both been recognized while on holiday in Mexico. Wardle said he ran into fans while on a trip to Italy.
“When I look at the show internationally I think maybe people are attracted at first to the girl and the horse and the mountains,” said executive producer Jordy Randall.
“I think we’ve seen the letters and phone calls we get from other countries where they’ve bonded with our characters. They say that ‘Heartland’ has changed their life and given them a place where they feel part of the show.”
My opinion: 12 yrs is a long time to get rights for a TV show.
Nov. 26, 2019 "Dogs marking their territory on the small screen": Today I found this article by Bill Brioux in the Star Metro. It was about the Canadian TV show Hudson and Rex. I haven't seen it yet, but it's on Telus on Demand".
"TV producers and network executives have started to sit up. Christina Jennings, CEO of Shaftesbury ("Murdoch Mysteries." "Frankie Drake Mysteries"), spent 12 years chasing down rights and trying to launch a Canadian version of an Austrian series called "Inspector Rex."
Dec. 17, 2019 "Canadian creators say business brisk in the streaming area": Today I found this article by Victoria Ahearn in the Star Metro:
But while there is a lot of work, some fear a new form of U.S. cultural imperialism
Brent Butt is trepidatious about the streaming era.
While the Canadian comedy star says he’s excited about the “palpable opportunities” that exist as more streamers enter the market here, he also finds it “a little frightening.”
“It’s also kind of a scary time, because none of us knows how any of this is going to work or shake down,” says Butt, whose Saskatchewan-set “Corner Gas” franchise recently expanded from Bell Media platforms in Canada to the IMDB TV streaming service in the United States.
“When I got into producing television, the business model had been the same for about 70 years and, suddenly, in the last five years it’s completely different. And it looks like over the next five years it’s going to be completely different again.”
With Netflix, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, Amazon Prime Video, Youtube and several other major American streamers now competing in Canada alongside homegrown counterparts including CBC Gem and Crave, many film and TV creators here are expressing a cautious optimism.
While many point to the chance for more eyeballs and work, they’re also facing increasing competition from American productions that could potentially drown out homegrown projects.
“I don’t know that I’ve had a chance to wrap my head around what the streaming services mean (for Canadian creators) and I don’t know that anyone really knows,” says Toronto-based filmmaker Danis Goulet, writer-director of the upcoming Indigenous sci-fi feature “Night Raiders,” which is being produced in association with Crave and CBC Films.
“It’s creating so many jobs in Canada that it’s hard to speak negatively of any of it,” says Vancouver actor/filmmaker Annette Reilly, a cast member on the locally shot Netflix series “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.”
Thunderbird Entertainment Group in Vancouver, which has created projects for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV Plus and HBO Max, says business has never been better.
“We have to say no to more work than we’d like to, because we can’t do it all,” said Thunderbird CEO Jennifer Twiner Mccarron, whose company has worked with Netflix on “The Last Kids on Earth” and “Hello Ninja”; with Disney Plus on “The Legend of the Three Caballeros” and “101 Dalmatians”; and with Hulu on “Curious George: Royal Monkey.”
In 2017, Netflix pledged to spend $500 million to fund original content made in Canada over five years, a target it said it met in September.
But Sulatycky notes many of those productions are American, echoing sentiments expressed by CBC president Catherine Tait, who earlier this year compared Netflix’s presence in Canada to cultural imperialism.
Sulatycky also feels Netflix isn’t accessible enough to indie Canadian filmmakers.
“You can’t even go directly to Netflix unless you have a long-term established relationship with one of the executives,” Sulatycky says.
Reilly says Canadian screen creators also face a lot of red tape to get funding for their projects and simply can’t keep up with their American counterparts in the streaming wars.
“There are not enough Canadian counterparts for the Americans to team up with, so they’re really just taking over as opposed to Canadian content having a chance to soar,” she says.
https://www.pressreader.com/canada/starmetro-toronto/20191217/281642487066410
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