Featured topics
The Oprah effect: How she boosted Canadians' careers
North of the border, the Oprah effect is just as strong.
ICE PILOTS NWT A HIT
The premiere of Ice Pilots NWT scored the highest audience ever for a Canadian series on the cable station History Television. The first episode, which aired Wednesday, attracted 459,000 viewers, an unusually large number for a cable series. The 13-part series profiles pilots for Buffalo Airways, based in Yellowknife, who frequently battle treacherous Arctic conditions to make vital flights in and out of remote northern locations. Staff
THE NUMBERS
There's a world of difference between what people watch on television and which TV series consumers buy in DVD box sets. As shown in the list below, the sci-fi series Farscape still has a solid fan following and the British nature series Planet Earth has found new life in Blu-ray. Grey's Anatomy , of course, will always find its audience. Herewith, the top 10 TV shows on DVD as of Nov. 19:
WATCH ME GRACE PARK
Part of her allure is that actress Grace Park, who plays U.S. Homeland Security agent Liz Carver on CBC-TV's The Border , comes across as an everywoman - an everywoman, that is, who sprang to stardom on Battlestar Gallactica and has electrified the pages of Maxim magazine. Yet the Vancouver-raised actress does seem down to earth. How does she do it?
Television
The show's a success, but the friendship's wearing thin
A great many viewers are deeply conflicted in regard to Kenny vs. Spenny
REALITY CHECK BURNING RUBBER
If an artist sees beauty in rubber skid marks, does that make it art? That's what this quirky and surprisingly thoughtful film tries to figure out. Video artist Ariella Pahlke wondered who was expressing themselves all over the two-lane blacktop near her rural Nova Scotia home. Her video investigation lead her into a new world of burnouts, muscle cars, abstract art and contemporary music.
HIGHLIGHT JFK
Director Oliver Stone worked the conspiracy-theory angle to a fever pitch in this 1991 treatise focusing on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The controversial director assembled his script from two popular novels challenging the accepted version of JFK's death in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The film begins with the murder of presumed lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman), then fast-forwards to the investigation into the assassination initiated by former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner). As the film's moralistic hero, Garrison deconstructs the Warren Commission Report and files charges against flamboyant New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones) for orchestrating the plot. Running nearly 3½ hours and packaged like a music video, JFK rattled some critics and historians for inflating Garrison (who appears in a cameo) into a heroic figure, and for drawing his own conclusions on the supposed cover-up. The truth: Stone has never hidden the fact that his movie was a mostly fictionalized account of events. All conspiracies aside, the story is worth a second look for the parade of A-list actors - nearly three-dozen! - in fleeting cameo roles. Standing out in the crowd is Joe Pesci playing the bewigged and bugged-out alleged conspirator David Ferri and the late John Candy as a sleazy New Orleans solicitor.
LATE NIGHT TALK
The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
THIS WEEK / HIGHLIGHTS
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 20
DAYTIME TALK
Live with Regis and Kelly (syndicated)
THE CHANNEL
DIVA REDUX Add Whitney Houston's name to the talent lineup for the Dancing with the Stars finale. The nineties pop diva will appear on next Tuesday's finale results show, two days after she performs live on the American Music Awards . Currently on the comeback trail with her new album, I Look to You , Houston joins the ranks of Queen Latifah, Taylor Swift and Susan Boyle as a guest singer on the celebrity dance contest's ninth season. Houston's appearance on the season opener of The Oprah Winfrey Show in late September earned the daytime talk show its highest ratings in two years.
MORE NHL PLAYERS TO WEAR FIGURE SKATES
Four days after the first season of Battle of the Blades wrapped on CBC-TV, the public broadcaster announced it has ordered a second instalment of the reality show that pairs world-class figure skaters with former NHL players. The finale earlier this week -- which saw Jamie Salé and Craig Simpson take home the $100,000 first prize for charity, drew over 1.7 million viewers.
The Listener lives on despite NBC's axing
CTV, its affiliate station Space, and Fox International Channels have ordered a second, 13-part season of The Listener , a decision that follows NBC's mid-season cancellation of the Canadian-made drama last summer. The series, about a telepathic paramedic, is made in Toronto by Shaftesbury Films.
Television
We all love Rick. But how about Erica?
Two homegrown programs currently at the top of their games
Television
Dear Canada: Your opinion on the CBC is 'pathetic'
Seems the tall foreheads at the Corp don't think viewers' reactions matter too much
HIGHLIGHT / MISSISSIPPI BURNING
The shameful era of life in the American South, circa early-sixties, came flooding back in this powerful 1989 drama. Directed by Alan Parker and inspired by real-life events, the story begins with the murder of three young civil rights workers - two white and one black - in small-town Mississippi. At first considered a missing-persons case, the FBI airlifts in two agents named Anderson and Ward, played by Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe. Ward is the by-the-book type, while Anderson is more personable and more understanding of the Southern culture. Both men feel the local law enforcement's seething distrust at their presence and both are shocked at the open displays of bigotry in the town. Once the bodies are discovered, the agents have reason to suspect the Ku Klux Klan, but all efforts to gain information on the local chapter prove fruitless. Hackman and Dafoe are outstanding as the G-men thrust into the racially charged environment. The dramatic quotient is pushed higher by several brand-name support players, including Michael Rooker and Brad Dourif, as townsfolk and, most notably, Frances McDormand as the wife of an unrepentant Klansman. As in all her screen performances, McDormand is a powerful presence in a small role.
WHAT I'M WATCHING / KURT BROWNING
CBC-TV's Battle of the Blades , pairing ex-hockey players and figure skaters in an ice-dancing reality contest, is all about the chemistry between the skaters. But hosts Ron MacLean and Kurt Browning have also formed a solid on-air duo - MacLean representing the hockey camp, Browning the figure skaters and both engaging in competitive banter. Truth be told, though, whenever Browning can find any time between his television gigs and Stars on Ice appearances, hockey is what he tends to tune into.
REALITY CHECK / LIFE
Life manages to make you feel insignificant as a human. The 10-part nature series crisscrosses the world to reveal a stunning array of animals and their particularly clever survival skills. Deciding whether or not to get the H1N1 flu shot seems puny by comparison. Life (Sunday, 9 p.m., Discovery, Discovery HD) features an intoxicating blend of majestic high-definition footage, with a narrator (David Attenborough) gifted in the art of storytelling. Orchestra swells every time a beastie shows a feat of ingenuity ramp up the drama like it's a Stephen King thriller; there's the capuchin monkey who wields a rock like a hammer, the seal who must outwit a pod of whales, the baby penguin about to meet its maker and the terribly seductive Venus flytrap - each drama draws you in with its ruthless life and death consequences. Filmed over four years, the cinematic feel of this documentary series is breathtaking, and that's after watching it on a computer screen - watching Life on a large TV in high definition should be something else. Repeats Thursday at 8 p.m. and Friday at 3 p.m.
LATE NIGHT TALK
The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
THIS WEEK / HIGHLIGHTS
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 13