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Category Archives: Mr. Young

LEO AWARDS: Film BECOMING REDWOOD & TV series CONTINUUM & ARCTIC AIR Top the Nominations

May 13, 2013 Arctic Air, Arrow, Becoming Redwood, Continuum, Fringe, Leo Awards, Mr. Young, Primeval: New World, Save BC Film

Last night’s Leo Awards nominations, celebrating the best of B.C.-made film and television, favour Jesse James Miller’s 70s-era coming-of-age film Becoming Redwood, Vancouver-cop-from-the-future TV series Continuum and northern adventure TV series Arctic Air. The many tweets of congratulations to all the nominees today are a great way to recognize B.C.’s creative talent ahead of tomorrow’s provincial election. So please go vote and as the hashtag says, #SaveBCFilm.

Becoming Redwood‘s 14 nominations include well-deserved director and writing nods for Vancouver-born-and-raised Jesse James Miller and performance nods for Ryan Grantham as the young golf-obsessed long-haired title character Redwood; Jennifer Copping (Miller’s wife) as Redwood’s mother; Chad Willett (producer) as Redwood’s draft-dodging, pot-dealing father; Derek Hamilton as Redwood’s red-neck stepfather Arnold and Scott Hylands as Arnold’s basement-dwelling elderly father Earl. Miller shot the Vancouver International Film Festival’s most popular Canadian feature in rural Langley for 24 days in the late spring of 2011.

In the television category, Continuum dominates with 16 nominations, including nods for creator and UBC grad Simon Barry for his season one finale script End Times and for performances by Richard Harmon, Brian Markinson, Jennifer Spence and Liber8 “terrorist” Lexa Doig. Lead cop Rachel Nichols is not nominated but she is American and not considered a BC actor, even though she lives here for half-a-year each season and owns Vancouver Canucks season tickets (what more do you need?)

Over at Arctic Air, bona fide BC actors Kevin McNulty and Pascale Hutton are nominated for their lead performances on the filmed-in-Vancouver-and-Yellowknife aerial adventure series, two of 14 nominations for the CBC show.

MR. YOUNG SHAKE – Teen sitcom Mr. Young Does the Harlem Shake

March 7, 2013 Mr. Young

So Supernatural is not the first Vancouver production to do its take on the Harlem Shake. Only the first to do it with a crane shot! Here’s the cast & crew of our own teen sitcom hit Mr. Young shaking it up in their Burnaby studio last week. Star Brendan Meyer wanders through the crazy costumed throng on the Finnegan High School set for the Mr. Young version of this viral internet meme.

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Famine to Temporary Feast: GODZILLA, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES & American TV Pilots – Updated

February 16, 2013 Almost Human, Backstrom, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Godzilla, Intelligence, King & Maxwell, Mr. Young, News, Once Wonderland, Psych, Save BC Film, The Killing, TV Pilots, Victor

UPDATED April 26, 2013

From famine to temporary feast. B.C.’s film and TV production industry is bouncing back from a dismal start to the new year. But it could prove a temporary reprieve fueled by just four weeks of American TV pilot productions. The B.C. government still needs to move provincial tax incentives closer to Ontario and Quebec’s.

But for now, it’s good to see the Vancouver production list looking healthier. Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla reboot is getting underway finally after being pushed back while legal issues were resolved. Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston stars along with Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson from a script by The Walking Dead’s Frank Darabont. [Update: Word and Pictures, starring Clive Owen as a private school English teacher and Juliette Binoche as an art teacher who complicate their lives with romance, starts shooting next month too. As does Hector and the Search for Happiness starring Simon Pegg as a psychiatrist searching the world for the secret to happiness. And the rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise starring Andy Serkis as Caesar will return to Vancouver in April to film about a quarter of its sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The bulk of the Apes sequel's production will be done somewhere cheaper -- Louisiana.]

[Update: Feature film Robocop will do reshoots this May in Vancouver instead of Toronto, to accomodate star Joel Kinnaman who is committed to filming season three of The Killing here.]

Fringe showrunner Joel Wyman directing series finale in Vancouver

[Eight American TV pilots and one short presentation] are confirmed to film in Vancouver next month, spread out among all five American broadcast networks. Our city remains on #TeamJJ (an inside-joke Twitter hashtag for JJ.Abrams projects and players) with a new FOX pilot [Almost Human starring Star Trek's Karl Urban and] filming here next month. Fringe showrunner Joel Wyman (above) plans to bring his script about Los Angeles police officers paired with androids to life with his Vancouver Fringe crew.[ [Also confirmed] is the CBS pilot Intelligence starring #TeamJJ actor Josh Holloway of Lost as US Cyber Command officer who has a microchip implanted in his brain. Another successful showrunner, Hart Hanson of Bones, is bringing his CBS pilot Backstrom to Vancouver, based on the books of a real-life Swedish criminologist [and starring Rainn Wilson]. And Bravo pilot Rita will star Anna Gunn as a private school teacher. You know what that means? A potential reunion of Breaking Bad TV couple Bryan Cranston and Anna Gunn in Vancouver.

YVRShoots Series – Vancouver Sitcom PACKAGE DEAL Live in Burnaby

November 9, 2012 Mr. Young, Package Deal, YVRSHOOTS Series

Published November 9, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome

Partway through the live taping of Vancouver’ sitcom Package Deal’s pilot episode last night I had to zone out for a bit, exhausted from laughing non-stop for hours. Of course the sitcom is laugh-out-loud funny, although the details are embargoed until after the premiere airs early next year on Citytv. I can tell you that the laughs for the acerbic Harland Williams’s flubbing of his lines were just as big as when he did it right. “That’s not the line,” Williams told the audience. “Stop laughing, I’m sensitive.” Williams, more than anyone else, cracked up his fellow cast members on set. Meanwhile, wrangler/perfomer Dave Dimapalis kept us entertained in the audience between takes by coaxing volunteers to play progressively lewder games. Bachelorette #1 in the Bachelor game quipped “100% down” when asked how she would label herself in a store. Is it any surprise the blindfolded bachelor picked her from three possible candidates? I was rooting for Bachelorette #2 , by the way, who described herself as “a cub not yet a cougar.” And halfway through the taping,: pages came round with pizza slices from the Flying Wedge to keep our energy up.

City-TV Orders New Vancouver-Shot Sitcom #PackageDeal to Series

June 7, 2012 Mr. Young, Package Deal

At the Leo Awards for the best of B.C.-made film and television, Nancy Robertson from cancelled CTV sitcom Hiccups and fellow presenter Ryan Robbins jokingly pitched a new comedy series. Who knew a new Vancouver-shot sitcom was already in the works at City-TV? At last week’s Rogers Media Upfront in Toronto, execs announced a 13-episode order for a new multi-camera sitcom called Package Deal, about a woman who starts dating a single successful lawyer who seems too good to be true until she meets the two older brothers who are part of his package deal. Will he ever grow up and be his own man?

Creator Andrew Orenstein, who’s written for 3rd Rock from the Sun, Malcolm in the Middle and 18 to Life, is tasked with making Package Deal edgy, hip and funny. The yet-to-be-cast comedy will be produced by Thunderbird Films, which already has one hit sitcom in Vancouver – youth-oriented Mr. Young currently filming its third season in front of a live studio audience in a south Burnaby studio. Here are some of my photos of a Friday night taping of Mr. Young last fall, which airs on YTV in Canada and Disney XD in the U.S.

Package Deal, expected to air mid-season on City-TV, might use the same south Burnaby studio as Mr. Young but wherever it sets up it will be the first adult multi-camera sitcom to ever film in front of a live studio audience in Vancouver. Something else to look forward to this year.

YVRShoots Series – Leo Awards Live-Tweets its Hotel Vancouver Gala

May 30, 2012 Arctic Air, Endgame, Hiccups, Leo Awards, Mr. Young, Primeval: New World, R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour, Sanctuary, Sisters & Brothers, Sunflower Hour, YVRSHOOTS Series

Published May 31, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome

Live-tweets turned out to be the best thing about last weekend’s Leo Awards celebrating the best of B.C.-made film and television. Tweets from @LeoAwards gave an award-by-award account plus details of all the hijinks in between at both the Celebration and Gala Awards: hijinks that ranged from Property Brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott mock-fighting over their award to Gala co-hosts Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne calling each other evil twin and English MILF to Nancy Robertson and Ryan Robbins pitching a new comedy series to Emilie Ullerup re-enacting Angelina Jolie’s notorious one-leg Oscars pose to acting legend Gabrille Rose swearing on stage while presenting the final award to Sisters & Brothers for Best Feature Film.

It was a great way to let the public share in this celebration of artistic talent after a tough week, which had started with the official cancellation of homegrown sci-fi series Sanctuary, the most-recognized B.C. production by far with 18 Leo nominations going in. Sanctuary ended up winning four Leos for its fourth and final season, but only one on the night of the gala for a guest performance by Arctic Air’s Pascale Hutton, who sang beautifully and turned her head right around in the Glee-meets-The-Exorcist episode Fuge.

I’d hoped for a repeat of last year’s wild times on the red carpet outside the Hotel Vancouver on West Georgia Street, but organizers moved the red carpet inside the hotel this year to the conference floor and restricted access. Most of the nominees kept the party going after the red carpet to take a turn at the new Media Wall by the bar where I had a spot, but it was so dimly-lit I had to jack some light from the pro-photographers’ flashes. Here’s The Express’s Johanna Ward interviewing nominee and eventual winner Johannah Newmarch on the red carpet about her supporting performance in mockumentary Sunflower Hour. Ward later dropped by the Media Wall to wrangle nominees Ali Liebert from Bomb Girls and Emilie Ullerup from Arctic Air as a backdrop to her standup.

You can see the start of Emilie Ullerup’s one-leg Angelina homage and how the popular Cassini brothers photo-bombed the arrangement. That’s Frank on the left and John on the right. Frank Cassini later won a roar from the crowd and a Leo for his supporting performance on

#LeoAwards Nominations 2012 – TV Edition

May 2, 2012 Arctic Air, Endgame, Leo Awards, Mr. Young, Sanctuary, The Killing

TV rules at B.C.’s Leo Awards, which is the opposite of most American award ceremonies where the hierarchy goes film, then television. So it’s fitting that this year’s hosts on May 26th at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver will be Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne, the stars of homegrown sci fi series Sanctuary, which earned a whopping 18 nominations, including lead performance nominations for both Tapping and Dunne.

If you follow either of them on Twitter or tracked their progress at Comic-Con last year you’ll know that Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne are a madcap comedy duo off screen.

The other big TV series represented at this year’s Leos is CBC’s northern adventure series Arctic Air with nine nominations. Adam Beach wasn’t nominated for his lead performance but he’s probably not considered a B.C. actor. I was surprised though not to see Pascale Hutton or Kevin McNulty’s names on the list for Arctic Air, but pleased by the supporting performance nominations for Stephen Lobo and Emilie Ullerup plus a writing nomination for the one episode that was actually set here, the wonderfully-titled Vancouver is Such a Screwed Up City (Tim Webber and Carmen Moore got supporting performance nominations for the episode CTVAK).

The thing that made me happiest though is reborn-on-Hulu but cancelled-on-Showcase Endgame getting a dramatic series nomination for its production filmed mainly in the Westin Bayshore Hotel in Vancouver. Various B.C. actors Warren Christie (Alphas), Laura Mennell (Alphas), Erin Karpluk (Being Erica) and Meg Tilly (Bomb Girls) also got lead performance nominations for their productions filmed in Toronto, while Carmen Moore (Blackstone) got a lead performance nomination for her production filmed in Calgary. And there were other nominations for B.C. crew and actors on American productions filmed here, such as a guest performance nomination for Keegan Conner Trcy as the Blue Fairy/Mother Superior on Once Upon a Time and a supporting performance nomination for Brandon Jay McLaren for his role as Rosie’s teacher and suspect in her death on The Killing.

And in the youth or children’s drama category, The Haunting Hour is squaring off against multi-camera sitcom Mr. Young. I’m thrilled to see the talented Gig Morton and Milo Shandel get nominated

#YVRShoots Series – Teen Sitcom Mr. Young Live in Burnaby

March 18, 2012 Mr. Young

Published October 28, 2011 on Vancouver is Awesome

Break-dancing kid, rapper Mom, a trio singing The Climb while building a girl pyramid, large group performing the Macarena and YMCA. That’s the audience at the Live Show of homegrown teen sitcom Mr. Young. So much talent in the audience and on set makes the Friday night taping of this multi-camera sitcom a fun destination for parents and kids. Plus every so often a well-known actor sits watching the show instead of being on it: V’s Christopher Shyer and family won a round of audience Monster Family Feud last Friday.

Made-in-Vancouver Mr. Young is a situation comedy about child prodigy Adam Young (Brendan Meyer) returning to his high school at the age of 14 to teach science to his best friend Derby (Gig Morton), his crush Echo (Matreya Fedor) and the dim-witted school bully Slab (Kurt Ostlund). Filming its second season in a massive studio behind the old Watchmen set in Burnaby, Mr. Young is a Canadian hit about to make it big in the U.S. Last month children’s entertainment giant Disney started airing YTV’s #1 show on its Disney XD channel and this past weekend premiered three episodes on the main Disney Channel as well as multiple airings on Disney XD. Seven episodes aired on Saturday alone.

Is Mr. Young on its way to becoming The Suite Life North? It has the pedigree: Mr. Young was created by Dan Signer, the writer/producer of Disney’s hit series The Suite Life on Deck. And it’s certainly laugh-out-loud funny to kids and some of their parents, although some of the adult-oriented jokes might have to be toned down for prospective Disney audiences. Each episode name is a variation on the premiere Mr. Young, from Mr. Roboto to last week’s Mr. Tickleshmooz — about Adam’s attempt to clone his crush’s hamster after it dies in his care. I laughed watching Brendan Meyer give the stiffened original hamster CPR and again when the cloned hamster grew to monstrous size filling the school hallway. Monster hamster turned out to be the fifteenth episode of the second season, which started taping in July and wraps in January of next year — six months for 26 half-hour episodes, including brief hiatuses for the young cast.

Last Friday’s Live Show for Mr. Cyclops began with the audience load-in at 4:15 p.m. of about 200 into a basketball-court-length grandstand, followed by a playback of Mr. Tickleschmootz, which I’d already seen on TV at home. Shooting of live scenes began about 5 p.m. and ended five hours later at 10 p.m. with a curtain call for the cast. That’s a long time but the audience’s energy never flagged thanks to wrangler/performer Dave Dimapalis, who kept the kids hopping between set-ups with games, contests, singing, dancing, you name-it. This man is great at his job.

Of the eight live scenes we watched, my favourite had to be Adam and Derby dressed as Men in Black with CIA (Cyclops Intelligence Agency) badges in their back pockets and black one-eye bands on their heads.