Time To welcome Back Mighty Ships

Mighty Ships is back for its fourth season with a real winner.
This weekly look at cutting-edge vessels kicks off its new season with a profile of the futuristic 157 metres-long DSV Skanti Arctic.
the Canadian made series salutes the Norwegian ship used in northern oil exploration.
The stakes are truly high stake here --this is a saturation dive support ship supporting diving workers who toil hundreds of meters below the surface.
Because everything that happens in this hour is totally real the tension is very high.
The divers work on repairing sunlen oil machines that dredge the oil from the sea bed.
The men are so fardown that it takes them five days in a compression chamber just to reach the surface after 20 days of underwater exploits.
If anything happens on the ship they are literally sunk. In one hair raising shot smoke is discovered in the ship --if it spreads or turns into a full blown fire the divers will all be lost.
The ship was designed for the utmost safety, comfort and efficiency. We see how every facet works --even the planning and execution of sumptuous divers which is dispatched down an air chute for the men.
If they get injured they may die because it would take five days to get them back up.
We see the usual preparation for the mass dive --one worker has high blood pressure which might impede his health working on the ocean floor. And we see their working on the actual sunken machinery --every rusted bolt spotted must be replaced by hand.
The men use a combination of oxygen and heliox which gives them the voices of chipmunks down under.
And finally near the end of the assignment the ship's captain must face the decision how to face massive waves during a brutal winter storm.
Might Ships is produced by Exploration Production Inc. (EPI) in association with Discovery Channel Canada and the series remains a winner.
Next week there's a profile of the USCGC Bertholf, the first of eight Legend Class ships buil;t for the U.S. Coast Guard.
MIGHTY SHIPS returns to Discovery Canada Wed. Feb. 23 at 8 p.m.
My Rating: *** 1/2.

Raccoon Nation: Outwitting The Critters

Toronto filmmaker Susan Fleming has a knack for explaining nature.
In last season's hour- long documentary Crows she explained how the black birds are among the most intelligent in the wild kingdom.
And she's done it again with Raccoon Nation --the hour premieres on The Nature Of Things Thursd. Feb. 24 at 8 p.m.
I felt this one might be specifically made for me --it opens with a tracking shot of the Don Valley and I pick out my street very clearly.
"You live in one of the most heavily infested raccoon areas in the city," Fleming explains to me on the phone.
Tell me about it. On garbage night as I'm putting out the trash I can look up in the trees and see the raccoons waiting for their chance to knock the cans over and enjoy a feast.
They're not there on other nights and I swear some of them have even figured how to unlock the cache.
Fleming spent a year documenting the problem in Toronto and elsewhere. She guesstimates she spent at least 90 all nighters tramping through Toronto backyards in search of her subjects.
And she gets some terrific shots: one has a mother raccoon showing her three kits how to compress their spines and slither through a wedge in a garage door.
Two of the kits learn pretty quickly but the third seems to be a slow learner and finally mother has to pick him up in her and through the tight opening.
The kits are so sweet, Fleming is saying and they need complete supervision during the first year of life. But once they reach sexual maturity --watch out!
In fact she has a whole segment on the raccoon problems in Japan?
Excuse me but I thought raccoons were native to the Americas? Well, Japanese parents saw how entranced their children were with a cartoon series on raccoon kits and bought the kits at pet stores...
When the raccoons matured they turned nasty and were let go and with no predators to contain them started running amuck.
One strange scene has normally peaceful Japanese monks involved in an extermination campaign before their temples crumble from the raccoon pests munching away at the timber.
In Germany it's the same problem: a pair of raccoons escaped in 1936 and have been taking over in the forests ever since.
Fleming worked with Chicago researchers to collar raccoons in the city and then release them to determine their field of operation.
"Surprisingly it's only a few blocks for each animal," she says. "And they don't seem to intrude on another's territory."
Fleming says city slicker raccoons have many of our health problems: they're obese from eating trash and can suffer from diabetes and tooth decay. Their country cousins may be fewer in number but are smaller, slimmer, more healthy.
Toronto with its network of ravines has been dubbed the raccoon capital of the world. Fleming manages to explain their word. She says evidence is mounting that the raccoons are getting smarter as they try to live in an urban jungle.
"I was surprised by a lot of what I saw. For example females can band together in a kind of nursery school for their kits. "
Besides multitasking the raccoons are also shown solving problems like how to tackle those pesky garbage locks. We see them spending hours at the task of picking the locks.
And Fleming insists picking locks is actually making their brains smarter.
I know what animal Fleming will next study but am sworn to secrecy here.
All I can say is it is an equal menace in Toronto and has four legs. Care to take a guess?
RACCOON NATION PREMIERES ON THE NATURE OF THINGS THURSD. FEB. 24 AT 8 P.M.
MY RATING: *** 1/2.

CBS Adds Another Spin Off

I remember when CBS used to be a forest of spinoffs.
Sometime in the mid1970s CBS threw a gigantic press party at legendary Chasen's for all the MTM series then running on the network.
Let's see, of course, Mary Tyler Moore and her gang all had tables. I sat at Cloris Leachman's table --her character of Phyllis had just been spun off.
Ed Asner and Valerie Harper also had tables --both their shows were spin offs.
It got quite congested, I can tell you.
And nights later CBS threw a similar fete for producer Norman Lear and all the sitcoms spun off from All In The Family including Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons. Later on there'd be another, Gloria, with Sally Struthers.
And this is exactly what CBS is doing these days.
Only now the number one rated U.S. network is spinning off its investigative dramas.
CBS begat CBS: Miami and CSI: New York and CBS wound up with three very similar procedurals.
After JAG drooped in the ratings a spin off with Mark Harmon, NCIS, flourished and in time begat NCIS: LA.
Now along comes a spin off of Criminal Minds called Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior.
I find th\ie original very gory and rarely watch but 2.5 million Canadian viewers caught the CTV premiere Wednesday night making it CTV's number one new series of the season.
Of course CTV had a little help from CRTC's blackout policy meaning the CBS signal in Buffalo gets blacked out on the cable package you're paying for so a duplicate CTV signal can be imposed.
But still Criminal Minds: SB did better than the combined competition from Global, CBC and Citytv.
Of course cloning TV style doesn't always work.
NBC tried it this season with Law & Order: Los Angeles but the cast never jelled and the situations seemed overly familiar.
Let's see, what other CBS shows could be cloned?
How about a spin off from The Good Wife titled The Bad Husband?
Or why not take Neil Patrick Harris's character from How I Met Your Mother, set him loose in another city in a little something called How I Left Your Mother?
Or just maybe CBS could clone another drama series and present us with Before Flashpoint casting younger versions of the characters when they were at police academy?
Just thinking, that's all.

Yawn! CBC Announces Fall Line Up!

I have absolutely no idea why CBC sneaked out details of its fall TV schedule on a drowsy Friday afternoon.
Could the reason be there's not much to celebrate so far this season?
Its few big hits --Rick Mercer, Heartland, Dragon's Den --have been predictably renewed.
And other shows that are almost hits --Republic Of Dole, Ron James--are coming back.
The big surprise to me is the pickup of Little Mosque which has wilted right away. On the other hand it's one of those shows hand picked by new general manager, programming Kirstine Stewart. But ratings wise it's in the "brain dead" category.
The renewal list does not include 18 To Life, Men With Brooms, Village On A Diet, Debbie Travis and the venerable Just For Laughs.
Could any of these be possible pick ups later on? CBC sources aren't saying.
Men With Brooms had such promise and a great cast of funsters. But two episodes had to be made at the same time and this lack of quality showed.
The currently running InSecurity? The jury is still out. It has potential but not a whole lot of guarateed laughs every episode. But it will be back not because it deserves another chance but because CBC isn't going to cancel all its new shows. CBS did that once and emerged with a stronger schedule.
But at CBC this year it's been a time of waiting for the dust to clear after the quick departure of controversial head programming honcho Peter Stursberg.
His successor, Kirstine Stewart, hasn't been in the job long enough to effect any turn around.
Contractually she's obliged to another season of those cheesey U.S. imports Wheel Of Fortune and Jeopardy!--I have no trouble with that because they draw in big advertising bucks as well as huge ratings that can help the CBC prime time schedule.
The U.S. webs wait until the May sweeps to announce new product. But CBC has its five new series already chosen.
Mr. Dee will star Toronto comic Gerry Dee.
Michael Tuesday and Thursdays written by Bob Martin and directed by Don McKellar has Martin, Martha Burns and Jennifer Irwin. Let's hope it fares better than McKellar's last CBC seffort, Twitch City which wassadly neglected by the Corp.
The co-production of the season will be Camelot, another mediaeval thingy, starring Joseph Fiennes, Eva Green and debuts first on the U.S. cable web Starz.
Of two other new shows I only know the titles: Dealer To Leader from Kevin O'Leary and Cover Me Canada.
I still see no culture show --a major omission on a publicly funded network.
May I suggest CBC's Stewart instantly revive an old stand by: Rear View Mirror, stock it with fancy reruns from the CBC vaults from opera to ballet and even plop in a few choice episodes of Front Page Challenge, and run it for six weeks on lazy Sunday afternoons?
Why? To prove CBC is more than just imitating the trends on American TV.

CTV Must Change For The Better

When I wrote my appreciation of departing CTVGlobemedia president Yvan Fecan I mentioned that others who worked closely with him would also depart.
So it's no surprise to see that Fecan's programming czar at CTV, Susanne Boyce, is also decamping followed by CTV's expert on regulatory matters, Paul Sparkes, and CFO John Gossling.
It's an indication the once and future owners of CTV, Bell BCE, agrees that the current model of operation is broken and big changes need to be done fairly quickly.
No question about it the soft-spoken Boyce rearranged the broadcasting company as primarily a carrier of imported American series.
To accomplish this clear goal CTV had to be ruthless in outbidding the competition to get the big hit series.
In those days CTV was so flush with cash it actually bought series to keep Global and Citytv from acquiring them.
One example is Desperate Housewives which CTV plunked down big bucks as its extra show in case something else failed --for the first month or so CTV ran it off Sunday afternoons at 4 until it zoomed to the top in the U.S. and quickly got pride of place in the Canadian schedule.
Another example is Kevin Hill which CTV bought just to keep Global at bay --CTV never ran this drama with Taye Diggs and the irony is it was made in film studios just down the street from the Toronto Star.
At the big launches every fall Boyce would parade in front of a gaggle of American stars all lined up to show CTV was number one.
In recent years these stars disappeared because CTV understood it was sending out the wrong message. After all it was supposed to be a Canadian based national network.
For the last decade CTV bought so many U.S. shows at top prices it spent comparatively little on Canadian programming. In refusing to promote homegrown talent CTV in the process lost much of its own identity.
But things are changing. Ailing Global TV was sold off in a fire sale to ambitious Shaw Media which presumably has the bucks to outbid CTV if it wants.
And feisty Citytv used to get the left overs but all that might change with feisty Rogers Media behind it.
Boyce's fixation on U.S. shows did give CTV big ratings but only with the connivance of the CRTC. Prime time on CTV and Global turned into a sea of simulcasting with Buffalo stations blocked out for most of the evening and CTV or Global signals substituted.
There have been recent CRTC attempts to force the Canadian networks to spend as much on Canadian shows as they spend on U.S. imports already available on American channels. Let's see how far that goes.
What's readily apparent is the slow and inevitable decline of conventional networks and the growing competition from cable weblets and digital alternatives.
Costs are skyrocketing. I remember CBC's top programmer Thom Benson once confiding to me in 1972 he was spending all of $2,500 a week on Mary Tyler Moore. Today a top sitcom might cost CTV or Global upwards of $400,000 an episode.
And can CTV afford anymore to buy up series just to keep them from the competition?
In the new BCE configuration CTV sports head Phil King takes over duties for independent Canadian broadcasting which he'll have to quickly grow.Rick Brace who once headed TSN is now in charge of specialty and in-house programming.
But don't forget BCE owned CTV once before and sold off much of its interest because of a lack of synergy.In the new configuration of Canadian TV everything is about product. American product may be harder to control in the future --the simulcasting blackout of border stations is a clumsy device that could quickly become outmoded. A computer geek down the street is peddling a device that gives a false computer destination --thus he can unblock the website hulu which shows NBC programming.
CTV and its weblet cable affiliates do have bright futures only if they start paying attention to their Canadian roots.

CBC's Nature Of Things: Back To Its Roots?

A friend seemed surprised when I cut short a telephone conversation by saying I had to get back to watching a TV documentary about ferrets.
Once upon a time this would not have been so unusual.
When I started out as TV critic of The Spectator way back in 1970 CBC-TV was awash in nature series celebrating the wonders of this great country.
Let's see there were the monthly specials of naturalists John and Janet Foster --I vividly remember one on the rain forest of Queen Charlotte Islands.
And tugging and pressing against Nature Of Things there was that great CBC rival This Land which eventually got killed off for lack of funds.
That only leaves Nature Of Things and it must cram in all of science into its 13-week yearly schedule.
I'm not sure what I expected to find with the ferret profile, Return Of The Prairie Bandit which premieres on CBC-TV Thursday Feb. 10 at 8 p.m. but the hour is jam packed with great shots and a belief this Canadian ferret deserves to survive back in its native prairie habitat.
Filmmaker Kenton Vaughan took a real gamble in focusing on the black-footed ferret, the only ferret native to North America.
This ferret unlike the store bought European varieties is almost wholly noctural and difficult to film.
It was long thought to be extinct --the last sighting in Canada was in 1937.
This particular ferret became a victim of evolution: for centuries it lived in the North American grassland and by a trick of evolution gradually fixated on prairie dogs who once numbered over a billion before the introduction of European settlers.
The early settlers on both sides of the 49th parallel tried to exterminate prairie dogs because they were simply a nuisance. When the prairie dogs disappeared so did the ferrets who could not switch diets after centuries of single source dependency.
"I'm a Saskatchewan farm boy originally," says Vaughan. "I'd always wanted to do something on Grasslands National Park." When he learned black-footed ferrets were going to be reintroduced he decided to try and film this experiment.
The hour would not have worked before the advent of night vision photography.
We travel along with biologist Travis Livieri as he unleashes 19 females and 15 males back into reconstituted prairie dog colonies. The ferrets obligingly scatter down abandoned prairie dog colonies.
And Vaughan had to return the next season to check and see how many survived a cruel winter or other predators like wolves and Coyotes who would go after them.
These ferrets were zoo bred and teaching them the ways of the wild meant long sessions at "ferret boot camp" where they were re-taught how to kill prairie dogs --it's one of the film's highlights.
Another great shot: on the lone prairie a prairie dog happens upon a ferret during daylight hours and has the better of the encounter --prairie dogs are bigger and the only way ferrets can kill them is at night --as the prairie dogs sleep in their tunnels the ferret pounces for the kill by strangling them with vicious bites to the neck.
The hero of all this is Livieri who is seen trudging through the night searching for signs of the ferrets he had unleashed the season before --his sighting of three ferret kits is one happy ending to this story. But another tragedy unfolds as one colony of prairie dogs is infected and destroyed by flea-bearing plague.
Vaughan skillfully gets us emotionally involved in this true life story of survival. It took him a year to film the beginning and the outcome and it was surely worth the time and effort.
Nature shows on CBC are fighting a similar struggle just to survive. Return Of The Prairie Bandit is the kind of venture fully justifying CBC's mandate.
RETURN OF THE PRAIRIE DOG PREMIERES ON NATURE OF THINGS ON CBC THURSD. FEB. 10 AT 8 PM.
MY RATING: *** 1/2.

Is There Life After Friends?

Never have a bunch of young actors seemed as friendless as the cast of the smash NBC sitcom Friends (1994-2002).
Since the series finally went into permanent rerunland the six actors have been struggling to find new identities for themselves.
And that's hard to do when you've just co-starred in such a monster hit that is now in repeats from morning to night.
Let's see now, the most successful of the gang is actually the least talented. Yes, it's Jennifer Aniston who has starred in a whole rush of romantic movie comedies.
Only occasionally has one of them been a big it --Marley And Me is one example.
More famous for her boyfriends than her acting ability, Aniston has spoken about a long proposed Friends reunion either as a TV special or on the big screen.
The most beautiful surely is Courtney Cox currently starring in the variable TV comedy Cougar Town.
At 47 she's still straining to break free from her Friends role --she played Monica Geller.
After Friends she tried another show, the aptly titled flop comedy Dirt (2007-08) and is mounting a movie comeback in Scream 4. But these days she's making headlines for divorce proceedings against husband David Arquette.
The most talented gal was certainly Lisa Kuydrow, now 48.
Her comedy style is certainly offbeat. On TV she's been in the series The Comeback (2005) as well as last year's Web Therapy. But I thought she was funniest in 1997's Romy And Michele's High School Reunion.
Matt LeBlanc, 44, was the only one of Friends to see his character spun out into the unfunny sitcom Joey which struggled for 46 episodes from 2004 to 2006.
But like Perry he's attempting another comeback --this time it's in the cable series, Showtime's Episodes
David Schwimmer, 45, who played Ross basically got away from it all by jump starting a new career as a TV and movie director.
Which takes us back to Matthew Perry who is making another TV comeback on ABC's new show Mr. Sunshine debuting Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. By the way did you know Perry narrowly beat out *(*(*(*(*( to get the Chandler part in the first place?
Let's not forget the stellar job Perry did on the Aaron Sorkin series Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip which was over written by brilliantly performed by an ensemble cast headed by Perry.
Mr. Sunshine is something else.
I saw it last fall with the other new series and was underwhelmed. Simply stated it just might flourish on a cable weblet where it could have freedom to frown and develop.
Network TV is another matter.
CBS has a new episode of the big hit Criminal Minds at 9, NBC has an easier show to knock off, Minute To Win It.
ABC has hammocked Mr. Sunshine between the super popular Modern Family at 9 and something called Off The Map at 10.
Trouble is there's nothing really sunshiny about this very strange sitcom. Perry is still playing Chandler --with ease.--Chandler 15 years on.
He does PR for a San Diego sports arena, the Sunshine Center. His boss is one Crystal Cohen played with amazing verve by Allison Janney as a pill popping nut case.
Her grown son played with joyful innocence by Nate Torrence doesn't get or deserve respect from anyone.
And Perry's hopeful squeeze is the delightful Andrea Anders from Better Off Ted. But she's attracted to James Lesure from the series Vegas.
Honestly,. I didn't know how to approach this one. Weird? Yes! There are no standard sitcom situations but I found myself laughing out loud on occasion.
If American viewers are ready for something completely different then Mr. Sunshine is just the right ticket.
If not? Then those Friends can continue plotting a TV reunion or two.
MR. SUNSHINE PREMIERES MOND. AT 8 ON CTV AND WED. FEB. 9 AT 9:30 P.M. ON ABC.
MY RATING: ** 1/2.