Mike's Bloggity Blog

Remember when Glee premiered last year and a small group of people rallied to save the show?  It was the amazing “little show that could.”  Now Glee has completely exploded and everyone knows about it.  The flip side of the coin is that people who haven’t even seen it yet are sick of it.

The show will be back on Global TV in just a few week on and they’ve just released the first preview of the show’s second season.  Looks promising, but that probably doesn’t mean a thing!

As an example of how huge this show, watch how many blogs post this video today.

Oh CBC why did you have to mess with a good thing?

When George Stroumboulopoulos and The Hour returns this fall, this are going to look at little different.

Firstly, the name of the show itself will be different.  When it premieres on September 20th it will be called George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight.  The name change isn’t horrible, but it pretty much ensures that no one will ever find it on Google.  I’ve been writing about George for five years and still have to google search his name each and every time.

The other major change will be the seven year-old show’s length.  The former hour-long late night talker is getting cut down to only 30 minutes.  With commercials, that means we will probably only have about 22-minutes of the total swoon-tastic media personality.

Yikes!  30 minutes is not a lot of time for a show that has been the only one to come close to generating the buzz of The Daily Show.  Sorry Mike Bullard, you that’s true.

So what do you think? Will any of these changes help a show that didn’t even need help in the first place?

Days after the Emmys, Canadian’s attention have now turned towards our own television sets with the Geminis!  Don’t sigh, the Geminis are cool. No really, seriously, stop rolling your eyes.  It is the Geminis people!

This year the Geminis are celebrating their 25th anniversary in Toronto by announcing hundreds of nominees in dozens of categories all having to do with Canadian television productions.

Click here to read the entire list of nominees.

But with so many nominations, I thought I break some down for you.

Being Erica (Six nominations)
My fave series about our dearest little time-traveller should be really happy with their six nominations including for Best Male Actor Michael Riley.  But the most shocking bit of news is that last year’s winner Erin Karpluk didn’t get nominated!!!  Uhh…what?  I nearly spit out my Honey Nut Cheerios when I read this!  Seriously shocked. Obviously this is a huge mistake.  You should expected the nominations to be retracted any minute….right?  RIGHT?!?!  (Single tear.)

Melinda Shankar from Much’s Degrassi scored a nominated for Best Performance in a Children’s Program…but not for Degrassi. She is also the star of How To Be Indie and that’s what she got nominated for!  With her nomination, we should now officially have her on lock-down so the CW can’t steal another one of our actresses.

Poor Jay Onrait.  One the funniest broadcasters was nominated for Best Sportscaster/Anchor but he’ll face some heavy competition from my secret best friend Brian Williams who pretty much should have gotten his own gold medal for his coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.  But what is working for Onrait is that he has an awesome twitter account.  That has to count for something.

The awards will be handed out on November 13th.

It is has been about six days since we’ve last had a new Degrassi episode.  I don’t know about you, but I have the shakes. My mouth is try and no matter how hard I put on a jean jacket, it just doesn’t look as cool as when Alli does it the opening credits.

We’ll have to wait until the fall for new episodes, but I think you can call the six-week telenovela style run a success!  Sure the ending was a little anti-climatic, given all the hype, but it was still really fun.  I was actually on-set standing right beside the kids when they were filming “the stabbing”, so I’m happy to prove to everyone that I can keep a secret….as long as there is a legal contract forcing me to do so.

But through the magic of fast working editors, I’m so happy that we can at least watch the preview of the next batch of six-weeks worth episodes.   As always, well there is alot going on. And if you listen closely at the end, it sounds like someone is leaving Degrassi.

If I had to make a guess, I would say it would be Alli (Melinda Shankar).  She has just been brought back to film her second season of the hit show How To Be Indie and producers of Degrassi have said that she would be disappearing for a while to work on that show, but that she would be in the halls of Degrassi for sure!

Oh Degrassi, why do I always feel like a teenage girl everytime I write about you?  Better yet, why don’t I feel bad about it?

In celebration of Being Erica Season 2 DVD release next week (September 14th), I’m more than happy to be giving away two copies of this amazing Canadian series.  You hear that Lindsay Blackett?  A show that is far from shit!

You’ll remember that this is the season that Erica met the mysterious Kai, her relationship with Ethan reached a boiling point and we found out a LOT more about Dr. Tom.

So how do you win them?

Two ways:
1) Check out my brand-new exclusive interview with Erin Karpluk about Season 3 and tell me which part of the new season you most excited about! Leave your answer in the comments!
2) Tweet the following message:  “Being Erica Season 2 comes out on DVD September 14th.  But I want it now from @mikesbloggity! http://ow.ly/2xeXZ
”

Contest closes September 8th at 11:59PST.  You can enter both ways, but only once each way.  That sounds more confusing than I mean it. Essentially you can enter a total of two times.

Good luck!

David Usher‘s newest single is really doing it for me, so I thought it would be a great song to share with all of you! It is called Je Repars and no, you aren’t drunk, he is singing in french with his friend and singer Marie Mai. Sure I have no idea what they are saying, but it sounds so pretty. Have a listen. It is the first single of Usher’s new album called The Mile End Sessions which will be out on September 14th.

Such a pretty song for a Tuesday, no?

Remember a couple of months ago when Alberta Minister Lindsay Blackett asked a panel at the Banff World Television Awards “Why does Canada produce such shit?” (watch video) Ugh.  Sure you do. I’m still mad about it.  Apparently so are a lot of people, and thankfully this isn’t an issue that has gone away quietly. It has also been great to see people not asking for the ministers resignation, but instead asking what is Blackett going to do about this so called “shit”.

Well last week on CBC’s The Q, Guest Host Zaib Shaikh moderated a very important panel to discuss Canadian Telelvision with the minister and one of our country’s most respected actors Peter Keleghan from CBC’s 18 to Life.

I would really like for all of you to take a moment to listen to the piece. Click here and then go to August 25th.  It was really good to hear the two sides discuss the pros and cons of our entertainment industry.  Even if you don’t know any actors, writers, directors or anyone else involved in making a television show, it is important to know what you specifically can do make sure that we continue to produce quality shows, which will someday help with the quanity.

You know the debate is going to be good, when Shaikh asks Blackett on the first question: “What shows do you think are *bleep*?”  Blackett coyly responded:  “What I was refering to was a lot of the stuff that we fund that never even makes it to television.“  Can I just going ahead and say that that is a bullshit answer.  Does he really think that everything that gets funded will be a huge success on television or even make it to the airwaves? I mean how hours has his government spent on bills and reforms only to have them never see the light of day.  If Blackett can show me anything in this world that has a 100% success rate from start to finish, then I’ll show him my jaw nailed to the ground.

As actor Keleghan later points out, the States are notorious for making hundreds of pilots, it is called Pilot Season. They are supposed to be trials runs. While it would be great to see every single new show go from development to full-season orders, it just doesn’t happen.

Deep breath, deep breath and one more, deep breath.

But please listen to the piece yourself: Click here and then go to August 25th I can go on forever about it.  And once you’ve listened, make sure you have your say. Either in my comment section or The Q’s.  I really would like to keep this discussion going.

Whether we like it or not, a Canadian version of MTV’s Jersey Shore will soon be hitting the airwaves.  Now I’ve actually never seen an episode of JS (true story) but that doesn’t mean I don’t know that is a festering pile of STDs that comes through your TV each and every Thursday night.

But because this is Canada, we are at least getting the choice of which carriers we will be able to watch.  The producers have just announced the Top 24 for the new show aptly called LakeShore and now it is up to us to pick which eight contestants will get to have their lives filmed and future non-entertainment related career aspects ruined.

Sure it is lame, it is cheesy. But is is Canadian, so I gotta cover it.  Plus if you vote, you should look at it like you are giving eight people incredible media attention.  That way, if they start dating your son or daughter, best friend or cousin, you’ll already know all about them and the police will likely already have a file on them.  Really, you are just expediating the process.

Some of the finalists in a girl named Kalifornia who flaughts to be original, yet looks like everyone else. Robby Simpson, Mark Sybydlo and Manuael Deon look like your father’s worst nightmare.  So if that is your cup of tea, you could vote for them. The cast-geek Vonny will definitely be getting in.  The site has been promoting him since the start. Obviously having never owned a TV, Karolina Czaja this she can use the show to promote her career and her love of the Arts. There are even twins Easton and Dana who promise double the trouble.  I’m assuming they mean in the judical system.

Voting closes on September 3rd.  Do you part Canada, do your part.
Let’s just cross our legs and hope that none of these guys become terrorists!

It turns out that Theo Tames wasn’t the worst thing ever to come out of Canadian Idol!

Just two days ago, RCMP raided two houses in the nations capital and ended up arresting three men on the very scary charges of terrorist offenses.  Sadly one of these people wasn’t Ben Mulroney.  Instead it was a former contestant by the name of Khurram Syed Shur.  Don’t worry if you don’t remember him, it was four years ago, it was on Canadian Idol and he didn’t even make it past the judges.

But thanks to the power of Youtube, you can re-watch his audition.  Personally, based on this audition, he should have been arrested four years ago!

I think I’m just suprised that it took this long for someone on Canadian Idol to be arrested. It happens yearly on the American version.

So now that we are talking Canadian Idol. Anyone got any updates for me?  I know Melissa O’Neil is singing with God Made Me Funky. But what about the rest of them?  Kalan Porter? Eva Avila? Theo Tame?  Ryan Malcom?  Anyone?  Hello….is this thing on?

(Story via yesterday’s weirdness)

So I have a bit of a problem and I was wondering if you could help.   You see, I’ve been in Chicago since Monday and I am supposed to leave.  The only problem is I really don’t think I can.  Not because of passport issues or anything yet, but because I’ve fallen in love with this city as quickly as a reality star with a camera.  Honestly, does everyone else know how cool Chicago is?  Because it is pretty freaking cool.

Just yesterday alone, I had the absolute luck of seeing two amazing shows on two very different spectrums.  The first was the broadway production of Billy Elliot.  I had always heard really great things about it, but I never saw the movie and I thought maybe the whole thing would have been lost on me.  But after posting it on Twitter, I was convinced that I could not be in Chicago and not see the show.  And boy am I glad I did.  I actually have to apologize to the audience who watched Billy Elliot with me, I was the bawling mess who was laughing hysterically the whole time.  Honestly, I was shocked at how good the entire production was. I really gave it some thought before I said it, but I really thing this was the best show I’ve ever seen.  Sure Lion King and Les Mis are bigger and more grandeur, but what Billy Elliot was able to do with relatively small production and some unbelievable kids was absolutely remarkable.  I feel like a better person for having seen the show.

The second show I saw on Wednesday was one that came at the very last minute.  I found out that David Gray and Ray LaMontange were performing at Millenium Park with Serena Ryder as the opening act.  I thought I was screwed because tickets had been sold-out for a long time, but as always, Erikson at MapleMusic Recordings came through for me BIG TIME and I was able to get tickets.  So I must thank him and the BEST, COOLEST, MOST AWESOME record label in all of Canada: MapleMusic Recordings, MapleMusic Recordings, MapleMusic Recordings, MapleMusic Recordings.

I don’t really have to tell you how good the show was,  It was David Gray, Ray LaMontagne and Serena Ryder, you know how good the show was.  It was actually funny because Serena only played four songs and everyone was so curious to who she was, they were shocked when I told them she regularly played sold out shows in Canada on her own. As always, Serena represented Canada perfectly!

David Gray was touring in support of his newest album Foundling.  I could be very wrong, but I think he only played one song from it.  The rest of the show was filled with David Gray’s best songs.  And even though I saw him in Calgary just a few months ago, thanks to Calgary’s uber-conservative concert-goer ways, it was waaaaaay better seeing him the second time around.  The entire audience was on their feet the whole time.  Any Calgarian will tell you that this is a huge no-no in our fair city.  Gray is one of today’s most consistent performers.  Luckily for us, that consistancy is usually absolutely perfect.When I got back to my hotel, I posted this message as my facebook status: “I’ve never been married or had a child, but I don’t see how either of those things could top my day today!!!”  I don’t know if Chicago is supposed to the city where dreams come true, but save from not having a bath in a tub full of McLobsters, today was pretty damn close.

So what do you got for me Canada?  Chicago’s made a pretty strong showing this week!  Oh that’s right, McLobsters.  See you tomorrow!