It was an about-face for the writers who brought us the glossy urban angst of E.N.G. But Wayne Grigsby and Barbara Samuels have another winner in North of 60, Alliance Communications’ new dramatic series about the daily conflicts between the aboriginal and white populations of a rugged northern town. The series, which airs on cbc, is in line for nine Geminis.

‘We wanted to try something that was completely different from E.N.G.,’ says co-executive producer Grigsby. ‘E.N.G. was a very urban, white, upper-middle-class kind of show with fairly monochromatic types of concerns and issues. After writing more than 40 episodes of E.N.G., we just wanted to go away and come up with something new.’

Grigsby says co-creator and co-executive producer Samuels had been interested in Canada’s North for some time. Grigsby says he had cultivated a broad awareness of Northern issues working on cbc’s Cross Country Checkup.

‘After a great deal of research it just grew into this town (Lynx River, where the series is set),’ he says. ‘We both come from Quebec so the idea of cultures rubbing up against each other was very natural waters for us to explore. Our central theme in the show focuses on how people from different cultures learn to live with one another. This opens up the kinds of issues people all over the world worry about.’

The project was greenlighted by the cbc in January 1992. ‘They liked the script,’ says Grigsby. In fact, cbc execs liked it so much they dispensed with the usual procedure of ordering five or six more scripts before giving the go-ahead, and boldly committed for production of 16 episodes. Possibly not quite so brazen a move when one considers that Canada’s premier powerhouse production company, Alliance, was behind the series and the executive producers/writers had the long-running hit series e.n.g. as their calling card.

Financing came easily, says Grigsby. ‘That’s the great part about working with a big company like Alliance. At a certain point we didn’t have to worry about that because they have whole wings of the company with capable, experienced people who go away and make things happen.’

Alliance also made the connection with producers Doug MacLeod and Tom Dent-Cox of Alberta Filmworks. The Toronto company had been around this particular track with MacLeod and Dent-Cox when it shot Bordertown for one season in Alberta.

‘Most of our crew working in Bragg Creek (where the series is filmed) have worked predominately on features, but once they got over the shock of working at the pace required for a television series, I’d say we’ve got one of the best crews in Canada.’

The producers had an unexpected surprise: there in the middle of the Prairies they unearthed a crew of ‘showbiz carpenters’ who had worked on big-budget theatrical productions like Show Boat and Phantom of the Opera in Calgary.

Grigsby says it was still a scramble to get such an enormous job done in the time frame. ‘We would be finishing off a room just before the cameras arrived to film the first scene on a set.’

As for audience reception to the series, Grigsby says the first episode attracted 1.2 million viewers and the numbers are holding steady. It’s helped, he adds, that cbc put a lot of hype and promotional support behind the series.

In French Canada, where a dubbed version of North of 60 is now in its first season on Radio-Canada, the show has far exceeded expectations, attracting an average of 800,000 viewers per episode. ‘No one expects dubbed shows to do well,’ says Grigsby. ‘We thought 400,000 or 500,000 would be pretty good.

‘What we get from audience research,’ he adds, ‘is that viewers like the town and want to know what’s going on there. In a way, we have distilled a lot of the things that go on in cities and towns everywhere in Canada.’

Grigsby marvels at how the show has evolved from concept to reality in such a short time. ‘I remember a wonderful moment on the first day of shooting when I was sitting down with (Alliance ceo) Robert Lantos and there was this town that hadn’t been there two months ago, and people who up until three weeks prior had just been characters that existed in Barbara (Samuels’) and my imagination. And then all of a sudden, bingo, it’s a real place that we’ve created. It’s always different than how you imagined it in your head, but it’s even more magical on another level in that it takes on a life of its own.’

Although at press time cbc had not declared its commitment for another season, Alliance has had positive indications that North of 60 will be renewed. Says Grigsby: ‘They’re returning phone calls, chatting merrily, so it looks good. You know you’re in trouble if they don’t return your calls.’