good news for indies

TVOntario head Peter Hernndorf is making good on his New Year’s pledge for change at the regional television service. The latest adjustments are in the form of two new positions – head of independent production and executive producer of children’s programming – to be filled by Elke Town of Telefilm Canada and Josh Morris of ytv respectively.

The appointments should spell new opportunities for independent producers. Morris says he’ll be calling on producers within a year for new program ideas, while tvo is tagging Town’s department as ‘a one-stop shop for the independent production community.’

Morris comes to tvo’s children’s and youth programming department after five years at ytv, where he was credited with ‘discovering’ such talents as ytv news anchor Janis Mackey and the Grogs puppets. In his new post, he will be working with tvo youth programming creative head Adrian Mills to develop new series and oversee existing shows such as Polka Dot Door.

Morris cites grade-schoolers and tweens as a new market he will go after. ‘I think that tvo, because of the huge amount of choice kids have now and the fact that they know how to use channel-changers, has lost some audience share. tvo is strong in preschool and good at shows that parents want their kids to watch, but as soon as kids get the channel-changers in their hands, they change to something that is not educational.

‘We won’t stop doing educational, but we will look at creating programs where the learning comes because the kids are attracted to the show and its characters. Kids have a hard day at school and when they come home they want to be entertained, they want to relax.’

Morris sees the development of an identifiable block of tvo programs where kids ‘will want to hang out with the tvo vibe’ as one key; the other is developing programs where ‘pedagogical information is slipped in.’

Morris cites Beakman’s World, a science show for kids ‘which is insane and raunchy’ as a good example of the type of programming he has in mind. ‘They teach kids how a toilet works, and do it with toilet humor, but in the meantime kids are learning about hydraulics.’

Existing shows, or such oldies hits as Today’s Special, will be brought back ‘in a slightly renovated format’ and new shows will be developed, says Morris. He expects a call for new ideas to go out to the production community within a year.

Morris takes up his new post Aug. 8.

When Town leaves her near-four-year post as manager of creative affairs at Telefilm (sometime this summer), she will be looking at building tvo’s independent production office from scratch, according to tvo spokesperson Sharon Salson.

Says Don Duprey, tvo director of English programming: ‘We’ll be focusing on distinctive, innovative and provocative Canadian programmingÉ(and) Elke’s job will be to give producers an opportunity to have their voices heard.’

Before Town joined Telefilm in 1989, she was an independent curator and freelance arts critic, working with such organizations as the Canada Council, Art Metropole and Vanguard Magazine.

Town was out of the country and unavailable for comment. PC