Mission, B.C.: As Vancouver-based producer Chuck Lazer tells it, Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy is the production that finally convinced the b.c. cabinet to introduce the Film Incentive b.c. tax credit this year.

Cowboy – about as b.c.-oriented as a story can get – is based on the memoirs of Richmond Hobson, a pioneering soul who in the 1940s homesteaded in Vanderhoof, b.c. with his debutante bride from Vancouver to try to build one of the biggest cattle ranches in North America.

But because the cost of production was cheaper in Toronto – read tax credits – the original cbc pilot was shot there.

With the new b.c. credit, however, production of the series, coproduced by Vancouver’s Milestone Poductions and Toronto’s Alliance Atlantis, shifted to Danny Virtue’s ranch/studio facility in Mission, about 90 minutes east of Vancouver and the one-time home of the series Neon Rider. Through the provincial tax credit, the production receives the basic 20% rebate in addition to the 12.5% bonus for shooting just outside of the designated Vancouver area.

But as Lazer and his Toronto-based co-executive producer David Barlow indicate, the benefits of bringing the story home to b.c. have been more than financial.

Crew members take pains to report that even though they are paid 13% below scale to work on the show, Cowboy is an overwhelmingly happy experience.

After toiling on u.s. shows that are often much more impersonal, crew on Cowboy say the producers are accessible and the stories resonate with their Canadian psyches.

‘It’s not about the money,’ says best boy Brian Lymer. ‘It’s about who you work with. From the top down there is respect for everybody.’

That goodwill, says production manager Padi Mills, means the 70-member crew is unusually keen to help make the series successful. ‘Everyone is focused on saving money, putting more on the screen,’ she says.

One time, says overseeing producer Ogden Gavanski of Milestone, lighting technicians built a set of special ‘soft’ lights with materials that cost less than a year of rentals.

‘When you have a union agreement that is below scale, the one thing you can give a crew is the right conditions for work,’ explains Gavanski. ‘That means treating them well, getting them involved creatively, making it fun and taking away the b.s. aspect you find with some u.s. shows.’

As a period piece that is also a romantic comedy and action-adventure story, Cowboy offers special challenges, say producers. Wardrobe and dialogue must be of the time, and the producers and writers have done extensive research to keep true to the 1940s ethos, when war plagued the planet.

‘It’s a frontier story about survival,’ says Barlow. ‘We’re constantly reminded of the presence of nature.’

To that end, the storylines have involved a lot of physical action. For his role as Rich, Yannick Bisson has been training to learn rodeo skills. (In fact, he has a bet with Gavanski that, by the end of production Nov. 26, he can rope a steer from his horse. The winnings: a brand new saddle.)

Sarah Chalke, who plays Rich’s city-slicker wife Gloria, has been chased by a grizzly and an 800-pound pig in scenes around the rustic homestead.

Chalke, too, has had to learn how to ride horses for the series.

Ted Atherton, who plays cowboy Panhandle Phillips, has had to stare down cougars.

Atherton, normally a stage actor based in Toronto, was discovered by Barlow when the actor played Stanley the waiter in a production of Death of a Salesman at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. Stanley was the smallest role Atherton had taken in his 11 years in professional theater; he normally plays the hero soldier or young romantic or upper-class fool.

But Stanley was enough to convince Barlow that the hard-to-cast Pan Phillips was finally found.

‘I never would have dreamed that I’d be playing a cowboy,’ says Atherton, although he admits to looking the part when dressed in the hat and chaps.

‘The difference [between working in theater or on a television set] is greatest in the actual life,’ he adds. ‘Theater has much more civilized hours. In television, it’s like being in the army. They manage your time very carefully, and you work 12 or 14 hours a day. But our set is a lot of fun.’

The exterior set of Cowboy is a collection of authentic-looking log buildings including a cabin, a bunkhouse, a barn, an outhouse and a few other buildings for neighbors. Next to the cabin with the lean-to like addition where the newlyweds sleep, is a ratty little garden, which Gloria tends with little luck. And, of course, the exteriors take advantage of the untouched, natural beauty of the Virtue ranch.

The interior soundstages have been recreated in the vast equestrian center that has been newly constructed on the ranch site.

On this day, cast and crew are shooting episode nine, which deals with Rich and Gloria’s first anniversary and how it conflicts with Rich and Pan’s annual horse-hunting expedition.

Toronto director Graham Lynch is directing Chalke and guest star Sarah Strange in a scene of a subplot in which Strange’s character – an unrefined farm woman – is dealing with her mother’s sudden death.

‘We [the characters] hardly know each other,’ says Chalke, just before stepping into the scene. ‘But I help her face death; help her bury the body. We have this bonding moment. But believe it or not, amid all the drama of the scene there is quite a lot of comedy.’

Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy debuts on the cbc network in January ’99.