Vancouver: On Sept. 1, as part of the massive switchover of station affiliations in Vancouver, CKVU 13 returned to its roots as an independent station. This is a temporary measure, until the CRTC approves the $125-million purchase of the station by CHUM Ltd. and paves the way for it to become by fall 2002 The New VU or some such Citytv-branded station like Victoria’s The New VI.

Already the station, formerly owned by Global, is walking and talking like a CHUM station since CHUM is providing much of the fall programming and acts as CKVU’s national sales agent. The bulk of the new schedule will comprise CHUM shows such as FashionTelevision, Star TV, MovieTelevision, Electric Circus, Sex TV, Ed the Sock and The New Music.

First Wave, a science fiction series produced in Vancouver by Peace Arch Entertainment but never shown here by a local broadcaster, is among the early primetime shows on the schedule, including other Vancouver-made shows such as The Crow and Highlander. The 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. slot will be filled with movies.

News production, meanwhile, will be maintained with current budgets and resources, says station GM Don Wright. With BCTV and CTV BC growing their newsrooms, there has been a shuffling of talent (such as anchor Mike Killeen moving from CKVU to CTV BC). However, Wright says loyal viewers of Channel 13 in Vancouver will see little difference in their dinner-hour newscast.

Overall audience will drop, he admits, especially with Global’s powerful primetime lineup moving to BCTV. In fact, some of CKVU’s competitors are looking to surpass it in audience numbers.

‘We expect to deliver a better audience than CKVU, and we haven’t done that for a while,’ says Dave Reid, GM of independent border station KVOS Television in Bellingham, WA – long the thorn in the side of local Canadian broadcasters. KVOS has been bumped from Channel 12 to Channel 23 in Vancouver because of the introduction of CIVI in Victoria. Reid says it’s less important to be in the lower band of signals (in the days of remote controls), and he points to Seattle PBS affiliate KCTS, bumped way down the dial from Channel 9 by CTV BC in 1997, as an example of a station’s ability to maintain its audience after a channel move.

Studio Boffo

Vancouver’s Studio B, with 100 employees now one of the busiest animation production companies in Canada, has seen its three series renewed and has broadcasters attached to five other in-house series.

D’Myna Leagues’ second season is another 13 episodes with CTV and YTV and distributor Columbia TriStar International. Yvon of the Yukon is in a second season of 13 half-hours for YTV and distributors Alliance Atlantis and Germany’s TV-Loonland. What About Mimi? is in its third season of 13 episodes for Teletoon and Toronto’s Decode.

Meanwhile, Little Ian – a series about a gifted problem child by Yvon creator Ian Corlett – is going to MIPCOM with YTV attached. Something Else, based on the award-winning children’s illustrated book by Kathryn Cave and Chris Riddell, is in development with Germany’s TV-Loonland for Family Channel. Surf and Turf, featuring restaurant co-owners Surf the lobster and Turf the dog, is in development with Mainframe Entertainment and WB Network. Yakkity Yak, about a teenage yak who aspires to stardom as a stand-up comedian, is in development with Australian Kapow Pictures and Teletoon. And Crime Crackers, following the adventures of Jerry and his detective dog Chuckles, is in development with England’s Pesky Entertainment, Egmont Imagination and YTV.

Studio B is also doing service work, including the preproduction on 13 episodes of Woody Woodpecker for Universal.

The toonco has also launched a commercial animation division (See On The Spot, p. S-4).

In other related news, Studio B’s main audio post house Dick and Rogers, founded about 10 years ago, is moving into new third-floor facilities in the Studio B building at 190 Alexander Street in Vancouver’s Gastown area. As a result of D&R’s move, the Studio B complex is a one-stop shop for animation producers. Studio B is on the fourth and sixth floors, while its effects division Mercury Filmworks is on the fifth floor. D&R also works with Mainframe and Nelvana.

Piecework

Brad Pitt and Robert Redford were in Vancouver for three days ending Aug. 28 for insert shots for the Universal international thriller Spy Game. Vancouver stands in for Hong Kong.

* The U.K. version of The Mole is doing the first episodes of its season in Revelstoke, BC (which recently played host to the thriller The Barber) and the Revelstoke Dam. The Swedish and Norwegian versions of The Mole shot in parts of Vancouver Island earlier this summer.

Birthday presence

Sextant International Distribution, which officially launched last year at MIPCOM, expects to return to the annual trade fair with much to show for its first year in business. The Vancouver company, a division of Sextant Entertainment comprising smaller industry specialists, has secured the international distribution rights (outside Canada) to Endless Grind (Ocnus Productions), a 13-part, half-hour, coffee-shop anthology by Ottawa-based comic Greg Lawrence (Kevin Spencer, Butch Patterson: Private Dick).

President Thomas Howe has also secured the international rights to Force Four Entertainment’s CBC MOW Jinnah on Crime: Pizza 911. The mystery movie, the first of what Force Four hopes is a franchise, is about a South Asian crime reporter who works for a Vancouver newspaper. Production wrapped mid-August.

Also for sale will be two documentaries: Inside the Teenage Brain, an exploration of adolescent brain development made for PBS Frontline and CTV, and Innocent Tricks, an investigation of teen prostitution produced for CBC Newsworld.

U.S. and Japanese broadcasters, meanwhile, will be offered Don’t Eat The Neighbors, Sextant Entertainment’s coproduction with the U.K.’s Granada Media. The 26 half-hour episodes, in production in Vancouver, is a barnyard animal puppet show featuring the voices of Robert Lindsay (Citizen Smith, Oliver Twist), Simon Callow (A Room with a View, Four Weddings and a Funeral) and Mike McShane (Who’s Line is it Anyway?). The series debuts Sept. 13 in Canada on YTV.

Second story

Over at The New VI, CHUM’s newest station launching Oct. 4 in Victoria, producers Toni Kelley and Barbara Hager have picked The New Canoe as the title of their weekly, half-hour aboriginal affairs show. The series will focus on the traditional and contemporary artistry of Vancouver Island’s First Nations. CTV BC’s series First Story was B.C.’s first aboriginal affairs magazine.

Clarification

Vancouver’s Prophecy Films, rather than L.A.-based IMF, will distribute Infinity Film’s The Cariboo Runaways. ‘We had been in discussion with IMF but have not come to any agreements,’ says Pat O’Brien, a company partner.