TV crews are busy this month with a host of top-shelf shows now underway in and around Toronto. Out at the Dufferin Gate lot, season four of Queer as Folk just started, and will shoot until April for Showcase and U.S.-based Showtime.

Directors Jeremy Podeswa (The Five Senses) and Alex Chapple (Torso) are back behind the camera this time, taking their cues from producers Ron Cowen, Daniel Lipman, Tony Jonas and Sheila Hockin. Also due to helm eps this season are Kelly Makin (Earth: Final Conflict), Chris Grismer (Clutch), Kevin Inch (Monk) and Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo). Thom Best shares DOP duties with Gavin Smith, and will also direct.

Canuck Brad Fraser (Leaving Metropolis) is again on the six-man writing team with Lipman, Ron Cowen, Del Shores, Michael MacLennan and Shawn Postoff. Returning cast includes Gale Harold, Hal Sparks, Randy Harrison, Scott Lowell, Peter Paige and Michelle Clunie.

Paradise regained

Season two of Paradise Falls finally got underway late last month, and crews spent most of September shooting locations and exteriors in cottage country – Muskoka and Whitevale – before moving into Toronto’s Sullivan Studios for an eight-week stay through October and November.

Another 26 half-hours of the steamy soap are slated to air on Showcase by spring. The series stalled after a failed bid for CTF cash in 2002, but managed to score both CTF LFP and EIP funding in spring 2003, resurfacing just as many other shows went under. The per-ep budget has now almost doubled, to roughly $200,000, with further backing from Showcase, tax credits and the Independent Production Fund.

The series has also switched to high-definition video – more expensive, but worth it, according to exec producer Ira Levy. ‘I’ve seen the rushes and they look fantastic,’ he enthuses.

Levy and Peter Williamson exec produce for Breakthrough Films and Television, and have tapped directors John Greyson (Proteus), Penelope Buitenhuis (Bliss) and Michael Story (Before I Say Goodbye), among others. Story also doubles as DOP. The scripts come from creator Paula J. Smith and exec story editor Alex Galatis.

Levy says the delay had little effect on cast or crew, although some talent has drifted away, including Kristin Booth and Carla Collins. New to the cast are Raven Dauda (Bliss), David Ferry (The White Room), Salvatore Migliore (Queer as Folk), Kate Trotter (Marie Curie) and Alan Van Sprang (Earth: Final Conflict), who join returning cast members include Dixie Seatle, Art Hindle, Victoria Snow and Steve Cumyn.

Showcase is rerunning the 52 eps of season one in advance of the new batch.

The next Next Season

Season three of Degrassi: The Next Generation continues to shoot at the Epitome lot and on locations in Toronto, following the show’s Sept. 17 return to CTV. Producers Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn will wrap the 22-ep shoot in early November, having worked through a generous $11-million budget. Degrassi is backed by CTF’s LFP and EIP, CTV’s fee and its BCE Benefits fund, the Shaw Television Broadcast Fund, the Telefilm New Media Fund, the Independent Production Fund, fed and provincial tax credits, and a ‘substantial advance’ from distributor AAC Kids.

‘So many applications!’ says Schuyler, laughing. ‘But we need them all to make it fly.’ Degrassi has sold in markets including Britain, France, Australia and is seen in the U.S. on Noggin.

Key cast from the original teen series – Pat ‘Joey’ Mastroianni, Amanda ‘Spike’ Stepto and Stefan ‘Snake’ Brogren – are back on the regular roster this season, which, like last year, opened with a one-hour special by director Bruce ‘Cowboy’ McDonald.

Finkleman, Meyboom give it 100 Percent

Longtime partners Ken Finkleman and Jan Peter Meyboom have again joined forces, this time under the banner of newly formed 100 Percent Films and Television. The self-styled alternative prodco, based in Toronto, aims to turn out innovative shows, for both the domestic and service markets, and is now at work on the second season of The Newsroom for CBC.

‘We want to be able to turn on the tap and go from an idea on a napkin all the way to a finished, packaged product,’ says Finkleman, the celebrated director of Foreign Objects, More Tears and the original Newsroom series.

‘Ken is a lightning rod for talent,’ adds Meyboom, also a Newsroom vet. ‘We’re excited about establishing a place where projects are treated with passion.’

It’s a wonderful lifetime

Director Maggie Greenwald (Tempted, What Makes a Family) is wrapping her four-week Toronto shoot of Comfort and Joy, an MOW with Nancy McKeon and Dixie Carter (Family Law) slated for Lifetime’s Christmas schedule. McKeon stars as a single career woman who, after a nasty car wreck, wakes up in a new life as a stay-at-home mom with two kids. Carter plays her meddling mother.

McKeon, who once upon a time played Jo on The Facts of Life, is also a regular feature on the U.S. cabler’s cop drama The Division. Writer Judd Parkin (Nicolas’ Gift) exec produces with Dave Collins and Ron Ziskin (Stealing Sinatra). Susan Jones is production coordinator.