It’s almost unheard-of in series television: gather young, unknown, up-and-coming writers and directors and put them at the helm of a show airing on a major TV network.

So far, the gamble has paid off for Omni Film Productions. Its half-hour dramatic comedy Robson Arms, about the interactions of a mishmash of residents of a once-grand low-rise in Vancouver’s West End, has been a success with audiences and critics alike.

‘The bittersweet summer hit Robson Arms owes its success to its oddball yet captivating characters and its ability to deftly balance skittish humor with gutsy and mature storytelling,’ gushes Globe and Mail television columnist Henrietta Walmark.

The series, coproduced with Halifax’s Creative Atlantic Communications, made its premiere on CTV June 17 with a cast including Margot Kidder, Megan Follows, William B. Davis (The X-Files), Kid in the Hall Mark McKinney, Gabrielle Miller (Corner Gas) and Tobias Mehler (Young Blades). It also airs on CTV’s The Comedy Network.

Robson Arms averaged an audience of 450,000 over the course of its 13-episode run – solid given its unenviable Friday 10 p.m. summer timeslot. Omni exec producer Brian Hamilton says he is happy with the numbers.

‘The show has built a very enthusiastic following, and we’ve had tremendous feedback on its website,’ he says. ‘It’s not being perceived as a show made by ‘up-and-comers’ – it’s being compared to all other TV programming.’

The initial inspiration for the series came from Louise Clark, CTV’s director of western independent production, who approached writer Susin Nielsen to create characters for a show that transpires in a Vancouver apartment building. Nielsen chose Omni to produce Robson Arms, partly because of the company’s track record of working with emerging talent.

Hamilton says Omni viewed more than 100 demo reels, read more than 50 sample scripts and interviewed 50 different candidates to find writers and directors. Helmers who made the cut – mostly from B.C., but some from Nova Scotia as well – include Dwayne Beaver, Luke Carroll and Ben Ratner, better known for his performances in films including 19 Months. Among the writers are David Moses, Sioux Browning and Jesse McKeown, who went on to win a Leo Award for his Robson script ‘The Tell Tale Latex.’

‘We chose people whose body of work was a good fit with the type of series we were producing,’ Hamilton notes.

The production also looked to new technology to save money, capturing the series on a Panasonic AJ-SDX900 Cinema camcorder. The video camera shoots at 24 frames per second for a film-like picture.

Omni surrounded its dozen young directors with a seasoned crew, to facilitate production and enhance the learning experience. While veteran director/executive producer Gary Harvey took the helm for the first episode, the other helmers had three-and-a-half days of prep followed by three-and-a-half days of shooting per episode.

Liz Shorten of B.C. Film, which was involved in the initiative, says the opportunity of having emerging talent work on an actual primetime series is unique and welcome.

‘The response has been so overwhelming that we wanted to expand the reach of training by developing a DVD as a learning tool for other prospective writers and directors,’ she says.

The result was the recent release of the First Shots Training Program DVD from B.C. Film and CTV, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the series.

While CTV has not announced a pickup of season two, Omni is optimistic and has already commissioned new scripts.

www.robsonarms.com