THE BIG DECISION

On paper, “The Big Decision,” the unscripted series currently airing Mondays on CBC Television, may sound like a bit of a snooze with its corporate backdrop and business elements about work performance, management and budget issues.
In reality, however, viewers may find that this show delivers more raw emotional impact than most scripted prime-time dramas — because “The Big Decision” deals in human stakes that are very high and very, very real.
Each one-hour episode of this new Canadian entry, adapted from a successful U.K. series called “Gerry’s Big Decision,” finds one of two familiar investors — “Dragons’ Den” veterans Jim Treliving and Arlene Dickinson — visiting two established Canadian businesses that are struggling to survive in these lean financial times. In each case, the investor offers some suggestions and issues some challenges to make changes, then decides whether the company’s prospects are promising enough to merit a cash infusion to turn things around.
Each company is evaluated on its own merits, not in competition with the other business featured in that hour. Ultimately, the investor makes the decision to invest in either, both or neither of those companies.
It is, as they say, “just business, not personal,” but inevitably that means some of these people whom viewers are going to get to know and care about are going to wind up with an unhappy ending. That’s where the drama comes in, executive producer Tracie Tighe says.
“That weighs very heavily on the investors’ minds, because they have spent time with these people,” she says. “They go to their homes and share meals with them. They get to know the company and the people who work there inside and out, so it’s a tough, tough decision when it comes down to it, but it’s an investment decision and a business decision. Sometimes the personal just has to be separated. It’s like one of the investors says at one point, ‘This isn’t charity. It isn’t a handout. It’s about evaluating the businesses and see who should continue.’ ”
The March 19 episode finds Dickinson evaluating two very, different companies: Lavish & Squalor, an independent Toronto department store catering to a hip clientele, and Camino, a co-op that made a strong name in the fair-trade coffee and chocolate business.
“Lavish & Squalor is on Queen Street, which is Toronto’s hipster shopping mecca, and over the years a lot of the bigger chain stores have moved into the area,” Tighe explains. “They’ve been struggling with a bit of an economic downturn in the last few years, what with the high rents and just trying to stay alive in Toronto. They are up against it because it’s hard to keep the store stocked.
“It’s a couple that is now divorced but still business partners. They’re divorced from each other, but they’re still completely married to their business. It’s tough for either one of them to let go, so Arlene has some suggestions for their working relationship, which frankly isn’t met with that much enthusiasm.”
Camino, which is co-owned by 11 people, ran into serious trouble after the company invested in a new juice line, only to find itself with no money to adequately market the new products to prospective customers. w

LISA RAY: NEW HOST OF TOP CHEF CANADA

Chef and restaurateur Mark McEwan and Los Angeles restaurateur Shereen Arazm return as head judge and resident judge, respectively, but there’s a new host welcoming 16 competitors as “Top Chef Canada” kicks off its sophomore season Monday, March 12, on Food Network Canada.
International actress and recent cancer survivor Lisa Ray takes over the hosting chores from season one’s Thea Andrews, who appears in episode three as a guest judge. “Thea is pregnant and couldn’t resume her role,” explains Ray, who was recommended for the hosting gig by Steve Gonzalez, a fan favorite from season one. “I was extremely enthusiastic but at the same time slightly hesitant, because I don’t really have a lot of experience in this kind of programming. But after sitting down and meeting the team, it seemed like the perfect fit for where I am in my life right now. I am a recent cancer ‘graduate,’ and for me to take on hosting this fabulous franchise felt like a celebration.”
Ray freely acknowledges that she isn’t a credentialed food expert, but she is a devoted and knowledgeable foodie. “I have a passion for food, and I have lived all over the world and been exposed to so many cuisines,” she says. “I consider myself a food voyeur, because it’s the first thing that I always like to talk about. On the program, I position myself as the audience. I am the one who gets to ask the questions that have plagued us for so long, like ‘What the hell is a confit?’ ”
Ray says she had even more fun than she had expected filming this season, although she was caught off guard by how attached she became to the “cheftestants.” At the end of episode one, when she had to utter “Pack your knives and go” to the first luckless chef, she kept things together on camera then went back to her dressing room and burst into tears. “Shereen, who came back and comforted me, said, ‘Lisa, you know what? I know it’s really hard, but don’t worry. It only gets harder as you get to know them better.’ It just took a little while for me to understand that this is a very, very serious competition. There’s a lot at stake, a lot of money, for the winner, and all these chefs have chosen to throw in their lots to be there. I believe the team has actually stepped up the challenges this year from the first season, and some of them are absolutely twisted.”
In addition to Andrews, guest judges and tasters for the upcoming season include Toronto Maple Leaf Colby Armstrong, “Lost Girl” star Anna Silk, Alan Thicke, recording artist Johnny Reid, Mike Holmes (“Holmes on Homes”), Spencer Rice (“Kenny vs. Spenny”), American chef and “Top Chef All-Stars” winner Richard Blais and celebrated chef Lidia Bastianich, among many others.
As for the cheftestants themselves, they reflect Canada in all its diversity, Ray says.
“Aside from representing all the areas of Canada, there is also a great diversity in terms of ethnicity and culinary backgrounds,” she says. “We have everyone from Kunal (Ghose, age 39) from Victoria, B.C., who runs this very smart little gourmet fish and chips establishment that operates out of a repurposed shipping container on a pier, to Xavier (Lacaze, 30), who is from Calgary and cooking at a great restaurant there, but originally from France.”

WIZ OFF BROADWAY

It may not be the Great White Way, but for a troupe of amateur performers, the Yellow Brick Road is close enough. With “Way Off Broadway,” debuting Friday, March 2, on Bravo! Canada, viewers will  get a glimpse of 21 ordinary Canadians living through their own real-life version of “Smash.” The show follows director-choreographer Sarina Condello and her amateur troupe as they stage the classic “The Wizard of Oz.” “We worked day and night to pull this off,” she says.
Condello took a group of ordinary Canadians that included a retired grandmother, a dentist, a yoga instructor, a psychiatrist, some students, a few teachers and a greenhouse manager who immigrated from
Ghana. In eight weeks, they rehearsed and staged “The Wizard of Oz” for an audience of 1,100 at Toronto’s historic Danforth Music Hall. The show is the latest in a string of six amateur musical theater productions that Condello began staging four years ago with a cabaret show of songs from Broadway musicals.
“We got a community of 30 adults between the ages of 30 and 60 and put on a musical,” she says. “I didn’t think it was going to work, but tickets sold out in 48 hours. Like 1,100 tickets. “Everyone was flabbergasted. Then we did it again, and again, and again.”
For the TV show, she says, the process was “shortened and intensified” for dramatic effect. “To do it in eight weeks! I’ve never done that before. This was a massive challenge for me and for my musical
director, Sheila Philcox.” Condello grew up in Winnipeg, where she got her start in theater and dance, became an educator, and studied mime with her uncle, Giuseppe Condello. Condello’s mother, a visual artist and costume designer, put her in dance classes when she was still a toddler. And her father is former professional wrestler and promoter “Torpedo” Tony Condello — who is best known for his “Death Tour,”
which brings independent Canadian wrestlers to Inuit and First Nations communities in northern Manitoba every year. He appears in “Way Off Broadway” as one of the masters Condello brings in to “inspire the troops.” He coordinates the battle between the Wicked Witch’s army of Winkies and Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. “It was a great opportunity to work with my father,” Condello says. “It was always a dream to do something creative with him. And I thought it would add an edgy aspect to the show. I wanted to create a version of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ that was absolutely different from any other.  ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is so predictable, and I wanted to add a note of spontaneity and big surprise for the audience. That’s why I brought my dad in to choreograph the fight scene. It’s actually pretty hilarious.”
Other experts who appear on the show to work with the cast include actress Sheila McCarthy (“Little Mosque on the Prairie”), singer-songwriter Amy Sky and vocal coach Elaine Overholt. Condello
says directing such amateur shows as “The Wizard of Oz” is “a very small part of my life, a sliver of what I do.” With four degrees, including a Ph.D. in education from the University of Toronto, Condello has taught at venues ranging from York University to arts camps on First Nations reserves. She is founder and director of Big Little Caravan of Joy, a charitable organization that brings arts education to orphans in Africa. The proceeds from “The Wizard of Oz” went to help fund the organization. “I was in university for 13 years,” she says. “I focused on a scholarly approach, trying to understand the importance and relevance of art in our lives — especially in children’s lives.”
Condello has worked as a choreographer and movement coach on such TV series as “Battle of the Blades, “Popstars” and “Big Voice.” She has also made a couple of documentaries about dance, one of which, “Thank You Tanzania,” is about an arts camp Condello and her three daughters ran in Africa in 2007. She says she got the idea for “Way Off Broadway” one day when she was waiting on a Toronto street corner for
the light to change. She got to thinking about the amateur shows and the work they were helping to fund, and she realized that the stage in Toronto and the camps in Africa were doing the same work: using art to
open people up. “The process and the unleashing of creative spirit is so fascinating,” she says. “Especially for Canadian adults. To watch a 50-year-old man, who is married and has kids, standing in the middle
of stage, dancing his heart out — and at the end of that dance, he cries tears of joy. “It’s just incredible.” w

OSCAR ODD COUPLE RETURN FOR THE 84TH

No introduction is necessary: Billy Crystal and Oscar already know each other quite well.
The actor-filmmaker-comedian has hosted the Academy Awards eight times, and he’s now on deck for his ninth. He’ll preside over the movie industry’s 84th annual ceremony Sunday, Feb. 26, on CTV … and given this year’s nominees, don’t be surprised if he goes silent like an “Artist,” shows some iron in the guise of a former prime minister or sports a dragon tattoo.
Crystal agreed to return after originally scheduled host Eddie Murphy exited, following the departure of initially set producer Brett Ratner (replaced by Brian Grazer, who now is producing the event with award-show veteran Don Mischer). In other ways as well, Crystal felt the timing was right for him to take the job again, as he explained to this writer.
Q: Have you kept up with this year’s nominated movies?
A: I’ve seen pretty much everything. There were certain performances I hadn’t seen that I went back and looked at to see if a joke might be made, because whoever that person is will now be in the audience. We’d been developing things, but when the nominations came out, that’s when we really started grinding for four or five weeks.
Q: You’ve acknowledged that a lot of expectation comes with your return to host the Oscars. Are you managing that well?
A: Well, I don’t know how well I manage anything! Anxiety can be a very healthy thing, too. In the past, I’ve always tried to top myself in what we’ve done on the show, and we’re going to try to do that again. People seem happy that I’m coming back, and I’m happy that I’m coming back, so I want to give them the best show I can. With that comes pressure to make it as good as you can.
Q: When people anticipate you’ll insert yourself into clips from the past year’s movies and do your musical satire “It’s a Wonderful Night for Oscar,” how do you work with or against that to stay surprising?
A: What I like to do and what the audience wants me to do can be two different things. In my mind, I’m not going to do certain things they want … then you start thinking about it and go, “Well, maybe I should.” I’m just looking to have a good time and hopefully, the audience will, too.
Q: After things fell apart with the original hosting plans for this year, it seemed you got on board pretty quickly.
A: Yeah, it took one day. I was in Atlanta finishing up a movie that’s coming out in November — “Parental Guidance,” with Bette Midler and Marisa Tomei, something I’d really been struggling to get made for the last five years — and that’s where I’d spent most of my energy, besides my Broadway show and touring.
We were 2 1/2 weeks from finishing that when (the Oscar plans) started to unravel, and I had a feeling they were going to come to me. Then Brian called and said, “I want you,” and I said, “Let me think about it.” And when I hung up, I actually was angry. I was like, “I’m finishing up a passion project that’s been going great. I don’t want to be thinking about this now.”
Q: What changed your mind?
A: I woke up at 3 in the morning in the hotel, and I had an idea that I thought was funny, and I wrote it down. And it made me laugh, and I couldn’t sleep. Then I had another idea and another, and I said to myself, “OK, try to fall asleep again. If you wake up with a smile, then you’ll do it.”
When I woke up, I called my wife, Janice. In 41 years of marriage, we’ve made every decision together, right from the beginning. I said, “What do you think?” She said, “Are you smiling?” I said, “Yeah.” She said, “Then do it.” And I called Brian, and I said, “OK.”
Q: Your relatively brief appearance at last year’s Academy Awards got a huge response. How far did that go toward your decision about this year?
A: That was a big part of it. That moment took my breath away, and I’m somebody who’s not usually at a loss for words. It was very warm and loving, and it got me a little itchy. This will be my ninth time, second only to Bob Hope in the number of times someone has hosted the Oscars, and being welcomed back in that way made me think about doing it again.
Q: Do you reflect much about often being mentioned with Bob Hope and Johnny Carson as the best Oscar hosts?
A: In those quiet moments, you say to yourself, “Wow. Look at these guys I’m with.” I grew up watching them, especially Bob; when I first became aware of the Academy Awards, it was his show, and I always thought he was so great. Johnny was great, too, and when you see your name with theirs, it’s incredibly satisfying and humbling.
The best moment I’ve ever had with the Oscars actually happened the morning after one of the shows, when Johnny called me. He couldn’t have been more kind and congratulatory. He just said so many beautiful things to me, I hung up and said to myself, “I don’t ever have to do this again.”
Q: Since you are doing it again, what are your hopes for the unexpected to happen, as with the night your “City Slickers” co-star Jack Palance won best supporting actor and started doing push-ups onstage?
A: You hope something like that happens … and also that you’re out there for it. Last year, they had me backstage in a freezing little storage room so no one knew I’d be coming out, and I was watching the show on a monitor. I saw Kirk Douglas come out and play around, then Melissa Leo dropped the F-bomb. Those are the moments when you go, “I want to be there!” w

THE SIMPSONS 500TH EPISODE

The characters, which began as droopier versions in 20-second cartoons on “The Tracey Ullman Show,” have evolved, as creator Matt Groening and star Dan Castellaneta discuss in a long and very rare interview. First, though, consider some numbers. Now in its 23rd season, the show has won 27 Emmy Awards, is seen in more than 100 countries and has 37 million likes on its Facebook page.
Guest stars have included Buzz Aldrin, Anne Bancroft, Tony Blair, Rodney Dangerfield, Bob Denver, Stephen Hawking, Michael Jackson, Jack Lemmon, Jack LaLanne, Paul Newman, the Ramones, J.K. Rowling, Elizabeth Taylor and John Updike. It’s in the Guinness Book of Records for having the most guest stars.
Before they worked together, Groening loved Castellaneta’s improv work, and Castellaneta read Groening’s “Life in Hell” comics; the two still get a kick out of each other.
Question: Did you have any notion “The Simpsons” would have such a life or that it would provide your livelihoods?
Groening: I thought the show would be a hit. It was always defined even when they were 20- second cartoons on “The Tracey Ullman Show.” It was designed to be a TV series. However, I didn’t think it would be that successful. Maybe we would get it on the air. I didn’t think we would have it on the air 25 years later. I have been working with Dan since ’87, and I still can’t believe those voices come out of his mouth.I am always reminded of when Dan and I were in New Orleans and walking around the French Quarter, I would throw out ideas to Dan, and one was an idea (that has not been done) when the Simpsons get a pet baboon, and it’s very aggressive, and the Simpsons have to live on the first floor of the house.
Castellaneta: (In Homer’s voice) Stay there, Coco! Don’t play with that! That is the remote. That’s mine. I am beginning to think this is not a good idea.
Q: What are your favorite lines?Groening: My favorite line you ever said on the show was in the ill-fated monorail episode. The control panel opens up, and a mother possum is hanging by [her] tail, and Homer says, “I call the big one Bitey.” He doesn’t understand it is a possum. And he is perfectly happy that it bit him.
Q: Who have been some of your favorite guest stars?Castellaneta: Harvey Fierstein is really great. He played Homer’s assistant, secretary. It was a really interesting character, who basically would fall on a bomb for Homer. I thought it was pretty cool to meet a lot of these rock and roll stars that we had guest on the show, and going to London and meeting the Who.
Groening: The high point of my life was watching Dan crack up Mick Jagger.
Castellaneta: Mick Jagger said, “Homer, we want you to come to the concert.” But Homer thought he would play in the band. And Mick Jagger said, “We just need you to check the mic.” Homer said, (in Homer’s voice) “Can’t you do it?” Groening: No one ever said that to Mick Jagger. Q: Who would you still like to have on the show? Groening: Off the top of my head, it would be cool if Bill Cosby came on the show. … I would love to get Tony Bennett back. I think we could write an anthem for Springfield. Castellaneta: He was our first big name.
Q: Any other stories from guest stars? Groening: When Paul and Linda McCartney guested on the show, we made Lisa a vegetarian, and Paul said he would do it as long as Lisa
remained a vegetarian, not a vegetarian of the week, and it has given us a great deal of material.
Q: Are either of you ever surprised by what you can get on TV? Castellaneta: [Anchorman] Kent Brockman was on [the air]. The town split in two, and they drained the river and found gold at the bottom, so we can buy water so everyone can be taking golden showers. And Kent Brockman was snickering, and I thought, “That is never going to make it on.” And some of the most innocuous — you can’t show Homer’s butt crack more than twice. That’s because we don’t want anyone to get too turned on.
Q: When you’re clicking through stations, will you stop and watch? Castellaneta: I will watch. Groening: When you are working on these episodes, you are trying to make them as good as possible and spend long hours trying to make it look tossed off. To then be able to look at it years later, generally I find I like them more than I did at the time. Q: Why is the show a legend? Castellaneta: Certainly the length of the show, how long it has run. The show carved out new territory. I feel it has influenced a lot of movies and other television shows. You even think some Simpsons were blown up into movies. I have seen some plots of movies, and I have said, “Wait a minute, we did that five years ago.” But I am not saying “The Hangover” was taken completely from “The Simpsons.” Groening: It is fun to know that you entertain people over a long number of years, and some kids have grown up, their world has always been a world in which “The Simpsons” are always on TV. And that we have done this comedy that is basically a checklist of all of the different ways there are of doing jokes, parodies and homages to older movies and silent movies and cartoons and many autobiographical elements of whoever wrote the scene. w

WHATS-ON-IN-VANCOUVER-GRAMMYS

Ex-Degrassi Drake leads Canada’s 2012 Grammy Pack

 The Grammy Awards celebrate not only a given year’s recordings but the history of music in general.

So, there will be tight races in the many categories for contemporary music — such as the best rap/sung collaboration category where hip-hop phenom Drake is Canada’s best hope for a 2012 Grammy when Global and CBS air the 54th Annual Grammy Awards from Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Sunday, Feb. 12.

Rihanna, Coldplay and Foo Fighters join Sir Paul McCartney as 2012 performers.

Drake — a six-time nominee in the past — is one of two Canadians with a trio of nominations, the other being DJ-producer Deadmau5. Drake will be up against some stiff competition — including himself — in the three categories where he is nominated. The nominations include Best Rap Performance (“Moment 4 Life” with Nicki Minaj) and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (DJ Khaled’s “I’m On One” and “What’s My Name” with Rihanna).

The 25-year-old Drake, whose full name is Aubrey Drake Graham, got his show-biz start playing Jimmy Brooks on the TV series “Degrassi: The Next Generation.” Success in the music world seems not to have cooled his acting ambitions. Interviewed recently while appearing at the Sundance Film Festival he told an interviewer that he wants to play Barrack Obama in a movie.

“I hope somebody makes a movie about Obama’s life soon because I could play him,” he said. “That’s the goal. I watch all the addresses. Anytime I see him on TV, I don’t change the channel, I definitely pay attention and listen to the inflections of his voice. If you ask anyone who knows me, I’m pretty good at impressions.”

Drake says that often he is offered roles as a rapper or basketball player, but that he is looking for something else that goes beyond what people would expect him to play.

Montreal’s DJ A-Trak also has received a nomination, along with his partner Armand Van Helden (together they are Duck Sauce), for Best Dance Recording. Their international breakout hit “Barbra Streisand” charted at No. 1 in over 12 countries and racked up 65-million YouTube views with arguably the biggest viral video of all time; a quirky, star-studded homage to New York’s downtown scene.

Toronto singer Melanie Fiona received two nominations: Best Traditional R&B Performance and Best R&B Song for her “Fool For You” collaboration with Cee Lo Green. Other Canadian nominees include Sum 41 for a hard rock/metal performance and Vincent Morisset for Arcade Fire’s Scenes From The Suburbs recording package.

As a counterpoint to the Grammys’ competitive excitement, several Lifetime Achievement Award recipients are named each year by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. Country-pop crossover star Glen Campbell will be one of them.

“It tickles me,” Campbell says of his latest Grammy honor, after winning two for “Gentle on My Mind” and another two for “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” all in 1967.

“They’ve really been nice to me throughout my career. I just think you do your job, and you try to do it the best you can and try to think up some new things. That’s really what I’ve done.”

Now on a farewell concert tour as he deals with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, Campbell is part of an impressive Lifetime Achievement class that also includes fellow country star George Jones as well as Diana Ross, the Allman Brothers Band, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gil Scott-Heron and the Memphis Horns.

“I guess when you get old enough, they lay all those accolades on you,” muses Campbell, who also will team musically with nominees Blake Shelton and the Band Perry on the Grammy stage.

With such hits as “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston” and “Rhinestone Cowboy” in his catalog, Campbell also has made marks in television (“The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour”) and movies (the original “True Grit” with John Wayne). He deems country music’s current state “great. I don’t know if I’d call it ‘country rock’ or ‘crock’ or what, but if you put a song out there, people know whether it’s good or not. That’s the way I always did it.”

Among this year’s Grammy nominees, Foo Fighters are back with six bids, with “Wasting Light” in contention for album of the year (their second time in that category) and best rock album (their sixth time).

“It’s been a really good year,” frontman Dave Grohl reflects. “I think we finally hit our stride in that confident, 17-year-old-band way. I don’t know what it is, but the shows got longer, and the audiences got bigger.” Grohl maintains that “you never really expect that kind of recognition” when it comes to the Grammys. “It feels good to be appreciated for what you do, but the group lives in such a simple little world. It’s right in the middle of the San Fernando Valley in an industrial section where nobody would expect us to be. Within that studio, we do everything, so we exist within this little bubble and don’t pay too much attention to what goes on outside it.”

Which isn’t to say Foo Fighters haven’t appreciated every nomination they’ve gotten. They’ll perform at this year’s Grammy Awards, and Grohl reasons the organizers “see us as guys who play instruments in a rock band — and these days, that is getting harder and harder to find. I never got into this for a career. I was a high-school dropout stoner who worked at a furniture warehouse and loved playing music on the weekends.”

The frontrunner from this year’s nominees is Drake mentor and friend Kanye West who leads the pack with an impressive seven nominations including Song of the Year and Best Rap Album.

The event has a host for the first time in seven years: rapper and “NCIS: Los Angeles” star LL Cool J. w

WHATS-ON-IN-VANCOUVER-MESSING-SMASH

MESSING hopes for A ‘Smash’ – BUT WITH LIFE BALANCE

Combine Emmy and Oscar winners, an “American Idol” finalist, one of the top names in screen entertainment, and a programming chief who has switched networks.

What do you get? A “Smash,” they all hope.

Some may see it as NBC’s answer to Fox’s “Glee,” but considering Steven Spielberg’s involvement as an executive producer — plus such talents as producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (“Chicago”) and composer Marc Shaiman (“Hairspray”) — the peacock network clearly is aiming for more as it debuts its own musical-drama series Monday, Feb. 6.

The backstage turmoil of launching a Broadway show fuels the program, with “Will & Grace” Emmy recipient Debra Messing top-billed as Julia, the lyricist and co-writer of a musical about legendary screen siren Marilyn Monroe. Christian Borle (Broadway’s “Legally Blonde” and “Mary Poppins”) is seen as her writing partner, “Idol” veteran Katharine McPhee as favored Monroe portrayer Karen and Oscar winner Anjelica Huston (“Prizzi’s Honor”) as the maritally troubled producer.

The series also has impressive guests lined up: In a rare television appearance, Uma Thurman does a multiple-episode arc as a movie star interested in playing Monroe, and Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters appears as the Tony-winning mother of another contender for the Monroe role, Ivy (Megan Hilty, “Wicked”).

Additional “Smash” regulars include Jack Davenport (also a Messing co-star earlier in the movie “The Wedding Date”) as the musical’s director, Brian D’Arcy James as Julia’s husband and Raza Jaffrey as the McPhee character’s politically connected beau.

“It’s been a dream, honestly,” Messing says of making the show. “The moment I finished reading the [pilot] script and put it down, I called my representatives and said, ‘I have to be a part of this.’ Cut to my being offered the part, cut to our doing the pilot and having the time of our lives with the most thrilling creative team. Now we’ve all picked up and moved to New York (where the series is filmed), and it’s been an experience that has far exceeded my expectations.”

The same goes for McPhee, who claims “Smash” is fulfilling any Broadway performing ambitions she has, at least for now. The fifth-season “Idol” runner-up recalls that when she first heard about the show, “I didn’t know if there would be a part for me, but I said, ‘There has to be a part for me!’ My then-manager quickly calmed me down by saying, ‘You’ve got some time, but we just wanted to let you know it’s in the pipeline.’

“Every six months or so, I’d think, ‘I wonder what happened to that pilot.’ It came up again last year, and I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on the script. I kept turning the pages, and I think the actual product turned out even better than what was written.”

“Smash” has had a longtime champion in NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt, who brought the project with him when he moved over from Showtime. He’s credited with having “developed” the show after the initial pitch from Theresa Rebeck (“Seminar”), whom Messing deems “a genius. I’ve followed her career as a playwright forever, but her voice and her command of all of these characters is astonishing.”

Columbia Records will release songs performed on “Smash” by McPhee, who also has a solo deal with the label, and others. Many are crooned at various Big Apple sites, prompting Messing to term the show “a love letter to New York. We’re allowed to shoot all over, from Harlem to Washington Heights to Brooklyn to SoHo to Times Square. It’s really been exciting.”

“Smash” was held purposely until midseason so it could be teamed on Mondays with the singing competition “The Voice,” which begins its sophomore season a night earlier, immediately after NBC’s telecast of Super Bowl XLVI. Declaring herself a “Voice” fan, Messing finds it “very encouraging” to have that show paired with hers. “I couldn’t think of a better lead-in.”

As someone of notable voice herself, McPhee also likes the scheduling. The opening scene of “Smash” is of her character auditioning, but she maintains that filming it didn’t give her any “American Idol” flashbacks.

“It’s funny, I never once thought about that. There are hundreds and hundreds of auditions I’ve been on, and obviously, that was one that people remember because it was broadcast on national television.

“Reality show auditions are a little bit different,” McPhee adds, “because they’re kind of made for television. The ones I’ve been on the past four or five years, trying to get acting jobs, were the references I used.”

“Will & Grace” was very much an ensemble piece for NBC, where Messing has returned along with fellow Emmy winner Sean Hayes (an executive producer of “Grimm”), alias Jack to her Grace. “Smash” is a much bigger ensemble situation, though, and the actress says that’s why she’s able to be in it.

“I did one hourlong drama (ABC’s ‘Prey’) before I had a child,” Messing says, “and before ‘Will & Grace,’ and just from that experience, I knew I wasn’t built for that kind of schedule. The balance of my personal and professional lives is something I’m always struggling to maintain. Originally, this was going to be a cable show with 13 episodes a year … so I was like, ‘This is perfect for me!’

“Then it moved with Bob to [broadcast-]network prime time, where it could potentially be 24 episodes a year. That made me very nervous, but luckily, Theresa is also a mother, and everyone involved seems to respect my concerns.” w

WHATS-ON-IN-VANCOUVER- ‘LUCK’ WITH HOFFMAN

After bringing the worlds of late 19th-century South Dakota gold miners and 21st-century Southern California surfers to HBO, David Milch follows up “Deadwood” and “John From Cincinnati” with a multilayered, multifaceted portrait of the world of Thoroughbred racing.

Going beyond just the horses to trainers, jockeys, veterinarians, shady quasi-criminal types and degenerate gamblers, “Luck” creates a canvas of intense desperation, burning ambition, devastating peril and staggering beauty, all set against the lush backdrop of Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., near Los Angeles.

After a sneak preview that aired on Dec. 11 following the season finale of “Boardwalk Empire,” “Luck” – which pairs Milch’s acclaimed writing and storytelling with the producing and directing talents of Michael Mann (“Thief,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Ali”) – launches its regular run on Sunday, Jan. 29.

Dustin Hoffman tops the huge cast as Chester “Ace” Bernstein, a man with a questionable past who gets out of prison and embarks on a career as a covert Thoroughbred owner, with his loyal driver, Gus Demitriou (Dennis Farina), acting as his frontman.

Ace is a careful, deliberate man who plays things close to the vest. For Hoffman, that came out of choices made in preparing for the role.

“It wasn’t a conscious decision,” he says. “What you’re wearing or not alters you. It doesn’t take much. You learn your lines, you’re told a few things. They say, ‘Do you ever wear your hair straight back?’ ‘No.’ ‘Will you try that?’ And Michael Mann says, ‘Hey, I like it with your hair straight back.’ ‘Let’s see what suit you’re going to put on.’

“He has an image of the character, and you’re going with that image. You learn the lines, then they just come out a certain way, and you’re altered.”

Among those followed on the backstretch are trainers Walt “The Old Man” Smith (Nick Nolte) – inspired by, Nolte says, legendary trainer Jack Van Berg – and Turo Escalante (John Ortiz), who has more than a professional relationship with his vet (Jill Hennessy). There are jockeys on the way up, such as Irish Rosie (Kerry Condon), and those trying to come back, such as Ronnie Jenkins (played by jockey Gary Stephens).

On the fringes of the track life are the degenerate gamblers, including one group – whose most socially adept member, Jerry (Jason Gedrick), also has a weakness for cards – struggling to find a way forward after a life-altering bet.

Although Milch has followed racing most of his life, owned Thoroughbreds and laid down more than a few bets, it took him a long time to get around to writing about it all.

“Certainly,” he says, “I had an adequate exposure to it. I did a lot of research, but the deepest truths of that world – I won’t say that they had eluded me, but there’s an expression, the ripeness is all, and I finally was ripe enough.

“These are not characters who let themselves be easily known, and a lot of them are composites. … It takes a little while for the world to fully declare itself, but I hope they will hang in, because it’s definitely worth the trip.”

For Mann, who’s more familiar with racing cars than horses, it was a foray into a new reality.

“The thing that surprised me the most,” Mann says, “was the first time I was in a vehicle, and we were doing a tracking shot, and I was three or four feet away from a racehorse going full out – and it’s stunning.

“David talked quite a bit about a sense of nature and the spirit of being that close, involving yourself with the animal, like a trainer does, like Escalante would do – but when you’re actually up next to what feels like a 1,500-pound jack rabbit, that’s a whole different thing.

“The athleticism of it, the spirit … it’s not like you have to encourage them to race; you have to repress the instinct to race. All they want to do is race.”

But these days, the slow romance of race day, with its long pauses and brief explosions of action, is fading in a world of instant gratification.

“The pity is,” says Nolte, “that horse racing is losing the imagination of the public. The mythology and the connection of man and horse is being lost. Gambling’s taken over. They want to turn horse-racing tracks into casinos.” W

WHATS-ON-IN-VANCOUVER-‘MARK BRAND’

Gambling on the ’hood in Gastown

 Even if you’ve been in Vancouver only a short while, you probably know the city’s Downtown Eastside area, often spotlighted in documentaries and news programs to demonstrate some of Canada’s most glaring inner-city problems with crime and drug addiction.

But while others saw this zone primarily as a sociological petri dish of problems, visionary social activist and entrepreneur Mark Brand saw something else: a neighborhood worth saving. And he’s put his money, time and energy where his heart is, most recently in the high-risk renovation of the historic Save-On-Meats building, a project chronicled in “Gastown Gamble” Wednesdays on OWN Canada.

“I moved to Vancouver around 2006, and the Downtown Eastside at that point just fascinated me, strictly from sort of a social aspect,” Brand explains. “It played a large part in my life in the last five years, in terms of where I lived and where I worked. Gastown itself has had this amazing history of highs and lows. There’s not a lot of density as far as people living there, but it has this wonderful feel and history and character. It’s one of the few places in Vancouver that hasn’t been developed heavily.”

But it was the residents of Gastown, not mundane real estate factors, that propelled Brand into tackling the Save-On project, as he calls it. “It’s one of those unique aspects of the neighborhood that inspires you so that you want to work harder,” says Brand, who also owns and operates several other businesses in Gastown. “It’s such an incredible blessing to be able to work there in the Downtown Eastside and then witness good change, if you know what I mean.”

Brand says he envisioned the renovated half-century-old diner and butcher shop as a lynchpin of a broader revitalization dream, a building that would be a tribute yet also something far more basic: a home.

“We wanted to make this space somewhere you could come and eat and frequent with dignity regardless of your station,” he says. “That was the most important thing to me. I wanted to make sure that it was comfortable for all ages and all people from all neighborhoods, essentially. Functionality was important, of course, but I really wanted to make sure it didn’t intimidate people who knew it before but also be inviting to people who never had been there.”

Reaction to news of the project was mixed. “People were actually quite nervous for me, but also what it was going to give to that block,” Brand says. “I think people took a harder look at me in general as a businessperson and wondered what my real motivation was. I had to answer those critics and also proponents of the neighborhood for the entire time we were building, in person. It was a wonderful experience. When you take on a task that you really, truly love, it’s a great thing.”

As Brand and his team were about to start work on the Save-On project, former CTV programming executive Louise Clark approached him about documenting the work in a series by Lark Productions, her new company. Brand agreed, but laid down some strict ground rules. “I said, ‘There can’t be any exploitation. There can’t be any script, and we need to have final say about what is going on if we are going to do this,’ which was very arrogant on my part because them wanting to do this to begin with was very flattering,” he recalls. “But, my major concern stays with the neighborhood and how it is portrayed.” W

WHATS-ON-IN-VANCOUVER-ARCTIC AIR TAKES

For a country with such a strong northern mythology, it’s amazing how little use our TV and filmmakers have made of the place.

For example, take Ian Weir, executive producer and creator of “Arctic Air.” Until he was contracted to write the pilot episode for the series, which airs Tuesdays on CBC Television, he’d never been north.

“I’m not a northern guy,” he says. “So this was a chance to immerse myself in the world of Yellowknife. And I found it was a totally wonderful place.”

Like most of us, he says, he had some ideas of what the North was like, and a lot of them were wrong. “The first thing that took me aback was how cosmopolitan Yellowknife is,” he says. “I figured the cultural mix would be white European and First Nations. I discovered that you can walk down Franklin Street and hear Caribbean accents. The first taxi driver I dealt with was South African.”

“Arctic Air” may be the first fictional series set in the Far North since CBC’s “North of 60” back in the 1990s. The series is set mostly in Yellowknife and deals with a small airline that flies bush planes and Second World War vintage DC-3s to remote locations around the Arctic.

That would ring a bell for fans of History Television’s “Ice Pilots NWT,” a reality series about Buffalo Airways, which serves remote northern communities with a fleet of Second World War vintage DC-3s, DC-4s and C-46s. “Ice Pilots” and “Arctic Air” are made by the same production company. Buffalo Airways provided the DC-3 that is used in exterior shots (the interiors are done in an on-set mockup), airline personnel provided expert advice on the series, and Buffalo Airways owner Joe McBryan did some stunt flying in the DC-3.

“In Episode 4 … there’s wonderful footage of Joe doing an aborted landing on a DC-3,” Weir says. “And my God, that man can fly a plane. It’s absolutely thrilling footage.”

However, the similarities between the two series are completely superficial, Weir says. “We’re in the same geographical region, and we’re using a DC-3 in the Arctic Air fleet. But the fleet is more broadly based than the Buffalo Air fleet. And, of course, our cast of characters is quite different from the ‘cast of characters’ of ‘Ice Pilots NWT.’ ”

“Arctic Air” stars Adam Beach as Bobby Martin, an aboriginal businessman who has been living in Vancouver and has come home to take over his 25 percent stake in the airline.

“When I read the pilot episode, I was drawn to Bobby Martin and who he was, his struggles,” Beach says. “His reconnection with home, family and friends, and the fact that he wants to use the talents he has to better his family and the company, Arctic Air. He’s been out in the world. He’s studied. He’s achieved. He moved fast up the ladder.”

In other words, he’s a lot like Beach, who left his impoverished northern Manitoba reserve to pursue a career in acting, which led from stage roles in the West to Canadian films and television and such Hollywood movies as “Windtalkers,” “Cowboys & Aliens” and “Flags of Our Fathers,” where he worked with Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood.

One of Beach’s early roles was a recurring character in “North of 60,” which was shot in Calgary.

“Arctic Air” shoots interiors on a soundstage in suburban Vancouver, but the exteriors are shot in and around Yellowknife. “I haven’t been that far north before,” he says. “Yellowknife is beautiful. A very small city, where everybody knows everybody. But the landscape speaks for itself. You can’t help but feel surrounded by Mother Nature.”

Co-starring with Beach in the series is Pascale Hutton as Bobby’s childhood friend and love interest, Krista, the daughter of the crusty old bush pilot (Kevin McNulty) who runs the company.

One of the bonuses of working in the series, Hutton says, was getting to fly around in the co-pilot’s seat of a Buffalo Airways DC-3, getting a feel for the ancient warhorses. “We have learned a lot from flying with the pilots of Buffalo Air,” she says. “Not so much in terms of personality, because ‘Arctic Air’ characters are unique to our

show. But seeing the way they fly the DC-3s and being up with them was very informative, especially for Kevin McNulty, Adam Beach and me.”

Like Beach and Weir, the farthest north Hutton had been was Edmonton, where she went to university. And like them, she says she was astonished at just how cosmopolitan and lively the city is.

“Yellowknife is incredibly culturally diverse, which I don’t think many people know,” she says. “There are lots of First Nation people, but we also met a lot of people from Somalia and Ethiopia.

“There are lots of opportunities to make a lot of money, and that brings people from all over the world.” w

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