Up Close & Comfortable with Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern

Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern can be seen in a new segment from CTV and TD Canada Trust called Up Close & Comfortable. During the short interview, the co-creators talk about what it's like to write for Flashpoint and how they approach season premieres and season finales differently from other episodes.

To watch the video, just visit the Up Close & Comfortable website and select Up Close with Flashpoint.

Flashbits from August 2009!

Badgers and Doves, here come your Flashpoint tidbits for the month of August! P.S. Badgers and Doves is our new, Mark Ellis-approved, fan nickname. What do you all think?

Flashpoint Premieres in France and South Africa!

Flashpoint continues to conquer the world with two big premieres this month on two different continents. On August 6th, the show premiered in France on Canal+ and the first three episodes were shown that night in French! On August 20th, the show premiered for the first time in South Africa on Hallmark Channel(and was earlier named a pick of the week)! There are a couple interesting news articles coming out of France. One outlines reasons for the show's pickup, and remarks that while American dramas never cease to seduce both broadcasters and viewers, they are quite expensive for foreign countries to broadcast. Many similar kinds of shows have also either ended or been canceled. Many broadcasters choose to look to Canada for similar shows, because they are cheaper to produce. Since the Writer's Strike of 2007, ideas that were coming out of the US weren't as innovative as Flashpoint. The second reason the show was picked up was production quality. Even U.S. networks which were not warm to foreign imports, picked up Flashpoint because the Canadian standards were on par with Hollywood standards, and the format didn't stray too far away from similar US shows. The second article was just a short intro to the series and the first three episodes being broadcast on premiere night. 3 episodes back to back is overkill - two would have been just right! We're still waiting to hear on a premiere in an Asian country!

CBSC Deems Promo Not Violent

We're sure most Canadians have seen a Canadian Broadcast Standards Council commercial on TV at some point in their life. Usually when we see these commercials, it's because the watchdog NGO found something offensive on the network and the network needs to remind it's viewers that they strive to keep what they air within standards. A promotion for the episode Backwards Day disturbed the children of one very angry parent, and was aired during an NFL Football game, to the point where the commercial had to be censored by the parent. The CBSC recently announced its decision on how violent this promo was, and decided that it was not as violent as it seemed, and it was not in breach of broadcast standards. CTV just got a warning that promos for the show should air in a more appropriate timeslot. At least we don't have to see those CBSC spots during Flashpoint!

Flashpoint On Air in the Air?!

Mark Ellis informed his Twitter followers yesterday on the way to their much-needed family vacation in Florida that there are 5 episodes of Flashpoint available on Air Canada (writer Adam Barken later joked that he should watch it wearing full Flashpoint crew gear). Flashpoint Fan gcookie60 also shared that there were 6 episodes available on her flight! So for those of you who want something a little better to watch than their current movie selection, and you are flying on a longer Air Canada flight, why not make it a little more pleasant with the SRU?

Quickie Appearances in a Flash!

☄ Writer Tassie Cameron was listed by the Globe and Mail as one of Canada's Hottest Women Not On TV because she is "the girl who writes like a guy". Also featured are other writers on Flashpoint, Tracey Forbes (Planets Aligned, Attention Shoppers), and Esta Spalding who served as a consultant for the first season and wrote Backwards Day and Never Kissed a Girl. No mention of Stephanie Morgenstern?!

☄ Alchemy TV's co-founder and partner Simon Vaughan is set to be the keynote speaker at Strategic Partners, a very prestigious Canadian international co-production market in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This event will take place on September 19th. Alchemy TV is one of Flashpoint's key production partners, and is also the international distributor of the show.

☄ The_Nange pointed us to her pictures of a feature article with Enrico Colantoni (Page 1, Page 2)! He was interviewed in Autotrader's Newcar Magazine as part of their Stars in Cars section. He talks about his cars (past and current), how he drives, what his dream car is (you might be surprised!) , and who he'd like to have a car ride with. Thanks for sharing this with us, The_Nange!

☄ CBS just announced an official press release with the cover and details of the U.S. release of Season 1 (on standard DVD format), which was also posted on TVShowsonDVD. Confirmed extras include A commentary by director David Frazee on the first episode, Scorpio, and two featurettes: Flashpoint: Behind The Scenes - Season 1 and The Human Cost of Heroism.

Flashbits from July 2009!

Flashpoint has had a couple bits in the news in recent days!

New Episodes' Delay a Relief For Producers

Hot on the heels of CBS's sudden announcement that new episodes of Flashpoint were not going to air last week, we uncovered a few comments from Producer Bill Mustos on Playback Magazine. And they suggest that this delay is not necessarily a bad thing! Bill says:

"We've been able to slow down post-production, which is a bit of a relief to us because we've been on a very fast schedule"

Which we can understand - the show began shooting this year in January and is scheduled to continue until August. Mustos also said that CTV has ordered 13 episodes for a third season, and depending on CBS's return this may be extended to 18. He also noted that there is a lot of confusion in keeping track of Flashpoint's episodes since Season 2 in North America began with four episodes held back from the first season! This is one of the first acknowledgments we've heard from anyone involved with the show about this confusion! He also confirmed that the show is coming back to CBS as a midseason replacement. CTV has still not confirmed when the remaining Season 2 episodes will be broadcast.

New Interview With Flashpoint Creators:

Stephanie Morgenstern and Mark Ellis were featured guests at last month's Banff Worldwide Television Festival, and one lucky, blogging, screenwriter, got to interview them through email, and sit in on their sessions! Alex Epstein, best known for his work on Canadian hits 15/Love, Bon Cop, Bad Cop, and Naked Josh posted a compilation of notes from their Master Class session, and questions which the two answered via e-mail. This is well worth the read for you budding screenwriters, and behind-the-scenes aficionados. There are also a few comments included from Christina Davis, Senior Vice President for Drama Series Development at CBS. There's a lot of detail about their inspiration for turning this into a series from a proposed movie-of-the-week, and bonus detail about a cop they met during the development of the series.

Tassie Cameron Moves on to Motherhood, and Copper

Tassie Cameron was not a star of Flashpoint, but she was the spark that led the writing table from the beginning until just recently. Last month, she flew to Los Angeles with her writing partner Ilana Frank to pitch a new cop show to network execs called Copper. This one's about rookie cops fresh out of the academy making their ways through their careers. ABC picked up 13 episodes, and this happened shortly after the series was greenlit by Canwest Global. As we speak, the show is being shot, as Tassie is expecting her first child! The cast includes Canadian favorites such as Missy Peregrym, and Greg Smith. Eric Johnson of Smallville and Melanie Nicholls King of Law and Order are also joining the cast! Congrats to Tassie - we will miss seeing your words on Flashpoint, but we wish you the best of luck on your new show and a happy, healthy and safe journey into motherhood!

New Enrico Colantoni Interview with German Newspaper!

The German portal dedicated to American Entertainment, Serienjunkies, just posted a phone interview with Enrico Colantoni promoting the series, which is about to make its debut on German TV network RTL2. Für eine deutsche Übersetzung, klicken Sie bitte hier. He talks about the show and it's Canadian identity, how it has opened the door for other Canadian shows on American networks, and his character. One of the coolest parts in the interview is on the second page where he suggests that the show's peaceful nature of negotiation is something that fits into the current US political zeitgeist. We also have to wonder if President Obama watches the show! The interviewer Christian Junklewitz also suggests that he sing a song for the show, but Enrico laughs away from it. And, Enrico talks about another role which is a little too hot for this blog. We still think a musical episode would make for great filler just once!

Hugh Dillon Working Double Duty!

When not working as a sniper and leader on Flashpoint, Hugh Dillon plays a detective on Durham County. There have been a few articles lately talking about Hugh's involvement with both series. He is also due to release his debut solo album later this fall through Warner Music Canada! We wonder if his song from the show, Lost at Sea will be included. The album will be called "Works Well With Others" and he describes it as "a little more Leonard Cohen and a little less Lemmy from Motorhead." Hugh's success on both sides of the border continues to grow in new directions!

Flashpoint Reminder!

Hey Moonies! Just a reminder that Flashpoint is returning to both CTV and CBS this Friday, January 9th - please watch it and continue to give Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis your support! These episodes are really amazing, and we encourage all our readers to catch them on TV - we will be! The first of the four "lost episodes" from Season 1 begins this week, and the new episodes begin on February 6th. All we know is that there is a new female member named Donna who will present quite the challenge to the SRU. CBS has posted a new promotional interview with show star Enrico Colantoni (Sgt. Greg Parker) and this interview is playable (unlike some clips on CBS's site) in Canada! We have also uncovered an older interview of Enrico along with co-star David Paetkau (Sgt. Sam Braddock). And as always, our summaries will return shortly after the show airs!

In other fantastic Flashpoint news, the show has finally been nominated for it's first of what we hope will be many awards! The Canadian Film and Television Association announced its nominations for the 2009 CFTPA Indie Awards, and Flashpoint is nominated for Best Prime Time Drama Series and faces competition from ReGenesis, Intelligence, and The Border. We wish the best of luck for Flashpoint and we really hope that it wins! Other productions which VAs have made appearances were nominated - The Border featured two VAs, Intelligence has featured Sabrina Grdevich in the past, Little Mosque on the Prairie which has featured not one, not two, but three VAs in its run, and Mayerthorpe which starred Wendy Lyon (Queen Serenity) in a supporting role.

New Interview With Flashpoint Creators!

Hey Moonies! Still no word on any airdates for the last four episodes, or if there will be a boxset released soon. Canadians can click here to purchase episodes on iTunes.

We came across an interview though that we thought you all might really like to read. Mike McPhaden, a contributor to the blog Running With My Eyes Closed recently got the chance to sit down with Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis to chat about Flashpoint. This is a really good interview because it shows fans from their point of view a lot of things about the birth of the series that even we didn't know (and we were one of the few blogs to cover the show extensively from the beginning)! We think you will all get a good idea of how hard they have worked to bring this show to life, from the extensive amounts of research, to the handshaking of many big names in TV, to finally moving from a Movie of the Week prospect to a series. One of the highlights of the interview was learning the different names that they tried to come up with for the show's title. Our personal favorite is their daughter's suggestion of "Bad Guys Run Away!" Perhaps that title could be used for a future episode (hey, we'd watch it :) )! Part one is located here, and part two is located here.

Flashpoint Tidbits!

This week's episode, Asking For Flowers, featured former Jericho actor Kenneth Mitchell playing the abusive cop, Pete Fitzhaven. He talks about his experience with the show and his character in an interview with UGO. While he was really happy with the production being a co-production between the US and Canada, he found it a little challenging to play his character who was drunk the whole time. He also isn't fond of playing villains too much. Click here to read more about his role and his upcoming work!

And we thought we had it tough, being very busy with Moon Chase this summer. The success of Flashpoint has caused the size of it's audio production unit to double, as reported by Playback Magazine in their August 4th issue. Typically, a production has 2 sound editors and one assistant to handle all of the audio after the episode has been shot. Flashpoint aired two and a half months earlier than they expected, so now their audio unit has 5 sound editors and 2 assistants just to keep up with the workload and schedule. They are probably huddled right now at Technicolor Toronto on their seven ProTools workstations. Wow, it's almost as busy as Sailor Moon was when it first started. Roland Parliament said years ago that they had to finish an episode nearly every day, and it was a challenge to keep up with the schedule. Flashpoint also had to increase their picture editors from 2 people to 3, they've added another music editor, and they've had to hire 2 composers just to keep up with CBS's schedule. While no one is saying how much all this crew is costing the production, they do say that CBS is taking care of these increased costs. It is thought (but not confirmed) that the show costs between 1.6-1.8 Million dollars an episode to produce! To the crew of Flashpoint, we salute you for your hard work, and we can only hope the dessert you indulge into after all this is over tastes of nothing but sweet relaxation!

Flashpoint Premieres Today!

Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis' brainchild Flashpoint premieres tonight on CTV and CBS (check your local listings). We've read a little shaky buzz over the fact that the show is premiering on a Friday, and after reruns of Numb3rs. But most of the reviews we have read are very positive. This is why it's important for every fan who can to watch it tonight. I was planning on liveblogging it tonight but unfortunately I have to be somewhere when it airs. Nonetheless, I will have a summary up tonight, I'm recording the show and if that fails , I will catch it on timeshift at the very least.

We've learned a lot more details about the show in the last day. It costs nearly 2 million dollars to create each episode of the show, and to date is Canada's most expensive TV production. There are eight episodes finished , with five left to go. Stephanie Morgenstern appears in a few places throughout the series, and she and Mark spoke very candidly about the show in an interview with Blogtalk radio/TV Eh?. Mark even fills in during readings for parts that haven't been cast yet! Fans should definitely give this podcast a listen if they haven't already! The first episode Scorpio, is a twist of a real incident which happened in the summer of 2004. The show's story involves a Croatian man who is very disturbed over a divorce, and he takes an innocent woman hostage in the middle of downtown at lunch. The second episode, First in Line involves a hospital blip where a father learns a heart promised to his ill daughter has been given to someone else. The father then turns the gun on the hospital team leaving the SRU faced with a difficult decision. The third episode The Element of Surprise tells of how drug gangs tear apart families. Cast member Amy Jo Johnson (best known as Kimberly the Pink Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) has a song that will be used at the end of the this episode, to the delight of her fans everywhere!

Again, this is a huge year for all the VAs of Sailor Moon and we here at Moon Chase really want to see them continue on their ventures (so that every year can be bigger than the last)! It's important for us fans to support them in everything that they do to the best of our abilities. So please, catch this show when it airs! We'd like to extend a huge thank you to Jay Navok at Genvid who has assisted us in promoting this show!

Flashpoint Update!

We are two days away from the premiere of Stephanie Morgenstern's Emergency Task Force drama, Flashpoint. While the show has no standalone official website, we have found that the networks sites each offer something different - and that they don't like to share. Exclusive content that CTV has can't be accessed from the US, and vice versa for CBS. Thankfully we have at least one member on either side of the border to have all our bases covered :). We're gonna try to liveblog the premiere as best as blogger will allow us to! The show is already garnering lots of positive buzz on both sides of the border.

CBS's site doesn't have a whole lot aside from cast bios, but they do have something that CTV does not: a 5 minute interview with the creators and the actors. Fans get to see Stephanie Morgenstern and her husband Mark Ellis talk about the show, along with the cast members and their takes on their characters. There's even some behind-the-scenes footage of the show and the cast learning more about their craft from real officers! The promo can be watched here, however it is not viewable on CBS's site by Canadians.

CTV on the other hand doesn't have any videos other than a short 1 minute teaser. But, they do have a lot of reading for those of you wanting to learn a lot more about how the series came to be. Fans can check out a bio of Stephanie here, and a very long story about how the show came to be here. Stephanie and Mark had been working on a film adaptation of their short, Remembrance, and we had almost thought that was abandoned in light of Flashpoint (thankfully, we read here that it wasn't!). We're disappointed Stephanie neglected to mention her role on Sailor Moon. Sailordees attended a convention in 2004 where she had the opportunity to meet her and she spoke highly of the show saying that it was such a starting point for putting Canadian talent on the map. And we all have to agree because every star on that show has gone on to bigger and better ventures (even we have a hard time keeping up with them all). Hey, if Amy Jo Johnson can get away with mentioning she was a Power Ranger, why be so shy?

Fans who are all over the world can check out an interview they did over Blogtalk Radio here. We are reminding every fan that reads this website in the U.S. or Canada to please check your local listings for this Friday night so we can all support Stephanie Morgenstern and congratulate her on this huge achievement! We wish her the best of luck with this series!