Bell Media revives Just Like Mom — dads included, too
Canadian game show returning next year
TORONTO—The1980sCanadian game show Just Like Mom is coming back in a new format that will also include dads.
Bell Media has announced a deal to license the series format rights to Canadian production company Marblemedia.
The company plans to re-launch the show under the name Just Like Mom and Dad on Yes TV in Canada and BYU TV in the U.S. in 2018.
Marblemedia launched an online casting call Monday and plans to start production on the 20-episode prime-time show this fall.
The original Just Like Mom aired on CTV’s flagship station, CFTO -TV in Toronto, between 1980 and 1985 before going into syndication.
It saw children and their mothers being tested on how well they knew each other and also competing in a bake-off challenge.
The children had to whip together the baking recipes under a tight timeline and with a choice of regular and unusual ingredients, like ketchup and olives.
The mothers then had to eat the baked goods and guess which one their child made.
The winning team spun a wheel for the chance to win a grand prize.
“Today’s announcement underscores Bell Media’s continued efforts to transform from broadcaster to content company, and mining original programming like Just Like Mom is a perfect example of the strategy to extend our expertise into the format licensing arena,” Mike Cosentino, Bell Media’s senior vice-president of content and programming, said in a statement Monday.
“We have every confidence that Marblemedia and its broadcast partners will unveil a new, fresh 2018 version that will be a hit for viewers in Canada and the United States, and we look forward to licensing the format to other territories in the future.” — The Canadian Press ZEINAH KALATI
The film starts off with a vague idea of what is about to be revealed to us. However, once you’re there you find yourself learning about something you should’ve known about a long time ago, which is colour guard and David Byrne’s Contemporary Color.
Contemporary Color is a performance event conceived by Byrne, of the new wave band Talking Heads, and co-commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music and Toronto’s Luminato Festival.
Byrne had realized that colour guard, an under-appreciated “sport of the arts” that is usually performed during half-time shows at football games, could be transformed into an event specifically showcasing their talents. These high school and college level “dance” groups are used to being secondary entertainment or competing against each other.
In an event like Contemporary Color, 10 lucky 20- to 40-persons teams are chosen to perform in a celebration of what they do. With artists such as Lucius, Nico Muhly and Ira Glass, Nelly Furtado, St. Vincent, Devonté Hynes, How To Dress Well, Zola Jesus, Ad-Rock and Money Mark, Byrne and Tune-Yards pairing up with the teams to create original pieces for them to perform to, it is truly an event like none other. A lover of any of these artists would
The Film House
FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, 250 St. Paul St., St. Catharines, 905-688-0722 Listings for Aug. 22 to 28 The Journey: Tuesday 7 p.m. Contemporary Color: Wednesday 7 p.m., Sunday 4 p.m. Beatriz at Dinner: Thursday 7 p.m., Friday 7 p.m., Saturday 6:30 p.m. Members Choice: Thursday 9 p.m. The Little Hours: Friday 6:30 p.m., Saturday 9 p.m., Sunday 7 p.m. Fantastic Mr. Fox: Saturday 4 p.m. Tickets: $7 members, $9 general Online: FirstOntarioPAC.ca
appreciate these interpretations and, additionally, be introduced to other musicians accompanied by these remarkable visuals.
Directed by Turner Ross and Bill Ross IV, the film shows us what happens when two arts merge together and interpret each other.
What better place to screen Contemporary Color than at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, a place that celebrates variety and diversity.
It would be too simple and too narrow a description to call Contemporary Color just a documentary. It does more than that. It introduces us to the world of interpretive art. The musicians, the dancers and the filmmakers are all given that challenge to understand each other art. What is difficult here is the openness and the receptivity that is required to do well in communication such as this.
As the audience, we can only appreciate this type of silent art with what the Ross brothers choose to translate to us. There are no flashbacks and no over-used backstories. There is only the respect that they all have for each other, knowing the time and effort it has taken to get to where they were. By the end of it, we are able to see all the many different elements that had to come together to produce something so transcendental.
With such silent non-explanations for the determination it takes for them to do what they are doing, the film resembles the films shown at the time of Expo 67. Hearing the voice-overs, seeing them perform at their neighbourhoods, the superimpositions, the slow zooms and even the music itself all give the film a dream-like and almost hallucinatory energy. As a result we are given these peculiar visuals of the merging of the arts.
Contemporary Color is an educational, entertaining and unique experience. It is so captivating that you leave unsure of whether you want more films like this or if you want to go see Contemporary Color live.