Road Movies is a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television in 1992.[1] The series sent eight young Canadians to locations throughout Canada, to create short reports on local life and culture for television broadcast.[2]
The videographers were Heather Barrett, Ngaire Blankenberg, Maureen Bradley, Pat Harrison, Eli Laliberte, Duncan McCue, David Ozier and Kam Rao.[3] Three additional reporters — Katerina Cizek, Matt Gallagher and Howie Woo — were also named as "backup" videographers in the event that one or more members of the main team had to drop out during production,[3] although none of them ultimately appeared on the show.
The series was based on the Télévision de Radio-Canada series La Course destination monde, but dropped the competitive element from the original series to become effectively just a documentary newsmagazine.[4] Bradley made a film during the series coming out as LGBTQ, becoming one of the first Canadian television personalities to come out in a Canadian non-fiction television series.[5]
The series premiered in June 1992.[2] The original run of 26 episodes was scheduled to end in December,[3] although due to various schedule changes and specials during the year the final episodes actually aired in January 1993.[6] The show was not renewed for a second season.[7]
Critical response
editThe series was often compared in the media to either a video version of a university or college student newspaper,[3] or a more polished version of a community channel show.[8] John Haslett Cuff of The Globe and Mail opined, however, that the show effectively just duplicated programs that other Canadian television networks were already airing, such as YTV's Street Noise and MuchMusic's Mike & Mike's Excellent X-Canada Adventures.[9]
In a 1993 piece analyzing the contrast between the popular success of La Course destination monde and the failure of Road Movies, Ray Conlogue of The Globe and Mail asserted that Road Movies's lack of a competitive framework meant that the young filmmakers were not receiving any professional feedback on areas where their work may have needed to improve; the destinations being limited to Canada, where the Quebec series allowed filmmakers to travel around the world, meant that Road Movies was not matching the Quebec series as a window for learning about different world cultures; and Road Movies's directive to avoid the controversial or challenging topics that were commonplace on La Course meant that the reports on Road Movies were rarely much more than tourism booster videos or human interest profiles.[4]
The series was a Gemini Award nominee for Best Youth Program or Series at the 7th Gemini Awards in 1993.
References
edit- ^ Bob Remington, "Postcards from the edge: Young videographers tell Canadian road stories". Edmonton Journal, September 24, 1992.
- ^ a b Mike Boone, "A new road show: Canada, coast to coast, from a twentysomething point of view". Edmonton Journal, July 31, 1992.
- ^ a b c d Bill Anderson, "In Road Movies, CBC lets youths tell own tales; Network gets fresh viewpoints - and a TV series for $100,000 an episode". Montreal Gazette, July 17, 1992.
- ^ a b Ray Conlogue, "'Hot' French show cools in translation: When the Quebec TV show La Course: Destination Monde was adapted for English audiences, things went wrong". The Globe and Mail, December 4, 1993.
- ^ Hladki, Janice (2010). Fierce: Women's Hot-Blooded Film/Video. Hamilton, Ontario: McMaster University. ISBN 9781926632049.
- ^ Tony Atherton, "CBC fine tunes its schedule, again". Windsor Star, January 13, 1993.
- ^ Mike Boone, "CBC's fall line-up includes 3 series from Quebec". Montreal Gazette, June 5, 1993.
- ^ Tony Atherton, "Summer series should brighten CBC's somber image". Ottawa Citizen, May 4, 1992.
- ^ John Haslett Cuff, "Television by bureaucracy: CBC's Road Movies may be politically correct, with hosts from several cultures and filmed segments from all regions of Canada, but its young audience will decide whether the show is a success". The Globe and Mail, October 12, 1992.