Quiz: TV Series Set in Toronto

[dewline]

Let's see how many of them are known to my circle here on Dreamwidth.

(Yes, I blame L&O: Toronto: Criminal Intent for this impulse. No, I haven't seen the first episode.)

Comments

[kathleen_dailey]

Off the top of my head, and in no chronological order: Forever Knight, Being Erica, Street Legal, Pretty Hard Cases, Four in the Morning, Nirvanna the Band the Show, Train 48, Private Eyes, Made in Canada, Kim's Convenience, and of course Murdoch Mysteries and the various Degrassi series.

Sigh. Except for Murdoch Mysteries, all of these shows are gone, and I miss every one of them.

I'm sure many more will spring to mind as soon as I post this!

[batdina]

To which I'd add Due South.

[dewline]

I won't. Yes, filmed in Toronto (mostly), but framed by the city of Chicago as much as by the Territories from whence Fraser hailed.

[batdina]

All of this his true. I was living in TO when it was filming and it made me late for work fairly often so I tend to think of it as Toronto. (Though trying to ID where in town it is based on the lower stories of buildings can be a bit of a chore.)

[em_h]

This Is Wonderland. Twitch City. Those two together summarize my Toronto.

[dewline]

I dearly miss This is Wonderland.

[kathleen_dailey]

Yes! Thank you for mentioning these. In different ways, both shows were far ahead of their respective times.

I did a double-take when I saw Cara Pifko appear as Paige Novick in Better Call Saul. Thoughts of a crossover flitted through my brain.

[sabotabby]

Orphan Black (eventually). The criminally underrated Ken Finkleman shows (The Newsroom, More Tears, Good God, etc.). King of Kensington.

[em_h]

Man, how did I forget Finkleman? Though some of the later ones got irritating, The Newsroom and More Tears were brilliant.

I was actually in the studio audience for the taping of the pilot of King of Kensington. One of my childhood brushes with ... something.

[dewline]

Now, there's a surprise!

[sabotabby]

That line from More Tears "we'll cross the dead baby bridge when we come to it" lives rent-free in my head forever.

That's awesome! King of Kensington was a fantastic show iirc.

[em_h]

During one of the rocky periods in my parent's marriage, my dad moved to Toronto, and worked at the CBC as a script-doctor and show-developer. The pilot was being filmed one day when I was visiting him, so he got me in to see it.

The show he was most proud of was Sidestreet (a much-neglected Toronto show), but I didn't watch that one; it wasn't really age-appropriate. I think he worked on at least one other dark crime drama which was on after I was in bed. And, inevitably, on some episodes of The Beachcombers, though not on location in that case ...

[em_h]

I had to dig deep in IMDB to remind myself of the title of his racetrack drama, Backstretch. That drew on a lot on experiences of my mother's family. He's credited for Sidestreet, Backstretch, and The Great Detective, but he did uncredited script-doctoring for many other shows.

[blogcutter]

Is Ken Finkleman any relation to Danny Finkleman who used to host the CBC radio show Finkleman's 45's?

[em_h]

Yes, they are brothers.

[blogcutter]

Sort Of. Yes, the whole Degrassi series (Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High) and Murdoch, of course. Possibly the Spencer Sisters? Franke Drake. Some scenes in The Handmaid's Tale. A whole bunch of documentary and talk shows and kids' shows (Today's Special, Polka Dot Door, Reading Rainbow). Those are just the ones that spring to mind at the moment.

[blogcutter]

Shelved (As a librarian, I'm ashamed of myself for forgetting that one!)

[extraarcha]

Wow!
Not much for watching any TV. Not one of these shows mentioned even ring any bells.
Give me a fair to good (or better) book and that way i get to miss the blizzard of ads. Years back, kinda liked some of the ads. See: Hidden Persuaders as a guide. Other good sources. What i've seen of the ads today are just over-the-top CGI selling things that i'm way better off without.
Curmudgeon trigger warning: WE'D ALL be better without. lmao

[bcholmes]

Was Hangin' In actually set in Toronto, or was it "generic city"?

[bcholmes]

Although looking up that show reminded me of King of Kensington, which I never watched but kept seeing the promos for. Set in Kensington Market.

Jinkies, I'm old.

[blogcutter]

Of course, there are probably quite a few series that were in fact shot there but Toronto is a stand-in for some American city? I know they do that all the time with Ottawa and the surrounding area.

[em_h]

Probably hundreds.

[bcholmes]

There are a number of filming locations that I see fairly regularly, and are always clues for me that the show was filmed in Toronto. E.g.:

- Casa Loma was the site of Wayne Manor in the TV series Titans
- The Lakeview is a diner with surviving 1930s (?) interior decor, and is often used for period scenes, such as in Jupiter's Legacy
- Roy Thompson Hall has been used as the UN headquarters (in The Expanse) and the Vought International headquarters building (The Boys).
- A small yellow building just across the street from Roy Thompson Hall was the building in which Hannibal Lector's practice was located in Hannibal. York University and the U of T Scarborough campus often showed up.
- York University building were used as the police station from Lost Girl
- The main UofT campus buildings often appeared in shows like Witchblade

There are a few others. It's pretty fascinating how frequent they are.

Canadian Cities Impersonating Gotham

[dewline]

And you've reminded me that Toronto's stood in for both Gotham and Midway Cities per the first Suicide Squad movie, and of Vancouver's playing Gotham in Batwoman.

As for Roy Thomson Hall, that got screen time in the first X-Men movie...

And how many different parts of how many worlds from the assorted Star Trek series has the GTHA region stood in for by now?

Re: Canadian Cities Impersonating Gotham

[bcholmes]

The X-Men mention reminded me that there was a high-school about a block away from where I lived in the late 90s that was a filming location for the first X-Men film. The production company sent us notices that filming was gonna happen there, at night, for a couple of days. But they were very quick to point out that none of the leads were going to be on set for that work. I guess they didn't want people wandering around trying to meet the stars, or something.

When the film finally came out, we realized that all the stuff that was filmed at the high school comprised scenes of the "world leaders summit" from the climax of the film, and mostly that footage appears on a TV news broadcast inside the film itself. So it was a total "blink and you'll miss it" bit.

[(Anonymous)]

Dont forget Flashpoint

[dewline]

Absolutely not forgetting Flashpoint!

[misyachnakvitka]

I wanna see that so fucking badly, can you get on an app???