Whistler (TV series)

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Whistler
Image:Whistler cast.jpg
The cast of Whistler
Genre Drama
Running time One Hour (including commercials)
Creator(s) Kelly Senecal
Starring David Paetkau
Nicholas Lea
Jesse Moss
Amanda Crew
Brandy Ledford
Brendan Penny
Haley Beauchamp
Holly Dignard
Adam J. Harrington
Ingrid Kavelaars
Chris Shyer
Country of origin Canada
Original channel CTV (Canada)
The-N (USA)
Original run June 25, 2006 to August 25, 2006 (Canada) June 30, 2006 to September 23, 2006 (USA)–
No. of episodes 13 (for Season 1 -- CTV has already announced there will be a second season but has not indicated how many episodes there will be or if The-N will show them in the US)

Whistler is a new drama about the mysterious death of a local snowboard legend after he returns home from the 2006 Winter Olympics with a gold medal. His death sets the stage for the show and changes the lives of his friends and family with all whom have stories to tell and secrets to keep.

The secret-keeping locals are the only ones who can answer the terrifying truth of, "what secrets lie beneath the snow?" Even McKaye's friends and family all have their share of dirty laundry and juicy secrets to try to hide. Beck's brother, Quinn (Jesse Moss, best known for his work in Ginger Snaps) must try to solve the mystery of Beck's death. He will find out the truth, which might be more than he can handle of the biggest secret in Whistler.[1]

Currently, a lawsuit has been filed against CTV by Olympic snowboarder Ross Rebagliati, accusing the network of "misappropriating" his identity with Whistler's main character Beck McKaye. The suit has not yet been heard by the British Columbia Supreme Court.[2]

Contents

[edit] Television air dates

Whistler premiered on CTV on June 25, 2006, [3]. The show premiered on The-N in the United States on June 30, 2006.

The show aired in Canada on Sunday nights at 10 pm local time until August 14 when CTV announced it was moving the series to Monday nights at 9 pm local time. However, after just one airing in that time slot, CTV returned the series to Sunday nights at 10 pm, effective with the August 20th telecast. CTV aired the final two episodes of season one back to back on Friday, August 25.

The-N continued to air only one episode a week in the United States, eventually shifting the final five episodes to Saturday mornings at 1 am before completing the series on September 23.

The series has also been airing on the British youth channel Trouble (TV station) since October 16, 2006. The series is broadcast on Monday nights at 9:00 pm.

[edit] Episode List

1 - Fallen
2 - Out of the Shadows
3 - Coming Together, Coming Apart
4 - Lies and Whispers
5 - The Burden of Truth
6 - Will the Real Beck...?
7 - In the Air
8 - After the Fall
9 - The Looks of Love
10 - Gathering Clouds
11 - Scratching the Surface
12 - Meltdown
13 - Unearthed

[edit] Cast

(in alphabetical order)

Talent Role
Derek Baynham Ty
Haley Beauchamp Feeney
Amanda Crew Carrie Miller
Holly Dignard Nicole Miller
Adam Harrington Ryan McKaye
Ingrid Kavelaars Jen McKaye
Nicholas Lea Ethan McKaye
Brandy Ledford Shelby Varland
Jesse Moss Quinn McKaye
David Paetkau Beck McKaye
Brendan Penny A.J. Varland
Christopher Shyer Adrien Varland

[edit] Music

The musical supervision for Whistler is handled by S.L. Feldman and Associates, the same company that supervised the music for the [[Queer as Folk (US TV series)]. The show features music by such Canadian artists as the Dirtmitts (whose song "Ordinary Day" is featured as the series opening track), The Waking Eyes, The Organ, The Stills, Hawksley Workman, Sam Roberts, Pilot Speed, Death from Above 1979, The Dears, The Meligrove Band, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Immaculate Machine, and Autumn Eve. ]. The Canadian punk bank D.O.A. (band) was featured in episode 9, "The Looks of Love," with the songs "I Hate You" and "Liar For Hire."

A CD Soundtrack for some of the music used on the show was released in Canada on August 22 and in the United States on September 26, 2006.

[edit] Credits

Created by: Kelly Senecal
Developed by: Patrick Banister, John Barbisan, Mindy Heslin
Written by: Alison Lea Bingeman, Tony Blake, Russ Cochrane, Paul Jackson, Kelly Senecal
Executive Producers: Patrick Banister, John Barbisan, Tony Blake, Sam Feldman, Noreen Halpern, Mindy Heslin, Paul Jackson, John Morayniss, Jane Muckle, Kelly Senecal, Danny Virtue, Janet York
Co-Producers: Alison Lea Bingeman, Russ Cochrane

[edit] Trivia

  • Whistler is the co-host for the 2010 Winter Olympics along with Vancouver. This is why CTV, the network in possession of the broadcast rights to the 2010 Olympics in Canada, specifically asked that the series be set in Whistler. Several of Canada's real male snowboarding team come from Whistler - thus the obvious tie-in to the show.
  • Some of the outdoor shots used in the series were filmed in and around Whistler but most of the outdoor and all of the indoor scenes were filmed at Uphill Studios in Langley, B.C., about 50 km (30 mi) south of Vancouver. This made for a lot of travel for the cast and crew since Whistler is two hours north of Vancouver and Langley is about 30 minutes south. All of the post-production was done by Uphill Productions in Vancouver.
  • The cast was not kept in the loop regarding the story lines as Kelly Senecal and his writing team developed the scripts for each episode. The cast members were only told what was going to happen in the next episode when they received their initial scripts for that episode. Several cast members have been quoted as saying how exciting it was for them waiting to find out how the story was going to unfold and what was going to happen to their characters.
  • Three of the main actors, David Paetkau, Jesse Moss, and Amanda Crew, have been associated with the Final Destination supernatural thriller trilogy; David from Final Destination 2, and Jesse Moss & Amanda Crew from Final Destination 3.
  • Nick Lea not only portrays Ethan McKaye in the series, he is also an associate producer.
  • In order to get the cast totally into character for the intense final scene of the first season, the song associated with the scene, Barely Listening by Pilot Speed (formerly Pilate), was played during the filming. This is rarely done in TV filming when dialogue is being filmed but the director felt it was worth the effort and cost to help intensify the actors' performances in the scene.
  • Thirteen "webisodes" were also produced by CTV for viewing on their Broadband "On-demand" website. The same webisodes were also available on The-N's "The Click" on-demand website and the UK's Trouble on-demand website. The webisodes were short scenes that depicted an event that took place either between broadcast episodes or during an episode (but not seen during the episode). Because the webisodes were not given official titles by the producers, CTV and The-N used different titles to refer to them on their respective websites.

[edit] External links

Whistler - official site
After The Drop - character blog
Whistler at TV.com
IMDb Listing for Whistler

[edit] Press Releases

CTV press release - June 29, 2006
CTV press release - June 6, 2006
Whistler The-N Press Release on Yahoo! - May 2, 2006
CTV press release - November 29, 2005