Blame Canada!

Post 2

Why hello there! I hope this evening finds everyone happy and well. I don't know how long tonight's post shall be, because it is fast approaching my bed time (darn that daily commute), but I wanted to put something up. Today's topic is a fun one for me, and I hope you will enjoy it as well dear reader.

If you are a fan of science fiction television shows, you may or may not be aware of the fact that many of today's shows are filmed in that great northern land of Canada, eh. (I couldn't resist, I mean, seriously, could you?) Such shows include and have included (my favorite) Stargate SG-1/Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, Dresden Files, The 4400, and (I think, but am not 100% on this one) Smallville. I am guessing it's the wide open spaces and all. Also, part of it may just be because so many of the genre shows out there today (not all, but most) are from NBC Universal (NBCU)--NBC, USA, and SciFi.

Now, science fiction is a genre that calls for many extras. This leads to a fun little phenomenon that I like to call Canadian show-hopping. Basically, there's this pool of actors that are likely to pop up on any of the genre shows you might be watching. This actually extends outside of scifi television to pretty much any show filmed in that area, (I've noticed a lot of my peeps pop up on Monk and Psych, both NBCU shows, as well as other genre shows), but is really most noticeable if you tend to watch a) a whole heckka lot of scifi shows, or b) anywhere near as much tv as I watch in general.

So as a result of this show hopping I've got this group of little known actors I have grown to love (or love to hate) and it's a nice little easter egg for viewers like me to be sitting there watching one show and to suddenly realize red shirt number three is really Mr. Wozniak from some other show entirely. It's pretty awesome. It's also kind of cool to be able to "follow" these actors' careers just by tuning in. For example, there's this guy, who I still think of as "Mr. O" from his role as Mr. Oleander the student teacher on Degrassi the Next Generation (which is not a scifi show but is a Canadian show and is just plain awesome). His stint on DNG was a few years ago but recently he's started popping up all over the NBCU radar. First as a nugget on the second season of Battlestar Galactica, then recently as the bad guy (which made me so happy) on a season two episode of Pysch. Even better, he also seems to have picked up a recurring role as Larry the annoying sycophant on Eureka. I love it. I keep waiting for terrible things to happen to him (Mr. O was not my favorite character), and they keep on happening. I am happy for the actor and satisfied that the character he keeps playing keeps getting what's coming to him.

For another example, we have Kavan Smith, who just really rocks. My first introduction to him was as Major Lorne on Stargate Atlantis season two, though this was not his first foray into the world of Stargate. Lorne actually showed up in season eight of SG-1 in just one episode, (I started watching this series with the spinoff first and then got into the parent show, right before it ended, of course). The powers that be apparently loved Kavan and decided to bring him back to Atlantis, where he gets to be the XO and has become hugely popular with fans. I mean, even without a first name (which, he was finally given recently, is Evan) he became a huge driving force in the SGA fanfiction world. But good ol' Kavan isn't one to rest on his laurels, apparently. He's also done a stint on Battlestar Galactica, appeared in Smallville, and managed to pick up a very nice recurring role on The 4400 as Agent Garrity, the other NTAC agent. I mean, come on, Baldwin and Skouris can't do it all on their own, right?

These are just two of many examples. It's not really even limited to the Canadians. Former Dr. Who Christopher Eccleston did a multiple-episode stint on Heroes in its first season. Plus you've got all kinds of people from Buffy and Angel popping up on Smallville and Supernatural on a regular basis.

So, who cares that these people apparently feel the need to just hop around doing bit parts on genre shows? Well, I do. It makes the whole scifi television experience a little bit more enjoyable. To me these people seem to form a kind of family. They are having fun with what they're doing and they love working with each other, so they keep on doing it.

Okay, enough sap. It is definitely past my bed time now. I leave you all with happy thoughts of the new season and the multitude of genre shows headed our way in the coming weeks. I hear that a whole bunch of Battlestar people are going to be heading over to play in Bionic Woman's sandbox...I wonder who else we'll see pop up where?

Everyone enjoy your week. Peace. Try not to pay too much attention to the crazy woman with a blog.

C

Recent acquisitions: Bones Season Two, Grey's Anatomy Season Three