Friday, July 03, 2009

My friends Lara Azzopardi and Julia Cohen's pilot is airing on the CBC:

Throwing Stones is a half-hour drama (with a healthy dose of comedy), about the lives of five remarkable working class women who belong to a local curling club in Winnipeg. Starring Academy Award winner Patty Duke, Lolita Davidovich, Caroline Neron, Barbara Radecki and Stephanie Anne Mills, directed by Mario Azzopardi (ZOS: Zone of Separation), written by Lara Azzopardi and Julia Cohen. Produced by Original Pictures and Curling Productions. Airing Wednesday, July 15th, at 9pm EST.

Great cast! Alas, it didn't get picked up. But it sure looks like fun.

For bonus points, analyze what you think did or didn't work, in the comments.

[Note: the original press release said "July 1." Bad, bad, Lara.]

Labels: logrolling

12:37 PM

9 Comments:

I missed it, but would love to check it out. Any idea where I could watch it?

By  Tim W., at 2:07 PM  

Whoops, that's July 15.

By  Alex Epstein, at 2:16 PM  

I was wondering why you'd post it so late.

Why would they make the decision to not pick it up before it even aired? Seems a little dumb. I mean, this isn't the US. If you're going to pay for the pilot, why not see how it does?

By  Tim W., at 2:43 PM  

As to why it didn't get picked up; I haven't seen the pilot yet, but I can't really see any males under 40 getting excited about a show about women curlers.

By  tommy, at 2:53 PM  

Tommy, the demo for the CBC is fairly... female-specific so not having male viewers isn't a major issue.

By  Elize Morgan, at 7:53 PM  

I don't know much about Canadian TV -- are 1/2 hr. dramas common? I think they're an impossible sell in the U.S. -- even Sports Night, which was awesome, didn't do very well.

By  Seth, at 9:29 PM  

Elize -- Of course. But don't you think it's possible the CBC might be trying to change that? I don't think any network wishing to be successful would actively ignore such a hugely important demographic.

The full 12 order and big budget for Republic of Doyle could certainly suggest they're trying to skew towards a younger male audience.

By  tommy, at 11:58 PM  

I usually hate shows about groups of women being all womeny and spendng an hour talking only about men and stuff.

But I adore curling and this sounds like a really interesting take on the women's club kind of shows. Clearly there's more going on here than just talking about how they wish they were married.

I would watch this show if it was on here in the US and was picked up.

But I don't think a show about curling would even make it to pilot stage around here.

By  Emily Blake, at 3:02 PM  

I know several friends and relatives who will be interested in this! Thanks for the heads-up, Alex!

By  Dwight Williams, at 5:23 PM  

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