Toronto-based March Entertainment will launch its new animated television series CHILLY BEACH September 3, 2003 at 5:30 pm, immediately following THE SIMPSONS on CBC-TV in Canada. Produced in Flash in association with the CBC, CHILLY BEACH represents the first time a Canadian property created as Internet Webisodes has been picked up by the network.
CHILLY BEACH is the story of Canadian misfits who live on an iceberg and are preoccupied with hockey, beer and hockey, said Dan Hawes, president of March Entertainment. CHILLY BEACH has evolved over the past six years from a web-based animated series with a dedicated cult-following, to a full-fledged television series.
The 26-episode series chronicles the misadventures of Dale and Frank, two beer-drinking, hockey-playing best friends, along with a cast of characters who inhabit Chilly Beach, a small, unsuccessful Canadian resort community built on the shores of a drifting ice floe in the far, far north. If features Abby, the American amateur anthropologist whose lifes study is Canadas primitive culture; April, the rampant feminist, environmentalist and the only albeit self-appointed enlightened individual in Chilly Beach; Constable Al, the East Indian RCMP officer whose commitment to executing his duties correctly is unwavering in the face of Dale and Franks antics; Angus, the Scottish trapper; Jacques LaRock, restaurant owner and purveyor of poutiness; and a slew of others.
The series pokes fun at all the beliefs people have about Canada: inhospitable climate, blind obsession with hockey, better beer than the U.S., excruciating politeness, to name only a few, according to Hawes.
The creative team is led by showrunner, Doug Sinclair who created the show for the Internet five years ago. Terry Saltsman (EERIE INDIANA, MISSING TREASURES) is on board as story editor and Paul Quarrington (DUE SOUTH, CAMILLA) is also set to write a number of scripts. Dan Hawes, Catherine Tait and Liliana Vogt serve as exec producers.
The CBC has been looking for a show just like CHILLY BEACH to help build our youth audience. Its smart, its funny and its unashamedly Canadian, said Cheryl Hassen, creative head, childrens and youth entertainment, CBC Television.
March Entertainment will also produce an accompanying Web-based simulation game entitled POLAR MAGNATE with Bell New Media and cbc.ca to launch in tandem with the series. The game environment will be populated with the characters and attitude of CHILLY BEACH where players can master the basics of entrepreneurship and become CHILLY BEACH millionaires.
March Entertainment, established in January 2002, is a creative content company focused on the development and production of unique brands designed for distribution through both traditional and new media. For more on the series check out www.chillybeach.com or www.cbc.ca/chillybeach.
