Belleville looking for sitcom Satisfaction

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Monday, June 24, 2013

Belleville looking for sitcom Satisfaction

Last week when I visited the set of Satisfaction, I thought Ryan Belleville had some interesting things to say about the state of TV comedy in Canada. Satisfaction premieres Monday night at 8 p.m. on CTV.

The Calgary native plays a dude who shares a big city apartment with a frisky couple (played by fellow Canadians Luke Macfarlane and Leah Renee) on the sitcom, which is somewhat based on creator Tim McAuliffe's own experiences as a struggling comedy writer. McAuliffe has worked writing rooms on both sides of the border, including This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Office and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

"I feel like we're catching up," said Belleville, a Just For Laughs veteran who starred in the short-lived Almost Heroes two seasons ago on Showcase and, several years before that, on the Fox comedy Life on a Stick.

Belleville felt there was a comedy vacuum in Canada for several years. Networks just weren't green lighting any. The investment had all tilted over to TV dramas, especially U.S./Canada co-pros.

Things are changing, however, says Belleville. "Ifeel like there's a renaissance, like when Flashpoint came out and Rookie Blue,all the networks realized, oh, we should just make dramas - we shouldn't try toget too clever and just make good genre and dramas and I feel like right now,that thing is happening for comedy."

Certainly there is something going on. Down the street from the set of Satisfaction in Toronto is where another CTV comedy, Spun Out with Dave Foley, is in production. Rogers' Package Deal had a sneak preview last week and that Vancouver-based sitcom premieres in the fall. Halifax-based Seed is coming back, as is CBC's Mr. D.

Comedies are generally slower to build, so fingers crossed audiences will  catch up with the comedy surge, too.

For more on Satisfaction, read this feature I filed last week for The Toronto Star

THE TELEVIXEN

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The Cast & Creator of Satisfaction at the 2013 CTV Upfront

By thetelevixen Published: June 24, 2013

CTV’s new comedy series Satisfaction kicks off tonight at 8pm and I’m excited to check it out. Yes, they’ve had some successful comedies in the past, but none have really clicked for me. Satisfaction has both a cast and a premise that I can relate to as someone who was once in her 20s, living in Toronto, and torn between being a responsible adult and trying to hold on to fun, frivolous youth.

At the 2013 CTV Upfront earlier this month, we met the creator of the series, Tim McAuliffe, and the cast, Luke Macfarlane, Leah Renee and Ryan Belleville. Here’s a little clip of them that includes Macfarlane talking about his shift from dramas like Smash and Brothers & Sisters to a homegrown comedy, and a rundown on some of the amazing guest stars that will be appearing, including Jessica Paré and Gordon Pinsent!

'Satisfaction': CTV Comedy Channels 'New Girl' And 'Friends'

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'Satisfaction': CTV Comedy Channels 'New Girl' And 'Friends'

HuffPost Canada TV | By Bryan Cairns
Posted: 06/21/2013 2:45 pm EDT | Updated: 06/21/2013 3:13 pm EDT

Everyday life can be a hoot and a holler. That philosophy is certainly evident in CTV's new series, "Satisfaction."

Created by Tim McAuliffe ("The Office," "Up All Night," "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"), the 30-minute comedy follows Jason ("Brothers & Sisters" Luke MacFarlane), his long-term girlfriend Maggie ("The Playboy Club"s Leah Renee), and their bromantic roommate, Mark ("The L.A. Complex"s Ryan Belleville) as they struggle to make ends meet, keep their relationships thriving and their sanity in check while somehow living "harmoniously" under one roof. Naturally, hilarity ensues.

On a sunny Tuesday afternoon in Toronto, a quick tour of the "Satisfaction" studio reveals an apartment, a coffee shop, a store and a pub/bar. There's definitely a "Friends" vibe to the surroundings -- with a dash of "Beverly Hills, 90210" -- considering Jason "Brandon Walsh" Priestley is directing this episode.

Today's first scene finds a snazzily dressed Mark rifling through birthday cards for money to take a girl out on a date. Each empty one is whimsically discarded in the air until he finally hits the jackpot: three dollars. A few takes later, the sequence changes. Jason, wearing a form-fitting green T-shirt and blue denim jeans, frantically speeds by Mark, who is sleeping on the couch.

"There's a mouse in the cupboard," announces Jason.

"I feel like ordering pizza anyway," replies a dazed and groggy Mark.

During a break from their tongue-in-cheek banter, MacFarlane and Belleville sat down with us to discuss comedic chops, relatability, and suppressing their laughter.

HuffPost TV: How does it feel to be back on your home turf, doing a Canadian series?
Luke MacFarlane: Very little of it feels any different than any other show I've done. A set is a set and material is material. We all work on the same thing. It's nice to be near my family again. They are happy about that. I've really enjoyed coming back and the only reason I found this project is I really wanted to do a comedy. My manager was like, "This is the funniest thing I've read." I read it and felt the exact same way.

None of your recent projects has been comedic. What appealed to you about the genre?
LM: The biggest thing I want for my career is to have longevity and the best way to do that is to do everything and not be afraid. The more you limit yourself and what you're comfortable doing, the less opportunities you are going to have. Your ability to stay in the business a long time cuts down. A lot of the actors I really admire have all done comedy and it can be harder. I don't know why exactly. I think there's this whole other aspect of rhythm and the timing of a joke you need to practice.

What excited you about the premise, Ryan?
Ryan Belleville: The thing that drew me to the show was definitely the writing. Being in the U.S. reading tons and tons of comedy scripts every year, it just totally stood out. There's a lot of horrible stuff out there. "Satisfaction" was awesome and it was Canadian. I knew Tim before from the comedy scene. It [the script] was really funny and it takes place in Toronto, and it was shooting in Toronto. I find that appealing as a guy who has a kid in Toronto vs. Los Angeles. The number one thing, though, was it is really funny.

I like doing comedy because everyone needs to laugh. You always have a great time on set. I've worked on dramas before and it can get a little heavy. There's drama here where people are tired and it's really hard. But, generally speaking, we're always laughing and having a good time. Also, you feel good about making people laugh. When people come up and say, "Hey, I saw your show. It was really funny," or "You really made me laugh," it means a lot.

Are you a funny guy?
LM: I don't know. That is to be determined. It's definitely scary. I saw some of my old buddies and they were like, "Of course you're doing a comedy. You always made us laugh." I play more of the traditional straight man in the show, but he has his funny moments.

Can you introduce us to your characters and their circumstances?
LM: Jason Howell is a PhD candidate in plant genetic engineering. I'm smart, but I think it's also very boring. That's part of the charm. I remember Tim saying he wanted to come up with what sounded like the most boring job. I disagree with him because I'm a bit of a nerd, so I think it's interesting. Jason lives with his girlfriend Maggie of about four years, and his best buddy Mark Movenpick from undergraduate school. In school, they were each other's wingman. Mark was always getting into a little more mischief, but they played off each other well. I don't think Mark was able to let go of those college years. He wasn't able to let go of his roommate, so they have this strange relationship where they all live together. Of course, there's that funny thing where we aren't really making any money, so we have to make it work by all living together.

RB: Mark is sort of a third wheel who hijacks everything all the time. They are three friends who get along. It's not like they are always angry at Mark. They are really good friends, but it's at that point in life where they aren't as compatible. Jason and Maggie are trying to focus on being a couple and doing couple things, but they still enjoy having the fun single life and feeling that they're young and can party. I'm the guy who's too deep in that world and can't relate to the relationship life. I'm the single yin to their committed yang.

McAuliffe infused his life experiences into "Satisfaction." Do you identify with your alter-egos?
LM: It's totally universal. There's that time in your life when you get out of college and are figuring out the mysteries of becoming an adult. For me, when I first moved to Los Angeles, I lived with my buddy and his girlfriend, so I can totally relate to that. You're terrified and excited about where life is going to lead you. It's a really interesting time in your life where there's a lot of anxiety about where you're going to go, because you really have no idea whether that's marriage or relationship or work. All that stuff created a great playing field to work in.

RB: I lived in Toronto in a horrible apartment, super-broke. I literally only had Minute Rice to eat and I ate that for a week. I would steal my neighbour's condiments just to put a little bit of soya sauce on my food. I was getting so light and skinny and underweight that girls that I was flirting with would start showing up to bring food to my house. They felt sorry for me, which is totally sweet, but not good to impress a lady. I relate to Mark in that sense of being broke and single, but he is the nth degree of that.

The various sets are reminiscent of "Friends." Are the comedic elements in that wheelhouse or is it more of a dry sense of humour or slapstick or wacky?
LM: The humour is so personal and Tim's sense of humour is really unique. I would be very reluctant to describe or relate it to anything. It's less sentimental than shows of a different era. The humour tends to be a little goofier and we play with time a lot. It's very non-linear storytelling. We flash back in time a lot and sometimes very quickly. I don't know if they'd agree with this, but there's this whole generation that grew up watching "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy," where you can really do anything and are not locked into linear storytelling.

There's touching aspects to Maggie and Jason, but at the core of it, a lot of the humour comes from silly goofy times. We definitely push the envelope too. We obviously can't swear, but you can bleep it out. It's a way of getting around that sort of censorship where everyone knows exactly what is happening. We show pornographic pictures, but we just digitize them. There's stuff like that which is self-conscious in a good, funny way.

RB: It is kind of "Friends" in that the characters are grounded, and it's all about relationships between people you're close to. Tonally, I think it's a lot like a "New Girl." It's a little quirky and fast-paced, but we're not all crazy antics all the time. Probably the most antics-filled episode is the first one where we have a blackout. "Satisfaction" is quite serious at times and Tim really wanted to make people like the characters.

What happens in the premiere about the blackout?
LM: In the first episode, you get thrown into the world madly. We debated what the first episode was going to be. We ultimately went with what takes place during the blackout, which I think a lot of Torontonians can relate to. It's like the world kinda shuts down. How does everyone deal with that? Maggie and Jason are going through a very typical relationship quandary where they are trying to debate who's right. Because they have no Internet to figure out the answer, they go back and forth a little bit. Of course, Mark gets up to some rotten antics.

How do you manage keeping a straight face during filming?
LM: Oh my God. Patrick Thornton makes me crack up all the time. I feel I have so much to learn, so I'm in awe of these comedians. They really do make me laugh.

RB: We crack each other up all the time on set. Especially when you're on hour 13 of the day, something just happens. Me and Pat will be joking around and we can't stop laughing. Then you feel guilty because everyone wants to go home, which only makes you laugh harder.

"Satisfaction" premieres on Monday, June 24 at 8 p.m. on CTV.

See some shows from CTV's Fall 2013 fall lineup below.

Luke Macfarlane ready for comedy in Satisfaction

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Luke Macfarlane ready for comedy in Satisfaction

London, Ontario native stars in CTV series debuting June 24 with Leah Renee and Ryan Belleville

BELL MEDIA PHOTO

Ryan Belleville as Mark Movenpick, Leah Renee as Maggie Bronson and Luke Macfarlane as

Jason Howell in CTV's Satisfaction, which debuts June 24 at 8 p.m.

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By:Bill Brioux Special to the Star, Published on Fri Jun 21 2013

Luke Macfarlane decided that there was just too much drama in his life. So he switched over to comedy.

The London, Ont., native starred for five seasons on Brothers and Sisters, where he played husband to Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys from The Americans), one of the “brothers” on the series.

Before that, he was a modern-day soldier in the front-line drama Over There.

“That was my first television show,” says Macfarlane, a Juilliard grad with off-Broadway credits before landing the FX soldier series. Legendary executive producer Steven Bochco was the showrunner. What could go wrong? Macfarlane could already see himself “on the cover of every magazine.”

Then the series was cancelled after one season. “It really put into perspective how difficult the entire process is and how rare it is to really connect.”

Fortunately, he rebounded straight into Brothers and Sisters and a five-year U.S. network run.

He's hoping for similar luck on his new series, Satisfaction (debuting June 24 at 8 p.m.).The CTV sitcom, created and executive produced by Tim McAuliffe (The Office, This Hour has 22 Minutes), stars Macfarlane opposite Toronto native Leah Renee (The Playboy Club).

They play Jason and Maggie, a frisky young couple who share their downtown apartment with Jason's BBF Mark, played by Ryan Belleville (Almost Heroes). Pat Thornton, Thomas Mitchell, Nikki Payne and 22 Minutes funnyman Mark Critch, as shell-shocked neighbour Gary Breakfast, make up the comedy ensemble.

Between takes on the Toronto set, Macfarlane said he is hoping to emulate the career paths of actors like Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling: “guys who were able to straddle everything,” he says.

Cooper, he points out, went from TV drama (Jack & Bobby) to action shows (Alias) to Broadway before becoming a film star in The Hangover and Silver Linings Playbook.

Macfarlane has been on a similar path. Satisfaction is the 33-year-old's first job back in Canada in ages. “Since I graduated school really,” he says.

The move back to Canada and into comedy couldn't come at a better time, figures Belleville.

The Just for Laughs comedy fest veteran has felt that, for several years, there's been a sitcom “vacuum in Canada.” Like a lot of Canadian performers, he tried his luck in the States, enjoying a short run on the 2005 Fox comedy Life on a Stick, where he worked with fellow Canuck Rachelle Lefevre (Under the Dome).

The Calgary native returned in 2011 to co-write and star in the Showcase comedy Almost Heroes. That failed to stick, but he's optimistic about Satisfaction.

“I feel like there's a renaissance, like when Flashpoint came out and Rookie Blue, and all the networks realized, ‘Oh, we should make dramas' . . . and I feel like, right now, that thing is happening for comedy.”

There does seem to be, if not an explosion, a surge in Canadian comedy production. Besides CBC's Mr. D, City is producing two sitcoms: Seed (like Mr. D, shot in Halifax) and the fall four-camera sitcom Package Deal, starring Harland Williams. Besides Satisfaction, CTV has the shot-in-Toronto sitcom Spun Out, which stars Dave Foley as the head of a PR firm. The comedy will join their schedule sometime next season.

Macfarlane says he's impressed that CTV is “trying to create a comic voice that also feels really contemporary and urban. We've seen comedies out of Canada featuring “rural dwellers,” he says, not naming Corner Gas. He likes that both Satisfaction and Spun Out are set in the city.

Renee says she's ready for her comedy close-up, too, and enjoying this cast. “Luke and Ryan are like my brothers. We've been joking around and hanging out all day.”

The series is based on McAuliffe's real-life experience sharing a city apartment with a couple while he tried to make it as a comedy writer.

Jessica Pare, who guests later in the season, used to crash on the couch of that apartment, long before her Mad Men success. Other guest stars include Andy Kindler, Gordon Pinsent and Jerry O'Connell. Jason Priestley and Mike Clattenburg (Trailer Park Boys) are among the directors.

Belleville's character is pretty much based on McAuliffe. His advice to the actor: “You need someone incredibly funny to play me, so don't even try.”

As for Macfarlane and Renee, Critch says not only do they have the comedy chops, they're perfectly cast as romantic leads.

Quips Critch: “They're attractive enough for American television.”

Unsettled urbanites meander toward adulthood in CTV's 'Satisfaction'

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Cast members of the television show "Satisfaction," Ryan Belleville
(left to right) Leah Renee and Luke Macfarlane are shown in a handout photo.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Bell Media

Unsettled urbanites meander toward adulthood in CTV's 'Satisfaction'

Cassandra Szklarski / The Canadian Press
June 20, 2013









TORONTO - Comic veteran Ryan Belleville admits there's not much to the premise of his new sitcom, "Satisfaction," and that's the way he likes it.

The CTV series basically centres on the lives of a young couple and their off-kilter best friend, who share a cramped Toronto apartment while navigating the ups-and-downs of their love lives and the encroaching responsibilities of adulthood.

"One of the things I love about the show is it's quite low-concept, like 'Friends' was," Belleville says in a recent interview from the meticulously outfitted set.

"It's just a group of fun people living together and interacting."

Belleville plays the slacker singleton Mark, a sweet but aimless ne'er-do-well who bumbles his way through an extended adolescence with childlike charm.

His best pals and roommates are the brainy Jason, played by Luke Macfarlane ("Brothers & Sisters"), and Jason's girlfriend Maggie, played by Leah Renee ("The Playboy Club"), who face their own hurdles in maintaining a mature relationship while still living like students.

Macfarlane says the show is essentially about that awkward transition to becoming a grown-up.

"There's that stage in your life when you're not yet an adult and you're still a kid and you're figuring out how to make it all work," notes the L.A.-based Macfarlane, originally from London, Ont.

Those growing pains are easy for Belleville to recall, the standup-turned-actor sheepishly admits. Years ago, he lived in a tiny apartment carved out of a massive Toronto house — much like Mark does.

"I was so broke all I had was Minute Rice and that's it," says the 33-year-old, noting the similarities didn't end there.

"And then I lost so much weight that this girl I was kind of seeing was like, 'Are you sick?' And I'm like, 'No!' And then food just started arriving at my house. And I dated her for longer than I should have because I had no food. That feels like a very Mark story to me."

Keeping it real and relatable was important to show creator Tim McAuliffe, whose writing credits include "This Hour has 22 Minutes," "Up All Night" and "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

During a recent CTV media event to promote the upcoming lineup, he says he based "Satisfaction" on his own experiences sharing an apartment with two friends — also a couple — years ago in Montreal.

The Mark character is loosely based on McAuliffe, while Jason's real-life inspiration is also involved in the show — as a music composer.

McAuliffe's real-life famous friends swing by throughout the season to make guest star appearances, including "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" comic Mark Critch, acting veteran Gordon Pinsent and "Mad Men" actress Jessica Pare.

"Jessica Pare was someone who used to hang out at our apartment a lot," says McAuliffe.

"She would just sleep over a lot because she was good friends with the (woman who inspired Maggie). And so she spent a lot of time there and we just stayed friends over the years."

Pare turns up as a sexy new neighbour who attracts the attention of Mark and his friend Simon.

Meanwhile, "The Defenders" star Jerry O'Connell stops by to play a jock who went to college with Mark and Jason but used to torment them back in the day.

Macfarlane says the show is unique in presenting a distinctly urban look at Canadian life, as opposed to past sitcom smashes like "Corner Gas" and "Little Mosque on the Prairie."

It also plays around with time, something he says is a relatively modern approach to mining TV laughs.

"We'll jump forward, we'll jump backwards in time ... and the pace is very, very quick," he says.

"I really like that. I don't know if Tim would appreciate this, but I think there's a kind of generation of people that grew up watching 'The Simpsons' and the 'Family Guy' where you can kind of do anything with time and it doesn't necessarily need to be a linear storyline. So I like that we embrace that a lot in our show."

Belleville says the recent boom in straight-ahead Canadian dramas like "Flashpoint" and "Rookie Blue" have opened the door for simple sitcoms based on simple ideas.

"The best thing this has going for it is it's really, really funny and it's not trying to do anything beyond that," he says.

"We're not hiding the fact that it's an urban Canadian centre but we're not kind of trying to cram things down people's throats. We're not trying to be like, 'Hey look how Canadian we are. This is an episode with a Mountie.'

"We're just trying to do funny stuff that are relatable stories and I think that's a big win."

"Satisfaction" debuts Monday on CTV.

© Copyright 2013

tdot tv - Satisfaction interview

Interview

Partial article from The Backlot - Smash

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“Smash” Finale: Greatest WTF Moments

by John | May 28, 2013

The Smash series finale was, unsurprisingly, a mess. Here are its messiest moments.

Smash ended its run Sunday night with the last two episodes stitched together Frankenstein-style into a “series finale”. You are forgiven for watching that Liberace movie instead. In a series loaded with WTF moments, the final two episodes delivered up some of the WTF-iest.

6. Tom Levitt Becomes Lucy Ricardo

Tom’s desperation for a Tony nomination for Best Director turns his penultimate story line on Smash into an episode of I Love Lucy. He obsessively checks his phone in the middle of a live theater performance and, when the person seated behind him complains about it, he shoves his phone in the guy’s face and brags about having just won an Outer Critics’ Circle Award for his work. Except, sad horns, the guy is Patrick Dillon, a Hollywood and Broadway actor who’s on the Tony nominating committee. So Tom sends him a bottle of wine as an apology, going into a panic when it’s pointed out that the wine could be seen as an illegal bribe. Unable to stop the delivery, Tom goes to Patrick’s building and tries to steal the bottle off the doorman’s station. He’s thwarted by the arrival of Patrick himself and Tom and Patrick wind up in a literal tug-of-war over the bottle until they send it smashing to the floor.

It’s all an elaborate meet-cute for Tom and Patrick, who is played by Luke MacFarlane and who would have been Tom’s closeted love interest had Smash gone to a third season. Smash proved conclusively in episode two of this season that it is incapable of hitting a sitcom beat with its painfully unfunny “Bombshell invades the Theater Society dinner” story and the decision to return to it ever is unfathomable.