The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 21

A i The Vancouver Sun Monday, September 22, 1997 ENTERTAINMENT 159 Entertainment Editor Barbara Crook 605-2120 FAX 605-2521 E-mail bcrookpacpress.southam.ca TELEVISION There are opening-day jitters at Vancouver Television, but a mood of intense excitement accompanies the prayers for a smooth debut Dawn of a new station Tune into a schedule that's subtly original At first glance, VTVs nightly schedule resembles many other station's. There are a few pronounced differences, however: A weekly, Thursday-night, hour-long showcase that reflects Vancouver's increasingly vibrant arts community, for example, and a weekly anthology of locally produced half-hour family dramas on Saturdays. Here is a night-by-night look at how VTV plans to woo viewers. Monday-Friday Vancouver Television is gambling that it can dominate the traditional sitcomgame show hour between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.

with a little help from Friends. VTVs parent company, Toronto-based Baton Broadcasting landed an exclusive contract to show Friends in Canada one year before the show becomes available for syndication in the U.S. VTV will show Friends each week night at 7:30 p.m. Please see Schedule, BIO "It'll live or die on the basis of how well it becomes part of the community over the long term." Ivan Fecan, president, Baton Broadcasting Stories by ALEX STRACHAN Sun Television Critic When Vancouver's newest television station officially takes flight today, viewers can expect a mix of familiar standbys like Metose Place and new, locally produced fare like Vancouver Breakfast, a two-hour, week-morning breakfast magazine that kicks off the day's programming at 6 a.m., and Gabereau the much-anticipated talk show hosted by former CBC Radio chat maven Vicki Gabereau. Lower Mainland viewers will feel the impact of Vancouver Television immediately.

The impact the new station will have on the city's broadcasting picture may not be known for several years, however. Ivan Fecan, president of the Toronto-based Baton Broadcasting VTVs parent company, and Jon Festinger, the station's general manager, describe Vancouver Television as a long-term project that will experience its share of highs and lows before a candid assessment can be made about whether it was worth the trouble. Festinger is aiming for more highs than lows during today's official first day on the air, though he is enough of a realist to know that not everything will go as planned. "The upside is a clean day technical I 2 'J i I ly; Festinger said, with all the excitement and intensity and passion that goes into the first day in the life of any new TV station. The downside is the opposite." For Fecan, former program head at the CBC and vice-president of creative affairs for several years at NBC, VICKI GABEREAU hosts Gabereau Live, one of VTV's new shows.

VTVs launch is unlike anything he has experienced in his 33- s. -l- 1-'- I MB year career in broadcasting. Fecan's vision for the new station was that it be accessible and inclusive at the same time accessible to viewers, with a walk-in atrium at its 750 Bur-rard Street broadcast site, and inclusive of the community, reflecting the increasingly multicultural face of the city. "My feeling is that today is a launch, a beginning," Fecan said. "The Vancouver Television, Vancouver's first conventional, over-the-air television station in 21 years, officially launches this morning at 6 a.m.

with Vancouver Breakfast, a two-hour, week-morning magazine hosted by Hong Kong-broadcaster Aamer Haleem and former Z95-FM radio jockey Ted Schredd. VTV, or CIVT as it is officially known, will be broadcast throughout the Lower Mainland on cable channel 9. Viewers can expect a focus on local news and information, coupled with a prime-time schedule of popular U.S. programs and Canadian dramas, sketch-comedy shows, variety programs and documentaries. Vancouver-based shows include Vancouver Breakfast, Gabereau Live, a talk show hosted by former CBC-Radio broadcaster Vicki Gabereau (weekdays at 8 a.m.); Mason Lee: On the Edge, a weekly panel of political commentary hosted by former Globe Mail West Coast columnist Robert Mason Lee (Sundays, 11:30 a.m.); Double Exposure, political satire from former CBC-Radio satirists Linda Cullen and Bob Robertson (Saturdays at 7 p.m.); and newscasts Vancouver Live at Noon (weekdays, for half an hour), Vancouver Live at 6:00 (weeknights, for one hour) and Vancouver Live at 11:00 (weeknights, for half an hour).

VTV's Live at 6:00 will also air Saturdays and Sundays, for half an hour, at 6 p.m. station's not going to live or die on the basis of a one-day launch. It'll live or die on the basis of how well it becomes part of the community over the long term." Please POINTEDLY, A VTV SHOW: (from left) Drew Carey's Diedrich Bader, Christa Miller, Ryan Stiles, Drew Carey, Craig Ferguson and Kathy Kinney. Latest Joseph is amazingly engaging JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT Written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber; starring David Burnham, Kelli James Chase, Abe Reynold, James Harms To Nov. 2 at the Ford Centre JOHN ARMSTRONG y- fSf fir f't frf I At I Yakety Yak and Charlie Brown, among their dozens of hits).

It's a '50s rock 'n' roll Bible epic with sunglasses, black leather and hair oil Genesis, Exodus, Sha Na Na with excursions intocornpone country-and-western, calypso and even the Charles Boyer school of boulevardier ballad. Originally a 20-minute show staged for a school awards ceremony, the expanded version still finishes up at roughly 80 minutes and doesn't overstay its welcome, which also distinguishes it from other Lloyd Webber shows. Joseph has been to Vancouver several times now. What's new about this production is David Burnham as Joseph. He replaces Donny Osmond, who left the show this spring after five years in the role.

Burnham has the same glow of clean living and pure thoughts, and the same toothpaste ad smile, but the resemblance ends there. A stage-trained musical theatre actor with a full, clear tenor, Burnham is engaging and ingratiating. Although the first act gives him only two solos, the opening Any Dream WU1 Do and the second-to-last number, Close Every Door, Burnham is perfect for this kind of wholesome Branson, Mo. type of entertainment. He also has a lovely a cappella break with the children's choir.

The other cast member likely to win over the audience is Abe Reynold, who plays Pharaoh. It seems unlikely at this late date that anything to do with Elvis parody could be other than a bad idea but Reynold makes it enjoyable. His blue-suede shoe'd Pharaoh melds the Elvis of the SpinoutEasy Come, Easy Go era with the granite-jaw and pursed eyebrows of every Charlton Heston role in a toga movie to incongruous effect However, the bad news is that, counting the end-of-show reprise of nearly every song in the show, we get to hear the "shadooby-doo-waah" of Pharaoh 's Dream three times, which is about two more than plenty. Anthony Van Laast's choreography does much to help the show along and the Seven Brides for Seven Brothers-style that follows One More Angel In Heaven. Tickets, $35 $77.50, are available through all TicketMaster outlets or the Livent Line at 280-2222.

Group sales can be booked through the office at 844-2808. Sun Theatre Critic This first collaboration between lyricist Tim Rice and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has none of the hallmarks of a Lloyd Webber show and, in fact, it's been called the show for people who don't like his work. The leaden pomposity and tuneless riff-ing of Jesus Christ Superstar, Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard are absent for starters and, even more out of character, Joseph and the Amazing TedinicolorDreamcoat has a sense of humor about itself. This version of the Old Testament story of Joseph's sale into Egyptian slavery and eventual reunion with his family is the gospel according to Leiber and Stoller (the Brill Building songwriters who wrote Young Blood, STEVE BOSCHVancouver Sun SUGAR-COATED MUSICAL: David Burnham stars as Joseph. INSIDE: TV Grid BIO Laser Light Classics reviewed Bll.