Da Vinci's City Hall
Encyclopedia
Da Vinci's City Hall is a Canadian
dramatic television series, which premiered on CBC Television
on 25 October 2005. The series was a spinoff of the long-running Canadian series Da Vinci's Inquest
. The creator, writer and executive producer of the series was Chris Haddock
.
reprises his role as Dominic Da Vinci, a former coroner
entering municipal politics as the mayor of Vancouver
, British Columbia
. Da Vinci is based on the real-life experiences of Larry Campbell
, the former chief coroner of Vancouver who was elected that city's mayor in 2002.
With the series regular Ian Tracey
(playing Mick Leary) inheriting the coroner's job, the show toggles back and forth between crime scenes and politics. Haddock says: "My approach was to make all the political stuff criminal and all the criminal stuff political. When we're in city hall we're really about conspiracy and scheming, who's crooked and who's going to get caught."
s, similar to the manner in which North of 60
continued after its run as a weekly series had ended. The first of those TV movies, The Quality of Life, aired on CBC on June 14, 2008.
The show's final episode was aired on February 28, 2006. The program is being repeated on the Canadian channel Showcase during the summer of 2008.
CBC management has been criticized for cancelling the show to make room for other series that have since proved less successful.
began airing Da Vinci's City Hall, but it is promoted by American syndicator Program Partners as "Season 8" of Da Vinci's Inquest, even using the same intro as that series (which was used only late into the show's original run) despite the fact that some of the characters seen are not present in the new series.
Nationwide syndication to local stations began in November 2007, also as part of the Da Vinci's Inquest package, with that show's titles.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
dramatic television series, which premiered on CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
on 25 October 2005. The series was a spinoff of the long-running Canadian series Da Vinci's Inquest
Da Vinci's Inquest
Da Vinci's Inquest is a Canadian dramatic television series that aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2005. Seven seasons of thirteen episodes each were filmed for a total of ninety-one episodes....
. The creator, writer and executive producer of the series was Chris Haddock
Chris Haddock
Chris Haddock is a Canadian screenwriter and producer. He began as a street performer, but turned to song and screen writing, particularly for television shows. One of his earliest efforts in TV writing was episodes of MacGyver...
.
Overview
Nicholas CampbellNicholas Campbell
Nicholas Campbell , sometimes credited as Nick Campbell, is a Canadian actor and filmmaker, who has won three Gemini Awards for acting. The movies Naked Lunch, Prozac Nation and the TV series Da Vinci's Inquest are some examples of his acting work.-Early life:Campbell was born in Toronto, Ontario,...
reprises his role as Dominic Da Vinci, a former coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
entering municipal politics as the mayor of Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. Da Vinci is based on the real-life experiences of Larry Campbell
Larry Campbell
Larry W. Campbell was the 37th Mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently a member of the Canadian Senate. Starting in 1969 Campbell worked for the RCMP in Vancouver and then in 1973 as a member of the Drug Squad...
, the former chief coroner of Vancouver who was elected that city's mayor in 2002.
With the series regular Ian Tracey
Ian Tracey
Ian Tracey is a Canadian Leo- and Gemini Award-winning actor. Over the years, Tracey has participated in over seventy films and television series. Tracey has starred in series like Da Vinci's Inquest and Intelligence, both CBC television series produced by long-time colleague Chris Haddock...
(playing Mick Leary) inheriting the coroner's job, the show toggles back and forth between crime scenes and politics. Haddock says: "My approach was to make all the political stuff criminal and all the criminal stuff political. When we're in city hall we're really about conspiracy and scheming, who's crooked and who's going to get caught."
Cancellation
With an average weekly audience of just 400,000 viewers, Da Vinci's City Hall lost about half of the former audience for Da Vinci's Inquest. On February 13, 2006, the CBC announced that the show would not be brought back for a second season in 2006, although they also indicated that negotiations were underway to reprise the Da Vinci character in a series of television movieTelevision movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
s, similar to the manner in which North of 60
North of 60
North of 60 is a mid-1990s Canadian television series depicting life in the sub-Arctic northern boreal forest . It first aired on CBC Television in 1992 and was syndicated around the world. It is set in the fictional community of Lynx River, a primarily Native-run town depicted as being in the...
continued after its run as a weekly series had ended. The first of those TV movies, The Quality of Life, aired on CBC on June 14, 2008.
The show's final episode was aired on February 28, 2006. The program is being repeated on the Canadian channel Showcase during the summer of 2008.
CBC management has been criticized for cancelling the show to make room for other series that have since proved less successful.
City Hall in the United States
Beginning April 27, 2007, Superstation WGNSuperstation WGN
WGN America is a Chicago-based American superstation feed of WGN-TV, owned by Tribune Broadcasting. WGN America offers its national programming across North America without the CW network programming and most syndicated programs that are carried on the Chicago area feed...
began airing Da Vinci's City Hall, but it is promoted by American syndicator Program Partners as "Season 8" of Da Vinci's Inquest, even using the same intro as that series (which was used only late into the show's original run) despite the fact that some of the characters seen are not present in the new series.
Nationwide syndication to local stations began in November 2007, also as part of the Da Vinci's Inquest package, with that show's titles.
Cast
- Nicholas CampbellNicholas CampbellNicholas Campbell , sometimes credited as Nick Campbell, is a Canadian actor and filmmaker, who has won three Gemini Awards for acting. The movies Naked Lunch, Prozac Nation and the TV series Da Vinci's Inquest are some examples of his acting work.-Early life:Campbell was born in Toronto, Ontario,...
- Mylene Dinh-RobicMylène Dinh-Robic-Personal life:Dinh-Robic was born and raised in Montréal, Canada, and speaks English and French. She graduated with Distinction from Concordia University’s Communications Studies program, studied acting with Gilles Plouffe at Montreal’s John Strasberg Ateliers and furthered her technique with...
- Benjamin Ratner
- Ian TraceyIan TraceyIan Tracey is a Canadian Leo- and Gemini Award-winning actor. Over the years, Tracey has participated in over seventy films and television series. Tracey has starred in series like Da Vinci's Inquest and Intelligence, both CBC television series produced by long-time colleague Chris Haddock...
- Venus TerzoVenus TerzoVenus Terzo is a Canadian actress best noted for her role as Detective Angela Kosmo in Da Vinci's Inquest and its spinoff, Da Vinci's City Hall. She was nominated in 2002 for the Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role in that same role...
- Brian MarkinsonBrian MarkinsonBrian Markinson is a Canadian film and television actor. He has appeared as Police Chief Bill Jacobs on Da Vinci's Inquest and Da Vinci's City Hall...
- Stephen E. Miller
- Evan AdamsEvan AdamsEvan Tlesla Àdams is a Canadian actor, playwright and medical doctor. A Coast Salish from the Sliammon First Nation near Powell River, British Columbia, he is best known internationally for his roles in the films of Sherman Alexie, as Thomas Builds-the-Fire in the 1998 film Smoke Signals and...
- Patrick GallagherPatrick Gallagher (actor)-Career:Gallagher is best known for his television roles as Det. Joe Finn in Da Vinci's Inquest, the alcohol salesman in Entourage, Leon in The Line, Farhod the Fierce in Pair of Kings, and Ken Tanaka in Glee, and his film roles as Awkward Davies in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World...
- Dean MarshallDean MarshallDean Stewart Marshall is a Canadian actor, known for his role as a Sgt. Bates on Stargate Atlantis.Marshall began performing from a young age in a steel band. His family was originally from Trinidad and Tobago. He joined the Canadian Forces as a teenager for a short time...
Episode guide
| # | Title | Airdate | Director | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zero to Sixty Pretty Quick | 25 Oct 2005 | Nicholas Campbell Nicholas Campbell Nicholas Campbell , sometimes credited as Nick Campbell, is a Canadian actor and filmmaker, who has won three Gemini Awards for acting. The movies Naked Lunch, Prozac Nation and the TV series Da Vinci's Inquest are some examples of his acting work.-Early life:Campbell was born in Toronto, Ontario,... |
Chris Haddock Chris Haddock Chris Haddock is a Canadian screenwriter and producer. He began as a street performer, but turned to song and screen writing, particularly for television shows. One of his earliest efforts in TV writing was episodes of MacGyver... |
| 2 | Cat in a Tree, Lunatic in the Street | 1 Nov 2005 | Charles Martin Smith Charles Martin Smith Charles Martin Smith is an American film actor, writer, and director.-Early life:Smith was born in Van Nuys, California. His father, Frank Smith, was a film cartoonist and animator, while his uncle Paul J. Smith was an animator as well as a director for the Walter Lantz Studios... |
Chris Haddock |
| 3 | Isn't Very Pretty But You Can Smoke It | 8 Nov 2005 | Stefan Pleszczynski | Chris Haddock Chris Haddock Chris Haddock is a Canadian screenwriter and producer. He began as a street performer, but turned to song and screen writing, particularly for television shows. One of his earliest efforts in TV writing was episodes of MacGyver... and Jesse McKeown |
| 4 | One Man Two Jobs | 15 Nov 2005 | Charles Martin Smith | Chris Haddock and Jesse McKeown |
| 5 | Put Down the Hose, Pick Up a Gun | 22 Nov 2005 | Stefan Pleszczynski | Chris Haddock |
| 6 | You Have to Bleed a Little | 29 Nov 2005 | Monika Mitchell | Chris Haddock |
| 7 | Ready to Call in the Horses | 6 Dec 2005 | Stephen Surjik Stephen Surjik Stephen Surjik is a Canadian film and television director mostly working in television. Surjik was nominated three times for Gemini Awards for best direction, for Little Criminals, Tripping the Wire: A Stephen Tree Mystery, Intelligence, and received four Emmy Award nominations for Weapons of Mass... |
Chris Haddock |
| 8 | Gonna Cause a Ruckus | 10 Jan 2006 | Stuart Margolin Stuart Margolin Stuart Margolin is an American film and television actor and director.-Television:Margolin is best known for his role on the television show The Rockford Files, playing Evelyn "Angel" Martin, the shifty friend and former cellmate of Jim Rockford... |
Chris Haddock and Jesse McKeown |
| 9 | Gotta Press the Flesh | 17 Jan 2006 | Charles Martin Smith Charles Martin Smith Charles Martin Smith is an American film actor, writer, and director.-Early life:Smith was born in Van Nuys, California. His father, Frank Smith, was a film cartoonist and animator, while his uncle Paul J. Smith was an animator as well as a director for the Walter Lantz Studios... |
Jesse McKeown |
| 10 | When the Horsemen Come Looking | 24 Jan 2006 | Sturla Gunnarsson Sturla Gunnarsson Sturla Gunnarsson is a Canadian film director.Gunnarsson was born in Iceland in 1951. He moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, with his parents when he was seven years old. As he grew up he became interested in filmmaking and went to the University of British Columbia where he completed... |
Sylvia Leung |
| 11 | A Few Good Bites Before They Slap Me Down | 31 Jan 2006 | David Frazee | Chris Haddock |
| 12 | Bumped from the Ball | 7 Feb 2006 | Sturla Gunnarsson | Jesse McKeown and Sylvia Leung |
| 13 | The Dogs in Sympathy with the Cats | 28 Feb 2006 | Stephen Surjik | Sylvia Leung and Hiro Kanagawa Hiro Kanagawa Hiro Kanagawa, born , is a Vancouver-based actor.He was born in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan. He is perhaps best known as Principal Kwan from Smallville. His most notable anime role is Gihren Zabi from Mobile Suit Gundam... |
External links
- Official website, accessed 23 August 2007
- CBC's webpage for Da Vinci's City Hall, accessed 4 February 2007
- WGN page for Da Vinci's Inquest (Da Vinci's City Hall is incorporated as Season 8)