How time flies. We’re already chugging full speed ahead into 2011, but offer you this last quick look back at 2010’s TV highlights:
FACTUAL
This was a significant year for us with some groundbreaking projects:
– MADAME MAO (Bio Channel): the first ever biography of Chairman Mao’s wife Jiang Qing. She was for years, THE most powerful woman in China since the Empress Dowager, yet nothing substantial had been done on this woman. This was a follow up to Making Mao – our other documentary tracing Mao’s communist propaganda. Thanks to author / biographers Ross Terrill and Ye Yonglie for their generous help and participation. And to the veritable Paul Pickowicz. Glad you liked it Ross.
– MANNY PACQUIAO (Bio Channel): Asia – and one of the World’s Greatest Boxers finally gets his story told outside of the usual HBO pre-fight specials. Manny’s story is truly one of the rags-to-riches Rocky tales. We filmed Manny’s mother and brother in his hometown of General Santos City and unveiled how Manny went from street urchin to the US $ 100 million dollar man. Will he fight Floyd Mayweather? Stay tuned.
– FOOD NATION (Okto): Our popular food series – which traces Singapore’s culinary history across Asia garnered a Finalist nomination in the New York Festivals for Mediacorp / Okto.
– THE PILL THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (History Channel): We commemorated 50 years of the Pill in this documentary special supported by Bayer-Schering Pharma.
– MODERN PILGRIMS (Channel News Asia): Our popular series traced pilgrimages to India (Buddhism) and Mecca (Islam). We make it sound easy – but lots of legwork was involved…
– OUR CHILDREN (MDA / China Education TV): Our first co-production with China’s CETV with Media Development Authority covering the lives of kids in schools.
KIDS
As usual, we gave Asian kids plenty to keep their eyeballs glued to the screen:
– GROOM MY ROOM – Season 6 (Okto) proved that you can’t keep a good thing down as kids clamoured to have their rooms redone. And we’re back for Season 7 in 2011!
– THE NEWS TRUMPET ( Mediacorp 8 ) was our first hand puppet news show. No toys were harmed in the process, but some hands were of course, exhausted by the end of the series.
– THE SPECIALS (Okto) was our first 75-min telemovie – conceived by the uber talents of Director Gavin Lim; Writer Nick Oh – with Oon Jit Fong and Debra Chong on deck. Filmed with support of Canon on their wonderful 7D.
– SUPER SCIENCE (TV IQ) was our first series of interstitials for Astro’s TV IQ (Hooray) and gave our motion graphic artist Davadrian and illustrator Dorothy a chance to flex their creative animation muscles.
LIFESTYLE
Our beloved genre remained steadfast in output:
– LEGENDARY CUISINES (Channel U) – No other show does what this does: dig up ancient recipes from folklore and brings them to life. Hosted by the impeccable Guo Liang.
– THE COUCH ASIA (Channel News Asia) – our highly successful talk show format expanded its reach from Singapore to Malaysia – covering personalities and celebrities there. Thanks to our hotel sponsors Fullerton Bay, Pan Pacific (Singapore) and Sheraton Imperial (KL, Malaysia) for their splendid rooms.
– SAME BUT DIFFERENT (Channel 5) – Host Chua Enlai entertained and gave us the inside scoop on how the things you buy might be similar – yet different. Or vice versa. Cars! Steaks! Beds! TVs! Nothing was spared.
– ARTS FORWARD (Okto) – We have a particular soft spot for anything to do with the arts. They are probably somewhat of an endangered TV species, but Singapore continues to charge on by investing $$$ into arts education. We took stock of this remarkable situation.
A BIG THANKS to all who worked on the projects and made it possible – production teams, guests, channels, etc!
Next in Part 2: Promos! And the Chinese Department!
