Heartland

That's why Monday's Time Killer trivia questions were so much fun, because I knew no matter how hard I made it, a few of you would get all of the questions right.

First, here's the answers for those who gave up or who couldn't get them all (some of them WERE really hard, so don't feel bad!).

1) The very first Heartland premiered on CBC Television on Sunday (of course!), October 14, 2007.

2) The Lauren Brook Heartland book series takes place in the state of Virginia, USA.

3) The two characters not scripted in the pilot who had scenes added in later were Mallory Wells and Tim Fleming.

4) Stormy, who plays Spartan is an American Quarterhorse.

5) On average the crew comes up with 6 minutes of footage (screen time) for each working day. (2 x 45 minute episodes = 90 minutes divided by the 15 days it takes to film the 2 episodes - 6)

6) The answer is (c). Originally the script for the pilot was set in Hudson, Quebec, because that was near Montreal, where Michael Weinberg -- the Executive Producer who acquired the rights to the book -- lived. But when the CBC requested the series be shot in Alberta the name Hudson was kept.

7) It was in the last paragraph of my blog post on November 26, 2009, when I wrote "Oh, and by the way, a few people have oh-so-helpfully mentioned that "moderator" is a totally lame name for me to be using... so I'm going to change it. From now on, you may call me... Blog Whisperer. How's that?" I guess you could say it has kind of stuck! :D

8) The first 5 seasons have had a total of 13 directors.

9) The answer was six (6) generations, which Jack states in the Series Premiere.

10) The answer was (c) - the GMC insignia is clearly missing from the hood of Ty's truck. It's there now though!

11) Lou's boyfriend in New York was Carl. The names Andy, Brad, Martin and Pierre belong to Heartland's outstanding team of 1st and 2nd Assistant Directors.

12) Apollo, Prince and Spartan are all mentioned. There is no "Cutter" in the Series Premiere.

13) At the party Jesse gives Amy... a cell phone.

14) This was indeed a tough one. the show that immediately followed the Series Premiere of Heartland was a talent search reality show called "Triple Sensation."

15) And we did end with an easy one. Who did Amy first say "Good Boy" to? Why, Spartan of course!

So that's Monday's quiz. Congrats to Michaela and Laura H who were the first two to list the correct answers. However, those were the only two correct answers of the bunch, so we won't be giving a third prize away.... this time. I'll just hold on it it for another contest in the future. As for our winners, I will be getting the addresses from you and you're going to be receiving a little something in the mail. Watch for it!

Next Monday I'm going to give you what I consider to be another tough one, but this time it will be all self-contained. That's right -- I'll be putting up another Spot the Differences puzzle for everyone to tackle. Watch for it.

...And speaking of watching, last night gmcTV in the United States started playing a new block of episodes. However, these episodes are "new" for American audiences who are a couple of years behind.

Last night gmcTV played the first 2 new episodes of the year. That network is playing it in August, while the rest of America will start playing the same episodes beginning in September, so if you're in the US, you have lots of options to watch these episodes that you'd not've seen before -- unless you have purchased the DVDs.

And just to explain, because the US networks and stations took 3 years to start playing Heartland, they will always be behind what the CBC broadcasts in Canada. Eventually all episodes will air in the United States... it will just take a couple of years longer. As mentioned earlier, you can purchase the DVDs and have them shipped to you. DVDs will not be available in retail outlets in the States until the episodes have aired on television there.

So that's it for me this week. I hope you are as excited as I am that after today there will be less days than playing cards in a standard deck before the Season Premiere of Season 6 is broadcast on CBC Television in Canada for you to enjoy.

I'm also going to have a couple of advance sneak peeks for you to look at so you can get a little bit of a better idea of what is going to be happening on Heartland this season.

However, I am closing on a somber note. My spies on set received the scripts for episodes 6-09 and 6-10 and once again there is no sign of Mallory in any of the pages. I am missing her already. :(

More news next week. Have a good weekend. It's a long weekend for many. If that includes you, have a great time on the first weekend of August. I know I will!

If you are watching the Olympics, the Individual Dressage and Team Dressage events begin today in London. Canada has a full team competing, so let's root all our riders and horses on to do as well as they can and make us all proud of them!

So until next week,

Tick... tick... tick...

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