Cal Coons - Showrunner, Director & Writer

By Jay Cooper Contributor / Musican

Cal’s successes in Television include Murdoch Mysteries, Frankie Drake Mysteries, Blue Murder, The Listener and The Good Witch, just to name a few.

On the set of Murdoch Mysteries

Born in Peterborough and raised just outside Buckhorn on Sandy Lake, Cal splits his time between here and Toronto. What does Cal like about the Kawarthas? ‘I like the way of life and to be rooted here. I like the lakes, of course and nature, but I’m still close enough to Toronto to do business there as well. Media wise, Toronto is all about itself but you come down the 115 and there's a real sense of community here. I love that there is a lot of interesting artists here, whether it's musicians, painters, writers or actors.'

His interest in the entertainment industry didn’t start until high school. He says, ‘It’s sort of a weird story. (laughs) I really didn’t know what I wanted to do until high school. I got injured and couldn’t do any sports, so my mother told me I should play guitar. I fell in love with it and played in bands at the time. When it came time to decide what I would take after high school, I was interested in radio and thought maybe I would like to be in that business, so I went to Niagara College. It was a very commercial based program and not the kind of thing I wanted to do.But a part of the program was Film Studies. We watched foreign movies as part of the class and it was an epiphany. I had never seen anything outside of regular television and it was amazing. I started shooting shorts films for the class and editing them and when they played them onthe wall I was like, WOW, I’m hooked.’

I asked Cal about the different roles to makes a TV show. Cal clarified, ‘A writer writes the screenplay and a Director oversees the activity on the stage, on the floor picking the camera angles, make the decisions of what goes in front of the camera and oversees the performances. There are many kinds of Producers. Some just raise money, some handle logistics, some do distribution with titles like Executive Producers, Associate Producers, Line Producers. I’m a Showrunner, which is technically an Executive Producer responsible for all creative decisions on a TV show. I supervise the writing staff, from the conception of ideas to writing the script and often rewriting the script, work with the Directors to maintain a look and feel for the show and that includes wardrobe and makeup to keep the show consistent.You work with the networks and the broadcasters concerns along with the actors and Directors. It’s a big job - probably the biggest in Television.’

Murdoch Mysteries has had a lot of nominations, especially in the acting categories. Cal says he’s been really luck to work with good people over the years. ‘I have also been personally nominated for various awards but, unfortunately, so far I’ve never won yet. (he laughs) Hopefully I’ll get another chance.’

Cal is a television veteran but times have changed with film and television. ‘I love movies but I work almost exclusively in TV. Films to me are not what they use to be. It’s not a very adventurous time now. Tons of films are being made of course and technically solid, but to me story telling, well I’m not sure compared to quality television. The one thing here (Canada), is it’s complicated in the cable world since we do not have Apple, Amazon, Hulu here making stuff. We don’t have that kind of infrastructure here. Canada is largely an over the air broadcaster. Playing that game takes you to Los Angeles and largely Netflix shows. Also, television is in the business of selling advertising and Netflix, etc. are in the business of selling subscriptions,’ he says.

On the set of Frankie Drake Mysteries

Not only is Cal immersed in the world of television, he is a guitarist/singer in his band Pop Machine. ‘We play about once a month. We play all covers but it’s a lot of fun. We play a lot of disco, funk and cool 80’s stuff.’