Our Hero Explained

Our Hero is a Canadian teen comedy-drama television series. It ran for 26 episodes over two seasons on CBC and WTN from October 5, 2000, until January 20, 2002, and was syndicated in the United States on WAM!, in the United Kingdom on Channel 5, and in Finland on Yle TV1.^[1]

Premise

The series resolves around 17-year old Canadian Kale Stiglic (Cara Pifko)^[2] who creates a zine about her life in suburban Toronto with her friends Ross Korolus (Justin Peroff), Mary-Elizabeth Penrose (Jeanie Calleja), and Dalal Vidya (Vik Sahay). Each episode was named after an "issue" of her zine. Similar to Disney's Lizzie McGuire, plot segments were interspersed with animated sequences narrated by Kale, with the animation reflecting the illustrations used in that issue's zine.

Cast

• Cara Pifko as Kale Stiglic, the protagonist who writes a zine about her life.
• Jeanie Calleja as Mary Elizabeth Penrose, Kale's best friend since childhood and Dalal's girlfriend. She lives in a strict Catholic family.
• Justin Peroff as Ross Korolus, Kale's friend, who discovers he is gay during the course of the series. He is of Ukrainian descent.
• Michael George as Ethan Stiglic, Kale's older brother and an aspiring comedian.
• Vik Sahay as Dalal Vidya, Mary E's boyfriend and Kale and Ross's friend.
• Christopher Ralph as Malachi, an environmentalist and zine writer who dates Kale in season 2.
• Jesse Nilsson as Rollins, who Kale has a crush on.
• Robert Bockstael as Joey Stiglic, Kale and Ethan's father.
• Mimi Kuzyk as Mila Stiglic, Kale and Ethan's mother.
• Daniel Enright as Bill Fisher, who works at the photocopying shop Kale uses to print copies of her zine.
• Tory Cassis as Gordon, Kale's friend who uses a wheelchair after having cancer. He dies in "The Last Laugh Issue".
• Erin Hickock as Shana, a teen mother who works at the health food store with Kale briefly.

Episodes

Season 2 (2001–02)

Production

Our Hero was created by John May and Suzanne Bolch who also had writing credits on all but two episodes. May also directed a number of episodes. Along with Karen Lee Hall the three formed Heroic Film Company, a Toronto production company that is mainly focused on creating youth oriented television programming.

The series was filmed in the Canadian Broadcasting Centre at Front St and John St in Toronto, Ontario. To save time and money, there were always two episodes shot at once.

Some still and Super 8 photography for the zine sequences was shot with a very small crew along the city's streets.

Awards

Wins

• 2003 – Writers Guild of Canada Award for Writing ("The Karma Issue")
• 2002 – Writers Guild of Canada Award for Writing ("The Unresolved Issue")
• 2001 – Writers Guild of Canada Award for Writing ("The Shallow Issue")

Nominations

• 2002 – Canadian Comedy Awards – Best Performance by a Female - Television for Jeanie Calleja^[3]
• 2002 – Canadian Comedy Awards – Best Performance by a Male - Television for Vik Sahay
• 2002 – Canadian Comedy Awards – Writing for TV Series for Suzanne Bolch & John May
• 2002 – Gemini Awards – Best Children's or Youth Fiction Program or Series
• 2002 – Gemini Awards – Best Writing in a Children's or Youth Program and Series
• 2001 – Gemini Awards – Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Series

Notes and References

1. Web site: SOHVA yle.fi Arkistoitu . 2024-01-13 . vintti.yle.fi.
2. Web site: CBC Program Guide: Personality: Cara Pifko . 22 May 2023 . CBC/Radio Canada.
3. Web site: Nominations & Awards Archives Canadian Comedy Awards . 2023-05-22 . www.canadiancomedyawards.org.