TIMES COLONIST | timescolonist.com
ARTS
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2012
Editor: Dave Paulson > Telephone: 250-380-5346 > Email: [email protected]
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C9
TELEVISION, C10
Bear Mountain love shack
Local mansion
serves as setting
for reality TV’s
Bachelor Canada
MICHAEL D. REID
Times Colonist
It was the longest shooting
day of Tyler Harcott’s
career. And to complicate
matters, he had to keep it all
a secret.
The Edmonton-born
actor and host of The Bachelor Canada was recalling
the first day in May the
cameras rolled atop Bear
Mountain on the Canadian
version of the successful
American franchise that
premières this fall on
Citytv.
“I compare that first day
to the Super Bowl or the
Stanley Cup finals because
there’s so much riding on it,
and everybody wants to get
it right,” recalled Harcott,
sinking into a creamcoloured couch in The
Bachelor Canada mansion’s
living room, where 25
women, who could become
former Canadian Football
League player Brad Smith’s
fiancée, face elimination
during rose ceremonies.
Harcott, 43, showed up at
7 a.m. and didn’t get into
bed until 9 the morning
after that first rose ceremony, he recalled.
“You’ve got 25 women
coming into a home, and the
amount of people it takes to
keep those ladies together,
and organized, and under
wraps so they don’t see
each other — it’s exhausting.”
The eclectic group of
bachelorettes aged 23 to 33
include a neuroscientist,
a Playboy model and a yoga
instructor, and will be
unveiled five at a time each
Wednesday on Citytv’s
Breakfast Television at
7:38 a.m. beginning today.
The location of the mansion — the luxurious 13,500square-foot, five-bedroom
home that includes a grotto
spa, infinity pool, basketball
court, home theatre and
panoramic views — had
been one of Victoria’s bestkept secrets.
Crews filmed at the home
formerly owned by exNHLer Len Barrie for six of
the shoot’s nine weeks.
“I’m amazed these shows
are able to keep the secret,”
marvelled Harcott, who
found himself having to be
on guard when, say, a limo
driver would ask what he
was working on. “There are
so many variables and, living in the Facebook and
Twitter universe, there’s so
much access to information.
It’s a yeoman effort to get to
the point it’s a secret up to
that final reveal.”
Executive producer John
Ritchie of Vancouver’s
Force Four Entertainment
said maintaining the ele-
BACHELOR CANADA
The Bachelor Canada mansion includes a grotto spa, infinity pool, basketball court, home theatre and panoramic views from Bear Mountain.
BACHELOR CANADA
Edmonton-born actor Tyler Harcott, left, is host of The Bachelor Canada, in which 25 women vie for the heart of ex-CFL player Brad Smith, right.
ment of surprise was a huge
challenge during production of the biggest show,
logistically, he’s ever done.
“You’re shooting in a contained world, and everybody
who signs up for the show
understands that,” Ritchie
said, noting members of the
80-person crew had to sign
non-disclosure agreements.
“We’re grateful so many
people were so co-operative.
If we had been flooded by
onlookers, that would have
been a big issue.”
Ritchie doesn’t buy the
theory posited by media
analysts that reality show
“spoilers” boost ratings. In
the U.S., producers of The
Bachelor and The Bachelorette sued a Texas-based
blogger nicknamed Reality
Steve for revealing spoilers.
“There’s that old saying,
‘any publicity is good publicity,’ and there will always
be rumours, especially for a
franchise like this,” he said.
“But it’s like telling your
best friend the ending of
the movie you’re going to
watch. The fun of watching
a story unfold is to see how
it ends. That’s what makes
for great drama.”
The impulse to want to
reveal reality TV show
secrets harkens back to
Andy Warhol’s classic
“fame” theory, Harcott
adds.
“Everybody wants their
15 minutes, except in our
day and age it’s five minutes, or 15 seconds,” he
said. “I don’t know how
your head hits the pillow
and you go, ‘Yeah, that was
a good day.’ I wouldn’t want
to be that person who
ruined the show.”
Choosing Victoria as
the location for the bachelorette mansion was a nobrainer, Ritchie said.
“It’s a spectacular setting,” he said, noting crews
returned this summer to get
“stunning” aerial shots of
Vancouver Island.
“We wanted a place that
would represent Canada
and also be exotic in its own
way, and certainly that
mansion on that hill is
pretty spectacular in its isolation and its opulence.”
While the bachelorettes
were in an “agreed-upon
lockdown” for six weeks in
the dream home, where
they slept in close quarters
on single beds in tastefully
appointed bedrooms, there
were perks that made it
worthwhile, Ritchie said.
“They could get ‘date
cards’ and — boom! —
they’re flying off to some
exotic place on a moment’s
notice, don’t forget,” he
said. “And, hey, they’ve got
a swimming pool and a hot
tub. Life could be worse. It’s
not hell on Earth.”
Although the bachelorettes were shadowed by
omnipresent cameras, it
was “like a two-month slumber party,” adds Harcott.
“It wasn’t all ‘Ooh, I love
your outfit!’ ” mimics Harcott. “It’s a lot of drama.”
He said that with so
many different personalities, it’s a given that some
will mesh and some won’t.
“We’ve had a few
instances where things happen and everybody in the
room goes, ‘Wow, I did not
see that coming.’ ”
While Ritchie’s biggest
challenges included “making a show that looks as
good as the American one
on a fraction of the budget,”
Harcott faced a different
set of challenges than he
faced as host of TLC’s Junkyard Wars.
“The most challenging
part is coming into a room
knowing what I have to
say and being faced with
16 absolutely devastatingly
beautiful women staring at
you, hanging onto your
every word,” he said, admitting he could get flustered.
“The gals are very forgiving, though. When I say
“Hello, ladies” and they all
say ‘Hi, Tyler,’ you blush
and almost go ‘tee-heehee,’ ” he said, laughing.
“I feel like John Forsythe in
Charlie’s Angels.”
He describes his job as
being part traffic cop, big
brother, sounding board and
bachelor’s wingman.
“And to the ladies, you’re
sometimes the angel of
death,” he said. “They know
when you walk in you’re
going to bring good news
about an upcoming surprise
or a date. But you could also
be the bearer of bad news,
like ‘You’re going home.’ ”
It helped that Smith, 28,
is such a “genuine and honest young man, wise beyond
his years,” Harcott said.
“He’s also built like a
brick outhouse, with this
Adonis-looking body. The
ladies love that. But he’s
also gentle, funny and gracious. He’s all of these
things but never in a calculated way. That’s just who
he is. He’s this incredible
package.”
[email protected]
Online: bachelorcanada.ca
Len Barrie’s former home as stunning as its bachelorettes
Home sweet home? Viewers will have to wait until
The Bachelor Canada
debuts next month to find
out if that was the case for
the 25 “ladies in waiting”
vying for the heart of bachelor Brad Smith.
No matter who wins his
heart, chances are most
bachelorettes fell in love
with the show’s “palatial
love shack” on Bear Mountain.
Indeed, the 13,500square-foot mansion built
in 2008 and designed by
Alan Lowe for Len Barrie,
the former head of the Bear
Mountain partnership, is as
stunning as many of its
occupants.
The hilltop home on a
1.33-acre lot is nothing if
not telegenic, with an openconcept plan that incorporates floor-to-ceiling windows and patio doors
affording breathtaking
views of the outdoors.
When the bachelorettes
need a break from the
action inside, they can head
outside for a dip in in the
infinity swimming pool,
chat around a fire pit, practise their strokes on a private putting green, enjoy
culinary treats from an outdoor kitchen or soak away
any on-camera stress in a
grotto hot tub.
The magnificent home’s
exteriors also offer a
180-degree panoramic view
of the ocean and the
Greater Victoria area.
A striking circular stone
driveway, highlighted by
large rock pillars called
Basalt Monoliths, quarried
in the Whistler-Squamish
area, leads to the entrance
of the home that boasts five
bedrooms, all with ensuites
and walk-in closets. The
650-square-foot master bedroom is an eye-popper, with
a huge ensuite that includes
a massive glass shower big
BACHELOR CANADA
The bacherlorettes can enjoy stunning views from the mansion’s outdoor pool.
enough to throw a party in.
The spacious front foyer
and living room features a
built-in crystal fireplace
and a spectacular chandelier, one of 15 chandeliers
throughout the mansion.
The bachelorettes could
also enjoy gourmet dinners
in the home’s huge Tuscan
kitchen, a foodie’s dream;
unwind at the large, fullystocked semicircular bar at
cocktail hour; burn off calo-
ries in a fitness studio;
watch movies in the home
theatre, admire a walled
seawater aquarium and dip
into the 150-square-foot
wine cellar.
Not that these lovely
ladies need it, yet, but
there’s also a nanny suite on
the lower level, and a threecar garage.
Here are some other
highlights of the West Coast
mansion to be officially
unveiled Thursday on
Citytv’s Cityline TV shows:
■ Custom millwork, oversized fir mouldings, beams
stained in rich chocolate,
vaulted ceilings;
■ Dark wood flooring, granite countertops, large
travertine tile, natural
stone;
■ Natural rock on exterior
walls is called grizzly granite, and was also quarried in
Whistler/Squamish;
■ Large rock pieces on
walls in grotto spa weigh
more than 500 pounds each,
and had to be placed with an
engine hoist.
■ Custom-built exterior
windows and doors made
from edge-grain fir.
— Michael D. Reid