Barbara Frum Atrium-Canadian Broadcasting Centre

WOW! Nobody Else has written a review for this place yet! BRAVO ME! I get to be the first to review! Funny: There’s pictures in here for this page; why then didn’t you say anything?
First of all, YAY CBC — Canada’s Institution for information and entertainment! They’re going through the same brutal financial climate that the rest of the country and the world is going through, with the added pressure of providing these services in a morphing line of work (TV and radio) — a field that is all the more challenging because the CBC is a publicly funded institution. Let’s hope that the CBC survives these struggles in one form or another, and that they’re still able to provide such excellent programming after the recession is over!
And now, back to the purpose of this visit! CBC TV has at least one current genuine hit on its hands in the form of the Murdoch Mysteries, based on books by Maureen Jennings. They celebrated their 100^th episode with a public screening. The show is in its 8^th season, and reaching episode 100 is a major milestone. I did not know that it is so difficult to get to 100 episodes of a given show. Maybe it’s because it’s Canadian? This show is apparently being shown around the world, and they also have a huge following from the United Kingdom. We went to this screening from Ottawa, but there were at least 1 person or group that came from Kentucky! Although the Beachcombers also ran for many years, it was offered in half-​hour episodes, whereas this one is 1 hour episodes, making it an even greater achievement. In any event, invitations and notices went out via Facebook and Twitter, and you had to request tickets (which were free, but they go extremely quickly). Lucky us! We qualified for free tickets! In the open area of the main floor of this CBC building is an open space called the Barbara Frum Atrium, where there was a stage set up with screens everywhere, one showing current programming being aired, and others showing promotional info on today’s presentation. Also there was a sign language interpreter present.
And now for the venue and the event. The organizers of this event advertised it for at least a month before it happened, and posted on Facebook and Twitter an invitation to the much anticipated wedding episode. Then once the tickets were issued, they requested the public that was holding tickets to not line up before 6:00pm, for the 7:00pm start. It was scheduled to run to 10:00pm. We had anticipated having dinner beforehand, but we were a little late getting down to the event due at least in part to heavy traffic. By 6:10pm, there was already a long lineup out the door! By the time we joined the line, it went out along the side of the building and around the corner. Not long after that, the lineup snaked around the next corner too! There was security, of course, and getting in was a slow and painful process. They opened the doors at 7:00, and the lineup snaked in slowly. They gave us wristbands and commemorative bubble bottles (it was after all, a wedding!) It took about 45 minutes for us to find a place in front of the screen. At 8:00, they played the show — commercials and all, just as it aired on the network. Afterwards, they brought out a panel of people, including the writer, the producer, other planners, and 5 of the stars from the show! Eventually, they opened up 2 microphones for questions from the public (they didn’t get through too many of these!) But they did manage to raffle off Dr. Ogden’s wedding bouquet! The announcer estimated that there were 1000 people in attendance, some of which were dressed in costume as some of the characters, or wearing fancy hats for the wedding. :-) Lots of fun!
All in all, it was an interesting and fun event — and the show was really good too! One basic downer was not enough seating — we were on our feet from about 6:15 or so standing in line, all the way to 10:15 when we got back to the car. Gratefully, they ended on time, although we the public might have stayed for at least another hour asking questions!
Edited to add that apparently they have enough raw material to go into next season. Make it so!