This week, CHML’s Scott Thompson wants to know why there are no pictures of me riding a horse while I was out in Calgary. I explain that’s because I wasn’t riding a horse. I was on the set of the Horses of McBride, an upcoming CTV Christmas movie starring Aidan Quinn and Kari Matchett. They weren’t riding horses either, just snowmobiles. Hey, mild as it is, it is March in Calgary.
Speaking of horses, HBO announced Wednesday that they are shutting down production on Luck after a third horse died during production. The series, which was set at the Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, Calif., had already begun work on a second season. (It airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO Canada.)
Luck was a critical hit but never a ratings grabber, with about 400,000 tuning in per episode on HBO in the States.
The racing scenes were amazing, putting you right in the middle as horses headed down to the wire. The series illustrated how easily thoroughbreds can get injured, with random shoes flying off and nicking other horses legs in the heat of a race. In a way, the series was a victim of exactly what writer David Milch had already observed. Luck is a fickle thing in television.
Luck enjoys a big name cast, including Nick Nolte (right), Dennis Farina, Dustin Hoffman and Jill Hennessy. John Ortiz is outstanding as a successful trainer. Richard Kind had his best role in years as a jockey agent. Milch and director Michael Mann say they want to try and do something else. Let’s hope they have better luck with that.
None of this is discussed in the podcast with Scott. You can listen in here.
