MOD VJ Tim Deegan at the Winter Olympics | The Simpsons Get a Taste of Curling

The convergence of media both international and from across Canada has been nothing short of phenomenal over the course of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Among the major networks, NBC has made Vancouver home for the past several weeks while representatives from CBS, ABC, CNN and FOX have also converged en masse on the 604.

The True North Strong and Free has been equally well-represented as a number of Canadian broadcasters have also set up shop to showcase out fair city to the beckoning world.

Among those outside of the Olympic Broadcast Consortium is Much Music, which took to the pastoral setting of Whistler to broadcast, Much on Demand; their daily interactive program which highlights the best moments culled from the video channel.

Broadcasting two live shows a day for each day of Olympic activity can be a daunting task to be sure, and certainly one rife with challenges for live television.

Dave Azoulay is the technical producer of MOD Live @ The Base and told me of the myriad challenges affiliated with broadcasting live to the nation from high atop of mountain.

“Planning was the technical key for this show and we had a great team who has been involved in that for months,” he says.

“Setting up the transmission from Whistler to Vancouver took a bit of time as we had to build our two control rooms from scratch, but that just took careful planning. Making sure we have the right equipment is another major consideration. We’ve never had a show on location for 17 days so it’s a learning experience for the entire crew, including myself. But our technical challenges aren’t anything compared to the fact we’re low on snow. There’s a challenge I wouldn’t want to have had to handle.”

Hosted by popular VJ Tim Deegan, MOD has done an effortless job of illustrating and conveying the whole Whistler attitude and Olympic experience to the world at large.

For Deegan, just seeing the Olympics from such a prime perspective has been an eye-opening experience.

Pictured with fellow VJ Sarah Taylor

“Prior to the actual Olympics, I got to go and watch the torch relay back home and the energy from that and the vibe in the air was just insane. Ramp that up for Whistler,” he tells me. “It’s almost like Summer Camp, but this is Winter Camp”.

It was April 2006 when Deegan won the first Much Music VJ Search TV series, beating out a number of prospective hopefuls from across Canada in the process.

Having since gone on to earn the distinction of being arguably the video channel’s most popular personality, the ever-affable Ontario native tells me that looking back on his career path, the journey and subsequent VJ position was nothing he could have expected.

“It far surpassed my expectations, and I really had no idea what I was getting into,” says Deegan upon reflection.

“When I got on the actual reality show, that was insane, and nothing like I had ever experienced before. We all may have an idea of what it’s like to work at Much Music, but once you actually do, it’s really amazing.”

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A Visit from the Simpsons

And finally, while the actual number of visitors from across the planet to Vancouver during the Winter Olympics may never be accurately counted, we can be proud that we’ve drawn in hordes of tourists from al four corners of the globe and among the various dignitaries and international celebrities who have made Vancouver and Whistler their destination of choice during our two weeks of glory, we can also lay claim to having hosted television’s most-endearing family as well —The Simpsons.

Writer and Co-executive Producer Rob Lazebnik tells me how Springfield’s most famous clan found themselves in Vancouver.

“It was about a year ago and I was sitting with two of our other writers when one of them: Matt Selman – who’s also one of our executive producers – suddenly looked up and said, 'We should do an episode in Vancouver at the Olympics and send the Simpsons there.' I loved the idea and asked to write it and he gave me the okay and it kind of evolved from there. The original idea was to do a takeoff of ‘Cool Runnings’ but as often happens, it kept morphing and evolving and eventually became curling, and that’s how we got there.”

Not surprisingly, the episode played on a couple of Vancouver’s most notable lures, including film tax credits and a requisite pot reference. It was a very solid episode!

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