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Clean Slate contestants at the starting line during filming. This reality TV pilot will air in August. (Photo contributed)
By Holly Miyasaki
Recently, Kelowna has been the backdrop for not one, but two, reality TV series.
Clean Slate and Behind the Gate, both associated with the Cheryll Gillespie Media Group Inc., were filming in Woodland Hills during the past week.
Clean Slate is an edutainment marketing project reality TV series created by Kelowna financial consultants Scott Peckford and Michael Wendland.
The pair work to help clients move forward within family budget constraints and have created Debt Monkey in hopes of helping others get that monkey off their back.
They joined forces with Cheryll Gillespie and filmed the pilot episode of the show, which features three thirty-something couples battling for monetary gain to help with their family’s financial planning.
Clean Slate’s pilot will air on Global National Aug. 22 and 29 and is a pitch to broadcasters.
“We’re hoping we can spin it off into a series,” says Peckford. “We’re hoping by the fall to have some kind of an idea about production.”
The series is supposed to offer an entertaining way for viewers to learn more about finances, and Peckford and Wendland wanted to make it a non-humiliating experience for the contestants.
“They had to trust that we weren’t going to embarrass them on TV,” explains Peckford, adding they selected members of the community to participate in the show.
SUN FM TV personality Susan Knight and her husband Steve Weckstrom were one of the couples featured, and it was a memorable experience for both.
“It’s great if you learn by doing, they put a lot of stuff into perspective real quick when you do things,” explains Knight, adding the show was very beneficial.
“Steve and I have gone through a lot with finances because we had a house fire, we do like our toys and we are impulse buyers,” she admits. “We had to learn some very important lessons and this played into that.”
During the three full days of filming, Knight said it was interesting that the cameras were always with the participants, “There’s no doubt they tape everything.”
“It gives you a whole new respect of what people have gone through,” she recalls.
And the most interesting thing she learned on the shoot?
“I found out my husband has more talents than I thought. I might be on radio, but my husband can do anything and do it well.”
Also filmed around the same time was the Behind the Gate series will be featured on Wealth TV in the United States and displays unique and luxurious homes all over North America.
The Kelowna episode showcased in Behind the Gate displays its architecture and unique features and also promotes Kelowna as a destination for affluent home owners.
“I believe Kelowna is Canada’s gem and the secret is getting out,” says Woodland Hill’s developer Geby Wagner in a release.
Host and producer of the series, Gillespie, says in a release she plans to return later this year for another episode.
“After shooting at Woodland Hills this past week, we realized there is such a storied collection of homes at the development that we have decided to bring the film crew back in the fall to produce another episode on the Woodland Hills community itself.”
Woodland Hills was also selected as the filming location for Antares Media television series Relationships, which shot its pilot episode in May and will continue filming later this year.
entertainment@kelowna.com/(250) 575-0613
Tags: Behind the Gate, Cheryll Gillespie, Clean Slate, Susan Knight
