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The show is a visual delight, a mix of live action and cut-out animation.
Fresh-faced Pifko stars as 17-year-old Kale Stiglic, a high-school student who sorts it all out in her very own 'zine. Michael George plays older brother Ethan, a mixed-up standup comic, while Mimi Kuzyk (Hill Street Blues) and Robert Bochstael play her often overwhelmed parents.
Much of the show takes place at school, where Kale learns life's lessons along with pals Mary Elizabeth Penrose (Jeanie Calleja) and Ross Korolus (Justin Peroff).
Unlike some 'tween-themed shows, the humour is not all hormonal. Our "hero" Kale even discovers she can sometimes be as shallow as the next person.
"You get these flashes in your life when you learn you're maybe not as cool as you thought you were," Pifco said over lunch last week with co-star George. "I think this show is quite real."
"Especially the brother-sister thing," George adds. "We were, like, beating each other up on the couch."
The cut-and-paste animated segments really set the show apart.
"At the end of the day, we would stick ourselves in a room and do all the voice-overs," says Pifko, who is familiar with the process. She also voices Josephine Praline on the delightfully animated Angela Anaconda.
For this show, Pifko had to stick her head into an animation stand in order to capture the photocopy-like look of the opening titles. "It was painful," Pifko says. "It took us a few tries to make it not look like Barbie."
Pifko says she has never photocopied herself before. Not so, George. "I have a whole full-body schematic," he says jokingly.
It might be true. Like his character, George actually does standup and is currently working up a one-man show, Stuck In My Mother's Basement, which premieres Thursday night at the Tim Sims Playhouse at Second City.
SEX REARS ITS UGLY HEAD: Hide the kids! The Discovery Channel has a second season of The Sex Files starting tomorrow night at 10 p.m., and the first hour-long episode is an eye-opener. Host Gisel Della Chiara guides us through a red-hot tour of the human sex drive, with scenes of couples coupling and even an MRI of intercourse mixed in with the usual talking heads.
Future shows explore everything from circumcision to puberty, homosexuality to intersexed people, the act of penetration to the latest masturbation technology. Batteries not included!
RHYMES WITH GORE: Tonight at 9 p.m. and again on Thursday night, the presidential debates take over programming on ABC, CBS, NBC and assorted cable news stations. Can it really be 40 years since that first Kennedy/Nixon TV tilt?
DON'T TELL TONY: Waiting for more of The Sopranos on CTV? Fagetaboutit. TMN -- The Movie Network will repeat Season 2 in January and debut Season 3 in March. With half-a-dozen new shows already on the shelf, Millionaire-heavy CTV just has no room -- or deal -- to carry on with the series.
LOWE GOES LIVE: Rob Lowe will be host of this weekend's season premiere of NBC's Saturday Night Live. Cranky rapper Eminem is the music guest.
FOLK TALES: The Canadian Film Centre Test Pattern Television Lecture Series will launch its 2000-01 season with a panel featuring the people behind (if you'll pardon the expression) Queer As Folk. Executive producers Russell Davies, Ron Cowan and Dan Lipman will be at U of T's Innis College on Thursday, Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the controversial Showcase series. Call 445-1446, ext. 810, for tickets.