Creator of top-rated TV show excited for new season.
Husband and wife team Ihor Macijiwsky and Susan Spencer of Bonterra Productions are the creators of the Outdoor Life Network show Mantracker. The Bloor West residents are looking forward to the upcoming season of Mantracker.
Staff photo/NICK PERRY
Mantracker Creator and Executive Director Ihor Macijiwsky was in his backyard hot tub when inspiration struck more than five years ago for the now top-rated original Canadian TV series on the Outdoor Life Network (OLN).
Macijiwsky was a huge fan of 1950s and '60s era shows like Maverick, starring James Garner, and The Roy Rogers Show, featuring the western singer as a ranch owner and his wife, actress Dale Evans, as the proprietor of the Eureka Cafe in fictional Mineral City. By the 1970s, these series were all but extinct and decades later, Macijiwsky wondered if he couldn't bring something similar back to the small screen.
When he got a call from the manager of OLN out of the blue one day asking if he could come up with a program proposal, the freelance filmmaker had no idea he was among 300 people making a pitch.
"I guess I won the competition," quipped Macijiwsky, sitting under an umbrella in the backyard of his Ellis Gardens home, in Bloor West, next to the aforementioned inspiration-striking hot tub. He shares the home with his wife Susan Spencer, who is also involved with Mantracker as its business and production manager.
Macijiwsky is eagerly anticipating the star-studded premiere of Mantracker's fifth season, Monday, Sept. 6 at 6 p.m. on OLN. Since its debut, mantracker Terry Grant, Alberta cowboy and expert outdoors man, has caught 49 of 70 people - or prey - as Macijiwsky likes to call them. Armed with only a map, a compass and a two-kilometre head start through 40 kilometres of remote wilderness, two individuals are given as many as 36 hours to reach their destination without being caught by the mantracker, who by the way, is not aware of what that destination is.
"It's The Fugitive meets Gunsmoke meets Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," said Macijiwsky describing "the very real" reality show. "Season five's opening episode is probably my all-time favourite episode."
It features country music stars Clayton Bellamy and Jason McCoy of the band The Road Hammers in Elliot Lake. They're based out of Nashville, but they are tried and true Canadians.
"I remember telling these guys - because I wasn't sure of their agenda, 'This isn't The Love Boat,'" said Macijiwsky, referencing the popular Sunday night show set aboard the Pacific Princess, a luxury cruise ship, which embarked each week on a romantic, sentimental, and often hilarious voyage across tropic seas. "They assured me they were training and working out. They showed up prepared with a strategy - they were tenacious."
Once Macijiwsky was awarded the show he wondered how he was going to find his star.
"You can't go looking in the Yellow Pages for a tracker. I was thrilled that I got the show, but to execute it was the challenge," he said. "I almost felt like I was Jim Phelps in Mission: Impossible."
When he was assembling the team, Macijiwsky's priority was finding a tracker. Grant hails from High River, Alberta. He grew up working on cattle ranches. He began tracking as a big game hunting guide in not only Alberta, but British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
"He's an excellent horseman," said Macijiwsky.
Called upon by the RCMP as a volunteer searcher, Grant had never been on TV.
"It was an experiment. I took a chance on him," said Macijiwsky.
Six years later, creator and star are still having fun. Originally designed for men between 20 and 50, Mantracker now has mass appeal. Macijiwsky said he gets correspondence from teachers who tell him their students love to play Mantracker at recess.
"I've had conversations with single moms who say it's the only show they'll watch with their sons together," he said. One woman was so inspired by the show that she lost 120 pounds in less than a year so that she could be appear as one of the prey. Her son had told her, 'Mom, you can't even walk up the stairs without breathing hard.'
"She ended up being an amazing character," said Macijiwsky. "She had an encounter with a mountain lion on Porcupine Hill in Alberta."
Mantracker has filmed everywhere from Newfoundland to Hawaii and from the Yukon to southern California, which takes Macijiwsky and his crew away from home a lot. The documentary filmmaker and producer since 1977 says he feels fortunate to live so close to Pearson Airport.
"I love it here. I love Bloor West Village - the shopping, the proximity to downtown, the airport. I live and play here. I'm a staunch supporter of Toronto," he said.
In his 33-year career, Mantracker is by far his favourite show and that's because of the camaraderie on set.
"We whistle a lot while we work," said Macijiwsky.
Macijiwsky keeps the prey and the stalker separate until after an episode is finished shooting.
"These people are black and blue and scratched up, but they say thank-you for one of the best experiences of their lives," he said. "The one thing I never anticipated was the psychological impact. When you are being stalked, you have two blood-thirsty cowboys on your tail. It freaks you out."
Dave Frey and his brother Rene were season four prey. The duo, who hail from the Liberty Village and Junction area, managed to outwit and outrun the Mantracker.
"Mantracker is one intense, serious dude. He's not to be messed with," said Frey. "He's not to be underestimated."
Already fans of the show, the two decided to apply. Travelling to Big River, Saskatchewan, their biggest worries, said Frey, were 'can we follow a map and compass well enough and "What will we do when this big beast of a man comes after us on his horse?"
"We started talking to the locals, hunters, people who had experience so we could gain enough information on the lay of the land."
The brothers got off to a good start and didn't see the mantracker for four hours. The two had created a pair of shoes with backward soles to throw him off. It wasn't until they were taking a rest in a sandy area with their backpacks open and their shoes off that the mantracker discovered them.
"That was the scariest part of the whole thing," Frey recalled. "That's when we thought, 'This is for real.'"
Fans can attend a sneak preview charity launch party at Toronto's Revival Bar, 783 College St. on Sept. 3 to watch the first episode with Grant before it airs. Tickets are available at www.mantracker.ca for $25. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. with the screening at 9 p.m.. All proceeds go to Toronto West KEYS to Inclusion, a charity that helps Toronto adults with intellectual disabilities reach their full potential.