TV Series

Your neighbours. Your co-workers. Your family members and friends. They’re all just ordinary people. Or so you think. This show finds the extraordinary people behind ordinary faces. It showcases extraordinary lives and experiences that will surprise and captivate viewers. It will leave viewers wondering if their very own neighbours have extraordinary stories to tell.

ExtraOrdinary Lives is a 13-part series that features ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary events during their lives. A documentary format is used and includes excerpts from interviews woven together with appropriate music clips and archival photos. Stark black and white photos of these ordinary people are interspersed throughout the program, along with 16mm film footage, to accentuate their stories and emotions.

Episode 1 – Fate
Phyllis Peterson – On Aug 15, 1967 Victor Earnest Hoffman went on a psychotic rampage, killing Peterson’s father, mother, and her seven brothers and sisters at their Shell Lake farm in northern Saskatchewan.

Krista Rempel – Krista Rempel, an Emergency Medical Technician, was first on the scene in two separate cases involving “Miracle Babies”.

Episode 2 – Determination
Dave Rodney – After losing a team-mate in an ascent to the summit of Mount Everest in 1999, Dave Rodney returned to the mountain again in 2001.

Josh Hall – For the past fifteen years, Josh Hall has been sailing full time and competing in all of the world’s big races.

Episode 3 – Triumph
Laurie White – RCMP Constable Laurie White woke up in a Vancouver hospital and discovered that the lower part of her right leg had been amputated following 8 hours of emergency surgery. Laurie fought back to become the first Canadian to return to active RCMP duty with a prosthetic limb.

Danalyn Adams – In 1997, a virus inflamed Danalyn’s 25-year-old heart and left doctors no choice but to perform a transplant. In 2000, she ran the Boston Marathon, crossing the finish line to hug her donor’s sister.

Episode 4 – Fame
Henk Otte – When Henk Otte is in the Netherlands, he’s just a regular guy, but when he’s in the Volta Region of Ghana, Africa, he is Togbe Korsi Ferdinand Gakpetor II, king to hundreds of thousands of locals.

Matthew Lien – Matthew is a singer and songwriter from the Yukon. While he is virtually unknown outside professional music circles in Canada, Matthew is a huge singing star in Taiwan.

Episode 5 – Adventure
Katarina Ollikainen – As a hobby, Katarina Ollikainen, one of Britain’s top skydivers, built a replica, to exact specifications, of Leonardo da Vinci’s parachute design using only tools that would have been available in da Vinci’s days.

Scott Parazynski – Scott Parazynski is a NASA astronaut who has logged over 1,019 hours (6 weeks) in space. Scott has also served as the Olympic Team Coach for the Philippines during the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, Canada, and plans to climb Mt. Everest in his upcoming spare time.

Episode 6 – Power
Peter St. John – Peter St. John is a mild mannered Professor at the University of Manitoba. What his neighbours don’t know about him is the following: Not only is he one of the world’s top experts on terrorism, he also happens to be the rightful heir to the Earl of Orkney in Scotland.

Alan Canfora – Alan Canfora was one of the student protesters who were fired upon by the Ohio National Guard on May 4th, 1970 at Kent State University.

Episode 7 – Survival
Brent Dyer – A single engine plane crashes in the remote mountains of Idaho. After two weeks without being found, the starving survivors resort to the unimaginable.

Art Thompson – Art was taken from his home and placed in a residential school for Native American Children. He was stipped of his heritage and endured years of sexual abuse. Through the healing process Art has rediscovered his roots, earning respect for his community leadership and acclaim for his aboriginal artwork.

Episode 8 – Charity
Lois Gibbs – Lois discovers that her neighbourhood is built on a toxic waste site. Mysterious illnesses plague nearby families as well as her own. Overnight she becomes a fierce crusader, spearheading the demands of local residents.

Naomi Bronstein – Naomi leaves Canada to help children in war-torn Vietnam. “Operation Babylift”, a plan to fly orphans to North America for adoption. Driven to make a difference, she forms the organization “Healing the Children”, which has helped children recieve medical care worldwide.

Episode 9 – Freedom
John Artis – John is found guilty of murder. In 1981 he is released on Parole and vindicated in 1985 when a federal court judge overturns the convictions. Today, John chooses to use his story to aid youth offenders in hopes that they learn from his experiences and make better choices for themselves.

Anhua Gao – A child of parents hailed as revolutionary heroes by Mao Tse Tung, Anhua is in a position of privilege. However, her parents die, leaving Anhua and her siblings to grow up in the chaotic realm of Maoist China. Anhua, who writes and speaks English, is accused of being an enemy agent and imprisoned. Escaping that fate and eventually China, Anhua tells the story of her struggle to survive the ideological machine of Red China.

Episode 10 – Duty
Tom Hoppe – Tom is decorated twice for his actions on a peacekeeping mission in Yugoslavia ordered by the UN in the early 1990’s. He is one of very few Canadian soldiers to be decorated twice since the end of the Korean War.

Maryse Carmichael – Maj. Maryse Carmichael has been a Canadian forces member since 1990. She piloted VIP Challenger and flew Prime Minister Jean Chrétien around the world. In March 2000, for the first time in their 30-year history, the world-famous Snowbirds select a woman for their team.

Episode 11 – Sport
Shirley Muldowney – Shirley has always had an affection for speed and competition. With a long and distinquished career, starting in the 1950’s, Shirley remains the single most accomplished woman competing in professional motorsports and she is still racing today.

Justine Blainey-Broker – In 1987 Justine finds herself banned from participating in the sport of her choice, hockey, even though in the tryouts she has earned a place on the boys’ team. Five court cases and a Supreme Court decision later, she is the first girl to legally hit the ice with the boys.

Episode 12 – Discovery
Pauline Alakija – Pauline is one of Canada’s leading forensic pathologists. As part of a UN team investigating war crimes, she leave the safety of Canada and heads to the killing fields of Kosovo. Pauline faces the horror of mass graves and the evil of genocide.

Les Stroud – Les and his wife Sue are determined to live primitively. Casting off in a canoe they look for a home deep in the wilds of Northern Ontario. Over the course of a year, they battle the harsh weather, fight for their health, and face both tragedy and triumph.

Episode 13 – Faith
Betti Carpman – Betti, five months pregnant spends the afternoon boating with her husband and father. The boat hits a reef and Betti is thrown overboard. The boat’s propeller slashes her open from stomach to chest. The sudden accident leaves her fighting for two lives – her own and that of her unborn child.

Tere Duperrault Fassbender – At eleven years of age, Tere and her family took a fateful pleasure cruise off the coast of Florida. The Captain of the charter went on a rampage and sabatoged the ship. He killed Tere’s entire family and left her for dead on a sinking ship. Tere survived without food, shelter, or water for four days. Her miraculous survival was the murderer’s downfall.

*PRODUCER Nova Herman *EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Ron Goetz *DIRECTOR Chris Triffo

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