MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
June 23, 2004

Calgary AB/Halifax NS. The portions are bigger and the drama wider as the Gemini Award-winning documentary series Taking It Off expands to two cities, 10 participants and one hour of quirky, poignant and galvanizing television. Season 4 starts production this Saturday, June 26, following participants on their quest to lose weight until December 12, 2004.

This year, the top-rated Life Network series produced by Edmonton's Anaid Productions takes place in Halifax, home to a beer-soaked pub scene and the ubiquitous lobster sandwich, and in Calgary, the domain of beef-loving carnivores and doughy executives addicted to fast food.

This season's journey of self-discovery includes five participants from Halifax:

• Twenty-nine-year-old stock-car racer Alyson struggling to banish the weight she gained while fighting a chronic disease;
• Two wise-cracking brothers, Bruce and Byron, locked in a competitive battle to out-skinny each other;
• Big Reg, who lost weight after a cancer scare a few years ago, but couldn't keep it off when a job lay-off piled on the stress; and
• Wendy, a lesbian yearning to shed half her weight before she meets the child she gave up for adoption 19 years ago.


And five participants from Calgary:


• Four hundred pound-plus David grappling with his inability to descend stairs without gasping for breath;
• Lindsay, a time-crunched hotel sales manager on a mission to fit into the wedding dress of her dreams;
• Recently-separated Trina, who wants to be loved for who she is - not what she looks like, but admits to being motivated by vanity;
• Job-hunting Jaclyn, 21, who is "anti-diet" and has strong feelings about media images of skinny women and how they feed her sense of inadequacy; and
• Zoë, 36, who is tenaciously launching a new career as a singer, but fears her extra pounds are grounding her chances at success.

"We are very proud of the series," says Executive Producer Margaret Mardirossian of Anaid Productions. "And we can hardly wait to see where this year's participants will take us."

"So many Canadians were interested in being part of Taking It Off," says David Way, Director of Original Programming, Life Network. "We felt it was important to open it up to more cities and see how regional differences affect the stories of our participants."

Season 4 of Taking It Off will premiere in January 2005 on Life Network. Viewers can learn more about the series at www.takingitoffonline.com

Anaid Productions is an award-winning film and television production company dedicated to the development and production of quality dramatic and factual programming. www.anaid.com

For more information:
Fran Humphreys, Unit Publicist,
(403) 244-7774

Roopa Shah, Publicist, Life Network
(416) 966-7236