Southport will be highlighted on a national level later this year via a comedy television show. CBC's Still Standing, with Jonny Harris, was in Southport last week filming a Season 9 episode that could air as soon as this coming fall.

Southport Director of Business Development Deanna Talbot says they filmed for eight days.

"They reached out to us," notes Talbot. "This has been a few months in the making, although we did have some plans pre-COVID for them to come out to film, so it was great to finally get them here on site and for them to feature our community. There is a pretty rigorous selection process and we've gone through a lot of pre-interviews in the past. We were selected pre-COVID and then, obviously, with all the shutdowns, it was delayed till this year."

She explains many interviews were filmed around the community and they learned all they could about Southport. Talbot says they interviewed commercial and residential tenants as well as Southport staff. The final day of shooting was Tuesday, and wrapped with a comedy show in Hangar 5. 

"Jonny Harris did the interviews one-on-one, but they had a whole crew of about 20 people that were behind the scenes making it all happen," continues Talbot. "In the comedy show, he wraps up the whole segment by talking about whom he interviewed. That included the military. They had an individual pilot that he spent a lot of time with. They featured James Tutte, who was a pilot here back in 1992 when the base was shutting down."

Talbot says they discussed the history of how the 'Save the Base' committee came into being and featured their new tenant Apex Aesthetics, as well as a martial arts segment featuring Stephan Prince who utilizes space in the RecPlex.

"It was pretty neat to see how it all came together," notes Talbot. "I think, just being a part of all the interviews and the meetings 'pre' the filming, was neat to see them, and how professional and slick they work together. And then, even to pull it all together through the comedy show, Jonny Harris was so good at articulating what Southport is and telling the story from his point of view." 

Talbot says what stood out to her the most was the manner in which Harris ended the comedy show.

"He wrote a poem about Southport," adds Talbot. "I think that was a really neat way to, kind of, close out all the work that has been done over the last few weeks. His analogies of how Southport operates is very similar to what the Top Gun movie features. We really appreciate all the community support that we had and everybody being so open to telling our story. And so it will be great to have that featured at the national level."