TV Mandarins, Meet The Viewer (Part One)

Readers of this blog probably already know that I'm a pretty big fan of Vancouver's Diane Kristine. Diane is a writer for BlogCritics, and often publishes insightful and interesting interviews with writers and showrunners on her blog, Unified Theory of Nothing Much. And during the season, her weekly recaps and analyses of House is a TV writer's reason to keep going: thoughtful, interesting, willing to hash issues of character, and unabashedly written from the perspective of the ultimate TV fan.

She recently returned from covering the annual Banff Television Festival for BlogCritics, which was her first up-close crash course in watching the Canadian TV Firmament mix and match.

I decided to do a little interview with Diane for a few reasons:

• She's an engaged viewer with a solid grounding in the internet. In other words, she's the kind of viewer we're going to be seeing for years to come.
• She's obviously passionate about things she likes. TV is not wallpaper to her. She's loyal to shows she finds interesting -- again, obviously the viewer we say we all want to reach.
• She's admitted that she knows next to nothing about homegrown TV. It's not really on her radar too much.
  

Now, the last part doesn't surprise me. Not at all. And I don't blame her for having that attitutde -- she has the attitude of a majority of people in English Canada.

But while people at Banff buzz around talking about mobisodes and different content platforms, and just before the Canadian industry gets into another orgy of structural talk (A Senate report on the future of the CBC is going to be released on Monday, a CRTC review of the Canadian TV industry is about to start, and TVO (Ontario's PBS) is about to hear the results of yet another "strategic review" of their mandate. I'm reminded of the cartoon about what separates Canadians from other people -- imagine a picture of people walking among clouds with little wings on their backs, and they reach a fork and a sign pointing left says, "HEAVEN" and the sign on the right says "PARLIAMENTARY SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE POSSIBILITY OF THERE BEING A HEAVEN," and, of course, the Canadians are the ones who go right) I wanted to inject a little real into the discussion.

Because it's always felt to me that the one thing that gets left out of the discussion whenever the usual suspects start clucking about TV in this country is the viewer.

Unless the viewer is under fourteen. I've sat in any number of meetings about tween shows and animation, and heard focus group results that break down pretty cleanly what the audience wants and needs, and what they like and don't like. It's impressive to listen to. And in the end when you go out and write the tween and animated shows for kids (one sector of Canadian TV that actually seems to be successful) the first charge is one that I can get behind: entertain them.

I've been working with another writer for one of my shows over the last two weeks, and it's really a treat to have her aboard, because I get to hear questions from her like, "what does the audience know at this point, and why are they going to keep watching?" I love it, because that's how I try to look at TV too -- and because it's so specific. The audience in TV in Canada often seems to be an amorphous, faraway thing. And it shouldn't be.

So I figured: let's go to the source.

Throughout this interview, I'll make comments on Diane's answers (because that's the kind of big mouth bastard I truly am) and also I'm going to emphasize things she said that I find particularly apt.

DTOS: You recently got a look at the belly of the beast, ie: the Canadian television industry up close, at one of the biggest gatherings of the tribe: the Banff International Television Festival. As a neophyte, and a person who identifies most as a viewer, what was your impression of what you saw outside of the "official" sessions?

DK: Someone called it "Banff Camp" ("one time, at Banff camp…") and I thought that was funny and apt. It seemed like a small, chummy club. Some people were part of the club, and some people were trying to get into the club. And then there was me, trying to figure out what this club is all about.

DTOS: Did anything about what you saw or heard from the Canadians puzzle you?

The more I see and hear, the more puzzled (but fascinated) I am. A couple of things:

I think it's great that it's an international festival and doesn't try to downplay the importance of American TV on the world stage. And I’m a big fan of Paul Haggis and David Shore's work and have no problem with people moving to where the opportunities are (though I wish there were more opportunities here). But I thought there was an odd insistence on recognizing their contributions to Canadian television. Television, sure, but Canadian TV? Both of their careers are overwhelmingly American. Nothing wrong with taking pride in the local boys making good, but they are not shining examples of what can be done in the Canadian television industry, unless the message is you should all move south.

Wayne Clarkson from Telefilm Canada made comments about fighting for Canadian content on the international market, while saying he thought Corner Gas and Trailer Park Boys might not translate well outside of the country. What's the message there? That we should be aggressively promoting Canadian products … but let's try not to make it too Canadian? That we should care about international markets more than domestic markets? I'd like to think the industry was more worried about making a show I want to see, and finding ways to let me know I want to see it, before they're thinking of how to sell that show to Brazil.

(DMc say: They talk about presales sometimes in TV. This sounds a bit like pre-defeatism. We've tried for years to make ersatz American shows on shoestring budgets, and we're just not good at it -- it's like watching people with no knowledge of English try to act Shakespeare phonetically. There were a lot of old Canadian shows on the air in South Africa while I was there, because, I guess, they were cheap. And the locals mostly didn't know what to make of them. They said they were like American shows, but...off.)

DTOS: You've proven that you are an enthusiastic viewer, and quite appreciative of the time, effort, and craft that goes into making good TV. Yet though you live in Vancouver, you're fairly clueless about what's happening in Canadian TV. Why do you think that is?

Aww, thanks, a compliment before you call me clueless.

I blame it mostly on poor marketing, combined with my own laziness. There's a marketing rule of thumb that someone has to see a message several times in order for it to register. I'm lucky if I hear one mention of a Canadian show – maybe a polite review on CBC or the Vancouver Sun, maybe you mention it on your blog, maybe a promo that's playing while I'm off grabbing a snack. Mostly, nothing.

And while there are reasons for the lack of promotion (like money, and media who know their audience cares more about House than Slings & Arrows), it doesn't matter in the slightest how good those reasons are. Another marketing 101 lesson – you can have the best show in the world, but if I don't know about it, I can't watch it.

I'm inundated with information on American shows whether I want to be or not. I have to work to hear about Canadian shows. I've only recently realized that it hasn't been a conscious decision to spurn Canadian shows because they don't appeal to me. Sometimes that's true - I've seen lots of ads for Godiva's and Falcon Beach and haven't been inspired to watch. But more often, I've never heard of the shows, or if I have, vaguely, I don't know when they're on. I ended up loving the second episode of The Jane Show, and will keep watching, but I've still only seen mention of it on your blog. Thank god for PVRs now - at least I don't have to worry about keeping track of a show once I've decided to watch it.

(DMc say: In fact, let's steal a bit from Diane's own blog to show how big the problem really is.)

I've seen two episodes of The Jane Show now, and while I was lukewarm on the first, I loved the second (in a noirish spoof, Jane gets addicted to television - I can relate. Though maybe not to the noir part of it. My life is more ... blanc). But good grief Global! You don't make it easy to promote. It apparently airs Thursdays at 8:30 in Saskatchewan and Manitoba; 9:30 in BC, Ontario, and Quebec; and 10:30 in Alberta and Atlantic Canada. Doesn't quite roll off the tongue like, say, Tuesdays at 9/8 Central. Plus, the show's website doesn't seem to have been touched since the show premiered. It has a banner saying "Catch the series premiere on Global Thursday night," a blog with two entries, the latest from June 1, and an episode guide that has only the June 1 episode listed.

(DMc say: How can we fix the marketing problem? It's not enough to spend, obviously -- we're not going to be able to overcome the American advantage in that. But marketing is clearly being ignored. Even when a show is heavily promoted, like Falcon Beach, the money is mostly front loaded for that first tune...then the ads drop off the cliff. Promoting Canadian TV doesn't really seem to be much more sophisticated than when my friends promote their FRINGE theatre shows: most time, it's an email, "Please watch my show!!!" Ugh.)

DTOS: What do you think the main barrier is to you watching Canadian shows?

I watch shows that are already on my radar, so the challenge is to get Canadian shows on my radar. For all my devotion to some of the shows I do watch, at this point I don't watch a ton of television and I'm not a channel surfer. Everything's pretty much appointment TV unless I'm watching with friends.

Unlike the US model, shows don't regularly start in September and run until May, so there's not some big media frenzy at the beginning of the season to gain my attention. It seems Canadian shows are on for a few weeks at some random time, then I never hear about them again.

Even now that I've decided I want to actively pay attention to what's going on, I don't know where to turn for one-stop shopping about what's coming up, and I'm not likely to put a lot of sustained effort into it for the long term. Lazy, remember.

DTOS: Do you ever recall watching any Canadian scripted programs? What is your impression of what you watched?

Yes, it's not like I've never seen a Canadian show! And there's been enough good to make me want to seek out more. But enough bad that I'm more skeptical than I'd like to be.

I enjoyed Twitch City, Made in Canada, The Newsroom, which were all sort of odd and vicious with interestingly self-absorbed characters. I'm not sure what that says about me. And I liked Naked Josh and Slings & Arrows, but I've only sporadically had the channel they were/are on - but they have that blend of drama and comedy I'm attracted to.

I've seen bits of things like DaVinci's Inquest and This is Wonderland, but they didn't grab me – I wasn't hooked by the characters, and a lot of our dramas seem so earnest.

I did absolutely love Anne of Green Gables, and watched and liked some of Road to Avonlea out of nostalgia. While I was a complete Anneaholic as a kid, they were also well-crafted shows – the production values seemed better than average for the time, with good acting. Degrassi felt more real than most of the other kids shows on at the time.

Mostly, though, I have memories of cheesiness that have given Canadian shows a bit of taint. I hate to admit it, especially to a Canadian TV writer (except I think you know), but there's a Canadian content stigma lingering in much of the public's perception. There have been shows that might as well have had a disclaimer that they were put on the air to fulfill CanCon regulations, with acting and writing that was pretty terrible. And it's hard to get over that stigma when it's so difficult to find the quality shows.

There have been shows that seemed like cheap knockoffs of American shows – Street Legal wasn't horrible, though I wasn't a fan, but it felt like a watered down version of LA Law. There are the co-productions I don't even know if I should count as Canadian TV – The Lost World, Relic Hunter - that seem like they're trying to appeal to a mass audience by being bland, generic copies of popular concepts.

Then with shows like North of 60, Beachcombers, Trailer Park Boys, Corner Gas, I get the impression us Canadians are all supposed to be quaint, rustic people. I recognize myself and my attitudes in American shows far more often than Canadian ones.

(DMc say: Once again, I'm prompted to remind any Telefilm'ers who may be reading this: the majority of Canada's population lives in an Urban area within 100 KM of the U.S. border.)

Where does Diane get information on TV? What attracts her to a show? How likable do characters have to be?

More tomorrow.