Eleven Eleven

We can never fully repay the debt.

So thank you for your service, your sacrifice, and your courage.

May our civilization and our conduct be worthy of all three.

JAYYYYYSUSSSS!

Bad things about living in a condo #234:

When the window cleaner suddenly appears, hanging outside, nine stories up.

I need to go clean up myself now.

Sorry Haters: Studio 60 gets the Pickup

Well well well.

At least I'll get my box set.

Remaking the Brits. Could We Get In, Squire?

Mad Pulp Bastard Bill Cunningham wrote about this, too. He pointed me to an article in the L.A. Times about the current vogue of remaking British shows for U.S. TV.

Some key points:

One reason the Brits appear to have fresher ideas, Garvie said, is that they are unhampered by the endless Hollywood chain of checkpoints, and are thus more likely to get their visions across on screen.

"The formats that work the best are the ones that could never possibly get developed here," said Nick Grad, executive vice president of original programming at FX, which is developing "Bad Girls," a prison soap from Shed Productions, a company of young British writers drawn to high-concept, fast-paced dramas.

Another advantage of imports for Hollywood executives: They're already made. "It would have been hard for anyone to take a chance on 'The Office' without having seen it first," said Chris Coelen, an executive expanding RDF USA's Hollywood branch to sell more English formats to U.S. networks. "The Office" began as a radio show and took five years to develop before it aired on British TV.

Now, yes, there have been as many failures as successes...I'm looking at you, Coupling. But let's keep in mind that 90% of everything fails. Everything. But when you have a template to go by, you actually are halfway there. Coupling failed because the characters (who were a British response to Friends) were quintessentially British in the original version; they were enduring British types. Jeff was a very Brit eccentric. Steve was a hyper kind of doubting Brit male. Sally was a neurotic Bridget Jones type, and Patrick was a smug Tory.

When they did the American equivalent, they set the show in Chicago, but didn't bother to translate the types. Jeff was just...odd. Steve was...bland. Patrick was....thick. There weren't any groundings to American types there. In the case of The Office, they made some subtle changes to the characters that made all the difference. Tim isn't self-loathing; nor does he really hate his job that much. Michael Scott is also a little better at his job than David Brent (he'd have to be, he's been doing it longer.)

But the really interesting part of the article, from a Canadian perspective, should be this:

The U.S. version of "The Office" was one of the lowest testing pilots NBC executives had ever seen. "Greg Daniels was e-mailing me, saying we got the lowest focus group scores ever. I said, 'Brilliant, so did we,' " Gervais said.

Right. Ok. Here's where I'm going with this:

• US programmers are looking for fare that takes chances and seems to work, so they can adapt and remake.
• The perceived flaw in the US system is that there are too many checkpoints, which don't allow for the really different ideas to get through.

Am I crazy, or does it seem that a Canadian network/prodco that takes a chance on a fresh, offbeat, different idea -- if it succeeds -- could get in on this booty?

I mean, it means not developing stuff for two years. It means reforming the development so that it doesn't shave off anything different. It means, in fact, doing a lot of what I wrote about here.

But it could be done, right?

So what are we doing instead?

Well, in the spring, Kirstine Layfield and the CBC made a point of saying that they were going to be doing a lot more testing.

You know. The thing that found The Office.

Sigh.

Just saying.

EDIT: well, I'd heard rumors of this, but looks like it's true. CBC's The Tournament just sold its format to FOX. Even though I didn't much care for the show (I thought it judged its characters) it's still a great feather in the cap for the creators. But, um..it still didn't get sold by testing. Oh, and the CBC canceled the show.

Mercer 22 Skidoo

In my ongoing quest to prove that I really don't have it in for CBC, I'm pleased to report an area where they're doing well: the Tuesday night comedy block of the Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Ratings for the recent edition of Mercer, when he visited the Prime Minister of Canada at home, got close to that magic million mark. 22's numbers are up this season, too, and creatively, both shows seem to be on an upswing.

I think it's great that they finally stopped running away from the obvious and put the shows together in a viewing block. There was a lof of grumbling and hard feelings when Mercer took his rants from 22 over to his own show -- but the two shows have very nicely staked out different territories. Mercer's emphasis on experiencing Canada and getting out there each week makes his show both more personality-driven, and looser than 22, which still retains its heavy-news flavored cant.

They're both enjoyable viewing, and worth your while. Mercer's website is here. 22's is here.

EDIT: if you go to the 22 site, whatever you do, make sure to watch the TOO HOT FOR TV sketch. Funnn--eeee.

Underfunded

I completely forgot about this. (H/t to Callaghan, who really should be writing a script right now.)

Underfunded, the best Canadian show premise that was never done by a Canadian network but has been done by a US network (specifically, The USA Network) aired Wednesday night. And lo and behold it's getting good reviews.

"Underfunded" is a production freak of nature: a movie filmed in Canada (Vancouver) that's actually about Canada, featuring no name stars and a scrappy, unassuming, take-nothing-seriously tone that proves mostly endearing. Kudos to USA for greenlighting something this far outside the telepic norm.

Now...has a Canadian channel picked this up? No, of course not. (If anyone wants to send me a burned DVD copy of this so I can see it, I'd love the charity. Email me for address.) If you're in the US, you can watch the movie online on the USA site. If you're in Canada, you're SOL. (Typical, right?)

If this was made - even if it was made with minority Canadian funding, for the Canadian sale, we could claim ownership. Instead, watch, the story, if there is one here will be the Americans making fun of us. Same damn movie. It could have been as much of a hit here as Due South ever was.

So we beat on...

Dignity. Ed Bradley 1941-2006.

There's very little of that left in the news media today. But Ed Bradley had it to spare.

Bradley died of leukemia today. Our media discourse is made infinitely poorer with his loss.

One of my first memories of being interested in a news program was 60 Minutes, soon after Bradley joined in 1981. Something in his manner both soothed and challenged. He could ask a tough question, and hold feet to the fire, and still seem like a gentleman. Our discourse has coarsened and cheapened, august men have given way to cheap bleating suits and blowhards of all stripes. But the methodical, thoughtful, humanistic style of Bradley's interviews will always stay with me.

He had the best interview I've ever seen with Miles Davis. His conversation with Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh was both shocking and surprising. Lena Horne, Paul Simon...the list goes on. He was always the highlight of 60 Minutes for me. I can't tell you how much I'll miss him.

Bradley obits: CNN. MSNBC CBS

Where The Cogs Come Together

One of the amazing things about the Film and Television Industry in Canada is that it's very very small.

Another is that it's kind of split up. Unlike the American industry, where the locus is clearly Los Angeles, Canada splits things up. Some of the splits are easy to understand: Vancouver has a lot of TV series production because it's in the same timezone as L.A. and not that far away. Also, it's a good place to shoot. I kid about Vancouver, but it's possible to get a lot of different looks there. (That's also one of the things I found amazing about the Western Cape of South Africa -- drive thirty minutes in different directions, and you can simulate just about any setting on Earth, short of Arctic Wasteland. It's even more dramatic than Vancouver.)

Toronto is the largest city in Canada, and most of the decisionmaking networks are here, so it gets its share too. (Toronto probably isn't as important as Vancouver right now, because MOW's and syndie series were our bread and butter, and they've dried up in the last few years. Also, the pervasive Toronto-hate makes it easier to pitch a series set anywhere but here. I know, I know. But it makes sense to somebody, somewhere, in their dark bureaucratic hearts.)

Montreal covers the indigenous French language market, which is its own (much healthier) producing solitude. Then there are tax driven or cultural policy driven pockets. There's production in Winnipeg because there are great tax breaks to go there. Same with Hamilton.

So people tend to be split up, and see each other very rarely. I don't pretend this is really that unusual. In L.A., I hear it breaks down by type of work. The Adult Industry doesn't mix with the rest of the industry...half hour guys and girls don't really know a lot of the one hour people, and the film people are off in one bubble while the TV people are in another.

But what makes it different here is that people who are actually doing the same jobs rarely meet. A general lack of writing rooms means everyone works freelance. Working freelance means that no one speaks to each other. One of the reasons I started this blog was because I know reading over the last few years, feeling very isolated because there was so little contact between people, and so little news about what's actually going on in my industry.

And no. Playback does not count.

I'd see people once a year at the WGC party then never again.

So last night was one of those nights. There was a get together sponsored by the Canadian Film Centre to launch their new branding. That's the new logo there. Looks a little sterile, but I have to admit by the end of the night it was growing on me. I always liked the old homey logo, but there certainly was nothing sexy about it.

Anyway, a couple of things happened at this party last night. One was that a whole lot of writers came up to me and said they read this blog every day. And because I didn't feel particularly confronty, I didn't say what I wanted to say, which was, "How come you never leave a comment, then?" Firing missives into the vaccuum is one thing, but to my mind, it perpetuates the feelings of isolation that we all feel, which is used to great advantage to manipulate us and keep us to the sidelines. Start rattling chains, people. If you're reading this, you're a Canadian writer or producer, or publicist, or worker bee and you've never left a comment, I call you out. Yes. You. I'm talking to you. Register a blogger name. (I know it says you have to start a blog but you really don't, you can skip that step) Leave a comment. Say what you do. Say what bugs you. Just say something. If nothing else, rip on the new CFC brand logo. What do you think? Tahoma or Helvetica? What's the font? Anything. Anyone. Bueller.

The other thing that happened at this party last night was the manna of gossip got spread around. A few tidbits from agents. A few other writer stories. And the amazing thing, the heartening thing, when you talk to other writers, is you find commonality. Commonality means hearing stories of the same shit being pulled by different producers, working three thousand miles apart. What if they handled it better than you did? Wouldn't you want to get that tip? Commonality means sharing a tip about how to bang a rewrite out the door faster...how to talk to A.D's in a way they understand...the most ridiculous network notes you've ever gotten. (Sometimes you just need to laugh and blow off steam.) Commonality also means you start building a mindspace of how to recognize the good ones from the bad ones -- no matter what position they play.

I remember once doing a session with Phil Rosenthal from Everybody Loves Raymond where he revealed the secret to success, as he saw it: figure out how to stop working with assholes.

Creative conflict is inevitable in this business. But there's a good fight, and a bad fight. If you don't talk to people who do what you do, you may never learn the difference. I've heard horror stories of people making a stand on something that I'd never think of trying to stop in a million years, and others of people who rolled over when they knew it would hurt the project, but they just didn't say anything, and it haunted them afterwards. I've heard other stories of when you just pull back and say, "it's time to just cash the check." What are the boundaries for you? Are they the same as mine? This is interesting, interesting stuff. And we so rarely get to have these conversations.

Though we have an industry (arguable,) we creatives in Canadian Film & Television don't really seem to have much of a community. And if we don't want to leave the future to the Producer's association, and ACTRA, and the CAB, then we have to actually start talking to each other, whenever we can.

And if it's not over a few be-sticked Dead Things, then maybe it can be, you know, over the internets. Don't be afraid to use the Google, either.

It was kind of a homey logo, wasn't it? And does this mean they need a different logo in French? And do we really want to promote the idea that Canadian creatives prefer a backwards C?

Oh well. Progress, baby! Progress!

When Good Series Go Bad...and Why Some Survive.

It must really be frustrating to watch Gilmore Girls, if you're a longtime fan. It sounds like a bit of a heartbreak -- at least that's the impression one gets reading this analysis from yesterday's NY Times by Virginia Heffernan:

Has “Gilmore Girls” lost heart? If only. This brainy, dexterous show is now all heart — with Lorelai (Lauren Graham) dating Rory’s father, Christopher (David Sutcliffe), and Rory (Alexis Bledel) pining for the London-based Logan (Matt Czuchry). In the new season those emotional cues that used to come from the Sam Phillips score with its airy la-la-la lyrics now emanate from by-the-numbers reaction shots, big doorstep love scenes, vast gaps in the scripts just for feelings, and sincerity galore. As a result, the show that made a virtue of brittleness has become almost moony.

There’s even “I love you” — a sentence that Ms. Sherman-Palladino, who learned timing from her father, a cruise-ship stand-up, and who came of age writing for “Roseanne,” could never abide...

Casual viewers have typically complained about the show’s stylized dialogue, poseur diction and references seemingly inspired by Bartlett’s and Roget’s. Well, for them, it should all go down easier now. The new show is run by David Rosenthal... On his “Gilmore Girls,” people lead and follow: one person talks, and the other sighs, frowns or chuckles. The sound mix is especially thick with that chuckling that signals what’s funny. I keep thinking that if Rory and Lorelai, those unsentimental brainiacs, could see this show, they’d hate it.

There are two basic types of TV dramas on the air. There are those that use television technique and craft to achieve their success, and those that rely on a singular and idiosyncratic voice.

If you look at a lot of Bochco's shows, you'll see similarities, and a certain producer imprimateur, but NYPD Blue isn't really the same as Hill Street Blues in style or tone-- not by a long shot. Bochco has always leaned on other writers and creatives and felt the tenor of the times to give him a lead on his show. Some hit, some don't. But they're based very much in craft, and execution by a team, overseen by a long-running professional.

David E. Kelley, on the other hand, relies on quirkiness to bring his shows to life. They're all of a piece. And the failures (girls club) have much more in common with the successes (The Practice, Ally McBeal) than Bochco's shows do.

Aaron Sorkin is another voice-writer. If every article measures Studio 60 and finds it wanting when placed up against The West Wing, that's because Sorkin invites the comparison. He has his tropes and his bag of tricks; the stylistic and voice similarities that insist on being identified with him, gloriously with him. He who lives by the self-conscious style and voice, dies by the self-conscious style and voice. Some people think writing that calls attention to itself is too showy, and not the goal. I tend not to be that dogmatic about it. What it does mean is that it's inherently more limiting. It did not take me very long to decide that Gilmore Girls was annoying to me. Just as five minutes into West Wing, I knew I was in love. "Voice shows" are inherently polarizing.

Gilmore Girls is a voice show that's trying to become a team-series. And that's a transition that rarely goes well.

In fact, the only recent example I can think of, on an artistic level, is Sorkin's own West Wing. And this is a point that can be fiercely debated. When Sorkin left that show at the end of the fourth season, the air went out of it. John Wells (who, like Bochco, or Dick Wolf, is a manager of television more than an idiosyncratic voice) shepherded the show through a very difficult fifth and part of the sixth season, where the Sorkin charms were noticeably absent, and the characters West Wing fans loved started to look (to borrow from Heffernan's article) like the Cylon versions of themselves.

West Wing started recycling plots that could have shown up (and did) on E.R. or Third Watch. The characters didn't seem so smart. They talked their feelings to each other, not policy (with feelings as the subtext.) In short, it felt wrong.

Artistically, The West Wing righted itself only when it took on a lot of heavy-hitting writers, and refocused around politics and the process of electing the next President: in other words, it went back to the franchise -- the thing that made it different.

But there still wasn't that Sorkin voice; West Wing righted itself not by going back to what it was, but by returning to its roots while at the same time becoming a different show.

It was an incredibly difficult maneuver, and for the most part, I'm shocked how well they pulled it off. (Though the audiences never returned to the level of its glory days.)

Please note that these idiosyncratic voice shows appear to be one-person bands, but they're not. The punishing television schedule doesn't allow for that. Amy Sherman-Palladino had other writers on Gilmore Girls, just as Aaron Sorkin had other writers on West Wing. If you've done this a while you know that no matter what, except in cases where a story is irretrievable dogshit, it's always easy to rewrite than it is to face the blank page. The genius of Kelley, or Sherman-Palladino-era Gilmore Girls, or Sorkin-era West Wing is how a muscular rewrite can make the brand seem so strong, so distinct, so much like it really is only one person doing everything.

That's one way to work. I think it would be pretty cool to work on a show like that, or Deadwood, where Milch kind of fills the same role. I imagine you'd learn a lot, as constricting or ego-smashing it might be to see your first drafts so utterly rewritten.

But then there's other kind of shows...they need a deft hand at the tiller, too. But the format or the television sheen of the thing is something that can be grokked and shared. LOST is a group effort, and that shows, too. E.R.'s waxing and waning fortunes and quality levels can be traced to the different showrunners and writers the show has employed over the years. You could practically write a thesis on the Conan O'Brien vs. the Al Jean vs. John Frink vs. the X, Y, Z years of The Simpsons.

I think TV is healthiest when you have a mix of these shows -- shows where it looks like there's one idiosyncratic voice (even when there's other people making that voice happen) and shows where there's a real team feel of a bunch of smart people working together. Each requires a strong voice...it's just one is a voice that's shared -- that comes out of a team, and the other's a team in subservient thrall to the voice.

See, this is also why people at large usually don't understand what we as screenwriters do. Because however the show works -- if there's a strong distinct voice coming out of one writer, assisted by others in the B.G. (Sorkin, Sherman-Palladino) or if there are lots of writers working together as a team (like, say, The Sopranos) the idea is to come up with something that seems distinct and itself...utterly itself.

But economics and Hollywood demands that even if it's the chef who makes the omelette, they still don't own the restaurant. And that's why when those voice shows go to hell -- they really go to hell. There's nothing crueler. We identify with our favorite TV characters more deeply than most movie characters -- probably as deeply as we do characters from our most cherished novels. And the betrayal of what makes them them -- well, that really cuts to the quick.

Heffernan's Gilmore analysis takes a very interesting turn when it gets into how the change of showrunner has affected the charater of Lorelai. If you don't get the whole thing of how strongly we identify with TV characters...read the full article. You will.

For all these years, Lorelai in “Gilmore Girls” has been painful and surprising and exciting to watch — a marvelous high-wire act. How cruel that the new writer of the show wants to rub her face in conventionality, strip her of the speed that was her reason for being and transform her into another banal television lead.

John Doyle On Fire in The Globe

[CANADIAN TV] Groan...yeah, I know. I'll be quick.

John Doyle, Canada's premier TV writer, has a blisterer in his column today in the Globe & Mail. It's titled "The Canadian TV Quote of the Year."

He starts out talking about the Geminis, and then segues into a presser given yesterday by Gabrielle Miller, one of the stars of Corner Gas. The star of the hit show was speaking on behalf of ACTRA on the need for broadcasters to more seriously commit to developing and airing our own programs. Let's let Doyle take it from here:

The response from the head of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters — the quote of the week — was staggeringly dismissive, rude and ridiculous. “Does anybody really believe that drama expenditure requirements are the answer to YouTube and/or MySpace?” CAB president Glenn O'Farrell said.

Hello? The CAB president's attitude amounts to this: “Hey loser, here's five bucks. Go and make your little drama for YouTube and see if you get some viewers.”

The message is clear. The CAB, which has the privilege of using our publicly owned airwaves to simulcast U.S. TV shows and has the advantage of using protective laws and regulations to insert commercials and make vast amounts of money, wants Canadian artists, writers and performers to get on-line and get lost.

The CAB seems oblivious to the fact that Corner Gas and Trailer Park Boys, both watched and savoured by vast numbers of Canadians, do not actually exist as products of MySpace or YouTube. They're on TV and they are hits, by any standard.

Pretty good, huh? Oh wait. Wait. He's just getting started:

Coddled in the snug embrace of protectionism for decades, the CAB is exhibiting the worst sort of smugness and greed. After 80 years in existence, Canadian commercial broadcasters are still sneering at the very idea of Canadian content.

Well, while you're counting your profits, CAB, and exhibiting the narcissism and hypocrisy of tyrants, remember where you make your money. This is Canada. And this country, like any other, is simply inauthentic if its stories are not reflected back to its people. That's why Canadian publishing is subsidized and Canadian television is regulated.

At the root of the original, decades-old decision to support homegrown storytelling in print or on TV, there was a profound consensus about the need to keep storytelling alive. That consensus still exists.

Sustaining the living thread of storytelling is a necessary endeavour, like ensuring health care and safe drinking water. It is another aspect of literacy.

The stated CAB opinion dismisses this responsibility. Its attitude is “protection for me, but not for you.” And it's nauseating.

The CAB is a "corporate media lobby group." We should start referring to it as such. The contempt shown by the CAB to this issue is not an isolated instance. Good on Doyle for calling him on it.

We should all call them on it. Constantly.

Sitcom Writers Hit The Maalox

Article from the L.A. Times with lots of kvetching about NBC's turning 8pm into Realityville, and the endangered species of the sitcom writer. An excerpt:

Viewers are voicing a preference for unscripted choices in the 8 p.m. hour, but that doesn't lessen NBC's commitment throughout the rest of prime time to the most ambitious and accomplished scripted programming on television," NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said.

Still, NBC's move is especially disheartening for writers who recall the 8 o'clock hour as the launching pad for some of the industry's most successful and celebrated situation comedies, including NBC blockbusters "Friends" and "The Cosby Show."

"It's a huge development," said Daniel Petrie Jr., former president of the Writers Guild of America, West. "It gives a sense of surrender on the part of one of the largest and most historical networks.

Now, here's another twist for you -- and a Dead Things First.

In Canada, things can seem a little bit brighter.

Yup. I said that.

All this is predicated on being, you know, good. But because we have to scrabble so hard here, and because even the best writers have to really beat the trees for work, I think there's a class of craftspeople up here who actually are better poised to survive in the new climate of writing, whatever that winds up being. In the last year I've co-created an hour long drama series, written for a few half hour comedies, and done a few animation scripts. I feel pretty comfortable in any of those genres. In the Canadian business, you have to be a generalist. So I don't feel the anxiety about the dearth of half hours that a writer in the U.S. might, because I know, and I have, done other things.

(I'm not even counting the documentary/reality/lifestyle writing I've done, because I haven't taken any of those jobs for more than a year.)

See? There's a silver lining to the screwed up Canadian system -- provided you're good at what you do. How do you get good?

Well, there, grasshopper...that's the real question, innit?

There. That Wasn't So Hard.

Count Every Vote, of course.
But Montana? Virginia? Pssst. Hey Republicans? We won.

Florida 2000 = 537 votes. And you still needed confused West Palm Beach seniors and a bunch of judges you pillory on your side.

We won. We won. We won.

To my fellow Americans: Thank you. From all your lonely brethren living abroad.

Now.

Let's get back to the screenwriting.

So It Begins.

From Salon.com's War Room:

The law of averages, Diebold style.

"We got five machines. One of them's got to work." -- Willette Scullank, a polling place trouble shooter shooting trouble this morning in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

No other blogging today. (Shurely Daddy's danced the monkey dance enough the last few days?)

If you're in the USA, the most important thing you can do today is Vote. And if you want to read something while you're in line, while the computer tries to disenfranchise you, I suggest the Rolling Stone cover article on "The Worst Congress Ever."

It's not a pox on both their houses. It's not partisanship as always. The Republicans (in name only) have managed to abdicate in 12 years, any claim to responsibility or constitutional legitimacy. Read the article and it will make you sick. This year, it simply isn't politics as usual. The system has been gamed, and the way things were supposed to work has been shredded. It's a shameful, shameful legacy. At long last, please. It is time. Throw the bums out.

As a Florida voter in 2000, (537, remember) don't fall into the "my vote doesn't count" defeatism. Do your duty. And maybe if these guys are turned out, finally, the Republicans -- the real ones -- can actually take back their party and put this ugly little misadventure in authoritarian lunacy to rest.

Vote.

I Promise Not To Say He Was Fugly

John Rogers has got all the mojo I want to say today.

Tomorrow, my Yankee brethren, just don't return their call.

Slings & Arrows' Outrageous Fortune At The Geminis

The Best Drama Series in Canada actually won.

Slings & Arrows captured three more Gemini Awards last night at the final (Thank God) Awards Night in Vancouver.

Slings picked up disturbing little face trophies that follow you when you move around the room for Best Actor (Mark McKinney,) Actress (Martha Burns,) and Best Dramatic Series, bringing their total awards to Six. (Best Writing, Direction, and Supporting Actress awards were given out in October.)

Unless I miss my guess, this was also for the second year of the series, which means it still will be eligible for the final season next year. Which should give the CBC another year to look at their shoes, read those American reviews, and ask, "why did we show them the door again?"

Oh, the guy from Supernova, Lukas Rossi, performed. I'm sure Callaghan will be thrilled.

Human Trafficking won best miniseries. (Prairie Giant was robbed.)

You have to love Canada, though. That means that a miniseries on sex trafficking won best miniseries in Canada two years in a row. Insert your own inappropriate joke here.

The Ensemble from This Hour Has 22 Minutes won best ensemble performance and Corner Gas won best comedy series.

Hatching, Matching and Dispatching won for best comedy writing, which was a surprise for me, especially since the Corner Gas ep it was up against was a very strong one. Guess Corner Gas will just have to take their million and a half viewers a week and cry with them.

One Dead Indian, a movie about the shooting of indian activist Dudley George, won awards for Best Direction and Best Writing in a Miniseries or Movie. (I saw this show, and it was really excellent. A well deserved win.)

Tom McCamus won Best Dramatic Actor in a Miniseries for that CBC Movie about Walter Gretzky, Wayne's Dad. Awww.

And Wendy Crewson got an award too. Because apparently you have to give Wendy Crewson an award. It's like, a rule.

The Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Doc went to House Calls, by the NFB.

Marilyn Dennis won a viewers choice award for Best Lifestyle Host. Seriously. There's a a viewer's choice award for that. Second year in a row Marilyn's won it.

Kevin Newman won Best News Anchor, which must have made Global happy as they were the guys broadcasting the awards, and not like they had a lot of other people going up to the podium.

Global actually did a weird thing...they showed the red carpet stuff with ET Canada, but they didn't show the whole awards show. Whatever.

At least Ron Maclean won.

So that orgy of self-aggrandization over, can we all go back to grovelling for funding and backstabbing now?

I really think they need to split the awards. Make the News Awards Something Else. Or Maybe give the News Awards out at a different time of the year.

Oh well. Back to the slog.