An Interesting Turn of Events

FUNNY OLD COUNTRY. Had a bountiful and raucous night Saturday in the lounge at the Sutton Place Hotel in Vancouver. Much TV talking and special guest appearances by Writer Mafia types, East Coast and West. The new generation is coming, my droogs. We're silent like Charlie. But we're coming. Bwaa ha ha.

Meanwhile, what do you do if you've got a critically acclaimed show that's not getting the love from the Canadian audience, or the promotion from your network? Where do you turn?

Doyle has the scoop:

Intelligence (CBC, 9 p.m.) is going to be remade as a pilot for a possible series for the Fox network in the United States.

Haddock Entertainment, the production company of Chris Haddock, the show's creator, confirmed late last week that in a co-production with John Wells Productions, Intelligence is on the Fox slate of possible series for next year. John Wells is the TV and movie veteran who is executive producer of ER, was executive producer of The West Wing for several years, and was in charge of Third Watch and China Beach. He's accumulated six Emmys over the years.

According to Haddock, an agent at CAA, the powerful Hollywood agency, brought Intelligence to the attention of Wells, and he and Haddock got along famously when they met to discuss a possible U.S. network version. Haddock told me, "I'm looking forward to working with John Wells, that's for sure. I pitched it to Kevin Reilly at Fox and they came in to the deal. It will change substantially in adaptation to an American setting. There is no production order as yet. I believed that the series had great potential as an American franchise and John Wells agreed. We'll see how it goes."

Of course, speculation about a U.S. version of Intelligence is premature. It's only a pilot that's definitely being made. But ironies abound in this circumstance. Intelligence has had critical acclaim in Canada but hasn't been the huge ratings hit that CBC would like. Given the way of things in Canada, if the Fox pilot succeeds in being picked-up for a full-season production, it would probably land on CTV or Global in Canada. As the show is owned by Haddock Entertainment, CBC would not benefit in any financial way.

A lot of steps between here and there -- but what do you want to bet, too , that if by chance a U.S. version of Intelligence did make the sked, and drew real numbers, Canadians would start falling all over themselves to point out that this was the original? If you want to get ahead of that curve, check out my interview with Haddock, download the audio of the Tv, Eh? podcast, and tune in Intelligence, tonight at 9pm on CBC.