Canadian TV In The NY Times

MY FRIEND MARK ELLIS is delightfully quoted in a mostly spot-on article about the trends in Canadian TV from an American perspective. The article, by Canadian freelancer Katrina Onstad, talks to people involved with Copper, The Bridge, and Flashpoint.

I say "mostly" spot on because of one quote in the article from one of the Executive Producers of Flashpoint, Anne Marie La Traverse:

“There’s a snobbery about commercial shows here, among writers particularly,” Ms. La Traverse said. “Everyone dreams of doing a dark HBO series. There’s a resistance.”

“It took us a while to find writers who embraced this shape,” she added, “and wanted to be accessible, relatable, heroic, emotional, all the choices we really wanted to make.”

This is frankly, bullshit. And because the rest of the article is so on, a perspective like that can be particularly damaging.

I don't mean to impugn Ms La Traverse, and perhaps that may be her experience. But it's not been mine. Every writer I know with chops has stories of frustration, borne out of meetings with Canadian network execs who all spoke rapturously about Six Feet Under (or to update the reference to today, Mad Men) but who wanted shows just like that that drew Network-tv sized audiences.

Are there snobby writers? Sure there are. But they're a vast minority, and in my experience they seem to be the ones who've been schooled more in the trenches of Canadian film, where that outsider, anti-commercial streak is a hallmark (and I leave value judgements about that being good or bad out of it for the purposes of this discussion.)

The writers I know, both people like me who are mid career, new people I know starting out, and veterans who I learn from every time I speak to them, all speak in terms of TV as a medium that they love. They know the shows -- all of them -- and understand instinctively the difference between a concept with limited commercial appeal (a "cable" kind of show) and a broad concept that could play to a network sized audience. If we've not been able to pursue those goals before now, it's because we've been pushed by producers and networks who wanted to make something "deeper" or "more important" than American shows, while being not-really-too-cognizant of what made those shows so appealing and successful.

If the success of Flashpoint means that's off the table, that's great. But I don't think it necessarily is. Recent shows that have debuted, say, in the last while have showed that the understanding of what makes TV tick and the desire to make fare that's "important" rather than entertaining is alive and well.

I think Katrina did a great job with her article as an overview of where Canadian TV is now. But I think, perhaps, some people need to update their Canadian writer rolodex, as well.

Making Oxycontin Abuse Safe for All: Nurse Jackie

AN HOUR AND A HALF to Halifax. Five and a half more to Banff. Screens are out on Air Canada. They run out of newspapers instantly, and the hot sandwiches sell out by Row 3. This is an airline in serious kaka. Yet the only thing that makes Flight 185 bearable is the kickass cabin crew. That's the 2nd time I've noticed that lately on Air Canada. While they quibble over pensions and how they screw their employees, that traditional malaise you've seen with the Air Canada crew seems much, much improved. I don't know why. They're taking the brunt of a bad situation every day with every flight. Seriously, if not for the crew today's flight would have been Lord of the Flies.

Along with the uncomfortable job of reviewing scripts and making notes with a laptop wedged at the chin, (ah, reclining seats + six foot four, you're awesome) I got to take a little break to watch a preview screener from TMN of the new Showtime series Nurse Jackie, which premieres this weekend on TMN/Movie Central in Canada and Showtime in the USA. (Check that: actually it's Monday June 8th.)

Most of the buzz and reviews on this show deservedly focus on the wonderful Edie Falco, who actually does do the impossible and make you forget Carmela Soprano. The show is witty and dark, and raw about how things really work in the world, and how messy people can be even when they're trying to do good. There's a peculiar thread of Catholic kind of humor running through this one that of course I appreciate. (The NY Hospital Jackie toils at is All Saints.) "Make me good, God" Jackie intones at the end of episode one. "But not yet."

What strikes me about Falco in this show, besides the brave, unflattering and practical short haircut, is how sexy she is. I know others felt differently, but I never found Carmela sexy. Not even when Furio was mooning at her. But the contradictions and the fire and the passion lurking in Falco's performance -- she has the thing that I wish Canadian series would discover more -- sometimes all you have to do is light and let the eyes say everything -- is just...wow.

Hot.

And fun. And great. Sadly, I know about three writers who are going to be depressed by this show because it's an idea that just needed to be done...and this is it. This is the world weary, nurse on the edge, circling the drain show that's been needed forever. Great (but not particularly original) idea meets wonderful execution, meets superlative TV performer.

The show's attitude toward forgiveness, and the way it deals with addiction, is so out of the realm of TV too. I read somewhere I believe that both the (female) writer/producer/creators are in recovery. It smacks of when David Milch used to talk with affection about Andy Sipowicz: "he got clean before I did." This is that kind of show, too.

Hooray for Summer and the return of the quality cable show. Nurse Jackie is a prescription everybody needs. And stat.

Yeah, I made the prescription joke. EIGHT AND A HALF HOURS ON A PLANE. You don't like it, %@# me.

Banffed Again

AS YOU READ this, I'm in the air. At least, God, I hope so.

I'm on my way to Banff for the TV festival, and participation in the Canwest Showrunner Training Program. I can't promise that I'll have a whole lot of coverage up -- the sessions of the training program are screens-down-in-camera-just-between-us-chickens sorts of things, and my schedule is so packed that I won't have a lot of free blogging time.

Oh, yeah, and there's that little more than full time job that I still have to do while I'm there, too.

I get to do a rewrite on my eight hour St. John's to Calgary flight. Should be fun.

Anyway, if you see me in Banff, come say hi. I'll be the tree with glasses and a hat.

The CRTC Punts...Again.

THERE ARE SOME days when the fix isn't even the issue. It's the kabuki theatre that precedes it that gets your goat.

Let's recap:

In 1999 the CRTC was convinced by the Broadcasters to relax the definition of "priority programming" to include shows other than those expensive dramas. The Broadcasters said it would provide them with "flexibility." The creative unions like the WGC argued that it would kill Canadian Drama on TV.

The CRTC did what the broadcasters wanted and relaxed the rules. Drama and Comedy on Canadian TV was halved within a year, and declined further. Artists struggled over the next decade to gain back a toehold on the airwaves that the CRTC were supposed to be protecting for Canadians.

In that decade, consolidation in the Canadian broadcast industry went unchecked, and local station groups largely disappeared as stations were swallowed up by huge media companies. The CRTC did nothing about it.

A few months ago the CRTC floated the idea of requiring broadcasters to spend one dollar on Canadian programming for every dollar they spent on American programming. They chose not to implement this idea though. And they rubberstamped license renewals for a year.

Earlier this year there were a whole bunch of new media hearings to decide if the CRTC was going to regulate NOT the internet -- which was widely and soundly misreported -- but if it was going to regulate broadcasting activities on the Net, which included things like what the broadcasters do to stream on their websites. Since this is effectively the same thing they do in old media, the Creative Guilds argued that maybe, just maybe, the meagre protections of access and availability of CanCon could be extended to that medium. There were also Pie-in-the-sky musings like some sort of levy on cable co's to maybe support the creation of works by Canadians.

Today, the CRTC declined to do anything at all, again.

Meanwhile, channels that were supposed to be History channels don't show History. In fact, specialty channels increasingly just show the same reruns their parent companies shovel on their other networks.

The CRTC releases decisions and says things like, "the unions failed to make their case," when anyone watching the relevant hearing saw a desultory questioning of the guilds about issues that had little to do with their own presentations. It's one thing to go through the motions. It's another thing to not even really do a good job of that before declining to act.

The CRTC is supposed to protect the airwaves for you. Now, apparently local TV can only be saved if you pay more to the people who let it slide. Wonder if the CRTC will do its customary thing -- which is, you know, nothing. Nothing much at all.

You're welcome, Canada. Aren't you glad you've got the CRTC watching out for you?

And lest we forget what a great job serving Canadians the broadcasters are currently doing in new media, let's take a look at a Tale of Two Daily Show Sites.

Lay of the Newfoundland and The Creepy Kid Shuffle

I KNOW THAT lately there's been a lot of guest posts and small vamping, but them's the breaks when you're trying to stickhandle a new show, and you've set yourself the ambitious bar of trying to have six scripts in some form by first day of principal. It becomes kind of all-consuming.

I've just gotten my 2nd crack at a script draft; outlines are proceeding...we've rebroken a great story and another fun one last week in a room that continues to gel quite nicely. We may even, heavens to Betsy, issue a draft labeled "PRODUCTION WHITE" by the end of the week.

And Mighty Mike Clattenburg hasn't even blown into town yet.

In the room, there's been the usual story room brand of filth, terrible impressions of Family Guy characters; in-jokes, disquisitions on slang, Newfoundland History, the meaning of yawning, the relative merits of male and female genitalia, scratching, full on re-enactments of the scene from Beverly Hills Cop when Eddie Murphy hangs off the Eighteen Wheeler, almonds, YouTube, and did I mention the filth?

Oh yes, and since, as we know, it's high on the list of all writers concerns, I am happy to report that lunch has lately taken a turn for both the healthy, and the delicious.

Our temp offices are in an old, Seventh-Day Adventist School in Rabbittown. There's something vaguely creepy about the place. A forlorn sort of Blair Witch Feel. I locked up one night because I stayed late.

I was in a groove and still writing, and by the time I left it was dark and on the way out I nearly pooed from the fear. No joke.

It's like there in the darkness were the souls of a thousand little kids all waiting for The Catcher in the Rye or something.

But at least the story room has an espresso machine. That's right, bitches. With a frothing system.

Hey there Little Mosque and Erica....JEALOUS?

Oooh, woo Flashpoint, with your long hours and vague promises of CBS returns next year -- do YOU have a frothing system? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say 'no.'

[Note to Flashpoint: the above was a joke. I know some of you are very sensitive flowers. Joke.]

Seriously though, I KNOW you don't have a frothing system. Take your 35mm and big fake guns and stunt budget and helicopter shots; we have cappucino in the story room, playa! That's right. Damn!

Now if only we had offices.

Once we move, Sahib. Once we move.

Oh look at that. It's my inner voice. So calm, so ethereal. Offering such wise counsel.

Don't built it up too much.

What will it be like in the promised land, Sahib?

Oh, Children, the frothing system is only the beginning.

Good to know. Until the move, then, I guess I either have to learn to never work past dark, or learn to shut the door in order to block out the willie-giving spirits.

Seriously, if I see anything that looks even vaguely like the kid from Village of the Damned, I'm outta here.

Last one out, take the froth. Leave the cannoli.

Hold Me Closer Tiny Feschuk

OKAY, YES, I'VE said it before, but Scott Feschuk writes for a real dead tree publication. And he says it so dreamily...

Simulcasting: It’s like coming up with your own ideas, but without actually having to do that

One ritual I look forward to every year is the triumphant return from Hollywood of the Canadian television executives, hauling across their mighty shoulders the spoils of the Comedy and Drama Hunt.

It takes a special kind of hubris to tout one’s enduring achievement in television programming when one’s enduring achievement in television programming is flying to California, pointing politely and saying, “That one, please.”

But every year, without fail, the best part of the Hunt is the breathless manner in which TV executives describe their accomplishments.

The president of “creative, content and channels” at CTV said yesterday that the network has “remained focused on creativity.” To be specific, it remains focused on American creativity – either airing it directly or copying it in format (Canadian Idol, So You Think You Can Dance Canada and – in what must surely be in development by now – a Cold Case Canada devoted to finding out where Ben Mulroney disappeared to). Trends come and go, but in Canada getting bizarrely jazzed about rebroadcasting some other country’s shows never goes out of style.

Dixon Pushes Brooker

OH, YOU'RE A TV writer are you?

You watching Charlie Brooker? Yes yes. You admire the hell out of Dead Set? You've seen most of Screenwipe, even if you're not in the UK?

No?

Tsk Tsk.

Today, Dixon's got the hookup to a long, long special (first broadcast in December 2008) that is just some of the UK's top TV writers talking about what it's like to do the job. Russel T. Davies from Doctor Who, Paul Abbot from State of Play and Shameless, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain from Peep Show, Graham Linehan from The IT Crowd and Father Ted, Tony Jordan (Eastenders, Life on Mars.)

There. He's just killed an hour for you. But if you want to find out how to break in, what your personality's like, and how real TV writers feel about writing, well....there it is.

Thoughts From a Reader

TODAY'S GUEST POST comes to us courtesy of Karen Hill, who's currently in the room and writing for the new season of Little Mosque on the Prairie. She is wise.

* * *

When I was first breaking into the business, I thought the best way to get a lay of the screenwriting land was to become a reader. I evaluated scripts for a broadcaster, a production company and a distributor. The distributor gave me two movie passes for every feature film script I read and reported on. The broadcaster paid me $150 per proposal or script. The production company paid me $100 per script. The money was terrible for the amount of effort I put into each reader’s report but a big advantage I did enjoy was developing relationships with decision makers who could later a) read my scripts; b) put my name on lists for writing jobs. Herewith a few thoughts based on that work.

Use screenwriting software.

The mark of the amateur was a script that was written in Times-Roman and utilized some weird Word macro. If you wanted to be treated like a professional, act like one, which means conforming to industry standards. Courier. 12 pt. Final Draft or Screenwriter.

Don’t submit a first draft.

Of the 100 scripts and/or proposals I read, at least 50 per cent came in before they were ready to be read by someone a writer/producer was hoping to get money from. They were usually poorly structured, boasted inadequate character development and relied on lazy dialogue riddled with clichés. They felt like first drafts that were based on sloppy outlines. These scripts earned a rating of Pass.

Do not submit an unoriginal script.

I cannot tell you how many times I read a script that featured a 20-something guy who lived in squalor and/or his parent’s basement. He would have a McJob, a detached tone masquerading as hip irony and an obsession with the sarcastic, unattainable bitch goddess who shared his interest in video games, comic books and skateboards. Somehow, despite his loserdom, he always managed to bed said goddess. Boring. And, again, Pass.

Submit a tight draft.

The first thing I’d do when I got a pile of scripts was find the shortest one. I’d flip to the final page and note how long it was. If it was 140 pages, I’d leave it to the last because I knew the odds were high that I’d be wading through some bloated morass. I was never proved wrong. If a script was 100 pages or less, that would instantly go to the top of the pile. If it was 90 pages, I’d be one pretty effing happy reader. That said, I read every page of every script and painstakingly typed up summaries for the executives. I figured that if someone had gone to the trouble of writing a script, the least I could do was give it serious consideration. The writers had had the courage to face the blank page and then submit the work so I owed them respect as a fellow member of the writing tribe.

Don’t be afraid to end up in the slush pile.

If you have a good script and an original idea, even if you don’t have fancy contacts to get you in the door, submit. Yes, you may end up in the slush pile. Yes, it may take a while for you to get a response. But if it’s good, there are executives dying to find something that holds promise so they can put it into development.

I always wanted to be the reader who found some little gem and brought it to the attention of the big bosses. I was dying to discover some unheard voice and champion it. Sadly, it didn’t happen as often as I would have liked. Dare to be awesome. Don’t be cynical. And give yourself a goal of becoming excellent rather than snagging a big bag of money. If you study your craft and really work at becoming a better writer, the money and the opportunities will follow.

***

I can't stress how important that last point is. I probably don't make it often enough here. I'm as cynical as hell, but trying to get better. Being excellent, or trying to be, is better for both your craft and your self esteem in the end. We all think we're hacks at some point. Don't forget to make the counter case.

Thanks Karen. Now, back to the massive rewrite. Gaaaah.

Heracy.

FURTHER TO THE BELOW.

You want "unprecedented?"

Take this.

LONDON -- The head of the U.K.'s most popular web, BBC1, has ruled out showing more U.S. acquisitions.

Jay Hunt, who took over as controller of BBC1 around a year ago, will instead continue to invest the bulk of her drama budget in locally produced fare such as "Doctor Who" and high concept hits like "Life on Mars."

At present, BBC1 screens the Glenn Close legal skein "Damages," recently singled out for praise by the corporation's chairman Michael Lyons, in a late-night slot.

Under Hunt's leadership, this policy of pushing U.S. fare to the margins of the schedules looks certain to continue.

Hunt told the Broadcasting Press Guild: "It is very unlikely that we will show U.S. series in peak time (primetime). It is nice to have 'Damages' in the mix. The show is hugely valued by a very small audience but it is a very small audience.

"Part of what the Charter (the BBC's constitution) commits us to is to find the best of world television and showcase it but my main job in drama is to spearhead real innovation and creativity in original British production.

Listener

OH YEAH. The Listener premieres tonight. It's about a telepathic paramedic. It got pretty good ratings when it premiered overseas a few months ago.

Alex Strachan liked it well enough. The Chicago Sun Times didn't.

It employed a whole bunch-o-writers, that's for sure.

Premieres tonight on CTV at 9. Two back to back eps on NBC tomorrow at 9 & 10. Judge for yourself.

UPDATE: um, I mean tonight, being Wednesday, and tomorrow being Thursday.

Gas Bears Fruit on CTV

FROM CTV'S SCHEDULE ANNOUNCEMENT:

CTV also confirmed today the first projects on its production slate for
the 2010/11 season, including two, new, 13-part comedy series. Created,
executive produced and written by the incomparable CORNER GAS creator and star
Brent Butt, HICCUPS stars CORNER GAS' Nancy Robertson as a children's author
with anger issues and Butt as her hapless "life coach". DAN FOR MAYOR, from
three of Canada's most respected comedy writers and producers, Mark Farrell,
Paul Mather and Kevin White, stars CORNER GAS alumnus Fred Ewanuick as a
30-something bartender who runs for mayor of his hometown.

The two new series join additional CTV Original Series entering new
production cycles, including DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION, FLASHPOINT, and
SPECTACLE: ELVIS COSTELLO WITH... CTV also announced today that it will
premiere a new two-hour TV movie event, PARADISE CITY: DEGRASSI GOES TO
HOLLYWOOD, this September.

Great news for comedy fans, and Corner Gas fans. TWO shows from that top creative team. It'll be interesting to track the differences between Butt's genial-styled Vancouver-set laffer (starring his wife,) and the behind-the-scenes "three generations of CG showrunners" effort of Dan For Mayor, starring Fred Ewaniuck, who played Hank on Gas.

Congrats to Butt & his Co, as well as Paul Mather, Kevin White and Mark Farrell.

Gotta admit, comparably, it does seem like CTV has a lot of originals in the hopper.

Rogers Takes "Unprecedented" Pride in The Ignoble

FROM CITY TV's fall release:

Citytv Unveils Its Fall 2009 - 2010 Line Up

Citytv is pleased to announce a bold new schedule featuring some of the most anticipated and buzzed about scripted comedy, drama and reality series of the season.

"Citytv's line up this Fall is unprecedented with over 16 hours of US network simulcasts in prime time," commented Malcolm Dunlop, Executive Vice President, Programming, Rogers Media Television.

Well, Thank heavens for that! Hear that, viewers? Unprecedented! Meaning "exactly the same as available on another channel!"

In my book, the only thing unprecedented Citytv's done lately is this. And sadly, with the CRTC's record of rolling over for broadcasters, even that's not so unprecedented.

I was less than three months into this blog when I first wrote about the weird, prideful disconnect from Canadian programmers who thought that by buying shows, they were doing something great.

Four more years gone. Then, broadcasters were making money hand over fist and needed their CanCon obligations reduced. Now, the sky is falling, so they need their CanCon obligations reduced. Rogers talks out of one side of its mouth as a rich cabler, and out of the other side of its mouth as a broadcaster, and nobody calls them on anything. Well, except John Doyle, (and thank God for that) and the rotating passel of bloggers.

Unprecedented.

It's tough not to be dark about it. But I'm not. Because at a certain point, the behavior's so shameful that you just have to reframe, and come out of the cower stance.

So. Here it is. Right now I'm trying to stickhandle six scripts for a new show. I've written one, am rewriting another trying to get it down for production. Outlines are in play. Writers are breaking story. Character arcs, discussions of tone and what the audience will see and feel; all of this, all of it is WAY HARDER than sitting in a dark room and writing a cheque for someone else's creativity.

It's nobler work. It's harder work. We have nothing to apologize for. And if Daddy CRTC doesn't realize that, well, screw it. Do it for the craft. Do it for yourself.

That's what I tell my team, anyway.

Guest blog: By My Pal Satan, Dennis Heaton

I CAN THINK of no better or worthy guest blogger than my nomengrumpenfuhrer, DENNIS HEATON. In the Canadian TV business, he is the heat. I am merely the sauce. [That pitch is copyrighted so don't even try.] The rarely photographed, extremely paranoid, xenophobic polyatheist Heaton emerged from his germ-free, high security compound, where he's currently finishing his latest project, the worthily evil webseries, My Pal Satan, to file this report exclusively for y'all.

***

[At right: this incredibly rare dagerotype shows Canadian Producer, horror enthusiast, Screenwriter (Fido, Blood Ties, jPOD) and pork products marketer Dennis Heaton, moments before his assasination at the hands of noted unfunny comic anarchist Leno Czolgsoz, at the Banff TV Festival in 1872. The MY PAL SATAN creator's last words, reportedly, were, "Oh, there is no way I'm going to pay for the drycleaning with this shit." Photo courtesy Archives of the Ziggurat/Hellmouth society of Travisville, B.C.]

I am not Denis McGrath.

This happens to me a lot when I'm at some kind of film event (either a WGC party or somewhere else I've managed to sneak into). I'll either be introduced or introduce myself to someone... "hi, I'm Dennis Heaton."

And they'll look at me and, with a sniff of disdain, say "oh, yes -- the one with the blog."

They always manage to spit out the word "blog," as if it's a red tide oyster they've had the misfortune of consuming. More like blorrrrrg. or blaaahhhhhggggg.

To which, I always smile politely and say "no... you're thinking of the other Denis. Denis McGrath." And then I go into great lengths to explain how I am not Denis McGrath. How I live in Vancouver and he lives in Toronto. How we've worked on a show together (Blood Ties), so maybe that's where their confusion is coming from, and then I usually drink my beverage as quickly as possible, feign the need to go to the bar or bathroom and then leave.

Oh, I can understand the confusion. Sometimes, I can even empathize with it. I mean, we're both named Den(n)is, we're both writers, and we both consume vast quantities of bourbon. Sometimes in the same room.

But still, it's annoying. On several levels. And those are:

1) I am not Denis McGrath.

Don't get me wrong. I love the guy. Think he's fabulous. Have impure thoughts from time to time, but -- once more for the cheap seats -- I am not him. If I could be any other Den(n)is instead of the one that I am, I'd be him.

Okay that's a lie -- my first choice would be Dennis Quaid or maybe Hopper -- or Rodman if I'm feeling particularly zesty -- but McGrath is in the top ten.

2) What the is your problem with his blog anyway?

Whenever this mistaken identity thing happens, it is without fail that the person making this mistake obviously has some kind of issue with Denis' writing. It's got to do with the way they say "oh yes, the one with the blaaaahhhhhhhhhhgggggggggggggg" like they're trying to remove a hairball.

It's a blog, folks. It's one man's opinion. It's less than a "manifesto," but more than a "grocery list." Granted, most of the time I happen to agree with that opinion, but if I don't -- and more importantly, if you don't -- post a comment. Because...

3) I don't care what you think about his blog.

This is the other thing that happens. I tell the person that I'm not the Den(n)is they're thinking of, and they then go "oh..." and nine times out of ten continue to tell me what their problem is with Denis, his blog, and free speech in general.

This is when I swill back my drink, lie about my tiny Irish bladder and bolt.

Because -- and I can't stress this enough, either -- I don't care what you think. I'm not his assistant. I'm not going to pass your opinion onto him for you. We don't have a strange psychic link that allows him to hear whatever people say to me about him. We're not part of some secret order of Den(n)i who gather in underground caverns and plot the takeover of the world. You got a problem with what Denis is writing? Take it up with him (see comment 2 for suggestions how).

Actually, I kind of lied again. I will pass on your opinion about Denis' blog to him, but I'll also make fun of you -- especially if you're wearing a hat.

So, in conclusion...

Denis McGrath writes this blog.

I am not Denis McGrath.

I am Dennis Heaton (note the second N).

Thank you.

PS -- if you've confused me for Denis but love his blog, please note that I do take credit for it. (Sorry, McG... I gotta get those free drinks whenever I can).

PPS -- I'm not Dennis Foon either.

Next week: Why I am not the "other" Dennis.