Citytv R.I.P.

I HAD A WHOLE different post to write. Believe me about this.  What I was going to write about was an example of good news in the Canadian TV business.  It was about how corporate largesse can make way for a little bit of joy over art.

It's still a good nugget.

I've joked frequently to people -- from personal experience -- that having a CanCon show on CityTV is kind of like joining the TV Witness Protection Program. Nobody will know you're on.  There will be no advertising.  You will live a peaceful life in anonymity.

That's what happened to my eight part miniseries, Across the River to Motor City.  It bowed on City, was lightly promoted, never rerun, and slipped beneath the waves.

And that's kind of what happened to Less Than Kind, a much-admired and little seen show that had its first season on Citytv - the rump of five stations, post ROGERS buy, ignominiously strafed by technical problems, episodes shown out of order, in the wrong aspect ratio -- I swear to God, one time I tuned in and saw only the music and effects track, no dialogue. Awesome.

Nevertheless, City renewed Less than Kind for another year.  But the problems off the top were always intense. They wouldn't schedule it.  They asked for "toned down" changes.  The problem?  LTK is a raucous, scabrous comedy and Rogers decided that Citytv was to be rebranded in a "family way."  Sigh.

But the good news is that TMN was interested in picking the show up. They picked up the finished but not scheduled second season from Citytv and committed to development of a third. (Decision on a green light should come later this year.)

That's a Canadian good news story you don't usually see. And what's more, the Rogers people now in control of City actually deserved credit -- because they could have at any moment just said "no" and scuttled the deal. Part of the problem with having broadcasters that don't make money on the things they actually make is that those shows really do become pinatas...not only are they bounced around the schedule, but they're subject to caprices and whims.   Good? Not a defense.

But ... but... Citytv really liked the show -- it just didn't fit.  TMN really wanted the show; they thought it was much more up their alley.  So they made a deal. Rogers could have stood in the way but they didn't. Good for them.  Good news. Win win.

Then came the Citytv bloodbath Tuesday.

Now, I've written before about how I used to work at Citytv...and how much I loved the place.  I just... I mean, heres' some coverage from yesterday.  I just feel like I can't say anymore about the place.  What's happened to it breaks my fucking heart.

So now you get reruns. A couple of excerpts from earlier posts where I talked about why City used to be special.

My sympathies to all the canned.  You worked hard. And you deserved better.

From:

Localized Pain, Nobody's Gain:

McLuhan and Znaimer, the two guys I spent a lot of time in my 20's studying, both theorized that the future of programming was local. That the best TV was going to be the station that told you what happened to you, today.

I was lucky enough to work at one of those stations in the last years before they worked to dismantle it: Toronto's Citytv. Others have written better and longer essays about what made City unique and different, but I have to say that rather than being any one thing, it was everything. The fact that the promos were cut by promo guys in house, who wrote funny voiceovers for Mark Dailey to read. The fact that you could sneak funny and slightly off stuff onto the air at 3am. Many have reminisced about the great post midnight voiceover for Atlantic City, where Mark Dailey enthused to the night owls watching, "Don't go anywhere! Coming up next you get to see my boss get shot in the chest!" And indeed you did. Moses had a small part in that Louis Malle feature.

If you were in a hotel in Toronto and you flipped on the TV and saw City Tv, it made you want to get out and explore that city. My time exploring other cities, especially when I started working in TV and had cause to visit other affiliates, I found the local affiliates were parked in strip malls or far out industrial bunkers divorced from the city proper never made me feel that way.

From "Getting Brandtastic"

How Ego Can Wreck a Brand

Citytv was a local Toronto brand that took the superstation mentality and ran with it long before Ted Turner thought to do the same thing. From the news to the promos to the very character of the station, Citytv looked like nothing else in the world.

It ran magazine shows like FT or Movie Television that eschewed chirpy v/o and polished film look, for “authentic,” “handheld” and “street level.” (Also: cheap.)

But even before Citytv founder Moses Znaimer was slowly forced out, things started to change. The parent company, CHUM, wanted to be more of a player. They wanted a more corporate look. Instead of “A City tv production,” (a brand that had some funky history) shows started being tagged by “CHUM Television.” (a brand that had none.) And the slice of life people-in-the-city promos were replaced by flashier graphics, similar brand and promo elements. Lot more shooting on film. Lot less heart.

The people then in charge “upscaled the look” of the station. When acquisitions of other stations in other cities caused them to become rebranded Citytv’s, they went for a unified look – promos that used to be charming and idiosyncratic became…just like other stations. They brought in the same news consultants selling the same snake oil they’d sold all over the USA – weather porn, action news-style stuff. They lost what was special about the place, and added a whole wack of Vice Presidents. The ratings went down. There wasn't anything special anymore. No mythos, no heart. I remember in the ten years I taught University -- at the beginning it was the best students saying, "how do I get into Citytv?" and by the end... the ones asking were no longer the best, the brightest, or even the hippest. They'd found other places to go. Hubris and a desire to be a mini-network bled out what was once charming and special about the place.

That's it. That's all I got. Other than this:  What a goddamn shame. And what a great, great loss to the City of Toronto.


UPDATE 01/22  Seems like I have a lousy record with these on-the-road posts. This article has been corrected. Incorrect information appeared yesterday. The blogger regrets the error.