Time was that the talented would find the scary truth of Canadian TV -- getting your first break wasn't the problem ... sustaining a career was. Too often "breaking in" meant finding that there was no second or third job down the road for a TV writer or actor. No matter how good your notices or scripts or work was, the smallness of the hatbox industry & the tendency to "spread it around" meant that the mid-career stall often drove you down and south. (To L.A.)
But then Corner Gas changed everything. By training a stable of writers, CG has made the unlikely tenable -- the chance to think of having a comedy writing career in Canada, if that's what you want to do.
So that show's six season run trained a group of comedy writers; and follow up opportunities allowed those people to stay, so that the next generation of Canadian scripted comedies don't start over from zero. Again.Already upcoming is Hiccups, CTV's next series from Brent Butt, starring his wife, Nancy Robertson, and Dan For Mayor, a charming little show starring Fred Ewanuick (Hank from CG), created and written by three generations of CG Showrunners -- Paul Mather, Kevin White, and Mark Farrell.
Now today from CBC comes the next drop of the shoe:
TORONTO -- The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has picked up a sitcom from E1 Television based on the popular Canadian curling movie "Men With Brooms."
The TV adaptation follows an earlier pilot written by Paul Mather ("Corner Gas") about four regular joes who hang out at the local curling rink.
Canada's public broadcaster also picked up a second half-hour comedy, "Insecurity," from Verite Films and produced by Virginia Thompson.
Virginia Thompson also produced Corner Gas, & Insecurity's creator is Kevin White. Sounds like Kevin & Paul will be busy for the next little while. Of course, Mark Farrell I think is also back involved with 22 Minutes... slackers.
Now all these shows won't be clones of Gas, to be sure. I've known Kevin for 20 years and he's one of the funniest guys I know. It'll be interesting to see the nuanced differences in each of the shows. Still, from one successful training ground spawns four shows -- and those shows will train more writers, and actors, and maybe more producers & directors who understand how to make half hour comedies -- one of the hardest genres out there.
Sniff. It's almost like we have a merit-based industry all of a sudden.
So thanks, Corner Gas. Whether you were a fan or not, it's the gift that keeps on giving by giving people the chance to do what they love without automatically becoming expatriates.
6 rumbles:
This is the shoe the fans of that movie waited years to hear hitting the floor.
More than one cause for happy mood tonight, then. Damn straight.
That's an hour of real estate. What's being cancelled?
Not really. Remember -- 13 ep seasons, which means Fall + Winter are diff slots. The Border premiered in January, then did 2nd Season in Oct. Erica followed the same way. There might be a slight net increase or decrease in hours -- but unlike 22 or Mercer, which do shows that run through the whole season, the scripted stuff seems to hew pretty much to that half season model.
I'm looking forward to Dan For Mayor. All the eps I've read have been terrific. Men With Brooms on the other hand, is in no way funny. One of the worst pilot scripts I've read. I have no idea about Insecurity because it's been reshot and recast a couple times so god knows what it will look like.
This is a great reason why I think that script in progress site is a terrible thing. I did see the pilot for Insecurity and it was very funny. But they wanted to change it up, so that's fine.
A comedy script --especially in Canada where we have a history of ham-fisted executions, is a poor judgement tool. First, comedy is very subjective.
I read the script for How to Make it in America and was very underwhelmed. But through casting and shooting, I think the pilot turned out to be wonderful and the subsequent series even better. Hung, I didn't like when I read it, but withheld judgement til I saw the pilot, and I had exactly the same reaction as to the script.
It's not predictable. And unfortunately there are so many neurotic issues tied up with tv here that honesty's even harder to come by. There are those to this day who will insist that Corner Gas was abomination -- I get one or two comments about that every time I write about the show. People who just won't give it a break, because, I guess, it's not their style of humor and because, I guess, their kind of humor is the only kind that's acceptable on TV.
Same with Trailer Park Boys.
In a few weeks, in the case of Dan And Hiccups, Canadians will get to vote with their remotes on the shows -- fully executed, putting their feet forward. And Insecurity & Men With Brooms will have the same chance later. And that's the only barometer that matters in the end.
Fred Ewanuick fans: The film, Crossing, featuring Fred as a back stabbing gangster, is now available to buy at: crossingthefilm.com
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