Let A Thousand Corners Bloom

FROM THE "Way It's Supposed To Work" file...

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.

Oh, The Ennui

FOR SHEER LAUGHS in the morning, the combination of designed-to-within-an-inch-of-their-lives living spaces & existential regrets -- well, Unhappy Hipsters, I salute you. I really do.

Reverse Simulcast, Meet CTV's Olympics Eyeballs

"REVERSE SIMULCASTING" was the catchy phrase coined when the first of the "made in Canada, broadcast in the USA" shows, FLASHPOINT, hit the scene after the end of the last WGA strike.


Over the years, the Canadian practice of tying their schedules up in pretzels to try and air the U.S. shows at the same time as the U.S. network (so they could block out their cable signal,) had become fraught.  The age of downloading meant that the other practice that went hand in hand with simulcasting, pre-releasing, (where the Canadian net that couldn't simulcast because of a conflict would sometimes air the show a day or two earlier than in the USA) went out the window.


So Ivan Fecan's coining of that phrase held a certain swagger to it -- now we were going to be able to have one of our shows on at the same time as in the USA -- and we'd have the control.


Except, of course, it didn't work out that way.


Flashpoint first season episodes were held back because CBS wanted to bench them for a few months.  CTV went along.  That created some difficulty for the writers in that an ep that wasn't meant to be a finale had to serve as one, and an ep that wasn't meant to be a premiere had to serve as one.


(Non writing producers have an easy fix for this. They say things like, "every episode should be made so it could be a premiere! OR a finale!!!"  Wow. What a great idea! <glish>  (Glish, by the way, is the sound that results when every writer who's ever written an episode of TeeVee rolls their eyes at once.)


Anyhoo, the Flashpoint fun continued with the second season split up the same way. Though produced all at once, the 2nd season was aired in simulcast, with CBS holding back on scheduling the back half episodes.  They held them back, and back, and back, and to this day they're still holding them. And finally CTV gave up and aired the episodes here first and held their breath, and lo and behold, over a million people watched because Canadians actually like Flashpoint. So yay Flashpoint.


Problem was, CTV also had another cop show in the can that was a co-pro intended to be "reverse simulcast" -- but their U.S. partner wouldn't commit.


So, the "savior" that is the new Canadian-U.S. partnership fatally shows its limitations. No matter what, no matter how cost effective they are (pay $400 000 an ep, and get control because the Producers are so gosh-darn happy to please you!) these shows are always going to be treated as filler by the U.S. network. Because they ARE filler.


And you know that old saw about, "how much are you gonna love somebody who'll take anything from you, who'll change anything about themselves to be with you, because they just want you to love them, damnit!?" Geez. Sounds to me like the CFTPA should be packing copies of "He's Just Not That Into You" into the Prime Time Gift Bags this year. Glish.


Anyway, what do you do if you're CTV, and you paid a jillion dollars for the Olympics, and you know you're going to have massive eyeballs and you have all these series you want to promote -- well, you schedule them right after Olympics, right? I mean, that's the smart thing to do.  Except oh. Right...one of them, "The Bridge," was supposed to be one of them reverse-simulcast thingies.


Well CTV decided to do something smart. They said "Eff It":

Toronto– CTV announced today it has strategically scheduled three new Original Canadian series to debut next month, immediately following the conclusion of theVANCOUVER 2010 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES. The three series will benefit from weeks of promotion during what is to be one of the most-watched television events of the year.

First, CTV’s hit Monday night comedy block expands to two hours on March 1, the day following the close of Vancouver 2010. At 8 p.m. ET, Brent Butt is back in HICCUPS, starring CORNER GAS’ co-star Nancy Robertson as children’s author Millie Upton. Then, at 8:30 p.m. ET, CORNER GAS alumnus Fred Ewanuick stars as a hapless electoral candidate in DAN FOR MAYOR. Both comedies join Top 10, smash-hit, laugh-makers TWO AND A HALF MEN and THE BIG BANG THEORY, which follow at 9 p.m. ET and 9:30 p.m. ET, respectively.

Later that week it’s the much-anticipated premiere of CTV’s newest one-hour original drama series, THE BRIDGE. Starring BATTLESTAR GALACTICA’s Aaron Douglas, THE BRIDGE is an authentic and unique twist on the police procedural told through the lens of a charismatic police union leader. The series debuts Friday, March 5 at 9 p.m. ET with a special two-hour series premiere before moving to its regular Fridays at 10 p.m. ET timeslot beginning March 12 on CTV (visit CTV.ca to confirm local broadcast times).

So it's certainly not the death of the reverse simulcast idea...but maybe it's more of an "eyes wide open" teachable moment in the Canadian network game.   

There's no guarantee that any of these shows will be hits, of course, but CTV is doing the right thing by serving them up when there are lots of eyeballs to watch.  That's a good thing.

And there's plenty to be excited about, too.  Both of the comedies have a Corner Gas pedigree, CTV's highest rated original show til Flashpoint came along.

If you're interested, the WGC recently held a special screening & discussion for members to get a sneak preview of Dan For Mayor.  The podcast of the discussion with two of the Creators & Producers, Kevin White & Paul Mather (Mark Farrell was out of town) is available here.

And again, if you want to program your PVR's, the CTV premieres are:

Hiccups & Dan For Mayor -- March 1, 8 & 8:30, before Two and a Half Men & Big Bang Theory

The Bridge -- March 5, 9-11, before moving to its regular slot the next week, Fridays at 10pm.

State of the Digital Nation

WELL FIRST OF ALL, I have to say I am tremendously relieved.  I have often thought that the only thing LOST was missing was an inscrutable Japanese guy trimming a bonsai tree.

The other program I watched last night managed to both not live up to, and exceed my expectations.  The Frontline doc DIGITAL NATION was excellent. And lo and behold, if you didn't manage to see it, you can watch it online at the PBS site.  And lo and behold Canadians, this means you, too.  PBS does not geoblock its broadcasts.  Thank you, public television!

I do think that the most interesting and provocative parts were the earliest ones, where correspondent Douglas Rushkoff and Producer/Director Rachel Dretzin, broke down the reality of our distracted age -- the falling critical thinking skills of even our top students, the inability to write connected coherent paragraphs -- and the revelation that studies show that multitaskers suck at multitasking, utterly.  We all can agree that the scourge of texting while driving is bad, but it's notable and interesting to see how much our digital appendages are hurting us in other ways.

The other thing that got to me was the passage on video game addiction.  Not because of the subject itself. I've seen it, it's all rather played out for me -- but because they had this whole passage where a South Korean kid was sent to camp for a couple of weeks without the computer, and admitted that (while he seemed to be having fun) he was really thinking about getting back to the games.

I think back to my own childhood and the amount of unstructured play it contained -- running around in the woods behind my house in New City, New York, or swimming or riding bikes through the neighborhood in Orlando, or climbing trees & hide & go seek in Canada -- and I can't help but feel bad for today's kids.  I was never athletic, except for a couple years when I swam in Florida.  But in addition to bumbling my way through Little League games & Soccer -- there was just a whole lot of running around without a plan.  And I still managed to watch too damn much TV.  There's an image in the Doc of Dretzin in her kitchen cooking dinner, looking out at the living room where one son is on a laptop, her husband's on another, and the two younger kids play with her Iphone -- that's just a little bit heartbreaking.

But I should have known that with Doug involved, the balance would ultimately tip positive. And the Doc does a great job of telling that side of the story, too.  Failing schools in the Bronx that have reversed falling test scores through re-imagining the role of technology, better work environments through virtual spaces, and the continuing drive for community -- which is the part of it that fascinated me all those years ago when I was on MediaTelevision.

I write these entries quick and tend not to edit them too much, so they are usually first blurt. And sometimes that means I look back on the entries like the one I did yesterday promoting this Doc and think, "mmm, did you mean to be that negative?"   And I didn't. So I'm glad that the doc is ultimately balanced about what is gained and lost in the Digital Nation.

But the point that I made regarding the Social Media Week still stands. The worst sin of those promoting new media has always been the "throw the baby out with the bathwater" evangelism that assumes too much.  Like the fact that everyone is a great multitasker or will be, going forward.  What I took from the Doc last night was that the ubiquity of new communication tech has indeed changed us -- not always for the better. But the connections and stories we crave are still rooted in the same space.  It is, as McLuhan always maintained, evolution not revolution. One media does not replace or cannibalize another.

So I don't know where Television is going or what the thing we now think of as Television will be in a few years. But the people who insist it's going to die need to take a step back and separate the hype from the research of how people respond to creativity.

One of the most interesting things I think has come out of the digital space lately is the quiet realization that the technology can't drive it alone.  As games get more complex, game companies are starting to realize that yes, they actually do need writers to come up with stuff -- the designers can't drive the bus by themselves.

And as distractions mount and defeat us all, some of us have learned to seize back the ability to concentrate on just one thing at a time.  What is the Pomodoro technique if not that?  I've just had the three most focused days of work I've had in months -- truly exhausting days. And they were defined entirely by 25 minute countdowns where I couldn't check email or be distracted in any way, shape or form.

Anyway, Digital Nation is good brain food.  Again, everybody should watch it.

You're Not the Taskmaster You Think You Are

I HAVE SEVERE OUTLINE-head.  There is no way I'll be following LOST tonight. I wonder if that'll make it better?

But just a wee little program note to any and all of you cavorting through Social Media Week this week in Toronto...

Tonight at 9pm on PBS Frontline is a doc I think you should probably see.  A long time ago, back in my pre-writing, I like TV storytelling days, I was a producer on this forward looking, big buzzword show. I did a bunch of think tanks back in the SHIFT magazine days with a guy named Douglas Rushkoff. Great guy, wonderful writer, big enthusiast for the brave new digital world and how it was all gonna change us all and how we were going to be big old multitaskers...

In the early 1990's Rushkoff wrote regularly for Wired Magazine, and wrote books that chronicled the changing mind of the digerati.

Well tonight, he's participating in this doc, and throwing a bit of cold water. The pre-release hype for this doc has focused on one fairly salient piece of info: all that hype about everybody younger growing up being big multitaskers -- turns out to be bullshit. Not borne out by the data.  Turns out when you're doing nine things at once, you're not very good at any of those things -- no matter what your age or demo or how hip to the lingo you are.

I point this out because I think one of the articles I read about Social Media week today said something about how all the people who watch TV will be dead in a few years.

Well, jinkies, I was there the first time we started talking that foolishness. Sometimes, hype is just hype.  And for those of us watching the CaseCamp Digital Media rah rah space from the "seen it before" seats, it's all rather...twee.  I know you think that makes us all haters, and out of touch. But then again, we've been talking about this stuff since you were trying to find out where babies came from.

Watch the Doc. See what you think.  If Doug Rushkoff can come to doubt the gospel, then man, you need to check yourself, dude.  Cause once upon a time...

Humbled

YOU KNOW the more I think about it the more I think that for the rest of 2010 at least, when I watch something scripted or try to judge whatever it is I've just written, the yardstick I'm going to try to resist reaching for is, "Yeah, but is this as enjoyable as Jersey Shore?"

I know it's one month down already, but still...it is going to be one looong year.

What Kind of Cheese?

ANDREW POTTER posted this first on Macleans.ca, but I'm fairly certain that a lot of you animals don't read the news. What's particularly odd about this clip is that the woman doing the demo -- at least through the degradations of the kinescope, at first glance kinda sorta looks like my Mom. Sorta. Eh...not really.

Except, uh, see, ahh, I'm pretty sure, coming up in The Bronx, that my Mom knew how to pronounce "pizzeria" -- and knew enough not to pronounce it, "Eyetalian." I didn't move here til the 1970's, so it's nice to see that in the 50's Canada was still coming through the '20's.

From this to JWoww in just over 50 years. There's progress for you.





Gosh, I hope everyone doesn't get too filled up. We're supposed to go skurfing later.

How To Make It America

SO I SPENT most of the weekend working long days grinding out outline stuff.  When it comes to those precious few hours you get before unconsciousness, you want to spend them right.  I got lucky with a pretty great Jon Hamm-hosted SNL this weekend... but it's the other thing I wanted to really crow about.

TMN sends me promo discs for its upcoming show sometimes, and so it was that I've managed to see the first few eps of a new HBO half hour comedy series called "How To Make It In America."

The show stars Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk, was created by Ian Edelman and was Directed by Julian Farino. It comes to HBO from Mark Wahlberg's production company, and there are moments where it seems like they're going to try to promote it as a kind of east coast Entourage.

But it's not. It's not even particularly a comedy, though it's pretty funny.  From the opening titles, with its bold sans serif type & chunky early 70's soul theme song, How to Make it in America is HBO's announcement that it's right back at the center of the zeitgeist as tastemaker.

Everything about this show is tremendously appealing. It's about two guys in their twenties trying to make it as entrepeneurs in the fashion world in New York. But what gets me about it is that there isn't a false note anywhere in the show.  It cooks along as the perfect of the moment show about the difficulties and disappointments of the American dream -- even hinting at the darkness underneath, that behind that facade of you can make it with hard work and grit lies worlds and clubs and secret handshakes that stack the deck against you.  It's sincere but not naive, unsentimental but not cynical.

The top-flight cast includes Martha Plimpton, Sharyn Sossamon, Kid Cudi, and Luis Guzman.

This is a show where your unreliable friend still has your best interests at heart, where your Ex-Girlfriend isn't a harridan or simply a sex object; where people who other shows categorize as the foil or the antagonist can show a redeemable side.  Every character is appealing, their stories and struggles are engrossing, and the rainbow of people you see actually reflect the reality of a 21st century urban center. The reality of daily disappointments are counteracted by friends who cancel plans just to be there for you, and cut with the sadness of people who maybe lost a little too much, maybe even their sanity -- on their way to their dreams.  I don't know where they're going with the show, but I will follow them without hesitation.

As America freaks out over the jobless recovery, this -- not Hung -- is the show that puts HBO back on the map because it's about people you care about, facing challenges of achievement and ambition that are instantly relatable.  I found myself thinking about it all day today, suffering to think that it'll be weeks before I can see a new episode.  I don't think I've been this excited or charmed by a show since Mad Men. 

How to Make it in America premieres February 14th.  Do whatever you can to see it. It's an absolute winner -- with great Direction that makes New York come alive, note perfect casting and acting -- and an easy, genuine, and sincere writing style that is just unvarnished goodness from top to bottom.

Good tv makes me happy, and this show did that in spades.