It Was Good To Be The King

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Alll Waxxxamaan!

Believe it or don't, once upon a time Canada had a sitcom that reached 2 million people a week and was kind of sharp, too. You can't see it. Not yet, anyway. But maybe that might change sometime soon, as this article in the Toronto Star points out:

Larry King, the friendly Jewish storekeeper played by the late Al Waxman in his most famous role, was a good-hearted slob who enjoyed solving problems and making people happy. But here is a problem even Larry might find hard to resolve.
After going off the air in 1980, the show seemed destined for eternal afterlife in reruns. Before Corner Gas, it was the only hugely popular sitcom in Canadian television history.
Had the CBC realized how successful it would be, no doubt it would have tied up the rights to rerun it in perpetuity. Instead, those rights ran out in 2002. And negotiations to keep the show on the air have hit a snag. Many players came to an agreement with the CBC. The deal-breaker is an impasse with Louis Del Grande, who was a story editor and writer during the first three seasons, but not involved in the last two seasons.

The show dealt with social issues — from Larry's low sperm count, to the bureaucratic barriers faced by would-be immigrants, to Cathy's desire for independence.
Teenage delinquency was the subject of a show in which a young Mike Myers played a scam artist.
King struck such a nerve that at its peak, close to two million viewers watched it every week and Waxman became that rarity, a genuinely Canadian pop star whom people all across the country wanted as their friend.

Hope they work this out. Even just for TV history's sake.