"Spreading Democracy"

This has been one of the USA's stated goals for a long time now. It goes back to the Monroe Doctrine, really, this quaint notion that somehow we had gotten something right in the governance of men (and women) and that it was our responsibility to set an example. To be the city on the hill that others look towards.

Sadly, in the last few decades we really took it on the chin in that department. We've toppled elected governments, as in Chile, we've supported oppressive regimes that we then turn around and spend money fighting. We've lost the moral suasion we had with European partners to influence things for good, in favor of unilateral and disastrous military action in Iraq.

And then there's this:

July 8, 2006 | MEXICO CITY -- "Ciberfraude," or cyberfraud, is not a word in the average Mexican's vocabulary. But most Mexicans have heard of the extraordinary electoral debacle that befell their neighbors to the north in 2000, and Martí Batres, the head of the Democratic Revolutionary Party's Mexico City chapter, was going to capitalize on that knowledge. At a press conference Friday afternoon at PRD headquarters, the close advisor to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist politician who lost an exceedingly close election here this week, nodded to an aide to turn on his laptop. "And now I'm going to show you a video," he told the roomful of reporters.

The lights went out, and on a pull-down screen, computer programmer Clinton Curtis explained in English to an American audience how he had allegedly been hired by Tom Feeney, speaker of Florida's House of Representatives and a Republican, to create a computer code that fixed that state's vote in favor of George W. Bush six years ago. Batres, or someone on YouTube, had added Spanish subtitles to the 3 and a half minute clip. "This video shows that cyberfraud is possible," Batres insisted when the lights came up. "There may have been a source code used to manipulate our elections just as with the Florida elections in 2000."

There it is. We've now become the ammo in an emerging democracy's doubt in their own system.

The partisanship of Electoral officials with ties to the ruling party, vote machines without paper trails, lineups in minority districts, the inanity of the Electoral College -- all of it is damaging the very NOTION of democracy that the USA was supposed to represent.

To me, admittedly, an internationalist -- there is no sadder example of how far the esteem of America has fallen than the above. We're now the go-to example of how to steal elections, not conduct them.

That's sad. The founding fathers would not be pleased.

Canadian TV all in one place!

Well, this is an interesting and positive development. Although typically, it's a grass roots thing.

Vancouver BlogCritic and Blogger Diane Kristine (Unified Theory of Nothing Much) has moved beyond HOUSE to home: specifically that brand of Television that she hasn't really checked out too much in the past: the homegrown, Canadian kind.

One of these days, I'll get back to my prescription for how to raise awareness for homegrown tv, based on the conversation I had with Diane a few weeks back. But one of my remedies was going to be something very much like what Diane has already set up:

I had an interesting exchange last week on my Invisible Networks post with a couple of people, one who admonished - me? the other commenters? - to give Canadian TV time to grow, and offered to help line up an interview I'd tried to get about The Jane Show. The other made this challenge:
A website promoting Canadian Television! Well...you've identified something that we need, and it seems to bother you that there is no such thing....Why not be the one to create it?!
He/she basically said stop whining, or be part of the solution. My attempt to get an interview about The Jane Show was part of trying to be part of the solution, but is now part of my frustration. Besides, how is it my role to publicize the industry, especially if they won't help?

There's so much funny and sad in that post. Identify a need: a website promoting Canadian TV. Anonymous person says, "you do it!" and polite Canadian says, "I'd like to, but so far I've tried to get one interview with a Canadian show and they've ignored me." It is, as they say, to cry.

Canadian TV frequently suffers from a lack of promotion. Some of it is sheer incompetence -- publicists who don't have the right materials or who aren't very good. Some of it is budget driven -- not enough money for ads, etc. And it's hard to establish an audience for a show that keeps moving around the schedule to take advantage of more valuable simulcasting opportunties.

What Diane has started, in a relatively lo-fi and pretty way, is a clearinghouse for info about Canadian shows, where they are, and when they're on. It's called Canadian TV, and it's here.

If unit and network publicists ever wake up to this, this could be a great development for promoting Canadian TV as a brand, and not just an afterthought. Diane does great interviews, too -- so creatives from these Canadian shows should get in touch with her. (One of the problems you're going to face, Diane, is that short ep runs mean that by the time the show gets close to air the people are long onto their next project.) Daddy's gotta eat.

Diane should be commended for taking a stab at this. And you know what? If there's anyone else out there who's interested in Canadian TV, but not embroiled working in it yet -- I'd suggest dropping Diane a line and asking how you can help.

Now, industry -- go and give her content that creates buzz. Go on. Kick in that self-preservation instinct.

The Meaning of "Got Your Back"

I've written about this a couple of times before, but the story doesn't seem to go away. And to be honest with you, the more I think about it, the more it kind of upsets me, and the more I come to a sad conclusion:

If you're Canadian, and you want to tell a Canadian story based on Canadian events, the one place you should be pitching first, is the one place you can't.

The CBC.

Earlier this year, the CBC ran a biopic on the life of Tommy Douglas, one of the founding members of the CCF Party...God. I can't write this again. Here...this is from the Wikipedia entry.

As leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1942 and the seventh Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 , he led the first socialist government in North America and introduced universal public medicare to Canada. When the CCF united with the Canadian Labour Congress to form the New Democratic Party, he was elected as its first federal leader and served in that post from 1961 to 1971. He is warmly remembered for his folksy wit and oratory with which he expressed his steadfast idealism, exemplified by his fable of Mouseland.
He was the father of actress Shirley Douglas, and the grandfather of actor Kiefer Sutherland.
In 2004, he was voted "The Greatest Canadian" of all time in a nationally televised contest organized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The miniseries Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, was filmed between February and May of 2005 and aired on CBC in two parts on March 12 and 13, 2006.

Now, Medicare is still something that's controversial in Canada, believe it or not. At least in some circles. What happened after the movie aired is the truly interesting, and scandalous part.

The short version is this: Relatives of Jimmy Gardiner, a predecessor of Douglas', objected to the portrayal of the politician in the film. Remember, this is a film that was developed, researched and vetted all the way along by the CBC. They complained. The CBC hired an independent historian to vet the film. He said it was innacurate. CBC pulled the film from circulation, and canceled the DVD release.

If you're thinking, "did a step get missed in there?" You're right.

Because at no point, before taking these actions, did the CBC ever talk to the screenwriter, or the director, and give them a chance to defend their film. They were ready to defend it. But they were never asked. In fact, they found out that the film was being pulled by watching television.

So now these creative people are tarred with this brush of accusation, and the CBC is left cowering in the corner, terrified of offending anyone.

They didn't back up their people. Surprise, surprise. The spirit of the Lockout lives on.

The issues of historical innacuracy, or fictionalizing historical movies, is something that rears its ugly head all the time. CBS pulled a biopic of The Reagans a few years back, and shunted it to a cable net. Now, at the time, the focus (I think, rightly) was the fact that the program trotted out lots of tabloid stuff about astrology and whatnot. It was by no means an important piece of work. But CBS managed to frame the discussion for what it was: largely a business decision.

What the CBC has done is not anything close to that. The disputed bits: that so and so took a drink in public instead of in private -- are inane in the context of the historical drama. But that's neither here nor there.

The point is that the CBC hung the writer and the director -- everybody involved with the production of this show -- out to dry, just as they did years ago with The Valour and the Horror.

This is a shameful, craven action. You know, a lot of the people who criticize the CBC want it to morph into something more like a PBS North. But PBS has a lot more integrity on this score. PBS -- especially shows like Frontline -- have no compunctions about running hard hitting programs that pull no punches and speak truth to power.

CBC is in the midst of trying to say to writers, directors, and creatives, "The bad old days are gone, come work with us."

Well, actions speak louder than words. I agree with this anonymous, frustrated CBC manager... they owe the creators of this fine movie an apology. They couldn't have handled this worse if they'd tried.

See what happens when you fire all your publicists?

EmmyShmemmy

So. They're out. The nominations that I found interesting:

Comedy Series: Tough call between the beloved but gone, Arrested, and still has a future, The Office. Like the President, though, I'm all about The Future.

I honestly can't say I'd be unhappy if any of the Best Drama Series nominees got it, but I'd probably lean toward House. Interesting that Lost didn't make the cut, but The West Wing did. Way to be bold!

I'm really happy that South Park got nominated for the Tom Cruise episode. Hail Xenu!

Good (and by good, I mean, not scandalous) that Steve Carell got a Lead Actor comedy nom for The Office. But then again, there's Charlie Sheen...

I don't like the show, but it's a bit of a drag that Lauren Graham, who everyone knows is great, didn't get a nom for Gilmore Girls. Thank God they preserved that Debra Messing nom.

Lead Actress, Drama: Kyra Sedgwick's nomination for The Closer -- a series I've just started watching on DVD, is a great one. Though how anyone could best the great Frances Conroy is beyond me. Mariska whatshername will probably win, though. And then there's Allison Janney and Geena Davis. Sigh.

Lead Actor, Drama: Christopher Meloni? Really? I mean, is that show even still on? I'm guessing you don't want to get too close to Diane right now...but Hugh Laurie really was robbed. Nice to see a namesake in there, but considering Martin Sheen carried less of the West Wing in his final year than ever before, it's a dopey nom. A strange category.

Supporting Actor, Comedy. I feel very conflicted in this. Will Arnett for Arrested never fails to make me laugh, but how can you possibly win over the juggernaut that comes wrapped in a giant, "Hug it out, bitch:" Jeremy Piven? Also...Sean Hayes from Will and Gr...snorrrre.

Supporting Actor, Drama. This category's a bitch. How do you vote against the slime that is Gregory Itzin's President Logan? Well, maybe you throw Shatner, Alda, and MY MAN OLIVER PLATT in there, too. Wow, look, kids, the cliche has teeth: Michael Imperioli, it really IS just an honor to be nominated.

Supporting Actress, Comedy. Megan Mullally will take it, of course, which is a shame since Elizabeth Perkins in Weeds was sublime.

Supporting Actress, Drama. Shouldn't they just FedEx the statuette to Sandra Oh now?

And because it's the bread on which this blog is buttered..the full writing noms:

Outstanding Writing For Nonfiction Programming
American Masters • Ernest Hemingway: Rivers To The
Sea • PBS • Thirteen/WNET New York and Maha Films
DeWitt Sage, Written by
American Masters • John Ford/John Wayne: The
Filmmaker And The Legend • PBS • Thirteen/WNET New
York
Ken Bowser, Written by
How William Shatner Changed The World • The History
Channel • Handel Productions in co-production with The
History Channel, Discovery Canada, Discovery
Communications International, Arte and Channel 5 UK
Alan Handel, Writer
Julian Jones, Writer
Penn & Teller: Bullshit • Prostitution • Showtime •
Showtime Presents in association with Penn & Teller, A
Division of Buggs and Rudy Discount Corporation, Star
Price Productions, The Wolper Organization
Penn Jillette, Written by
Teller, Written by
Cliff Schoenberg, Written by
Jon Hotchkiss, Written by
Michael Goudeau, Written by
Star Price, Written by
Stardust: The Bette Davis Story • TCM • Peter Jones
Productions for Turner Classic Movies & Turner
Entertainment Co.
Peter Jones, Writer


Is it proof that I'm old that I saw at least part of every one of these? Penn & Teller always make me laugh, but it's hard to go up against American Masters.


Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series
Arrested Development • Development Arrested • FOX •
Imagine Television and The Hurwitz Company in
association with 20th Century Fox Television
Chuck Tatham, Teleplay by
Jim Vallely, Teleplay by
Richard Day, Story by
Mitchell Hurwitz, Story by
Entourage • Exodus • HBO • Leverage and Closest to the
Hole Productions in association with HBO Entertainment
Doug Ellin, Written by
Extras • Kate Winslet • HBO • BBC and HBO
Entertainment
Ricky Gervais, Written by
Stephen Merchant, Written by
My Name Is Earl • Pilot • NBC • An Amigos de Garcia
production in association with 20th Century Fox
Television
Greg Garcia, Written by
The Office • Christmas Party • NBC • Deedle Dee
Productions, Reveille, LLC in association with NBC
Universal Television Studios
Michael Schur, Written by

Tough call. Sentimental, you gotta go with Arrested. But Earl's pilot was so admirable and fresh, the Christmas Party Office was hilarious, and the Kate Winslet Extras actually made me scream laughing.

Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series
Grey’s Anatomy • It’s the End Of The World, As We Know
It (Part 1 & 2) • ABC • Touchstone Television
Shonda Rhimes, Written by
Grey’s Anatomy • Into You Like A Train • ABC •
Touchstone Television
Krista Vernoff, Written by
Lost • The 23rd Psalm • ABC • Grass Skirt Productions,
LLC in association with Touchstone Television
Carlton Cuse, Written by
Damon Lindelof, Written by
Six Feet Under • Everyone’s Waiting • HBO • Actual Size
and the Greenblatt/Janollari Studios in association with
HBO Entertainment
Alan Ball, Written by
The Sopranos • Members Only • HBO • Chase Films and
Brad Grey Television in association with HBO
Entertainment
Terence Winter, Written by

Sorry guys. You gotta go Six Feet, if only for the last five minutes and the line, "You can't take a picture of this, it's already gone."

Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or
Comedy Program
The Colbert Report • Comedy Central • Central
Productions with Busboy Productions and Spartina
Productions
Allison Silverman, Head Writer
Rich Dahm, Head Writer
Stephen Colbert, Writer
Peter Gwinn, Writer
Laura Krafft, Writer
Michael Brumm, Writer
Rob Dubbin, Writer
Eric Drysdale, Writer
Jay Katsir, Writer
Frank Lesser, Writer
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart • Comedy Central •
Central Productions LLC and Hello Doggie, Inc.
David Javerbaum, Head Writer
Rachel Axler, Writer
Kevin Bleyer, Writer
Rich Blomquist, Writer
Steve Bodow, Writer
Tim Carvell, Writer
Stephen Colbert, Writer
Eric Drysdale, Writer
J.R. Havlan, Writer
Scott Jacobson, Writer
Ben Karlin, Writer
Rob Kutner, Writer
Sam Means, Writer
Chris Regan, Writer
Jason Reich, Writer
Jason Ross, Writer
Jon Stewart, Writer
Late Night With Conan O’Brien • NBC • Broadway Video,
NBC Studios, Conaco
Mike Sweeney, Head Writer
Chris Albers, Writer
Jose Arroyo, Writer
Dan Cronin, Writer
Kevin Dorff, Writer
Daniel J. Goor, Writer
Michael Gordon, Writer
Tim Harrod, Writer
Berkley Johnson, Writer
Brian Kiley, Writer
Michael Koman, Writer
Brian McCann, Writer
Guy Nicolucci, Writer
Conan O’Brien, Writer
Brian Stack, Writer
Andrew Weinberg, Writer
Late Show With David Letterman • CBS • Worldwide Pants
Incorporated
Eric Stangel, Head Writer
Justin Stangel, Head Writer
Michael Barrie, Writer
Jim Mulholland, Writer
Steve Young, Writer
Tom Ruprecht, Writer
Lee Ellenberg, Writer
Matt Roberts, Writer
Jeremy Weiner, Writer
Joe Grossman, Writer
Meredith Scardino, Writer
Bill Scheft, Writer
Frank Sebastiano, Writer
Sam Saltz, Writer
David Letterman, Writer
Real Time With Bill Maher • HBO • Kid Love Productions
and Brad Grey Television in association with HBO
Entertainment
Ross Abrash, Writer
David Feldman, Writer
Matt Gunn, Writer
Brian Jacobsmeyer, Writer
Jay Jaroch, Writer
Chris Kelly, Writer
Bill Maher, Writer
Billy Martin, Head Writer
Danny Vermont, Writer
Scott Carter, Writer

Uh, once again, CBC, you know that whole make George's The Hour more of a late night talk show?

Read. Those. Freaking. Names.

Outstanding Writing For A Miniseries, Movie Or
A Dramatic Special
Bleak House (Masterpiece Theatre) • PBS • A BBC
WGBH-Boston Co-production in association with Deep
Indigo
Andrew Davies, Screenplay by
Elizabeth I • HBO • Company Pictures and Channel 4 in
association with HBO Films
Nigel Williams, Written by
Flight 93 • A&E • A David Gerber Company Production in
association with A&E Network and Fox Television Studios
Nevin Schreiner, Written by
The Girl In The Café • HBO • Tightrope Pictures and BBC
Wales in association with HBO Films
Richard Curtis, Written by
• HBO • Killer Films and Number 9 Films and
John Wells Productions in association with HBO Films
Phyllis Nagy, Written by

I really enjoyed The Girl in the Cafe the most. Kelly MacDonald. Rowwr!

I Love the Smell of Re-Writes in the Morning

Okay, here it is:

Writing at night is bullshit.

I know that a lot of you guys do it. Hell, once upon a time I did it. But I'm here today to repudiate the practice.

For family reasons, and reasons of just general interest, I've always been interested in research about the brain. I think that just about everything we've really learned about the brain we've learned in the last decade or so, since the advent of the MRI and CATscans became common. And what they're finding is that the night is just...different. Your brain is different at night.

This was a hard thing for me to admit. When I was in my early 20's I was a big believer in the romance of pulling an all nighter to get something done. I think I wrote every one of my University essays that way. I was also, famously, an inveterate up-to-the-wire last minute procrastinator. I was the guy who turned the essay in on Monday at 7:59 a.m. because it was due on Friday, but you'd heard from your buddy that the woman in the office hadn't stamped stuff when she left on Friday...

When I was doing sketch comedy, writing at night was like writing drunk. It was awesome fun! Everything was funny, and your creativity flowed free, man... but I was kidding myself. I was so hopped on adrenalin and being young that I mistook that early flower of being in love with writing to be the feeling that I would always get. It wasn't.

And so began the transition.

I am not a morning person. There are no morning people in my family, other than my father, who doesn't count because he takes two hour naps every afternoon. Must be nice, Dad.

My family gets dragged out of bed. When I was a kid, I made sure to ask my mother to sign permission slips or if I could do this or that first thing in the morning, because let's face it, she's a mess before about 10:30.

I have had whole conversations with my little sister that she recalls completely differently years later, and my theory is that she was slipping in and out of alpha state because it was morning when we had them.

Mornings. Feh.

Except...

There's coffee. And there's that great, grand, shining sun. And the hours stretch before you filled with portent and possibilty. The world looks different in the morning.

We live in difficult times. People seem to have trouble telling the truth -- they even seem to have trouble recognizing the truth, it seems. The night, for me, has never been about truth. The night is about regret and secrecy and passion, and longing and recrimination and rumination. But not truth. Truth is best observed and channeled in the morning's light. And truth is essential to what we do.

I can't write drunk either, anymore. No big loss, that. Though, yes, I know, Looking for Mr. Goodbar was written that way. But I'm going to go ahead and guess if you're one of those "I write at night people," you're probably 21 and drink and don't get hangovers and you've never even heard of "Looking for Mr. Goodbar."

Now there are some people who are locked into writing at night. I know. You may have a job that requires you to work days. You may have shift work. You might have kids. I know. I'm not talking about you. You do what you have to do with your personal situation to write your way out. Writing your way out means trying to treat the craft as respectfully and professionally as you can until such time as it becomes the primary way you make your money.

Does anyone recognize how similar that last sentence is to the sentiment, "fake it til you make it?"

Same thing. You have to be a professional writer long before you become a professional writer. Paradox. Deal.

When I decided to go full-time in my writing, I had a couple of advantages. I was writing a documentary soap show that gave me one script a week that didn't take very long to do, and that was enough for me to live on, for at least part of the year. I also quit a full time job, yes, but I went to school for four months, so I had a transition between work and writing.

But when that program was over, one thought came to me above all others, and it was this:

The day I'm not up and working by nine a.m. it is all over.

And I've mostly kept to that. I can say with genuine confidence that in the five years since, I've missed that Monday-Friday nine a.m. start maybe twenty times. A couple of times it was cause of a late night. A couple of times I was sick. I usually wind up working on the weekend when I don't think I accomplish enough during the week anyway. But why? Why try to emulate that workaday schedule when you don't have to?

I've thought a lot about that over the years. I think part of it has to do with trying to establish normality. People who go to work, most of em, go from 9 to 5. If I can do that, I have limits same as other people. It makes me connected to the world at large, not out on my own as much. It also gives you a built-in time to stop. It makes it easier to make plans with friends who have real jobs.

But it also maximizes those morning hours. And here's the secret, the real reason why I don't write at night anymore: if I'm going to write in the morning, I need all the churning, flipping, funking and random disconnected thought that occupies me at night to just sit there and perk. perk. perk. I don't write at night because I need the night to do something else.

What I think about at night, what I don't think about at night, what I don't realize I'm thinking about until it works its way into my dreams, that's filling the tank. Night is for maintenance and detailing. And mornings are for writing.

Karma

Good.

Nobody's Watching

Well -- if this goes anywhere it's going to be a huge, huge, quaking sea change.

From the New York Times:

At the moment the most talked-about situation comedy in the United States isn't on television at all. It's on your computer, though, and you can find it on www.youtube.com, where thousands of videos of all levels of quality are posted every day.

A comedy called — with intended irony, but not in the way that it has worked out — "Nobody's Watching" has been available on YouTube for about two weeks. As of yesterday it had been downloaded more than 300,000 times by a growing legion of fans...

"Nobody's Watching" seems to be another example of a story that the Internet world loves: the power of the amateur over the professionals. It is also the story of "viral video," which is what YouTube is all about. People post a snippet of self-made video, and word spreads about how funny, shocking, stupid or embarrassing it is.

One of the amazing things about this story is that the guy behind the show is --ta DA-- Scrubs' Bill Lawrence. This is his full-throated defence of the multi-cam sitcom, odd since Scrubs is famously, aggressively one-camera filmed -- and in fact, it probably kicked off the current round of one-camera-filmed-comedy era. Nobody's Watching was created with two writers from Family Guy: Garrett Donovan and Neil Goldman. So I guess if this show does rise from the dead, it will, in a sense, be a new twist in the incredible odds-defying saga of that show.

Between YouTube, Family Guy (and now Futurama!) rising from the dead -- kids -- nobody knows anything isn't just a credo anymore. It should be a tattoo network execs are forced to get when they sign their contracts.

Read the full Times article above -- it's quite a tale. And to save you from going to YouTube, lookie what I've got below. You're welcome.

Part One:



Part Two:



Part Three:

Cancon by the Numbers

Well, back from NY, not exactly rested, but somewhat recharged. Great theater, a lot of walking, an hour of poking around The Strand and a couple of mugs of McSorely's Cream Ale will do that to you. More on that later. And Happy Independence Day to fellow Yankees -- keep those fingers safe.

A quirk of my travel plans that I didn't realize until the moment I stepped up to the single most beautiful Canada Customs agent I have ever seen: I was entering Canada on a plane from New York, exactly the same as I did when I immigrated here 29 years ago, to the day. Weird.

Anyway, over the weekend, the CRTC released the Broadcast Policy Monitoring Report. The headline, which no one should be surprised by: Canadians like watching American Comedy and Drama much more than homegrown fare.

23% of comedy and drama watched on free-to-air, specialty, and pay tv in 2004/05 was Canadian. The remainder was imported (mostly from the U.S.)

Contrast that with news (92% homegrown) and sports (73% homegrown.)

As a baseline metric, let's compare to French language TV. In Quebec, homegrown drama and comedy drew 35% of the audience.

I am not a crazy economic nationalist, and I like American TV as much as any full-born, red blooded Canadian. But I think 35% is a fine threshold to aim for. It's still lower than homegrown viewing in just about any other country in the world. The problem, of course, is how do we get there?

Well, the study gives numbers that might indicate one way there -- and they contain a big surprise for me.

How much do Canadian networks spend on drama and comedy as a percentage of their revenues?

Pay and specialty broadcasters: 22%
CTV (over the air, number one broadcaster in every way, ratings and revenue behemoth): 3.5%
Global: (over the air) 3.4%
CHUM: (over the air) 3.3%

That is a really, really big gulf. I had never really contemplated how much the Canadian over-the-air channels spent, but in my mind's eye, I guess I always assumed it was at least 5%, if not more.

Look, the argument over whether Canadians will watch Canadian shows is over. It just is. Corner Gas. Done. Degrassi. Done. Even, if you want to go more niche, Trailer Park Boys. (if no one thought there was money to be made, why would they be making a TPB movie?) Canadians will watch these shows if they're good. They will not watch them because they're Canadian. Nor should we ask them to.

In 1999 the CRTC changed its broadcast policy, and removed provisos and guarantees which stipulated how much broadcasters had to spend on homegrown drama. The figures are familiar by now: the number of Canadian comedy and drama shows fell off a cliff overnight. (And the networks were allowed to count low-budget reality and other types of programming toward their cancon requirements.)

Why are the Pay and Specialty spending figures so much higher? Because when they were licensed, they had to promise to make drama and comedy shows. They were compelled, and so they spend.

Now, especially to American ears, the very idea of having to mandate spending on locally produced programming smacks of socialism. It leaves a bad taste. What is this, France?

Well, no. The reality is that there are tons of protectionist impulses already in place -- only they currently all favor the broadcasters. Cable substitution, that allows Canadian channels to get more bang for their buck, and keeping out U.S. competition in specialty (ie: no HBO, no Sci-Fi Channel, no ESPN, until recently no MTV) are only two of the biggies.

At the Banff TV Festival a couple of weeks ago, the CRTC announced that it was reviewing its broadcast policy again -- which some people see as the first step toward maybe reversing the disastrous 1999 decision that killed the industry for Canadian Actors, Directors, Writers, and Producers.

Canada is, and remains, a protected TV market. Any civilization that's 1/10th the size of their closest neighbor has to retain some control, lest they be culturally overrun to such a degree that the very idea of sovereignty becomes moot.

But when you're asking yourself, "How can we make TV that Canadians want to watch?" I think those percentage figures show you one way. You can't compete against U.S. fare that is made for four and five times the budget. Canadian fare will never get to that level -- but imagine how much better it would look, and be, and feel, if maybe those expenditure rates were closer to 10%? How many more writers could you hire? Could you maybe not have to block shoot? Could you order more episodes, allowing for viewership to build? Could we include "promotion" of Canadian fare into the expenditure money, so that eyeballs know where to find it? Could we do more pilots? Could we pay writers for longer, so that scripts weren't being rushed into production before they're ready?

People will -- people DO -- watch Canadian programming. But not if it's an afterthought.