The 37-year-old Mr. Mather is an especially bright star in network TV today – he is also the head writer of CBC's Rick Mercer Report, and, along with Corner Gas co-creators Brent Butt, Mark Farrell, David Story and Virginia Thompson, has won a pair of best-comedy Geminis for his work on Corner Gas. But he seems unrepentant about his decision to move to the competition. “Sure the two shows are rivals,” says Mr. Mather. “We both want our shows to be the best. And I'm going to give them a run for their money. When people tune in to Mosque this fall, I think they're really going to dig it. I'm going to bust my hump to earn the right to be slightly patronizing to my friends at Gas,” jokes Mr. Mather, who has worked on Corner Gas the past four seasons (the show's season finale is March 12).Mr. Sheridan, whose other credits include The Red Green Show, was a story editor on Gas during its fourth season. Both reported for Mosque duty officially last week.
At CTV, Kevin White, whose earlier credits have included CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes, will replace Mr. Mather as Gas's show runner. “We're quite good friends,” says Mr. Mather of Mr. White, adding that, over the past few weeks, the two have been “fighting over writers by day and then going for drinks at night.”
CBC has recently confirmed it is going to order a second season of Little Mosque, but has yet to announce the number of episodes. “We expect to hear from the CBC in mid-March,” says Darling, whose company has offices in Toronto and Regina.
“The first season obviously struck a chord with people,” notes Mr. Mather. “It got great numbers that are sustainable. I have huge respect for the show, and in particular its first-season writers, such as Al Rae, Rebecca Schechter and Nawaz.”
At the same time, the series-jumper added: “ Corner Gas is great. And it's been a great thing for me. But it's moving into its fifth season – and it's nice, sometimes, to do something with a different set of challenges, different characters and different stories.”
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Ahem. You Heard It Here First.
The Globe & Mail has an article, with quotes from Paul Mather, about the Corner Gas - Mosque writer harvest we talked about here yesterday.
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2 comments:
The article fails to point out that, unless CTV intends to pay full freight, Gas is in it's penultimate season. Mosque has the prospect of five more.
"... first season writers ..." was ominously unclear.
Scott,
I went to Ryerson with the indelible Kevin White, and performed comedy with him for a time. And I can say that of the times in my life where I have been out of control, I can't breathe, O Lord I just might die here laughing -- Kev has been responsible for two of them.
Rob Sheridan -- my colleague and perennial non-sexual male crush, who psuedonominally comments here from time to time -- is another man who's put me in that zone.
I don't know either Paul or Mark well, but I've met and had great conversations and exchanges with them both -- and so to the point:
these are Canada's top comedy writers. They are also fundamentally decent people, and pleasant.
I think there's a lesson here that says something about Canada that's good. The guys at the top of their game here? They don't read as tortured. They're not assholes. They're great guys, and desperately funny.
All writers have their dark days, but the longer I work in this country, and the nagging thing that gnaws at me when I contemplate leaving it, is I've reached a point in my life where my ambition is cut by my need for an everyday I can stomach. Maybe I don't need the million dollars. Maybe I don't need the brass ring. Maybe my ambition is to do work I love with people like this, who make me laugh and whose intellect and talent I admire and enjoy.
Maybe that's the brass ring. And maybe it's worth (some) of the bullshit.
But still? Competing for writers? In Canada.
Ladies and gentlemen, that shit is wicked cool.
By the way, gentle readers, if you're not reading Scott Feschuk's blog over at Macleans.ca, you're suffused with stinkiness.
With Playback and Macleans raising their A game in the last year online, I almost have whiplash. I almost feel...well served by two segments of the Canadian media.
DMc
Hey Sheridan, don't get all cocky. You're still a miserable goofus.
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