Jill Golick has a lovely piece up about Sabbatical, the CTV pilot which aired to little fanfare a couple months back, and which I wrote about here.
Jill writes:
I got to talk to Pete for quite a while at a recent screening of Sabbatical in Toronto and was struck by the depth of his knowledge of every aspect of making a series. Not only does he know his craft, he knows his show. Even though Sabbatical never got the green light after the pilot was made, Pete knew a tremendous amount about each character and the story lines that would have arced out through the first season and beyond. Every twist, turn and beat he told us about was juicy and engaging.
I think that is one of the keys to why Sabbatical works so well. Pete knows his world and he knows his characters. He also has chops out the wazoo and writes beautiful dialogue that rings true.
Sabbatical is the pilot for an arced series about a family that moves to a small town in the Alberta badlands so the mother can pursue her dream job on a dinosaur dig. Everything bad and creepy that can happen, does.
Having seen the pilot (Directed by Ken Girotti) and read the script, I agree with Jill that it's a great little piece of work. Woulda made a helluva series. But it also seems way out of character for CTV. Serialized, dark, like something they'd buy, not something they'd make...nope...A show like this could have thrived on one of the pay services. Ah well.
As of yet, Sabbatical hasn't been made available on Itunes or through other online means (legally, anyway,) so it's hard for you to see. But Peter Mitchell's script was recently recognized with a writing nomination at the Canadian Screenwriting Awards, where it's going up against a pretty strong field of hour long drama scripts -- an episode of Chris Haddock's Intelligence, Laurie Finstad Khiznik's Durham County, (which is coming to Global in May) and, oh, something else by some goddamn hacks.
And while we're at it, Mr. Ken has got himself up a bracing short piece talking about writers from the (TV) Director's point of view. It's an eye opener.
Which kind of writer are you? Which one am I? Which type do you want to be? Hmmm?
Well, that's enough of a Sabbatical for me. Back to breaking rocks.
8 comments:
Both you and Jill are right on the money regarding Pete Mitchell: the guy oozes talent. I've known him a long time but he and I hadn't really worked together that much until he was brought in to rescue a project that I was set to direct. The thing went south. The atmosphere got toxic, but in the end Peter and I managed to get away with relatively minor burns (Pete may disagree with that one). When he called me to do Sabbatical, and then I read it I immediately raised the ire of my US agent by demanding he crowbar me out of two shows south of the border so I could be available. Not only is Mitchell a dream to work with, he's got chops to burn; certainly one of the most talented show runners (if not the most) I've had the pleasure to work with. His script for Sabbatical deserves to be recognized right there with the others nominated in his category. The other thing you nailed was CTV's part in it, Denis. From the beginning I couldn't shake that notion it just didn't feel like their thing. I'd work with Pete again in a heartbeat, a fine man and a truly gifted screenwriter.
PS: I tried to submit Sabbatical for a DGC Award but their criteria doesn't include stand alone pilots. To qualify for a series nod a minimum of 6 eps had to have aired. They're working on it for next year though.
ooze?
yuck.
I haven't really touched on the whole pilot thingee but given that this has turned into sabbatical friday (thanks jill, dennis, ken -- the bottles of wild turkey are on their way 'cepting Girotti because he's a mean drunk) i thought i'd add a couple points.
first -- was this a ctv show in the first place? well, i thought is was -- in fact in my original plate of pitches it was the one they wanted almost specifically because of it's "cable-ness" i'd pitched them a cop show but they felt their network was already lousy with cop shows and didn't want to entertain doing another and wanted to do this because it was different.
And yeah, I know, at the end of the day they picked up a cop show... so maybe despite their best efforts Sabbatical was never going to be a CTV show, they just didn't know it at the time we were developing and shooting it.
i know it sounds pollyanna but I really bear them no grudge in not picking it up. Disappointment, sure, plenty of that, but it's their dime and I got to have one of the few chances in my career to do exactly what I wanted, for that i'm grateful because it's unlikely that i am going to come up with a million and half to shoot a vanity project.
A number of people have said -- this is a cable show -- so's of course the second ctv said no -- tapes dvds, etc went to all the cable networks in canada. this was november or something.
As of yet not a single person working at those cable networks has taken 44 minutes out of their life to watch it. i have known some of these people for years, sat on panels with them, given them advice on who to hire etc.
44 fucking minutes.
I've phone pleaded cajoled and eventually given up -- there's only so many times you can ask her on a date before it gets embarrassing and pathetic and the only way I think I could get them to watch it is if I did a fucking clockwork orange on their eyeballs and forced them to watch the viddies.
At least the two conventional networks watched and said no for various reasons that I can get my head around.
But showcase, tmn or whatever they're called this week -- nothing.
Enuff grousing -- thanks all for the kind words (believe it or not, they are almost satisfaction enough)
Almost.
Yeah, ooze. What's wrong with ooze?
Before I started working in the industry, I just watched shows that interested me. I thought Canadian programs were crap and didn't watch them.
Until I stumbled across Traders circa Pete Mitchell. I was hooked. It became one of my appt TV shows. It was soapy and sexy.
It's a real shame that a writer who so clearly knows what he's doing hasn't been given carte blanche in Canada, like you'd see with a Matthew Weiner or a David Chase in the US.
Are you with me?
My (current) day job is as a describer of TV programming for the blind. You probably stumbled upon it one day while fiddling with your remote, and some disembodied voice suddenly started providing redundant commentary of visuals and action you could obviously see.
One of the perks is the opportunity to check out shows before they air. Heck, I got to see season twelve's premiere episode of SOUTH PARK before anybody else. Sweet.
It also means I preview a lot of Canadian series and MOWs. So I am one of the privileged few who caught SABBATICAL. And let me just say I am glad the script is up for a WGC award. I will be at the party cheering you on, Pete. A very cool show that rivals any of the MEDIUMs and SUPERNATURALs south of the border. The show ventures into the uncomfortably odd vibe of DURHAM COUNTY, then veers into something wholly different and utterly engaging. Let me just say that wild video game sequence was the one of the most challenging descriptions I've ever had to write.
Don't give up, Pete. Keep banging those doors and ringing those phones. If that doesn't work, sure, pull a KING OF COMEDY. You'll get tons of publicity and will only serve, what, six months tops. Bet it'll inspire a bidding war, and you may even get a spot on Larry King.
Wow. Blushy blush for Pete Mitchell here -- well deserved.
And oh, every once in a while when someone gets on about me being full of myself or meglomaniacal or whatever -- keep in mind that Pete is actually UP AGAINST ME in this category at the Canadian Screenwriting Awards!
I'd love to win, but if Pete Mitchell wins for Sabbatical, I can't say I'll be surprised or particularly displeased!
what we do in this country we do largely in a vacuum.
blog sites like denis' are doing a lot to mitigate that but the fact is i've worked on tons of shows that have come and gone unnoticed by a large majority of the canadian audience (some derservedly so, others not so much) -- that is just the way it is here.
the interest in this dead pilot is really heartening in that my only objective was to make something entertaining and it seems to have entertained those who saw it.
The nomination (best writing in a show that no one saw and will never be made) is both funny and maddening.
While i would keep doing what I do regardless (as would most writers I have ever met) knowing that people liked it is fantastic.
thanks
pm.
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