Woke Up This Morning

BOUGHT MYSELF A GUN, bought myself a gun...bought myself a gun.

Man, I miss that show.

No, no. The first thought I had this morning when I woke up was a line that stuck with me from John Doyle's latest run at Michel Arpin in the Globe (in the paper today, or check the link here.)

By the way, after last Thursday's column about Michael Arpin's remarks appeared, I heard from a veteran Canadian TV producer who warned me to “be cautious” in highlighting Arpin's remarks. The suggestion was made that it might be a mistake to embarrass the vice-chairman of the CRTC. I dunno what that could possibly mean.

My friend Jim Henshaw's put it best. "That kind of cowardice is what's doomed us for years."

Coward's a strong word.

But it fits.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: I love TV. I love writing TV. I'm good at it and I will do anything to make TV better. I will bang my little drum and speak up and praise and castigate and cast light when it's needed and ask for a little self-examination when it's needed too. I don't save lives, and I don't help people get off drugs. But this is my little corner of the world: I try to write things that will entertain people at night.

For over three years now, I've been hearing the refrain that I shouldn't write this, or that, or the other thing because it'll hurt my career. I struggle sometimes with what I should write about, and how much I should say, but in truth it's not that difficult. I'm not that much of an idiot. I protect my confidences. Preserve my business relationships, and am always discreet about what I learn through the job. And the sheer volume of what I can't say is shocking.

But it sure beats the "zero" that was being said and written truthfully about Canadian TV three years ago. But still, even three years in and with a career that doesn't seem to have suffered, it's the comment above that is the prevalent view in the Canadian industry -- still. Still.

It doesn't work. It hasn't worked. Sitting back and being a timid little churchmouse hasn't resulted in better programs or opportunities. The same people get the shows and films and may get accolades from their little coterie, but there's a great seething mass of us here that aren't going to go quietly down to the USA, and we're not going to keep silent and go along -- especially when the guy running us down is an imperious bureaucrat.

A Producer?

Really.

REALLY?

It's funny, because every portrayal I've ever seen of a Producer is somebody who moves heaven and earth to make the project; the person who keeps pushing and never says no and gets something made through force of will.

If you're not that person, then do us a favour and get the hell out of the business. Don't swan around Prime Time in Ottawa. Rip up your CFTPA card, and get out. We can't carry you anymore. We're trying to do better.

And hey Playback -- you started this. Are you going to follow up? Time to see if that "new direction" has any teeth.

And you, at home, reading this. You've got a role too. At the end of this post are addresses for the Heritage Minister, the Chairman of the CRTC, and the people on the Heritage file for the NDP and Official Opposition Liberals. Take a stand. Prove the cowards wrong.


EDIT: After reading a little more this morning, I see this article about James Moore and the restoration of funding to arts programs in Canada. As Martin Knelman put it:

And within this $160 million there's also another message being sent: Moore doesn't just talk about supporting the arts; he delivers.

This is the moment he has been waiting for, after weeks of intense pre-budget meetings with arts leaders all across the country, spreading the gospel that in his view, as he told me last month, "Support for the arts is not just a want but a need."

We might just conclude from this turn of events that Moore has a great deal more clout in cabinet than the two Tories who preceded him in the Heritage post: Bev Oda and Josée Verner.

Here's how Moore put it to La Presse: "I told the finance minister of the need for significant investment in the arts and culture in the budget, and I'm sure that priority will be respected."

If you do wind up writing to the Heritage Minister, congratulate him on securing arts investment for Canadian communities. These are theatre grants and arts grants for creatives working on far smaller margins than those of us in the film and TV industries can think of. Times are tough and I don't think any of us in cultural industries think that the CBC or Telefilm or the CTF should be getting more money; we'd love to avoid cuts. There are more pressing priorities, both within the arts and without.

Tell him we can carry it -- but only if we know that the guy who's supposed to be looking out for us, and for all citizens, on the Broadcasting commission isn't completely in the tank for those who'd see our own stories wither and die on the airwaves.