Little Mosque: A View From The Room, Part Two

FOR PART one of this interview, click here.

For the second part of my interview with Paul Mather, Showrunner, and Rob Sheridan, Executive Story Editor and Paul's right hand for Little Mosque on the Prairie, Season Two, we got away a little from the basics of character and conception, and spoke a little more about philosophy. In a country that sometimes sacrifices entertainment value for "good for you"-ism, how does the mission of Mosque -- such as it is, fit in?



DEAD THINGS ON STICKS: A lot of the focus in the first season was on how different it was. Do you think it's more important that this show strike a blow for portraying Muslims in a positive light etc., or is it more important to be just funny?


PAUL MATHER: I don't think people watch TV because they want their attitudes adjusted. I think it's just got to be funny, charming, and a good story. You want your characters to be likable because they're on your show and you want people to like it. So I guess you're humanizing Muslims by doing that. Rob has a good story about watching some 9/11 show and a Muslim guy is praying and Rob realized whenever he's seen this in the past it's proceeded to the Muslim guy blowing something up. And now he's seen a Muslim guy pray and then that guy goes and loses his shoes or run over his daughter's bike in the driveway or whatever, and on some level just doing that changes the way you look at people. So the important thing is this show has made Rob less of a racist. And that alone has made society better. I heard a guy on CBC radio talking about how he sees women walking around in burqas. And a burqa's a full-body covering like you see in Afghanistan -- there's just a little screen that you look through. There aren't a lot of women walking around like that in Canada. He probably meant face veils (niqab) or headscarves (hijab). So that's a pretty big mistake. And it occurred to me that if this show goes on for a few years, and he was doing that same piece again, he wouldn't make the same mistake -- people might learn stuff. That's not the point, but it is a pretty cool side effect.


ROB SHERIDAN: Great. Now people can Google “Rob Sheridan” and “racist” and get a hit. I just finished David Mamet’s new book “Bambi Vs. Godzilla” (which I really only bring up as a way of saying “Look at me, I read!”). At one point Mamet says, “Movies possess unlimited power to entertain. They have, however, no power whatever to teach.” His point being, ‘tell your story, don’t lecture.’ I think he may be overstating the case slightly, in that movies and TV are certainly capable of reinforcing negative stereotypes, and can similarly advocate for something more positive. But I know what he’s saying. Ultimately we gotta tell good stories and funny jokes and the positive stuff can be a great corollary of that but not necessarily the focus.


[Denis here. Rob has basically shamed me into admitting I've been meaning to do a review of this book for about four months. I guess I was busy trying to defuse all the damage Rob's done as a racist.]

Moving on...

DTOS: Do you feel like the fictional town of Mercy is coming into its own more as a character this year?

P.M. I guess. There aren't that many non-Muslim main characters -- we're really about the people in the Mosque. So the town's a backdrop. You try to make it a place you would like to live.

R.S. As I hinted at earlier, I think one of things Paul really brings to the show as showrunner, aside from the obvious writing discipline, was to open up the show, get us into the corners of the town a little more, flesh it out. This world just seems bigger to me now. There’s a location in the first episode that really gives us a sense of the broader community surrounding the Muslim characters and it really made me laugh. Also the production team just built the most unbelievably beautiful, detailed swing sets every week that blew me away. It all feels quite real and lived-in.


DTOS: What sort of things do you wanna see explored in Season Two?


P.M. Well, what did we do: mostly just whatever seemed fun and interesting to us. There's some fun father/daughter stuff between Baber and his daughter Layla. Late in the season there's some twists and turns in the relationship between Amaar and Rayyan that are kind of fun. We've got some semi-political stuff: there are episodes about the American no-fly list and about CSIS. [The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service] There's a Bollywood dance number. There's a Christmas episode. There's a flashback episode where we see Amaar as a lawyer before he became an imam. There's a goat and a sheep, but not in the same scene.


R.S. Also there are a couple of really big episodes in the middle of the run that really involve the whole town going just nuts over one thing or another. Fairly ambitious and sprawling. They were a lot of work in the room, but Paul gave everyone a sense that there was nothing we couldn't do. Also we had some good guest stars. Dave Foley, Samantha Bee, Darcy Tucker. I had this really funny idea for a Merv Griffin cameo, but Paul kept saying “next season, next season.” Jerk.


DTOS: Finally, What's the deal with two hit Canadian comedy shows being set in Saskatchewan? You and Gas, mining the same territory. There's gotta be tension. C'mon. Be real. Are you gonna do an East/West Biggie/Tupac thing?


P.M. Theoretically we're not set in Saskatchewan, we're set "on the prairies." We're in Saskatchalbertatoba. But we do shoot in Saskatchewan for a few weeks. The Hotel Sask bar is our turf, O' Hanlon's bar is the Gas guys' turf. That's not out of any dislike: the Hotel Sask bar is just fifty feet closer to our hotel rooms and we're lazy. I went over to O'Hanlons once and met Kevin [White] and Andrew [Carr] and Norm [Hiscock] (from Gas). They'd just put out their last Production White so they were having a few drinks. I think I might have left without paying for my drinks. So ha ha! Fuck you Gas guys! You got Mathered!


R.S. I have a feeling we're all going to run into each other at the Canadian Comedy Awards. So, yeah, I expect gunplay.


Corner Gas airs Monday at 9:30 p.m. on CTV, and on the WGN Superstation in the USA.

oh..uh...

Little Mosque was just sold to Israel, Gaza & The West Bank.

(Seriously, how weird is that?)

It also airs on CBC Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. (Premieres tonight!)

The Buy In

STILL EARLY, and we'll see what sticks. But some conditional 'adds' have emerged, and some others, sadly, have fallen off.


Journeyman:
Adding to the rotation

What I like:
The period details are fun...smoking on planes, the real relationship between wife and husband, Kevin McKidd's performance, two weeks straight of great guest casting, the wife, Moon Bloodgood, the fact that it's on right after Heroes, the 'what the hell?' factor.


K-Ville: Passing
Why: Didn't bother to PVR show 3, haven't watched show 2.


Back to You: Passing
Why: Saw a few minutes of Show 2, and it was better, but 30 Rock and The Office are all I need for comedy right now.


Pushing Daisies: Adding to the Rotation

What's Great: Everything. Seriously. Acting, Looks great in HD, chemistry, whimsy, direction, art direction, tone.
I'll watch just to see if they can pull it off week to week.

Moonlight: Passing

Why: Call me a vampire partisan, but that was a LOT of voiceover, and anyway, Vamps who can go out in the day? That's not fun, dude. That's cheating.

Bionic Woman: On the Fence

What I Like: Katee Sackhoff, Michelle Ryan, the concept
What I Don't: Everything else, including the new sister
I'll give it one more.

Dirty Sexy Money: On the Fence

What I Like: the jerk reverend, Peter Krause, Peter Krause's wife, Samaire Armstrong, the younger brother who's basically Ryan Adams when he was still drinking. And it looks great in HD.
What I Don't: The sneaking feeling that every time Peter Krause is on screen I'm actually wishing he was in a better show.

Private Practice: Ugh. Seriously. Could you set the bar any lower? So Passing.

Life: Adding to the Rotation

What's Great: Damian Lewis' performance (it's seriously bent,) the fact that the character he plays is flawed and capable of being unsympathetic at times, the partner, Robin Weigert post-Deadwood, Adam Arkin, and it looks great in HD.

What's Odd: They use exactly the same wall device we used in Across The River, which was filmed first. Damnit.


So based on my past track record, I respectfully submit to you that Life, Pushing Daisies, and Journeyman will be the first casualties of the fall viewing season.

An American Reader Writes

LAST WEEK, when I last wrote about the return of Corner Gas, and its debut in U.S. syndication, we got the kind of response you sometimes get from one of the sectors of the Canadian audience.

The Canadian audience basically exists in three attitude states about homegrown stuff. Group One is small and thinks that than anything produced in this country "sucks." Group Two is smaller and wishes they had a chance to see more good homegrown stuff on their TV screens. Group Three is the largest group by far. They don't care whether something is Canadian or not. Generally, if they don't watch a Canadian show, it's cause they haven't heard of it, not because they automatically think it's going to be bad. Group Four will watch it just because it's Canadian, no matter how bad it is. Oh. One more thing. Group Four is fictional.

Anyway, last week, commenter Blaine had this to say about Corner Gas:

Maybe Americans have better taste in comedy. The real question is why so many CANADIANS DO WATCH this show that so obviously DOES suck. I've tried a couple of times now and can barely sit through the first five minutes. Its just so bland, obvious and stupid. And I never laugh. I don't get it.

So today, an American fan of Corner Gas posted a lovely little response to my long-buried "How Corner Gas Ruined Everything" post that I think deserves promotion. Blaine, maybe this answers your question. But probably not.

So, over to Spiff:

I'm American and I love Corner Gas, and I'll even tell you why. The shows in the US "push the envelope" and are "outside of the box" so much that they completely lack believability. The reality of my life is that I'm surrounded by average people living average lives and yet we still manage to be important to each other, just like the folks on Corner Gas. People who act like they belong on a US show (sitcom or drama) are obnoxious. You want to tell them to shut up and sit down. Granted, you'd want to say that to Hank sometimes, but it'd be because he's legitimately an idiot and not trying to be one. I hope WGN keeps airing the series for us down here!

Thanks for sharing, Spiff. Some of us think the show's nifty, too.

Little Mosque Returns: A View from "The Room."

LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE was definitely one of the CBC's brightest spots last season. It enjoyed a phenomenal leadup campaign, including exposure on CNN and in The New York Times, for what seemed to be (sadly) a revolutionary premise: let's make the main characters Muslims, and make them the heroes.

Set in the fictional Canadian prairie town of Mercy, Mosque was criticized in some quarters for being wobbly in the funny department, but praised for its sweetness. After a huge initial tune in of over two million viewers, the ratings stabilized around the million mark -- still better than any of CBC's other scripted shows. The curiosity factor got them press initially, but a million Canadians obviously came back because they liked what they saw.

The series was a rare case of the CBC moving fast to try and strike while the iron is hot, so that first season only comprised eight episodes.

CBC gave the show a vote of confidence (and thanks, I guess) by coming back with an ambitious 20 episode order -- a number almost unheard of in this country.

But there was also evident acknowledgment that changes that needed to be made to take the show past its initial success to the next level of quality.

So in April the show made waves again -- of the behind-the-scenes variety.

They hired away two writers from Corner Gas. A talent raid? How un-Canadian! I think I summed up the news pretty well here.

Paul Mather had been the showrunner on Corner Gas for a few years, as well as being one of the comedic forces behind The Rick Mercer Report. Story Editor Rob Sheridan had just completed his first year on Corner Gas. But he'd also had several seasons of cult favorite The Red Green Show under his belt, and had scored a Canadian Screenwriting Award nomination for the well-regarded Showcase comedy Naked Josh, on which he wrote for two full seasons.

By moving on, Mather and Sheridan opened up opportunities for more writers on Corner Gas, whose staff had been relatively static for a few years. One of the signs of an industry with something healthy going on is that there's somewhere for talented people to go; to keep moving up and take on new challenges.

Sheridan and Mather convened with the other members of the Mosque writing staff early this spring. Returning were show creator Zarqa Naraz, Al Rae (who's been nominated for a Gemini Award for one of his 1st season eps) and Rebecca Schechter. Mather also brought another writer with him from The Rick Mercer Report, Greg Eckler, and rounding out the staff: new writer Miles Smith.

I caught up with Paul Mather and Rob Sheridan via email to talk about Season Two of Mosque, which premieres Wed. October 3rd at the family friendly hour of 8:00 p.m.

DEAD THINGS ON STICKS: So obviously this series got huge ratings out of the gate in the first season. What did you guys see as your job coming into the show?

PAUL MATHER: The first season had so much heat out of the gate based on the premise. I knew we wouldn't have that same kind of media interest in the second season and that the series would have to rise and fall on its merits as entertainment. So it was a question of building on the work done in the first season: trying to get to know the characters a bit better; figuring out who pairs well with whom. What's the character balance in a twenty minute show with nine characters in the opening credits? How much Islamic stuff do you put in each episode -- is every plot about Muslim stuff? Can you do an entire show that has nothing to do with Islam? We had to figure that out. We ended up deciding that every show should have one Islamic hook -- ideally, there will be at least one thing on one plot you couldn't do on a sitcom that didn't have Muslim characters. Ideally every episode the non-Muslim audience walks away with one little factoid about the religion. We also had to work on the language of the show. Corner Gas has all these swish to's and imaginary scenes; it can break the fourth wall; telegraph stories. So there's all these devices that you have at your disposal. Mosque is more straight ahead: we stayed away from flashbacks and imaginary stuff. But on the other hand Mosque has a couple -- Amaar and Rayyan [played, respectively, by Zaib Shaikh and Sitara Hewitt]– who have a will they or won't they thing going on. Which is hardly a new development, but it's the first Muslim will-they-or-won't they thing on TV, so that's kind of fun. And we have a four-episode arc at the end of the season, whereas Gas is strictly episodic. Mosque also has a father-daughter relationship, Baber and Layla, [Manoj Sood and Aliza Vellani] which was fun to write. On a more practical level I had to put together a writing room, hire directors, get to know the production staff -- 20 episodes is a huge order so it takes a lot of work just to get that train moving.

ROB SHERIDAN: It became obvious to me early on that Paul basically brought me over to be his own personal punching bag. So that was a disappointment. But other than that I’m proud of what we all accomplished. We were able to build on the strengths that were there and open the show up a bit. Twenty episodes is a big jump up from eight, obviously. The universe feels a little bigger. The characters came into sharper focus. And we still got to tell our little jokes.

DTOS: Who's your favourite character to write for? Who do you really like writing on the show?

P.M. Lacey. Oh no wait I'm not on that show anymore. I enjoyed writing for all of them. Baber is a funny cranky guy. Amaar is fun because he's a Charlie Browncan't-get-ahead guy. Rayyan is fun because she's a smart woman who does stupid things. Yasir [Carlo Rota] and Sarah [Sheila McCarthy] are fun because it's fun to write couples. The Mayor [Debra McGrath (no relation)] is fun to write before because we made her more of a crazy narcissist this year. I liked writing Magee [Derek McGrath (also, strangely, no relation -- to me or each other)] because he's quirky without being goofy.

R.S. It’s a great cast, yeah. Fred Tupper [Neil Crone] the conservative radio host, comes into his own a bit more this season, too. He’s interacting a little more with the characters, out of the radio station more often, and that’s fun. Personally I always like writing the slightly larger-than-life character you can take to Mars every now and again. Your Fonzies and your Kramers and your Ted Baxters. On Corner Gas it was probably Hank. Surprisingly I think we were able to give some of that to Baber. Manoj seemed to really have fun with the slightly crazier stuff. At the same time we gave him some very sweet storylines with his daughter and that kept him grounded.

DTOS: Obviously you're aware of CW's Aliens in America...

P.M. The who in the what now?

DTOS: It's interesting that on that show, the Muslim is the outside character, whereas here, they're the main characters. Do you think that's important?

P.M. I haven't seen the show, so I don't know, but it sounds like a fish out of water thing and ours is more about a community within a community. There isn't that much of a fish out of water thing in our show -- it's more about Muslims bumping up against each other and sometimes bumping up against the community at large.

R.S. After that show was announced at the May upfronts we watched a couple of clips in the writers’ room. Not so much to size up the competition as to try and steal ideas. Nothing really came of that, though. I think there was a sense from some critics that maybe that show was going to be sort of xenophobic and mean-spirited, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case, so if it’s a good show I hope it does well. As Paul points out it’s really a fish-out-of-water story whereas Little Mosque is more like a school of fish on their own coral reef with scuba divers and plankton and… but perhaps I’m stretching the metaphor.

Part Two of my interview with Paul and Rob tomorrow.

Our Readers Write: CBC's Got a New Season?

THE NATIVES are restless.

One of the perennial complaints in the industry (which Chris Haddock alluded to in our conversation) is that the promotion is abysmal. And it is. But our commenters (and a few others who emailed me and didn't want to leave a comment) seem to have a big old problem with the CBC's efforts to promote its stuff, specifically.

Chet started the ball rolling:

I probably watch more CBC than anyone who isn't on their payroll. I've seen all kinds of promos for their new season, but I've never seen "Intelligence" mentioned even once. I assumed they were holding it back until January or after the playoffs. If it wasn't for Doyle, I would never have known it was on tonight.

The CBC brass desperately wants to bury this show so they can then point at the ratings and use them as an excuse to cancel it. They're not even being subtle about it.

Scott picked up the...uh...Torch:

I don't want to kick the CBC but honestly...

I write and edit for a gay magazine in Toronto and thought I'd throw a little love their way for 'Torchwood.'

I had to talk to numerous people and jump through several hoops before I was finally passed along to the outside PR company that, quite frankly, can't care less about the show.

The show debuts Friday and I haven't seen a single ad, even though CBC was a co-producer on the thing! I shouldn't be surprised but I am.

And our good friend Dixon brought it home:

I have to side with the other 'bitchers'...if it wasn't for you or Diane, I wouldn't have known 'Intelligence' 2 begins tonight (or the Torchwood debut for that matter). But it's all the same old Canadian mumblemutter about promotion, or lack thereof. I had no idea 'Whistler' 2 aired on Saturday night either...until I flipped past it by accident. And we all saw how Global buried The Best Years in the spring/summer.

But I did have lunch with the kids at Burger King recently...and couldn't miss that 'Heroes' Season 2 was premiering 'Only on Global' as the promo was plastered on every cup and wrapper. Um...it's not 'only' on Global...it's on NBC - Global just gets to simulcast and ad substitute and 'say' it's their show...but you all already know that.

Now, separate and apart from this general problem with Canadian lack-of-promo, I think the CBC stuff is a little different, for a couple reasons.

First, you and I pay for it. In taxes. You pay for a great show like Intelligence. It's a shame that they're not very good at telling you how and when to see it.

It may be that I'm cranky right now, (Scratch that, I'm definitely cranky right now. I haven't eaten and got very little sleep last night, and sat through a meeting and six hours on set today, and now I've just spent two hours formatting and writing up a feature on Little Mosque that will run tomorrow and Wednesday) but this just seems extra wrong.

I did a podcast interview with Chris Haddock, and spent an hour transcribing it for this site. That interview was set up because a helpful P.R. person from Haddock's company made it happen. I pushed to interview the two writers from Mosque. I've heard, anecdotally many times from people like Diane that the CBC is atrocious at getting back to you with promo requests. Now it's their premiere week, and where are the ads, where is the promo?

Edit: this was posted as a comment to this message, but it deserves a bump up -- because if anything, it's worse than I thought. Over to Diane:

A year and a bit of doing the TV, Eh site and I have not once received anything from CBC. The producers of Intelligence and 22 Minutes, for example, send me information directly from their own production companies (Haddock and Halifax Film). There's other stuff to complain about with the private broadcasters, but CBC is the lone network that will not send me information.

Last year, the CBC fired its publicists and hired a company called Media Profile to outsource their P.R. and Media requests. Everyone predicted this would be a disaster. It has been. Everybody knows it.

I said as much on the TV panel I was on in Banff last June. Afterwards, the head of CBC English Media Relations, Jeff Keay, came up to me and gave me his card and said if I ever had problems getting info from anybody at CBC, give him a call.

I haven't. I try to do my little part here. But if you're frustrated at not being able to find out anything about CBC programs, maybe it's time to email Jeff Keay, and tell him that Media Profile doesn't work, and that CBC needs to do a better job of promoting its shows. Hiring a publicity staff and spending some money on ads might be a start.

One More on Intelligence...

BY THE BYE, Haddock's people were also kind enough to send me the screeners of the first two episodes of Season Two. If you lost track of the show last year because it moved too slowly for you -- these two definitively stay with the pace established by the final two episodes of the first season. It's taut, hot, exciting drama -- and one of the most involving crime dramas I've seen, Canadian OR American. If you're a fan of quality TV, Intelligence really is for you. It's got the pulse, and the brain to go with it.

John Doyle, this morning, calls it "a wild ride." Pretty apt description.

Intelligence: Sex, Drugs, Espionage, and Chris Haddock

MORE SEX, DRUGS, AND ESPIONAGE. Sounds like a good hook for a show, huh? You'd think so. But CBC's Intelligence struggled last year to find an audience. It's frustrating, if you're a fan of quality tv. Intelligence is very much a show of the moment -- about how crime and government and policing all intersect. As the U.S. government pushes for more and more executive power, including the power to spy without any accountability, this is a show about where that lack of accountability leads -- and how personal agendas affect the pursuit of information on both sides of the border, and both sides of the law.

Season Two of Intelligence premieres in Canada Monday night, October 1st, at 9:00 p.m, on CBC.

Last week, I managed to catch creator and showrunner Chris Haddock, stealing him away from set for twenty minutes to talk season 2 and some of the challenges he faces making the show. You can hear the audio part of the interview on the latest Tv Eh? Canadian TV podcast. An edited, partial transcript of the interview is below.

DEAD THINGS ON STICKS: In a first season of a show you spend so much time setting the table, coming up with the characters and establishing the situations. Season 2 you’ve got more room to explore, so what kind of place you want to go with the second season where maybe you weren’t able to get to with the first?


CHRIS HADDOCK: On the Mary Spaulding side, she gets to really start building her intelligence network, and on the Jimmy Reardon side, he starts to really question the wisdom of staying in the trade – so he’s trying to accelerate his exit from the street level dope trade that he’s in, and they manage to come together to help each other further, as he gets much more into money laundering and tries to step back from his real… what got him the money in the first place…He’s trying to play a bigger game, and she encourages him in that direction to try and gain new information about that world. And we get to spend a little more time with his family troubles, his moral conflicts as he tries to get away from an increasingly violent trade. And she’s trying to keep him inside, so she can use him as an intelligence source. So it really is a continuation in the arcs of their ambitions, but we do see a little bit more of their internal struggles with what they’re doing.

DTOS: Talking about those arcs, this whole idea of accessibility, bringing in new viewers – and I know you’ve spoken a little on that point. But is there anything concrete you’re trying to do with the show to …

CH: …Address some of that?

DTOS: Yeah. How do you do that with a show that sort of demands to be serialized?


CH: It’s the constant refrain that show creators and broadcasters deal with which is the desire to appeal to casual or intermittent viewer that isn’t a regular viewer but likes the show and wants to be able to drop in and those of the constant viewers who like the serial aspect, and then there’s the syndicators who say we just want to be able to play the show anywhere in any order. Those demands are constantly there, and 24 you’ll hear they have huge followers but in syndication it tanks because viewers can’t invest in that. But you know many of these companies also own the DVD divisions, so what they’re losing in the casual viewers they’re making up by people buying the DVD’s. So it’s a really shifting landscape...script by script it’s a negotiation on the authors part, saying “how can I give the audience, the casual viewer a full satisfying experience, ah without them having to know all the backstory?” And you tackle that practically by saying, “okay, I will give those viewers a story that concludes, that begins and concludes and you don’t need to know all of the nuance, and then you’ll continue with another storyline, more of a serialized one.” It’s always going to be there. The only shows that have completely addressed that is something like the Law&Order franchise, or the CSI franchise, where you really don’t need to know anything before you get there. And that satisfies a great portion of the audience, and yet there’s a huge audience out there that, some of the biggest hits, are the ones that are extremely serialized. So if you’re a show like mine, you address the casual viewer, but some of the things the broadcaster can do is promote the show, and keep up the promotion, and that’s their task. My task is to try to satisfy both ends of that audience without alienating either. And no bones about it, it’s not always an easy thing to do.


DTOS: Are there any plans for an Intelligence Season 1 DVD release?

CH: Yeah, there have been. We’ve been trying to get the American distributor – we ‘ve got an American company that’s been putting the DaVinci show out on DVD and they look at Canada as a small market but we’ve been trying and just pushing, pushing to try and get them to make the investment in the first season. We won’t have it out when we hoped we’d have it out – this summer, because in their mind Canada’s just too small a market to put a rush on it. It’s a struggle. If we had the ability as CTV did to put a lot of coin behind it like Corner Gas, boom there they were with the set…it really does help. It’s a good support system. Unfortunately we don’t have the resources at the CBC to do that.

DTOS: You know, it’s funny with the current American government there’s this impulse to paint things in black and white, and in this show you burrow further and further into the ambiguity of it all. So why fight the tide?

CH: It’s partly because… really ambiguity allows everyone to participate in it and put a read on it. Whereas black and white, by necessity you’re missing all those people in the middle, really, all the people who are of an undecided nature. Who want to see the thing and decide for themselves. And to me it’s always been, as a viewer, the most satisfying material is something that engages you and invites you to participate, to make part of the decisions as to what’s going on, what’s really going on. So I guess I find that things of an ambiguous nature are more inclusive of an audience, and encouraging them to engage in it and some of the black and white stuff just addresses what might be the more passive viewer who turns on the TV at 7 and turns it off at 12, you know? The first year of DaVinci I faced the same thing, where people said, “man you really don’t resolve anything, it’s really ambiguous at the end and I’m not used to that.” And the second season people were more, “that’s really quite intriguing how you don’t sort things out.” And the third season was, “Man, I love how you never wrap things up.” So part of it is bringing an audience that is entirely used to that more simplistic black & white approach – and edging them over to a different kind of approach. By necessity it takes a while, but once people get on board with that, they find it extremely satisfying.

DTOS: You did a series for CBS a couple of years ago [the short-lived The Handler with Joe Pantoliano] Besides the obvious – budget -- What’s the difference for you between working in Vancouver and working in Los Angeles?

CH: Well working in Vancouver, they gave me the creative latitude that in the U.S. you don’t get as a newcomer – they give creative latitude to people who’ve delivered massive hits for them. You have to earn your creative freedom, really. I’ve been really fortunate to have that creative freedom, but that’s the deal with the devil I’ve made – I have creative freedom, but very little promotion and back end financial participation. In Los Angeles you give up creative freedom for bigger audiences and back end financial participation. I’ve been places where many people have said to me, “you’ve got what everybody in L.A. wants – you’ve got creative freedom and you’re not in L.A.”

Doyle Runs Down the Cancon Cornucopia

CANADIAN CREATIVES have a tough, fair minded ally in the Globe & Mail's John Doyle. He's not a cheerleader for homegrown stuff -- if it's not very good he'll say it -- which means his recommendations are less dismissable. And though there are those inside the CBC who don't get it, who go apoplectic over every Doyle criticism -- they fail to understand that not only is he just doing his job, but he's doing it from a place of general intense support for the CBC.

So this morning he runs down the Cancon offerings for fall and winter on the various networks. Now, the sensitive people in the CBC are liable to cotton to this passage:

Mind you, CBC takes a Soviet-era, Kremlin-like stance on advance notice of its shows. Asked to provide a list of what's coming between now and late January, CBC's outsourced publicity company essentially provided a list of what's airing next week. Later came notice of two other shows, neither of which I'd pick as really notable.

It seems some CBC shows don't exist until some CBC executive says they exist, which happens in November. This is weird. Thousands of people have seen snippets of the hockey drama MVP on YouTube. The show looks sensationally good and there's much buzz, but it doesn't exist until the Kremlin says it exists. Advance buzz isn't a CBC thing. CBC's policy is this: Whatever you say, say nothing.

A couple of months ago, when the fall stuff was announced, and when CBC specifically announced their fall schedule, they actually took some heat from journalists because they weren't doing enough drama. This, when in reality there were at least three more series in production for later starts. I know. I was working on one of them.

Consequently, the story got spun the way it did instead of the true story, which is this: If you care at all about quality Canadian drama and comedy, you need to care about the CBC. They are doing more, they are making shows with the right budget, and they're working really hard to make them good -- harder than any other Canadian broadcaster. Period.

The attitude that Doyle talks about isn't helping to get that message out. But it needs to get out. For all its flaws, the CBC wears the white hat here.

Anyway -- moving on to the shameless self promotion part of the discussion, here's what Doyle has to say about the two shows I'm involved with this fall:

Across the River to Motor City (CITY-TV, starts Nov. 22) is perhaps the most ambitious of the new Canadian dramas. Set both in Detroit and in Windsor, Ont., and in both the present and the 1960s, it's about private eye Ben Ford (played in youth by Sasha Roiz, and in old age by David Fox), whose girlfriend disappeared on the day of the JFK assassination. Her remains are finally found, and Ben must unravel what happened. Noirish, moody and complex, it's got an awful lot of plot.

The Border (CBC) "confronts Canada's toughest border-security issues" according to the CBC. It's about an outfit called the Immigration and Customs Security (ICS) Squad, and it stars James McGowan, Sofia Milos, Graham Abbey and Catherine Disher. An expensive bet for CBC, the series is big on action and intrigue, in a genre that requires oodles of ingenuity in the writing and directing. The rough pilot episode I've seen is promising but dramatically wobbly.

So there it is. ATR premieres the week of November 22 on Citytv stations in those markets that have them. (Check your local listings for the exact date and time. I think Winnipeg actually goes first, on the 19th.) The Border premieres on CBC in early 2008.

Of the other shows Doyle talks about, I think I'm probably looking forward most to MVP. (I had a shameful early dalliance with Footballers Wives) and Search and Rescue -- though I've also got high hopes for Da Kink in My Hair.

And don't forget, Rent-A-Goalie returns October 28. I've got two eps of that, 2nd season, too.

Oh, and Blood Ties continues on SPACE and Citytv. My eps are toward the end of the season. Oh God, the shameless self promo...somebody stop me...

And in the End...

YOU HAVE a read-through, it goes well, people give their tiny little line changes, you change a couple of character names because they didn't come back "clear for use," and...

...full YELLOW draft.

Sigh.

Anyway, they started shooting yesterday. It looked great. Good energy, lots of extras for our media mob.

I remember why I do this.

Big Shots: XY Need Not Apply

THE TORONTO STAR'S Vinay Menon has a review of Big Shots (premiering tonight) which elucidates in very specific terms, exactly what I was talking about last year in my post, The Eyeballs of Men. From Menon's review:

Who are these whiny imposters television is trying to pass off as men?

This is the question male viewers will ask after watching the premiere of Big Shots (ABC, CTV, 10 tonight). Assuming, that is, they can get through the hour without losing consciousness from all the involuntary forehead slapping.

Notify Guinness because we have a first: a show about men that couldn't possibly be aimed at men. A show in which male characters sit around on a patio and share their innermost feelings or stand around on a golf course and untangle their woes or lounge around in a sauna and bemoan the ephemera threatening to tear their hearts asunder.

In short: a gal pal show in which the gals are lads.

The feminized, science-fiction tv male lives! On TV, at least. I won't be tuning in Big Shots tonight. Based on the preview and the reviews, I've seen what I need to.

If you want to see a version of Big Shots that's actually about men, try to find a DVD of the BBC show Manchild. It's good fun. And for bonus points -- it stars Giles from Buffy!

As Prep Continues...

IT WAS PROBABLY a little ambitious to try and run down prep day by day. Those days easily get away from you. Then it's 10:00 pm and you've been here 13 hours and you're suddenly thinking that life would be better if we didn't have to use the word "and" so much. Really, look at it there on the page. "And." It mocks you. What kind of stupid motherfucking word is "And?"

And don't even get me started on prepositions.

Anyway, I think I left you on Day Four with the Pink Draft out to people, and getting ready for the Blue Draft.

The problem is I kind of forget now what changed from Pink to Blue.

On Friday, there were a couple of more meetings. The first was very long -- and difficult. It's the Playback meeting.

The Border is kind of a tech-y show -- and there's moments that involve seeing information come up on a video screen...news stories, maps, computer searches -- anything that you see on a computer or TV screen has to be edited together, and played back on the day.

One of the signature elements of our set is a very cool looking technical station where one of the characters monitors incoming data. This is where we get a lot of the exposition and story out, and also where the character, who's irreverent and fun, plays a lot of his scenes. There are seventeen monitors there. Each one has to have something up on it. It has to be fed from the other room. If things need to change during the scene, those changes either have to be edited together and played back in sync so it looks like our guy is driving those changes -- OR, it has to be in such a way that the guy behind the scenes really is driving the changes live, in essence doing for real what the character on screen seems to be doing.

So our Graphics & Motion Designer, Jae, has to put together, design and make ready for the day it plays every single element that appears on a computer screen or a TV screen. There's another way you can do this, if you lock off, you do what's called "a burn in." That's where people basically watch a blank (or green) screen and you put it in in post. Canadian TV does this a lot because it's cheaper and it's way faster than trying to coordinate playback on the day -- but it also doesn't look nearly as good. And -- our visual esthetic is handheld -- so it wouldn't really work for our show anyhow.

So you find yourself sitting through a meeting and going...through... every...single ...image. It's great training. Seriously, you will never lazily write "so and so looks up on the monitor and sees a giant condor streaking across the screen then exploding into a frog's anus" again.

Not that you would. Just saying.

Anyway -- it's a loooong meeting. Once again, I'm impressed by the dedication of all the people who work to actualize something that I just cavalierly throw down on a page.

Later in the day, there's a spirited discussion surrounding costumes for our guest lead. The action in my script is compressed so it all takes place in one day. But my guest lead is supposed to be a huge movie star, so we're trying to motivate costume changes. There is, believe it or not, a long and involved discussion on the mechanics of how and when she would change, and why. I have her in a bathrobe for a scene. Really? Ruth, the costume designer wants to know, why would she be in a bathrobe then? She's under great stress at that moment for a reason I can't go into because of spoiling the fun.

And you know what? It's a legit question. All these things that never occur to you -- and they're good questions. It takes a village, man. And once again I remember one of those things about film that really gets to me:

"A film by." Wow. That credit really is bullshit. If only the DGA had an ounce of shame.

It's finally decided that she can get in the bathrobe, but it needs to happen earlier. Also, our timeline through the day is a little off, and we need to adjust time somewhere in the second act so that there's enough time elapsed for the actions we have to play out. I decide to add a running timeline in the scene heading slugs so it's clear how much time has passed from scene to scene.

The Blue Draft came out on Monday. I started work on it over the weekend and came in and did some more stuff, sending it out about midday. I seem to recall that it was tweaky stuff -- lines of dialogue here, a bit of different staging there. One scene changed significantly -- a psychiatrist scene that I wasn't really getting the flavour of, so one of the showrunners took a pass and I integrated that with my changes.

Because I've added that slugline timeline, though, what is a minor set of revisions still pushes the draft from pages to a full draft. Once you go to production, you lock the script, and then every change you make generates the next coloured page. If you change more than half the pages, you issue a full new draft. Less than half, you issue pages, and people collate the revisions into their last full coloured draft.

People in the other departments kind of hate it when you issue too many drafts. Production has to run the drafts, and that's way more work for them -- and every member of the team : art, costumes, construction, set dec, props -- have all made notes. Every time you make a new draft, they have to go through and transfer those notes across. It's a drag. You learn to dread having to put out a full draft.

The story coordinator looks at you with those damaged soulful, "don't make me do this" eyes, and you just say, "full draft, bitch..." because you're cold like that.

The rest of Monday is easy enough for me, I guess. They're still scouting locations, and finalizing casting of some of the smaller parts.

Tuesday -- Day 7 of Prep

Everything's going Green.

Green Draft, that is. The day starts with a "tone meeting," which is exactly what it sounds like. The story department sits down with the Director to talk through the tone of all the scenes. We've been sneaking a little more emotional heft into the story in the last few drafts. Once you get the story working structurally, suddenly you have room to deepen this note, or that note. The exact turn of phrase you were struggling with suddenly seems to present itself.

There's one more thing we're there to do: cut scenes. The board still looks fearsome on a couple of days. So with fresh eyes, we figure out a way to lop off a scene in Act One and get the essential info out in a later scene. And there's another series of three scenes that we figure can play as one long scene with a walk through.

The problem is that every time you break out a scene, that's a setup. The unit needs to block, light, go in for coverage. If you have too many scenes -- even if they're short, you start to add up the time you spend in that setup and pretty soon you've burned an hour you don't have. The funny thing is, now you know the story so well that you can be ruthless: cut a scene here, combine two, all to make it fit the board.

But it leads to...another full draft. That's right, story coordinator, Jimmy the Bat, Take it! Take it!

There's also a bit of back and forth with the art department. I've called for passports, a newspaper headline, a visa letter -- all of these need to be created. I wind up writing a fake letter for the visa application. I'll save you the freeze frame time next year -- there are no dirty words, just a fun bunch of strung together legalese and officialspeak. It's actually way more satisfying to write that stuff than to open up your mailbox and have to read it. Is it possible that real lawyers get secret fuzzy jollies coming up with this shit for real?

Prep Day 8

The major event today is the production meeting. Once through the shooting schedule, day by day. By now, the story is pretty set. The locations are chosen. We're cast. And so through the meeting, the script pretty firmly passes out of my comfort zone -- as a collection of story beats and scenes, to the realm of the first A.D., Michael -- now it's just a bunch of pieces -- numbers of extras, props needed, cars, playback, art. Here it is, story deconstructed into its component parts. It's in that in between phase -- for the moment, not a story to be told -- but a product to be manufactured.

Then, after, one more playback meeting. I want to kill myself.

There are a few change pages for the Yellow, but we're going to hold them off until the read through. Hopefully the read through will only mean dialogue tweaks. You hear how the actor reads a line, sometimes a substitution they make that works...you answer their questions.

Which brings us to today.

There's a bunch of prop photos that play in my ep, too. (Playback and Prop photos -- I can't make it simple, can I?) They were shot this morning, Cherry Beach standing in for the Sudan. Magic of TV. The Director comes in to tell us they look great.

Actors are trickling in for their costume fittings with Ruth. Our guest lead is flying in from Los Angeles later this afternoon. The Producers will meet her later.

Then, at the crew lunch, the read through, some quick and dirty changes and hopefully we'll issue Yellow pages tonight. And hopefully it won't be a full draft.

Tomorrow we shoot. And another episode starts prep.

So it goes.

Americans are a Gassy People

WELL CONGRATS all around to those toiling out in Rouleau.

From Playback:

Americans have been charmed by the quirky residents of Dog River, who drew high ratings to Superstation WGN when Corner Gas made its south-of-the-border premiere.

Amid favorable reviews from U.S. critics, the first two episodes of season one scored 357,000 and 290,000 viewers (2+), respectively, on Sept. 10 at 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. ET. Those numbers compare favorably to America's Funniest Home Videos, the highest rated show on the satellite and cable channel, which garnered 541,000 viewers in the same Monday timeslot the week prior.

The Gas episodes also played well in the key 18-49 demographic -- 176,000 and 168,000 -- taking second place behind AFHV and even finishing ahead of a Cubs-Cardinals game.

"Baseball, especially Cubs competing for the division title, is big on our network, so this was a great start," a spokesperson for WGN tells Playback Daily. The Chicago-based channel reaches over 70 million U.S. homes. It celebrated the premiere of the Regina-shot comedy, seen here on CTV, with a free gas giveaway during an online contest.

We can do this if you support us. There are more Corner Gas's in us yet!

The Dad-O-Meter

MEASURING ONE'S reaction to new fall shows is by no means an exact science. But this year I've rolled out a new tool.

I got a second TV.

One for the bedroom. It was an impulse buy. I've not had a TV in the bedroom, well, ever. At least since I lived with my parents -- in those long ago times when I moved down to dwell, sturm and drang and all, in the basement.

Having a TV in the bedroom, of course, means that one is able to watch TV in bed. And that means that shows can now be measured by using the Dad-O-Meter, which is carefully calibrated in UoS (Units of Sleep.) If I find myself dozing in the middle of the show, (UoS 1) you know that's not good news. If I actually catch myself snoring, (UoS 5) that's a pretty signficant indictment. (There are other gradations on the UoS scale, including "lost time," to "mixed with dream for more satisfying viewing experience" but they're all highly technical measurements, so I won't get into them.) Suffice it to say that the use of the Dad-O-Meter also provides the most concrete evidence yet that I am indeed turning into my father.

My father falls asleep in front of the TV all the time. Then he wakes up ten minutes later and can't follow the action and starts asking questions. But he doesn't fall asleep in front of Rome, say. He discovered the Dad-O-Meter years ago.
So what does the Dad-O-Meter say about the new fall shows thus far?

K-Ville

I liked the pilot, but wasn't sure I saw the show past the cop show set in New Orleans thing. And you know what? If they're going to set a cop show in N.O. and then back away from the Katrina implications, then I definitely am not interested. The preview for Ep 2 looked like it might be going that way, so I stayed away (for now.) It's on the PVR but I decided to check out some other fare.

Chuck (may not be exactly as pictured)

...surprised me. Not because I liked it -- Zachary Levi is winning and the action was great, and that lead actress I've never seen before was good, and she sure is gorgeous. (And just in case you weren't sure of that, they give you not one, but two scenes with her in her underwear to make the sale.) Yes, Chuck was well-executed and fun.

Nope, I'm surprised because I don't want to go back. I guess the thing is, at the end of the day, with the very few "add" slots I have for TV viewing, I'm not clamoring for a cross between Alias and The 40 Year Old Virgin. I want different things from each of those genres. Sorry Chuck. Nice try. But I did stay awake.

Hey..isn't Rachel Bilson coming on this show? Mmm. Maybe one more. I'll check back in a few weeks.

Journeyman

was equally a surprise. I'd read a few vaguely disappointed reviews, and yes, the show is basically Quantum Leap. But there's a couple of things that really drew me in.

First, I thought it was a really well-executed pilot. Great production values, but it didn't exactly look like it was $10 million more than any other ep of the series...I'm not looking to be burned by that this year. Second, Kevin McKidd from Rome is just a magnetic guy. He's a great actor, and you want to go with him. I also appreciated that they didn't go for the obvious cultural reference points when they were in the past. Okay, yeah, there was the guy talking on the cell phone the size of a casket, but there were subtler touches as well. I loved the old clip of Bryant Gumbel and Jane Pauley on the Today show, and the Less Than Zero billboard. I liked the murky morality doublecross -- he's kind of there to save someone, but kind of not. If anything demonstrates the change of attitude in America in the twenty years since Quantum Leap, it's how they handled that plot.

And then, Lord Baby Jesus, there she is. Moon Bloodgood. Oh, man. Seriously, was this woman created in some sort of Evil Genius' lab? Nice twist with her character too -- also being some sort of 'traveler.' And all the stuff with the wife didn't feel forced to me. I liked how committed he is to his wife. Made me feel good and gooey about True Lurrv. "Honey, I love you so much I didn't even have sex with Moon Bloodgood." That should be on a card.

The thing is, I feel like this exact show broke my heart earlier this season, with Daybreak (and Bloodgood, too) so I'll be watching the ratings closely before I commit to an 'add' here.

Cane

Gosh, they're really taking this one seriously. But Jimmy Smits is such a solid television performer that maybe I sh...zzzzz.zzzzZZZZZZZzzzzZZZZZZz.

Big Bang Theory

I was actually asleep before Chuck Lorre's credit came up.

Back To You

Troubling. Pilot was boring and I dozed. Jokes felt creaky. The character of the news director is exactly the same character that Grant Shaud played on Murphy Brown, and that was, what, twenty years ago? Oh wait, except this guy's overweight. And so we get a moment when the audience gets to laugh at the sweatstains under his arms. Nice.

It's not exactly Frasier and Niles quipping about Opera, is it? I also wanted some more genuine nastiness between Patty Heaton and Kesley Grammer. He's an anchorman, for God's sake. I don't want him to be likable. And while we're at it, you should be working harder to make me forget the movie Anchorman. I'm thinking about pulling out the DVD while I'm watching this. Not a good sign.

I can't believe it's not better, though, so I'll give it one more. Maybe. If I stay awake.

Reaper

Here's where the Dad-o-Meter breaks down a bit. I didn't get to the end. (Oh, let's face it, I didn't get much past Act Two) but that's not the fault of the show. Ray Wise as the Devil is fantastic and funny. It had a familiar feel to it, because I'd just watched Chuck, which plays in much the same arena -- but I liked Reaper's sidekick character way, way better. That must be it. The Dad-O-Meter wasn't properly calibrated. I didn't see enough of Reaper, but what I did see made me want to see more.

The Dad-O-Meter did come through on one more essential point. As I fell asleep, I kept hearing James Nesbitt's Ulster accent, intoning, "YES, DAAAHDDY!"

Not a one of these shows has the slick, scary, pulsing originality, "I wouldn't dare sleep through this" as Jekyl. Not a one.

Madder

REMEMBER THE OLD Peanuts cartoons where Snoopy would do a happy dance for joy?

Cue up the Vince Guaraldi...

New York - NY, September 24, 2007 - AMC announced today that it will renew Mad Men for a second season continuing the network's mandate to deliver a distinctive viewing experience through cinematic-quality original programming. Created, written and executive produced by Matthew Weiner (Executive Producer/Writer, "The Sopranos"), Mad Men follows the personal and professional lives of New York advertising execs circa 1960. Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), the leading independent filmed entertainment studio, produces the series. Season one's finale will be on Thursday, October 18th at 10PM EST.