If You're Coming Here from CBC Radio...

IF YOU'RE IN Cape Breton, Windsor, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Moncton N.B., Gander NFLD, Sudbury ON, Victoria B.C., Tronnna, Kelowna, B.C. or Fredricton, N.B. and you listen to CBC Radio, you might have heard me pop up on your Radio this morning talking about the current CRTC Broadcasting framework review, which is currently starring a WWE style smackdown between Canada's broadcasters and cable/satellite co's.

Hopefully through my haze of sleepiness, I managed to direct you to a couple of edifying posts that could be accessed through my blog.  Here they are.  The first is from my friend Jim Henshaw, a proud Saskatchewinian, TV Writer and Producer, who's worked in this industry longer than I've been alive.  He's also seen a thing or two, and has a way of framing the problem of Canadian TV with a lyricism I think you're really going to enjoy.

You can also check out this piece by Will Dixon, a writer, director, and educator who currently lives in Saskatchewan.  It chronicles a bit of the spin he saw when he went to the "Save Local TV" info session.

But before you do go there -- do me a favour and watch this here video from the WGC (that's the Writers Guild of Canada.) That's the organization that I belong to that reps close to 2000 writers of drama, comedy, animation, childrens and documentary programs.

As I may have said this morning, we're kind of on the leading wedge of the 600 000 people employed making TV in this country.  We're also consumers, like you. We pay taxes, like you. And besides the fact that our cable bills might go up too, we also are in a bit of limbo while we wait for these behemoths to stop their silly fighting and come to some solution that doesn't send our whole industry into the toilet.

Anyway, if you've been thoroughly confused by the half truths in the "Save Local TV" and "Stop the TV Tax" Campaigns (and I don't blame you if you are) here's a video we made trying to give some context to the whole thing.



I've written my own takes on why Canada's creatives feel a bit held hostage by this silly fight -- and also about how the "Save Local TV" cry rang a bit hollow this summer when a storm raged through town.

Believe me. I hate having to write about this stuff. I'd much rather be writing things I care about, like, oh, Starbucks holiday cups, and Remembrance Day tributes, and even nifty ways of focusing your day and avoiding procrastination.  (That last link is even great if you're not a writer!)

I'd also rather be trying to write something entertaining for you to watch on your TV. You know...if you want to.  Ah well. Maybe somebody will come to their senses.  Maybe.

Thanks for your interest, and thanks for stopping by.

Denis McGrath

Tweet it And Weep

Context.

UM, YEAH.  You know the big Cable - Network fight up at the CRTC there?

Keep fiddling, boys.

Your Handy CRTC Decoder Ring

MAYBE YOU'RE A masochist.  I don't know.  I mean, I know why I am keeping an eye on the current CRTC hearings.  They directly affect my livelihood. But now that Canadians have been bombarded with five months of misleading advertisements from both "sides" in the Fee-for-carriage (wait, this just in, new jargon...now it's "Value for Signal." Oh MY GOD that fixes EVERYTHING!!!!) debate, maybe there might be some civilians who tune in and take a peek.  And then hit a horrible jargon wall.

In the spirit of that, here is a handy jargon Decoder ring, courtesy of the Writers Guild of Canada. (Thanks David Kinahan!+ Kelly Lynne Ashton from the WGC!)

WGC’s Magic Policy Hearing Decoder Ring:

The following concepts and acronyms are being thrown around with abandon. Here are a few ‘plain english’ explanations. We’ll try not to define acronyms with acronyms.

FFC – Fee for carriage. Over the air broadcasters want to be paid by the cable and satellite companies for carrying their signal. Cable and satellite have never paid for over the air, only specialty and pay services.

VFS – Value for Signal. This is a new term for fee for carriage artificially imposed by the CRTC.

NVS – Negotiated Value for Signal – what CTV calls fee for carriage.

OTA – Over the air television, also known as conventional television. CTV, Global, CBC and others.

BDU – broadcast distribution undertaking. This is the Broadcasting Act definition of cable and satellite operators

DTH – Direct to home satellite.

VOD – Video on Demand

CMF – Canada Media Fund. Used almost interchangeably with predecessor 

CTF (Canadian Television Fund -- soon to be CMF - Canada Media Fund)

LPIF – Local Programming Improvement Fund. This fund, which started September 1, 2009, was created by the CRTC as a way of helping local programming for smaller markets (ie not markets with population over 1 million). It is funded by 1.5% of revenues to be paid by cable and satellite operators. This contribution has been passed on to consumers by the cable and satellite operators.

CPE – Canadian Programming Expenditure. Currently only specialty services have a CPE. At licence renewal they have a condition of licence that sets their CPE for the licence term based on their profitability (higher profits mean higher CPE) though the calculation is based on revenue (ie 30% of revenue). CPE is generally an expenditure requirement to be spent on all Canadian content rather than specific genres such as drama or docs. 

Simultaneous Substitution – also known as Simulcast. This is the practice of Canadian conventional broadcasters being allowed to substitute Canadian ads (sold by them) in the broadcast signals of US programs aired by the Canadian broadcaster at the same time as the US broadcasts that program. So you see the US ads on NBC but the Canadian ads if you watch on CTV. This locks Canadian broadcasters into the US schedules but allows them to keep Canadian audiences watching the Canadian broadcaster.

Non-simultaneous Substitution – this means that the Canadian broadcaster would be able to insert the Canadian ads into programs broadcast at a different time than the US broadcast. There are technical and commercial problems with this. It is frequently raised but there seem to be too many difficulties.

Non-simultaneous Deletion – this is another way of saying protected program rights. If CTV has Desperate Housewives then the cable companies would have to delete the broadcast of ABC so there would be no broadcast of Desperate Housewives in Canada except on CTV. 

Digital Transition – Analog signals are to be shut of August 31, 2011. Broadcasters have known this for a long time, it’s been postponed but they are dragging their feet building digital transmitters. They are also not willing to build enough transmitters to cover 100% of Canadians. About 10% to 20% of the population will not be covered and will lose access to television. There is also the problem of requiring Canadians to get cable or satellite in order to get television without over the air signals. There’s been a call for the government to help with that transition either by subsidizing the cost of transmitters or helping rural and/or poor Canadians with satellite dishes and/or set top boxes.

Priority Programming – in 1999 the policy was changed from direct support of drama and docs to exhibition requirements for priority programming in prime time. Priority programming is drama, docs, variety, entertainment magazine shows and regional programming of any kind except news and sports. 


C'mon. Aren't you glad you asked?


The next fight -- watch this CPE thing.  Remember that even if they do get spending and exhibition requirements (the only thing that's worked in the past to get CDN broadcasters to actually invest and show drama and comedy shows, that right now based on the 1999 ruling, they could easily spend it on more crappy ET Canada ripoff shows...cheapo magazine crap. "this week on Entertainment Tonight Canada -- Jean Claude Van Damme, Kate Gosselin and Ivanka Trump... cause as we all know, we all really need that essential Canadian spin on Ivanka Trump.)


Seriously, Aren't you glad you asked?

Bane & Cable

WHILE WE'RE AT it, don't forget about the helpful video from the WGC giving the real context to this current CRTC cheese & whine...

Cra$h & Burn premieres Tomorrow

BIG CANADIAN TV premiere of the week is Cra$h & Burn on Showcase. (Wow...Crash & Burn. What a great title for a show... Wonder how they came up with that? Anyway...)

Malcolm MacRury (the rich ZOS, Deadwood) is the Creator for this series about an insurance adjuster with deep dark secrets.  Diane over at Tv,Eh? had a roundup of some pre-press articles.

Next part is courtesy Jill Golick:

Malcolm was a guest at a recent Writers Watching TV screening in Toronto and he talked at length about the genesis of the series and the writing process that drives it.

The entire discussion was recorded and is now available as the second in the Writers Talking TV podcast series.  Download it from theWGC site or iTunes.  Or just click here and listen now.

Crash & Burn premieres on Showcase Wed Nov 18 at 9pm

Reprint: Critical Regulatory Tipping Catastrophe

While the latest Farce at the CRTC continues, here's a little piece of the REAL context of "Save Local TV"...Originally published August 21, 2009. If you're fed up with the CRTC's inaction on behalf of people, rather than corporations, take note. 


ONE OF THE big arguments of history is what drives human history more -- great events or great people. It's a fascinating argument. But an equally interesting little eddy is how critical mass is achieved for an idea. When Malcolm Gladwell wrote The Tipping Point, he sort of put into words something that most of us sensed, or knew from our own lives. We're taught that things change slowly. But they don't. Not really. Things kind of tend to stay the same, and then something happens and suddenly there's a critical mass and whooosh, change happens faster than you could possibly imagine.

The Soviet Union and communism had been on the ropes for awhile, but when that Wall fell, it was game over. We heard about subprime mortgages in crisis for a long time -- but Bear Sterns went down, and suddenly the whole financial system quickly imploded and we plunged into recession. The British Colonists had been grumbling and complaining for years, but when Great Britain passed the Intolerable Acts, the tea went into Boston Harbour and British North America began to unravel.

Canadians are a largely complacent people. A little smug, and not prone to rash displays. There might be some people who get a little bent out of shape about subjects like media concentration and taxation levels, but very few people are actually moved enough to do something about it.

So we have the situation we have today. Cell phone service in this country is some of the most expensive and least robust of anywhere in the industrialized world. On Text messages, the industry markup is 4900 percent. Cable and satellite services for most people have gone up something like 30% since the sector was largely deregulated a few years ago. The big three or four companies control most of the pipe money -- delivering tv and internet to the majority of the country. They've made record profits over the last few years, $2 billion last year -- off you and me, while enjoying robust regulatory protection.

On the broadcast side, well, if you've read this blog before, you know the drift of that. They've done more to spend money on U.S. programming, while consolidating, and cutting local TV coverage to the bone. My part of the industry has suffered a lot. And the broadcasters spent huge amounts of money gobbling each other up, and made, again, hand over fist profits, until they latest downturn where they decided the sky was falling -- and brazenly turned around and said that the active strategy of consolidation that they'd been pursuing for years, wasn't the reason that local TV had become so anemic. Nope, apparently everything was fine until Bear Stearns went into the tank, and GM pulled the plug on advertising.

We've been treated (okay, I concede, it wasn't much of a treat, and you probably weren't paying attention anyway) to an ugly squabble for the last couple of years between the cablers and the broadcasters. It's over money, as everything is. The broadcasters want to get paid for their valuable signals that duplicate what you already get on the U.S. networks, and the Cablers say they shouldn't have to do anything to support the system, and if they're made to pay into a fund that saves local tv or promotes Canadian creative drama, or buys pony rides for sick kids, well, that's a tax and they're just going to pass it on to you and me -- like they've passed on those massive increases over the last few years, for substandard service.

Oh there's other neato stuff around the rims, too....like the fact that they want to be able to shape internet traffic -- so they'll sell you on blazing hot speeds and then cut off the faucet when you try to get what you paid for. They also want to set rates that favour their businesses -- specifically, usage-based rates for internet pipe that makes it very difficult for the 20% of the market that isn't one of those big five Telecommunications behemoths to try and offer better service to Canadians.

In any case, with all those regs in place that mean you can't seek out a real competitor, (I mean, wow, I can choose between Rogers and Bell? Lucky me. Now, for my next choice, I get to choose between death by hanging or drowning, right?) aren't we all lucky that we have somebody watching out for us?

Who am I talking about? The CRTC, of course.

Except, of course, they don't. They never have. The CRTC doesn't work for you and me. They're a bureaucratic organization that's basically bought and paid for by the industries they regulate.

Little brushfires over things like net neutrality might have started the ball rolling, but a few recent, very tin-eared decisions and processes have stripped the veneer away from the game. First, there was that wonderful case in the last broadcaster hearings where they went behind closed doors and then erased the redacted transcripts of what was said. Then there was the screw up of the Do Not Call list, and the fact that now the CRTC is going behind closed doors AGAIN, in order to PROTECT the companies that have violated that list.

That's what they do. They protect companies. Not you. And not me.

In classic netgeek fashion, it's the internet decision last week that started an ugly ball rolling. A very slick, quite professional campaign to Dissolve The CRTC. When the light is shone upon the dark recesses of the commission, it's pretty hard to argue against the point that the commissioners are clearly too close to the industries they regulate.

But yesterday, the other crying baby, the broadcasters -- were served up a slice of failure pie that takes that grassroots campaign and elevates it to something else.

In the midst of a horrific local storm, with Tornadoes touching down all over the city, local TV failed in the most profound way possible to inform its citizens. If you ask "what am I paying for?" then based on yesterday, the clear answer is nothing. Nothing at all. As Jim Henshaw put it:

Since the lightning was now crackling the radio so much it was unlistenable and local television was in news hour mode, I went back to the TV to find out what was happening. I learned that the Lockerbie bomber had been released, the Prime Minister was enjoying his trip through the Arctic and Hurricane Bill was threatening Bermuda. Nothing about what was happening right outside my window and less than 30 clicks from where these broadcasts were originating. To be sure, there had been a mention of Durham, where the first Tornado had hit an hour earlier and that there were “suspected” touch downs of funnel clouds in Vaughn and my hometown of Newmarket. But no details. No raw video from a courageous videographer. No field reporters ducking flying cows. In the centralized model of Canadian local TV I’d predictedmonths ago but never thought might ever personally affect me, the two million people who live just beyond the Greater Toronto Area had no television service addressing the imminent threat they all faced. Instead, I was treated to the same pre-packaged news segments, the same smiling meat puppets and the same banal “Sparky, what the heck’s happened to my Blue Jays?” banter.

People who grow up in Toronto are used to the frequent storm crawls and radar

messages that run on the Buffalo stations whenever there's a storm. Our local stations here couldn't even muster that much yesterday -- except in one case, long after the storms had already crested.

Interestingly enough, I have to say that I was out on the road yesterday, listening to my Ipod, and had no idea how really bad the storm was, until I got an email alert on my phone -- from CBC.CA. That's right. The poor, maligned, complained about CBC dropped an alert in my inbox that said Tornadoes in Toronto and spelled out the severity of the storm in dire enough terms that I immediately found a parking garage and waited out the deluge.

Go read Jim Henshaw's justifiably livid accounting of the utter failure of local TV during the storm. Better yet, print it out, mail it to your MP with a big red "WTF?" written across the top. Remember, this is local TV in Toronto, a city of TWO MILLION people -- not Regina or Red Deer or Saint John. Ask yourself if you think Michel Arpin and the merry band of CRTC commissioners are sweating yet?

A big bowl of #fail with sadness sauce. And maybe, if we're very lucky, and people keep the heat on-- a tipping point.

To comment on this story, please click through to the original post.

Running With The Sons

I'M NOT THE first to notice this, but in case you haven't seen it elsewhere, Kurt Sutter from Sons of Anarchy has one of the best descriptions of the job of Showrunning in toto, that I've ever read.

As you read, please note the places where there's room for variation.  Every writing room is run differently.  You can have a staff where the showrunner rewrites all, or one where the communication is good enough that writers can do meaningful second drafts. There are shows where the senior writers aren't rewritten as much because their scripts are closer; I've found shows where the Writer follows their ep through production and becomes sort of the showrunner proxy is a good way to delegate.  But it's not the only way to do it.

If you're partnered with a Director (like Tommy Schlamme on West Wing or Pamela Fryman on How I Met Your Mother) maybe you don't spend as much time in editing.  Or maybe you don't care as much about wardrobe. You can split up duties anyway you want.

Sometimes you have a second that runs the writing room for you.  Sometimes you come in with the whole season figured out in your head and you pitch it to the staff; sometimes it's vague and you let the staff pitch to you.

Sometimes (and I think, ideally) it's your show. Sometimes it's somebody else's and you're there to execute it.  There are lots and lots of variations. But there are two things that I think are common to all the iterations, when a show works:

Communication.  The showrunner sets the tone, and others succeed or fail as well, by how well they can communicate with each other.  Being able to articulate concerns and questions; being able to visualize problems eight weeks out instead of day after tomorrow and come up with workable solutions is key. So is being able to listen when your Producer speaks budget to you, and to come up with ingenious creative fixes without compromising content...Being able to inspire confidence and also to trust that there aren't factions or Producers squabbling behind your back, that in fact, everybody is pulling in the same direction -- the direction that you are setting...all that is what we mean when we talk about the second essential component:

Having a Vision.  It's easy to come up with an idea for a show. Ideas are cheap like borscht.  The tough thing is being able to see that idea through to a finished episode, season, or series. Having the experience to know what is important and what's not, where you can compromise and where you can't, what's essential and what's not.  Remember, you've got forty people running around. Actors think their role is the most important.  Production Designers think their needs are greatest. To propmasters it's about stuff. Wardrobe, Hair, Makeup -- all view the show through their prism.  It's your job to conceive and communicate how they fit into the orchestra that is your show.   That is what vision means. Or should anyway.

Anyhow. Go read Sutter.

Bereft

WOW. REALLY.  TILL next summer?

Shit.

Strachan Gets It Right

WELL, IT WAS fun Tweeting while watching the Gemini Awards last night to the, oh, I don't know, fifteen or thirty people who cared.


Congrats to my pals Mark & Stephanie and their partners on Flashpoint for their Best Drama Series win (in probably the most competitive category I remember.  Five actually great entries!)


For my money, line of the night belonged to host Ron James: "Why is it every time the oil industry gets government funding it's a subsidy, and every time the arts does it's a handout?"


I also have to talk to my Albertan friends. Judging by the Alberta government ads every break, well, gosh...I just had NO IDEA that Alberta was such a friendly, welcoming, supportive place for artists. (!)


It was nice to see Erin Karpluk take home hardware for Being Erica, and Enrico Colatoni -- who's played the U.S. sitcom game and been Veronica Mars' dad -- seemed genuinely choked up at his best actor win.  I'm not proud of this, but I'm starting to think the only thing I really ever enjoy about awards show is when people cry.


I think I have some things to work out.


But when it comes to a fuller reaction or wrap to the show, I can't do better than Alex Strachan did today.  So, uh...go read it.

Fade In, Fade Out ...

WHEN IT'S S.R.O. and Jim Henshaw shows up with an Elmo Pinata and a baseball bat & blindfold -- you know you're at a very, very special Band Practice.

Thanks to all the Writer Mafia types for showing up, zooing up, trading up, catching up on everybody's trials, triumphs and tribbleations. The Mots were certainly Bon. Aint no party like a writer party.

And then just when you think you've got it figured out, in walks Kid Sis looking Drop Dead Glam, accompanied by the Marlene Dietrich of the Ink Set, the indomitable, Mighty Maureen Parker of the WGC fresh from some other party altogether. As Stewie would say...

Yessiree. Them McGraths are wired.

Plans are taking shape for Band Practice's new 2010 incarnation -- with brand new, rotating conductors. Stay tuned for that.

Thanks as always to the intrepid staff of The Paddock.

Note to the boys at the bar: the tequila shots were worth it. Right? Am I right?

And to all you fabulous scribbly scribes and sketchy friends. I am reminded anew, and afresh, why it's worth the fight.

Oh. My. God.

I COMPLETELY MISSED this.

But Geist didn't.

One issue that was not raised - indeed it has not received any real public attention - was noted earlier today by Alan Sawyer. He notes that CTV and Canwest have quietly asked the CRTC to order cable and satellite companies to establish a new policy of "program deletion." The new policy (which is supported in a Toronto Star piece today) would mean that when a Canadian broadcaster buys the Canadian rights to a U.S. program, the U.S. broadcast would be blocked in Canada for a seven-day window.

In other words, rather than the current simultaneous substitution policy, which allows for the programs to air at the same time and for the substitution of the Canadian broadcast on the U.S. channel (thereby leading to the annual complaints about Super Bowl commercials), the U.S. broadcast would be blocked altogether. That would allow Canadian broadcasters to air the U.S. program whenever they like and block the U.S. version altogether. In a world when consumers expect to view programs on their schedule, CTV and Canwest seek a return to a prior era when the broadcaster retains (now illusory) control over access to the broadcasts in Canada.

Yup. Let's punish the public. And you know somehow, somebody's gonna figure out how to sell the hoser vote on how this is really all the fault of people who are trying to make homegrown programs.

You know, sometimes I wonder if our industry really isn't too stupid to live.

Dear Meteor,

Anytime now.

Love, Denis.

And with that, I'm going to go get a bourbon.

Tv Tax? Save Local TV? Gimme Some Truth!

FOR YOUR WEEKEND delight, and in anticipation of the opening of the 3rd - count 'em - 3rd hearing to examine fee-for-carriage at the CRTC on Monday, the Writers Guild of Canada has prepared this little video that debunks and explains some of the misleading sturm and drang rhetoric you've been hearing on those duelling commercials for months. Feel free to email this sucker to EVERYBODY!

UPDATE 5:19 P.M. Whoopsie-Daisy. Looks like there was a bit of a hiccup with the video getting out of sync there -- this one isn't exactly frame-perfect, but at least it doesn't mysteriously chop eight seconds off the vid and stays in sync right to the end! Okay, then, forward THIS ONE to everybody. Yeesh!

Shuffling the Chairs at CBC

SO THE BIG news today is a shuffle at the public broadcaster that will have a significant impact on creative development at the CBC.

From the press release:

Over the last few years, CBC Television has experienced significant success with its new shows," says Richard Stursberg, Executive Vice-President of English Services. "They have drawn bigger domestic audiences and sold well internationally, despite our continually diminishing available resources. This recent success gives CBC an opportunity to increase its position in the international television marketplace. It also helps us to move into the new multi-platform world from a position of strength."

Fred Fuchs, former Executive Director, Arts & Entertainment for CBC Television, has been appointed General Manager, Production Enterprises, with responsibility for strengthening the international relationships and financing of CBC's Arts and Entertainment, Documentary and Factual Entertainment shows.

At the same time, Sally Catto, former Creative Head for CBC Drama, joins the senior network programming team as Executive Director, Arts and Entertainment for CBC Television and will lead the creative development and execution of all programming in Comedy, Drama, Variety, Performing Arts and Children's Programming.

This is a big step forward for CBC, and recognizes Fuchs' background in international deals (he was involved with the setup of The Tudors before coming to CBC, and also worked for Francis Ford Coppola.) With shrinking resources, it probably is good for the CBC to be thinking co-pro. Now creatives just have to keep the heat on and make sure that some Above the line Writers from this country get love on these shows -- not just Editors and Directors and stuff.

This goes hand in hand with this announcement that CBC made yesterday about a new partnership with Telefilm to bring Canadian films to the broadcaster quicker.

The second part of today's announcement is also something I'm really enthusiastic about. Sally Catto is a really great, smart executive who is incredibly enthusiastic about TV. So here's hoping that those initial positive steps into series over the last few years hit a new gear now. With Mercer pulling record numbers and, "oh yes we're just the girls and horses show" Heartland slaying the ratings in that family hour that CBC used to own on Sundays, there's plenty of Up that can be mined from this.

Here's coverage of today's shuffle from CP, and The Hollywood Reporter.

Friday Afternoon...

ONE OF THE great traditions in the news business is the Friday afternoon news dump. Big stuff happening... be back with it in a few mins...

And Through The Weeds -- An Idea!

THERE ARE A host of problems with it. But Douglas Barrett, writing in the Toronto Star today, actually has something that has been sorely lacking in the fake fight over Carriage fees between Big Networks and Big Cable: An idea.

A modest proposal to cool the TV war - thestar.com

A short excerpt:

The idea is called nonsimultaneous substitution. Essentially, it would remove the restriction that shows have to aired be at same time and date and replace it with a requirement that they (including their commercials) must be broadcast on the same day or even in the same week. So, for example, if Glee aired on Global at 8 p.m. and on FOX at 10 p.m., the 8 p.m. Global version would be substituted for the FOX 10 p.m. version.

This would introduce enormous scheduling flexibility for broadcasters, a shot-in-the-arm for audiences to Canadian programs, and a new source of revenues for the system.

UPDATE: Sigh. Things are always too good to be true. Apparently the main reason this is a non-starter? WGA Residual payments. If it plays at a different time, it's a separate play, and that counts toward how residuals are calculated. So it's actually a huge stumbling block that's not easily addressed.

Once upon a time, CDN nets when they couldn't simulcast, pre-released. Even as late as the Early seasons of The West Wing, it would air in Canada a night or two early. Downloading killed that -- and dismantling the residual system for Canadian networks to play diff. times would be as likely a course as AmNets allowing a pre-release in the Post-Bittorent world.

Srsly?

IS THERE SOME kind of pent-up demand that I'm not aware of? I mean, really?

Who's buying this?

A Little Song, A Little Dance...

TOUGH YEAR if you're a student of TV comedy. First Larry Gelbart, and now the great David Lloyd.

Jaime Weinman in Macleans wrote it thusly:

Lloyd didn’t have the same success as a creator or showrunner as he did working on other people’s shows. But he did co-create one successful show, “Brothers,” the cable sitcom about three brothers, one of whom is gay. The show, which the broadcast networks turned down, helped to put the Showtime network on the map, and was one of the first shows to portray a gay character in a non-sensationalized way. Lloyd also created some less-successful shows like “Mr. Smith” (about a chimpanzee — look, it was 1983 and the sitcom was dead; this is what was getting on the air) and spent a year or two running Weinberger’s creation Amen.

But for the most part, Lloyd was a scriptwriter first. His title was usually “creative consultant,” and what that meant in practice was that his main job was writing scripts, in all styles, from romantic comedy to serious-issue comedy to wild farce. On Cheers and Frasier he wrote crazy farces like “Ham Radio” on Frasier (the one about the old-school radio play where Niles has to do most of the voices), but also more pain-filled (yet still farcical) episodes like the one where Niles finalizes his breakup with Maris. And, again, as Levine points out, these scripts were often his scripts in a way that most TV scripts aren’t: he created scripts that could stand on their own without the producer and writing staff doing much to them.

Ken Levine has an outstanding appreciation of one of the greatest craftsmen and talents of the comedy writing business. Go read it here. Lloyd also leaves a legacy ... his son, Christopher, was one of Frasier's most prolific writers, and is now one of the co-creators of Modern Family.

A clip from arguably his greatest script -- and one of the greatest sitcom episodes ever, "Chuckles Bites The Dust," below.

11:00/11/11

WE DON'T ALL remember. And more of us go through the motions. But there are those who pause, and stop, and understand exactly how you bought us the right to be so cavalier. And we thank you with words inadequate, and prayers unformed. We honor your sacrifice, always, though at times we lament the path that brought you there; it was not always the wisest or most virtuous.

That is no matter. That is politics. Your service is of loyalty, and sacrifice, and courage, and we remember not just because it is proper, but because it is a complicated thing to both venerate the sacrifice you made for people you would never know, and to mourn the loss of you -- what your courage may have added to a world both scarred by too much of your type of sacrifice, and blessed too little by healing.

We just celebrated an anniversary many of you never got to see. Twenty years ago a wall came down; a wall that you would perhaps have seen as futile. With the destruction of that wall came hope and a desire for a better way; hope that soon enough crumbled in its own quintessence of dust; dust still swirling from the shattered ashes of concrete. There is shame that in the face of your sacrifice, we still think in terms of walls and barriers and separation. Maybe one day it will be not so.

And on that day, maybe then -- maybe only then, can we approach your sacrifice with honor and dignity untouched by guilt. Guilt that we have not made more of the world you granted us.

But until then, we pause, on this - the eleventh day of the eleventh month to say, with humility, "thank you for our world." Imperfect as it is, it would not exist without you.

So Rest, please. Rest in peace.

It Got Easier

WHEN I STARTED watching Sesame Street, I was a little kid living in New York. I was an only child. By the time I stopped watching, I'd moved out of the city. I was soon to move to Florida. And I had a big expanse of woods behind my house to explore, and two beautiful baby sisters to be very, very careful of and not run around and siddown already would you? That's a lot of change to absorb in a short little life.

It's hard to imagine a time when there wasn't a lot of children's entertainment that played over and over on the playback systems in minivans on long trips, but there you go. Fred Rogers and Sesame Street got an awful lot of us through some bumpy bits of childhood -- moments that were scary or confusing, moments where things never seemed sure or where adults could perplex and frustrate you. It was a comfort, and it was entertaining, and it taught most of us to count and our A, B, C's too. And it taught us that people were the same no matter what they looked like.

And it taught us it was okay to be green. So thanks for that.

Oh, and thanks for this, too:

Mr. Hooper

NOW, IT MAY surprise you to learn, (or maybe not) that I'd stopped watching Sesame Street by 1983.

Shutup, I had too.

Still, the teenage surly me definitely felt a twinge when Will Lee, the actor who played the crusty shopkeeper Mr. Hooper, died between seasons. They'd already finished the tapings for the 82 season. So when they came back in 1983, they decided to deal with the death head on.

I probably went to my first funeral when I was around 6 -- and I had all the same questions and confusions that Big Bird did. There had been a couple of deaths in my family before, and it was scary and perplexing because it was disconcerting to see all the adults so sad all at once. And then to hear that somebody was just...gone. And not coming back. What did it all mean?

A few years ago a friend of mine had her grandmother die, and she went to pieces. And in talking to her later, I was amazed to learn that she'd made it to her early 30's without ever having anybody die on her. What a trip. She was down and broken up about it for months. It was upsetting to watch because though the adult was still there, in there there was the confused little child, too. Like an adult suffering from chicken pox -- the years didn't make those first feelings any easier to process. That caught for me.

And then a few months later somehow it came up during a work thing. And a woman I worked with at the office admitted that her kid was having a tough time with her Grandmother dying. And she found herself reaching back to try and remember what they had told Big Bird about Mr. Hooper.

Life is scary and there's no way around it. But in an age where you go from zero to Nazi-comparison in five point two seconds, are we any better off? I was well served by Sesame Street as a kid. And I think any kid who saw this segment, awkward as it was -- was probably well served by that, too.

The Six Year Old and The Brown Monster

THERE'S A WHOLE lot of sociology that came to play on Sesame Street over the years. Cookie Monster's "Me Want Cookie" became "Cookies are a sometimes food," the graffiti disappeared and the color palate brightened -- but for my money there was no greater (sadder) change than the decision, ten years in, to reveal Mr. Snuffelupagus to the world.

You could see the intent. The good people at Sesame Street didn't want to convey the message that kids wouldn't be believed if they told their parents something. But the great thing, the powerful thing, about Snuffy to me as a little kid was that he was our secret. It was frustrating that the adults didn't see him, but we did. We were right. They were wrong. And maybe that gave permission to a host of childhood fancies and imaginary friends, but maybe too, it gave permission for your imagination to take you whereever it led.

This is Snuffy's first appearance on the show, in 1972. (And note that the Latino guy in the group is Raul Julia!) I remember seeing this the first time. Look too, how scary he looks -- they'd soften that look pretty quickly. But that was part of the appeal to me, too. Something that could seem so scary wasn't, when you gave it a chance.

On second thought, maybe making him visible to all was a good idea. :)

The Green Came Later

FROM HIS FIRST APPEARANCE. God, I used to love Gordon's fro.

On My Way To Where the Air Is Sweet...

THERE IS NO other TV 2 Day.

This blog entry is brought to you by the letter H, the letter A, the letter P, (and add another P so you get the Number 2) the letter Y, the letter B, the letter I, the letter R, the letter T, the letter H, the letter D, the letter A, the letter Y and the number 40.

Jealousy

OKAY PRO SCRIBES, what do you wish you had the rights to? What project would you love to adapt?

This one's mine.

Yours?

Now What? Sunday Nights seem Empty.

MAYBE THIS NEW show will fill the gap.

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Spoofs | TV & Movie Spoofs

Live(or, er, for me) the Mad Men Finale -- Writerly speaking.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, the following is HIGHLY SPOILERIFFIC for the season finale of Mad Men. You were warned. Though I won't be terribly spoilery in the first few graphs.

• I've paused the PVR halfway through Don and Bert's meeting with Roger, 2nd scene in, because I'm giddy... After show after show with feminized men, this, right here, is tough and muscular and how men talk to each other in conflict. If you're a woman, and you feel like you've been shut out of the boy's club, here you go. Don't judge. Listen. This is how men talk to one another about business when you're not around. It's brass tacks. It is not elliptical. It's exilhirating. God, why can't you see this anywhere else on tv?
• Peggy standing up to Don made my heart sing.
• Break for the first time -- George Clooney/Jason Reitman picture UP IN THE AIR -- a show that looks interesting because of, what, hey? The Story. It's followed by a scene from AMC's PRISONER remake, tagged with what I guess is AMC's slogan now -- "Story Matters Here." I ache. Oh God. Really. Imagine if the CBC said that.
• Pete: I want to hear it from him. Ahhhhh!
• Don & Betty after he finds out about Henry Francis. You know, as much as I thought nothing could top the JFK "I want out" discussion, or even the Dick Whitman, "Who are you?" Discussion. It's like we haven't had a serious and substantive discussion between Don and Betty the entire run of the show and now here we are. "I'll take the kids, and they'll be better off." Aaaaaah!'
• "What did we do? Why are we in the living room?" Ahhh Bobby Draper, you have my life!
• "I don't want to spend the rest of my life hiring you." Oh man, I think I would SLEEP with him.
• "Peggy, can you get me some coffee?" "No." Another convo 3 years in the making.
• "Yes, Harry, it's room 435."
• Sterling Cooper Draper Price. Ugh!

Man. Is it Summer 2010 yet?

Mad, I Tells Ya...

I CAN'T EVEN imagine what the season finale of Mad Men holds in store tonight. I just know that I'm deeply, deeply looking forward to it.

Luckily, though the plot might be a mystery, Ken Levine has at least figured out what happens to the kids.

Have a great Sunday.