"I'm Irish. We're a Forgiving People."

That line on 30 Rock was funnier than anything in the Black Donnelly's, that's for sure.

EDIT: And another thing, now that I think about it. 30 Rock is trying something really interesting in flirting with up to the minute stuff. It may have snuck past you, but they did have a joke about the female astronaut with the diapers. It figured in the plot heavily as a reflection of Liz Lemon's (Tina Fey) desperation.

Why's that significant? Well, it's not, really. Except that story broke February 6. So four weeks later, they're on the air with that joke in a sitcom? Maybe Fey's missing her SNL timeliness, but that beats the hell out of the L&O ripped from the headlines turnaround.

In a place like Canada, where it's not unusual for series not to premiere for a YEAR after they were shot, it's downright jarring to see something that timely in a fully produced, top quality sitcom. And as I said, it wasn't a cheap run -- it actually was deployed as a great example of how far Fey's character was sinking. That means it wasn't grafted on at the last minute. It's actually in the DNA of the script.

South Park also returned this week with a classic opening -- a very funny segment with Stan's dad on Wheel of Fortune. (You went straight for NAGGERS too, right? Yeah. Riiiiiight.) South Park often flaunts its timeliness and a particularly plugged-in and prescient view of pop culture. Not only did these guys manage to be in theatres with a Jar-Jar joke, sixty days after The Phantom Menace premiered (they knew Jar Jar was going to be hated simply off the trailer,) not only did they do the definitive making fun of Paris Hilton show more than two years ago -- but last fall, they built an entire episode around the Nintendo Wii. Straight up, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are either from the fucking future, or they're running shit -- because they're the only ones who called that right.

But South Park also has the advantage of ten years of composited stuff to draw from, already in the computer. Sure they can work on the script right up to the wire -- it's not like they have to shoot with actors, or find locations or whatever.

That's what makes 30 Rock's timeliness even more interesting to me. Granted, it's no You Tube, but it's still an interesting acceleration of immediacy in comedy. How will the show age? You got me. But countries that try to slide comedy past on extended timelines -- ahemCanadaahem-- should note this at their peril.

Oh, and speaking of YouTube -- who knew the panda joke from the teaser was actually a thing? Those 30 Rockers -- they's crazy. Cute with Chris should be all over this. Probably more of that "Pandas are Cute" propaganda -- because if you follow Cute with Chris (and why wouldn't you, really?) You undoubtedly know that what Pandas really want to do is eat your face.

But this is still worth watching.

Yo Ho Ho And A Carrot and a Stick

Well well well.

Mediablogging is a funny thing.

I know that regular people complain all the time about not hearing feedback on their posts. That's kind of the solipsistic lowest-common denominator of every blogger. But in the case of this little concern, at least the part of it that deals with Canadian TV, the silence, to my mind, is actually counterproductive.

An industry in need of repair derives no benefit if the very people who are on the front lines remain silent. And keeping silent hasn't exactly helped the cause of Canadian creatives over the last 20 years, has it?

But dangle a little carrot like I did a couple days ago and people come a jumping. That's fine. I'm suitably amused.

I heard from some people I haven't heard from before. I heard praise, and interesting criticism. (Two people took me to task, for instance, for my fondness for italics and bold. They're not going anywhere. Why? That's just how I roll.)

I don't want to build up this great advice too much, but it is interesting, and it is a new, proactive way to think of things.

Several people sent me an email asking for the Secret. (Er. Not The Secret, that's Oprah's bag.) Several more wheedled and asked in comments below. Here's the deal. I will write up the very special post and send it out via email sometime next week. If you want in, send me an email to the account on the sideboard. You also have to be registered with Blogger to post comments. I will send everybody who's sent me an email the post end of next week. If you're worried about me selling your name or email to Nigerian Penis Enlarger & Banking specialists, then just get a new webmail addy and I'll send it to that address. I'm not building a database. Just doing a little feel for my Canadian readers thing.

If you just leave a comment on this, or the earlier post -- no dice -- you gotta register with Blogger to comment and send me an email at the address on the sideboard.

With one 'N?' Like That's Believeable...

So I guess one of the Scooter Libby jurors was named Denis Collins. And he stood up and said, "with one N." And Jon Stewart and Sam Bee made fun of him for that for like, seven minutes.

I feel pretty.

When CN Towers Attack

Baseball-sized chunks of ice falling off the CNTower causing the closure of an entire highway?

Roads closed downtown? Traffic chaos?

Hee hee hee.

The formation of the huge ice sheets on the tower was “a rare occurrence,” says Pressnail, professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto.

Experts say this is the first time in the CN Tower’s history - construction was completed in 1976 - the structure has seen such an ice buildup. One of the pieces appeared to be roughly 50 metres tall by 6 metres wide.

How did it happen?

The tower is made of a massive amount of concrete - some 40,500 cubic metres of it, enough to build a sidewalk from Toronto to Kingston. Recent freezing temperatures gave the tower walls plenty of time to cool, Pressnail said, noting there is minimal or no heat transfer from inside the building to the walls’ surface.

“This definitely is a rare event - I can’t remember ever hearing of ice falling off the CN Tower,” Pressnail said.

And to think, I thought missing the winter in Toronto wouldn't be a big deal.

Emerging Writer Opportunities (In Canada, you Say?)

The Banff World Television Festival (which I hope to write a little more about later this week or next) has just updated their site with a number opportunities for emerging Canadian creatives.

First, there's the very worthwhile Global Television Writers' Apprentice Award.

The Writers Apprentice offers an emerging Canadian writer with the unprecedented opportunity to gain significant experience by completing a four-week internship in the story department of a prime-time series.

The winner will be selected by a Jury consisting of three jurors (one representative from Global Television, one representative from the Banff Television Festival Foundation and one representative from the broadcasting/production community).

The winner of the Global Television Writers Apprentice will be contacted by May 4th, 2007. Winning the award is not contingent upon the winner being in attendance at BWTVF 2007. However, the winner will be eligible for the BWTVF discounted “Rookie Rate” and must cover his/her own expenses to attend the 2007 Banff World Television Festival, June 10-13, 2007.

Deadline is April 20. If I was starting out I'd be all over that application like a manatee on some turtle grass.

Next, there's the CTV Western Canada Fellowship.

CTV Western Canada Fellowships are intended to encourage professional development in the television industry by enabling emerging creative talent including producers, writers and directors - i.e., program makers - to attend the Banff World Television Festival. Fellowships are not intended for established professionals, nor are they intended for entry-level candidates. Applicants must have a minimum of one significant production credit.
CTV Western Canada Fellowships cover the following: full festival registration, including admission to all seminars, workshops, and on-demand screenings; all official social events; and air transportation (transportation allowance based on lowest airfare available).

The "Western Canada" part is new to me -- so far as I remember this used to just be the CTV Fellowship, but at the top of the page it now says British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba. It's not clearly spelled out on the page that you have to be a resident of those provinces, so you might want to check into that.

Deadline is April 16th, notification by April 27th to recipients.

The Banff World Television Festival runs June 10-13. There's an early bird rate til March 31. Details about the fest, and guests (including Mike Clattenburg (Trailer Park Boys), Greg Daniels (The Office, King of the Hill), and Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars) to name a few) can be had by going here.

HOUSE-keeping

Deep in 2nd Draft land today, and I seem to have front loaded my procrastination this morning -- so I'm turning off the internet and going cold turkey.

Before I do that, though, one link and one recommendation:

Diane at Unified Theory has a nifty interview with HOUSE E.P. Katie Jacobs. HOUSE continues to be the little engine that could in TV drama. It's very solid and getting moreso.

Then, if you happen to find yourself in a video store, I cannot recommend Stranger Than Fiction more highly. I saw the film this past weekend. I was a fan of Marc Forster's Finding Neverland, but his direction of this film, along with Zach Helm's nuanced, touching, and eloquent script just made for a very surprising film.

Will Ferrell is wonderful -- he really acts, and there's none of the usual Feral Ferrellness, if you're not one who's into that thing (I seriously go back and forth and then hate myself for loving his schtick.)

The film's got things to say about our responsibilities as creators; it nails writers to the wall and manages to feature note-perfect tiny turns from Linda Hunt, Tom Hulce, Tony Hale, Dustin Hoffman, and...believe it or not...Queen Latifah. This in addition to the top troika including Maggie Gyllenhall and Emma Thompson.

There is nothing about this film that I can't recommend. Probably enjoyed it more than anything I've seen since The Departed.

Lifetime's Blood Ties Behind the Scenes...

Lifetime has just gone live with a whole mess o' content for Blood Ties. They've done a great job on the website. Lots of nice goodies for fans and the curious alike to stoke their vampire-loving hearts and whet their bloody appetites.

If you live in the United States it looks like later this week you'll be able to download the first hour of the premiere from the Itunes Store -- for free. (They did that for Dresden Files too-- in fact, it's a growing promotional trend that probably deserves a column all its own soon. hmm.)

Right now if you go to Lifetime's site you can get all sorts of exclusive content including cast pictures and info and interesting behind-the-scenes featurettes with the stars of the show.

There's also a new blog, Blood Tales, by Tanya Huff, author of the original Blood Ties books & stories, where she says some very complimentary things about the show.

Here in B.C. We're all looking forward to what I guess is our world premiere here, this Sunday on Lifetime. I get to call my Dad in Florida and tell him that yes, there is a show I worked on on the TeeVee that he can see all the way down there in the Sunshine State.

As much as the site does a great job of stoking the fire for the premiere, as a latecomer to this train, I'm nonetheless impatient for everybody to see what we're doing now. Because I don't think it's revealing too much to say that the episodes we're currently working on (which are actually the end of the first season) are kicking everything into a way-high gear. The performances keep getting better. Our stories are filled with twisty goodness. The Directors are turning in wonderful stuff, and as much as you might like to view pics of Vicki, Mike, and Henry, I can't believe some of the great characters you haven't even met yet, whether it be Coreen or Kate, or Dave, or Dr. Mohadevan (whose name I seem to always spell wrong in my scripts, even though I was taught a perfectly good mnemonic device to remember it...Moe-had-a-van. Then again, today I misspelled Celluci, so I might just be getting punchy.)

And then there's this: today I met Danny Trejo. Well, I didn't meet him. I stood three feet away from him as Angelina the wonderful wardrobe woman showed his costume to showrunner Peter Mohan. But I was there, man. The guy's in Grindhouse. And I was right there. Me and the other Dennis squealed like eight year old girls.

Once he left the room, I mean.

And -- production process permitting, today we even figured out a way to get in a great in-joke that will resonate extra-specially for fans of the books. And it's going in my second Ep, ep 21.

I can't begin to tell you how great everyone is here. Everyone works so hard. This show doesn't have the highest budget in the world...but it has the best crew and creative people I've ever worked with. It's got performers who go the extra mile and writers who really try to get deep down into these stories to make 'em work...and it's got heart. Lots of it.

And teeth. The better to bite you with.

That metaphor? See this is probably why I write teleplays and not prose. Ah well.

As for you long suffering Canadian fans, yes I know it's filmed here. Yes, I know it seems unfair. But at least there's this ray of hope: the content on the website is not geo-locked -- so you can go and view it all you want.

The two-hour Blood Ties premiere plays on Lifetime this coming Sunday at 9pm ET. The show comes to Living in the UK later this summer and CHUM stations across Canada sometime this fall.

Withholding Without Scolding

Well, as always seems to happen when I write about Canadian TV's structural problems, there were a whole bunch of hits over the last couple days. Some great comments from my fellow Canadian travellers, and a bunch of emailed and spiky link-to's, along with an outrageous number of hits emanating from:

• the CRTC
• Ottawa
• the CBC
• CTV
• Global
• CHUM
• Alliance Atlantis
  
• Several Canadian Newspapers

Not a lot of comments, of course, for the traffic the post is getting. Certainly not anywhere the number of "we should pave the CBC because they're communist" B.S. you get anytime the Globe&Mail ventures into these waters.

Commenting on something that's near and dear to your livelihood? That actually is important to culture, that actually could signal something other than quiet snipey desperation? No, no, no.... that's not the Canadian way, eh?

(And now that I'm out here in B.C., I'm just going to say it -- you Ontarians...you do say oot and aboot. Deal with it.)

Sparked out of this post, came a conversation with Peter Mohan, my current boss - about the way Canadian writers should approach their careers here. It was a great, paradigm-shifting piece of advice. It's a way for creatives to stop being last at the buffet in this country.

And there's no way in hell I'm posting it on the blog.

Sorry, bitches.

If you're a Canadian writer looking to not be a patsy, register, join in some of the fun here and maybe send me an email or two, and I will pass along this faboo advice to you via email...so long as you promise to keep it entre nous.

It's proactive. It's a smart thing to do. It's up Bill Cunnigham's alley all the way.

Most of all, it's a way not to feel quite so helpless.

...but it don't come free. No suh. We're done with that. ;)

You know what?

When it's dark and you're tired and your head is braced against the seat in front of you and you think to yourself, "we must be getting close to the ground now...they made the announcement to turn off headphones ages ago..." and you look up and out the window and there's just a split second before the ground WHAM comes up and the plane lands, and you bounce and skeeter roughly cause it's wet...and the shock and surprise you feel is, if only for a second -- a weird window into imagining that feeling, that dreaded feeling of what it's like to be on a plane at the moment of impact...

...and you thank providence for those moments, because not only do they wake you the eff up, buttercup - they're also exactly the kind of raw thing you're supposed to be filtering onto paper.

Thanks, Westjet.

Promises Broken and Exhibits A

I know, I know...I promised a couple of big posts on the Canadian TV situation. And I put off writing about Canadian TV for a week. And that stretched into a second week, And for the moment, the truth is that I just don't want to do it. It's tiring. And it doesn't make me feel great to talk about the situation here, for a couple of reasons. The first is that unlike a lot of powerful producers out there, I'm just American enough that I write how messed up things are. I write it, and I'm working solidly and steadily. Yet people with years more experience than me, and presumably greater stake -- stay silent. Yeah, it's wrong. Yeah, it's dumb. But "don't rock the boat" seems to be as Canadian a value as "peace, order and good government" or "pull the goalie if you're down by 1 and there's 2 minutes left in the 3rd period."

So what to do? I'm actually in a pretty good place right now. (Well, that's not true. I'm in Calgary for the weekend, but...oh relax, it's a joke...) Bill Cunningham recently posted lots and ins and outs and suggestions that were great in some ways, naive in others, but always, at their core, American can-do hopeful.

That's why Americans, when they do good, do great, kids. They don't defeat themselves before they start.

I describe myself as a mid-level writer here and that works for me. But the truth is I don't doubt my talent for a second. I'm smart. I'm a good writer. I know this. I've lived here long enough to know that you don't go around saying that because then people snipe at you and grow unkind. That's the Canadian way.

I suppose, when the subject of Canadian TV came up, I could turtle like most everyone else, but the difference is I don't feel like working in an industry that's fucked -- if that involves me knowingly working on crap that I know could be better, but never can be because the ... [insert the 1001 structural problems here] . I love the medium too much. I've seen the talent here. I've seen the enthusiasm from people at the network side too. I've talked to them at parties and baseball games and everywhere else. They, for the most part, are tied by the fact that what they do is seen as a "necessary evil" inside their organizations. In a way, we have a lot in common with them. They just get to work in the big house. We're out on the street. But unless they start caring more about what upstairs thinks (when upstairs doesn't really care, to be honest) than what they know to be good tv -- they are not the enemy here.

No one wants to do bad work!

If status quo's my only option, I'd rather get out. If I lose jobs because I'm actually speaking truth here, then so be it. They're either crappy jobs, or crappy people giving those jobs out. They clearly don't want what I want or see what I see or hope for what I hope for for TV in this country. They are not bold and they are not quality. So be it.

Right now I'm in a place where I'm working with people I enjoy. I'm having a ball. At work. It's great.

So I may have, in my head, planned a bunch of new volleys, but I'm punting. This is it, for a while on the CanTV file. I'm punting because I can and because it's not my job to wave the flag by myself, but mostly because I don't feel like spending two hours writing a post for dear old Bill that would better be expressed in an hour's ranting over Guinness.

So here's the headline news version, the short version of what Henshaw and Cunningham sparked me enough to say:

1) The Networks decide what shows they want now Under the CTF, not the government. (to clear up a Bil point) That's been the way since they switched to the envelope system. The problem is there's no incentive for picking good shows and no punishment for failure, because the business model of the private Canadian nets is not based on making shows or selling shows, it's based on importing U.S. shows into a very favorable protected market.

That being said, the solution has to be a Made-in-Canada solution, because Canada faces a set of circumstances that no other nation faces, because no other nation has ALL the U.S. nets in there, all the time, as direct competition, yardstick, and tastemaker.

It's all well and good to look to touring American models of storymaking, as the Lee Goldbergs and such paraded around Europe recently. Europeans might need that injection of U.S. story savvy. I don't know.

But what's always been true of Canada is this: America does not think of Canada at all, or if it does, it's as a leg. Nothing more. Our box office receipts? Counted as U.S. domestic.

We can say that we'll do copros with the U.S. -- but let's all remember the dirty little secret -- how a few years ago there were shows that shot in Canada all the time that were Canadian shows for Cancon purposes, but ran their story rooms out of L.A. and hired American writers -- fake Canadians with easy to get passports, or Canadians that live in L.A. This was the NORM. Your tax dollars at work did NOTHING to support people like me -- they went south to L.A. How you like them California oranges?

Let's remember all the Americans who were "deemed" to be Canadian for the purposes of production, then ask why nobody knows who the Canadian showrunners are. Let's ask why the DGC and ACTRA were only too happy to sell Canadian writers down the river and work on these "faux Cancon" shows without nary a stink. Let's look at those credits STILL on some of these shows and note how they're DGC signatory and ACTRA but not WGC -- trading directors for writers, oldest trick in the book.

Then let's wonder why TV -- which at its best is a writer-driven enterprise -- isn't as good as it could be despite the talent here. Let's ask why the talent gets frustrated and leaves. Let's ask why even the ones who are so bright they would have to wind up in the U.S. anyway go there without ever having become a star here first. (Even Tom Green never got a show up here...by the time the Comedy Network bit, he was on the way to MTV.) Insert Jim Carrey here, too, or imagine Ricky Gervais if he'd not been allowed to do The Office, but instill had to work his way up the rungs of Still Standing.

An article in the G&M last weekend said something like 25% of the people working at creative levels of the US industry -- actors, directors, etc -- were Canadian. That seemed high to me, but who knows. (It was in the article where they talked about Waneta Storms bunking with Sandra Oh.)

The truth is when it comes to the U.S. they're always about the open market, until they're not, or can push advantage. Anyone who's read nine thousand years of headlines about fucking softwood lumber knows this.

If we're going to fix it, we got to fix it ourselves. Can we fix it if all the people who've been doing this longer than me won't open their mouths? Who knows?

2) The radical solution --

I do not for a moment think this is actually the way to go. I want to say that up front. But part of the despair of explaining just how byzantine the problems and challenges are here comes from having to frame the discussion before you start. Here's where Bill Cunningham's "solution" post inspired me.

The secret really is stake. Encouraging entrepeneurship, on some level.

But if we're going to get rid of protectionism, as Jim Shaw and the CTF haters and the CBC bashers want, let's get rid of all of it.

Here's my plan. Ready?

1) End across the board simultaneous substitution.

Now CTV and Global and CBC have to compete with the U.S. nets already available in Canada.

Oh wait. Not a good idea? It will destroy their business? Oh. Okay. Hmmm. So you're saying...to compete in the U.S. marketplace...they need a bit of regulatory relief? Oh. Okay...but isn't that what the .... never mind, never mind...

Please note, were this to happen, Canadians wouldn't lose much, because so long as the U.S. nets were here, they'd still see all those shows they like, right? Right? The 1999 rule change which took away the stick that Cannets had to make drama killed drama. They took that away, which was one of the few things that made the Canadian networks different.

Too radical? I agree. You can't throw open your cultural borders entirely -- this is a point that every country in the world except the U.S., and on some level, Canada, understands.

So. THAT being said...

Here is my simplified plan for fixing Canadian TV (revised):

1) Simultaneous Cable Substitution is no longer automatic. Cannets get a set number of hours per week they can substitute. It's low. The rest of the schedule, they either have to go head to head with the U.S. signal (even if they are showing the same program) or they counterprogram. Stick.

2) Tie spending on homegrown production to a formula of spending on U.S. programming and Revenues.
If a network is doing well by showing U.S. shows they picked up cheap, they have to spend more on Canadian shows. If they're doing poorly, they can spend less on Can shows, but they also get to do less substitutions. Cap it at 7% or whatever. Stick and Carrot.

3) Let them earn more substitution windows. The better your indigenous stuff does, and the more you spend on it, you get bonus windows where you can put your signal over that U.S. signal every week. Carrot.

So... what happens now?

Canadian Network people need to find hits. Stick.
Canadian Networks need to care about their Canadian shows. Stick.
Everyone takes a risk....networks and creatives. Stick and Carrot.
Schedulers won't be able to act like rockstars anymore. The D-people will be just as important as people who get to go to the L.A. screenings. Stick and Carrot.
Canadian creatives have to be audience focused, or they don't get renewed. Stick.
The ones who do well will be in demand. Carrot.

Some things will fail. Some people will get fired. Creatives who do not deliver will not get three, four, nine chances because they go to the same dinner parties. There will be new opportunities. But the risk and the reward will be spread around, if not equally, then at least equitably.

Network people who find hits will make more money and get credit and rise. Carrot.
Networks who have homegrown hits will be able to sell them worldwide. Carrot.
Creatives who show they know how to write and create shows that please the audience and are loved will make more money. Maybe even enough so that they don't have to go to the USA. Carrot.

The one thing that will not work: continued protectionism for the corporate side of the industry, while the creative side gets none.

Why? Because under that scenario (the current scenario) one side is getting all the sticks, while the other side gets all the carrots. And the side getting all the carrots points to the guys getting the crumbs and has the audacity to say, "why am I paying for that?"

That's the point we have to make.

(By the way, yes..the CBC is a different story. It always is. We do no one a service by pretending it's not.)

And once again, another little window into just how challenging getting any straight news through about this industry is: here's an excerpt from the LA Times article on Slings and Arrows that ran recently. (thanks to Meridian Artists for this.

Read and weep:At January's Television Critics Assn. press tour, a small contingent from "Slings & Arrows" noticed with some satisfaction how the attending Canadian critics, once dismissive, now seemed proud of their countrymen's show, clearly adored by the U.S. reporters.

"The response in Canada was typically Canadian — lukewarm and in some quarters downright hostile," Fichman said. "Canadians were going, 'Oh, no, not another Canadian thing.' " Even some of those who rolled their eyes at first "are writing really nice stuff now," he said.

When Sundance aired the series in August 2005, it was "an unexpected gift in the TV landscape," said Laura Michalchyshyn, Sundance Channel's head of programming. "No one can believe it's a series not financed in this country. People were begging us for DVDs.

Yeah. It's messed. Today was one positive Canadian TV post, one Neg (or as I'd like to think of it, neutral/hopeful.)

Glad I've got a job. For now at least. Now. Who wants pie?


*** Addendum to Editoires ***

It's a measure of how cloistered and silent people are in the Canadian industry are that I can say this: I know you're out there. I see the site stats, all the people popping in here from Canwest Papers, and CBC, and CP, and all sorts of Canadian news outlets. Register and join the discussion, chilluns. Don't be so Canadian.

Anyway, I'm happy to announce that I'm going to be attending the Banff TV Festival this year as accredited media, for this blog. I'm also looking to freelance a couple of articles while I'm there. If you're interested in having me write a piece for your publication, contact me at the dirty little email addy advertised on the sideboard.

More on Banff and what's coming up there next week.

Ahem. You Heard It Here First.

The Globe & Mail has an article, with quotes from Paul Mather, about the Corner Gas - Mosque writer harvest we talked about here yesterday.

The 37-year-old Mr. Mather is an especially bright star in network TV today – he is also the head writer of CBC's Rick Mercer Report, and, along with Corner Gas co-creators Brent Butt, Mark Farrell, David Story and Virginia Thompson, has won a pair of best-comedy Geminis for his work on Corner Gas. But he seems unrepentant about his decision to move to the competition. “Sure the two shows are rivals,” says Mr. Mather. “We both want our shows to be the best. And I'm going to give them a run for their money. When people tune in to Mosque this fall, I think they're really going to dig it. I'm going to bust my hump to earn the right to be slightly patronizing to my friends at Gas,” jokes Mr. Mather, who has worked on Corner Gas the past four seasons (the show's season finale is March 12).

Mr. Sheridan, whose other credits include The Red Green Show, was a story editor on Gas during its fourth season. Both reported for Mosque duty officially last week.

At CTV, Kevin White, whose earlier credits have included CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes, will replace Mr. Mather as Gas's show runner. “We're quite good friends,” says Mr. Mather of Mr. White, adding that, over the past few weeks, the two have been “fighting over writers by day and then going for drinks at night.”

CBC has recently confirmed it is going to order a second season of Little Mosque, but has yet to announce the number of episodes. “We expect to hear from the CBC in mid-March,” says Darling, whose company has offices in Toronto and Regina.

“The first season obviously struck a chord with people,” notes Mr. Mather. “It got great numbers that are sustainable. I have huge respect for the show, and in particular its first-season writers, such as Al Rae, Rebecca Schechter and Nawaz.”

At the same time, the series-jumper added: “ Corner Gas is great. And it's been a great thing for me. But it's moving into its fifth season – and it's nice, sometimes, to do something with a different set of challenges, different characters and different stories.”

Moore for Your Money

Ronald D. Moore and David Eick's Battlestar Galactica has always been at the forefront of the TV Podcast revolution.

With BSG, they haven't been afraid to do things that aren't just of interest to fans, but are also of great interest to writers. Moore's commentaries, because they're recorded contemporaneously with the episode's production, have a lot more immediacy than the usual "commentary track" on a DVD, done long from the dates of production, when time and context might have dulled some of the more potent fights, and smoothed over some of the raw experience of making the thing.

What Moore has done, by recording commentaries on shows that he's just finished, has laid bare the writer/showrunner process. He doesn't just laud great performances or outstanding choices; it isn't about the self-congratulatory anecdotes or justifications for why things were done -- often the most interesting podcast and comments are about episodes where he thinks the writing failed, or fell short: shows where things had to be restructured or rejigged during production, or post. In discussing where he and his writers have failed, Moore casts an instructive tone that I think is the new bar for useful commentary. If you really want to write for TV, it's crazy not to watch this show and watch it again while listening to Moore speak about it.

I think what also leaks out is just what an arduous and overwhelming task producing a 22 hour television season can be. It's not like making a movie, folks.

From that baseline, then, Moore has expanded his service to future storytellers. First he took a microphone into a three part story meeting where they ran down the arc for the end of season 2. If you're toiling away out there, hoping to staff one day, this is the best way to get in a story room before you find yourself actually in a story room.

There was also an interesting roundtable with some of the actors, where the underlying philosophy of the show got a generous airing.

Now he's done it again. In a new podcast on the Sci-Fi Channel Site (also Available via Itunes) -- Moore takes you into the editing room, as he watches a cut for episode 315, "A Day in the Life."

As hard as it is for a new writer to understand the story room, it's almost harder to grok the changes that go on on the floor where the director is in control, through the first director's cut with the editor, to what becomes known as the prodcucer's cut. We've said many times here that TV is highly collaborative. If you've never sat in on an editing session for a TV series, listening to this podcast with a copy of 315 handy for reference is probably a really, really great way to start.

It's a great service he's doing for future creatives everywhere. It's transparent and brave, and Moore and co. are to be lauded for it.

Disturbing Things You Sometimes Discover About Yourself

Apparently, I am smarter than a fifth grader, but not always consistently.

When Writers Move Up

Generally when journalists source something (back in the days when they'd do this) they don't go with something until they have it from two or three sources.

Here in the Blood Ties office out in B.C. there's been enough people getting emails from other sources to convince me that this little piece of info is now an open secret in Canada's screenwriting community.

Little Mosque on the Prairie has hired away two writers from Corner Gas for next season.

Paul Mather (The Rick Mercer Report) is taking the showrunning reins and Robert Sheridan (Naked Josh) has also signed on. This is in addition to at least two of the writers from last season who will be continuing with the show.

This is great news -- not just for Little Mosque. Mosque (which we must remind people, was rushed to air - originally it wasn't supposed to debut til Summer '07) will get the advantage of two people who've worked in the most professional and successful writing room in Canada.

But it'll be good for Corner Gas too. The show is now a mature hit, and new blood and a new spin will be good. Plus people who've been there for a while can now move up. (Because there was nowhere else to go in Canada, that roster has been pretty static for the last few years.)

And it's that last bit that's best for the industry as a whole. Imagine! Competition for Canadian writers.

It almost makes me misty. If I had tears left to cry for Canadian TV, I mean.

Congrats to the staff of both shows -- Corner Gas is a class act, and Mosque now gets to sincerely try in good faith to live up to its hype.

Wheeeeeeeee!

And as Playback Screenwriting Star of Tomorrow Dennis Heaton just said to me, and I quote:

"I think anything that creates the mentality that writers are desirable, is good."

Added Heaton:

"You bastard! Are you quoting me again?"

Not to Nitpick, But...

You're doing an article on building "screenwriting stars" and one of the only people you quote is Wendy Crewson?

Um. Okay.

Other than that, read this Playback Article and bask in the burnished glow that is screenwriter extraordinaire Dennis Heaton, ladies and gents...

Quebec will make 15 or so features this year, and I expect around five will top $1 million at the box office. Arcand is back, and we'll probably hear from Ken Scott next year, but is Canada doing enough to build our overall roster of screenwriting stars? And why haven't we produced a breakout hit in this country that translates across the world? Oscar-winner Capote - shot in Winnipeg and backed by Vancouver's Infinity Features - shows us that we are able to make high-level films with middling budgets. And we can certainly make a Sex, Lies and Videotape.

But good scripts aren't written over a weekend. They need to be nurtured and developed. It took Dennis Heaton, who came up with the story for Fido - and who shares screenwriter credit with Robert Chomiak and director Andrew Currie - 13 years to get his internationally sold zombie satire made.

"I don't even know if I could find a copy of [the first draft]," says Heaton from the Maple Ridge, BC set of vampire TV series Blood Ties. "There have been Bankers Boxes full of scripts. Over the years it's been like 'I'm dumping out the Fido scripts today. There go four boxes that I don't have to move.'"

Yet while we sit here pinning all of English-Canadian cinema's commercial hopes on Fido, which opens March 16, we can't afford to wait a dozen years in between successes.

Heaton was self-taught, and advocates a sit-down-and-hit-the-keyboard type of approach. But if writers make that kind of commitment in isolation, there have to be mechanisms in place to find those great stories out there in the ether.

Heaton would like to say that he is not actually self-taught. But he lies a lot, so who knows?

By the way, I don't want to make fun of Playback too much. They've done more journalism in the last month than they have in the last ten years. The revamp is cool.

Canadian Screenwriting Awards Finalist Announcement

The Writers Guild of Canada has announced the finalists for the 2007 Canadian Screenwriting Awards.

Here they are:

CHILDREN & PRESCHOOL

If the World Were a Village
Written by Kate Barris

Jane and the Dragon “A Dragon’s Tail”
Written by Simon Racioppa & Richard Elliott

The Big Comfy Couch “Clown in the Round”
Written by Bill Murtagh

COMEDY & VARIETY

Corner Gas “Blog River”
Written by Paul Mather

Corner Gas “Outside Joke”
Written by Brent Butt & Kevin White

The Jane Show “All About Steve”
Written by Teresa Pavlinek

The Jane Show “Should Have Said”
Written by Ralph Chapman & Teresa Pavlinek

DOCUMENTARY

Medicare Schmedicare
Written by Robert Duncan

The Bomber’s Dream
Written by Barry Stevens

Turning Points of History “Return to Saigon”
Written by Dugald Maudsley

DRAMA SERIES (1/2 Hour)

11 Cameras “Episode 7”
Written by Jason Sherman

Naked Josh “Beating the Wrap”
Written by Laura Kosterski

Naked Josh “Footprints”
Written by Robert Sheridan

DRAMA SERIES (1 HOUR)

Godiva’s “Out the Door”
Written by Michael MacLennan

Intelligence “Love and War”
Written by Chris Haddock

Slings & Arrows “That Way Madness Lies”
Written by Susan Coyne, Bob Martin, Mark McKinney

FEATURE FILM

Almost Heaven
Written by Shel Piercy & Richard Beattie

Away From Her
Written by Sarah Polley

Fido
Written by Robert Chomiak & Andrew Currie & Dennis Heaton

MOW & MINISERIES

Above and Beyond
Written by John W. Doyle and Lisa Porter

Eight Days to Live
Written by David Fraser and Peter Smith & Greg Spottiswood

One Dead Indian
Written by Andrew Wreggitt and Hugh Graham

RADIO DRAMA

Afghanada “Episode 4”
Written by Andrew Moodie, Greg Nelson, Adam Pettle and Jason Sherman

A Stone’s Throw
Written by Jason Sherman

It Came From Beyond
Written by Beverley Cooper

YOUTH

Degrassi: The Next Generation “Our Lips Are Sealed – Part 2”
Story by Avra Fein & James Hurst: Teleplay by James Hurst & Alexandra Zarowny

Naturally Sadie “Rashomon”
Written by Brent Piaskoski

renegadepress.com “The Rez”
Written by Jordan Wheeler

renegadepress.com “This is Your Brain on Love”
Written by Sara Snow


Congrats to all the nominees, but especially to friends, colleagues, and acquaintances I've worked with, laughed with, drank with, and admired from afar and aclose: Rob Sheridan, Kevin White, Kate Barris, Dennis Heaton, Simon Racioppa, Jason Sherman, and Paul Mather.

Good luck to all the nominees. Hope to raise a glass with you at the Awards in Toronto in April; where surviving this business is always the greatest prize.

Peter Mohan on Blood Ties, Part 2!

The good folks at Geek Monthly have posted the second part of their interview with Blood Ties Creator & Showrunner Peter Mohan. In part two he discusses more of the real writing challenges of the show, alludes to some plot developments and character arcs and posits why Vampires are just so damn cool.

A short bit:

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: Not to be crass here, but is this a fiscally challenged show? It doesn’t feel like a giant budget and I wonder if it’s a tough show to produce.

PETER MOHAN: It is very tough to do. The budget is very… miniscule. But the thing is, it’s not a show that essentially lives on its visual effects. Although once you see them in their complete form, they do look pretty great, but it’s a show that lives on those relationships and that’s what the show’s strength is, I think. We have great actors who give great, solid performances.

The rest of the interview is here.

Remember, Yankees: you get to see it first: Sunday, March 11th at 9pm ET on Lifetime.

Blood Ties in the UK

Looks like those of you across the pond may very well see my work on Blood Ties before Canadians do.

Oh so typical. From C21:

Virgin Media TV's Living channel has acquired a new supernatural crime thriller from ContentFilm distributor Fireworks International for launch in summer 2007 in primetime.

What is LIVING, anyway? And is anyone else grokking on the irony with me that a series featuring an Undead guy is airing on "Living" and "Lifetime?"

Anyone?

Bueller?

Jebus!

That March really does sneak up on ya, don't it?

Celebration Libations and Motor City Waitin'

These days, when Daddy finishes a hard-fought first draft, (in this case Ep. 21 of Blood Ties) that was giving him trouble, the reward is crystal clear:

Redbreast, of course, is the 12 year old Pure Pot Still Irish Whiskey in the Jameson's family, from the good people at Pernod Ricard. It is very pleasing. If there is a heaven, this is undoubtedly the bar brand. If you see me out somewhere and buy me one, I will allow you to rub the bald spot on the top of my head and grant you a wish.

So, surfing around, I came across a couple more nifty Motor City photos on photographer Russ Martin's Site:


Above, this is young Ben Ford and Katie Wilton, c. 1963.


Oooh. Ladies, look at Sasha Roiz. (Young Ben Ford) Seriously, isn't this guy a goddamn movie star?

Revel in that old-fashioned noir smolder. Seriously. You're gonna love this guy.

See, Ladies? He hurts. He hurts so damn much.

Across The River To Motor City airs on CHUM stations (far as I know) Fall 2007.