Oh Say Can You See

YOU ARE THE NATION that I dream of.

You are the better angels of our nature. You bind up our wounds.

You judge the content of our character.

You are, finally, completely, the place where it is morning, always. You are the city on the hill.

No matter what the cost, you have a thousand points of light to guide you, and you will fear nothing but fear itself.

And I'm goddamn proud to stand with you.

Yes. We can.

And in the words of one of your better (fictional) presidents:

"What's next?"

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, “We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.” And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security – we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

For that is the true genius of America – that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

Yes.

Be Good to each other tonight.

The real work starts tomorrow.

CTV's The Bridge & Global's Pilot Slate

CTV HAS JUST ordered eleven episodes of a new scripted series called The Bridge. From the release:

Based on the insights of veteran insider and outspoken former Toronto police union head Craig Bromell, CTV has ordered 11, one-hour episodes, following the production of a two-hour pilot shot in Toronto last summer. THE BRIDGE provides an unflinching look at the struggle street cops face as they not only battle criminals - but also their own bosses - in order to protect society and, ultimately, themselves.

Produced by Barna-Alper Productions, an Entertainment One company, 990 Multi Media Entertainment Company and Jonsworth Productions, in association with CTV, production of THE BRIDGE is scheduled to begin in 2009.

THE BRIDGE becomes the third, new original drama series to be ordered by CTV in the last year, joining last summer’s breakout hit FLASHPOINT and THE LISTENER, currently in production.

“Craig Bromell is one of the most galvanizing figures in the history of policing in Canada,” said Susanne Boyce, President, Creative, Content and Channels, CTV Inc. “We look forward to working with him on THE BRIDGE, and bringing to Canadian audiences a distinct and authentic view of life behind the scenes of a modern police force.”

“We set out to make the most realistic two-hour movie drama about cops ever seen on TV, and it has paid off,” said Craig Bromell, Executive Producer, 990 Multi Media Entertainment Company. “We expose the inner workings of a big city police force - the police, power and politics behind the blue line. It’s something that hasn’t been seen before on TV, and we’re grateful to CTV for this opportunity..”

Written by five-time Gemini Award winner and six-time nominee Alan Di Fiore (DA VINCI’S INQUEST, THE LIFE, THE HANDLER), THE BRIDGE peels away the veneer of a big-city Canadian police force to reveal the political machinations underneath. After the rank and file unanimously vote street cop Frank Leo (Aaron Douglas) into office as union head, he begins his quest to put street cops first and clean up the force from the ground up.

But the old boys’ network running the police force and the city’s self-serving politicians are not about to sit idly by while a former street cop makes up his own rules. Frank walks a thin blue line as he battles wiretaps and a concerted campaign to bring him down, letting nothing stop him from fulfilling his unwavering vow that when cops are in trouble, the union will be there.

There's a lot going for this project, starting with DiFiore and Fawcett. They've also assembled a great cast -- Aaron Douglas was the Chief, and usually the heart, of Galactica, as well as Ona Grauer (who was originally in Flashpoint before the role was recast, post-pilot, at CBS' behest) Inga Cadranel (Frannie on Rent-A-Goalie) and Frank Cassini.

I have to admit, I'm a little uncomfortable with the glorification of Bromell. I think it's great that CTV acknowledges that he was a 'galvanizing' force, but that's kind of an understatement.

His tenure as union head of the Toronto force was controversial in the extreme. He headed up the Operation True Blue campaign, and was contemptuous of civilian oversight. Yup, he fought for his cops, and they loved him for it. But there was much about the man's methods that sent a chill through portions of the city.

One time, when I was worked at CityTV, I found myself leaving work one day in the midst of a Bromell-led wildcat strike. As people left the building, they were treated to catcalls by dozens of police -- some in uniform -- waiting outside. It was the single most sinister thing I've ever been invovled with; really, really upsetting. Seriously, you have no idea what it's like to be catcalled and harassed by dozens of cops. Brrr. I've never really felt the same way about the Toronto Police since. (Before that they'd come to my assistance a couple of key times in my life. I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, but...man.)

But here's the thing: the writer in me, the TV guy in me, rather than being turned off by that, is attracted to it. Because it's frightening, and edgy, and potentially explosive. And very, very real. I find the prospect of a show with Bromell's involvement incredibly exciting. That impulse, the "oh, man, I don't know about this..." could just be lightning in a bottle. We've seen the "thin blue line" done from the outsider perspective. Here's the opportunity for a show that could be exciting and different. I'll sure as hell watch. It will be interesting to see if they can keep it from being an in-the-tank hagiography of Bromell. If the creatives and Bromell can keep it from being too one-sided, if they allow his Douglas-inspired doppleganger to be the anti-hero he should be rather than an apologia for a misunderstood cop, well, this might just be the most exciting Canadian TV series ever. Imagine the fights in that story department! The discussions, the arguments, the back and forth? We could use our own version of The Shield -- where Mackey is both disturbing and sympathetic. If they can bottle that? Wow.

And imagine the publicity tour.

Meanwhile, Canwest has released new details about those upcoming drama pilots they ordered last week:

The one hour drama Shattered, a Force Four Films Ltd./Blueprint Film and Television Ltd. production to be shot in B.C., will be directed by Bobby Roth (Prison Break). The roster of acting talent confirmed today also includes Callum Keith Rennie (Californication, Battlestar Gallactica, Hard Core Logo) as the series lead, Kyle Logan, an ex-cop with a multiple personality disorder.

I was worried that Global might get scooped on this because of My Own Worst Enemy. But that Slater-vehicle on NBC doesn't look like it's lighting any fires, so maybe there's hope for this. I love Rennie. I'm really enjoying him in Californication right now.

EDIT: a commenter below says he's read Drew's script for Shattered and it's great. Awesome! Now all they have to do is not screw up the execution somehow!

David Wellington (Would Be Kings, The Eleventh Hour) directs the House of Films Inc./Four Seasons Productions Inc. drama Clean, to be shot in Toronto. Ben Bass (The Eleventh Hour, Law and Order, Queer as Folk) is cast in the lead role Bobby Gould, an addiction counselor with Tom McCamus (Shake Hands with the Devil, Queer as Folk, Slings and Arrows) confirmed as a series regular, Dr. Wilson McKenna, CEO of Happy Valley Treatment Facility. Sonja Bennet (Young People F(*)cking, Control Alt Delete) plays Caroline, one of Bobby’s colleagues.

This pilot shot out of the same Production Office complex as The Border. Wellington's a good Director, and the script is by a really interesting playwright named Adam Pettle who's branching into TV. I'd need to see this one I think. Could be great, could be depressing and airless. If it's funny, I'll like it better. This one's all about the execution.

Luke Kirby (Tell Me You Love Me, Slings and Arrows, Mambo Italiano, upcoming feature Labor Pains) takes on the role of the lead character, insurance adjuster Jimmy Burns, in the Whizbang Films Inc production of Lawyers, Guns & Money.

Clark Johnson (The Wire, Homicide: Life on the Street, also an Emmy nominated director on The Shield), joins the production as Walker Hearn, a retired cop and Jimmy’s unofficial mentor alongside Carole Cave (The L Word, Regenesis) as Angela, a company lawyer. Steve Bacic (The Guard) is Pavel Korkov, an ambitious local gangster who clashes with Jimmy. Ken Girotti (Mayerthorpe, Rescue Me) takes the directorial helm of this production which will be shot in Hamilton, Ontario.

I ran into Girotti at the Geminis, night 3 (ohgod) just as he was winding down prep for this shoot. He was stoked -- and extremely happy being able to shoot The Hammer for the Hammer, which I am all over. It's a GREAT locale for a story like this. Johnson's a get, and though I haven't read it, I hear the script by Malcolm MacRury -- who's also picking up buzz for the upcoming ZoS. Wonder what they're going to do about Bacic if this gets picked up -- I don't imagine both The Guard and this show, shooting thousands of miles apart, would be able to juggle shoot schedules so he could appear in both. (Besides the fact that it also extends the "same 10 actors in every Canadian show" problem...)

There's also another pilot called The Prodigy, that also has John Fawcett attached, but no other info.

One quibble about the Global release. They've been talking up the need for strong showrunners -- they even established a showrunner training program -- but guess who gets left out of the release? Sigh.

Still, point is, all of these shows sound promising. Of course, a million things could go wrong in the production process. Such is the nature of our collaborative medium. Still, I'm pretty juiced to see every one of these.

Could this be a taste of better things to come?

Stay tuned, citizens.

Thanks to TV, Eh for the releases.

CORRECTION: 01/10/09 - an earlier version of this story identified John Cassini (Robson Arms, Intelligence) as part of the cast. The Bridge actually stars Frank Cassini, his brother. Apologies for the error.

Dixville Notch 15-6 For Obama

WELL, IT'S HOURS before we'll know in the rest of the country, but in the symbolic first area in the USA to vote (minus absentee and early, I guess) it's a landslide. Fifteen votes for Obama. Six for McCain. In a town that hasn't gone Democrat for a long, long while.

It feels like the Night Before Christmas. And so, if you'll indulge me. There's this:



We all have a lot of work to do. And if you're in the USA -- first task is not to forget the final step.

VOTE.

The Hockey and the The Border

NOW IT CAN be told.
If you tuned in Saturday night, November 1, to Hockey Night in Canada for the Leafs-Rangers game, you might have been surprised to see a rather unconventional opening that served as probably the first ever Hockey Night in Canada-The Border crossover episode.

A producer at HNIC approached The Border team with an idea and a basic script involving Slade and some wayward NY Rangers.

After a couple of passes by Greg Nelson and our story department, our half of the bit was shot late on a Friday night after the day's wrap.

Since we were filming Ep.12 at the time -- my episode -- I stuck around as Director Brett Sullivan guided Jonas Chernick, Graham Abbey, and James McGowan through the bit.

I don't think it's spoiling anything to say that I read the offstage Don Cherry lines. (The Man himself was shot separately.) It's extremely freeing being Don Cherry, especially late at night. I suddenly got the pink suits, and the high collars, and oh so many things. We did a couple of takes, and sure, it was sloppy at first but these were good Canadian kids shooting the bit, not those dodgy Europeans, and it all worked out fine in the end, though Producer David Barlow was last seen mumbling about going five-hole on somebody over the overtime.

I think my Cherry got better by the end, but let's face it. There really is no substitute for the real thing.

Oh, and James McGowan practically had to be restrained to not throw in something about the Habs. A good Montreal boy shilling willingly for the Leafs?

Not gonna happen. Even if National Security is on the line.

Anyway, whatever Slade did, it worked, since the Leafs beat the Rangers 5-2.

If you'd like to watch the HNIC "Border" opening, click here.

And from here, I'll let La Chernick explain it:

Under "Choose a Category", click on "Hockey Night in Canada".

Then double click on "Full Events".

You're looking for HNIC Nov. 1 - NY Ranger 2 at Toronto 5. As of this afternoon, it's the fourth window down. That may change. Click on that window and...

The video should start playing. Our segment is right at the beginning, but keep watching to the 4 minute mark to hear the somewhat stunned commentators' reaction to the piece, which is VERY unconventional for Hockey Night in Canada.

There you go.

Tune in tomorrow on Cross-Platform Promo Theatre, when Rick Mercer visits the set of The Border, learns how to get shot, gets roughed up by Nick Campbell, and hopefully doesn't make too much of an ass out of me and Brett Sullivan.

The Promo:



Mercer airs tomorrow night, 8pm on CBC Television. Don't forget, a new episode of The Border airs tonight at 9pm. And next week, Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica) joins the cast!

Dexter, Twitchell, and Feet: A Messy Rumination

I FIRST CAME across this on Will's site, but man, it's still a pretty freaky story for good old boring Canada...

EDMONTON — In a case police call a diabolically cruel convergence of art and life, local filmmaker Mark Twitchell will appear in court tomorrow charged with first-degree murder.

The 29-year-old fervid fan of the psycho-slasher TV show Dexter is accused of luring now-missing Johnny Altinger to a garage and killing him in a scenario that resembled Mr. Twitchell's latest film project – in which a man is abducted, tortured and hacked to bits.

“We have a lot of information to suggest he definitely idolizes Dexter and a lot of information that he tried to emulate him during this incident,” alleged Edmonton police homicide Detective Mark Anstey.

Dexter, a program on the Showtime network, follows Dexter Morgan, who studies blood spatters for Miami police but leads a secret life as a serial killer, hacking up victims in the name of vigilante justice.

One recent comment on Mr. Twitchell's Facebook social networking site noted he “has way too much in common with Dexter.”

None of the allegations against Mr. Twitchell have been proven in court and he hasn't had an opportunity to respond to the charge against him.

Now, of course, will inevitably come the "see, see what happens?" kind of stuff from the usual suspects who want to pawn human behavior off on external triggers rather than whatever internal soup that potentially lives in each of us. Oh, and make political hay. See, even in the comments of the article you get the predictable culture war spin:

All part of the creative Art that we support with taxpayer money. It is a subliminal cancerous parasite to our youth. Free marketers rejoice. The CTV GM uses censor to stamp out objection of creative entertainment or brands it right wing intolerance.

And so on, and so forth. Though I don't buy into that sort of reductive, "see, that's why we should censor" kind of thinking, there are some elements in this story that should give creatives pause.

First, there's the fact that the guy went into film. Obviously at one point he thought the fantasy of it all was enough for him. But it wasn't. A business that trades in illusion attracts marginal people. And what do all those marginal people really think, and do? Maybe there is something to be said for us being a little more vigilant, or at least engaged with each other. When fantasy seems to be creeping over into mental illness and dysfunction, then what?

On the other hand, he did come up with a way to solve the Canadian film publicity probl...

...Sorry. Sorry. I know. I'm a terrible person. That's a terribly insensitive joke to make.

The one truth I know is that most of the people I've met in film and TV are capable of murdering nothing more than a plate of nachos or maybe a case of beer. They're generally very lovable, sweet people. And nine times out of ten, the ones who can come up with the dirtiest joke, or the most twisted plot point, are, in fact, the polar opposite of what you would expect. The sweetest people come up with the sickest shit. It's just the way it goes.

See, that's where the idea of catharsis is very poorly understood. The idea behind a lot of horror films, or thrillers, is that you use the audience's sense of mounting tension to give them release. The release that comes from confronting fear in a good horror, or your anxiety in a thriller, allows you expunge those feelings -- and even enjoy them. It's a very old and primal impulse. It's why we like telling ghost stories around the fire.

But there are some people whose brains just don't work right. Let's take the example of this guy in the article. It's reported that he's a big fan of Dexter. So am I. But clearly he's getting different lessons out of Dexter than I am.

When I watch Dexter, I see a character who is sick and driven to kill, but tries to struggle against his impulses by killing only those people who harm and do evil to others. He fits neatly into the trope of the avenging angel. But that's a simple, one-level interpretation of the show. That's not what I enjoy Dexter for. What really intrigues me about Dexter is the fact that what it's really about is a man struggling to be human, and to transcend the darker parts of his nature. TV and film storytelling push things to extremes, in metaphor. So we have the ultimate other -- a killer -- and we try to see what in them is human.

This is contrasted by the other impulse -- that you're going to see in spades as this story develops -- where we try to de-humanize the killer -- to talk of his "evil," and describe him in terms like, "monster," or "lunatic." By denying his humanity, we'll also try to seek comfort by saying, "there is nothing like that inside me."

But the reason why we all keep watching, and making, and discussing these entertainments is because that's not true. We know, at some level, that genetically down to the last neuron, there is no difference between him and us. How do you deal with that, finally?

Well, some of us do it by watching things like Dexter.

I don't mean to issue a blanket kind of defence of the whole thing. I'm a pretty liberal guy, but the whole SAW like genre of fetishized torture-porn is something that I just don't understand. To me it doesn't push any of the buttons that a good horror is supposed to push. It's more like the one time in my life when I watched a foot fetish video. (editors. they collect things.) The experience was so weird because you could clearly see the film grammar at work, all set up and deployed to make this seem like the most erotic thing ever. And it wasn't. It was just...a bunch of feet.

When Mark Twitchell watched Dexter, I wonder, really, what was it that he saw? Cause I know we're not seeing the same things.

Ah. See what I did there? I made him the other. Just went there, totally naturally. Man, that's easy to do.

Humans be complicated.

(And yeah, I've left it out to the end, because hopefully it goes without saying, but what a horrible human tragedy, and I hope his friends and family get through it okay. I just don't think they're likely to get any answers, or comfort, unfortunately. That's just never how stories like this work in the real world. That's why we turn to fiction: because in dreams we can make things make sense.)

Time to Get Your War On

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

From 16 to 44

ABRAHAM LINCOLN SAID:

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."

The "real America" is dying to speak with its true voice. And if past is prologue, this won't be the first time the worst president in history was followed by the best.

Take a look at 15, then gird up and get ready to go out there tomorrow.

One more sleep.

The One Good Thing

TO COME OUT of Sarah Palin's questionable ascendancy.

Mocking Sarah Palin paid off.

Following Fey's devastating impression of the Alaska governor and last month's slew of Emmy wins, the return of NBC's "30 Rock" was given a serious drum roll this fall.

Thankfully for the network, the comedy burst back into the spotlight strong: Thursday's "Rock" premiere hit series-high numbers. The comedy was seen by 8.5 million viewers and earned a 4.1 preliminary adults 18-49 rating -- up 21% from its debut last year. The show was also aided by the primetime edition of "Saturday Night Live" warming up its time period the past few weeks.

Meanwhile, the real Deal Palin continued to embarrass herself and McCain yesterday, by showing that she fundamentally doesn't understand the function of the first amendment.

As Glenn Greenwald puts it:

According to Palin, what the Founders intended with the First Amendment was that political candidates for the most powerful offices in the country and Governors of states would be free to say whatever they want without being criticized in the newspapers. The First Amendment was meant to ensure that powerful political officials would not be "attacked" in the papers. It is even possible to imagine more breathaking ignorance from someone holding high office and running for even higher office?

You know, it occurs to me that even Liz Lemon would be a better candidate for Veep than Palin.

The book that's written on this election ten years from now is gonna be a doozer.

The Big Empty

THIRTEEN EPISODES DOESN'T seem like a lot. I mean, most U.S. shows still do twenty-two. That idea of "the back nine" is daunting in and of itself.

Long ago, when I was a younger, exploited story producer for a lifestyle information show, we used to pump out thirty-nine episodes a year. That's only thirteen weeks off. A year.

I had energy then, oh yes. Energy and pluck. And I hadn't yet gotten to the point where I figured out that going out and interviewing people wasn't nearly as fun as making the people up and then making up what they had to say.

As I write this, the crew is probably lighting or blocking the last scene of Episode Thirteen of The Border's second season. The best thing about this season for me was spending more time on set and getting to the point where I enjoyed it. Yes, it's very enjoyable to sit in a chair and watch people work hard all around you.

But it's worth it for the kibitzing. It's worth it to go on long disquisitions with the Third A.D. on how the tail-based economy would work (Surmising an alternate future where humans had retained functional tails.) It's worth it imagining the D.O.P. as the host of a late night call in show entirely obsessed with all things tea, and tea related. It's worth hearing about how to flip houses, or hearing about the A.D. who convinced one of the actors she'd been savagely beaten by a prop bat. It's worth writing a video scene set in a trapped submarine, expecting a flat and lighting and arriving to set to see a whole goddamn sub corridor, lovingly designed, and built. Had I known I would have written more there.

It's worth seeing people working at the top of their game and feeling lucky that you can play in that sandbox, too.

Especially when the alternative is your little veal pen of an office, where it's been freezing cold after being boiling hot all summer, where the internet is always down, and you have to pretend that everyone can't hear you when you're on the phone. I won't miss that office, that's for sure.

But packing up that little banker's box today made me realize anew that there's not many jobs where you get to get sick of your office and then go back to working from home for awhile till you get sick of that, too. Variety is the spice of life and moving from development to production and back is a nice bit of spice for me.

Then there's a hug from the Producer's Assistant and a handshake with the Producer that threatens to turn misty and you think, "Wow, when did I turn into a character on Party of Five? Walk it off, doof."

A few months ago another writer passed on a phrase he'd picked up from the showrunner of Dirty Sexy Money. "Your career is the stone on which you sharpen your integrity." I've thought of that a lot the last few months. I'm looking forward to getting back to talking through what that means on the blog here. More craft stuff. Let's get it on.

So here it is, Hallowe'en night. The last few months have been joyous and scary, and frustrating and revelatory, and filled with laughter and camaraderie and neurosis and insomnia and sneezing and teethgrinding and all manner of wonder and oddity.

And now it's done.

That's a wrap. Ahhhh.

What's next?

CRTC ya

WELL, THAT'S DAMN odd. And in another way, not at all.

As near as I can read the first reports of the CRTC's "comprehensive review of broadcast policy" the changes to the broadcast landscape are going to be...

...er...

...not much, really.

Canadian networks wanted cable co's to pay them for carrying the signal, so much per subscriber, just like the specialty channels get. They didn't get it. (Though they will be allowed to negotiate fees for carrying "distant signals." Ie: get ready to pay more for timeshifting. I'm sure Vancouverites will see this as more Toronto-bias. No more CSI at 6pm, dudes. Not unless you pony up!)

The Cable and Sat co's wanted to be able to bring in lots more U.S. signals and wanted an end to "genre protection" (ie: Space is the Canadian Sci-Fi channel, so they can't also offer the SciFi Channel from the USA).

CRTC said no to that. (Except in the case of Sports and News. I think.)

The big change for consumers is likely to be an end to "bundling" -- the practice of selling tiers of channels. Starting in 2011, viewers will be able to "pick and choose" beyond basic cable so long as their ratio of Canadian to American services remains 50% + 1 Canadian in origin.

This is going to be something that makes most cable subscribers happy. They've wanted the "a la carte" choice for years. Expect a lot of weak specialty channel failures over the next few years. Yes, I'm looking at you, History.

BDU's, as the Cable and Sat's co's are called, are also going to have to contribute 6% of revenues to a new fund designed for Local Programming. That will mostly wind up being local news, most likely.

They streamlined some approvals procedures, but other than that. It's... well...

...a whole lot of sturm and drang to get us to where we already were. How very, very, excruciatingly Canadian.

Am I misreading this? Anybody read this differently?

So, Was It "Yes We Can" or "No, You DiH-nint?"

SO, HOW DID OBAMA'S infomercial do?

According to Gawker:

The early rating had to make the campaign happy: the half-hour ad scored a combined 17.8/29 (household rating/share) before Game 5 of the World Series on Fox. It bested the numbers of that game (the conclusion of the aborted Game 5 managed a decent 13.1/20) and most other regular programming. Since ABC's Pushing Daises did its usual poor number, most of the folks who watched the ad may have stuck with it rather than changing the channel.

The real question is whether the major audience was supporters tuning in for a glimpse of their favorite celebrity, or undecided voters who can be swayed by that kind of feel-good propaganda. With the narrow focus on economic issues, you can bet the campaign was hoping that single issue voter constituted good chunk of that 17.8 rating.

If you didn't watch and want to know what all the fuss was about, Salon runs down what you saw in the half hour.

And elsewhere on the same site, Joan Walsh pretty much sums up my feelings about the media day. The hopeful, "we're not helpless" tone of the paid ad was most effective just because it stands in such stark contrast to the increasingly ugly, desperate tactics and poison fulminating from the other side.

These are serious times. There is shit to do. When you've got one side saying, "we can do it, here's how" and the other side screaming, "socialist! communist! Vote for him and go to hell!" honest to Jesus, how can you possibly remain undecided?

Five more sleeps.

Finally, if you want to watch the whole program, here you go.

Canadian Queasy

SO THE CRTC today will announce its decision on the revamp of the Canadian Broadcast system. Supposedly, fees for over the air broadcasters are a mortal lock. So you know that consumer backlash will be awesome, and that somehow it'll all come back to be the fault of all the deadbeats making Canadian shows that no one wants to watch, even though I couldn't find ONE article that talked about homegrown production. Nope, this is gonna be all about giving the people whose entire model is based on protectionism through the rebroadcasting of dumped, cut-rate U.S. programming more bucks -- but the backlash will somehow be about the crumbs that go to the production community.

Sigh. I just don't feel up to this one. Congrats, broadcasters. If I can ask anything, it's this: peas. Please? Just a few peas in our gruel? That'd be great. Thanks.

I kid. I kid because I love.

Oh, and by the way, to the left, meet your new Minister of Canadian Heritage. Bye Bye Josee Verner. Welcome James Moore. 32 years old, MP from Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, B.C.

Don't know a thing about him. He was hard to find in the cabinet shuffle articles. Oh well.

I'm going to go chew a Rolaid and watch the Obama infomercial again.

Where The Truth Lies

FIRST THE FUNNY.



That's from The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror Episode this weekend.

Now the not-so-funny, courtesy of Nikki Finke:

I've confirmed that Lionsgate execs are calling Hollywood agencies looking for a showrunner to replace Matthew Weiner, the brilliant creator of Mad Men. The reason is that they think Weiner's agents at CAA are asking for too much money for him. I hear CAA wants a multi-year deal that pays Weiner $10 million a year. (As opposed to what people tell me is the $2.5 million he should probably pocket...) Plus he wants control over promotion and advertising. Now that's consistent with a big hit on pay cable and what Darren Star or David Chase made on HBO. But it's way, way rich for a Lionsgate show on AMC, and execs are telling CAA it can't pay that. "The 'ask' was insanity," one insider tells me. "It's preposterous. AMC is a basic cable network. The economics don't support this. It's why Lionsgate is throwing their arms up in the air. And, remember, they got a two-year pickup for the show with or without Matt Weiner."

It's hard to know where to start on this one. At that Playback conference yesterday, the three creators on the show panel had an interesting spectrum of reactions when I asked about the difference between developing "critical creative" hits and "audience number" hits.

You know your life is weird when you start linking to others' coverage of things you participated in, but Golick already wrote it up and I'm tired.

Where the differences between the writers’ experience was most evident came when they discussed the stories their series tell. While AMC gives Mad Men creative freedom, the Canadian series are very much shaped by their networks. Veith was adament and clear. On Mad Men, “we tell the stories we want to tell. We do it our way.” Cameron aknowledged that her two networks knew their audience and the time slot and it was up to her to find the stories that worked for that audience. Chehak said “I’m a writer for hire. I’m working for a network that wants a hit. We still want to tell a good story. But we have to be aware of what time we’re on and who’s watching.”

In short, the question I asked had to do with noise. Creative noise. Specifically, how much do you have to tell your story, and how much do you have to take your marching orders?

As the paroxysms of technology and business model continue to ripple through the creative side of the business, one of the great splits that only seems to be deepening is the line between "cable, quality" shows, and "audience pleasers" -- the kind of comforting, unchallenging, by the numbers shows that increasingly fill the networks' schedules. Meanwhile, the Emmys, the ink, the admiration, and whatever's left of the "water cooler" factor goes to the former type of show.

I mean, if you were to exclusively read this blog, or other writer blogs, or even your smarter entertainment magazines like Entertainment Weekly, you might conclude that Dexter, Mad Men, Rescue Me, and The Shield were all great big hits. In reality, if what any of us wrote was representative of wider audience taste, you'd see a lot more about NCIS, Law & Order: SUV, or CSI: 31 Flavors. John Doyle clocked this phenom a couple months back, and I offered my own thoughts. But in the wake of confusing data like the median age of all network TV viewers being over 50, while they all fruitlessly still chase younger demos -- there is a whole lot of noise and conflicting stuff going on there.

(A similar, less talked about corollary to this split is the back and forth over serialization. Yup. Networks love shows that are standalone since viewers can drop out and in at any time. But you know what the problem with that is? Can you guess? The data seems to suggest that those kinds of shows suffer more from, um...well, people dropping in and out. You want loyalty, you have to reward it. In the current environment, if you make your show eminently missable, people are going to do just that.)

When Tassie Cameron said that, with Flashpoint, both CTV and CBS had extensive knowledge of their demos and timeslot needs, I saw that as a very positive development -- and maybe a nice change of pace. Most people pitching Canadian channels over the last few years -- found network executives who set the impossible task of wanting shows like "Six Feet Under", "The Sopranos," or "Rescue Me" that somehow drew CSI or Grey's Anatomy numbers. Never mind that that was an impossible task. That's what we want.

The collaborative nature of TV abhors pulling out a bad old phrase like "auteur driven" to describe cable series. But there is something to be said for that label, when applied to certain shows. Flashpoint, ultimately, is a show that was created by two new screenwwriters, guided by an experienced third screenwriter, but ruled over by its nonwriting producers. But Mad Men has always been sold as Matthew Weiner's show. Just as no one could really have pictured The Sopranos without David Chase at the helm, I can't for the life of me imagine Don Draper and co. without Weiner steering them. When I say I can't imagine it, what I really mean is : I would have zero desire to watch it.

But something like that is very hard to quantify.

When Aaron Sorkin left The West Wing, there was that John Wells year of awfulness before they compensated by stacking it with all manner of other senior screenwriting talent. I'm one of those who drifted back in Season six, where the West Wing found its feet again as a very changed, somewhat diminished, but still interesting show.

On the other hand (and I'm not speaking from personal experience here, because I didn't watch it,) but I don't know a single fan of Gilmore Girls who had a good thing to say about the last, Sherman-Palladinoless season.

The eternal fight will always be between those who think of these series as product, and those who think of them as art. There are 'art' series that perhaps don't deserve the label, and there are 'product' series that are equally enjoyable even when other people take them over. (I don't watch it, but I can only mock lightly those people who are still hooked on E.R., all these years later. I went back to it for a season a few years back, after dropping out originally when Anthony Edwards' Mark Green character died.)

The WGA strike last year exposed some ugly, ugly faultlines in Hollywood over the whole showrunner culture. It's like there's been a counter-revolution against creative power for a while now. So while to fans of the show, the idea of a Weiner-less Mad Men might be anathema, in reality it's all part of a much bigger fight. Rudderless shows are becoming more common, but no matter how many Bionic Womans there are, there doesn't seem to be a recognition that they had things right in the first place: hire a showrunner. Hire the right showrunner. Let them make the show. Instead we get Diane Ruggiero walking from the Ex-List, followed by a quick limp to cancellation. Now, who wears that failure?

How do you tell a show that can't survive without its creator from one that could carry on blithely with others at the helm? It's not as simple as cable vs. network, is it?

Maybe it's like that famous line about Pornography: "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it."

Man, I hope this is just sabre rattling. Because Mad Men without Matt Weiner is... well, it's the fastest Tivo delete I've ever contemplated. The show may have put AMC on the Map, but....you know, that map can change, kids. Fast.

Depressing.

Mad Writers

JUST RETURNED FROM a half day conference put on by Playback magazine at the St. Lawrence Centre's Bluma Appel Theatre.

The conference, dubbed Playback Innovations: The Technology Revolution and sponsored in part by the Canadian Film Centre and the Ontario Media Development Corporation, was a toe dip into the world trod by things like the Banff TV Festival. As a first step it had the usual growing pains. The afternoon was built around four main sessions: a conversation between Bill Brioux, Freelance TV writer of TV Feeds My Family fame, and James Manos, Jr., the creator of Dexter. a panel on Reality TV, another digital panel, and arguably what was the day's main draw: a panel titled "Flashpoint! Mad Women at Work."

That panel was supposed to feature Robin Veith, (Mad Men,) who went from writer's assistant to creator Matthew Weiner's assistant to Emmy nominated screenwriter, for her part co-writing the first season finale "The Wheel," and Tassie Cameron, who ably steered the writing room for Mark Ellis & Stephanie Morgenstern's Flashpoint in season one. But in the big misstep of the day, attendees arrived for some reason to find that Tom Chehak had been added to the roster to talk about The Listener.

No offence to Chehak, who was charming and funny; but no one has seen the show, and what's more, it's an industry crowd -- so most people in the audience have probably heard the rumours that The Listener has been famously troubled. Chehak admitted that he came on late in the process. There are probably a lot of interesting stories one could hear about The Listener. But they weren't about to be told in that auditorium, and in the absence of anyone seeing the show, there simply was no context for Chehak's remarks.

Also, simply by virtue of math, adding another guest suddenly brought each guest's time to speak down from a half hour to 20 minutes. Combine that with a truncated question period, and the fact that the woman up from Los Angeles speaking about the buzz show spoke about four times, and you've got a panel that was a tremendous disappointment, and a seriously missed opportunity.

Other short thoughts:

• why douse the house lights? It made it impossible for people to be seen trying to ask questions, and certainly made the speakers feel isolated.

• In terms of framing the correct questions -- it would have been helpful when registering, or on entering, to provide cards on which people could ask a question that then could be collected and shown to the moderator. That way the moderator could know the level to pitch the discussions at. These things always run the risk of skimming the surface, but this one was particularly guilty of that.

• Also, four sessions without a lot of crossover interests scheduled sequentially with no alternative program does not work. There's no way that I was going to sit through a reality TV panel, and judging by the lobby full of people with me, I wasn't alone.

I paid full freight for this conference. It was decidedly NOT worth the money.

That being said, some interesting tidbits:

Robin Veith on the Mad Men research:

"People spoke differently back then." Once they get a script in they sit around and they flag any language that might sound too modern. Then they have a group of research interns (oooh, imagine that!) who search out the references and confirm through first hand accounts of the day, the usage. (This sticks with me because I just saw a scene in the U.S. Life on Mars where somebody was talking about discriminating against someone on the basis of "sexual orientation." Man. That was like...BUMP.)

Also, students: please note: Veith: "Wikipedia is not allowed. It is not a credible source."

In terms of Pitching, at the beginning of the season the Mad Men writers spend two weeks in the room. Matt Weiner comes in with the beginning and the end of the season. The staff then goes away and in four days have to come back with twenty story ideas.Veith pitched hers last, as she has the least seniority, so she'd come up with 25, anticipating that others would have come up with some of the same ideas. The ideas have to be fully formed with beginnings, middles and ends. They pitch orally to Matt Weiner, and if he likes something, the writer's assist makes a note, and it goes on a card. The writers (4 last season) live and die on whether their idea makes it onto a card, and then again when they see if their card makes it onto the wall.

Apparently, every one of the writers independently arrived at the idea of Betty's Dad having a stroke in Season two. There you go, spec monkeys and fanficcers -- it's not just you.

Veith also lifted the veil on the Matt Weiner method of structuring a season, which he inherited from David Chase. In structuring the season, here's the formula:

• Ep 5....you have to give something big back to the audience for sticking in that far (Ie: in 5 this year we find out how Don advised Peggy post-baby, and this was the Car Crash with Bobbie)
• Ep 7&8 ... do it again -- something big.

• Ep 12 ... the climax of your season.

• Ep 13 ... denouement, tie up any loose ends not dealt with in 12.

On Mad Men's chances on being shown on Network TV in the USA:

Apparently NBC was thinking about it around the time Dexter was showing on CBS. Veith said "You can stab people in the face, but you can't have a smoke and a drink."

Tassie Cameron on Flashpoint's first season:

"Basically, they asked us to make 13 pilots." That's how little crossover/serialization/carryover they wanted. The thought of that made me queasy in my seat. What a fucking LOT of work that must have been! I can't help but think that if FP was a writer-showrunner driven show, they might have had a better appreciation of just how much work that really was. You can ask for the moon if you haven't really internalized the process, I guess.

James Manos Jr. on Dexter, and research for Dexter:

"Three percent of the world are sociopaths. They will run over your kid without a second thought. There are three hundred million people in the USA, which means there are 9 million of those people walking around."

Nice. I wonder how many of them work in Television.

Manos had a falling out with partners on Dexter, and wasn't involved after the pilot. He said that in his original conception of the first 12," you were going to find out that Doakes, the cops -- all were crazier than Dexter. He was, in a weird way, the sane one."

That's interesting. I always felt there was something a bit off about Dexter's 1st season in that it went exactly where you thought it was going to go. In retrospect, you can see how Manos' vision was set up in the pilot with the Captain's sexual harassment of Dexter, and Doakes' obsession really being at 11. It's in there. Shame. As good as Dexter may be now, that would have been an interesting show.

I appreciated a lot of Manos' sentiments about the craft. He said that the number one thing for him is to not work with assholes. Life's too short. "There's a certain honor in the work that you're doing. At the end of the day you want to wake up, shoot 12 hours, have a drink, screw something, then go to sleep and get up and do it again."

And when asked if he preferred finishing the script or seeing the finished product he chose the latter.

"Finishing the script is more like bad sex. Did I really do that? And now I have to do it again?"

I'll write up further tidbits from the forum later.

Get Your War On

LOOK, IT'S NOT that I don't want to post, it's just that with eight days to go, I simply find myself unable to think, read, process, or talk about anything other than the upcoming election. I'm sorry. It's just not possible. All this will soon be over and then maybe we can talk about the TeeVee again.

In the meantime, however, did you know that the hilarious Get Your War On was now an animated series of shorts? I bet you didn't know that. Well, now you do.

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

Writer's Holiday

OH THERE ARE a few. There's Bloomsday, of course. And there's the day that the new moleskins come out in stationary stores. But for my money, the beef supreme of writerly celebrations has to be the Season Finale of Mad Men.

Mmm. Joan Holloway.

To warm up, here's the funniest sketch from Jon Hamm's host stint on Saturday Night Live this week:



Less funny - but with still some funny bits (and guest stars, too!) is the Mad Men parody from the same show:

True. True.

REMEMBER THIS? OH, I'M SURE YOU DO.



Well, it's Eight Years Later.



How freaking awesome is that?

OMIGOD! They mentioned us! They DID they DID!

EXHIBIT #25235, COLONIZED CULTURE DIVISION, SPURIOUS REFERENCE AS NEWS, (see: Nation as sad, local reference, not as sophisticated as one would believe; see also, "How can you be superior if you're also this needy?")

Huzzah, Canadians. Take it to the battlements, please! The Americans have referenced Canada once more! On a hit show! And it's BIG, BIG, BIG NEWS! YAAAAAYYY! YAAAAY!

Seriously. I just threw up in my soul a bit.

So, you know, go read THE FULL NEWS ARTICLE about Michael Scott on THE OFFICE mentioning Winnipeg and we'll wait.

Great. .

Hey, you know what else? Did you catch this bit of the article?

Of course, the cast never actually was in Winnipeg, but parts of the episode are set there. (emphasis added)

Awesome.

BTW, Less Than Kind, a comedy series shot, set, and at least partially lived in Winnipeg -- continues Monday at 10:30 on CityTV.

Do try to watch. Unless you're busy affixing that maple leaf patch to your Europe-bound rucksack or something.

Super Series Junkie?

QUIETLY, WITHOUT LOOKING it seems, Super Channel, the also-ran PayTV channel that almost nobody has heard of, has become something I'm seriously considering adding to my cable package.

It's okay if you haven't heard of Super Channel. They've done a terrible job of promoting it. Some cable systems don't even carry it. Shaw's pulling their usual sneaky Shaw bullshit in trying to bury it. Arguably, right now, the only thing that anybody's talking about in the world of Canadian pay tv is the launch of HBO Canada, which really is nothing more than a simple re-brand of one of the plexed channels of TMN and Movie Central. Oh yeah, sure. And Bill Maher. That's new. Yawn. Point being, if you subscribe to Pay, you already get most of what HBO Canada is promoting. It proves at least that somebody in Canada can think strategically in terms of marketing, but not much else.

But that's not true with Super Channel. They actually do have stuff that nobody else in Canada has.

Interestingly enough it was a piece of marketing that got me thinking anew about Super Channel. They're hosting the premiere of the Starz original series Crash (based on the over-praised Paul Haggis movie) and so they put it up as a stream on their website. Now, I hated that movie, but I love me some Dennis Hopper, so that creates what we call a wee bit o' dissonance.

I haven't yet had the time to go watch the stream, but I did check out some of the other series offerings, and -- holy cow! There are like 20 series on there that aren't available anywhere else.

First, there's Sons of Anarchy, the biker-based series I haven't had a chance to check out by other means.

Then the other night I'm out saying goodbye to the wonderful Daisy Beaumont, a British actress who's just finished up a wonderful little arc in Season 2 of The Border. She was talking about a series she filmed in Mumbai awhile back called Mumbai Calling. I'm wondering where I can see it.

Super Channel.

Then there's Burn Notice. And The Closer. And Skins. The UK series Peep Show.

Suddenly it looks like I may have a little more research to do...