Classy.

"All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people that watch.  Please don’t be cynical.  I hate cynicism. For the record it’s my least favorite quality.  It doesn’t lead anywhere.  Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you. Amazing things will happen."

See ya soon, you pasty redheaded freak.

One of the Good Ones

DIDN'T KNOW HIM well. Only met him a couple of times. But there's more than one dear friend of mine who's in pain today from the loss of a writer who approached all with good humor and equanimity -- even his own diagnosis.

A Rock and Roller and Humorist, a Screenwriter and a guy you never heard a bad word about.

We're poorer without you, Quarrington.

56. My God. Too soon. Too soon. Peace to you.

Paul Quarrington, 56, a beloved Canadian writer, musician and screenwriter, passed away early this morning after a heroic battle with lung cancer.

A statement posted to his official website said: “Paul Quarrington's brave battle with cancer is over. He passed peacefully at home in Toronto in the early hours this morning surrounded by friends and family. It is comforting to know that he didn't suffer; he was calm and quiet holding hands with those who were closest to him. The past few days saw a rapid decline in his ability to breathe.”

Quarrington was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in the spring, but managed to keep working on a range of projects that reflected his diverse artistic interests and talents – a new solo album of his own songs, another album with his band, the Pork Belly Futures, a new screenplay, a new novel, as well as a memoir, Cigar Box Banjo.

He also continued to perform, at times even while hooked up to an oxygen machine, toured Labrador, chronicled his illness in a series of newspaper articles and worked on a documentary film inspired by the memoir, Life in Music.

In the last several months, Quarrington had managed to maintain a pace that would have exhausted a healthy man – demonstrating a prodigious work ethic that belied his familiar persona as a rumpled, slightly undisciplined laggard.

What I remember is that he had a great laugh, and kind eyes.

If you knew him and want to share a story below, please do.

Citytv R.I.P.

I HAD A WHOLE different post to write. Believe me about this.  What I was going to write about was an example of good news in the Canadian TV business.  It was about how corporate largesse can make way for a little bit of joy over art.

It's still a good nugget.

I've joked frequently to people -- from personal experience -- that having a CanCon show on CityTV is kind of like joining the TV Witness Protection Program. Nobody will know you're on.  There will be no advertising.  You will live a peaceful life in anonymity.

That's what happened to my eight part miniseries, Across the River to Motor City.  It bowed on City, was lightly promoted, never rerun, and slipped beneath the waves.

And that's kind of what happened to Less Than Kind, a much-admired and little seen show that had its first season on Citytv - the rump of five stations, post ROGERS buy, ignominiously strafed by technical problems, episodes shown out of order, in the wrong aspect ratio -- I swear to God, one time I tuned in and saw only the music and effects track, no dialogue. Awesome.

Nevertheless, City renewed Less than Kind for another year.  But the problems off the top were always intense. They wouldn't schedule it.  They asked for "toned down" changes.  The problem?  LTK is a raucous, scabrous comedy and Rogers decided that Citytv was to be rebranded in a "family way."  Sigh.

But the good news is that TMN was interested in picking the show up. They picked up the finished but not scheduled second season from Citytv and committed to development of a third. (Decision on a green light should come later this year.)

That's a Canadian good news story you don't usually see. And what's more, the Rogers people now in control of City actually deserved credit -- because they could have at any moment just said "no" and scuttled the deal. Part of the problem with having broadcasters that don't make money on the things they actually make is that those shows really do become pinatas...not only are they bounced around the schedule, but they're subject to caprices and whims.   Good? Not a defense.

But ... but... Citytv really liked the show -- it just didn't fit.  TMN really wanted the show; they thought it was much more up their alley.  So they made a deal. Rogers could have stood in the way but they didn't. Good for them.  Good news. Win win.

Then came the Citytv bloodbath Tuesday.

Now, I've written before about how I used to work at Citytv...and how much I loved the place.  I just... I mean, heres' some coverage from yesterday.  I just feel like I can't say anymore about the place.  What's happened to it breaks my fucking heart.

So now you get reruns. A couple of excerpts from earlier posts where I talked about why City used to be special.

My sympathies to all the canned.  You worked hard. And you deserved better.

From:

Localized Pain, Nobody's Gain:

McLuhan and Znaimer, the two guys I spent a lot of time in my 20's studying, both theorized that the future of programming was local. That the best TV was going to be the station that told you what happened to you, today.

I was lucky enough to work at one of those stations in the last years before they worked to dismantle it: Toronto's Citytv. Others have written better and longer essays about what made City unique and different, but I have to say that rather than being any one thing, it was everything. The fact that the promos were cut by promo guys in house, who wrote funny voiceovers for Mark Dailey to read. The fact that you could sneak funny and slightly off stuff onto the air at 3am. Many have reminisced about the great post midnight voiceover for Atlantic City, where Mark Dailey enthused to the night owls watching, "Don't go anywhere! Coming up next you get to see my boss get shot in the chest!" And indeed you did. Moses had a small part in that Louis Malle feature.

If you were in a hotel in Toronto and you flipped on the TV and saw City Tv, it made you want to get out and explore that city. My time exploring other cities, especially when I started working in TV and had cause to visit other affiliates, I found the local affiliates were parked in strip malls or far out industrial bunkers divorced from the city proper never made me feel that way.

From "Getting Brandtastic"

How Ego Can Wreck a Brand

Citytv was a local Toronto brand that took the superstation mentality and ran with it long before Ted Turner thought to do the same thing. From the news to the promos to the very character of the station, Citytv looked like nothing else in the world.

It ran magazine shows like FT or Movie Television that eschewed chirpy v/o and polished film look, for “authentic,” “handheld” and “street level.” (Also: cheap.)

But even before Citytv founder Moses Znaimer was slowly forced out, things started to change. The parent company, CHUM, wanted to be more of a player. They wanted a more corporate look. Instead of “A City tv production,” (a brand that had some funky history) shows started being tagged by “CHUM Television.” (a brand that had none.) And the slice of life people-in-the-city promos were replaced by flashier graphics, similar brand and promo elements. Lot more shooting on film. Lot less heart.

The people then in charge “upscaled the look” of the station. When acquisitions of other stations in other cities caused them to become rebranded Citytv’s, they went for a unified look – promos that used to be charming and idiosyncratic became…just like other stations. They brought in the same news consultants selling the same snake oil they’d sold all over the USA – weather porn, action news-style stuff. They lost what was special about the place, and added a whole wack of Vice Presidents. The ratings went down. There wasn't anything special anymore. No mythos, no heart. I remember in the ten years I taught University -- at the beginning it was the best students saying, "how do I get into Citytv?" and by the end... the ones asking were no longer the best, the brightest, or even the hippest. They'd found other places to go. Hubris and a desire to be a mini-network bled out what was once charming and special about the place.

That's it. That's all I got. Other than this:  What a goddamn shame. And what a great, great loss to the City of Toronto.


UPDATE 01/22  Seems like I have a lousy record with these on-the-road posts. This article has been corrected. Incorrect information appeared yesterday. The blogger regrets the error.

The Other Side of The Envelope

EVERY ONCE IN AWHILE, amidst the recriminations & the sleaze & the pettiness & the outright small-mindedness of this business, if you're very very lucky, you get to do something cool.

Like sit in a room, and strain to read hundred-and-twenty-one year old handwriting.

And yes, maybe the eyestrain is acute.

But then, even more occasionally, the items aren't crumbly and in mylar, and very gingerly, Oh so very carefully, you pick up the page and read.

And what comes to life is a persona unlike the one you've been reading in books, or research briefs -- gone suddenly, forever, is the cant of Victorian rectitude & seriousness, the awareness always of the official audience.  Suddenly, you're reading the plaintive and the personal. You're reading the very private words for an audience of one; the words of a man, simply, then as now, vulnerable, and in love.

And it's then you feel very privileged indeed.

Dreams. True. True.

SO SOMETIMES YOU land and you check into your hotel and you just want to drink a bottle of water, and so you flip the dial on the TV and that's how you wind up watching...Rachael Ray.


One of the things I vowed this year was to try to be more positive in my work life, and my personal life.  And the former isn't always so possible. But for anybody pounding themselves right now trying to make the budget work, or the day out of days line up, or the second draft conform to the three sets of impossible notes, or even try to find that last 10% of financing...


...Kwitcherbitchin' and check your future competition.


These kids made my day.  Hope they make yours too.  Now, turn this up, watch, have fun and then go do another Pomodoro.

Not To Take Credit...

THE FINE PEOPLE at the WGCtweet feed alerted me to this article outlining some of the back-and-forth, behind-the-scenes drama over screenplay credits during this awards season.

The article suggests that credit arbitrations have become more contentious and common lately -- which is true in Canada too, with one notable twist.

In Canada, the arbitration doesn't stop at the film screen.

Part of the blurring of Producer-Showrunner-Creative duties over the last few years has been the fruit of a very poison tree. For years, so called "Creative Executive Producers" here have hired writers as word slaves to "flesh out" what some call, derisively, "napkin ideas," and then turn around and claim a "Created By" credit.

This is made easier by a weakness in the WGC IPA, where there is no automatic "Created By" assigned to the writer of a Pilot script, which is standard practice in the USA.

I was witness a couple months back to a very protracted and extremely entertaining argument between a screenwriter and a producer - both of whom I like and admire, over just this issue. Believe me, the feelings were intense -- and fierce.

The complicating factor in this, with the new U.S. first mode of development, is that we have a situation now where, theoretically, a U.S. person could be brought in on a Canadian project, and get an automatic "Created By" credit, while the Canadian writer who actually created the project doesn't get it.  This has, in fact, already happened at least once.

(I'm actually incorrect on this one point; see end of post.) 

This is a big minefield, and will probably get bigger in IPA negotiations down the road.  It's also, ultimately, a craft issue.  Writing is one of those things that everybody thinks they understand, because everybody writes in some way, sometimes.  But each and every day, writers are exposed to the truth that -- in film and tv, at least, where the teleplay/screenplay is only an intermediary document -- nobody really understands what we do.

Actors are quoted as "contributing to the dialogue" and people assume that all the most spontaneous stuff in the script came from them.

Directors downplay the script and big up their contributions because of the natural tension between writer and director as dual spokes that create the finished product -- the film or TV episode.

The Producer (in TV) is the one who deals with the network, and sometimes instigates the project, and therefore believes they should be able to share in the created by glory.

This sometimes has financial implications, but in Canada, most of the important considerations are still of the moral variety.

Where do I come down? Well, it might not surprise you too much to find out that I tend to side with the writer on this one.  Then again, I've given away shared credit in the past for projects that I pretty much wrote everything for myself.  It's not easy.

But maybe it's made better through a series of statements and questions:

• There is probably no bigger Executive Producer identified with a "type" of program bigger than Jerry Bruckheimer.  Yet Jerry Bruckheimer doesn't take a "created by" credit on the shows he puts forward.  Is the Producer saying that their contribution to the script is more significant than Jerry Bruckheimer's creation of his shows?
• If the writer didn't write the script, could the Producer get to a greenlight through whatever he/she writes himself?
• In Canada, we have a system of "story editors." But if a Producer can get a "created by" or a shared screenplay credit just be giving notes -- which is essentially what a story editor does, then explain why any story editor hired doesn't immediately become a co-writer and co-creator? Or a network exec, who does the same thing?

None of these things are cut and dried, and a lot has to do with the levels of mutual respect in the relationship, and whether someone is treated right, or winds up feeling used.  I have created things with non-writers, and such was the level of their conception, discussion with me, contributions of ideas and themes, that I truly, truly could not think of denying them the co-creator credit.

I guess the real problem is a significant and general problem in conceptualizing just how much work "creating" a show really is.    Tellingly, people who aren't writers often talk suspiciously about being afraid that so-and-so will "steal their idea" if they talk about it.

Most writers don't think this way, simply because most of us, a) have more ideas than we'll be able to develop within our lifetimes  and b) know that the idea is cheap. It's the development and execution of the idea to get it to a shootable state where the blood and sweat and tears truly lie.

This is muddied further these days by an annoying trend to give non-writers writing development deals. In the states, these are mostly "Producer only" deals or POD deals.  In Canada it tends to come from Acting agents advising their clients to pitch writing projects.

In both cases, inevitably, the next thing that happens is that they engage a writer to "work with" the nominal creator.

The problem being - with the "created by" situation so fluid & changeable, there is just too much opportunity for abuse and hard feelings in this situation. I've honestly come to the conclusion that for most writers, unless you really, really need the money -- these deals just aren't worth it.  Better to put your energy trying to get something of your own up and running.

Or, you know, try to get an acting deal. I guess.

What a mess.

Okay, they're calling my flight. Guess I'll just drop those shells and go.   Comments are open.

ADDENDUM:  I should specify here, of course, of course that there are perfectly lovely and talented Actor-writer hyphenates, just as there are writer-directors, and even Producer-directors.  Stephen Soderbergh DOP's his own movies, and he's good at it. The Coen's edit their own films. And people like my friends Stephanie Morgenstern & Mark Ellis (Creators of FLASHPOINT) may have spent years treading the boards, but when it comes to writing, they came up and matriculated and sweated and conceived & did millions of drafts and worked just like writers who weren't also pretty & handsome.

What I'm talking about is those who want the gelt & the glory without being capable of doing the work, or even understanding what work is actually involved.

Clarification off.

CORRECTION 01-19:  Apparently I got my wires crossed on this issue, and I've received this correction from the WGC:   

"Under the WGA’s waiver system, when a WGA writer is working on a Canadian show, contracted under the IPA, he/she does not automatically get a “Created by” credit if they get sole, or shared, “Written by” or ‘Story by” credit on the pilot. They do when working in their own jurisdiction under the MBA but not up here.  Up here, just like the WGC member, the WGA member under a waiver must negotiate entitlement to a “Created by” credit. "

So, bad news in the sense that you still have to negotiate that credit manually in Canada under the IPA (which a commenter takes me to task for below) but at least the treatment of Americans working here is not MORE favourable than Canadians in the same situation.


Of course, writer peeps, I'm sure you may know of Canadian companies who'll do and give just about ANYTHING to tray and attach a U.S. writer to a Canadian project... But, well, that's a different fight for a different day, isn't it?


El Blogger regrets the error.

Your Blue Monday Morning Zeitgeist

SO I'M OFF on a flight to Edmonton today to do archive research at one of the University of Alberta libraries. While there I hope to immerse myself utterly in the fugue feeling of what my life might have been like had I taken the academic path and not done this silly masochistic writing thing.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say better sleep, and my wardrobe, number of interesting dinner/drinks companions & love  of arcane knowledge would wind up being a bit of a wash.

Do you know that today is supposedly, statistically, the most depressing day of the year?   Man, I hope the pilot is in a good mood.

These are some things that I'm watching that I think add up to one big thing.

THE LITTLE SHOW THAT COULD

While everyone fretted this way and that over various elements of the CBC lineup, Heartland has quietly become that network's highest rated scripted show, regularly cracking a million viewers.  Sunday at 7pm used to be gravy for the CBC, a family hour when that meant something, and it seems like that show, along with unscripted fare like "Battle of the Blades", pull down numbers that seem to fit in the steroid-pumped PPM era, up against powerhouses like House.  Multigen & friendly/accessible - the show's ascendancy seems like no accident.

I'd be willing to bet that CBC goes for more straight up fare like this.  The national broadcaster should resist what they've been doing the last few years -- panic, and over react, puttting all the eggs in that basket now.  I look forward to a time when somebody strides out on the dais at some preview show and says, "and here's a show that's never gonna get a million, but it's a flat out great show; it could easily be on cable, but that kind of show is a part of our mandate at CBC, too."

GOOD & GOODER

I haven't really had a chance to spill too much ink over The Good Wife, and that's too bad.  When it comes to working up a new spec script, this is the one that I'm telling writers to do.  Others have written about how the show, minus its "ripped from the headlines" kicker of the politico wife, is rather old-fashioned, but I think that's the point.  I've seen about five episodes of The Good Wife -- out of order, without staying up with the backstory.  Every one has been incredibly tightly formatted, with classic, great structure -- and A-plots that put this firmly in the character-driven mystery camp.  Every episode's main plot ultimately reveals some new aspect of Juliana Margulies' character; it's about HER.  The other characters, too -- all help you to understand her better.  Consequently, you watch one or two episodes, and you have a very strong sense of what the show is.

This doesn't just stand for me.  I've watched two of the eps with my father.  My father, who's become my standard focus group of one, sometimes has trouble following some of the herkier or jerkier dramas with their POV bullet shots and fancy talk.  Okay, yes, it's cause he falls asleep a lot in front of the TV and never sees the full thing.

He doesn't fall asleep in front of The Good Wife. He stays engaged, and when the twists in the story come, we both nod sagely like we saw it coming, when really we didn't.

With none of the tawdry, empty gimmickry of the CSI's and none of the fear-pumping ugliness at the heart of a Criminal Minds, I think The Good Wife has got something to it that could point the way to the next few (the last few?) broad based network hit shows... which brings us to...

THE PEOPLEMETERS SPEAK

Two key things have emerged from the data garnered by new peoplemeters & measurement technologies: more people are watching TV -- and especially network tv -- than we thought, and PVR's that add to viewing numbers do not necessarily strip the value from advertising -- because people who have and use PVR's a lot don't skip through the ads as much as everyone assumed.

That's good news for both networks and network tv.  Yes, long term, the network model is not viable, and something subscription based is the likely successor...but all the fire sale gloomy talk and NBC's premature surrender is now exposed for what it is:  too much, too soon.  There's still a few hands left to play in the game.

None of this applies to the Canadian networks, of course.  The simulcast model is pretty much dead.  Happy Blue Monday.


CROSSED WITH NOTHING

Every year, with scores of new plots and shows it gets harder and harder to show the audience something they haven't seen before. So for several years now we've been seeing hybrids. Hybrids are shows that try to weld this to that... it's a medical drama, but it's also a mystery...It's a cop show, but it's also a supernatural thriller, etc.   The Good Wife (see above) is pretty straight up.

When you look at the wonderful USA dramas, you'll see more shows that are just what they are -- decent shows, fun, uncomplicated.  WHITE COLLAR, about an unlikely team of FBI agent and con man, could have been out in the 80's.  ROYAL PAINS explores a new area (The Hamptons, the very rich) but it's a fish-out-of-water Doctor show -- Northern Exposure with quirky rich people instead of quirky Alaskans.

Maybe it's time to amp down the gimmicks and just go for a bit of straight genre -- whatever that genre is -- executed well?

(side note here --  I managed to get ahold of THE ROCKFORD FILES pilot by David Shore. And. It's. AWESOME. Yayyy!  Now all they have to do is cast those 4 great roles.)

COMMUNITY, MODERN FAMILY, and PARKS & RECREATION are all excellent comedies -- but there's nothing particularly revolutionary about any of them.  Yeah, Modern Family & Parks use The Office style confessional interviews -- but that's become a creaky old trope on its own.

These trends, in and of themselves might be notable, but I think they add up to something...and it's something that would be well to note, because it's TV's traditional role.

Times suck.  People are agitated. They want TV to soothe, to entertain, and to a certain extent, to reassure. There is nothing wrong with any of these desires. And we who toil in the TV mines should take a second and realize that there's nothing wrong with making programs that someone can flip on at the end of the day and watch, knowing they'll be entertained and maybe even lifted up a little.

Maybe that's what we can do to help people get through these challenging times. It's not a lot. But it's not nothing.

Think about that when you're writing this week.

Oh, and Christina Hendricks. Think about Christina Hendricks.

Right. That last one might just be me.

Story Room Challenge

KAREN WALTON, Ginger Snaps scribe, hard-working scribbler, and mistress of Ink Canada, has a great one today, specifically for all story rooms.

That URL again, is clickable right HERE.

It's Not TV...

OOOH. SHINY.

CanTV Twofer: Cra$h & Burn

AND IF YOU'RE watching the Season Finale of THE BORDER tonight at 9pm, it's pretty easy just to do a quick flip to Showcase at 10pm and catch "CRA$H & BURN."

The show, set in the gritty "just give them an NHL team already" industrial city of Hamilton, ON - has caught fire in the last few weeks. But tonight's ep is particularly of note since it features two of my fave actors.

Enrico Colatoni (Flashpoint, Veronica Mars) guests alongside Michelle Nolden (ZOS: Zone of Separation, Numbers.) The two last appeared together in ZOS, in very different roles -- as this promo points out.



Here's a bit of trivia -- the title of tonight's ep, "Lawyers, Guns & Money" was the original title for the series.

Tonight, 10pm, Showcase.

One More Border Run

THE BORDER AIRS its 38th episode on CBC tonight at 9pm.  The third season finale is full of its own twists & turns, plenty of action & is rip-roaringly rendered by the same able hands who helmed the show's pilot, John Fawcett. But the real cliffhanger is whether this will be the final adventure of Kessler & Co.

As I've written previously, THE BORDER has not had an easy time of it this season, shuffled to a Thursday-night slot that puts it up against not one, but two of TV drama's 800 lb. Gorillas -- CSI & Grey's Anatomy, burdened with a lacklustre lead-in that never once delivered an audience fit to build on, in a sense, the show's been given an assignment that even Jack Bauer probably wouldn't be able to whisper/yell his way through.  By way of contrast, recently bowed mystery series REPUBLIC OF DOYLE managed to draw 969, 000 people-meter pumped viewers to its first outing, but off the back of an almost 2 million audience from DRAGON'S DEN at 8.  That's a great number for CBC -- but it's also losing 50% of your lead in.

Never mind. So The Border didn't get billboards or much ink this season -- such is the nature of the TV game -- push the new, let the toddlers stand on their own.  And really, isn't how that should be?

Even with all the X's against it, the show's managed to deliver several solid outings this year, all tinged with the show's trademark "riffed from the headlines" approach.  It's tough to do this kind of stuff in Canada cause the libel laws & cautious Lawyers make it well nigh impossible, for one simple reason: in the USA shows like Law & Order need to make sure that they could win any court challenge if it came to that. In Canada, they really, really never want to even have it go to court at all.  And without the bullet-proofing of the Bill of Rights' 1st Amendment, (Freedom of Speech laws in Canada are not as well protected) it's tough to meet that charge and still be topical.

Nevertheless, over its run The Border's managed to be pretty on top of anticipating stories that would become stories -- from organ donation rings to Border-guard shootouts to tonight's episode, which jumps off from the MS 13 gang, and the (somewhat) surprising statistic that Canada's number one refugee claimants over the last few years have been from ... Mexico.

Tonight's outing, penned by series co-creator Janet MacLean, puts ICS Head Mike Kessler (James McGowan) in a tough position, raising both the professional & the personal stakes between Kessler & his ex-wife, Terri. (Julie Stewart from Cold Squad)  Nice work from  the entire cast... they really are a wonderful ensemble. As for the bing-bada-boom? Well, let's just say when things get hairy, they get really, really hairy.

Even battered by the timeslot and by its status as the longest-toothed drama in the "new CBC" stable. (Call it the "Space Shuttle" of Canadian Dramas...) the show still managed to average over 500 000 viewers for the year, so cancellation isn't certain.  New scripts have reportedly been commissioned for a possible fourth season, so that's something.

But even if this is the last time loyal viewers return to the ICS Headquarters in Toronto, The Border will always have its place as the show that breathed new life into the CBC's Drama Development schedule.  Hopefully the sniffs of "Canadians don't do action shows" will sound dumber the next time someone tries to make the point.

Personally, I'll always be grateful for the two (mostly) happy years I spent on the show.  I learned a lot from a great cast and crew, a wonderful story department & cagey & experienced producers like Brian Dennis and Documentarian E.P. Peter Raymont.

And Mark Wilson.  I had to mention him, because he whines like a little girl when I don't. So there.

Tune in tonight at 9pm for the fireworks, on CBC.

No Coco Canucko

HOWARD BERNSTEIN manages to come up with a nifty Canadian Coco/Leno angle that isn't really about either, but about our other favorite subject here in Sticksville -- the retarded, broken-toy nature of our shibboleth of a TV "industry."

From Bernstein's post, "An American Fiasco...It Can't Happen Here.":

The fiasco that’s playing itself out in the United States with Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and NBC could not happen here in Canada. There was a time when it could but the amassing of television properties by just a few large conglomerates has put an end to anyone being able to force CTV, Global and even CBC to do anything they don’t want to do.

The affiliates said enough is enough. We don’t care if NBC is saving money by not running an expensive drama at ten. Your gain is our loss.

In the U.S. the affiliates wield all the power.

For all the bull coming from CTV and Global about saving local TV the fact is the Canadian networks co-opted the local owners and bought them out years ago. CTV and Global own almost all the stations that broadcast their signal. If CTV or Global is saving money on a show that is not delivering audience it is their call as to whether the money savings are worth the audience loss. There are no affiliates left to complain. There is no local left. In Canada it is always about the network. In Canada it is always about the bottom line of CTV and Global.

What’s most interesting about the Leno problem at NBC is that the show was working well-enough for the network. Sure they were getting about one-half to one-third of the audience that ABC, CBS and Fox were getting in the ten o’clock time slot, but they were only paying 20 percent of what the other networks were doling out for shows like CSI Miami and The Good Wife. Do the math. They were actually making more money on the cheap Leno show with five million viewers than they would have made with a cop show or hospital drama with 10 to 15 million viewers. NBC in fact did not want to move or cancel Leno it was working for them.

In the U.S. it was the power of local TV, real local TV, that made the difference.

We shouldn't just beat up on the Networks with this current example.  The CRTC "tv review" which concluded last month, which was supposed to be something other than another discussion of fee for carr...uh... value for sign... um...toys for tots or whatever the fuck... was also looking at the entire system.

Up to now, cable channels have benefited from having "must carry" rules at the CRTC; ie, if a channel got a license from the CRTC cable and sat had to put them on. (There are other "category 2" licenses that don't have to be carried, but have to negotiate their way on, but they are far fewer.)

Well, it's clear that a pissed-off public wants the choice of "unbundling" and "a la carte" at a price point that doesn't punish them, and that means that down the road all cable channels might have to negotiate.

When I was in NYC last weekend, every two minutes on Time Warner Cable, it seemed, there was Bobby Flay, saying that he knew that people missed the HD signals of The Food Network and HGTV, and you should write so and and so to make sure they get on the dial...

... how many of the Canadian specialties will people go to bat for?  It's a heckuva question. Makes my brainpan hurt.

Anyway, Howard's full tale is well worth your time.  Go read.

Twitter's Other Trending Topic Today

IT'S STRANGE SEEING all those awful pictures from Haiti. All day today I've been hyper-aware of the utter disposability of just about everything I obsess about over everyday.  Bread & Circuses don't mean much when you're knocked to your knees as roundly, as thoroughly, and as perennially as the poor people of Haiti.

So finally I focused, took a breath, and just held a thought for the Doctors & the nurses and the carpenters, engineers, rescue workers, firefighters, pilots, construction workers & everyone else with the skills to help now on their way.  Godspeed.

Then, of course, you turn to Twitter and get a bit of perspective. Conan & Leno trending right behind ...

...  sigh ... I guess people do love their circuses.

So it was I was on Q talking about the late night shuffle today with Jian, a writer from my favorite online news site, Salon, and Bill "Soundbite" Brioux, soon to be seen weekly in "Badlands of Brioux," where he'll play the key role of Jackson "Stinky Pete" Brioux.

John Doyle will probably hate it.

(Actually, Brioux's right in the middle of a book on the history of Late Night TV.  Can't wait to read that. Certainly a fascinating legacy and a wealth of stories to choose from.)

You can listen to the podcast here.  The Late Night discussion starts right about the twenty minute mark.

Scott Thompson on "Death Comes To Town"

KIDS IN THE HALL's Scott Thompson had a pretty wonderful, candid conversation about Death Comes To Town with the blog Torontoist.  John Semley's interview is well worth reading:

Was there any hesitance doing something long-form like a mini-series after the experience of working on Brain Candy? Why not a sketch special of new material or something like that?

We knew we couldn’t do a sketch series. We could never improve on what we did before. There would be no point. For years we were burdened by our reputation, and this was a perfect way to do something new where even if we blew it we’d still have our sketch show. It’d be like a failed experiment. In our own careers, we’ve all gotten much better chops as writers and actors. Sure, many of the projects we worked on may not have been great. Many have never been seen. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t learn from them. We knew that we could do this. The idea was great. It was a large canvas we could work with. Large themes and multiple characters.Brain Candy came during a period in our lives when we were all messed up, by many things, one of them being fame. But by this time in our lives we had dealt with all those things...Making this mini-series was a joy. For me, personally, it was an absolute joy. I’ve had some personal problems, as I’m sure you probably know.

Of course. I wasn’t going to bring it up.

I don’t mind at all. Honestly I’m so thrilled now to be where I’m at. You can ask me. I don’t mind at all

Read what Thompson has to say about the "male energy" of comedy & how that challenge inspired him, and how he managed to fight cancer while shooting the show, here.

Up in the Chair

WILL DIXON does Clooney, Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner here. And it's priceless.

Oh, Damn, Son!

CONAN CONAN CONAN.


Never, ever, ever shank an Irishman and expect him to go quietly.  


This is one of the best "statements" I've ever read.


People of Earth:

In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me.  For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky.  That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009.  Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me.  I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future.   It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule.  Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance.  After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35.  For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news.  I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting.  The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show.  Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot.  That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this:  I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it.  My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.  Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter.  But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next.  My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it's always been that way.

Yours,

Conan

Why do I think the only guy in Late Night who's happy is the New York Times' Bill Carter?


And isn't Brioux working on a Late Night book, too?  Push back those publication dates, kids.


Guess we have a fresh News hook for Q tomorrow.  I should be on around 10:30.


Okay, this is lame, but it's my first try:


"What's the difference between Jay Leno & Conan O'Brien?"


"145 cars and a sense of personal dignity."


So what now?  Mark Farrell (Dan For Mayor, Corner Gas, 22 Minutes) has an idea:

Conan

Damn, son !

Late Night Lumbago

WHEW. RIGHT BACK and into the frying pan.  Full session today with the CFC folk, discussing their outlines.  Tomorrow I'm on Q, talking about the debacle of Late Night & Leno, and then straight on to a meeting about Development Project One. Whew hoo!

Death Comes to Town, Parties With Mayor

THE SECRET IS TO GET your bias out there, up front. So here goes.


I love, love, love Kids in the Hall.


When I was a struggling poor Ryerson student in the late 80's, early 90's, twice-weekly tapings of The Kids' first CBC Television series at the old studios on Mutual Street served as a prime source of much-loved (and admired) free entertainment. You can still hear my barrel laugh on way too many of those old episodes.


Those tapings also unwittingly contributed one of my fondest (and most disturbing) broadcast memories -- the late Barbara Frum, in full hair and on-air getup, plus makeup bib, wandering up and down the street calling for her dog. Bizarre.


The Kids in the Hall also unwittingly taught me one of my first lessons about writing for television.


Like a lot of people plugged into Queen Street, I'd seen them develop their act at the Rivoli over several years. And the first season of their TV series ate up all that huge backlog of sketches. When it came time for season two -- they had nothing. They had to hire a few new writers, buckle down and start over -- or so the story goes.


Ulp.


Well, last night in Toronto wasn't exactly a start-from-scratch. More like a victory lap.


People packed into the upstairs at the Rivoli to see the first new Kids in The Hall series in years. Episode 1 of the eight-part "Death Comes To Town."


The series had its Genesis out of the sucessful tours KITH did last year in Canada. And the General Manager of CBC English Television, Kirstine Stewart, was glad to claim them, pronouncing their return to the CBC as a "homecoming."


It was hard to argue in the packed-too-tight confines of the Rivoli. There everyone was -- a little older, maybe. A little wrinklier. And that's just the hipster audience. Ba-DUM.


I started yesterday morning in New York City, screaming for the Lincoln Tunnel at 7AM just on the hope that I could make it back in time to see the episode screened.


And so I did.  I was not disappointed.


I'm happy to report that if you're a fan of Kids in the Hall, you're going to enjoy it very, very much. Death Comes To Town isn't quite like their sketch series of old, but you'll recognize riffs on many of the group's iconic characters.


In the years since, of course, many of the Kids have done time in the trenches of U.S. Network TV. Mark McKinney worked for Aaron Sorkin and now oversees one of Canada's brightest new comedy programs, Less Than Kind. Dave Foley had his years on Newsradio, and Bruce McCulloch has directed several half hours in the last few seasons. Kevin McDonald and Scott Thompson, too, have never been too far from television screens, popping up in guest spots here and there.


Death Comes To Town follows the ambitious trail blazed by shows like The League of Gentlemen, and fuses the Kids in the Hall's outrageous characters with an ongoing story.  (The poster art and little collectible buttons of various characters they were handing out made that clear.)  In Episode One there's a lot of setup and new people to meet. The series keeps gaining comic momentum through the run -- and the results are, well...


Let's just say that, in the current context where it seems like the most important thing ever is considering your U.S. sale, Mark McKinney's Death character does a couple things in the Pilot seem tailor-made to prove that, um, well, that's not a priority here. (One involves the bible and the other involves a let's say more recreational than Holy use for the Human Soul.)


One of the nice things about launch events like this is the ability,  to witness nice little showbiz synchronicities. I sought refuge right at the front from the too-packed room, and found myself heel to toe with an old friend, Mike Booth, I haven't talked to for awhile. Mike works for His Worship, the Mayor of Toronto, David Miller. David got called up quickly on stage in the introductions and tried to demur to the stars of the night, before saying something quick before the credits rolled.


One of the highlights of Death Comes to Town's first episode is Bruce McCulloch's sleazy Mayor, who comes complete in true Kids fashion with an alcoholic wife and "special" son, and who's maneuvering for the 2028 Olympics results in a form letter and public humiliation from the IOC.


Watching Miller guffaw at the antics of his fictional Shuckton equivalent, (who's the kind of guy who not only takes a bite of your burger, but makes out with your wife in front of you) was sublime, and not only because it showed the reaction of a true fan. Miller recently announced in an emotional press conference that he wouldn't be seeking a third term as Toronto's Mayor. Seems that his relationship with his wife and kids is slightly better than Shuckton's Chief Executive, and he'd like to keep it that way.


Was I reading in when I saw something more in Miller's laughs at his onscreen counterpart? As outlandish as his antics might have been, things like the quixotic Olympic bid had to resonate a little deeper there than with some of the rest of us shlubs packed into the upstairs pool hall. Maybe there, the enjoyment and nostalgia that we all felt was tinged with something entirely more human -- a twinge of -- dare I say it? Relief.


Death Comes to Town premieres tonight at 9pm on CBC Television, and continues Tuesdays at 9pm.

(picture credit: my Iphone.  The Kids in the Hall call Toronto Mayor David Miller to the stage from a beam of strange alien light.  The Rivoli, Jan 11, 2010.)

Things to Think About in Writer World

A SHORT POST before a long drive.  Up early for the return trip to Canada after a quick jaunt in New York, shows & a spate at the Algonquin.

For now, from today's NY Times, I call your attention to three articles to view through your writer's filter.  Your world and your audience are changing faster than you can conceive.

First ...  a few years ago, when I was still teaching regularly at Ryerson University, I learned pretty quickly never to respond to student emails at weird, off hours -- because then that was the "new normal."  You could explain to somebody that you were a part-timer there two hours a week -- but they didn't see that, and didn't see why they shouldn't be able to reach you on the weekend -- multiple times if necessary.


The Times expands on that with Brad Stone's notion of "mini generation gaps" caused by the experience of technology. Read it. Then think about how you're going to tell stories going forward.  I think whether the challenge fills you with terror or trepidation, or excitement -- probably says what kind of writer you are...

My 2-year-old daughter surprised me recently with two words: “Daddy’s book.” She was holding my Kindle electronic reader.

But these are also technology tools that children even 10 years older did not grow up with, and I’ve begun to think that my daughter’s generation will also be utterly unlike those that preceded it.  

Researchers are exploring this notion too. They theorize that the ever-accelerating pace of technological change may be minting a series of mini-generation gaps, with each group of children uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development.

“People two, three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. “College students scratch their heads at what their high school siblings are doing, and they scratch their heads at their younger siblings. It has sped up generational differences.”

Second, here's Thomas Friedman on Green Tech and China.  Hey, good thing we've closed Parliament till March.  Tick Tick Tick.


Oh, and finally -- if I was pitching a story right now, I'd try to make the villain, oh...mmm....let's see...can't really do Middle Easterner's and be PC...can't do Africa...mmm.... oh yeah. 


Those Wall Street guys.


Oh, yeah. And, y'know... the Leno thing.  And the Aftermath.


(Seriously?  David Shore + Rockford Files?  What is NOT to love about that idea, retread or no?  And after THE CLOSER it will be interesting to see if they can actually do an American PRIME SUSPECT.)


 Heh heh heh.  And is it really 20 years of The Simpsons?  I remember actually getting in trouble for wearing a Bart Simpson Tshirt to my job at the video store. 


Don't have a cow, indeed.


(And right now I'm watching the Morgan Spurlock Simpsons Doc in my hotel room, and he's telling me stuff I didn't know about The Simpsons.  I mean, who knew there was new stuff to know about The Simpsons?)


So it's been a good break for me.  I've had a car for two years, but never really driven on a big trip with it.  But three weeks away has taken me to see cousins I don't see enough in Vero Beach, Florida. I got to travel the Autotrain, twice,  caught a crazy-fabulous Jazz Night in downtown Orlando, was shocked by the beauty of the moment of the drive of the bridge that connects Delaware to New Jersey...


...I know. New Jersey.


...and now this weekend I got to write a bit in the Algonquin hotel, sit at cafe tables on the new closed Broadway, seen Mamet's new play and the revival of Ragtime before it closed,  had a fabulous pidgin French convo with a colourful older French woman in Molly's Shebeen, watched the Jets game, and got to take in a Raptors victory over the Magic with my Dad.


Oh, and somehow the research I was doing for the new CBC project got done too.


All in all, enough to say, I hope your holiday was great.  Let's crush 2010. 


See y'all soon.