Culture Wins One Over Commerce

So let me explain something. I'm not a musical person. I couldn't tell the difference between Nellie Furtado and Nellie McClung. Okay, that's wrong. I can tell you the differences between Nellie Furtado and Nellie McClung, but only because I know a little about Nellie McClung. When it comes to Nellie Furtado I'm a blank slate. So you can tell that the Juno Awards – Canada's answer to the Grammys and named for Pierre Juneau who as head of the CRTC introduced stringent Canadian Content regulations for TV and Radio – don't exactly turn my world upside down even though they're in my home town of Saskatoon. In fact if I got on my bike and used a short cut I know about I could reach TCU Place – formerly Saskatchewan Place – temporary home of the Junos and normally home of the mighty, mighty (pitiful) Saskatoon Blades in about 20 minutes. But I wouldn't because quite frankly I could care less. I mean right now I'm listening to CBC's Radio 2 right now and they don't play the sort of thing that gets honoured at awards shows, at least not on the TV broadcast. Face it, when was the last time you saw the Grammy for best Classical Album awarded during the television broadcast? Yeah that's right, never.

But I am all about the TV and that's where the Junos suddenly became interesting. You see the Junos were scheduled to start at 7 p.m. on Sunday night. That's 7 p.m. Saskatoon time, which is Central Standard Time which really means it's Mountain Daylight Time (but just try explaining that to people around here). The problem is that we as Canadians live in a country that spans five and a half time zones, and if you'll recall the list of the most popular shows I ran last Monday, most Canadians watch The Amazing Race on Sundays. That includes me, as I`m sure you all know by now.

So the folks at CTV faced a conundrum: do they show the Junos live and move The Amazing Race out of its normal timeslot in most of the country, or run The Amazing Race at its usual time which coincides with the time that CBS shows it in the United States and cable systems across Canada (except of course for Saskatchewan which is too odd and unimportant for them to adjust the schedule so that US shows are seen at the same time that the American stations in Detroit show them). Really it was a no-brainer – they decided to do the right thing... and tape delay the Junos in most of the country, including Saskatchewan.

Apparently there was outrage. I`m not entirely sure from whom but there was outrage felt. When I first found out about this decision, I contacted Diane Kristine, who not only does the fine blog Unified Theory of Nothing Much but also created the website TV Eh! What`s Up in Canadian TV. Her reaction was admittedly a bit more musically interested than mine but still similar. Essentially she felt that the Juno show would receive better ratings with The Amazing Race as a lead in than going head to head with the American feed of the show. She did preface her statement with a "sadly", which I probably wouldn't have done. Actually I do know where a lot of the outrage came from – the Canadian music industry. According to a statement from CTV and the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, there was an "overwhelming feedback" from artists, managers and record labels. "They were feeling that . . . it really looked as though we were treating Canadian music in a way that made it look like second-class citizens," said CARAS chairman Stephen Stohn. "We reacted immediately to that and said, 'No, the important thing is: Canadian music comes number 1.' " Both CARAS and CTV had initially agreed to scheduling the Junos after The Amazing Race, which usually draws an audience of over 2 million viewers, as a way to increase viewership of the awards show. It's not without precedent – two years ago the Junos were tape delayed because it conflicted with Desperate Housewives. Initially the Junos were to air live in the Atlantic provinces (at 10 p.m.) and Alberta (at 7 p.m. – they get their American channels from Spokane in the Pacific time zone) and by tape delay in the rest of Canada including Saskatoon. The current plan has the show starting at 5 p.m. CST rather than as originally scheduled at 7 p.m. and airing live in Atlantic Canada, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Alberta. It will still be tape delayed in Manitoba and British Columbia, and will be reaired in Saskatchewan at 9 p.m.

Writer Denis McGrath who is a staunch defender of Canadian TV production was very much opposed to CTV's decision. In a post on his blog Dead Things ON Sticks he wrote "that pesky culture vs. commerce thing keeps rearing its ugly head, too, all because of the peculiarity of broadcasting in Canada: private broadcasters make their money by aping and piggybacking on U.S. nets, NOT by developing and broadcasting their own programs." He follows this up with an interesting observation "I've said this before, but it bears repeating: the very same arguments made against continuing subsidies and support for the domestic TV industry were made against Cancon in music. Yet Cancon rules for radio allowed the Canadian industry to mature, grow, and eventually become popular; popular enough that a Canadian private network would face a difficult choice between two properties.... If Canadian TV hasn't reached a popularity point with audiences yet that rivals the Junos, it's a problem of implementation – NOT basic philosophy." Frankly I think he's right to a point, although music – and a home-grown self-sufficient music industry – is a lot easier and less expensive to develop than television shows or a home-grown and self sufficient television industry. But that's a subject for another day. Suffice it to say that the current model, which not only allows Canadian stations and networks to buy American product but encourages them to do so through the mechanism of simultaneous substitution (which puts the Canadian signal – and advertising – over the top of the same American signal on cable systems) is not one that will encourage quality Canadian production or the development of a domestic industry. That's a crutch that private radio never had and may explain why the Canadian Content regulations for radio spawned a viable and vibrant recording industry in Canada.

Short Takes – March 25, 2007

Okay, I made the transition to the New Blogger and for the most part it was painless. All I had to do was create a new Google account and even that wasn't overly painful. Who knew? Apparently not the people who set up this transition process in the first place but that, of course, is a whole other story. Changes are coming; you may have noticed the addition of labels below the posts – and because I'm an anal sort I'll eventually get every post (over 500 of them) appropriately labelled – and then there's the long desired (by me) redefinition of my template. But that's for the future.

ABC renews shows for next year: I think this makes them the first network to do so. Among the shows renewed are new series Men in Trees, Ugly Betty, and Brothers & Sisters, and returning series Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Dancing With The Stars, The Bachelor, Boston Legal, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Significantly there is no word about Six Degrees (one of those rare shows that has returned from an early relegation to the status of "indefinite hiatus", but which has had a significant retooling by the network), nor is there any mention of the network's conventional comedy series including According to Jim and George Lopez as well as new shows Knights of Prosperity and In Case of Emergency.

Ratings show Canadians love US shows: In my last post I mentioned that of the Canadian broadcast networks CBC was the one I was most likely to watch because I chose to watch the other networks' offerings on the original American network. Here are the top 10 shows on Canadian TV courtesy of the BBM – essentially Canada's answer to the Nielsen Ratings:

1. American Idol (Tuesday) - CTV
   
2. Grey's Anatomy - CTV
   
3. American Idol (Wednesday) - CTV
   
4. Corner Gas - CTV
   
5. CSI: Miami - CTV
   
6. Amazing Race All Stars - CTV
   
7. Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? - Global
   
8. Criminal Minds - CTV
   
9. Hockey Night In Canada – Game 1 - CBC
   
10. CTV Evening News - CTV
    

Of the ten shows, only three are made in Canada – Corner Gas, Hockey Night In Canada, and CTV Evening News – and only Corner Gas is a scripted, non-news program. And we can see which network bought the most popular American programming.

Guidance and common sense: Patricia Harrison, the Republican appointed president of the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, recently made some wide ranging statements about the organization she heads. The principal thrust of her speech at a Media Institute lunch was primarily about seeking guidance from journalism schools to "define journalistic objectivity and balance on public broadcasting." According to Harrison, "public media consumers already believe noncommercial TV is nonpartisan and unbiased."

Harrison had opinions about other aspects of public broadcasting. She stated that she was shocked when the FCC fined a non-commercial station for airing profanities when it showed the Martin Scorsese Blues documentary. According to Harrison, "common sense could dictate that there is a world of difference between the casual, gratuitous profanity in a run-of-the-mill sitcom as opposed to its contextual use in a documentary like The Blues." She also worried about the effect that this sort of "censorship before the fact" will have a chilling effect on other stations and producers. She's a bit behind the times on this one. We know from the private sector that is has exactly that sort of effect. The decision by a large number of commercial stations not to air the movie because of profanity despite the fact that it had aired previously and had not been subject to FCC action is exactly the sort of chilling effect that Harrison is talking about. It is an action that says that it is better to be safe than sorry and it has become more pervasive in these days of increased FCC fines and advocacy groups mounting massive mailing campaigns with pre-printed form letters of complaint for people who are "outraged" even if they never saw the show in question.

Who does the PTC hate this week?: Well they're still hating on the same episode of The Black Donellys as they were last week. And they are continuing their assault on the V-Chip. In an address to the Association of National Advertisers' Forum on March 20, as reported in Advertising Age, PTC President Tim Winter alleged that 80% of the V-Chip ratings assigned to shows were wrong as determined by a study undertaken by the PTC. According to Winter, this represented "fraud by many of the broadcasters and the networks. ... They rate [the programs] inaccurately and that way the V-chip doesn't block the programming. You're duped. Families are duped. And if the rating system is wrong, the V-chip can't work." However, it seems to me that a study by the PTC on the V-Chip is on the lines of a self-fulfilling prophecy; the ratings are determined to be wrong by the PTC but it is in the interest of the PTC for the ratings to be wrong. If all you see a statement that "80% of the V-Chip ratings assigned to shows are wrong" aren't you being duped if you aren't told that the organization that is making that statement is vehemently opposed to the very idea of the V-Chip?

Who hates the PTC this week?: As a matter of fact it's the very organization that Tim Winter was addressing, the Association of National Advertisers. Winter repeated the usual PTC line; the V-Chip doesn't work, that there needs to be a la carte pricing for cable so people aren't forced to subsidise shows that have graphic content, and that the PTC wants to work with advertisers so that they don't fund "evil" shows. Among Winter's statements: "I believe there is a cartel … a fraud that the cable industry … has perpetrated on consumers," and "Our goal is to have collaborative efforts to help you reach your demographic market. We want you to win. We want to do it a way that hopefully does not encourage or sponsor graphic anti-family programming."

Winter was in enemy territory on this one though as reported by Variety's Multi Channel News. Dan Jaffe, the ANA's executive vice president of government relations stated that "What we have always said is that we don't want to have censorship in this society, where some group becomes a surrogate parent, for a surrogate person to decide what should come into the home. Parents should have that power." At least one delegate suggested that companies who are targeted by PTC letter and email campaigns should be able to sue for restraint of trade. One attendee wanted his money back because he felt that the forum was a waste of time: "This conversation is ridiculous as an advertiser. You have a television. You have a remote control. Turn it off tell your daughter to leave the room." In a poll taken during the ANA panel, a significant minority – 41% – felt threatened by advocacy groups like the PTC, but not one felt that advocacy groups like the PTC should be given the responsibility of shielding children from what they watch on TV.

Winters reportedly appreciated the difference in opinion but "I think it's unfortunate that it has to be so venomous." Perhaps he should ask himself and his group who made it so venomous - I don't think it was the advertisers. Certainly through its Family Friendly Programming Forum and the Forum's Script Development Fund, the ANA has done more that is positive in terms of getting family friendly programming on the air than anyone at the PTC ever has.

Short Takes - July 16, 2006

Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's the fact that in the two Full Tilt Poker Fantasy League tournaments I've managed to qualify for I've been acting behind incorrigible chip bullies on tables where only two players - me and he - were actually present; I do much better when people are actually playing against me. Maybe it's spending a couple of days away from my air conditioner and with a three year old who only wants to watch one episode of one show over and over again, and knows how to use the remote. Did I mention that his father, my brother doesn't believe in air conditioning because it costs money?. No, I think it's the heat. Suffice it to say that I am feeling somewhat irritable of late. Still I shall soldier on.

Too Big: The biggest news in Canadian television at the moment is Bell Globemedia's friendly takeover of the CHUM Media Group. Based out of Toronto the CHUM group includes the CITY group of TV stations in Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver; the smaller market A-Channel group, 33 radio stations and 21 cable specialty channels including MUCHMusic (Canada's MTV) and Space: The Imagination Station (Canada's answer to the Sci-Fi Channel but in the opinion of our friends at TVSquad, better). BellGlobe Media owns the 17 station CTV network and 17 specialty channels including Canada's answer to ESPN, TSN. The deal is expected to pass through the CRTC's regulatory process unhindered as Conservative Industry Minister has "recently instructed the CRTC not to interfere in the media marketplace except when necessary."

Personally I think that this is a case where interference is necessary. Even though Bell Globemedia has announced plans to sell off CHUM's A-Channel stations, this deal would still result in the company owning two stations in five of the largest English language TV markets in the country as well as 38 specialty channels. This would seem to represent unfettered capitalism at its most unfettered, and while Bell Globemedia has generally been good as far as producing new Canadian shows (well better than Canwest Global at any rate) this has to have an impact on the production of original Canadian programming. This doesn't even begin to deal with the impact of the sale on the news media, where CITY-TV (the chain's Toronto station) had a particularly innovative look and feel. According to Toronto Star media analyst Antonia Zerbisias the merger is a bad thing because “mergers and acquisitions always result in job cuts, consolidation of operations and reduced newsgathering resources.”

Speaking of Canadian TV: I would be remiss not to mention Dianne Kristine's one woman effort to gather all the news about Canadian shows in one place. The new site currently called Canadian TV (as generic a name as it is possible to imagine) the blog is full of news about shows, synopses of series and descriptions of upcomng episodes. In my wildest dreams I couldn't hope to pull together the material the Dianne has access to. An excellent job.

Who'da thunk it: The producers of the series Rock Star: Supernova were hit by a lawsuit from an Orange County California punk band called Supernova. It seems that the band, which has been in existence since 1989 and recorded four albums, have taken umbrage at the use of their name. Naturally they have sued. According to an MTV article the Supernova that doesn't want to be associated with Tommy Lee (and really who can blame them) wants "the destruction of all "labels, signs, prints, packages, wrappers, containers, advertisements, electronic media and other materials bearing the Supernova mark" as well as forcing the TV show producers to "publish clarifying statements that [the show is] not associated with [the punk band]." Finally they are seeking punitive and compensatory damages, attorneys fees and the "profits and all damages sustained by [the band] due to [the] misuse of plaintiff's Supernova mark." I suppose there's a certain justice to this, although there is a certain foolhardiness of a punk band going up against a company that hires lawyers like some people hire gardeners. My only surprise is that they've only one band suing over a name so generic and hackneyed as Supernova.

Now that's writing: On occasion I stand in awe of real writers. Take Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times. In an article about America's Got Talent (registration required but I've never had any trouble with The Times) she stated that "the contest is cheerful, vulgar and unembarrassed, a liberating belch in an increasingly proper and sleekly self-conscious television landscape." In other words the show, which is the most popular series of the summer with over 12 million viewers (about 3 million more than So You Think You Can Dance) is pretty much successful for the reasons that most critics hate it. The show's popularity is probably similar to the reasons why Dancing With The Stars was popular last summer. For all that it featured "celebrities" that show worked because it was something that you didn't see much of in the sophisticated world of dramatic TV. It was fun, it was different and on the whole it revelled in its difference. Now I watched last Wednesday's two hour show - one of the semi-final episodes - and I didn't like it as much as I did the qualifying rounds. Not all of the acts that qualified were given a chance to perform (I think they had 15 acts in the back stage area but only 10 performed and the 5 that didn't won't be given a chance to show their stuff). The acts didn't get the snarky commentary from the judges and what the judges said didn't matter anyway. That said it was still a reasonably fun show.

Amazing Race cast list released: Although the names aren't up at the CBS website, the cast list and details for Amazing Race 10 has been released at the summer meeting of the TV Critics Association. In addition to the usual teams - a gay couple, models and/or beauty queens, dating couples trying to define their relationships, a parent and child, and a team of brothers - there's a married Indo-American couple, two Muslim friends, and a woman with an artificial leg. This season's race will start in Seattle and go from west to east. Destinations include at least three places the show has never visited before - Mongolia, Kuwait, and Madagascar - as well as China (which they've visited several times in previous seasons) and Vietnam (which was memorably visited in Season 3 by a group including Vietnam War veteran Ian Pollack). According to series creator Bertram van Munster "This cast is as different as it's ever been," executive producer Bertram van Munster told the Television Critics Association's summer meeting. "It's meltdown city on this trip."

Let us go forward slowly: I heard this on a couple of Leo Laporte's podcasts last week. According to Media Daily News, Mike Shaw, ABC's President of Network Advertising had held preliminary discussions with cable companies (I think - this article is full of acronyms) with the objective of disabling the Fast Forward button on future Digital Video Recorders so that people would have to watch commercials. According to Shaw "I would love it if the MSOs, during the deployment of the new DVRs they're putting out there, would disable the fast-forward [button]." He expanded on this saying that as cable companies are currently beefing up their own local advertising sales "They've got to sell ads too. So if everybody's skipping everybody's ads, that's not a long-term business model for them either." He just keeps digging in deeper too: "It really is a matter of convenience - so you don't miss your favorite show. And quite frankly, we're just training a new generation of viewers to skip commercials because they can. I'm not sure that the driving reason to get a DVR in the first place is just to skip commercials. I don't fundamentally believe that. People can understand in order to have convenience and on-demand (options), that you can't skip commercials." Presumably Mr. Shaw is all for the rewind button not being disabled at the same time since that might force people to watch the commercials over and over again.

Here's an idea - make commercials that people don't want to fast forward through, or integrate advertising into the show itself more effectively. Product placements have been around since TV started - check out I Love Lucy when the show was sponsored by Philip Morris (in one scene where Lucy is trying to entertain Ricky's Spanish speaking mother she offers the woman a cigarette but not knowing the word in Spanish she says "Philipa Morris" - Ricky's mother exentually understands), and old time radio experts like Ivan Shreve and Harry Heuser will recall days when people like Don Wilson or Harlow "Waxy" Wilcox would do commercials that were integrated right into radio shows like The Jack Benny Program and Fibber McGee & Molly. I realise that would be close to impossible in most shows today but it just shows that it is possible to make commercials that sell the product and ar entertaining.

Who does the PTC hate THIS week? Clearly the diligent monitors who seek to keep our eyes from being corrupted have cut back on TV viewing for the summer. The PTC is still outraged over the rape scene on Rescue Me, Circuit City for advertising on shows that the PTC doesn't like, and that same episode of America's Got Talent with stripper Michelle Lamour (who bills herself as "The ass that goes POW!"

Don't forget to vote in the poll!

Why Canadian Shows Are Invisible

Between the end of the regular TV season, the Memorial Day holiday in the US there has been a singular lack of news about TV over the past week or so since NBC took the bold move of thoroughly rejigging their line up so they could move one show to a safer time slot. Oh yeah there are things to report: women's groups are sending letters of protest to ABC over the "clear demotion" of Elizabeth Vargas from ABC's World News Tonight that is - in their view - "a dispiriting return to the days of discrimination against women that we thought were behind us," (and somehow manages to couple it with the cancellation of Commander-in-Chief to claim that ABC "doesn't look like a very woman-friendly or family-friendly workplace") but it seems to be a tempest in a teapot considering that Vargas herself has said that her circumstances make it very difficult for her to stay in the job. There is an article about this in the Washington Post.

What actually caught my interest recently was a post on the blog Unified Theory of Nothing Much by Diane Kristine, in which she says that "I am a bad, bad Canadian. I'd be clutching my passport as I type this, ready to defend it, except my sin is far from unusual: I very rarely watch Canadian TV." The post, called The Invisible Networks takes a look at some of the reasons at least, why not. There are details that I disagree with, like her statement that Corner Gas doesn't get "water cooler conversation - around here it does. Of course the fact that Janet Wright is from Saskatoon (and her family basically founded Persephone Theatre which is currently located maybe a ten minute walk from where I'm sitting) and Eric Petersen is from Regina and Brent Butt is from Tisdale and the show is set and made in Saskatchewan probably helps that along a lot. Still you've got to admit when someone is right and dammit Diane is right - most Canadians don't watch Canadian Television including the CBC.

There are lots of reasons but Diane does hit on a big one; lack of promotion. Trouble is I think she's being way too easy on the newspapers. I live in a one newspaper city and like most cities in Canada my local rag is owned by Canwest Global. You know, the people who own the Global TV network (sorry the Global television service since apparently neither Global or CTV are licensed as networks in the bizarre world that is CRTC licensing). Would it surprise you to know that I have yet to see an ad for anything other than a Global show in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix or the TV section that comes with it on Fridays? I don't get the Globe & Mail on a regular basis but I would bet a Toonie that you don't see many ads from Global in that paper because The Globe is owned by Bell Globemedia (which is owned by Bell Canada) and Bell Globemedia owns CTV. The poor old CBC used to have it's own magazine but that disappeared many budget cuts ago and MotherCorp has to depend on people watching Hockey Night In Canada to promote their programming. About the only newspaper chain not linked to a TV network is the Sunmedia group and they would if they could. Mention of Canadian shows is relegated to a column inch or so in the TV critic's section.

So forget about advertising and rely on promotion. Do it on your own networks. Of course that's a bit of an exercise in circular logic - people don't watch Canadian TV so they don't see ads for Canadian programs so they don't watch Canadian TV. But surely you say (if you're a Canadian and know about such stuff) the practice of inserting Canadian signals over the American feed when the Canadian network has the show on at the same time (and the Canadian network bend heaven and earth to make sure that happens as much as possible). They actually have extra time for in-house material because the US networks are allowed more commercial time than the Canadians so the Canadian channels have to insert things like newsbreaks and PSAs and in-house promos. But of course the Canadian networks mostly use that time to promote their American programming. Because it's the American programming that people watch and advertisers pay to put ads on (because people watch them - circular logic again).

Diane also points out that there are no comprehensive websites that cover Canadian television in the way that TV Tattle or the American TV Guide do (and I'll just add sites like TVSquad and Futon Critic). If you go to TVGuide.ca all you'll find is an ad for the magazine - no other content. If you want a comprehensive listings site you pretty much have to go to Zap2It.com (and they've "improved" the site, which means that it isn't of course). News about Canadian shows? Not likely there, and nearly impossible to find elsewhere. And don't even think about shows like eTalk Daily on CTV or ET Canada on Global for news about Canadian shows. Mostly they're concerned about Canadian "links" to American shows, American shows that are on their networks, or Brad & Angelina's baby.

It's a sorry, sorry mess, but I have a suspicion that it's a sad and sorry mess that the two private networks want. They want their Canadian shows not to drawn an audience so they can complain to the CRTC that Canadians don't want Canadian shows (Global is notorious for this sort of thing - a few years ago it was Global that wanted the CRTC to allow Canadian made infomercials to be counted as Canadian content). Their bread and butter is showing American shows because they can get them cheap, in much the same way that they can do co-productions at a lower cost to them. I will admit that CTV seems to be making an effort at making quality Canadian shows, with Corner Gas, Degrassi The Next Generation and yeah I'll even say Canadian Idol (it started on Monday in case you didn't know). But here's the annoying part. In her article Diane mentions a new show called Alice, I Think which is currently showing on the Comedy Network to generate "buzz" for its debut on the main CTV network. Alice, I Think is produced by Vancover's Omni Film, which produced a show called Robson Arms which first showed up last summer and reappeared on the network this past winter. I saw the summer run and I enjoyed it; there's something about hearing Megan Follows - Anne of Green Gables herself - saying "shithole" to give me a sort of perverse joy, and to be fair the show had an excellent cast that included Shirley Douglas, William B. Davis and Margot Kidder (and a great cameo by Will & Grace's Eric McCormack in one episode). But here's the annoying thing. Not only wasn't I aware that the show was being repeated during the winter, I was also unaware that CTV had renewed the series for a second season almost eight months ago. Robson Arms is a good show, but how are people supposed to know that if they not only can't find it but don't even know that it still exists. Is it any wonder that Canadians don't watch Canadian shows?

"What Was That Show?" - A TV Detective Tale

From time to time I get comments or emails asking for help in tracking down information on TV shows. It's not exactly my field but I love doing it. It reminds me of the years I spent sneezing in the library stacks while getting my history degree, trying to find the books with the right arguments for the paper I was writing. So this time around I got a comment from Mechie who wanted to know about a particular TV show. Well I'll let Mechie explain:

Help me, Mr Television! Think early 70's Canadian Saturday morning children's programing. Two girls (long hair...one blond and in pigtails named susan and one dark haired kinda snarky one) and two boys. They sang, danced, variety show kinda thing and each week they did a segment on viewer's fathers or mothers and what they did for a living. Sound familiar? I can't find any reference to it. Thanks

The whole thing sounds vaguely familiar but I'm not sure that the show I'm thinking about is the same show Mechie is thinking about. The show I have in mind is Drop-In but it was a weekday show which initially ran three and then four days a week on CBC between 1970 and 1974. That's just the first problem we have with this series being the one that Mechie was thinking of. The usual cast of the show was two guys and two girls - the guys were usually Rex Hagon and Pat Rose while the girls were Susan Conway and either Linda Griffin or Susan Anderson (although I swear I remember Trudy Young being on the show). Hagon and Conway had been part of the original cast of the 1960s series The Forest Rangers. Conway was a dark haired girl Griffin was a blonde, and I'm pretty sure Anderson was as well. The trouble is that a big part of the show description - the singing, dancing, variety part - doesn't fit the show as I remember it.

Now here's where things get tough. Assuming that Mechie is right about it being a Saturday morning show I Googled Canadian children's TV series and didn't get much. There does exist a very good site maintained by the film department at Queens University in Kingston. It is a pretty complete database of CBC shows made between 1952 and 1982. It is searchable but if you don't know what you're looking for it isn't easy. I finally entered "Saturday" as a keyword. This produced 66 results of which most were afternoon or evening shows. I did look at morning and afternoon shows and found Children's Cinema hosted by Bob Homme, "The Friendly Giant", broadcast between 1970 and 1974, which fit the time frame but not the description. There was also something called Peanuts and Popcorn, broadcast between 1975 and 1979. The description of that show doesn't sound promising either: "The CBC moved into children's programming on Saturday mornings with a ninety minute package of films. The program included a cartoon, a serial, and a one hour film. The Canadian component was an animated series called The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo. It told the story of Captain Mark Nemo and his young assistants, Christine and Robbie, in their nuclear powered submarine, the Nautilus. The cartoon was produced by Rainbow Animation Ltd. of Toronto. The whole series was coordinated by Nada Harcourt (1975-77) and Suzanne Garland (1977-78)."

Now here is the really frustrating part. There is no similar database available for CTV or any of the private networks and the very little written material about Canadian TV shows is at best extremely spotty. And of course, if the show were produced by a local station, well the simple fact is that there's virtually no way to get an answer for that. I can remember local shows that aired on the local station here in Saskatoon on Saturdays. In fact I made my TV debut and swan song in an episode of one of them, the Children's Film Committee which was actually a partnership between the TV station and the Public Library's Children's Department to show films made from famous children's books, like Tom Sawyer - they had kids, like me, from the local elementary schools read book reports related to the movie being shown. But by the 1970s most private stations were just picking up packages of cartoons from the American networks or - more often - older material.

As a last resort I checked out one of my old TV Guides from the 1970s - 1972 to be exact. This, I admit was a long shot for several reasons. The only issues I still have are the Fall Preview issues, but stations tended to be on their summer schedules when the Fall Preview issues came out. Does it make a difference - yes. Just as an example CFQC in Saskatoon apparently didn't turn on the transmitter until 10:30 on a summer Saturday morning. Moreover the main part of the Guide - the part showing all the new shows and listing new Saturday kids' shows in the Fall Preview - was still being printed in the United States and would be until 1977. There was a "Canadian Preview" in the listings section but it has limited information. However the evidence from that 1972 TV Guide holds a great deal of information. All of the CTV stations in the "Manitoba-Saskatchewan Edition" were showing American cartoons on Saturday morning, but the "Canadian Preview" lists two Saturday kids shows to debut that year on CTV (but that didn't necessarily mean that every station showed them): The Waterville Gang, "animated underwater adventures for small fry", and Puppet People, "another kiddies show, this one with hand puppets and a couple of different youngsters appearing in each episode." Puppet People may be a possibility - it ran from 1973-1975 and featured ventriloquist Jerry Layne and two puppets created specially for the show. According to Wikipedia "Puppet People combined pre-taped comedy sketches featuring a cast of full size figures. These sketches were played into a game show featuring children answering questions based on the sketches." I don't think it's the show Mechie's looking for, but except for the weekday show Drop-In, which I suppose some stations might have shown on Saturdays, it's the only on that sounds even vaguely close.

If this were an American show I have no doubt that I could have found far more information than this far more easily. The history of Canadian made programming, particularly on the private networks is not consistently or effectively chronicled, either online or in print. As for local programming at any hour, well it exists mainly in anecdotal form. I hope this was of some help, but I don't think it was.

Feel free to keep asking about shows though, I enjoy the detective work!

Short Takes - March 27, 2006

Okay, I've been fiddling around with this idea for a while now but haven't actually been motivated to do anything about it. I'm still not but I'm forced to admit that if I waited until I was actually motivated to do this thing it'd never get done because I'm extremely hard to motivate.

Basically Short Takes is going to be a roundup of news about TV that I find interesting. Not interesting enough to write a big post about mind you but just something that I could crank out a paragraph or two on. Assuming of course that I remember to write them down or otherwise record the thing that interests me. So without further ado about nothing let's go to press with two items.

1. MTV Canada Debuts With No Music: Viewers Shocked
I can't see why. Does MTV in the States actually show music? But seriously folks, anyone who expected there to be music videos on the new MTV Canada hasn't been paying attention. The original MTV Canada and its sister digital channel MTV2 were owned by Craig Media of Calgary Alberta, but they sold out most of their broadcasting interests in 2004 to CHUM Limited of Toronto which owns MuchMusic, MuchMoreMusic and three other digital specialty music stations (as well as a lot of other stuff). CHUM dumped the MTV name as soon as possible. Meanwhile CTV had a station wasting bandwidth called TalkTV which was entirely programmed with repeats of talk shows from Canada and the US after their one attempt at original programming - The Chatroom - was cancelled (I liked The Chatroom in case anyone is interested, particularly when they were talking about TV and other media). The network wasn't picked up by a lot of cable providers and was frequently put in the digital tier before the roll out of the main digital channels. CTV decided to convert TalkTV into the new MTV Canada, but the new MTV Canada is operating under the CRTC license issued to TalkTV. That license had two restrictions: "an emphasis on talk programming" and "at least 68% of total programming must be Canadian content". This would also include a restriction not just on music programming but other forms of fictional entertainment shows. That's why there's no music on MTV Canada.

2. Phil Hellmuth To Replace Phil Gordon As Host Of Celebrity Poker Showdown: Poker Fans Shocked
For me this is bigger than the MTV Canada thing. I was aware that Phil Gordon had left the show, apparently with some mutual animosity between him and NBC (which owns Bravo, the network that shows Celebrity Poker Showdown) since he wasn't invited to participate in NBC's National Heads-up Poker Championship. I'm sad to see him leave because Gordon had a tremendous amount of chemistry with the show's host Dave Foley. They worked off of each other well. A bigger surprise for fans of Poker was the choice of his replacement, Poker's answer to John McEnroe but without McEnroe's charm, Phil Hellmuth. "Hell Mouth's" volatile temper and tendency to act out when he gets beaten probably won't be an issue. He proudly owns up to being a "Poker Brat" who sometimes behaves like an infant who has had he favourite rattle taken away from him when he busts out of a tournament. The problem is going to be Hellmuth's enormous ego which I'm afraid might turn the show into the "Phil Hellmuth Program". Phil Gordon was amazingly self-effacing as well as being instructive in his commentary on the play. He was also a good straight man for Dave Foley. I can't see Hellmuth working well in any of these roles. More to the point I, and just about any serious fan of the game, can easily think of a half dozen or more professional players who would be a better fit for the job. We haven't seen his first season of the show, which will be Series 8, but I for one have low expectations.

Canadian TV and the New Technology

There was an interesting article in the Friday November 25 issue of TV Times, the listing book that comes with many Canadian newspapers on Friday mornings (because of course most Canadian newspapers don't do Sunday editions and putting it in on Saturday would be just too much for people to read on one day).

The article, which unfortunately doesn't seem to be available online, is by Eric Kohanik the TV Times editor. In it he writes: "Canadian TV broadcasters are in big trouble" and goes on to explain why.

"First, ABC revealed that it will now be 'podcasting' episodes of Lost on its website....

The next logical step in this iPod craze is video. Once it really catches on, everyone will have tiny portable TVs that let you import shows and watch them whenever - and wherever - you want.

Shortly after ABC's announcement, CBS and NBC unveiled deals with American cable and satellite services to make CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the Law & Order spin-offs available via video on demand for 99 cents US per episode. VOD basically turns your cable or satellite box into a video player, letting you watch stuff at your convenience.

There's also the news that TV programming will now be available on cellphones. And at the other end of the TV spectrum, American networks are moving aggressively towards digital and high-definition television.

Add all of this to the fact that many shows are available on DVD or can be downloaded from the Internet, and you suddenly realize that TV is in the midst of a huge transition."

So far, Mr. Kohanik has basically reported material that is reasonably well known to anyone following recent technological developments. (Well except for the fact that he doesn't seem to grasp the real importance of the ABC announcement. They aren't podcasts; what ABC is offering in cooperation with Apple and the iTunes Music Store is the ability to download the complete one hour TV show to be seen on the Video iPod. In other words, what he calls the next logical step has already been taken.) He also missed - or it wasn't announced at the time that he wrote the article - that it will be possible to download shows recorded on a TiVo to the Video iPod. What he hasn't explained yet is why Canadian networks are in trouble although perceptive readers may have already figured that out.

Mr. Kohanik continues:

So why are the Canadian [broadcasters] in trouble? They've been lazy. Many have lagged behind technologically, not even embracing stereo television, let alone HDTV.

The far bigger problem, though, is content. Rather than creating a healthy appetite and market place for homegrown shows, government regulation and television welfare funds have led to shows that - with a few notable exceptions - are mostly just filler.

This isn't about Canadian culture; it's about economics. Canadian networks have become addicted to American shows because they're cheaper to air and they can simply rake in the advertising bucks.

But Canadian channels don't own the American shows they air. And so, the emerging revenue streams will flow elsewhere.

In short Canadian broadcasters will suffer because they don't have quality content of their own to offer for sale and they, rightly, won't participate in any revenue generated by the recent technological developments.

Of course by this he means the Canadian private broadcasters, and he's also speaking about English language television. For the way that people - and in particular the private broadcasters - bitch about it, the CBC has been essentially free of American programming content for a number of years. Certainly they show American movies but virtually all of the CBC's prime time programming is Canadian or British. No other Canadian English language network - broadcast or cable - can make that claim. In a world where content is finally coming to be seen as king, the CBC is better placed than networks which have treated their Canadian content requirements as a cross to be borne rather than an opportunity to be embraced.

The private broadcasters have always worked under a philosophy stated by the then Roy Thomson, later Lord Thomson of Fleet who described owning a television station as "a license to print money." For them the easiest way to make money was to show as much American programming as possible and then state that they had to because otherwise most people would watch American stations (since the largest proportion of Canada's population lives within range of American TV stations - mostly in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia) and Canadian advertisers wouldn't spend their money on TV. When cable became widespread they demanded and got the ability to overlay their signals on top of the same show running on the United States station (if it was being shown at the same time and the Canadian stations arranged their schedules so it would happen that way) to protect their revenue stream. That is as much an example of television welfare as government funding for programming but it's not something that gets mentioned for what it is.

I am less concerned about the fate of private broadcasters than Eric Kohanik is. I am sure that the Canadian cable and satellite industry will not introduce American programming "on demand" - or they won't be allowed to. If nothing else the private broadcasters will use the regulator - the CRTC - to block or delay it. Even if I had the Video iPod I can't buy Lost or Desperate Housewives at the iTunes Music Store. They don't have the rights to sell it in Canada. It may be that when we're finally able to purchase content either for the iPod or through Video on Demand, government regulation will see some funds going to the company that owns broadcast rights to the content in Canada. I'm sure that eventually the technology will come to Canada but it will come with the broadcasters kicking and screaming and figuring out a way so that they could make money on the deal even if they have nothing to do with the creation of the content.

It would be desirable if the development of new technology, which threatens the existing advertiser driven model of television, would result in Canadian private broadcasters spending money to to produce quality Canadian programming rather than make "filler" to put on the air because they have to. I don't think that's going to happen for a long time, not before the pressure to bring in the new technology become too much to resist and if they can get the right deal maybe not even then.

I Need Gas

Canadians have never done situation comedies well. We know the basic concepts, and indeed a lot of American sitcoms have involved Canadians both as stars and creators. However making our own sitcoms has never been a strong point. And we've tried too but what's been tried has resulted in a notable list of ignoble failures: The Trouble with Tracy, Excuse My French, and Blackfly to name just a few. Indeed it could be argued that until recently there has only been one truly memorable Canadian sitcom: King Of Kensington. Now however theres a new contender. It is Corner Gas starring Brent Butt, which just recently completed its second season on CTV.

Until recently I hadn't seen Corner Gas. Part of the reason is that I'm normally not home on Monday night - it's my bowling night - and both of my VCRs are busy taping other shows. The end of the bowling season has allowed me to see more shows on Monday nights - when I don't feel the overwhelming urge to have a nap - and one of the shows that I've picked up is Corner Gas. Despite a lot fo rave reviews, I wasn't expecting much. After all it was a Canadian sitcom, but it's produced here in Saskatchewan so I thought I should at least give it a try. After one episode I became a fan.

There's a tendency to compare shows with something familiar. One person commenting on the show in its IMDB listing compared it to Seinfeld because nothing really happens. The truth is, as usual, much more complex. The show has a lot in common with Northern Exposure. Both series have a "fish out of water" character; someone from the "Big City" who has moved to a small town. The town has of course proven to be full of quirky characters. On the other hand, while Northern Exposure made the "fish out of water" the lead character, Corner Gas has made its fish out of water one of the principal supporting characters. Corner Gas has also adopted an aspect of King of Kensington not only by making the lead character a store owner but by making his gas station the place that people come to. All of the important characters show up either at the gas station or at Lacey Burrows' restaurant The Ruby - which conveniently is attached to the gas station.

The quirkiness of the characters is the key point of course. As the show's motto says, Dog River is 40 kilometres from nowhere and way beyond normal. Lacey (Gabrielle Miller), the transplanted Torontonian, is the character that we're supposed to identify with, but everyone in town thinks she's a little "odd". They don't have any trouble putting together a time capsule every year to replace the previous time capsule. They'd rather have "road cookies" - the little packages of cookies that Brent Leroy (Brent Butt) sells at the station - rather than the freshly made cookies that Lacey makes at the Ruby. When she brings in Biscotti they tell her that thos are "so 1997".

The cast is very much an ensemble. Besides Brent and Lacey there are Brent's parents, Oscar and Emma played by Eric Petersen and Janet Wright. Oscar can best be described as a born again grouch (yeah I know but believe me it fits) while his wife Emma moderates his irritability. She bares the brunt of his irascible nature. Lorne Cardinal and Tara Spencer-Nairn play Davis Quinton and Karen Pelly, the two person town police force. (Normally a Saskatchewan town like Dog River would at best have an RCMP detachment for local policing but given what Davis and Karen get up to I doubt that the real RCMP would approve the use of their uniforms and logos in the show.) In one episode Karen is suspended (she took a cold medicine that caused her to fail a drug test) so Davis has to take twice as many naps to make up for her absence. Wanda (Nancy Robertson) works for Brent at the gas station and is the town's resident genius. She has partial degrees in Physics, History, Biology, and Comparative Religion but took the low wage job at the gas station because the last girl quit. Finally there's Brent's best friend Hank. Even for Dog River, Hank is a bit unusual. His mind seems to work in ways not fully understood by anyone but him, and he seems to think that hanging out with Brent is a full time job. His life-long ambition is to be stunned by a stun-gun, but Davis beat him to it (he shot himself with his own stun gun).

Corner Gas is unusual in that it doesn't give obvious clues when it's funny. The actors play their scenes dead straight to the point where, in the episodes I've seen, I've never seen Brent Butt smile. Beyond that, there's no laugh track, the closest they come is a musical sting at the end of scenes. And yet the show is undeniably funny. The show's humour is very verbal. The writing, by Butt, Mark Farrell and Paul Mather, is full of sharp and witty banter but with the exception of Oscar it's not humour based on put downs. The characters are portrayed as both human and absurd, but the writing isn't condescending either to the characters themselves or to the audience. It may be one of the best sitcoms in North America because of it. If you're in Canada, be sure to watch, and if you're in the United States well Corner Gas is out on DVD, and although apparently the transfer isn't as good as it might be, reviewers on Amazon.ca seem more than willing to look beyond that. This show is definitely worth making an effort to see even if you have to buy it.

Part 3: The Ugly - Continued

CanWest Global: Okay I'm not going to say that they are evil but the company is probably my least favourite thing about Canadian television. There are a lot of reasons but I suppose the big one is simply this they talk a good game but when it comes down to it they not only don't deliver but they seem to approach things as if they have a divine right not to deliver.

CanWest broadcasting was licensed to bring a third service to Winnipeg. In bidding for the license they were in competition with West Manitoba broadcasting of Brandon Manitoba, which was owned by the Craig family who had been broadcasters since the 1940s. According to Live To Air by Chris Wood, the Craig family put forward a package that was on local news and participation from local groups, while the initial bid from the the CanWest partnership (at the time made up of former Manitoba Liberal leader Israel Izzy Asper, Winnipeg theatre owner Paul Morton, and broadcast engineer Seymour Epstein) was based on purchasing a U.S station called KCND which had been aimed at the Winnipeg market and essentially transferring the American stations schedule along with the transmitter and equipment. Upon hearing the Craig proposal during the CRTC licensing hearing Jerry Johnson, a member of bid team who had objected to the proposed schedule, was told to stay in the hotel room and the group presented an amended proposal to the CRTC which was heavier on Canadian content. They put the blamed the original proposal on Johnson.

This was to be a continuing pattern for CanWest, which became CanWest-Global in 1989 after the company had acquired the bankrupt Global network in Ontario (really a Toronto station with a number of rebroadcasting transmitters throughout the province) and Asper had forced Morton and Epstein out of the company. They also started two stations in Saskatchewan and acquired stations in British Columbia, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. Typically the company has made grandiose promises about producing Canadian programming but the promises have tended to be a lot of smoke and mirrors. Typical was their approach to two efforts to obtain licenses for fourth services in Edmonton and Calgary. While the Craig family's A Channel presented concrete proposals including a $14 million fund for Television Drama production in Alberta, analysis of CanWest Global's promise of $4 million for script development to be spent over the length of the license for the proposed Alberta stations was revealed to be less than $14,000 a year of new money added to CanWest's additional commitments.

Canwest-Global also seems to set Canadian shows up to fail. One popular program was an adaptation of W.O. Mitchell's Jake and the Kid radio series, which was well received but was cancelled after the Alberta Government ended its production fund for film and television made within the province. The extremely popular Traders starring Sonia Smits and Bruce Grey ran for five seasons, from 1996 to 2000 despite CanWest-Global running it opposite ER. It is hard to think of a bigger indicator that a show was intended to fail. At roughly the same time the company was lobbying the CRTC in an attempt to have Canadian made infomercials classified as Canadian Content. The Commission wasn't buying that argument.

CanWest-Global is one of the most profitable media companies in Canada. In 1996, at the time of the bids for the Alberta stations the company had revenues of $370 million and earnings of $125 million before interest depreciation and taxes, a margin of 35%.In 2004 the company had Canadian television revenues of over $690 million (this includes revenues for their various cable licenses as well as their over the air broadcasts). It's difficult to find earnings from Canadian broadcasting operations because the company has large overseas holdings and non-television assets in the form of radio stations and newspapers. What is apparent is that the company is not spending its money on Canadian programming. According to a 2001 briefing note from Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, CanWest-Global spent only 19.4% of on-air revenue on producing Canadian programming, while CTV spent 32.9% of on air revenue on Canadian shows. In 1999 12% of CTV's audience was watching Canadian shows in prime time which seems (and is) small until compared with only 5% of CanWest's audience watching Canadian shows.

Canadian Television: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Part 3: The Ugly

What exactly do I mean by "Ugly"? Well, in the context of these articles Ugly should probably be taken as meaning the most egregiously bad aspects of Canadian broadcasting. The inability for Canadian producers to create more than a couple of successful sitcoms is Bad - the fact the there is little incentive or punishment for Canadian networks to provide quality Canadian programming is Ugly. Here - in my opinion - are two of the three Ugliest aspects of Canadian television in no particular order. I'll save what I think is the worst for later (mainly because this post is turning out to be quite big).

Canadian Content Regulations: Don't get me wrong, I think the idea of regulations requiring Canadian Content is a good thing. The trouble is the way these regulations are applied. Per the regulations defined by the CRTC, Private Broadcasters are required to make sure that 60% of their daily schedule, measured during the day (defined as 6 a.m. to Midnight) and 50% of their evening broadcast period (defined as 6 p.m. to Midnight) be Canadian programming. However the regulations also state that this is measured yearly rather than monthly or quarterly. This allows broadcasters to make up their Canadian quota during the summer when fewer people are watching TV. Sports like Blue Jays Baseball and CFL Football are popular ways to make up the quota. Of course the evening broadcast quota is frequently made up with little difficulty. In Saskatoon the schedule for the CTV station is 6 -7 p.m. Local News, 10:30-11 p.m. eTalk Daily (Canadian made entertainment news show), 11-11:30 p.m. National News, 11:30 p.m. - 12:05 a.m. Local News for a total of two and a half hours of Canadian Content. On the Canwest-Global station the schedule is a little different but not much: 6-6:30 p.m. National News, 10:30-11 p.m. Local News, 11-11:30 p.m. Sports, 11:30 p.m. - 12:00 midnight Train 48 (a Canadian made drama or another half hour Canadian show) for a total of two hours. In addition "interstitial" (defined as "programs" of less than five minutes in length) qualify as Canadian Content. Because of the differences in the amount of commercial time allowed between Canada and the United States, most Canadian stations run news breaks or other brief informational "programs" during American shows.

Per regulations passed in 1999, Canadian networks are also required to program at least eight hours per week of "priority Canadian Programming" defined as Canadian drama programs (which also includes sitcoms, specials mini-series, made for TV movies, animated programs and Canadian theatrical movies), Canadian music and dance and variety programs, Canadian long form documentary programs, regionally produced programs in all categories except news and sports, Canadian entertainment magazine programs during the "peak viewing period", defined as 7 -11 p.m. However that doesn't actually mean eight hours a week. A 125% time credit for new hours of Canadian drama that "a) is aired for the first time on television on or after 1 September 1998, b) has a duration of at least one half hour, including a reasonable amount of time for commercial breaks, c) is recognized as a Canadian program, and qualifies for either a "C number" or an "SR number" from the Commission." In other words an hour long show defined by the CRTC as "Canadian" actually counts as 75 minutes of Canadian content. Four hours of Canadian drama actually qualifies as five hours of priority programming.

Canadian Content regulations for radio, which required a minimum of 35% of the music aired on Canadian radio stations to be Canadian, were literally the making of the Canadian recording industry. Before these regulations were in place you were lucky to hear any Canadian music on a Canadian radio station; this is one reason why there are virtually no recordings of Canadian big bands from the 1940s. Canadian Content regulations for television haven't worked nearly as well. Co-productions are common - although with the collapse of the first run syndication market in the U.S. not as common as they were - and some broadcasters work very hard at getting around their commitment.

CBC Management: As much as I love the CBC sometimes their management does stupid stuff. The organization sometimes seems overburdened with executives and attitudes sometimes change rapidly, although this can be exacerbated by government funding issues. Regional broadcasting suffered a major hit during the budget cutbacks of the 1980s and 1990s. During the 1970s a key aspect of policy was that the primary owned and operated station in each province would be located in the provincial capital (this policy was supposedly promulgated after then Saskatchewan Premier Alan Blakeney objected to placing the main broadcast centre for Saskatchewan in Saskatoon rather than his home city of Regina despite the fact that Saskatoon was more centrally located in the province). The exception in British Columbia where Vancouver is the largest city and the CBC doesn't own a station in Victoria. In the first major round of budget cuts the CBC shut down the Saskatoon station although they maintained a small news staff and offices in the city, however all news would be done out of Regina with minimal input from Saskatoon. A group of now laid-off employees together with some local business people and community leaders put together a group to buy the license and revive the station as a CBC affiliate. They were informed that the CBC did not sell its licenses - once they had them they kept them. In a later round of budget cuts, regional news programs were themselves cut from an hour to half an hour with an early evening national news program created to fill in the hour. Most recently the latest group of managers at the CBC have announced their intention to expand regional news programming back to an hour and eliminate or reposition the early national news program.

An aspect in the past was the tendency of CBC managers to devalue on-air talent. They had a distinct tendency to end popular programs while they were still popular apparently fearing that performers were becoming "stars". The attitude was that there were no Canadian "stars" - producers were more important. A case in point was the Tommy Hunter Show. Hunter was a tremendously popular country singer known as "Canada's Country Gentleman". His hour long show was a fixture on the CBC for 27 years and was one of the most popular programs on Canadian TV at the time of its cancellation although audience numbers were slipping. It was shown in the United States three times a week on The Nashville Network from 1983 to 1991. It attracted a lot of American performers including Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn as well as introducing Canadian musicians (Shania Twain made her debut on The Tommy Hunter Show as a 14 year-old). The CBC cancelled it, allegedly because it didn't reflect "current trends" in country music. The problem is that the program that replaced - which supposedly reflected those trends - lasted less than two years. If this were unique it might be excusable, but it is merely a part of a pattern that dates to at least the 1960s if not before and extends beyond variety programs to most of the genres that the network produced. There was a notorious problem with childrens programming that saw The Friendly Giant and Chez Helene (a 15 minute show that used a French immersion technique to encourage bilingualism) among others cancelled to free up funds for the American show Sesame Street. On the whole CBC management don't have a sterling record for sticking with success.

Canadian Television: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Part 2: The Bad

This is the second part of my series about the best and worst things about Canadian Television. The focus is on the industry as a whole and the behavior of people in it (more accurately the English Canadian TV industry primarily because it's what I know). This week I'm focussing on The Bad, but I'll confess that The Bad isn't that bad. I'm saving that for next week when I tackle the Ugly.

Media Concentration: In the United States the FCC restricts the number of televisions stations any single corporate entity can own. At one time it was five stations, and although the number of stations that can be owned has increased and looks likely to increase further, the fact is that it is still far more restrictive than anything that exists in Canada. Of 24 CTV stations, 21 are owned and operated by CTV itself (the company also own at least two CBC affiliated stations). CTV itself is owned by Bell Globemedia which is not just the phone company in much of Canada but also owns one of Canada's two national newspapers, The Globe and Mail and has full or partial ownership of 22 cable or digital cable specialty channels. The other major Canadian network, Canwest Global, owns 11 stations across the country as well as three stations branded as the CH Network in Hamilton, Montreal and Victoria, and two CBC affiliated stations. They also own or control TV networks in New Zealand (two), Australia, and the Republic of Ireland, and eight Canadian specialty channels . They also own 11 English language newspapers in Canada including five in single newspaper markets and both newspapers in Vancouver and the national daily The National Post. The only TV network ads in Canwest newspapers come from Canwest Global or its cable networks.

Co-productions: Pop Quiz - which of the following are Canadian shows: (a) Da Vinci's Inquest, (b) Andromeda, (c) Stargate SG1, (d) Highlander, (e) all of the above? If you said (e) you begin to understand a major component of Canadian television - the co-production - because all but DaVinci's Inquest are co-productions with other broadcasters. Co-productions are a way for Canadian networks to obtain high quality "Canadian" shows without paying anywhere near the full cost. It works like this: an foreign production company - in the case of Andromeda Tribune Entertainment and MBR productions - take a Canadian production company - Fireworks Entertainment and their parent company Global - as a production partner with the Canadian company paying part of the production costs. Using Canadian actors in some roles - five of the supporting actors in Andromeda are Canadian - as well as Canadian directors and crews earns the production Canadian status as defined by the CRTC, and frequently earns government film and TV grants for the Canadian producer in addition to tax breaks making the show in Canada. The Canadian network is then able to air a show which, although it has nothing to do with Canada, is considered Canadian for a fraction of the cost of making a show of the same length themselves.

CBC Funding: Funding for Canada's national broadcasting network is one fo the great irritants for Canadian nationalists. CBC/Radio Canada (as it is known in French) operates four radio networks (AM and FM in English and French) the national shortwave service Radio Canada International, two national Television networks (one English, one French), two English language cable networks, and one French language news network. While the networks accept advertising, much of its funding comes from a government grant because while other nations are able to charge license fees for TVs and radios, Canada was unable to maintain the licensing system so tax revenue was directed to the CBC. This has however meant that CBC funding has been subject to cuts during periods of budget reduction which would not have been the case if a license fee system had been in place. The CBC suffered major budget cuts in the 1980s and while the Chretien Liberals promised "stable funding for the CBC" it was another promise they never delivered on. At the same time there have been demands for increased Canadian Content - the CanCon requirements for CBC television are higher than for other Canadian broadcasters - and demands that the CBC stop airing American shows in prime time, and stop showing sports. The CBC did the former (which explains both Doctor Who and why Coronation Street is seen in prime time four nights a week) but refuses to do the latter since sports - mainly Hockey - contributes a high percentage of the commercial revenue the network earns. The private networks call this unfair.

Toronto-centric Broadcasting: This one isn't as bad as it once was, but there seems to be a tendency for all Canadian broadcasters to focus news coverage, sports and production on Toronto and the larger Windsor, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal corridor. In terms of production, the rise of Vancouver as a major production location for American as well as Canadian programming has meant that a larger number of shows are being made there. It is true however that the networks all have their head offices in Toronto (even though Canwest Global has long operated out of Winnipeg their Canadian headquarters are in Toronto). Sports is a particular irritant. The major cable companies were forced to provide coverage of Major Junior Hockey playoffs this year despite the fact that Rogers Sportsnet was licensed to provide regional sports coverage, and TSN has long been said to stand for the "Toronto Sports Network" because of their focus on the Maple Leafs, the Raptors and the Blue Jays to the exclusion of other teams in the country (notably of course the Montreal Expos who essentially disappeared from English Canadian television with the arrival on the scene of the Toronto Blue Jays).

Simulcasting: Technically this isn't the correct term. I believe it's called signal substitution, but for a variety of reasons simulcasting is the term that most people use. When cable TV became a major force in Canadian broadcasting a number of advertisers began placing their commercials on US stations that were being carried on Canadian cable systems. This was particularly popular when the Canadian dollar was valued at or above par with the American dollar. This naturally hurt the Canadian networks and they complained to the CRTC which banned the practice. They went a step further however. On those occasions when a Canadian broadcaster played an American show at the same time as an American broadcaster, Canadian cable providers - satellite providers as well I think - have to replace the American signal with the Canadian signal. Thus if The Amazing Race is on CBS on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Central Time (call it channel 4) and on CTV at the same time (call it channel 9), the CTV signal with the ads intended for the Canadian market is seen on both the channel 9 and channel 4. This is usually fine but it can be a massive pain in the butt. The whole process is automated so situations arise when times aren't accurate. It is infuriating to be watching a football game on CBS and suddenly have 60 Minutes appear in the middle of a play because the automated switcher at the cable company was instructed to put the appropriate Canadian signal over the American channel at precisely 6 p.m. Even the Canadian networks don't like the process. They've applied to the CRTC on several occasions to have Canadian "versions" of American shows (that is the American show with Canadian commercials inserted) replace the American version even if the Canadian network isn't broadcasting the show at the same time. They want this so that they can "program their own networks" a notion that the CRTC has rejected repeatedly.

Canadian Television: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Part 1: The Good

This is the start of a three week series looking at what I think are the best and worst things about Canadian television. Please note that I didn't say Canadian television shows - that would be too specific. My focus is on aspects of the industry. First up: Five things I like about Canadian television (in no particular order of course).

Tits and Cussing: I'm talking about over the air network television here too. While it's not prevalent on the private networks, for reasons I'll get into in a moment, Canadian broadcast regulations are structured in such a way that pretty much anything goes the later you get in the night. CBC may have shown the first bare breast in a drama in North America around 1970, and as far as swearing goes the limits on that have been pushed pretty far back as well. Some years ago the CBC showed the British series The Camomile Lawn, complete with full frontal Tara Fitzgerald, and all the usual swearing. In 2000 CTV counterprogrammed the Sydney Olympics with the first season of The Sopranos - no bleeps, no fuzzed over nipples, everything as it was shot for HBO. There could be a lot more nudity and cursing on Canadian TV were it not for the fact that the private English language networks buy most of their product from the United States, and even when they buy movies they tend to be versions that have been sanitized for the American market. The CRTC (the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission - the Canadian equivalent to the FCC) limits its censorship role considerably, and there is no strong organized pressure group like the Parents Television Council in Canada. We accept it.

Curling: I know it's a silly thing to put down, but I think it's indicative of something that not only do Canadian televisions stations broadcast Curling but that there was controversy when a new broadcasting deal was signed that reduced the number of hours of the Men's and Women's Canadian and World Championships that would be broadcast, forcing rights holder to scramble to find a partner network to show extra hours. Curling is a sport which even it's strongest supporters will admit is lighter on speed and conflict than golf - I tend to liken it to chess played using the Newtonian laws of motion - but the networks indulge the passion.

CBC Kids Programs: I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating. Since the very beginning, CBC has taken the responsibility of crafting shows for children very seriously. Fred Rogers got his earliest network exposure with a Canadian show called Butternut Square, and morning kids programs have included iconic shows like Chez Helene, The Friendly Giant, and Mr. Roger's former puppet master Ernie Coombs, Mister Dress Up. In the afternoons there was Razzle Dazzle, The Forest Rangers and Drop In. For many years Sesame Street was seen in Canada with Canadian material inserted - something that was actually harmful to children's programming in Canada because the show tended to suck money away from Canadian programs to pay the hefty license fee. Current programming includes both shows from the United States such as Clifford The Big Red Dog and domestic production such as Poko, The Save-ums, and Nanalan in the mornings for pre-school viewers - all shown without commercials - and a variety of Canadian made shows for school aged children and younger teens in the 4 to 5 p.m. slot.

News: This is a bit of tough issue, but all three of the main Canadian networks make a major effort at doing news all day long. This is in addition to two Canadian cable news services CBC Newsworld and CTV Newsnet. There has also been a recent application to the CRTC for a third cable service which would rebroadcast local CTV news programs from each province. These services exist because Canadians say that they want them, and although some politicians on the right may say that the CBC is biased towards the Liberal Party, the general perception is that none of the networks has a particular bias towards any political party.

Comedy: Canadians seem to laugh at different stuff than Americans. How else do you explain that the year it was cancelled in the States, Caroline In The City was the top rated show in Canada? CBC in particular has made a major commitment to Canadian comedy, mostly satire with shows like Red Green, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Royal Canadian Air Farce. In addition they show segments from the Montreal Comedy Festival Just Pour Rire/Just For Laughs. The Comedy Network has a new original show called Popcultured with Elvira Kurt which is in the style of The Daily Show, and Puppets Who Kill which is difficult to explain. As well they show classic Canadian comedy programming including SCTV, Kids In The Hall, and (though you have to look for it) Wayne & Shuster. Sitcoms have never done as well but last year CTV started Corner Gas starring Brent Butt which has turned into a significant hit for a Canaidan comedy.

And hey, what can you say about a country where The Amazing Race is the most popular show on Tuesday nights (and third for the week) ahead of American Idol and Law & Order: SVU?