I was saddened to learn from Mark Evanier's News From Me that Frank Gorshin has passed away at the age of 72.
Gorshin was a talented comedian and impressionist who was famous for his Kirk Douglas impression. At one time he was regarded as being at the same level of ability as Rich Little. Although Gorshin's acting career began in the mid-1950s, and included a number of dramatic and comedic roles, he is probably best known for two parts - The Riddler in the Batman TV series, for which he earned an Emmy nomination, and Commissioner Bele in the Star Trek episode "Let This Be Your Final Battlefield". Gorshin, a chain smoker, died of a combination of emphysema pneumonia and lung cancer. His final performance will air on Thursday night's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation finale.
Like all of the principal Bat-villains in the series (The Riddler, The Joker, The Penguin and Catwoman) he was perfectly cast. The thing about Gorshin that made him memorable as the Riddler was that his performance put his whole being in play. His voice was a major element of course, going from a low conspiratorial level to loud, triumphal and higher pitched, often in the same scene or even the same sentence. There was also his facial expression and his body language, and of course "The Laugh". All of these elements made the character Gorshin's, something that was proven absolutely when a contract dispute in the second season meant that Gorshin was replaced by John Astin as The Riddler in one episode. Astin is a fine comedic actor but he just couldn't replace Gorshin as The Riddler (an earlier "Riddler" script was rewritten to create a new villain, The Puzzler played by Maurice Evans.
(One curious thing though. All of the obituaries quote his age as 72 but if he was born in April 1934, as all of the obituaries also state, that would make him 71 by my math.)
CBS today announced their Fall 2005 lineup and the shows that have been cancelled. (List and grid originally provided by The Futon Critic)
Cancelled: Center of the Universe, Clubhouse, Dr. Vegas, Wickedly Perfect, The Will (all cancelled long ago) 60 Minutes Wednesday, J.A.G., Joan Of Arcadia, Judging Amy, Listen Up, . In addition Everybody Loves Raymond ended this season.
Retained: CSI: Miami, NCIS, The Amazing Race, CSI: New York, Survivor, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Without A Trace, Numb3rs, Crimetime in Primetime, 48 Hours Mysteries, 60 Minutes, Cold Case, CBS Sunday Movie
Moved: The King Of Queens, Two And A Half Men, Still Standing, Yes, Dear
New: How I Met Your Mother, Out Of Practice, Close To Home, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, Threshold
Complete Schedule in Capitals (Except for NCIS)
Monday
8:00-8:30 PM The King Of Queens (New Day and Time)
8:30-9:00 PM HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
9:00-9:30 PM Two And A Half Men (New Time)
9:30-10:00 PM OUT OF PRACTICE
10:00-11:00 PM CSI: Miami
Tuesday
8:00-9:00 PM NCIS
9:00-10:00 PM The Amazing Race
10:00-11:00 PM CLOSE TO HOME
Wednesday
8:00-8:30 PM Still Standing (New Day and Time)
8:30-9:00 PM Yes, Dear (New Time)
9:00-10:00 PM CRIMINAL MINDS
10:00-11:00 PM CSI: New York
Thursday
8:00-9:00 PM Survivor
9:00-10:00 PM CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
10:00-11:00 PM Without A Trace
Friday
8:00-9:00 PM GHOST WHISPERER
9:00-10:00 PM THRESHOLD
10:00-11:00 PM Numb3rs
Saturday
8:00-9:00 PM Crimetime Saturday
9:00-10:00 PM Crimetime Saturday
10:00-11:00 PM 48 Hours Mystery
Sunday
7:00-8:00 PM 60 Minutes
8:00-9:00 PM Cold Case
9:00-11:00 PM CBS Sunday Movie
In addition CBS has one comedy and one drama ready for midseason.
Here are some summaries of the new CBS series. Complete summaries can be found at The Futon Critic site:
How I Met Your Mother is described as a comedy about "how Ted fell in love". Ted decides that he needs to find true love when his best friend announces that he's marrying his longtime girlfriend. The story is told through a series of flashbacks from the future and Bob Saget serves as narrator. Cast includes Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan.
Out Of Practice is an ensemble comedy about a family of doctors who share the same profession but little else, and tend to look down at one son who has a PhD (in family counselling) rather than an MD. Christopher Gorham stars and the cast includes Stockard Channing and Henry Winkler.
Close To Home Jennifer Finnigan plays a young prosecutor who has just returned to work after having her first child who tries cases in her suburban community. Christian Kane (Angel) Kimberly Elise and John Carroll Lynch also star in this Jerry Bruckheimer series.
Criminal Minds stars Mandy Patinkin, Thomas Gibson and Shemar Moore as part of an elite team of FBI profilers, each with their own particular field of expertise.
Ghost Whisperer is based on the work of famed medium James Van Praagh, and is the story of a recently married woman, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, who is able to communicate with the souls of the recently departed. Aisha Tyler and David Conrad also star.
Threshold: When the US Navy discovers that a UFO has landed in the Atlantic, a special team led by Dr Molly Caffrey (Carla Gugino) is assembled to decipher the intentions of the craft and prepare for an alien invasion. Cast includes Charles S. Dutton, Brent Spiner, Robert Van Holt, and Robert Patrick Benedict. Producers are Brannon Braga, David Heyman and David Goyer.
Comments: The motto at CBS appears to be "if it ain't broke don't fix it, just tweak it a little." They've dumped several of their weakest series (including Joan of Arcadia which will no doubt tick off the PTC) but three nights are untouched (two if you don't count Saturday which had nothing but repeats of existing series anyway), and only Friday has more than one hour of new programming. The only mildly surprising cancellation is Listen Up although both it and Still Standing weren't setting the world on fire with their ratings. King Of Queens was swapped for Still Standing to give a better lead for How I Met Your Mother, while Two And A Half Men, which actually built on the ratings of Everybody Loves Raymond inherits Raymond's time slot. The shows I expect to make early exits are Criminal Minds in the extremely competitive Wednesday 9-10 timeslot, and Ghost Whisperer (I hope).
The WB today announced their Fall 2005 lineup and the shows that have been cancelled. (List and grid originally provided by The Futon Critic).
Cancelled: Big Man On Campus, Drew Carey's Green Screen, Grounded For Life, High School Reunion, The Mountain (a cancelled some time ago). The Futon Critic doesn't list Jack & Bobby as being cancelled but it doesn't appear anywhere on The WB's list of shows, so unless another network has picked it up, consider it dead as well. Unfortunately.
Retained: 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, What I Like About You, Reba, Living With Fran, Charmed.
Moved: Blue Collar TV (also expanded to one hour) One Tree Hill, Smallville, Everwood,
New: Just Legal, Supernatural, Related, Twins.
Complete Schedule (New Series in Capitals)
Sunday
5:00-5:30 p.m. Easy View presentation of What I Like About You
5:30-6:00 p.m. Easy View presentation of What I Like About You
6:00-7:00 p.m. Easy View presentation of One Tree Hill
7:00-7:30 p.m. Reba (encore presentation)
7:30-8:00 p.m. Reba (encore presentation)
8:00-9:00 p.m. Charmed
9:00-10:00 p.m. Blue Collar TV (new day and time)
Monday
8:00-9:00 p.m. 7th Heaven
9:00-10:00 p.m. JUST LEGAL
Tuesday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Gilmore Girls
9:00-10:00 p.m. SUPERNATURAL
Wednesday
8:00-9:00 p.m. One Tree Hill (new day and time)
9:00-10:00 p.m. RELATED
Thursday
8:00-9:00 p.m. Smallville (new day and time)
9:00-10:00 p.m. Everwood (new day and time)
Friday
8:00-8:30 p.m. What I Like About You
8:30-9:00 p.m. TWINS
9:00-9:30 p.m. Reba
9:30-10:00 p.m. Living With Fran
The WB also has two comedies and two dramas available as mid-season replacements.
Here are some brief summaries of The WB's new programs. Complete summaries can be found at The Futon Critic site:
Just Legal: A legal procedural series with Jay Baruchel as a brilliant 19 year-old legal prodigy and Don Johnson as a once great lawyer now eking out a living in a beachfront law office. Think Doogie Howser crossed with Erin Brokavich with maybe just a touch of The Rockford Files.
Supernatural: What The WB calls "a completely new kind of thrill ride; a journey into the dark world of the unexplained that will deliver the terror of films like 'The Ring' and 'The Grudge. '” Two brothers and a '67 Chevy Impala criss-cross the mysterious backroads of the country trying to find their missing father and hunt down supernatural forces.
Related: Four sisters ranging in age from 33 to 19 alternately nurture each other and fight each other in what the network describes as a "comedy ensemble drama." In short a little bit of everything there.
Twins: A comedy about twin sisters (presumably fraternal twins rather than identical) who inherit their family lingerie firm. On sister takes after her father and is brilliant at business, while the other sister is a beautiful lingerie model who isn't exactly a deep thinker - like their mom. Cast includes Oscar nominee Melanie Griffith and Mark Linn-Baker (Larry from Perfect Strangers) as the parents.
Comments: No real surprises in the cancellations (except, as I said, the Futon Critic doesn't list Jack & Bobby as cancelled) the big surprise is the decision to radically shake up the line up by moving Smallville and Everwood to Thursday night. With the elimination of Jack & Bobby this allows the network to pair up three new dramas with established programs, but it does put Smallville and Everwood on one of the toughest nights on TV. Beyond that, I simply have difficulty imagining how you can stretch Blue Collar TV to fill an hour.
ABC today announced their Fall 2005 lineup and the shows that have been cancelled. (List and grid originally provided by The Futon Critic)
Cancelled: The Benefactor, Complete Savages, Life As We Know It (long ago), Blind Justice, Eight Simple Rules, Extreme Makeover, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - How'd The Do That, Eyes, My Wife And Kids, The Wonderful World Of Disney plus NYPD Blue which ended its run voluntarily at the end of February.
Retained: Monday Night Football, Primetime Live, Hope & Faith, 20/20, America's Funniest Home Videos, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy.
Moved: Wife Swap, The Bachelor, Jake In Progress, According to Jim, Rodney, Boston Legal, George Lopez, Lost, Alias, Supernanny.
New: Emily's Reasons Why Not, What About Brian, Commander-in-Chief, Invasion, The Night Stalker, Hot Properties
Complete Schedule ( New Series in Capitals)
MONDAY
8:00 p.m. Wife Swap (through January. New night and time)
9:00 p.m. Monday Night Football (through January)
(the following will premiere after MNF)
8:00 p.m. The Bachelor (new time)
9:00 p.m. EMILY'S REASONS WHY NOT
9:30 p.m. Jake in Progress (new night and time)
10:00 p.m. WHAT ABOUT BRIAN
TUESDAY
8:00 p.m. According to Jim (new time)
8:30 p.m. Rodney (new time)
9:00 p.m. COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
10:00 p.m. Boston Legal (new night)
WEDNESDAY
8:00 p.m. George Lopez (new night and time)
8:30 p.m. FREDDIE
9:00 p.m. Lost (new time)
10:00 p.m. INVASION
THURSDAY
8:00 p.m. Alias (new night and time)
9:00 p.m. THE NIGHT STALKER
10:00 p.m. Primetime Live
FRIDAY
8:00 p.m. Supernanny (new night and time)
9:00 p.m. Hope & Faith
9:30 p.m. HOT PROPERTIES
10:00 p.m. 20/20
SATURDAY
8:00 p.m. ABC Movie of the Week
SUNDAY
700 p.m. America's Funniest Home Videos
8:00 p.m. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
9:00 p.m. Desperate Housewives
10:00 p.m. Greys Anatomy
In addition to the shows listed to replace Monday Night Football in January, ABC also has six shows listed as due for mid-season.
ABC was a bit more forthcoming than NBC on summaries of the new series. Futon Critic has complete summaries but here are some brief summaries for the series debuting in September:
Commander-in-Chief: Geena Davis plays the Vice President of the United States who decides to keep her job despite the wishes of the dying President (and most of her own party) that she step down to be replaced by someone "more suitable". With the President's death she becomes the first woman President. A strong cast including Donald Sutherland and Kyle Secor (from Homicide: Life on the Streets.
Freddie: Freddie Prinze Jr. plays a bachelor New York chef who foolishly takes in his sister, sister-in-law and grandmother after his brother dies. The ABC news release says "The creative forces behind “The Drew Carey Show” and “George Lopez” serve up a comedic dish based on the raucous femme-filled real life of star Freddie Prinze, Jr."
Hot Properties: A group of four women working in a Manhattan real estate office try to balance career with frequently chaotic personal lives.
Invasion: A Shaun Cassidy/Tommy Schlamme offering, the show focusses on a small Florida town where a hurricane reveals that there may be aliens among us and recent natural disasters have been a cover for sinister goings on.
The Night Stalker: A remake of the cult classic from 1974, Stuart Townshend (Dorian Grey in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) takes on Darrin McGavin's role as Carl Kolchak, investigating the supernatural in a world that doesn't believe in things like vampires and werewolves.
Comments:
The most obvious thing to comment on is that ABC has been rearranging the deck chairs by moving a lot of series to different times and different nights. At first glance I think the effect is rather good, with the moves plugging several holes in the lineup. Most of the cancellations don't surprise me, the big exception being that My Wife and Kids was cancelled while George Lopez was retained. Neither one was doing particularly well and some weeks were 5th in the overnight ratings. Also somewhat surprising is that Jake In Progress will be back, albeit in January once Monday Night Football ends. The show was getting hammered in the Thursday night slots where it had been placed in what looked like a burn-off situation, but apparently someone thought enough of the series to put it opposite the CBS comedy lineup.
I mentioned last week that Amazon.ca didn't have the second season of Have Gun Will Travel listed anywhere, and I assumed that it was delayed for Canadian release for some obscure reason. Imagine then my surprise when I went into my local London Drugs (well not so local - across the city in fact, but it is close to my brother's place) and saw Richard Boone smiling at me from the box set of Have Gun Will Travel: Season 2. Amazon.ca? They still don't list it. So with mild trepidation, on to this week's DVDs.
Adventures Of Pete And Pete: Season 1
- Another Nickelodeon series which means that I haven't seen it. Plus this series dates back to 1993 so I can't exactly look to see if it is or has ever been on in Canada. Apparently it was rather good if the IMDB reviews are anything to go by.
Cheers: The Complete Fifth Season
- This is of course a show that I do know and remember quite well. The fifth season was Shelley Long's last as well as the first for Bebe Neuwirth as Lilith Sternin (just a thought - why would a Jewish family name their daughter after a Mesopotamian night-demon with a penchant for murdering children and sadistic sexual assaults on sleeping men), and on the whole the series was moving towards what I think was its strongest phase. I much prefer Kirstie Alley to Long, but with that exception all of the elements are in place.
Clarissa Explains It All: Season 1
- I've seen bits and pieces of episodes of Clarissa Explains It All, which aired on the Canadian Family Channel around the time that Sabrina, the Teenaged Witch was at the height of its popularity. Although it doesn't stand out in my mind, one thing was absolutely apparent and that was that the fifteen year-old Melissa Joan Hart was already displaying a strong screen presence. This and The Adventures of Pete and Pete are an experiment by Nickelodeon to release some of their older shows on DVD, but for more to be released sales of the first two need to be strong.
The Commish: The Best Of Season One
- Long before he played Vic Mackey on The Shield, Michael Chiklis played a far different cop on The Commish. Police Commissioner Tony Scali was a fat balding thirty-something transplant from New York City, now in charge of the police force in a small city in New York (played by Vancouver B.C. with a large number of Canadian actors in supporting roles, most notably Nicholas Lea who was later Krycek in The X-Files). Tony was a family man devoted to his wife and son but also a cop whose easy going manner hid a first class mind. This was far better than the ordinary run of Stephen J. Cannell shows, approaching its topic with a lighter touch. This DVD contains four episodes from the first season. The complete First and Second Seasons are already out on DVD, but for the price ($11.89 Canadian if you order from Amazon.ca) it's a good introduction to the series.
The Golden Girls: The Complete Second Season
- I was never a huge fan of this series but I did watch. The on-screen chemistry between Arthur, McClanahan, White and Getty apparently hid what was reportedly a rather tempestuous set in terms of personality conflicts. Of particular note is how Bea Arthur inevitably plays straight woman to Estelle Getty, who played her mother (even though Getty is actually about two months younger than Arthur).
Monarch of the Glen: The Complete Series Three
- I've never seen this series, though it's not for lack of opportunities. It's seen on BBC Canada, the province's educational channel SCN, and both of the PBS stations that I receive, but for some obscure reason I've never taken the time to watch it, maybe because I haven't been able to see it from the start. Undoubtedly my loss.
Piglet Files: Set 3
- This is a show that I have seen. Featuring Nicholas Lyndhurst, best known as Rodney from Only Fools and Horses (although I first saw him in a series called Just The Two Of Us the show is a satire of all spy movies. Peter Chapman (code name "Piglet") is no James Bond but he somehow muddles through as an electronics expert for MI-5 who frequently gets in deeper than he should. The satire isn't as direct as a series like Get Smart nor as broad, but the writing is quite strong and funny.
Return To The Bat Cave
- I missed this when it aired and I think I probably erred. Subtitled "The Misadventures of Adam and Burt" it is a combination reunion show and comedy it reunited Adam West and Burt Ward to remember the Batman TV series of the 1960s along with a number of guest stars who were in the original, notably Frank Gorshin and Julie Newmar. Sounds like great fun and I'm sorry I missed it.
Scrubs: The Complete First Season
- I've never seen it, but as I mentioned in the post about NBC's upfronts the show has been renewed but delayed until 2006. In the meantime there's this set.
Seinfeld: Season 4
- Do you want to know the truth? I have never seen a complete episode of Seinfeld, and what's more I don't apologise. The trouble is that Jerry Seinfeld has never really appealed to me as a comedian and the bits and pieces of the shows that I've seen haven't made me want to watch the show. Even though Jerry Seinfeld and his show are very different from Ray Romano and Everybody Loves Raymond I have similar reactions to both.
Silk Stalkings: Best Of Season One
- Like The Commish this is a Stephen J. Cannell series and released by Anchor Bay. I don't know the series, although early episodes were part of the CBS "Crimetime after Primetime" package that ended when David Letterman came to the network. It then went to the USA cable network. When I was publishing a Diplomacy zine I had a fellow publisher from San Diego whose then teen aged son had done a bit of acting work on the series. He thought it was awful but for myself, I don't know.
Simpsons: Bart Wars
- Four episodes of The Simpsons that have a Star Wars theme, and are being released two days before Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith is released. Of course it's a cynical move to make lots of money, but the fact that it's The Simpsons makes it all right.
Six Feet Under: The Complete Third Season
- This is a series that I've seen. At least I've seen the first season - something always seems to keep me from seeing the second season which is currently airing on the Showcase cable network here in Canada. I don't believe that the third season has been seen on Showcase yet, although like most HBO series it may have been on one of the movie channels. The series isn't as flashy as The Sopranos but it has a frequent dark humour that is interesting to watch. It also has a great deal of humanity that is lacking in The Sopranos. This show is well worth the effort to try to see.
(Since I didn't watch Everybody Loves Raymond toniight - because I don't - I thought I'd sum up last night's Survivor finale instead.)
After 39 days and a bunch of episodes, the best player of Survivor: Palau, 41 year-old New York firefighter Tom Westman won a 6 to 1 vote over PR professional Katie Gallagher. And under the circumstances it was about bloody time. Like most reality shows (and unlike my favourite The Amazing Race) Survivor isn't about being the best person, it's about being able to manipulate people without drawing a target on your own back. The person who does best at challenges and the person who shows leadership skills gets hit by the "tall poppy syndrome". Being too good usually leads to a player getting eliminated at the first possible opportunity once Tribes disappear and challenges become individual. Flying under the radar - not winning immunity challenges and not trying to lead the team but doing as much work as you have to and keeping your alliances strong but flexible - works, which is why Katie got as far as she did.
What Tom brought to the table was the whole package. He was a strong leader during the tribe vs. tribe phase of the series and a strong provider for his team. What's more he developed a number of alliances of varying strength. For most of the game his strongest alliance was with Ian Rosenberger - about the only player who was close to being his equal in the physical challenges. He also held an alliance with Gallagher and a secondary alliance with three of his fellow team mates. Another factor was that he had a clear vision of how the game would go. He played the game very much in the way that a chess player does, thinking ahead to what the best move his opponents could make would be and what his best move to preempt this would be. He planned to keep Gregg Carrey in the game until there were five players left because he thought that this would be the optimal time for Greg to make his move. In the event, he managed Gregg's removal with six players left because he got the impression that Gregg was making his move earlier than expected. After that it was a simple business of isolating and removing the remaining players who were not part of his core alliance, Caryn Groedel and Jenn Lyon.
The end for Ian came prematurely when he seemed to have burned too many of his bridges, first by not taking Katie on a reward he won which raised questions with her about his honesty and then by seeming to agree to vote Tom out if he lost immunity. It all came out. In an amazing turn of events Rosenberger dropped out of the last immunity challenge, an endurance competition, after almost 12 hours because he had thought through the events of the show and decided that he wasn't pleased with how at odds his behaviour in the game was to his own personal values. He ended the challenge after extracting a promise from Tom to vote him out, a development that astonished both Tom and host Jeff Probst.
After that it was a foregone conclusion that Tom would win. In the final Tribal Council he was articulate, and both complimentary to his opponents and even a little humble. Gallagher on the other hand was a t times abrasive towards people - at one point she told Jury member Janu Tornell that she wouldn't answer the question because she knew there was nothing she could say to get Janu's vote. Beyond that her behaviour during the game had not won her any fans. She didn't try hard at competition, she did on more than one occasion ridicule other players and, she did ride the coat tails of two better players through her alliance with Ian and Tom.
At 41 Tom is the oldest player ever to win Survivor but as Jeff Probst pointed out the average age for Survivor winners is 34. Maturity - emotional and intellectual maturity - wins Survivor. Physicality isn't enough, indeed as we've seen over ten series being physically dominant can be detrimental because at the first opportunity you are likely to be voted out if you don't also have a solid plan in playing the game. Tom won in part because he was physically better than most of the other players but also because he had a well thought out and executed plan. He deserved to win because he literally was the best player on that island.
NBC today announced their new Fall lineup and with it the shows that have been cancelled for this year. (List and grid originally provided by The Futon Critic.)
Cancelled: Father of the Pride, Hawaii, LAX (all cancelled long ago) Committed, Law & Order: Trial By Jury, Medical Investigation, Third Watch, American Dreams, .
Delayed to 2006: Fear Factor, Scrubs.
Retained: Las Vegas, Medium, The Office, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order, Joey, Will & Grace, The Apprentice, ER, Dateline NBC (Sunday), Crossing Jordan.
Moved: The West Wing (Wednesday to Sunday), Dateline NBC (Friday: later hour).
New: Fathom, My Name Is Earl, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, E-Ring, Three Wishes, Inconceivable.
Complete Schedule (New Series in Capitals except ER)
MONDAY
8-9 p.m. FATHOM
9-10 p.m. Las Vegas
10-11 p.m. Medium
TUESDAY
8-9 p.m. The Biggest Loser
9-9:30 p.m. MY NAME IS EARL
9:30-10 p.m. The Office
10-11 p.m. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. THE APPRENTICE: MARTHA STEWART
9-10 p.m. E-RING
10-11 p.m. Law & Order
THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m. Joey
8:30-9 p.m. Will & Grace
9-10 p.m. The Apprentice
10-11 p.m. ER
FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. THREE WISHES
9-10 p.m. Dateline NBC (new time period)
10-11 p.m. INCONCEIVABLE
SATURDAY
8-11 p.m. NBC SATURDAY NIGHT MOVIE
SUNDAY
7-8 p.m. Dateline NBC
8-9 p.m. The West Wing (new day and time)
9-10 p.m. Law & Order: Criminal Intent
10-11 p.m. Crossing Jordan
Comments:
Surprised by a couple of things. The decision to save Fear Factor as a certain replacement for a series that fails is one, if only because it was still doing well in the 18-49 demographic. The delay of Scrubs is less of a surprise. Its ratings performance wasn't that strong but it is well liked by critics and fans.The loss of Law & Order: Trial By Jury though is not a big surprise. It's worth noting that Numb3rs on CBS was seeing a ratings erosion when it was opposite Medical Investigation but was not only solid but gaining viewers against TBJ after the Jerry Orbach episodes. I'm only sorry that Bebe Neuwirth has had another series die underneath her. Finally we've got The West Wing moving to the Sunday slot from Wednesday, which I actually think is a solid move if the show's old prestige can carry some viewers. I am not surprised to see The Office renewed since it was getting a good critical buzz and was improving after the first episode. Nice to see that NBC has decided to follow ABC's lead and drop Saturday night repeats in favour of a movie night. I'm assuming they're going for "family friendly" fare.
Details on new shows are rather sparse in the NBC news release but it may say something that the network has a large supply of shows available as replacements including Fear Factor and Scrubs. Or maybe not.
Last night saw the season finale of Numb3rs and the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise. The finale of Numb3rs was the sort of episode you'd expect from a series that was pretty much sure of coming back next season. (Network upfronts are coming in the next week or so, but some series look to be confident about returning.) About the most spectacular thing about it was the complete absence of Sabrina Lloyd. She's been seen less in the past few episodes so maybe they're just phasing her character out. Shame on them if they are.
I really want to write about the Star Trek: Enterprise finale though, but first let me just repeat my usual refrain about it being long past time for the team of Berman & Braga to leave the Star Trek Franchise forever and not let the door hit them on the ass on the way out. They should go out backwards and let it hit them in the .... well you get the idea. There, that felt good.
The series finale was a two one hour episodes. The first was the wind up of last weeks episode in which Trip Tucker and T'Pol discover that there's a Human-Vulcan hybrid child with their DNA, created by an anti-alien group "Terra Prime", headed by the often underappreciated Peter Weller. In the episode, the Enterprise crew managed to defeat Terra Prime's nefarious scheme to destroy Star Fleet Command, prevent the signing of a trade agreement between Earth and a number of alien races, and force all aliens off earth. There's the usual amount of daring-do and in a touching note the baby - named Elizabeth by T'Pol and Trip - dies as a result of genetic complications. Phlox however leave the door open for a certain future blessed event when he explains that the cloning process used by Terra Prime was flawed and Human and Vulcan DNA is in fact compatible enough to allow a child to be born and survive.
On the whole that episode would have been a pretty good opener to a fifth season - the end point of a cliffhanger - or even an end the series, but no, someone couldn't leave well enough alone. We had to be treated to a different final episode. We are catapulted six years into the future, when the Enterprise is heading back to Earth to be decommissioned and put into the mothball fleet (a term that originated with the US Navy for ships that have been retained for emergency service but aren't crewed and receive minimal maintenance). Suddenly there's an announcement calling all senior staff to the bridge and we discover that what we're seeing is a holodeck program being run by Commander Bubble Butt - sorry, Commander William T. Riker. Yes they decided that they needed an episode with Next Generation characters, so we got to see William Frakes who appears to have been eating his way out of his depression after Thunderbirds flopped, and Marina Sirtis who really should lay off the Baklava and hit the gym if she wants to wear that uniform again.
The storyline is a disappointment after so many good episodes in the past year. Riker is participating in the Holodeck reconstruction of the final days of the new original Enterprise (as opposed to the original original Enterprise which was Kirk's ship) because he's pondering a decision. In fact it's the decision that he made in the Next Generation episode "The Pegasus", to disobey orders and tell Picard about the illegal tests of a Federation cloaking device that occurred aboard the USS Pegasus. Apparently Troi told him that he could get greater insights about the decision he has to make by experiencing the last days of Archer's Enterprise. The plot there focusses on Shran, who is supposed to be dead but is really on the run. After leaving the Andorian Imperial Guard (and why would he do that?) he fell in with an unsavoury element, who now want him to return something he doesn't have and have kidnapped his daughter to get it. Early on Troi and Riker let us know that Trip doesn't survive, so during the time that the crew are trying to rescue Shran's daughter on Rigel 10 we're wondering if this is when Tucker's going to kick the bucket. In fact, it doesn't happen until after the rescue when the guys who have kidnapped the child (and supposedly only have a Warp 2 ship) suddenly show up on Enterprise and want the Shran and the kid. Tucker does the heroic thing, putting himself in a potentially life threatening situation to kill the bad guys and save Archer. Throughout the episode we are treated with meetings between the Enterprise Chef and several senior crewmembers. Chef of course isn't the "real" Chef but Riker. Troi has told him that since the ship didn't have a counsellor (or a bar tender) people tended to talk to Chef. Needless to say the insights Riker gains all centre on the Archer-Tucker relationship, which gives Riker the answer he needs to decide to trust his instincts and tell the man he trusts unconditionally (that would be Picard) about the secret of the Pegasus. This episode was such a terrible send-off for the show that it is difficult to believe that Manny Cotto did it of his own free will, given the episodes that have come before in this season. The idea had to have come from higher up in the Paramount food chain.
Next year, for the first time in 18 years there will not be new episodes of a Star Trek series. For the first time in its history there won't be a Star Trek series on UPN. Unlike a lot of people I don't think that the franchise is dead. If anything the last season of Star Trek: Enterprise points the way forward. I've said it before and I'll say it as long as anyone wants, the time has come for Berman & Braga to go. It may be true that there can't really be a single vision for the whole franchise. If there ever is a new series (and if UPN gets desperate enough there might be) it may need a new vision, and a different vision from any future movies. The basic concepts are sound - a utopian future (because so many movies and TV shows give us a dystopic vision) and a focus on exploration rather than conflict - so a new show could be led by someone who isn't currently involved. I don't know what comes next, but I hope it's something interesting.
Among the things I do besides writing this blog is to write recaps for the Amazing Race newsgroup, and believe me it's a taxing self imposed job to the point where I'm often totally exhausted on the day after because I've been up until four in the morning or later. Consequently I haven't reviewed two of my favourite series this year - House and Lost not to mention Smallville. I intend to remedy that now that Amazing Race is over... but not right now.
Actually this post is about a show I've reviewed earlier. Last night was billed by The WB as the season finale of Jack & Bobby but the whole exercise stank of being the series finale. Not only did we finally meet the boys' father, played by Lou Diamond Phillips with the thickest Hispanic accent I've ever heard him use, but we also found out how Jack dies - gun downed in a convenient store robbery after being a war hero, a conscientious public defender and a Democratic Congressman. It also seemed to wrap up the documentary on the life of President McAllister with a final coda from Bobby's mentor Peter Benedict, played as an old man by legendary TV producer Norman Lear, and the documentary narrator played by Gore Vidal. The episode was good and set up the course that Jack and Bobby's lives would take because of their trip to meet their father, but there's a depressing finality to it as a way to end a show's season.
Of course it probably is the series finale. While The WB hasn't announce its "upfronts" yet, Jack & Bobby has been the lowest rated show on any network (with the possible exception of the soon to be defunct PAX network of course) in the United States and being last on the ratings list doesn't normally get you renewed even on The WB. Which is a damned shame really because the show is generally quite good. The problem may well have been when they chose to show it. It stated out on Sunday nights with Charmed and was moved to Tuesday nights following Smallville. Neither show was exactly a good fit for it - a better match for Jack & Bobby might have been on Monday nights with either Seventh Heaven or Everwood but with both series continuing and the network not wanting to anger affiliates like WPIX, WGN or KTLA by running a third hour of shows (thereby postponing the local news) putting it on Monday night is out. And the network doesn't have another night where the shows they have will work with Jack & Bobby. It's a shame really that a show like this will likely get cancelled when Joey has been renewed for next year.
American Chopper: Series: Season One
American Chopper: Series: Season Two
- Watching the Teutels - well mainly Paul Jr. - design and build custom motorcycles from the ground up isn't really the best part of this show. The best part of the show is watching Paul, Paulie and Mikey Teutel blow up at each other while the other people who work at Orange County Choppers run for cover. The fact that they produce some beautiful work despite having what can best be described as a disfunctional work environment is an added bonus.
Dastardly And Muttley: The Complete Series
Penelope Pitstop: The Complete Series
- Nostalgia's a funny thing. I never saw either of these two shows at the time, but they and shows of their ilk were held up as the very definition of the depths to which animation had fallen (which is wrong - if you want to see the depths, take a look at a Filmation series like Star Trek: The Animated series, but I digress). There was even a word for it Hanna-Barberianism. Looked at today after a generation of animation that cut even more corners - some of it produced by Hanna-Barbera but a lot of it not - shows like these seem to be sparkling example of what TV animation should be more like.
Ed Edd N Eddy: Volume 1 Season 1
- Another animation effort from Cartoon Network that I haven't seen and probably wouldn't like if I did. I seem to say that a lot don't I? Of course it would help if it was shown up here in Canada.
Entourage: The Complete First Season
- This is a series I've never heard of until it came up in this list. I mean never. Turns out that this HBO series is available in Canada on a movie package, but unlike other Canadian cable and satellite providers Shaw Cable doesn't make you sign up for a movie package to get the UPN and WB stations that are available in Canada - so I didn't. Which means missing an experience like Deadwood, but saves me about $11.
Have Gun Will Travel: Season 2
- It wasn't until I saw the series recently on the Lonestar cable network here in Canada that I realised two things. The first is that the Johnny Western theme that was one of my greatest memories of the series ("Have Gun Will Travel reads the card of the man,/ A soldier of fortune in a savage land") was in fact not the opening theme of the series but the closing theme and only really adopted in the second season. The opening was far more interesting and far less memorable (for a five year old kid) - the holster with the knight chess piece from which the big hand made revolver is pulled and pointed right at the camera as a line from the night's episode is read, after which the gun is slammed back into the holster. The other thing was that Richard Boone really was a homely as Paladin as he looked in later work like Hec Ramsey (which I liked a lot - apparently more than American audiences of the time) and the John Wayne movie Big Jake. Definitely a show worth seeing again but apparently not in Canada yet since Amazon.ca doesn't even have a date for it to be available.
In Living Color: Season 3
- Was never available on Canadian networks and we didn't get Fox in Saskatoon until well after the show was cancelled. It is currently seen on the Comedy Network up here but I haven't watched it. Notable for the collaboration between the various members of the Wayans Family, but also as the breakout showcase for Jim Carrey. Carrey had been seen on U.S. TV before in the sadly ignored Duck Factory (another show I liked more than American audiences of the time) but he was a lot freer to do what he wanted in this series. Apparently the third season also saw Jamie Foxx added to the cast and Jennifer Lopez on the show as a "Fly Girl". A lot of talent in that series.
Joan Of Arcadia: The First Season
- Buy this set if you want to be loved by the Parents Television Council. Here's the puzzling part though: Joan of Arcadia was the big new series of the 2003-04 season, and in the 2004-05 season is being threatened with cancellation due to lower than expected ratings. What changed between Season 1 and Season 2?
Kim Possible - The Movie: So the Drama (Extended Edition)
- I understand that this is another Nickelodeon series. Or is it Disney? Since I'm not interested that much in children's TV except from a nostalgia point of view I don't know which it is, and of course haven't seen it. Okay, I looked it up and this is a movie based on the Disney series of the same name.
Monster Garage: Season One
Monster Garage: Season Two
- This is sort of a companion piece to American Chopper except that instead of building custom motorcycles they build custom hot rods. For some reason I don't find it nearly as involving as American Chopper. Maybe it's just the personalities involved. All I know is that I've never seen a complete episode, and the one episode that I saw part of featured a Swedish kid who had come to the garage to learn how to build hot rods but was only allowed to sweep up the shop and clean the interiors of the cars. On the occasions when he tried to actually see how the work was done he was yelled at so much by the boss that he quit in disgust. The boss said good riddance.
Mutant X: Season 2
- Canadian show courtesy of CanWest-Global and co-production. I seem to recall that Fox Movies sued Marvel because the concept of the show was extremely close to The X-Men which Marvel had created in the first place. It was all about movie rights and being too close to originals. I wouldn't know because - yet again - this is a show I've never watched, but this may be the reason you'll never see Bruce Wayne on Smallville.
My Favorite Martian - Second Season
- Now this series I do remember. When I was a kid some of us created "Uncle Martin" antenna with sticks, tin foil, and rubber bands. Never did figure out how to get them to go up and down though. The chemistry between Tim O'Hara (Bill Bixby) and "Uncle Martin" (Ray Walston) was quite real and warm, but while Bixby was an enjoyable straight man the real attraction to the series was Ray Walston who could act circles around anyone else in the cast and frequently did.
Quantum Leap: The Complete Third Season
- I started watching this show, and somewhere along the line - well before the third season, and maybe even before the second - I stopped. I can't really tell you why though, except to say that while the concept was interesting the show just didn't interest me.
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.
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.
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.
Bless Me Father: The Complete Collection
- I have very fond memories of this British series. Starring Arthur Lowe as the occasionally irrascible Father Duddleswell ( but more commonly known as "Father D") it was a normally gentle comedy about a Catholic parish in London in the 1950s. Particularly funny was Mother Stephen, a particularly dour and autocratic nun who was focused on getting the apparently very gloomy (the portrait of the Mother Founder was surrounded by skulls) founder of her order of nuns made a saint. Sadly the series ended when Lowe died of a stroke. Well worth it.Cold Feet: The Complete Collection, Volume 2
- A British series, but not one that I have any knowledge of. This sort of show gets missed by PBS stations that endlessly repeat Are You Being Served and Keeping Up Appearances.
Project: ALF
-This was the made for TV movie that tried to bring the character ALF back without the Tanner family to provide a sense of normalcy. The character is funny because of his interaction with normal humans (and trying to eat the cat), but Project ALF puts him in a situation where he's been discovered and is on the run from the authorities. What's funny about that?
Dawson's Creek: The Complete Fifth Season
- The WB came too late to my TV - thanks to a digital box - for me to see the early episodes of Dawson's Creek. Well that's not quite true since the series was seen on one of the Canadian channels. I don't think it was seen from the eh beginning and based on everything that I read about it I wasn't overly interested. So, another one I didn't see.
Dora the Explorer It's A Party!
- Another kid's show, unseen by people who don't have kids... like me.
Everybody Loves Raymond The Complete 3rd Season - Not everybody. I always found Ray Romano exceptionally annoying, and the less said about Doris Roberts as Marie the better (and I usually like Doris Roberts). About the only saving grace the show had was an exceptionally dead pan performance from Brad Garrett as Robert.
Gilmore Girls The Complete 3rd Season
- I've been known to watch at least part of an episode of The Gilmore Girls. I like some of the writing and the two leads are rather attractive. That said, I don't think I've ever made it through to the end of an episode. Too much Estrogen I think.
I Love Lucy: The Complete Fourth Season- Although the phase hadn't entered the lexicon at the time, the fourth season of I Love Lucy may have been when the show "jumped the shark". Until then it had been a domestic comedy with the twist that Lucy was married to a Cuban band leader. In the fourth season Lucy went to Hollywood, a move that not only took them out of the confines of the brownstone apartment building and the night club but also allowed a host of movie stars to appear. While the situations continued to be funny the chemistry of the show had changed. Don't get me wrong, there's some great comedic stuff here, like Lucy pretending to be Harpo Marx and then appearing with Harpo, or Lucy lighting here nose on fire (it's a fake nose in an attempt to disguise herself from William Holden), but the series has gotten away from it's roots. Season Five would finish the Hollywood storylines and then send the cast off to Europe, while the sixth season would move the show out of New York and into Connecticut. King Of The Hill: Season 4
- I've seen bits and pieces of King Of The Hill and it is funny, but I have to say that it is not on my list of must see shows. Unlike The Simpsons it is a series that could quite easily be done as a live action show, which should lead to the question of what is gained by doing it as animation.
The Man Show: Season Three - Never saw it. I know that the Comedy Channel up here had it, but I never actually felt motivated to watch it. On the other hand, any show with women known as Juggies! can't be a total loss can it?
Naked City: Box Set 1- One of the minor irritations about being in Canada is that sometimes Amazon.ca has a different release date for DVDs than the United States. Amazon.com has this set available on May 3, but Amazon.ca has it available on May 10. Whatever date you choose this is a Major League, Grade A#1 Cherce keeper. Produced by Image it is a compilation of several previously released DVDs, with four episodes of what New York Police officers voted as the best cop show ever, ahead of Homicide: Life On The Streets, and any version of Law & Order. Based on the 1948 film of the same name which in turn was based on the photographs of the legendary Weegee, this set includes three disks with episodes from the second and third seasons (the first season was a half hour show with a different cast). The list of guest stars this series had was truly astonishing, a cavalcade of character actors like Sorrel Booke and Jack Klugman, soon to be stars like Robert Redford, and legitimate stars like Kim Stanley, Mickey Rooney, Martin Balsam, and Roddy McDowell. I've never seen it, but it contributed one of the great phrases to the lexicon - "There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them." Partridge Family: The Complete First Season- A bona fide pre-teen hit from the days when I was a teen. Parent's probably liked it because these were "rock" musicians who were nice and clean cut, and as I recall teen-aged boys sort of lusted after Susan Dey (though why I can't remember - I saw her nude scenes in First Love and the woman had nothing up top) while the girls were lusting after David Cassidy, but the breakout star was Danny Bonaduce. The first season has some very good guest stars including Louis Gossett Jr., Richard Pryor (in one episode!) Johnny Cash, Ray Bolger and Rosemary deCamp, and a pre-Star Wars Mark Hamill.
Radio Free Roscoe: Season One: Greatest Hits- Made in Canada, but I don't think I've ever seen it or even heard of it before this listing. Apparently most of the cast are Canadian, although they don't seem to have IMDB biographies. Just checked and it's on The Family Channel up here, which is no relation to The Family Channel in the U.S.
Star Trek Enterprise: The Complete First Season
- With Star Trek: Enterprise running down to its end, here's how it all started. Based on the last half of the third season and all of the fourth, it could have been so much better than it was. Blame of course goes to Berman and Braga, because by the time Manny Cotto got his hands on the show it was too late. Doctor Who used to change producers and script editors on an average of every three years. When they didn't, when John Nathan Turner became the permanent producer from 1980 to 1989, it went downhill fast. The same applies to Berman and Braga. They have stayed with the Star Trek franchise too long for any good they have done.Three's Company: Season Four- The last season with Suzanne Somers as Chrissy and the first season with the incredible Mr. Knotts. Despite all of the backstage sturm und drang, the fact is that the show had its best on screen chemistry with three original cast members. And despite the critics of the day talking about it being T&A fluff, the show has held up remarkably well. The mix was right between Somers' innocent sexiness and Miss Malaprop quality, John Ritter's tremendous ability as a physical comedian, and Joyce DeWitt's talent as a straight woman. That mix went wrong when Somers left and neither Jenilee Harrison nor Priscilla Barnes made up for it.
Touched By An Angel: Second Season- Never got into it. Too much maudlin sentimentality mixed with copious amounts of God. I'm sure the PTC loved it.
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.
