TV Feeds My Family

Ford, Toronto's gift to the late night talk shows

2013-05-22T18:18:00.002-04:00

Torontonians have known ever since they elected him that their mayor was a cartoon character. This week, Hizzonner Rob Ford made the funny pages in America, getting lampooned on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as well as Tuesday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The funniest thing about the Kimmel bit, above, is that the guy playing Ford looks more like W.C. Fields. The sketch also shows the difference in libel laws in the two countries. It's doubtful 22 Minutes could get away with identifying an actor as "Rob Ford Mayor-Toronto" and then show him behaving like Charlie Sheen post-Two and a Half Men. Kimmel gets away with it by waving the Ford impersonator off as "a reasonable facsimile."
In Canada, you can't mock with the same level of impunity. Here you've got former Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke filing a lawsuit, not against comedians, but people leaving snark on the Internet. Burke's beef is that commentators and bloggers have also spread rumours he feels are libelous.
Leave it to a politician, however, to see Burke's actions as a way of shutting down the great unwashed. Following several published reports citing Brampton, Ont. politicians as among Canada's highest paid, long-time councillor Gael Miles apparently was stung by comments left by Brampton citizens at The Brampton Guardian and Toronto Star web sites.
"We should know if we would be pursuing legal action in the future," Miles huffed at a council meeting last week, according to the Guardian. Brampton taxpayers--who already pay the highest taxes in Canada--would then apparently have to foot the bill for an action taken against Brampton taxpayers for venting their frustrations on political entitlement.
Here's hoping Kimmel and Stewart keep pulling down political pants north of their border.

This week's podcast: About a Boy and Blacklist among shows gaining early buzz

2013-05-17T22:23:00.000-04:00

Benjamin Stockham and David Walton from NBC's About a Boy

This week, CHML's Scott Thompson turns into Mr. Question Man. Among his queries: will ratings for the Stanley Cup playoffs tank now that Leafs are kaput? The answer, of course, is yes. If you are CBC, the playoffs are over. Goodbye 5 million, hello 2.5.

Spader at NBC's upfront in New York

Scott asks about the upfronts in New York and all the new shows just announced for the 2013-14 season. 24 run in 2014. The more I think about that one, the more I think it could be a mistake.
Can Michael J. Fox really headline another sitcom? I have to say yes, and playing a character with Parkinson's is the key. We also talk about Kiefer Sutherland's return as Jack Bauer in a 12-episode
Early word out of Los Angeles, as the Canadian network showbuyers attend the Hollywood screenings, is that a new NBC sitcom based on the novel and movie About a Boy is pretty good. Minnie Driver is in that one. So is David Walton, so good on the short-lived sitcom Bent. There's also some early buzz building about Blacklist, an NBC drama starring James Spader, who--no surprise--makes a creepy-good baddie. The series has already been described as Silence of the Lambs meets The Following.
Canadian nets will screen CBS shows Saturday, ABC/Disney shows on Monday, with parties Sunday and Monday night. The wallets come out Wednesday.
Scott also asks about Seth Meyers taking over Late Night once Jimmy Fallon moves up to The Tonight Show next February. Another 35-year-old white guy? The Scott admits he's already setting his PVR for Barbara Walters' year-long retirement-palooza.
He also brings up the passing of Toronto Sun founding editor Peter Worthington and asks if there isn''t a feature film in this guy's life. Not a bad idea.
News hadn't broken yet about Rob Ford's latest hilarious misadventures so there are no cracks about him teaming up with Cheech & Chong.
The podcast runs a little longer than usual, so you can start listening in here and find part two here.

Lehman finds her Motive in This Fair Land

2013-05-16T15:22:00.000-04:00

Because it gives away the "who," Motive was sold as a "how-dunit" rather than a whodunit.
Now that it has been renewed for a second season, it's an it-dunit.
The season finale airs Thursday night at 10/9c on CTV.
The Vancouver-based drama launched Feb. 3 (directly after CTV's power-out delayed Super Bowl coverage), opening to 1,354,000 total viewers (Live+7). By the time all the data was in, the next three Sundays also topped over a million.
Then the series was shifted to Thursdays, a strong night for the network but shifting a new show is always a gamble. Motive never really missed a beat. The first Thursday night episode March 14 drew a total of 983,000 viewers and it soared to 1,202,000, 1,240,000 and 1,193,000 the next three Thursdays. The series did another 1,019,000 April 25. In originals, it is averaging a rock solid 1.1 million a week for the season--hence CTV's order for Season Two.
The series gets its U.S. network launch Monday May 20 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC before moving to Thursdays at 9 May 23; savvy CTV will simulcast.
Tonight's finale finds Det. Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) and Det. Oscar Vega (Louis Ferreira) investigating the murder of a young adult just as Flynn's own son, Manny (Cameron Bright), heads off to college.
Lehman was bright and chipper when I spoke with her on the phone last week despite the fact that it was 7:30 in the morning on the West Coast. No problem, she said, her five year old had been up since 6.
On a roll since starring on AMC's The Following, the Toronto-born actress claims she stays "blissfully away" from the numbers but was pleased to hear things were good.
The ratings numbers, of course, are important to CTV, not just for its own welfare but because it can now hand the series off to ABC as an unqualified Canadian success story, the No. 1 new domestic scripted drama of the season.(Not that there was a ton of competition in that category in 2012 - 13).
Lehman says her hope going in was simply to be in something Canadians actually watched. "I signed on to do a Canadian show," she says. Having survived 10 or 12 years slogging through pilots and pickups in the U.S. before breaking through in The Following, Lehman's own sense is that the business is even more fickle Stateside.
Now she's waiting to see "what this other giant country" thinks about the show. She feels the acting holds its own with any U.S. network fare and is proud of the natural rhythm she's found with Ferriera.
"It was just always there," she says. "ABC has said one of the things they really loved was the chemistry between the two characters."
Ferriera's Vega is the more quiet, soulful character; Flynn tends to wear her heart and passion more on her sleeve.
Getting that balance and energy right is something the two actors commit to "every morning in the makeup trailer," she says. "Louis and I work hard to stay really strongly connected to our characters. We encourage each other to stay as loose as possible so we can breathe life into the relationship."
Production on Season Two won't ramp up again until August. Until then, Lehman plans to immerse herself in her pet project, This Fair Land, an on-line magazine she edits exploring "living a creative life and an artful life in Canada." The 'zine is film, photography and lifestyle based, she says. There's a story up now on the Wildebeest Restaurant, a B.C. eatery that serves the whole animal "snout to tail," says Lehman, "although they probably don't describe it that way."

Upfront 2013: Sutherland, Fox, Helfer and other Canucks make U.S. network cut

2013-05-15T13:30:00.002-04:00

Kiefer Sutherland in, Kiefer Sutherland out. Canadian talent headlining American shows are breaking about even as the 2013-14 schedules are announced this week in New York.
Sutherland's Touch didn't touch enough viewers to stick around for a third season on Fox, but the network did announce that Sutherland is inked to reprise his role as Jack Bauer on a new season of 24. Plans to do a 24 feature film were scrapped, apparently, when executive producer Howard Gordon concluded a two-hour movie just didn't fit 24's real time format. Instead, the series will return with a 12-hour run to start the spring/summer of 2014.

Michael J. Fox is a big TV star many thought was done making a weekly series after easing out of Spin City 15 years ago. Recent stints on Rescue Me, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Good Wife have proved Fox is up to the task, especially if the show is shot in New York. That's where The Michael J. Fox Show will be based. The NBC sitcom stars Fox as a news anchor forced to step back from TV when diagnosed with Parkinson's but, with the kids grown up and bored sitting at home, he ventures back before the cameras.
Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) will headline the ABC drama Killer Woman. The Alberta native will play a Texas Ranger. Modern Family's Sophia Vergara is among the producers.
B.C. native Brendan Fehr (Roswell) returns in the mid-season NBC hospital drama The Night Shift.
Losing jobs are Matthew Perry, whose Go On was turned off at NBC. Elisha Cuthbert saw Happy Endings fade out of sight at ABC. Sarah Chalke did not get to keep on Living with Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life.
Most U.S. shows shot in Canada survived the cut, including Nikita and Beauty and the Beast shot in Toronto and Arrow and Supernatural shot in Vancouver. Cult was no surprise as a B.C. casualty. The fate of NBC/Global's Hannibal, a Mississauga, Ont. production left off fall schedules, still hangs in the balance, with hopes for a possible mid-season pick up.

Upfronts 2013: Night moves driving Canadian show buyers crazy

2013-05-15T11:29:00.001-04:00

Alex O'Loughlin jumps to Fridays next season on Hawaii FIVE-0

This is the week Canada's private network programming executives play shop till you drop.
Together, they'll drop between $600- to $800 million picking up American network programming for their 2013-14 schedules.
It all happens over a few jam-packed days spent in Los Angeles screening rooms and hotels. I spoke with Rogers/City's Malcolm Dunlop, Bell/CTV's Phil King and Shaw/Global's Barbara Williams a few weeks ago before they went down for the upfronts and screenings and wrote about their pre-game strategies here for The Canadian Press.
The Canadian plan is always to simulcast as many of the U.S. network pickups as possible to gain the maximum head count in the ratings, and thus gain a higher price per show for advertising. So far this week, the U.S. networks aren't making that any easier.
Williams will have to cope with the fact CBS just flipped Hawaii FIVE-0--a show that does better in Canada than the U.S.--from Mondays to Fridays. Fox did the same thing with another valued Global pick-up, Bones. Suddenly Williams has a two hour Monday headache she probably didn't see coming. Dunlop has to deal with CBS moving Person of Interest to Tuesdays at 10, NBC flipping Revolution to Wednesdays and the shelving of CBS' Mike & Molly till mid-season. ABC probably did King (and viewers) a favour by cutting Dancing with the Stars back to only one night a week, but he'll have to scramble to simulcast CBS' relocated Two and a Half Men.
That's why King says buy the best show and forget the timeslot, because it will change anyway. The U.S. nets will likely tinker further with their skeds before September rolls around.

Peter Worthington: 1927 - 2013

2013-05-15T01:54:00.000-04:00

It is a great regret that I never really got to know Peter Worthington. The founding Toronto Sun editor passed away earlier this week at 86.
I remember introducing myself to Worthington when I was hired at The Sun in 1999. Told him how much I enjoyed his dust ups with Sun legend Paul Rimstead back in the early-to-mid `70s. Rimstead wrote this rat-tat-tat column where he would riff on anything within reach, one sparse sentence-long paragraph at a time. He drank to excess and his liquid lifestyle spilled over into his column, some times without his participation.
I witnessed Rimstead`s shenanigans first hand when I was a 15-year-old bus boy at a pub called The Blockhouse at Toronto's then new tourist attraction, Ontario Place. The man was a party on two feet and left a trail of large, empty glass beer pitchers in his wake. I had to retrieve them all, sometime from the fountain out front.
In the paper, Worthington would dryly announce in Rimstead`s space that buddy missed his deadline and was no longer working at The Sun. A week or so later Rimstead's prose would reappear. The editor kept firing the columnist and hiring him back.
Following this internal newspaper soap opera, this airing of dirty, beer-stained laundry, was probably more fun to read than to experience in a newsroom, but as a reader of high school age I devoured every column I could get my hands on for free on the subway. It left me with a vivid cartoon image of Worthington as Jona Jameson, Peter Parker`s peppery boss at the Bugle. It also made me guess that Worthington saw enough value in Rimstead that he tolerated a ton of nonsense (and, ultimately, sadness) to get to those nuggets of genius that emerged out of the fog. It made me really admire the man.
That's what I told Worthington, more or less--probably less. He gave me a weary smile and quickly got away from me.

Another time I got back from one of the TV critics press tours in L.A. and told Worthington his old pal Ed Asner said hello. Asner surprised me one tour by looking at my affiliation on my name tag and telling me, "I used to be your boss."
TV's Lou Grant, it turned out, had been hired for a day in the early '80s to be a guest editor at The Sun, a stunt Worthington helped set up. The actor was flown up from Los Angeles, posed for some front page photo ops, and was "fired" the next day.
Worthington clearly made a lasting impression on Asner who remembered his name 25 years later, and, while he said the gig was pretty "lark-y," he said it with a smile.
Worthington smiled at that memory too.
I wanted to ask the ex-soldier about his front row seat on history, his fearless war coverage, his incredible eye-witness moment nearly 50 years ago as Jack Ruby gunned down Lee Harvey Oswald.
The four time National Newspaper Award winner just always seemed, even as an elder, like a real newspaperman to me, and as I was in the "candy shop" of TV and entertainment coverage, I never wanted to waste his time.
I sensed, too, that he was not a chatty, step-into-my-office-son, kind of guy. Worthington admits as much at the end of an extraordinary, adventure-packed obituary he penned; you can and should read the whole thing here.
"I tend to be a loner who treated most people decently," he writes, "but who never encouraged intimacy."
A tough, unsentimental assessment for a colleague, but not a bad epitaph for a reporter.

Leafs break record, 5.2 million hearts

2013-05-14T17:56:00.000-04:00

Montreal Gazzette great Terry "Aislin" Mosher

Monday's overnight, estimated audience for CBC's coverage of the Leafs' Game Seven heart breaker drew a staggering 5,155,000 viewers. That tops the 4.5M+ who tuned in for Sunday's Leafs victory over Boston in Game Six and is likely the highest total ever for an opening round playoff tilt.
CBC drew just over three million viewers per game deep into the final round of last years Stanley Cup playoffs. The L.A. Kings/Jersey Devils final pairing was good for NBC but a ratings bust in Canada.
The bad news for CBC is that no other game will come close to the final Leafs mark in total viewers throughout the rest of the playoffs. Had Leafs advanced to the second round and beyond, CBC could have cracked the six- and perhaps even seven-million level. By the time Leafs Nation gets over this hangover, the playoffs will be over.
Ottawa is the last remaining Canadian team, and they meet the Penguins Tuesday in Pittsburgh. Two Original Six matchups remain: Chicago vs. Detroit (starting Wednesday) and Boston vs. New York Rangers.

Donal Logue is pure gold on Copper

2013-05-14T16:54:00.000-04:00

Donal Logue accepts the key to a 2001 Sebring. Besides
acting and writing, the dude owns his own trucking biz

Took a walk back in time Monday and ran into Donal Logue. The Ottawa-born actor was in Toronto where he is shooting Season two of Copper, returning to Showcase and BBC America this fall. We chatted in the office of his character, a former general in the Union Army who has returned to the gritty Five Points area of Lower Manhattan to re-assert his presence at Tammany Hall.
The Cineflix drama takes place in the 1860s and is shot on the largest standing set I've ever seen. The converted Toronto auto parts factory houses several blocks of cobblestone streets, tenement shacks, blacksmith shops, police stations, brownstone apartments, and, of course, a tavern and a whorehouse. Horses, pigs and goats are stabled right outside the building. A port and ship were added to the soundstage vista this season.
Versatile Logue is living an actor's dream, appearing in three well-regarded TV shows at once, all shot in different countries. Part of the year he's in Ireland, land of his kin, starring in Vikings. He's also a familiar face now on FX's Sons of Anarchy. He joined all three shows after they launched and says he's fit in nicely with the various casts and crews.
Logue is one of those guys who always works. He needs two more credits to reach 100 on IMDb. He first gained national attention as a headliner on the sitcom Grounded for Life and is full of stories, including the time he tested the Late Late Show chair during the hand-off between Craig Kilborn and Craig Ferguson. Ferguson later became a next door neighbour. The two had a thing where they would jump off Logue's roof into his pool every New Year's. The two of us got so deep into Late Night stories I kept Copper's outstanding and very patient set designer, Tony Ianni, waiting far too long.

One small part of the vast outdoor street
set used in the production of Copper

Logue looks like an outlaw biker dude these days with his long reddish hair, beard and leather jacket. The 47-year-old says being on the FX drama does gain him an extra measure of respect. People tend not to screw around with that cast, although a more erudite bunch, he says, you'll never meet.
He's grateful to all three showrunners who have been extraordinarily accommodating in allowing him to jump in-and-out of countries and series. Not a bad bunch of bosses: Tom Fontanna and now Tom Kelly (Blue Bloods) on Copper, Michael Hirst on Vikings and Kurt Suter on Sons.
Logue was having a good day when I met him. He had just returned from a meeting with his publisher where he learned his first novel, a young adult adventure based somewhat on his own shenanigans as a lad living close to the Mexican border, has been given a green light. He says he never aimed to be an actor and kind of fell into it after studying history at Harvard. His real ambition was to be a writer.
Right now, he's got the best of both worlds and is pretty stoked about both his day and night jobs.
More on Logue and Copper in the coming months.

Arrested Development Season Four trailer

2013-05-13T01:14:00.000-04:00

That's right, Season Four trailer. The Bluths are back and Netflix has 'em. You can start streaming all 15 episodes May 26 at five minutes past midnight.

Early Canadian team exits will dent Cup ratings

2013-05-10T16:54:00.001-04:00

Talk about offside. CBC sweats through a long labour mess, finally gets a half-season of Hockey Night in Canada revenues back come January, and four big Canadian market teams make the playoffs. Happy days are here again.
A week or so into May and Canada's hockey broadcasters are back on their knees recovering from the latest elbow to the head. Vancouver Canucks out in four straight. Montreal Canadiens fini in five. The Leafs facing elimination tonight in Boston.
Ottawa will likely be the sole remaining Canadian city in the second round of the playoffs. Cue the Cinderella story, team of destiny hype, but, really, kiss those three million-plus audience numbers goodbye.

The early Canuck exit also stings TSN. They pulled 1,198,000 overnight viewers for Tuesdays final Canucks/Sharks game. When they show American teams such as the Capitols/Rangers Monday (268,000) or even Detroit vs. Washington the same night (554,000), the audience drops by 50% or more.
CBC will miss Montreal, with 2,078,000 watching Tuesdays tilt against Ottawa. Last spring, Cup numbers took a dive after the two Canadian teams to qualify for playoff action (Vancouver and Ottawa) were bounced in the first round.
Toronto, however, is the team CBC really wanted to go deep this year. Saturday's game drew 3,243,000 overnight viewers and Tuesdays Leafs/Bruins match pulled 2,805,000. If the Leafs could have gone on any kind of a roll, four or even five million viewers were possibilities. CBC may be running out of next year's for that to happen.

CFC Salute: Missing Woodstock, scoring SNL and other Howard Shore stories

2013-05-10T11:33:00.000-04:00

Howard Shore keeps an eye on Richard Crouse at Thursdays CFC event

A packed house came out to hear Howard Shore Thursday night at the Bell Lightbox and he didn't even play a note. The Canadian Film Centre hosted an evening with the three-time Academy Award-winning composer. Shore is a Toronto lad made good, scoring over 90 feature films and working over and over again with acclaimed directors such as Martin Scorsese, Peter Jackson and his old Toronto neighbourhood pal David Cronenberg.
Host Richard Crouse guided Shore through highlights of his career mixed with clips from Crash, Hugo and The Lord of the Rings. It was interesting to hear how Shore recorded the entire score for The Brood in just seven hours, including an hour of overtime. He also revealed how Scorsese builds a film as he goes along, constantly screening his work in progress to stay on top of the work as a whole.
Shore says he "sees" music as much as hears it and can compose whole scores on sheet music without every picking up an instrument. His favourite note? "I'm very happy with D-flat," he says.
I was most interested in Shore's early TV work. The 66-year-old was a member of the rock-jazz ensemble Lighthouse from 1969 - 72 and he used that group as the house band on several CBC assignments, including the 1970-71 comedy/variety series The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour. That was Lorne Michaels' and Hart Pomerantz' short-lived but formative CBC series before Michaels went on to create Saturday Night Live, bringing Shore along with him to lead the original house band and compose the theme for the series. Shore also snuck into a few early sketches, dressing as a bee keeper for one memorable John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd bit.

Shore confirmed that he still gets a residual cheque for the SNL theme. (He also co-wrote the original theme for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.) The SNL signature music grew out of the woodwind player's fascination with the Memphis Staxx records sound. He cited Junior Walker and the All-Stars as his inspiration for the soaring tenor sax solo behind a theme that still sounds contemporary 38 years later.
It is also, he confessed almost the exact same theme he wrote for the earlier Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour.
He also confirmed the story that Lighthouse was invited to Woodstock in 1969 but the gig only offered $1200. The band's manager at the time booked them instead into a high school in New Jersey that paid $1400. "We saw it on TV like everybody else," he says of the missed Woodstock experience. Nonetheless, things seem to be working out for the Toronto kid.

Who's that girl? It's Jess...and Nick? In bed??

2013-05-07T17:21:00.000-04:00

One thing I like about New Girl is the show isn't afraid to just boldly go there. Case in point was last week's episode, where Jess (Zooey DesChanel) and Nick (Jake Johnson) finally "do it."
Often, on a romantic sitcom, that equals Jump The Shark time. Shouldn't they have held out until Season Five? Where does this show go from here?
We find out tonight during "Winston's Birthday" (Fox and City, 9 p.m. ET).
Rob Reiner guests as Zooey's dad, who comes to visit at the worst possible time. Meathead should do more television, he's a terrific actor. Dear old' dad and Nick bond, but eventually Nick opens his big mouth just like we know he will and trouble ensues.
Plenty else is crammed into these 22 minutes on the screener sent to critics. Cece (Hannah Simone) has an emergency right before her wedding. Schmidt (Max Greenfield) finds his old girlfriend Elizabeth (Merritt Wever) is still under his skin. Winston (Lamorne Morris) is not feelin' it on his birthday, allowing Morris to channel his inner Eddie Murphy.
Mary Lyn Rajskub (24) guests as a teacher who provides an opportunity for Jess; Curtis Armstrong (The Closer) plays a creepy principal.
We've seen this New Girl formula before: create a perfect sitcom storm where three or five crises have to be resolved at once. By the time this show gets to the roof, however, the lesson is that life is messy, sometimes all-over-your-face messy, but maybe the messy parts really are the best parts. Sounds corny, plays sweet.

Last week's podcast: CBC, Leafs need wins

2013-05-07T09:51:00.000-04:00

There was a lot to discuss when CHML's Scott Thompson called last week. We yakked a bit about the Canadian network buyers getting ready to head south to drop another $700 million or so. We got caught up on Kirstine Stewart's surprise announcement that she was ditching CBC to go work for Twitter. How do you make sense of that segue, Scott asks. I point out, based on all the producers, writers and showrunners I follow, that Twitter does seem to be the perfect driver for TV nerds.
There was that matter of the Harper government's sneaky move to limit labour costs--and perhaps exert some creative control--at CBC. I do my best to assure Scott that this doesn't mean Stephen Harper will now become a regular on Murdoch Mysteries.
We also touch on the CRTC hearings in Gatineaux, which have moved on to scrutiny of the new Bell-Astral proposal. Scott then asks what the Leafs being in the playoffs means to networks carrying the games. Saturday's Leafs-Bruins Game Two tilt drew 3,243,000 viewers in the overnight estimates, so you know CBC will be cheering on Toronto.
This is a long interview, over 12 minutes, you can listen in here and, for part two, here.

Greg Quill: 1947 - 2013

2013-05-06T09:36:00.000-04:00

Lucas Oleniuk/TORONTO STAR

I've met critics who think they are rock stars, but only one I knew really was.
Greg Quill died suddenly on Sunday at his home in Hamilton, Ont. He was 66.
He had recently been diagnosed with sleep apnea and apparently died from complications due to pneumonia.
Quill covered a variety of beats at the Toronto Star, all of them well, including television. I met him 20-odd years ago on Television Critics Association press tours in Los Angeles. He was a big, mountain of a man, an imposing presence in any room, but a good guy and quite cordial up close. He was a very good writer who brought you to the essence of the subject at hand and took you there in a sparse yet colourful, original way.
Prior to his journalism career, Quill was a noted rock and folk musician who was a household name in his native Australia. He performed with the band Country Radio, sharing stages in the '70s with Elton John and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Later he played with Southern Cross.
He looked more like a rocker or even a bouncer than a critic, which always gave comfort to the rest of us.
There's a tribute to Quill in Monday's Toronto Star, you can read that here. Condolences to his wife, Ellen Davidson, and family.

CRTC and the Starlight Vocal (opposition) Band

2013-05-03T11:40:00.000-04:00

Starlight's Big 3 Paul Gross, David Cronenberg and Robert Lantos

Looking for some crackling good reading on the future of Canadian television? You could do worse than to peruse the transcripts coming out of Gatineaux from the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission hearings into mandatory distribution.

One overall impression that stands out: this is indeed a new and improved, consumer-first CRTC.

Among the applicants earlier this week were the big names behind Starlight, a proposed channel offering Canadian feature films. The Sun News guys came knocking the week before.

Now, the chairman of the CRTC, Jean-Pierre Blais, has been pretty upfront throughout these hearings. He's basically saying, yeah, let's have a hearing, but listen up: mandatory distribution is unlikely to be granted and only if your proposed service meets a real and exceptional need and that need is something already spelled out in the broadcast act.

The folks at Starlight argued that their all-Canadian movie deal fits the criteria, offering Canadians a handy, one-stop gateway to Canadian films. A flag-waver of an idea, but Starlight faces the same practical push back all these applicants are up against: Canadians--no matter how worthy the cultural cause--don't want to pay a penny more than they are now paying for cable.

Other reasons to say no came up, as one would expect, during the intervention side of the hearing. That's where everybody else who already has a stake in the Canadian TV racket stands up and says, "F-U Henry, out of my sandbox!"

While it is cathartic fun to characterize these proceedings as a schoolyard tussle, points made by Shaw--and the CRTC responses to them--were remarkably practical and forward-thinking, two things not always associated with past CRTC hearings.

On the Sun News front, Shaw/Global EVP Barbara Williams suggests that if Sun wants to take their news service to market and commercially negotiate their way into wider distribution--as they did with Shaw--more power to them. What Williams questions "is the need for them to be somehow protected and subsidized when their big idea didn't maybe quite pan out the way they intended it to."

God bless Barb. Always practical and straight to the point.

Williams goes even further in dismissing the Sun's CRTC pitch:

I think the frustration is to think that somehow a particular point of view, when it didn't turn out to resonate as well with customers as in with Canadians as they might have thought, that the result then is, well, somebody maybe pay me to do it because I couldn't figure out how to do it myself.

As for Starlight, Williams and the CRTC panel wonder out loud if this idea to show all Canadian films all the time on one channel isn't better served to consumers in today's on-demand way. Commissioner Steve Simpson raised the point, stating that the CRTC has a preoccupation not just with adding Canadian content channels, but with making sire Canadian content is found. "It's been my impression from talking to programmers that getting on the train is one thing. Finding the right seat is another."

Sun News also sent a negotiating team to the hearings

In other words, is it on the right tier--or even the right platform?
Shaw SVP Operations Jay Mehr was quick to embrace that logic. "What we like about the discussion," he said, "is instead of being anchored and forcing economic models on Canadians, it's anchored in consumer experience."
Unfortunately for Starlight, consumer experience does not tilt their way. Canadian films are a tough sell, even to Canadians. They argue it's because the home audience can't find these films, crowded out of cinemas by the flood of Hollywood fare. On Starlight they can find all the great Canadian stories, all in one place. The commission seems to be wondering out loud if this might not be just another channel consumers will skip past on their way to AMC or TSN--or other pre-existing movie channel services such as The Movie Network/Movie Central or, more affordable choices such as Hollywood Suite or Netflix.
Or Video on Demand services. As Simpson opined, "a Canadian VOD service is something that solves a lot of problems."
Although, right now, the CRTC only demands a 5% for English and 8% for French Canadian feature film quote on existing on-demand services. Films like "Goon" or "Take This Waltz" get lost among all the Hollywood blockbuster releases.
So Williams, who knows a bit about the tough business of television, stepped up and asked, "is there an opportunity to build a unique VOD Canadian film service?"
That would make more sense than the current Starlight proposal, she suggested. Given the challenge of getting Canadians to actually watch Canadian films, isn't there a "smarter, better, more forward-looking way to address the issue?"

...I think it's a very old fashioned way to assume that the only way we're going to get any attention is to put it all in one linear service and force that linear service into a home and think by some, you know, great act of God, therefore, people are going to turn it on and suddenly watch Monday nights to find the Quebec films and Wednesday night to find the whatever. I mean that frankly is, from my point of view, a very old fashioned approach to curating content and encouraging Canadians to find it.

Williams echoed the commission's earlier musings that "this is not about not respecting the value and the quality of Canadian film.

It's there and it's substantial and we, as a country, need to think about if, in fact, we have an issue there and what the right way is to approach it. But I think to look backwards and say we're just going to hammer it into an old fashioned linear service and, you know, collect it all in one spot and force it into someone's home and that will solve the problem, I think really misses the point.

There are other issues with the Starlight application, many addressed here in this article by Jesse Brown in Maclean's.

Walter White, brick by brick

2013-05-02T17:53:00.001-04:00

Man, Lego has come a long way. Just spotted this on a Facebook post. (Thank you, Caroline Godin.) The makers of these TV shows must see these skillfully-animated viral videos (this one attributed to Brian Anderson) much the same way series creators and producers in the '60s and '70s saw those great Mad magazine parodies--as the highest compliment.

Space hitting the Panic Button

2013-04-30T10:11:00.000-04:00

Vanessa: just heard Kirstine Stewart left CBC for Twitter

Tuesday night at 10 p.m. on Space, it's time to hit the Panic Button.
This creepy new, shot-in-Toronto series turns those messed up Saw movies into a reality show.
I had a tour of the set last year and couldn'r believe people would line up to put themselves through such torture--without some sort of prize money at the other end for their troubles.
Executive producers Jonathan Dueck and Kevin Healey are the twisted minds behind this project. Even they called it things like "a Rubix Cube of horror," while leading reporters through their nasty science experiment.
"Nothing beats the darkness," said Dueck, explaining how much of the fright is all about the power of suggestion.
Some of it is more obvious, especially when snakes, rats, spiders and other crap is dropping from above onto your head and shoulders. There are elements of other movies in the series, especially J-Lo's "The Cell."
Players signed a bible-sized disclaimer before embarking on the maze, which has five stages. Five participants will be shown each episode. Some actually make it all the way to the end.
They have to give up all mobile devises and put on a red airline jump suit. It should really be brown.

You never know what you'll encounter on Panic Button

"As soon as we take away their cell phones they lose half their personality," says Healey.
This is plenty of swearing. "The bleep budget is off the charts," says Dueck.
Lydia, a martial arts instructor, hummed "I will Survive," as she coped with her ordeal.
Will people watch? Hey, people love watching other people being tortured and humiliated in television. It's what makes politics such fascinating sport these days.
Read my full, Canadian Press report on the series here.

Kirstine Stewart: Tweet her like a lady

2013-04-29T15:20:00.000-04:00

Stewart's curse was that she looked like she could headline a CBC drama

Being the top programming executive of the CBC is a little like being captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. You spend most of your time defending, get jeered even when you score and are a target every time you take to the ice. When you win, you are expected to be humble and when you lose, it is all your fault.
The announcement Monday that Kirstine Stewart was resigning immediately to take a top job with Twitter Inc., therefore, should not have been such a big surprise. The public network post is a tough, grinding job. Seven years at CBC's corner programming office is a killer. Stewart's predecessor, Slawko Klymkiw, somehow lasted a decade.
Monday's announcement by CBC president Hubert Lacroix paid tribute to her talent and her fortitude:

Kirstine really understands the role of the public broadcaster and has been a fierce proponent of its distinctive place. She has been instrumental in establishing CBC as a modern public broadcaster and I want to thank her for all she has done to put us in a place of strength from which to renew ourselves. For me, the achievement that stands-out most in her seven years with CBC/Radio-Canada, is the programming team we now have in place at CBC Television and the schedule they have managed to put on air, despite some tough financial times.

TV's not an exact science and, like every programmer, Stewart made mistakes. She stuck way too long with favourite children such as Being Erica and Little Mosque. Some initiatives, such as a campaign to get Canadians to eat right, seemed like elitist distractions. Dragon's Den grew to be an enormous hit--and Stewart was in on acquiring that format--but that other big reality show franchise eluded her. Efforts such as Cover Me Canada, Over the Rainbow and the show where Debbie Travis yelled at kids all seemed four years too late.

Hits and misses are the legacy of every network programmer and Stewart had her wins. The most savvy move may well be picking City's pocket on Murdoch Mysteries, a six-year-old series which has doubled and tripled its audience on CBC. Stewart has also won respect in the production community for honoring promises in tough times, re-ordering shows such as Steven & Chris and Battle of the Blades after resting both for the one season she said she would.

During her tenure, some of CBC's oldest offerings, including Marketplace and The Nature of Things, have grown their audiences on tough nights and against stiff competition.

There was plenty of grumbling about how the News division had been tarted up and lost its gravitas under Stewart's stewardship but, really, look around the dial and show me where Walter Cronkite still lives.

More damaging will be loses on the sports side, despite CBC's upcoming slate of big events such as the next Olympic Games and the Pan Am coverage. CBC seemed helpless while CTV and Rogers picked CBC's sports pockets, poaching talent before and behind the cameras and locking up Grey Cups and international coverage. With TV Anytime and on-demand largely driven by live sports and big reality show operas, falling behind on those fronts will be a big challenge for Stewart's successor. That person will have the Herculean task of somehow holding onto Hockey Night in Canada.

For now, that appears to be Neil McEneaney, a Brit brought into the CBC exec mix two years ago. For those who see a return to the same Old Boys club, Stewart also surrounded herself with several top female programming execs, including Julie Bristow, Grazyna Krupa, Jennifer Dettman, Christine Wilson and others. Lacroix's note suggests a recruitment process is on-going.

Gender always seemed more of an issue than it should be under Stewart's watch. In an era when top female programming executives dominated south of the border and are players in Canada, there are still "Blondie goes digital" comments over Stewart's move today. Perhaps some of this is lingering resentment over the tilt towards so-called "women's programming" at CBC, where lifestyles programming such as Best Recipies Ever seem to betray Stewart's specialty roots.

Then again, people used to complain that Stephen "knock this battery off my shoulder" MacPherson was turning ABC into a chick network. CBC's schedule today does not look any girly-er than Global's or CTV's.

I always admired how Stewart stood her ground at events such as last summer's TVB TV Day gathering. The lone woman among the men at that TV heads panel, she also seemed the only voice speaking out for Canadian content. She was just as happy to point to Bomb Girls or Saving Hope as examples that Canadians watch Canadian shows as her own network offerings.

She stood her ground on a day when Ottawa whacked hundreds of millions from CBC's annual appropriation. I can't even pretend to comprehend the pressures on the political side of Stewart's job.

From a press point of view, Stewart was one of Canada's most accessible TV programmers, always reachable via email or, yes, twitter. She was very proactive and responsive on social media, ahead of the curve. While following her on Twitter will be a tweet, the annual CBC upfronts will seem a little less electric and glamorous without her.

NOTE: This story has been corrected to reflect that Stewart was very much involved in bringing Dragon's Den to CBC.

WHCD: Everybody wants to get in on the act

2013-04-29T11:40:00.000-04:00

The above video, if you haven't already seen it, is from Saturday's White House Correspondent's Dinner. It is funny, and at the same time a bit surprising and disorienting in that it basically wrangles the President of the United States into a sketch, not unlike how Saturday Night Live might drop Alec Baldwin or Justin Timberlake into an unbilled cameo.
I can't quite let go of my old school tendencies on this one, however. I remember back in high school doing a play and the drama teacher himself took a lead role in the production. The lesson was you don't play with the folks further down on the food chain--it just devalues your brand. We didn't call it that then, however it was more like, "Geez, what a Lame-O."
Conan O'Brien hosted the event and tackled it like he was shot out of a cannon. His rat-tat-tat joke approach was, somewhat ironically, as if somebody poured six Jolt Colas into Jay Leno. Some funny lines though, check him out here.
Among my favourites: "If any of you are live tweeting this event, please use the hashtag, #incapableoflivinginthemoment." There were big shots against Mitt Romney, the NRA, the Huffington Post, Fox News, CNN ("They replaced Larry King with one of the scheming footmen from Downton Abby"), PBS, NPR, print media in general ("The print media are here for two very important reasons: food and shelter.") and Bill O'Reilly. His analogy that the mostly media audience was not unlike a high school cafeteria ("NPR are like the kids with peanut allergies") was hilarious.
Interesting to compare O'Brien's more restrained, respectful approach 18 years earlier at the same event and the set he performed Saturday. In less than a generation, this thing has gone from a hot ticket to a cool, exclusive, command performance to the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner.

Levine: Don Draper "television's biggest prick"

2013-04-24T18:46:00.000-04:00

Second in a series of Mad Men character sketches by my
daughter Katie--collect them all

A friend--let's call her the Media Mistress of Mill Street--suggested recently that it was time to warm up Don Draper's jet ski: Mad Men had jumped the shark.
Sacrilege, I thought. This is a show I'd watch in German or Mandarin Chinese if just for the look and feel and mood. Yes, Draper's an unpardonable cad, sneaking around on his doll of a wife with his new doctor pal's woman a few floors up. The guy is brilliant but damaged, doesn't know who he is or what he wants--what's your point?
Her point was that he has become such a dick she doesn't care a hoot about him or his show anymore. "Call me," she said, "when Roger gets his own show."
Nonsense, I said to myself. Creator and showrunner Matthew Weiner, he's building up to something BIG. Draper's gonna get his comeuppance, and its going to be as explosive as the end of the '60s. It's all building up to something that will make the black out at the end of The Sopranos look like a rerun of The Mentalist.
Then I read this brilliant post by Ken Levine.
Levine is a comedy writer who has worked on some of TV's finest sitcoms, including Cheers, Frasier, The Simpsons and Everybody Loves Raymond. He's created his own shows (Almost Perfect), written movies and just to make you hate him even more, has been a play-by-play announcer for three major league teams, the Orioles, Mariners and Padres. He is hilarious in person, killing during a TCA Awards appearance a few years ago while accepting a heritage salute for Cheers. The guy is to comedy and creativity what Don Draper is to philandering.
He says Mad Men has lost its mojo, and he makes a damn good case.
Levine comes from a place of awe and respect. He's such a fan of the series, he writes, that after the first few seasons, he "almost took up smoking."
It is bugging him, however, that Draper has turned into "television's biggest prick." He worries that Weiner "has stopped loving his characters." Everybody on the show now seems irredeemable, he says.
I'm not ready to miss a minute of this series yet, but I see Levine's point. Read his full blog post here.

CRTCpalooza '13: charging for the Sun, etc.

2013-04-24T11:14:00.002-04:00

This week through May 2 in Gatineau, Que., the CRTC is hearing from a steady stream of ~~hucksters~~ folks looking to get mandatory carriage for their TV stations. If you are a shut in or, worse, a TV critic, you can watch it all unfold on CPAC--provided you have a strong stomach.

Mandatory carriage means a channel must be included in every basic cable or satellite package across Canada. It's a lottery win for those channels, guaranteeing revenues directly from a large number of subscribers every month.

One such bid is from alleged news channel Sun News Network. They presented their arguments Tuesday. They're asking for 18 cents a month to help offset the $17 million they lost in 2012. CBC News Network and CTV News Channel get the free ride at an even higher rate now, they argue; they deserve it too.
Not exactly true. As my media observer pal, Deep Note, just pointed out to me, CBC News Network and in fact all the current Canadian news channels are Category C channels and do not get a free ride.

In any case, consumers are already pretty fed up with paying for shitty channels they don't watch. Rogers recently sent me a letter saying, among other things, they were bouncing Spike TV--grandfathered into Canada 30 years ago as TNN--the hell off their cozy extended basic perch and giving the preferred spot to AMC. Hello Mad Men, The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad, goodbye more reruns of CSI. Smart move, Rogers.

Sun News pundit Ezra Levant

Sun News' right wing pundits have regularly attacked CBC for taking taxpayer money. One since-departed on-air individual infamously ambushed an artist for being on the public teat. They say they stand for free market values but now want this government agency to allow them in on the captive cash flow.

This is known in the industry as sucking and blowing at the same time.

These guys originally tried to trick and bully their way onto the must carry tier. For many months, they squatted on the old Toronto1 channel 15 slot in Ontario, as free and accessible as CBC, CTV, Global or City. They had an unique opportunity to establish a beach head, to prove the public enjoyed their content and that that there was a market for this alternative news voice.

Ratings, however, were and remain dismal. In free market terms, despite sneaking into a cool spot in the mall for months, they introduced a product and it didn't sell.
Let's be specific. On Tuesday, April 16, the day after the Boston bombings, Sun News drew an overnight, estimated 9,000 viewers across Canada at 9 p.m., one thousand of them in the A25 - 54 demo. CBCNN scored 225,000 the same hour, 55,000 in the demo. SUN News' suggestion Tuesday that if they could raise their penetration (see Viagra joke, below) across Canada from 40% to 80% they could outdraw CBCNN, is HILARIOUS.

Hour after hour, the SUN News score in the category advertisers care about, the A18-49 demo, fails to register even one thousand viewers across Canada. There are more young adults right now at your neighbourhood Arbys.

So, after a tough year or so in the TV racket and with losses piling up, they want the CRTC to force consumers to fix their business model. They want a bail out.

Their favourite target, CBC, has been funded for years, they argued Tuesday, and that's an unfair advantage. It's a bit like saying the Canadian senate should be abolished, so appoint us.

Trouble is, everybody else wants in, too, Many applicants are asking the same thing of the CRTC over the next few weeks. Mandatory carriage is seen as Viagra for for channels that can't get it up the old fashioned way. Sun News should be so lucky just to get Viagra ads.

Don't point that thing at me, say Rogers, Bell and other providers. Why help a competitor who has agitated against your own expansion plans in the past--like peppery Sun News parent company Quebecor. Consumers are this close to the mad-as-hell, not going to take it anymore point of throwing their digital boxes out the nearest open window. Monthly cable bills already higher than bills for heat and electricity have consumers taking hard looks or even switching to Netflix and streaming options. Why pay a cable bill and an Internet bill? Doesn't Barry Diller have a box I can buy now that will take me to a la carte, commercial free viewing heaven?

Like Sun News, viewers also want a free ride, something for nothing. They don't want to pay for your plan, they can barely pay for their plan.

If the CRTC does grant four or five of these mandatory carriage requests, and cable bills go up five bucks or more a month, the wheels may fall off this carriage.

Wednesday, another applicant before the CRTC is EqualiTV. These folks want to launch a brand new network they claim would be the world's first broadcast television channel by, for and about all people with disabilities.

Board member and senior producer Jay Stoyan--who has overcome challenges to host his own little late night talk show in the Toronto area the past few years--says the channel will offer everything from scripted dramas to news. Media training to people with disabilities will be provided, he says. The channel will also sponsor research into the development of devices that will help people with varying degrees of disabilities to watch and enjoy television.

It's an ambitious venture and the folks behind it will have to convince the CRTC that they can provide enough content to launch it properly and then sustain it--the true test for any of these enterprises. EqauliTV says their business plan is there and that people with disabilities represent $25 billion in spending power.

The CRTC has a tough job sorting all this out. From here, however, some causes already seem more worthy than others.

Writers salute their own at WGC Awards

2013-04-24T00:40:00.000-04:00

Late getting this up (I hate when that happens), but congratulations to all the winners at the 17th Annual Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Awards held Monday night at the UNIUN Nightclub in Toronto.

Screenwriters Andrew Wreggitt (The Phantoms), Martin Gero (L.A. Complex), Kim Coghill (Less Than Kind), Dan Williams & Lienne Sawatsky (the animated series Sidekick), John May and Suzanne Bolch (How to be Indie) and Julie Strassman-Cohn & Jill Golick (Ruby Skye PI) carried off some of the top prizes.

Interesting how some shows and TV-movies that were honoured for their writing, including CBC's Phantoms and MuchMusic's L.A. Complex, left critics divided when they aired last year. I rather liked both those projects, although neither found a large audience--less of a consideration for a gathering of these peers.

The co-creators of Flashpoint, Mark Ellis & Stephanie Morgenstern, were deserving winners of the WGC Showrunner Award.

Ryan Belleville (Almost Heroes and soon to be seen in CTV's upcoming comedy Satisfaction) hosted the event. Bob Kerr (22 Minutes) supplied the quips. Presenters included Yannick Bisson (Murdoch Mysteries), Sergio Di Zio (Flashpoint), Erica Durance (Saving Hope), Susin Nielsen (Arctic Air), Dave Lawrence (Fubar) and Ken Craw (Heartland).

Bombs away as Global calls halt to war effort

2013-04-23T17:44:00.000-04:00

It is curious how bad news gets delivered in this country.
Shaw/Global sent out a release Monday that made it sound like a good thing that the only Canadian-produced drama they currently have on the main network--Bomb Girls--had been axed.
"We are pleased to share," reads their release, "that we will be creating a Bomb Girls two hour TV movie event to premiere winter 2014 which will conclude the rich storylines and the amazing journeys of these beloved characters which have strongly resonated with the show's loyal fans."

Translation: congratulations! You've been cancelled!

Word of the bombshell announcement was quickly reported in the U.S. and Canada. The series seemed to be doing well, with a recent appearance by guest star Rosie O'Donnell drawing some hype.
A closer look at the ratings, however, indicates Global had reason to believe that the second-year series was already trending down.
Moved to Mondays this season, it drew an overnight, estimated 605,000 viewers April 15, finishing fourth in its timeslot behind The Following on CTV (1,339,000), Murdoch Mysteries on CBC (1,099,000) and 2 Broke Girls on City (1,036,000). The series also finished fourth in the A25-54 demo, closer to Murdoch but well behind timeslot front runner 2 Broke Girls.
Having their Canadian drama beat our Canadian drama probably didn't help. With so few original scripted Canadian series on Canadian television, its a shame they had to be head-to-head.
What hurt Bomb Girls more was not being able to hold a hefty lead-in audience. The same night, hammocked between Bones (1,541,000) and Hawaii Five-0 (1,252,000), Bomb Girls simply shed too many viewers.

Had the series not been off the air so long between seasons--11 months--things might be different. Season One was a success, drawing close to and sometimes above a million viewers a week. A lot of momentum was lost, but with Bomb Girls originally envisioned as a miniseries, there was little the network could do while production ramped back up unexpectedly for a second season.
Another problem I think was marketing. FX and other U.S. cable networks spend a fortune getting the word out on a series and selling a show with the right poster or image is often seen as a key ingredient. Look at FX's approach with The Americans, set in 1981, towards the end of the Cold War (above right). A picture says a thousand words and the Soviet era poster hits you like a hammer and sickle, getting across that this show deals with Ruskies in America in a smart and provocative way.
The art for Bomb Girls, for me, never really exploited the iconic, Rosie the Riveter, WWII propaganda poster opportunities the series presented. Instead the images of the four lead women, some saluting, some looking forward, looked like four random "outs" that fell on the floor and were hastily assembled into the show's key art message. Was it a comedy? A show about sullen, desperate housewives? Where was the war? Why does one woman have a hubcap on her head? It was a mixed message misfire.
The sudden demise of the series unfortunately reinforces the commonly held industry perception that nothing is a sure thing in Canadian television and today's hit could be tomorrow's flop. Two of the most chilling words in Canadian television: Combat Hospital.

As there always is, there is a movement to save Bomb Girls with Facebook fan groups already posting petitions and asking folks to lobby Global executives for more seasons (see above). The series has developed a fan following in other countries on ITV, Reelz and Netflix.
TV has never been more of a bottom line business, however, and unless two million Canadians tune in for Monday's season and, aside from the movie, series finale, consider Bomb Girls detonated.

Hey Girls--could Murdoch point the way?

Unless...and this is pure speculation, but didn't CBC just rescue another rival network series with astonishing success? Could the Murdoch miracle happen twice? Global's 2014 TV-movie order may be more of a curse than a blessing in terms of traveling this show to another Canadian network. CBC, on the other hand, has no new series offerings on its 2013-14 schedule. Bombs Girls, starring Canada's recent Best Dramatic Actress "Screenie" Awards winner, Meg Tilly, would give the public broadcaster something new to promote.
CBC head Kirstine Stewart often referred to the Girls at industry gatherings (and on Twitter) as proof Canadians will watch Canadian TV. Global-CBC relations have been competitive and edgy in recent years, but both could look like winners if a way could be found to give a Canadian series with a vocal fan base a new lease on life.

Rita MacNeil's passing part of a tough week at the Trailer Park

2013-04-22T16:48:00.000-04:00

April has been a cruel month. So many departures it is hard to keep up.
Rita MacNeil, the pride of Cape Breton, charmed millions with her musical TV specials in the '80s and '90s. Shy and humble, she touched many who saw in her somebody they knew and loved and could relate to. Canadian singing superstars are more packaged and marketed as TV Idols these days, but MacNeil was from a kinder, gentler time. She impressed you with her talent first and her warmth a close second. She died April 16 and was 68.
MacNeil was one of three Canadians who had an association with one TV show--Trailer Park Boys--to pass away in recent weeks. They've all died, in fact, since production began a month ago on the third Trailer Park movie.
As Motorweek cinematographer Danny Bailey reminded me last week, MacNeil played herself in the Season Four finale, "Working Man." In the episode, MacNeil and her backup singers were forced to harvest marijuana at gunpoint by Ricky, Julian and Bubbles.
MacNeil must have had some sense of humour. Her character never complains, and even sweetly informs Ricky, "Here's a nice one, dear," when handing him yet another dope plant.

Brian Huggins, a.k.a. "Shitty" Bill

Gotta love the gal for that. CBC live streamed her memorial celebrations Monday in her hometown of Big Pond, Nova Scotia. You can watch it here. That teapot in front of the alter? Contains Rita's ashes. That special down home touch, right to the end.
Speaking of Trailer Park Boys, Brian Huggins, a career journalist who worked in both his native England as well as in Canada, didn't start acting until after he had retired. He died March 29 at 81.
After showing up as a background player in dozens of productions, Huggins played "Shitty" Bill, the scrap dealer who helped Bubbles wrangle all those shopping carts. Bubbles mentioned how the character was offended by his own nickname. In the next scene, Bubbles refers to him simply as "Shitty," suggesting it was the "Bill" part that bugged him.

Richard Collins

Richard Collins, who played "Phil" Collins (short for Philadelphia), has also gone to the Dirty Burger in the sky. A belcher without peer, he was working on the 3rd Trailer Park movie when he died April 15. Not much else is known about his passing; the Newfoundland native "wanted to go quietly," tweeted director Mike Clattenburg. Check out the best of Phil Collins here, it is freakin' hilarious.
A character who was never on Trailer Park Boys, but would have fit right in as some sort of American cousin, was Terry Morrow. He died April 16 after a brave fight against pancreatic cancer.

Terry Morrow and his Tennessee squeeze, Dolly Parton

The 52-year-old Tennessee native covered the TV beat for the Knoxville News Sentinel and was a regular at Television Critics Association press tours the past decade or so. Terry had the drawl and a dry sense of humour to match. He was always up for some sort of TCA caper. A sweet guy, he formed real attachments to some of the celebrities he interviewed, especially
local heroes Dolly Parton and P.J. Clapp, a.k.a. Johnny Knoxville.
“Terry Morrow was my favorite reporter," Parton told the News Sentinel Tuesday. "He had kept up with me and Dollywood for nearly 30 years. He had a great heart and the courage of a warrior. He handled his last battle like he did his reporting -- with all his might. I loved Terry and I believed he loved me.”
Morrow had missed a few tours due to poor health but battled back to make it as a presenter at a recent TCA Awards. He came on stage to a smattering of applause. "Thanks, but I expected more of a fuss," he said at the time.
He deserved it, too, but the room had already changed pretty drastically by then, with many colleagues already off a disappearing beat.
Terry was friendly and good-natured and determined to keep doing what he loved for as long as he could. He was an inspiration to those of us who knew him. He'll be missed.

Buble and Regina rocks 2013 Junos dazzler

2013-04-21T23:02:00.000-04:00

Buble knows how to play to a big room

I was worried The Junos may have gotten off on the wrong note Sunday night when Leonard Cohen was named songwriter of the year. What year was this--1968?
But, really, what do I know about music. As for television, well, the more I watched, the more impressed I was with CTV's 2013 Juno Awards.
It looked fantastic, it sounded great, and it never lagged. It had "moments," especially k.d.lang's rousing, patriotic and uplifting sermon--with Anne Murray looking on--on that centre ice stage. Later, Marianas Trench brought a nice circus touch with their lead singer dangling from the rafters.
Speaking of which, Regina's Brandt Centre really works for The Junos. You get a sense that the audience is seeing a cool show and that there's not a bad seat in the house.
Technically, lighting and shooting that glitter-y, see-through platform had to be a challenge, but you'd never know it. Performers and presenters worked fully in the round and that kept things from getting stale and also made viewers at home feel they had the best seats.
Impressive, too, was the flow of the two-hour broadcast. You expect clunkers in live shows, but everything seemed to go right Sunday. This had the up-close, street-level immediacy of the best of the MuchMusic Video Awards, with all the you-are-there elements, combined with slick performance coverage. Hats off to John Brunton's Insight Productions for a job well done.

Regina loves The Sheepdogs. CARAS/iPhoto

Throughout the evening there was so much diversity on view. The show swung effortlessly from arena rock (Billy Talent, Marianas Trench, Metric) to intimate lounge act (k.d. lang). And these band names: Monster Truck, the Sheepdogs...only in Canada.
Michael Buble rose to the occasion as host, carrying the quips off as well as the vocals. He came to play, effortlessly vocalizing while trekking from backstage to mid-arena, clowning around on skates, wandering into the audience for a sweet and low-key sing-a-long at the end. The opening taped bit with Russell Peters, Kelly Ripa and Dr. Phil was okay but unnecessary--Buble didn't need the borrowed star power.
Even the bright Junos graphics were grabby. You always knew who was presenting, what was coming up, who won earlier.
The damn show even ended on time.
The quick salute to Rita MacNeil could have included a clip of her voice, and the sticky envelopes need to open a little easier (Cohen's son Adam had to shred his on stage just to read his dad's name). Those are quibbles. The Grammys could take a lesson on how to be start-to-finish entertaining from these 2013 Juno Awards.

Call Me Leggy: Carly Rae Jepsen and her gal pals in their short shorts