This is the story of two Canadian businesses and how they changed over time. One got very big and one didn’t. It isn’t some MBA thesis. It’s just my recollection of the events. But it’s offered as something to consider with regard to what it tells us about the people in those businesses and which of them you think best represents what this country should maybe emulate and be about. IN THE BEGINNING: I grew up in South Western Saskatchewan in the 1950’s. The first time I saw television ... Read Full Story
Dress up anything you want as “The Right Thing To Do”. Champion the most Just cause you can find, one that is only about being fair and treating people with the simple decency they deserve and others already enjoy. Then put any one of those up against money and power. And money and power will always win. Oh, you’ll be told it will all get better “someday” or “when the world is ready”. But those are money and power lies. Change only comes when enough people say “Enough” and make those with m... Read Full Story
This Sunday, I’m being lazier than usual. Part of that’s procrastination. This is the day I clean out the garage so there’s somewhere to park the car come winter. Where does all this crap come from? Where the hell is it supposed to go? So, in lingering over a second cup of coffee, I listened to CBC Sunday Edition instead and heard a reprise of one of their old shows. (Guess somebody’s being lazy over there too). But their repeated program had a special meaning for me, because of the reacti... Read Full Story
So, it’s Saturday and I’m reading the morning paper – happy to be at the end of a week where it became clearer that not much is going to happen in the Canadian television business until this whole “carriage fees” issue gets settled and the Canadian Media Fund issues its new guidelines for funding programming here. So – like April. We’re basically in tread water mode until April. Oh, there’ll still be some stuff getting made. And we’ve now got no excuse for not working on that script we’ve ... Read Full Story
I’m sure the television business isn’t all that different from any other line of endeavor these days. Everybody’s just scrambling to keep up. This week the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation revamped its news services in an attempt to reach a wider audience, a younger audience, Hell, any audience. Our leading private network continued a process of trying to make itself the lead story and center of attention by embedding on camera personalities in the Olympic torch run. And the once har... Read Full Story
On the previous two occasions Canada has hosted the Olympics, I was thrilled by the prospect of the Games and filled with a mix of national pride and that “family of man” camaraderie the Olympic movement is supposed to symbolize. This time not so much. The official commencement of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games celebration was marked yesterday by the arrival of the Olympic torch in Victoria. Over the next 45 days the flame will be carried from one end of the country to the other (a... Read Full Story
Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper caused a frisson of outrage among the country’s chattering classes by stating that he didn’t watch Canadian television news. Many of these were the same people who had cheered vociferously when American President Barrack Obama declared that he didn’t watch the most popular newscast in his own country. Interesting comparison that, how one head of state is placing himself out of touch by not getting his news from the same sources as the majority... Read Full Story
When a screenwriter finishes a script, he doesn’t have to go to a lot of trouble making it presentable. # 5 Brads. 20 lb. Hammermill paper. Maybe a cardstock cover (I recommend “Proscript” – they come pre-punched). Some screenwriters, at the end of a series or later in their careers when they want to remind themselves that they actually had a career, will bind their produced scripts in leather with a gold imprint approximating the final product’s title font. The unproduced scripts stay in a d... Read Full Story
