Recently, Will Dixon wrote a perceptive piece on the show that most exemplifies recent Canadian television, "Train 48". In his post, Will focused on the Canadian network tradition of eschewing quality and entertainment value in favor of cheaply produced quota fulfillment. Ken Girotti followed up with his own musings on the subject, positing that the CRTC wanted more of the same and in their perfect world, we'd all be doing porn. Not 24 hours later, Denis McGrath broke the news that the... Read Full Story

I'm almost done with my latest hopscotching of North America. Phew! Ten days, both coasts, Nashville to set up a new pilot and visits to the Heartlands (North and South) in between. The summer's half gone and the only blockbuster I've seen was "The Dark Knight". Now, is it just me, or was that supposed to be a Batman movie? I mean, shouldn't a Batman movie have Batman in it as more than just transitional filler? Anyway, I've got some major movie catching up to do and that means perusing... Read Full Story

The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics arrived today toting enough moral ambiguity to fill a full season of "The Sopranos" with ethical dilemmas aplenty left over to service the needs of "Dexter" and "Mad Men" to boot. Human Rights abuses, Environmental Chaos, Censorship, Slave labor camps, Darfur, Tibet, Government corruption, Religious repression, Organ harvesting and Counterfeit goods, just to name a few... Juxtaposing those repugnant realities, we have the Olympic movement's professed... Read Full Story

It's impossible to create any dramatic work without becoming completely absorbed in the world you're imagining. The bulk of the writer's job is constructing and then adhering to the unique rules that must be followed in this fictional setting; thus building an internal logic that governs the people, places and things included in the script. On television series, there are also formulae and formats that further define the show's style and the flow of its stories and dictate how they are... Read Full Story

There's a report in today's Ottawa Citizen that 60% of the CRTC's staff are considering quitting their jobs. On top of that, one in seven feel the Commission is discriminating against them and has adversely affected their career progression and one in three claim there's nothing the CRTC could do to entice them to stay. My first reaction was, "Wow! The CRTC treats its staff as bad as it treats those of us working in the industries they regulate." My second reaction was more pro-active, "Hey... Read Full Story

If I have one bone to pick with Show Business, it's that so many of us get pre-occupied with it. We tend to forget that there's a far bigger world out there. And therefore, in order to achieve our goals, we try to reflect what's currently considered hip or cool in our work and strive to be perceived in a similar light. Sometimes our role models and mentors are not people of consumate character but those who have achieved the things we aspire to achieve ourselves. We follow their example and... Read Full Story

In this age of satellite radio and iPods, it's possible to completely control your personal soundtrack. Through these technologies and others, we can design playlists that get us from the morning alarm to our final lullabies without the intrusion of any tune that hasn't been pre-selected. And while that's all okay, I'm a big fan of being surprised, even ambushed by music I haven't heard before. And when I'm travelling, I also like to get a read on what the locals are liking by giving the... Read Full Story

Over the course of my life, I've been a member of three political parties. Growing up in Saskatchewan, my first allegiance was to the NDP (The Godless Socialists to you non-Canadian readers). It was part of that Churchillian thing of "If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart...". They also had the best keggers at University and by far the best looking female fellow travellers. Then I got caught up in Trudeau-mania in my 20's and joined that crowd for a while. It gave me the... Read Full Story

This weekend will no doubt be remembered in showbiz annals for the debut of "The Dark Knight" currently smashing pretty much every box office record imaginable. And just as doubtless, the "Batman" juggernaut will inspire another sequel and more studios turning more graphic novels and comic book heroes into films for next summer and beyond. It's likely to ignite a resurgence in noir heroes, enormously complicated villains and stories that reverberate with aspects of society that many people... Read Full Story

I drove across the country this week. It was a great five days. Gave me lots of time to think. Allowed me to catch some great Country stations I've never heard before as well as catch up with a few old friends (see Dixon). The time to think after an impossibly busy 3 months was much needed and I'll have a lot to say about what seems to be going on in the business and the world in the days to come. But three things in particular struck me as I drove: 1. We sure have a lot of trees. 2... Read Full Story