jDoyle aFarce

jDoyle on the now-finally-dead-and-buried Air Farce:

After 16 seasons, it’s all over.… I haven’t been a big Air Face fan in recent years.… I do admire the show’s longevity and uncanny ability to connect with viewers across Canada. I doubt if there’s a broadcaster on earth that would terminate a surefire hit in the way that CBC is letting Air Farce go. I suspect the situation surrounding the end of the show is

easily explained by the fact the show never was funny in any incarnation at any time, duplicates two other needless and unwanted news-parody shows on the network, and is a cherished favourite of aging senior citizens who need to be tossed off the lifeboat if we want anybody to survive the shipwreck.

Next he’ll be telling us nobody talks about Trailer Park Boys because it doesn’t reflect the glittering liberal Toronto elite that everyone in Canadian TV thinks they belong to. Oh, wait.

6 Comments

  • Dwight Williams says:

    Perhaps renegotiating for podcast rights ought to be considered, then.

  • Vancouver Guy says:

    I agree with Anonymous, the original Air Farce on radio was very well done. Funny You *Should* Sat That was also good. In more recent decades, Double Exposure was perhaps less biting, but very well written and presented.

    I wonder why the bean counters don’t bring out the audio archives for these old shows, test them as podcasts, then try to sell them as packages. I understand that perhaps the CBC purchased only limited broadcast rights, and so would have to renogiate. But these old shows are entertaining and bound to bring in some new fans and revenues.

    [Perhaps they will be consigned to late night “public radio exchange” fodder…]

  • Anonymous says:

    You youngsters don’t remember Farce on the wireless.
    On Radio it was funnier than Dr. Bundolo Medicine Show, and almost as good as Funny You Say That which had a Montreal tinge that TBC doesn’t understand.

    How will they make up the ad revenue now?

  • Fake Ouimet says:

    Indeed, Mark: Doyle’s aw-shucks common sense is completely wasted in this context. The show may draw viewers, but it still stank. Intelligence also drew viewers, for that matter.

  • Anonymous says:

    The CBC ended Air Farce to coincide with the end of English Television.
    Major layoffs to be announced this month. Happy New Year.

  • Mark Dowling says:

    hmmm… reading through Doyle’s column can’t really find anything to merit this level of bile – oh wait…

    “By the way, as old-fashioned as Air Farce might be, I’d take its political humour over the vapid, forced irony of George Stroumboulopoulos any day of the week.”

    That’ll be it then.

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