Is CBC TV Helping Or Hurting Canada?

Guessing that when the government of Canada gives you a billion dollars a year to produce Canadian shows, that would be considered helping Canada.
But when the CBC insults Canadian actors and deprives them of an opportunity at employment and success, that might be considered hurting Canada.

Last Saturday morning, The Globe partially let the cat out of the bag by announcing that Republic of Doyle had been given funding approval for what looks like a sure-fire hit.
But the article used words like “quietly”, “secretive” and “awkwardness”, and for good reason.
Those are the methods often used when you betray your country.

When the pilot for Republic was viewed by CBC brass it garnered raves, as the saying goes. Not surprising when you consider the cast.
That the show is filmed on location in the haunting beauty of Newfoundland doesn’t hurt either, but scenery is not what attracts viewers.

The announcement of funding for a new series that could go for years and make Canadians proud is usually a time for celebration.
Instead, the “public broadcaster would not confirm the news”, and CBC spokesman Jeff Keay said last Friday that a formal announcement would be made later in the week.
But the decision for the go-ahead had already trickled down to the producers, writers and the crew weeks ago. And the good news was mixed with shock and disbelief, particularly by those who had been on set during production.
As you read this, CBC brass are scrambling to contain the demoralizing damage their clever decisions have caused. Once again.
They want to stall as long as possible revealing what they’ve done.

13 Comments

  • Toronto Real Estate says:

    I must completely agree with you Allan, CBC is nothing but a bunch of lame ignorants that just insult Canadian actors. It’s sad.

    Take care, Elli

  • Allan says:

    As you can see, joe, the insult isn’t just to actors in Newfoundland.
    It’s to an actor from New Brunswick as well.

  • Fake Ouimet says:

    Well, I don’™t know who you are, but I’™m pretty sure about how I’™m feeling, and it isn’™t as you described. ’œNice try,’ though.

    Next time, sign your name.

  • Anonymous says:

    Nice try, Joe. The old, “oh, hey, I don’t know what kind of anti-anxiety I take for my paranoia” trick.

    You’re clearly a case for librium with your evergreen anger at being excluded, and your dark suspicions that everyone around you is part of a conversation you’re not privy to. We are, by the way. And it’s really, really great. Now go for the meds like a good little vegan.

  • Fake Ouimet says:

    Surely you meant lithium? I don’™t take any medication, as there is no need. I don’™t even take vitamins.

    Anyway, Allan, I feel I must gently ask if you have any evidence or sources you can cite, even anonymously, to back up your claim that the show was re-cast with foreigners. Isn’™t the greatest insult to the actors of Newfoundland, a place with a performance tradition from time immemorial?

  • Anonymous says:

    Guessing that when the government of Canada gives you a billion dollars a year run a nation-wide public broadcasting system both official languages, not to mention a bunch of native languages, in TV and radio and online… Fixed that for ya.

    “Allan said…
    There’s not a doubt in my mind.”

    There’s your other problem.

  • Anonymous says:

    Oh, deep six! deep six! Maybe they’ll stash it in the cupboard with Joe’s librium and Allan’s boat cleaning supplies.

  • Allan says:

    I don’t have to reserve comment. I already know.
    As does every Canadian actor in this country.
    There’s not a doubt in my mind.

    I understand your reasoning.
    I think we can discuss it with less misunderstanding once the CBC comes clean.

    But you bring up a very good issue.
    Will anyone, let alone the Canadian public or even Her Majesty John Doyle, ever be able to see that pilot?
    Or will it be deep-sixed by the CBC to cover their tracks?

  • Anonymous says:

    You’ll have to reserve comment until you’ve seen the thing.

  • Allan says:

    You’ve identified two key issues in this story, and speak as someone familiar with the world of television programming.

    You say that drama needs international sales, then say that even “dreck” can get international sales.

    I’m more interested in the who, what and why of what has happened in the casting and approval of this show.

  • Anonymous says:

    1. if you think pilots always have the same cast as the series, you’ve never seen, I dunno, Star Trek, MASH, and a hundred other TV shows.

    2. No CBC drama will stay on the air without international sales. Even ultra-canuck dreck like “Street Legal” played on US cable. Drama costs much more than it brings in; that’s why they all have huge amounts of tax money behind them, even on the privates.

  • Anonymous says:

    As they say on the Internet: pics or it didn’t happen.

  • Anonymous says:

    Oh dear, Allan … I’m wondering if we know each other. Break legs. (am I right?)

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