Kathy Shaidle seeks assistance – “I’m begging everyone out there with a working knowledge of the Canadian film & TV industry to tell me why we can’t make a movie that looks one-tenth as pretty as, just off the top of my head, Wedding Crashers”
Kathy Shaidle seeks assistance – “I’m begging everyone out there with a working knowledge of the Canadian film & TV industry to tell me why we can’t make a movie that looks one-tenth as pretty as, just off the top of my head, Wedding Crashers”
Quality film vs. videotape? That still doesn’t explain ‘Goin down the Road’ – a supposed Canadian classic. Classic piece of crap anyway.
It was on here last night and my 20 year-old son happened to walk in. I asked him what he noticed about the movie. He said it looked cheap and goofy. Then the classic ending happened and he turned to me and said “It’s over? That can’t possibly be the end of the movie. That’s the stupiest movie ending I’ve ever seen”
My sentiments exactly. Yep, a Canadian classic.
how do we tell its CANADUH!!!
leftist headlines from the supposed government mouthpeice.
this right off CBCpravda.
pravda reports about Maoists like the yanks support them. its a leftwing looneybin.
Rebel leader condemns U.S. threat to cut aid to Nepal
That is truly the $64,000 question. I have seen many movies that were filmed in Alberta and such. The last Robert Duval duster (western) was a winner. Actually made me miss Alberta as I’ve probably photographed much of that scenery. The wranglers were Albertains, supporting actors, extras, set builders and a ton more of the production was Canuck powered. So the talent is out there but why a totally Canadian production ends up looking like the Beachcombers and Forset Rangers, I do’t know.
To the above comment I must insert a disclaimer. I have been in a Canadian movie production as an extra. I believe it was called Ararat. It was one of those “classic” movies by a “critically acclaimed” director from TO, whose name escapes me for the moment. It made the circuit of film festivals but I have yet to see it on the silver screen or even the tiny one. Dollars to donuts it was National Film Board subsidized.
Canada does make some alright movies that are filmed with quality such as Black Christmas, The Titanic(yuck), Stripes, Meatballs, Porky’s, Prom Night and Videodrome.
Okay I am stretching it a bit, but I cannot answer your question as there is no logical answer.
Canadian movies: preachy, boring, politically correct, goody-two-shoes, and generally non entertaining.
If canadian directors put as much effort into the entertainment (and … gasp! money making)aspect of movies as they do into preaching and being holier-than-thou maybe people might actually enjoy them.
another line from CBCpravda/
Canada Day Tax Tweaks
on the website , reports tax reductions as costing the government.
these guys are so left they think theyve gone right.
thats what makes it Canadian- the CBC thinks all money is gubmint money. If there is a tax reduction it costs the gubmint, it doesnt save the poor taxpayer. they are sick sick sick.
Can the CBC!!!Can CBCpravda.
I happen to be very close friends with the last surviving executive producer of “The Beachcombers”. He has produced and directed for the CBC since the late 50’s and was even a regular guest star on the X-Files.
After I read this post, I called him and asked his view. The following is a paraphrasing of what he said…
In the past, the biggest reason was the film that was used. Traditionally, the number one problem in Canada is that you could never get a lot of funding for TV. In the US, TV shows almost always used 35 mm film. The main reason for this was that the networks always insisted on it to make the shows look more “cinematic”. In Canada, 16mm film was the standard becase the 35mm film was 2 and a half times the cost and we just didn’t have the budgets for it. There was a point where the American producers would look at Canada and say, “Hey, they’re using 16mm film and managing to make money…let’s try it out.” The most notable example was the show Hawaii Five-O, which used 16mm. But these examples are few and far between.
But, today, it is wrong to simply look at bad quality shows that you see and, because they happen to be Canadian, call them “typical Canadian shows.” For example, take productions from the 80’s like Wiseguy, 21 Jump Street (and anything else Steven Cannell did) and from the 90’s, shows like the X-Files. These may have been American funded…but, they were all shot in Canada with Candian crews and production teams and (almost exclusively) Canadian guest stars. No one has ever accused these shows as being typically Canadian.
The X-Files was a big hit and it didn’t look typically Canadian or American. One of Chris Carter’s biggest concerns when moving the show to the US was that it would lose what he referred to as “the Canadian feel.”
I think that, if the X-Files had have been a failure, people today would be putting it in that category of “typical Canadian shows.”
Today, I don’t think you could call “Da Vinci’s Inquest” typical Canadian. And, in film, movies like “Porky’s” were entirely Canadian but looked like “typical American”…even everything that was wrong with it was “typical American.”
Also, you can check out all of the films put out by Lion’s Gate. They’re entirely Canadian with films like “Saw” and “Crash”. Are those “typically Candian” as it was meant in the past.
I think that if you check it out, you will find that, today, Hollywood is comprised 40% of Canadians trying very hard to look like “typical American.”
In my previous post, the italics should have gone from where they begin to the end of the post. All of it is part of the paraphrasing.
One more thing, I would provide this answer to Ms. Shaidle. But, I can’t find on her site where to answer to. Kate, do you know?
Ah. And one more interesting fact…
Many people here refer to the CBC as “Pravda”.
My buddy tells me that, in the 60’s and 70’s, CBC employees who worked outside of Ontario used to refer to the CBC headquarters in Toronto as “the Kremlin.” And any new rules or regulations that came from the broadcasting center were often called “proclamations from behind the Etobicoke-iron-curtain.”
Thought you might like to know.
Wedding Crashers? That’s a pretty harsh assessment. Ararat was bad but the bottom line is crap = crap.
TC,believe the movie you are thinking of was called’Open Range'(with Costner also)…It reminds me of’Unforgiven’,both filmed in the same area(I was living in Calgary at the time)These movies were STUNNING visually,glad to have seen both on the big screen.
Interesting,your comments on being an extra…’Open Range’became somewhat tainted for me when Duvall openly criticized the quality of the local talent,crews,etc..It was,I believe,only really a ploy in the ongoing’turf’war Hollywood was losing to Canada.
I’ll admit to wondering if being an extra was a worthwhile experience though….
bryceman,thank you for that’transcript’,I have often wondered why Canuck films seemed so cheesy,that explanation makes complete sense to me…Also,funny insight on the CBC outside of the center of the universe.
longest standing grudge against cbcbc:
me. due to their cancellation of ‘this hour has 7 days’. cbcbc bosses yielding to the political bosses who were routinely embarassed by the stories. this is why we need PRIVATELY HELD broadcasters. the lesser of 2 evils, UNLESS there are mechanisms to isolate reporters and investigative journalists from reprisals by da gubbamint or their cbcbc bosses for daring to tell the truth. not likely !!!
p.s. ararat director was atom egoyan. or as they call him in frank magazine ‘atom ego yawn’ at my suggestion.
LOL !!!
ah Im gonna miss these blogs when da gubbamint finally extends its iron fist and crushes the life out of them. what, you dont think thats on the horizon? THEYRE ALREADY DOING IT IN CHINA. if its technically feasible and to the power boys advantage, count on it.
This is just plain bizarre timing. I have been talking about this all week this past week. I knew it was explained to me when I was younger but couldn’t remember exactly.
My brother and I always noticed it grow(n)ing up and lamented it. Bryceman has done the best job of explaining it here, I would just add the lighting aspect. Between the lighting and the film quality, you probably have about 75% of the problem right there; those issues that first make you aware that you’re watching something low-budget. The same applies to BBC crap.
The rest is a rich tapestry of low-budget manifestations: second-rate actors, third-rate scripts, fourth rate equipment (and poor understanding of said equipment), and finally the attention to details that a larger budget would allow.
I needed to know this because I plan to do some shooting myself in the next few weeks. Well, actually I guess I’ll be the director, but I desperately needed to know how to make it look…normal.
the most expensive dvd I ever bought was a recording at stratford festival. taming of the shrew. I not gonna tell you who was in it but it was produced by the cbcbc.
jeezuz.
completely controlled environment and the fukin sound was if they had the mic in a friggin bottom of a barrel aimed at the stage. it had that echoy distant characteristic to it. the whole godam play. 60 bucks in 1996 dollars. cbcbc techs cant even CHECK their sound quality prior to production.
real amateur stuff over there at cbcbc. THAT is the problem. amateurs amateurs amateurs.
has anyone noticed the sound level on cbc radio stations is INVARIABLY lower than all the rest on the dial. if they got sumptin on radio 2 I want I have to double the volume level just to match the other stations. and Im not talking high sound level here. hardly.
its been like this for years. hasnt anyone noticed ?? am I their only listener ??
another example of CBCpravda–worlds worst terrorist- a Jordanian in Iraq and noted bomber of weddings and babies is not a terrorist but an insurgent and a militant. Say it pravda- terrorist.one can only hope the secret location is in a pig skin shroud.CBCpravda thinks if your canadian you cant say terrorist if you have a liberal mouth full of $hit.
the headline from CBCpravda
The body of slain insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been buried in a “secret location” in Baghdad, Iraq’s national security adviser says.
Many lo-budget movies were never intended to make money but were produced to provide tax write offs for dentists!
Movies are a pretty complex artform and/or prduction process. Weakness in any of the areas will lead to a substandard product
Lighting
Film type
Camera quality
Editing (a huge one)
Music
Number of camara angles (leading back to editing)
Actors
Writing
Special Effects
Sound
Sound Effects
At the end of the day, stories are everything but you can tell a movie that has good production values put into it.
It may have been about technical ability in the past, that has long since disappeared…it is about money and time and vision
i don’t know what a canadian film looks like. my suspicion is that most canadians would think a good film looks like something from hollywood. be careful devoted readers of SDA, you hate hollywood and all it’s lefties,remember?
Back more than 35 years ago, my high school library carried a magazine from Red China full of propaganda photos, including magnificent portraits of posed Red Guard young people emblazened in red finery. The thing that impressed me most was the vivid colours of the magazine – they didn’t scrimp on printing costs as they extolled the virtues of the freedom loving Viet Cong and the peaceful Chinese people preparing for battle against the hordes of American running dogs.
The pictures were, in fact, too vivid – too real – to the point that they seemed fake. The photos weren’t softened by any filters.
That’s what sets Canadian flicks apart, to my mind. Everything looks like Red Green – like they’ve never heard of filtering a shot so that, when it shows up on the screen, it doesn’t club you over the head with its realism. That is why so many Canadian shows are lit less than U.S. ones – it is the only way to soften shots without going to the expense of multiple shots, with multiple filters, to get the right one.
So, apart from bad dialogue, bad staging, and amateurish use of the camera, what sets Canadian films apart is that they look too real, and therefore fake.
Robert J BA BSc: “…real amateur stuff over there at cbcbc. THAT is the problem. amateurs amateurs amateurs.”
John: “Canadian movies: preachy, boring, politically correct, goody-two-shoes, and generally non entertaining.”
All of bryceman’s post.
We can’t make “pretty” movies (as Kathy S. puts it!) largely because, as mentioned above, the Canadian film industry is subsidized by the State, and therefore, IMHO, hires only those with politically correct world views, which has gotta mean mediocrity right off the bat.
Their attitude seems to be “Make sure that everyone who’s watching [all five of them] KNOWS that this is a Canadian production: SEE: we’re at the corner of Avenue Road and Bloor and THAT’S THE ROM (Royal Ontario Museum, soon to be OM); This is Canada, NOT the U.S.; we’re Canadian actors, which means we aren’t enthusiastic, heart-on-your sleeves types; we’re cool and hip and left. We’re NOT American!”
I can think of only a couple of Canadian productions, Anne of Green Gables and Beverly Cleary’s Ramona TV series starring the now-in-totally-leftwing-orbit wingbat Sarah Polley, that I’ve enjoyed. And I have a confession to make: I usually don’t bother with made-in-Canada movies or television series because I’ve been burned too many times. As soon as I see it’s got the Made-in-Canada Approval Sticker blazoned all over the trailers and media ads, I run a mile.
The number-one reason that made-in-Canada movies are so deadly is because the producers, directors, and writers between them don’t have any ideas worth making movies about. When your film industry is heavily subsidized by State grants, you can be sure that the idea pool is going to be severely limited to what’s politically acceptable to the Masters in charge. This means in Canada that only bizarre and deeply subversive lifestyles will be depicted; no mom, dad, kids, and apple pie here, just racial minorities, druggies, terrorists, sickos, extra-terrestrials, and any other social dregs…er, victims you can think of. It’s a bleak landscape and I sure as heck don’t want to pay a penny to enter the mirror-distorting fun house. David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan typify what I’m talking about, both ‘famous’ Canadian directors, but how many wo/men on the street have ever heard of them, let alone seen one of their movies? And the question then arises: How many of OUR tax dollars have paid for their productions and rather nice lifestyles, thank you very much? Anyone else feel a tad “taken”?
BTW, I don’t consider The Titanic to be a “Canadian” movie. Sure, its director was/is Canadian, but so what? He lives and works in the U.S., which must mean he’s cutting his ties with the true North strong and free.
Another thing: I don’t want either movies or books to be in-your-face Canadian. I just want a good story, which more often than not means something on universal themes: love, family, rags to riches, disaster to delight, odds against you and you crawl out of your hole using your God-given ingenuity, generosity, humility, and wonder in life, etc.
That ain’t Canadian, nope. So you’ll never see a movie like this with the made-in-Canada Approval Sticker: just top “normal.”
typo in last sentence of my post above: just too normal and, might I add, just too “moral.”?
How can we tell it’s Canadian?
It’s got to have hockey players, for pete’s sake!
Face-Off
Face-Off, from 1971: a Toronto Maple Leaf rookie, loosely based on Derek Sanderson (who’s in the film anyway) hooks up with a trippy hippy chick, but they can’t quite connect.
All the giants of Canadian entertainment at the time are there: John “double secret probation” Vernon as the coach, Art Hindle as the talented but troubled Billy Duke, Austin Willis as the owner.
Best of all is the use of real Leaf personnel as the support cast. Dave Keon and Darryl Sittler can be seen in the background, the thankfully dead Harold Ballard camping it up as the Leafs’ doctor, etc.
George Armstrong even has some speaking parts.
It’s so bad it’s good.
It’s a Canadian film IF:
The boogyman/ripper/monster in the horror flick is portrayed as a misunderstood tragic figure who is a product of society.
There is preachy leftist evangelizing from the main character when he/she rips off a TO Star editorial in their main soliloquy .
You fall asleep 15 min. into it.
It has TV-movie quality sound and camera work
It’s an alleged comedy which attempts to work superficial symbols of pop Canadianism like beer, bacon, hockey, beer, bilingualism, beer etc….into a full 90 min feature.
If the lead characters are Gay.
The location shots have CN tower, Toronto harbour or Kensington market but are sold to the viewer as being NYC or LA.
Did I mention the screen play will be allegory where characters will be “preachy” and propagating one or all of the following “higher moralities”: validating Homosexual lifestyle, saccharin multiculturalism, neurotic self-destructive pacifism, a superiority attitude towards American culture, phobic reaction to firearms, use of vulgar vernacular to appear “free”, validation of drug culture or a scolding is issued to individuals with the “wrong” politics.
The most pervasive characteristic of Canadian film entertainment is that it’s forgettable.
W L Mackenzie redux succinctly said, “It’s a Canadian film IF: …the screen play will be allegory where characters will be “preachy” and propagating one or all of the following ‘higher moralities’: validating Homosexual lifestyle, saccharin multiculturalism, neurotic self-destructive pacifism, a superiority attitude towards American culture, phobic reaction to firearms, use of vulgar vernacular to appear ‘free’, validation of drug culture or a scolding is issued to individuals with the ‘wrong’ politics.”
‘Just what I said: no central idea worth watching for more than a few seconds.
It’s THE MAIN IDEA that drives all of the other production qualities, which may be why Anne of Green Gables was so outstanding. Anne, ironically, is the anti-Canadian story even though it’s so darned Canadian you couldn’t get more Canuck if you tried. The thing is, that wasn’t THE POINT of the story: Anne’s growing up having been an orphan, struggling to womanhood, finally becoming successful, all within the context of a loving, if somewhat ‘different’ family, and community, where neighbours you know and the Church played significant roles. THIS is life, these are universal themes, and this is what most people are looking for when they go to the movies, give or take a number of variables.
What constitutes a “Canadian” film?
1)PC “earnestness”
2)A “Canadian Star” Director who couldn’t make a living in the real world
3)The same five or six cast members usually belonging to 1 or 2 of Canada’s thespian “Family Dynasties”
4)Dialogue that makes you pray for a quick death
“I’m begging everyone out there with a working knowledge of the Canadian film & TV industry to tell me why we can’t make a movie that looks one-tenth as pretty as, just off the top of my head, Wedding Crashers”
Oh, come on. Gingersnaps: best werewolf movie ever.
Interesting thread with some good observations.
RE: “Also, you can check out all of the films put out by Lion’s Gate. They’re entirely Canadian with films like “Saw” and “Crash”. Are those “typically Candian” as it was meant in the past.”
Didn’t Lion’s Gate put out “Bowling for Columbine” and “Farenheit 9/11”?
The studio in North Van was recently purchased by Bosa, a condo developer, who says for now the Lions Gate Studios is still in the movie business.
But I think the reason for so many Canadian productions has been the government subsidies and the low dollar and times are changing.
Personally I think Canada could have a very good film industry but like the forest industry and the health care industry the Canadian govenment believes it knows better than the market.
The Canadian Government just cannot help themselves and the combination of an industry with celebrities and someone elses money is very very attractive.
Also, I will catch flack here and maybe I am wrong but aren’t some Canadian icons just rip offs of American hits?
Did Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm proceed our Anne of Green Gables, and Garrison Keilor proceed Stuart Maclean and did Jay Leno talking to stupid college students proceed Rick Mercer talking to stupid Americans?
This “borrowing” of ideas or themes probably goes both ways.
Like I said, concrete, re “borrowing ideas”: no genuine ideas on the Canadian scene (heck, hardly in the American scene, either).
EXCEPT for Anne of Green Gables, which was written by Lucy Maude Montgomery, a clergy wife, BTW, before Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ever appeared. Now, maybe Rebecca…was written BEFORE Anne…someone would have to check that. 🙂
Happy Dominion Day Weekend!!
Thanks new kid and Happy Dominion Day Weekend to you too.
Happy Independence Day too.
Speaking of entertainment I always try to catch the 4th of July Boston Pops concert on TV, where at the end they always play the Overture from the War of 1812 and blow off the real cannons and ring all the church bells. :0)
Have you seen this site? It has the complete classic “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” and many many other classics online.
http://www.classicreader.com/booktoc.php/sid.3/bookid.140
The internet is an amazing place and classicreader looks like another great site for parents and teachers.
Maybe we should nominate the worst Canadian TV shows ?
My two :
1 Air Farce – never been funny. Not for a second. Not even accidently. The chicken cannon was one of the stupidist bits ever on network television and the puns I can see coming a mile away
2 Corner Gas – The problem here is the cast but could be summed up in one word – BUTT. Get rid of him. He cannot do deadpan to save his life. One example will suffice : “Its not a service station, its a STATION OF SERVICE”. Makes me cringe every time I hear that stupid line.
DaVinci’s Inquest. Followed by DaVinci’s City Hall. Followed by DaVinci’s Royal Commission. Worst series on television…
I almost forgot.
The Mike Bullard Show. I cannot begin to tell you how glad I was that that show ended. That pompous fatass no-comedy twit should never have gotten a show. His head looks like a bowling ball with a crew cut. Everytime I saw him I wanted drill 3 holes in it and throw it down an alley.
I mean for the love of God. Could they have not lured Mike Meyers or Norm MacDonald or John Candy (when he was still alive)? Instead we get stuck with some third rate fatass.
IMO, as an American, DaVinci’s Inquest/City Hall/Senate/whatev actually has high production values and good acting. What makes it “Canadian” is the *relentless* bloody depressing storylines and the constant use of the “Vancouver” weather. I mean, even on U.S. crime shows, characters have “happy” moments, and the sun comes out a lot even in Vancouver – honest! Larry Campbell himself could tell you! But nobody on DaVinci – least of all DaVinci himself – ever seems to catch a break, leastways personally. That’s not “realism”, that’s just . . . Canadian. (Sorry.) Canadians like to say, “Well, it’s made it in the States”, but to that I say, “Yeah, like on CrimeTV or some such, and since when did Canadians care what Americans thought?”
“Just good enough” seems to be just good enough for most Canadian productions. But then, I only watched the TV up here for about 5 months – then I gave it up (easy enough to do). The only show I liked was CityTV’s daytime show “CityLine” with Marilyn Denis – that’s a great show. Canadian, friendly, and professional.
It is already noted there are many Canadian movies that actually compare successfully to the American product. Perhaps it is also worth observing that there are American movies similar in quality and approach to those being tagged as “typically Canadian.” Check out the Sundance movies sometime. Of Course, these movies get about the same distribution and following as the Canadian ones. Point being that there are some, including Americans, who see the Hollywood product, although pretty to be sure, as epitomizing crass and empty over commercialization. To those the Canadian approach, and that of most of the rest of the rest of the world for that matter, is a refreshing change. This is not to deny that the U.S. is by far the most successful nation on earth at exporting it’s culture. Indeed, that success is probably the root source of M. Shaidle’s question. It’s just that, and I know this won’t go down well on a board like this one, a diversity of styles, especially in the arts, is sometimes nice to have.
Canadian Observer, Actually the movie I’m refering to is dealing with a couple of horse wranglers that get hooked up with a wagon full of chinese girls being sent to mining camps for purposes that are better left unmentioned. Broken Trail was the name.It co-starred Thomas Haden Church. I remember the Duval dustup. It turned out to be one of those “out of context” things because he came back to Calgary for Broken Trail.
Being an extra on a movie is a lot of hurry up and wait (excellent for retired military). Bring a book to read and enjoy the meals. Several casting outfits in town have calls every once in a while. No telling what they really want but I knew a guy who was in a lot of them. he had the looks that you could put him in any scene that was in public and he would just fit in as a normal joe on the street. After a few minutes in makeup and wardrobe I ended up as a turkish soldier (I’m the one with the rifle).
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was written in 1903. Anne of Green Gables was written in 1908, and Wikipedia says “Montgomery found her inspiration for the book in a newspaper article describing a couple that was mistakenly sent an orphan girl instead of a boy, yet decided to keep her.”
Great impressions – I too can usually tell 5 minutes (sometimes less) into a move whether it is “Canadian”. It usually hits me because of…
..the lighting – grainy, grey and monotone
or
..full on sex – on TV – (no American TV show in prime time would have full on sex)
or
… the use of the worst of the worst “bad” words F-this, F – that, etc. etc. every 3-4 word (it’s like the writers are making up for mommy washing their mouths out with soap when they were little boys/girls)
or
…this weird speech dialect that Canadian shows seem to have. It’s like the actors get taken over by some munchkin – no one talks like that normally.
or – and this is a biggie.
… every sentence ends with “eh”. How much more of a Canadian brand can you get!!
So I would say it would be the lighting, set design, camera angles, writers, actors – well just about everything just seems – well, cheap!
Yeah, Alberta Girl, “cheap” and not funny.
‘So good to know, Atwood, that there’s someone else out there who can’t stand the Canadian Airfarce. Whenever my husband tries to watch it, I ridicule it so unmercifully that he finally ‘gets it’ and turns to something else (not all that relunctantly). IMHO it’s 8-year-old humour and there’s absolutely nothing funny about it at all. I don’t mind 8-year-old humour for 8 year-olds, or even 10-year-olds, but for middle aged people? I don’t think so. It’s PATHETIC.
Then there’s Stuart McLean and his Vinyl Cafe, a pale reflection of the show he’s obvioulsy emulating, Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion, which is the Real McCoy. I can’t stand McLean’s voice and run like a crazy person from the room my computer’s in to the radio on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. to TURN HIM OFF. If I can’t get there fast enough, because I’m absorbed at SDA, I yell at my husband to “TURN HIM OFF, FAST, PLEASE!!!!” His voice and manner are such copy-cat versions of Garrison Keillor’s, that it’s brazen robbery, in broad daylight: criminal impersonation is what it is. How can people get so sucked in?
“So good to know, Atwood, that there’s someone else out there who can’t stand the Canadian Airfarce”
Well its a lonely road, I must admit and at times I seem like the only one in this socialistic rathole that hates AirFarce and Corner Gas.
I’m always amused when when some conservative policy comes up for discussion and inevitably someone will say that even in talking about it “we’re being laughed at”
Well its nice to know that SOMETHING produced in this country is making people laugh because it sure as hell isn’t the CBC (or CTV).
the funniest comedienne on tv right now is Jessica Holmes currently with air farce. shes the only reason I watch the show, the rest of the stuff is very dog eared. as with ’22 minutes’ and whatever other permutations the cbcbc mandarins come up with. the comedy fest stuff on comedy channels is really good though, they keep bringing fresh performers with new material.
canada still has the best comedians in the world, irreverant but not nasty and none of the toilet humor like the americans.
as far as this vinyl cafe thing is concerned, it too has run its course with all the folksy anecdotes with the teary moral of the story.
and mcleans voice really gets grating on the ears after a while.
typical cbcbc fare. keeeeeeep flogging it. dont pay for any new ideas. do it on the cheap right down the line.