Canadian TV shows
An article about how Canadian shows are making inroads on to US networks thanks to success of Flashpoint.
‘It's wild how deals are getting put together'
GAYLE MACDONALD
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
March 13, 2009 at 8:18 PM EDT
Early last week, Toronto writer Tassie Cameron and television producer Ilana Frank jumped an 8:30 a.m. flight to Los Angeles, picked up their silver hybrid at the Hertz counter at LAX, and wheeled onto the always-insane Interstate 405.
Ahead of the pair that day lay back-to-back meetings - both of them over “the mountain” in Burbank - first, at ABC (with TV president Steve McPherson) and later at NBC (with another industry heavy hitter, Ben Silverman). In Tinseltown to pitch the sale of their new police drama, Copper, Cameron and Frank kept up that frenetic pace for the rest of the week - meeting top executives at a slew of other networks, including CW (part of the CBS family), Lifetime and Fox. “It was a bit wild and crazy - but exhilarating,” says Frank, back at her desk in Toronto.
And now, they wait - for that all-important phone call from their Canadian distributor, Noreen Halpern, who has worked 13 years in Los Angeles, most recently as president of dramatic programming at E1 Entertainment. “Tassie did a stunning pitch,” declares Halpern, who is shopping the show based on Cameron's script. “I'm hoping to have news within a week or two.”
And if one of those U.S. powerhouses does partner up with already-on-board CanWest Global to produce the series - which bills itself as “ Grey's Anatomy in the world of rookie cops” - Copper will join the swelling ranks of Canadian-made programs (most notably Flashpoint, as well as the upcoming series The Listener and The Bridge) that in the past 18 months have found American broadcasters keen to split the cost, and risk, of making prime-time programming with a Canadian network.
“It's an extraordinary change in the lay of the land from even a year ago,” observes Halpern, who is currently pitching U.S. networks another Global pilot called Shattered and starring Callum Keith Rennie in the story of an emotionally devastated former “super cop.” (“Think,” the promo material amusingly says, “ CSI meets A Beautiful Mind.”) “The shift with some of the network presidents has been exceptional,” Halpern continues. Last year's strike by the Writers Guild of America, she says, “paved the way, and allowed a show like Flashpoint to be sold. Once it aired and was a success, it made people take notice.
“That, coupled with the economic downturn, means all broadcasters are looking for interesting alternatives. The Canadian way is one of these,” adds the TV veteran, who says Americans can save up to 50 per cent by splitting costs.
A year ago, Halpern adds, it would have been ludicrous to assume Cameron and Frank - both highly respected on their home turf - would get easy face time with big U.S. players. But times have changed. CBS will make six fewer pilot episodes this year than in 2008, when 15 were produced. And everyone's feeling the pinch from the freefall in advertising.
“The U.S. networks, like the ones in Canada, are clamping down in an enormous way to find cost savings,” says one veteran Toronto producer, who asked not to be named. “They're all pulling back on the kinds of salaries that actors, directors and writers are being paid. They're taking a week-by-week approach to green-lighting new shows or renewing old ones.
“And they're all on the lookout for the next Flashpoint - which has become a term almost as generic as Kleenex,” he notes dryly of the CTV/CBS show that was TV's most-watched original new drama last summer. “The buzz on everyone's lips is: ‘We need a Flashpoint.'“ In its wake, CTV's 13-episode police drama The Bridge was picked up by CBS; and CTV's The Listener, about a telepathic paramedic, by NBC.
Toronto's Laszlo Barna, co-producer of The Bridge, which is inspired by the insights of former Toronto police union head Craig Bromell, says there used to be a “prejudice that Canadian programs don't work on American television,” but that that view doesn't seem to exist any more. “The poor economic situation has been a big factor - and I think Canadian broadcasters are equally motivated to find a new model.”
But while all broadcasters are tightening their belts, Barna also points out that there is still clearly an appetite “to roll the dice, and spend a bit on what hopefully will be a brass ring of a show that makes it to a U.S. network prime-time schedule.
“It's certainly not all rosy out there, and the fact remains that Canadian broadcasters in this particular quarter are doing less [indigenous] production,” says Barna, alluding to the cancellation (at least for a year) of CTV's Canadian Idol, plus two CBC daytime shows, Steven & Chris and Fashion File, as well as the recent noticeable slowdown in licensing agreements being signed at debt-heavy CanWest Global.
In Ottawa, John Barrack, of the 400-member Canadian Film and Television Production Association, agrees. “This new trend of U.S. studios partnering with Canadian producers - and licensing Canadian programming in ways we haven't seen before - is good news for everybody,” he says. “It's taking Canada to the world in a whole new fashion.”
Even better, he adds, “I think it's sustainable. The U.S. studios have woken up to the fact that there's tremendous opportunity here. They've been doing service production here for a long time - and that has started to flood back this year to major centres like Toronto and Vancouver. But Flashpoint jolted them awake and made them realize they can make quality content using real Canadian input from our writers, our actors, our directors and our producers. And they can satisfy the Canadian-content requirements to maximize their financing and at the same time produce a product that is internationally sellable.”
Halpern, who is normally a fairly conservative sort, sticks her neck out and predicts Copper will get picked up by a major U.S. network based simply on the strength of the script. Asked if that's unusual, she replies: “Nothing is unusual to me any more. It's wild how deals are getting put together these days.” The plan is to start shooting the drama in Toronto in June, with delivery in late summer.
She chuckles retelling how superprepared Cameron was to do her pitch. “In the show, the central character is a woman who is great at her job, but incredibly anal. In the first episode, she shows up at the cop shop an hour early to case the joint - then realizes how nerdy this is - and goes outside and pretends to make phone calls.
“Tassie and Ilana basically showed up that first day at ABC and did the same thing: They came an hour early. They cased the joint, realized that was dorky, and went outside to make phone calls. It was cute. In our Canadian sort of way.”
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Shattered will get picked up by a US network.
‘It's wild how deals are getting put together'
GAYLE MACDONALD
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
March 13, 2009 at 8:18 PM EDT
Early last week, Toronto writer Tassie Cameron and television producer Ilana Frank jumped an 8:30 a.m. flight to Los Angeles, picked up their silver hybrid at the Hertz counter at LAX, and wheeled onto the always-insane Interstate 405.
Ahead of the pair that day lay back-to-back meetings - both of them over “the mountain” in Burbank - first, at ABC (with TV president Steve McPherson) and later at NBC (with another industry heavy hitter, Ben Silverman). In Tinseltown to pitch the sale of their new police drama, Copper, Cameron and Frank kept up that frenetic pace for the rest of the week - meeting top executives at a slew of other networks, including CW (part of the CBS family), Lifetime and Fox. “It was a bit wild and crazy - but exhilarating,” says Frank, back at her desk in Toronto.
And now, they wait - for that all-important phone call from their Canadian distributor, Noreen Halpern, who has worked 13 years in Los Angeles, most recently as president of dramatic programming at E1 Entertainment. “Tassie did a stunning pitch,” declares Halpern, who is shopping the show based on Cameron's script. “I'm hoping to have news within a week or two.”
And if one of those U.S. powerhouses does partner up with already-on-board CanWest Global to produce the series - which bills itself as “ Grey's Anatomy in the world of rookie cops” - Copper will join the swelling ranks of Canadian-made programs (most notably Flashpoint, as well as the upcoming series The Listener and The Bridge) that in the past 18 months have found American broadcasters keen to split the cost, and risk, of making prime-time programming with a Canadian network.
“It's an extraordinary change in the lay of the land from even a year ago,” observes Halpern, who is currently pitching U.S. networks another Global pilot called Shattered and starring Callum Keith Rennie in the story of an emotionally devastated former “super cop.” (“Think,” the promo material amusingly says, “ CSI meets A Beautiful Mind.”) “The shift with some of the network presidents has been exceptional,” Halpern continues. Last year's strike by the Writers Guild of America, she says, “paved the way, and allowed a show like Flashpoint to be sold. Once it aired and was a success, it made people take notice.
“That, coupled with the economic downturn, means all broadcasters are looking for interesting alternatives. The Canadian way is one of these,” adds the TV veteran, who says Americans can save up to 50 per cent by splitting costs.
A year ago, Halpern adds, it would have been ludicrous to assume Cameron and Frank - both highly respected on their home turf - would get easy face time with big U.S. players. But times have changed. CBS will make six fewer pilot episodes this year than in 2008, when 15 were produced. And everyone's feeling the pinch from the freefall in advertising.
“The U.S. networks, like the ones in Canada, are clamping down in an enormous way to find cost savings,” says one veteran Toronto producer, who asked not to be named. “They're all pulling back on the kinds of salaries that actors, directors and writers are being paid. They're taking a week-by-week approach to green-lighting new shows or renewing old ones.
“And they're all on the lookout for the next Flashpoint - which has become a term almost as generic as Kleenex,” he notes dryly of the CTV/CBS show that was TV's most-watched original new drama last summer. “The buzz on everyone's lips is: ‘We need a Flashpoint.'“ In its wake, CTV's 13-episode police drama The Bridge was picked up by CBS; and CTV's The Listener, about a telepathic paramedic, by NBC.
Toronto's Laszlo Barna, co-producer of The Bridge, which is inspired by the insights of former Toronto police union head Craig Bromell, says there used to be a “prejudice that Canadian programs don't work on American television,” but that that view doesn't seem to exist any more. “The poor economic situation has been a big factor - and I think Canadian broadcasters are equally motivated to find a new model.”
But while all broadcasters are tightening their belts, Barna also points out that there is still clearly an appetite “to roll the dice, and spend a bit on what hopefully will be a brass ring of a show that makes it to a U.S. network prime-time schedule.
“It's certainly not all rosy out there, and the fact remains that Canadian broadcasters in this particular quarter are doing less [indigenous] production,” says Barna, alluding to the cancellation (at least for a year) of CTV's Canadian Idol, plus two CBC daytime shows, Steven & Chris and Fashion File, as well as the recent noticeable slowdown in licensing agreements being signed at debt-heavy CanWest Global.
In Ottawa, John Barrack, of the 400-member Canadian Film and Television Production Association, agrees. “This new trend of U.S. studios partnering with Canadian producers - and licensing Canadian programming in ways we haven't seen before - is good news for everybody,” he says. “It's taking Canada to the world in a whole new fashion.”
Even better, he adds, “I think it's sustainable. The U.S. studios have woken up to the fact that there's tremendous opportunity here. They've been doing service production here for a long time - and that has started to flood back this year to major centres like Toronto and Vancouver. But Flashpoint jolted them awake and made them realize they can make quality content using real Canadian input from our writers, our actors, our directors and our producers. And they can satisfy the Canadian-content requirements to maximize their financing and at the same time produce a product that is internationally sellable.”
Halpern, who is normally a fairly conservative sort, sticks her neck out and predicts Copper will get picked up by a major U.S. network based simply on the strength of the script. Asked if that's unusual, she replies: “Nothing is unusual to me any more. It's wild how deals are getting put together these days.” The plan is to start shooting the drama in Toronto in June, with delivery in late summer.
She chuckles retelling how superprepared Cameron was to do her pitch. “In the show, the central character is a woman who is great at her job, but incredibly anal. In the first episode, she shows up at the cop shop an hour early to case the joint - then realizes how nerdy this is - and goes outside and pretends to make phone calls.
“Tassie and Ilana basically showed up that first day at ABC and did the same thing: They came an hour early. They cased the joint, realized that was dorky, and went outside to make phone calls. It was cute. In our Canadian sort of way.”
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Shattered will get picked up by a US network.