I'm back and I'm grumpy by John Doyle
Source : Globe & Mail
December 18, 2007
The wussiness of the Canadian TV racket
While I was away - I came back grumpy, obviously - an issue blew up. Chris Haddock, creator of Da Vinci's Inquest and Intelligence, complained - during an interview with a reporter - about CBC's lack of promotion for Intelligence. He had a point. As anyone with eyeballs can conclude, The Tudors and Little Mosque get tons of promotion while Intelligence got little. In a response, a CBC spokeschappy took this condescending view: "We have not yet made a decision as to whether we'll continue with the show; when we do, Chris will be the first to know. That's precisely as it should be. We're happy to see Chris remains a passionate supporter of his show, which we happen to think is pretty good." Yada yada. Spokeschappy also tut-tutted about Haddock's "attempts to negotiate through the media his relationship with the CBC."
Worse, the normally sensible Denis McGrath, a TV screenwriter of some note, tut-tutted in his blog, "I'm with the CBC on one thing on this: This is not something that should be playing out in the media."
What utter nonsense. The Canadian TV racket suffers from enough don't-quote-me wussiness as it is. There is so much fear of angering some self-aggrandizing TV exec that hardly anyone speaks the truth, out loud, to the press. Intelligence is an excellent, world-class TV drama, internationally acclaimed. CBC should be proudly promoting it and is mandated, as a public broadcaster, to air what is not necessarily massively popular, but simply excellent. Haddock is right. CBC is wrong. Another TV writer going all meek and mousy on the subject is disheartening. I really hate that.
© Globe and Mail
While I was away - I came back grumpy, obviously - an issue blew up. Chris Haddock, creator of Da Vinci's Inquest and Intelligence, complained - during an interview with a reporter - about CBC's lack of promotion for Intelligence. He had a point. As anyone with eyeballs can conclude, The Tudors and Little Mosque get tons of promotion while Intelligence got little. In a response, a CBC spokeschappy took this condescending view: "We have not yet made a decision as to whether we'll continue with the show; when we do, Chris will be the first to know. That's precisely as it should be. We're happy to see Chris remains a passionate supporter of his show, which we happen to think is pretty good." Yada yada. Spokeschappy also tut-tutted about Haddock's "attempts to negotiate through the media his relationship with the CBC."
Worse, the normally sensible Denis McGrath, a TV screenwriter of some note, tut-tutted in his blog, "I'm with the CBC on one thing on this: This is not something that should be playing out in the media."
What utter nonsense. The Canadian TV racket suffers from enough don't-quote-me wussiness as it is. There is so much fear of angering some self-aggrandizing TV exec that hardly anyone speaks the truth, out loud, to the press. Intelligence is an excellent, world-class TV drama, internationally acclaimed. CBC should be proudly promoting it and is mandated, as a public broadcaster, to air what is not necessarily massively popular, but simply excellent. Haddock is right. CBC is wrong. Another TV writer going all meek and mousy on the subject is disheartening. I really hate that.
© Globe and Mail
