Fox News says boycott Canada

[Drake Tungsten]

And so too would Eugene Levy have been much less likely to have had a viable career.

That would've been a tragic loss...

John Candy

Fat-ass and dead.

Martin Short

Annoying. Played a fat-ass. Wish he were dead.

Dave Thomas

Dead. Made great hamburgers, though.

Catherine O'Hara

Who? Is this that dumb ***** who got outacted by Macauley Culkin in the Home Alone movies?

Andrea Martin

Who?

Rick Moranis

Annoying geek. Ghostbusters was a long time ago, buddy...

Harold Ramis

I love the man, but see above.

Robin Duke, Tony Rosato, Joe Flaherty

Who^3? Are these like the Joe Piscopo's of Canada or something?

and Eugene Levy...

Talentless hack. Honestly, how hard is it to act surprised by some kid ****ing a pie?

[notyoueither]

Harold Ramis should buy us a pass on all of it, I think. Too bad that Yank had to get his break on Communist Broadcasting Canada, eh?

[Drake Tungsten]

Harold Ramis should buy us a pass on all of it, I think.

True enough. I am thwarted...

[Ben Kenobi]

Would you find it acceptable if the Canadian content rules were junked, the fees were raised, and the money from the fees were used to fund all of CBC operations?

Why do we need a CBC if we are going down this route? One less deadweight on the overburdened Canadian taxpayer.

Absolutely pointless.

I am proud of Canada for supporting freedom of speech.

Freedom to speak as the government wants? You think they give money to those based on talent, or because they toe the line?

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by notyoueither
John Candy, Martin Short, Dave Thomas, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Harold Ramis, Robin Duke, Tony Rosato, Joe Flaherty, and Eugene Levy...

With a cast like that, why were not New York execs lining up to put them on prime time in the US? Oh wait, they were unknown then.

You mean like Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Garrett Morris?

(yes, I know Ackroyd was on SCTV first -- I think the point still stands.)

[notyoueither]

Our guys were funnier than your guys any day of the week.

But that simply proves the point. A cast of some talent got its chance to bloom on Canadian television all the while we were also watching the cast of SNL on NBC. Without CanCon, there would have been no SCTV, just SNL on clones of American channels with local news.

The argument for CanCon is not to keep the evil Yankees out. Far from it, as most of our private broadcasters are virtual branch plants of American networks. It is simply to allow Canadian talent a chance at an audience in the shadow of the gorilla that is American media dominance.

[The Mad Monk]

The SNL cast were also "unknowns", so NBC was doing (and is still doing) the same thing CanCon was doing.

Additionally, there were any number of copycat programs done by the other major american Networks designed to compete with SNL (MADTV may be the most familiar nowadays), most of which failed.

The there were what I cal SNL-lites, which were on prime time but followed the same unknowns-in-skit-comedy format, such as The Edge (1992, introduced Jennifer Aniston), The Tracy Ullman Show (1987, gave us the Simpsons), and In Living Color (1990, presented Jim Carrey).

I just realized -- all three were FOX programs...

[Drake Tungsten]

In Living Color rocked and helped the world discovery Canadian star Jim Carrey. Where was the CBC on that one?

[notyoueither]

Also 10 plus years late.

SNL and SCTV started in the mid-seventies.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
In Living Color rocked and helped the world discovery Canadian star Jim Carrey. Where was the CBC on that one?

Thankfully, we are not entirely sucking ther public ***. Some of us worm our way down there by different routes. Like Peter Jennings.

Some of us never catch on there. Too high brow for the audience south of the 49th. They would be mostly Newfies.

[Drake Tungsten]

God, I hate Peter Jennings. I wonder when Brokaw is finally going to finish him...

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Also 10 plus years late.

SNL and SCTV started in the mid-seventies.

The point is, you can no longer say that only public tv would commit to such-and-such because private broadcasting would find it too risky. If that's its only value, then let the mantle be passed.

[Berzerker]

These claims that Canadian actors and these shows needed public funding to get their breaks raises the question as to why Hollywood didn't need public funding. The biggest entertainment industry on the planet was a private venture...

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk


The point is, you can no longer say that only public tv would commit to such-and-such because private broadcasting would find it too risky. If that's its only value, then let the mantle be passed.

You're not getting it. It isn't just public TV.

CanCon requires that broadcasters here take a small share of the profits garnered by broadcasting here, and use them to develop Canadian talent. The CBC is a whole level beyond that.

If left to their own, private broadcasters would not risk it and would simply go for the safe, already developed American productions, except perhaps for news. For instance, here is a slice of programming from a major Canadian network for next Wednesday.

5pm Oprah
6pm Local news
7pm eTalk Daily. A retarded piece of entertainment trash that People Magazine would be ashamed to own up to, but it is Canadian produced, I think.
7.30pm Jeopardy
8pm Law & order
9pm Corner Gas. The home-grown effort for the evening.
9.30pm American Idol
10pm The West Wing
11pm National news followed by local news
12am The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. This almost counts as CanCon since the host seems almost smart enough to be a Canuck. We await Fox 'outing' him.

The point being that most of the programming is American. Do you have a major fixation over the fact that Canadians expect a small sliver of our airwaves to be populated by Candian programming other than news?

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Berzerker
These claims that Canadian actors and these shows needed public funding to get their breaks raises the question as to why Hollywood didn't need public funding. The biggest entertainment industry on the planet was a private venture...

I'd love to see you guys cope with a next door neighbour with 3 billion people. It would be really funny to watch you squeal like stuck pigs.

That is the same scale, btw. 30 million - 300 million - 3 billion.

Oh wait, you're already crying the blues about competing with China, and they are an ocean away and only 1 billion. Heh. My heart bleeds for you, darling.