I just lost the seven things about me post that I was tagged with doing after a power flicker at 6:45 am which was 95% done so I am not going to recreate it as I am too bummed out about the whole thing. It was tender and evocative. Challenging yet funny. I can never recreate that this morning. I will have to think up a whole new list and get back to you.
Meanwhile, why do I have the same reaction to the news that Nortel now wants a bail out and that no one much is signing up for the CBC's "new fun game show" about being Canada's next Prime Minister. As far as I am aware, Nortel has been moving towards its own demise for the best part of a decade. And, I think at least as far as my listenership and watchership goes, the same applies to the CBC. As evidence, I provide you with one one hand the story "Nortel Restatement To Slash 2003 Earnings" and on the other Sounds Like Canada. Both were untouchable monoliths for most of my life whose actual machinations of operations were beyond the ken of most Canadians. As a result, I think any bail out for Nortel needs to be tied to a reorganization of the CBC's broadcast line up. My demands include:
- creation of a compelling continuing dramatic series about an urban WASP male,
- broadcast of a English language continuing sitcom based on and making fun of yet making a compelling and accurate case for the views of a family Quebecois separatist family,
- making a public apology for the failure of CBC to broadcast Montreal Expos games and an admission that this failure directly led to the Expos leaving town and the country, and
- making another admission that the extended run of the Air Farce was due to nepotism, blackmail or something that could possibly explain what the heck that was about.
Comments
Alan - January 15, 2009 9:45 AM
Maybe it should be a suburban WASP male as there was Di vinci's Inquest and the city hall follow up - though that is now a couple of years cancelled now.
Seanie - January 15, 2009 11:46 AM
Blasphemer...
Go, Q and the Point are high points of my day. I love that yesterday I had to spend 3.5 hours in the car to and another 3.5 from a project up north as it meant I got to listen to CBC all day...
Nortel on the other hand is another example of a dinosaur that should have been put down years ago. And of course, the doom and gloomers blame the recession when in fact the company just sucks.
Renee - January 15, 2009 3:33 PM
As long as that WASP is Rick Mercer.
Alan - January 15, 2009 4:02 PM
Is a Newfoundlander a WASP? Not necessarily a "W", unlikely "AS" and often not "P".
Matthew Fletcher - January 15, 2009 6:20 PM
Seanie,
Go, and the Point?! Seriously? In my opinion you just named two of CBC radio's worst shows. Q, of course is fabulous.
Alan,
A Newfoundlander does not strike me as traditionally WASP. But still, "unlikely AS" really? Who settled and colonized Newfoundland?
As for Air Farce, I want much more than an apology - I want my money back and a National Commission to investigate why it ran for so long while being so horribly bad.
Chris Taylor - January 15, 2009 6:51 PM
Regarding Air Farce: Pillory and lashing for the lot of them. Talent, producers, cameras, sound, down to the lowliest grip and gaffer.
It was only ever funny on the radio, before Broadfoot retired.
My demand is, term limits for so-called talent. Enright, Budd, Maclean, Mansfield, Mercer and Mesley need to be out out to pasture; they've all been on the air for over a decade (in some cases, several) and need to be aired out and sprayed with Febreeze. In fact let's have a ten-year moratorium on talent with surnames beginning with the letter M. I want guarantees that in thirty years time Jian Ghomeshi won't be hosting As It Happens and Mitsou Gélinas won't be hosting Marketplace.
And I want elocution lessons for all on-air talent so that they learn to pronounce C-B-C slowly and properly instead of hurriedly running it all together so that it sounds like "subsea".
Brother Iain - January 15, 2009 7:02 PM
He who tires of Mitsou tires of life.
Seanie - January 15, 2009 8:17 PM
Iain: oh my, memories of a chubby French chanteuse gyrating as she sings "mon Cowboy"... sigh (shudder). oh wait, You mean her nowadays... hrmm. Not so fun.
I am with you about CBC Television Chris and Air Farce especially.. the skits were even less funny than SNL in the past oh, 5 years...Plus CBC refuse to broadcast Doctor Who except when there is no Hockey on or Olympics or reruns of "a very special episode of _____(anything really)." When exactly will they show the 2008 Xmas special??? jerks... I want my Beachcombers back.
Alan - January 15, 2009 8:45 PM
Matt: the freckled folk of the "C" for the most part, no? I suppose there were townies, too, but who colonized and settled are two different things.
Jay Currie - January 15, 2009 9:36 PM
There is nothing wrong with the CBC that relocating the whole kit and Kaboodle to Moose Jaw would not solve.
The old warhorses (and the boring young ones) would retire, Annex brain would recede, Hockey Night in Canada would be taken seriously, Ontario (and most of all Toronto) would become just another region, CBC producers would meet interesting people who made, grew and extracted actual stuff.
Nortel...bye, bye.
Seanie - January 16, 2009 10:02 AM
As a taxpayer, I think that CBC television and the old guard that run it completely ignore reality in their taking of hockey far too seriously. Honestly, more people play soccer than hockey in this country nowadays..I am sick to death of NHL filling my screen when I want to watch something made in Canada on my tax dollars paid for broadcaster. Thats why one turns to Showcase to see such quality programs as Billable Hours.
Ben (The Tiger) - January 16, 2009 10:42 AM
Hockey makes money.
That's the reality they take seriously. HNIC subsidizes the rest of the CBC.
Renee - January 16, 2009 10:55 AM
I can't stand Sook Yin or Jonathan Goldstein. Smuggy McSmuggersons. Goldstein gives me the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" vibe, where you get to experience mildy embarrassing things that have happened to other people and are supposed to think it's hilarious. Meh.
Q indeed rocks, as does The Debaters.
Seanie - January 16, 2009 11:01 AM
I disliked her on MuchMusic but she's not terrible now. Being hip and cool should be awarded on the deserving, not painted upon oneself as she does. Q does rock as does The Debaters. I think Don Newman should have his own show.