Made in Canada: Joint Productions and Successful Canadian Programming

We’re back to discuss some more Canadian television with you all. We’re going to discuss the recent phenomenon of Canadian-American co-productions and also take a look at some recent Canadian television hits that might be familiar with Canadians but probably not so-much for our international audiences.

International co-productions

International co-productions are production companies from different countries (typically two to three) that are working together to produce a television program. There are many benefits to these arrangements. Companies are able to pool financial resources, gain access to a partner’s government incentives and subsidies, learn new techniques from your partner and be able to take advantage of your partner’s shooting locations in another country. Also, there can be some drawbacks. Your partner might be opportunistic and only looking to benefit their own company, you can have government bureaucracy and added costs and a loss of control over the production when it comes to casting,shooting or editing the production. It seems that the benefits outweigh the costs as we’ve noticed several of the big four broadcast networks airing Canadian programming lately.

‘Rookie Blue’ is a Canadian cop drama that airs on both ABC in America and Global Television in Canada. The show has a Canadian cast and the setting takes place in Toronto, Ontario. The show is produced by Shaw Media, Canwest and Thump Inc. and distributed by Entertainment One. Another example is ‘Flashpoint’ which is another Canadian cop drama about a fictional elite tactical unit who are tasked to resolve extreme situations that regular officers are not trained to handle, including hostage-taking, bomb threats, and heavily armed criminals. The show aired on CTV in Canada and Ion network in the USA. Some shows have been less successful. Both ‘The Listener’ and ‘Saving Hope’ have been successful and continue to air on CTV in Canada but weren’t as successful in America and stopped airing on the NBC network due to low ratings.

Canadian Success Stories

Due South

-Due South is a true Canadian success story. It’s a rare Canadian-made television production that was picked up by CBS and became a moderate hit on the network. The show’s plot revolves around a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) constable named Benton Fraser (Paul Gross) who travels to Chicago to solve the murder of his father; this is how he meets his soon-to-be partner, Ray Vecchio (David Marciano), a tough, streetwise cop. Fraser helps to solve a case back in Canada but ruffles his feathers in someone’s business and is exiled to Chicago where he and Vecchio work together to solve crimes. Oh, and Fraser has a large deaf dog that can read lips and helps the pair solve crimes. The show was cancelled by CBS after only two seasons but was brought back to Canada with the help of international financing and became successful in syndication.

You Can’t Do That on Television

-This show first aired in 1979 and was a teen sketch comedy show. The show was produced and aired on CJOH-TV in Ottawa, Canada. The show consisted of comedy skits, music videos and live phone-in contests in which the viewer could win a variety of prizes. Some of the show’s popular sketches included ‘Firing Squad’ and ‘Barth’s Burgers’. The show’s trademark green slime dousing prank was introduced in 1979, as was the practice of using the phrase ‘I don’t know’ as a trigger for the prank. The show ended in 1990 but was re-broadcast on the Nickelodeon channel in the USA until 1994. The show became one of the highest rated shows on Nick TV during the 1980s and the network bought the rights to the slime and it’s now an iconic trademark for the television channel. Celebrities such as singer Alanis Morissette and writer Bill Prady made appearances on the show.

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

-This show was a Canadian horror/fantasy-themed anthology television series that was a co-production between Cinar Entertainment in Canada and Nickelodeon in the USA. Every week, at a secret location in the woods, one member of a group of kids that called themselves ‘The Midnight Society’ would tell a scary story to the group. The themes of the stories usually revolves around a variety of paranormal phenomena such as ghosts, goblins, vampires etc. The show aired on YTV network in Canada and Nickelodeon in the USA. A revived series with new directors, writers, and cast was produced by Nickelodeon from 1999 to 2000 and also aired on SNICK.

Catwalk

-Catwalk is a Canadian musical drama series that ran for 49 episodes on the YTV network from 1992 until 1994. The series was based around six twenty-something adults who formed a band named Catwalk. The episodes centered around the band’s personal relationships and struggles to land a record deal, while also featuring their musical performances in nightclubs. The actual music on the show was performed by Rupert Gayle and Orrin Isaacs. When the show moved to MTV for season two, the music was performed by Steve and Stephanie Tyrell. When season two of the show began airing on MTV, almost all of the cast of season one was replaced with new actors with the exception of actor Paul Popowich and Nicole de Boer who appeared briefly in the season finale of season one. The show was cancelled after season two and most of the episodes from that season never made it to air because of a dispute between MTV and the show’s original creator Adam Kidron. The show was a launching pad for actress Neve Campbell who would become famous as Sidney Prescott in the ‘Scream’ horror film franchise.

The Super Dave Osborne Show

-Super Dave is a Canadian/American variety show starring and hosted by the fictional character Super Dave Osborne (played by Bob Einstein). It ran from 1987 to 1991 on Showtime in the US and the Global Television Network in Canada. Super Dave’s signature was to perform outrageous daredevil stunts which invariably went awry and resulted in his grievous injury (for comedic effect) – usually at the end of an episode. The shows would also feature musical acts such as Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis and K.D. Lang as well as other performances by ventriloquist Jeff Dunham or comedian Steve Allen. Other recurring characters on the show would include announcer Mike Walden and Fuji Hakayito who was Super Dave’s stunt coordinator.

Breaker High

-Breaker High is a Canadian teen comedy-drama series that ran from 1997 to 1998, airing on YTV in Canada and on UPN in the United States. The series is set at a high school located on a cruise ship. The show dealt with teen issues such as dating, finances, and friendship. The show only lasted one season but actress Terri Conn would later become a successful soap actress on ‘As the World Turns’ and ‘One Life to Live’ and actor Tyler Labine would star in several TV series such as ‘Animal Practice’ and ‘Sons of Tucson’ and successful indy films ‘Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil’ and ‘Best Man Down’. Oh, and we can’t forget actor Ryan Gosling who starred in ‘The Notebook’ and would continue to have an A-list Hollywood career starring in films such as ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’, ‘Drive’, ‘The Ides of March’ and ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ where he’s received several Golden Globe nominations for several of his films.

My Secret Identity

-My Secret Identity was a Canadian television series starring Jerry O’Connell and Derek McGrath. It aired on CTV in Canada and won an International Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Programming for Children and Young People. The plot is about a boy named Andrew Clements who is searching for his scientist friend and accidentally trips and is hit by the scientist’s photon beam, causing him to develop superpowers. He uses these abilities to fight crime, to solve personal problems and to help others. Actor Jerry O’Connell would go on to star in the Sci-Fi series ‘Sliders’ that aired on Fox from 1995-2000 and also starred in several Hollywood movies such as ‘Tomcats’ and ‘Stand by me’.

Reboot

-ReBoot was a Canadian CGI-animated action-adventure cartoon series that originally aired from 1994 to 2001. It was the first half-hour, completely computer-animated TV series. ReBoot was first broadcast on Saturday mornings in Canada on YTV and in the United States in 1994 by ABC. It was cancelled by ABC after the network was purchased by the ‘Walt Disney Company’ but continued to air in Canada. In April 1999, years after Canadian audiences saw the third season, U.S. audiences saw the episodes on Cartoon Network. Most of the episodes established characters, locations, and story elements, such as the gigantic game cubes. When The User loads a game, a game cube drops on a random location in Mainframe, sealing it off from the rest of the system and turning it into a gamescape. Bob frequently enters the games, reboots to become a game character, and fights the User’s character to save the sector. The show established the characters Hexadecimal and Megabyte who were viruses, and were primary antagonists in most of the episodes of the series. The show received Gemini Awards for Best Animated Program Series for three straight years between 1995 and 1997, as well as a 1996 Outstanding Technical Achievement Award.

The Raccoons

-The Raccoons was a Canadian animated television series which was originally broadcast from 1985-1991. The series revolves around a family of raccoons who fight against the industrialist forces of greedy aardvark millionaire Cyril Sneer, who usually tries to destroy the forest in order to make money. The show taught a friendly message about environmentalism but also about friendship and teamwork. In 1984, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and The Disney Channel began funding on the TV series, which cost about $4.5 million to make. In the United States, the show was run on The Disney Channel from 1985 to late-August 1992. In 2009, the first season of ‘The Raccoons’ was released on iTunes in Canada and can now be viewed on Netflix in both Canada and the USA.

In our next article, we’ll focus on some cheaply made ‘Only in Canada’ television productions where we’ve seen some unique programs being produced with very low budgets and also take a look back at some lesser known Canadian programs that you’ve probably never heard about unless you’re really Canadian.