CBC Wants 'Intelligence' Dead, Says Show's Creator
Chris Haddock on politics, televised and not.
'Intelligence' writer/producer Chris Haddock.
Intelligence tells the story of a Vancouver drug lord (Ian Tracey) who has been forced through circumstances to become an informant for the female head of the Pacific Region of CSIS (played by Klea Scott). The tense and atmospheric drama is so complex you have to pay close attention or get lost pretty quickly.
The plot thickens, as well, around whether the show will survive on the CBC (where it airs tonight at 9). Intelligence writer/producer Chris Haddock told The Tyee he believes the network is gunning to "bury" his program, despite its popularity in markets around the world.
One of the many story lines in Intelligence focuses on efforts by powerful interests to bring about "deep integration" of the U.S and Canadian political and economic systems. Part of that plotline is the infiltration of Canadian institutions by U.S. intelligence agents. Intelligence is set in Vancouver, just like Haddock's two previous series Da Vinci's Inquest and Da Vinci's City Hall.
While Intelligence has fiercely loyal fans and has received rave reviews from critics (and eleven Gemini nominations; with one win) its relatively low audience numbers, at about 250,000, provide CBC management with the excuse to dump the show. And plans are afoot to do just that, if Globe and Mail TV critic John Doyle, and others with access to the insiders at CBC, are reading things correctly.
But Haddock suspects that the low numbers are in part a useful problem deliberately created by those who have their own reasons to change how drama is done at the network. "Somewhere in the CBC someone is saying 'do not promote this show.'"
"The question is why would they be so hostile to the show? I can't for the life of me put my finger on it because it is broadly appealing and has had such success internationally." (CBC officials have denied any decision has yet been made about a third season.) In the past decade the CBC's trademark has become excellent drama and high quality production. Reality TV is for the other guys. On the face of it -- superlative reviews, sales into 143 foreign markets, a fiercely loyal core audience to build on -- you might expect the CBC to be proud of it and push it for all it's worth. But that would assume those running the CBC are actually dedicated, heart and soul, to public broadcasting. Haddock is not so sure.
During our conversation, here's what else he had to say:
On deep integration and the issue of water exports:
"I was looking for an idea which I could discuss practically because deep integration is a process of infiltration that is sometimes so slow that you don't really see it as it is occurring. So I needed something that everybody across the country could understand. If you go to the CSIS web page, they say the number one threat to Canada is economic. I wanted to know -- how do you make that exciting? How do you articulate that?
"I had realized before how passionately Canadians care about their water, the idea about being the caretaker of water, I thought, 'This is the perfect metaphor for losing the country.' Everybody knows about it, it's a common everyday item, but yet it has great levels of conspiracy behind it."
On being good and popular:
"When you work in a mass medium, you find that all the networks and distributors and the sponsors want programs to appeal to everyone. What I discovered is that rather than trying to appeal to absolutely everybody in the world, if you draw something that is very particular and very specific, it becomes universal. Because one of the universal things about people is that they are curious. We seek sometimes to identify through parallel recognition. So if I work very specifically about a corner store in the Downtown Eastside, people universally recognize a corner store. If I write specifically about what's going on in Canada, the paradox is that people understand "Oh yeah, yeah we have a spy service in Turkey too" or "we have a big dope industry in Turkey too" so people go "right, I understand those things and here are the specifics of it in this country.
"The casting is a huge part of believability. Because people look at the cast that we've brought together and they appear real. They don't appear as in Hollywood either too young or too pretty for the job. The leading men and women have character in their faces. Then in terms of what comes out of their mouths, the dialogue has to appear natural even though it is obviously heightened."
On everyday 'intelligence':
"Intelligence is something we all experience in our everyday lives. If we have the right stock tip, we are going to make out, if we don't we're just guessing. Everybody is using intelligence in their everyday life and feel like they know what it's like to have the inside scoop on something."
On doing a US version for Fox:
"There are no barriers to doing a third season and to also launching a U.S. version for Fox. In the sixth season of Da Vinci I was doing a series for CBS at the same time. One of the things that I battle as a writer/producer is that we don't see the film and television industry in quite as sophisticated a way as they might in other parts of the world. Which is to say, this is built like a manufacturing process and if the demand for your product increases, you just adjust for higher capacity."
On the CBC's decision not to promote the program:
"I've been told with previous projects that the most effective time to promote is in the two weeks prior to the start of the season. Yet we went into the first two weeks before the show with zero promotion anywhere. That isn't accidental. That is a very well planned 'bury' by someone. It is somebody high up in the food chain who has the power to say, 'Do not mention this show.'
"We were nominated for eleven Geminis. Prior to the Geminis, there was an episode of The Hour about the nominations but there was not one mention of Intelligence. The story became how Little Mosque on the Prairie had not been nominated."
On who might be pissed off:
"The question is why would they be so hostile to the show? Who is feeling threatened by it? Is it the fact that I'm talking about dope, the narco-economy? Well, there are lots of people who would be offended by that. Or is that I'm talking about money-laundering? Well, there are lots of people who don't want it talked about because they're practising it. Is it the deep integration theme? Is that too politically sensitive for Harper's Ottawa? Is it personal? Who knows?
"So who holds the power to try to stop it? I don't know. But who holds the power to keep it on the air is the public. There's a good campaign to keep it now because CBC has overplayed its hand in trying to dismiss us and they have done it so obviously.
"I also wonder if it isn't part of a move to disenfranchise independent producers right across North America as media monopolies get bigger and bigger. In Canada, it's very difficult to survive here as an independent producer and there are lots of big guys who don't want the independents around because they want to suck up whatever government subsidies there are out there."
On regime change:
"All I can say is that it has been a very difficult time with the regime change when they brought in a bunch of new people at the CBC. That's often the case with any studio, is that when a new regime comes they want to start with a clean slate and be able to take credit for any new successes that are on the network. They tend to dump other people's projects that have been coming along. But under no circumstances with a public broadcaster should one person be allowed to make such decisions. Then you simply become a corporation like any other."
On preparing the CBC for privatization:
"I would argue that the most valuable resources that the CBC has are its audience, and that is its number one value is that there are so many people who trust it, rely upon it, adore it. It's a spot of clarity and a counterpoint to what's going on out there. If you look at the sports franchises that are being given away to other networks and other things that are being done, you can say without question "yes, we are seeing at the CBC a privatization of trying to drive its audience and its advertising money to other places." Television as a general medium is losing numbers and going down. But the audience that watches the CBC tends to be a little bit older, tends to be very faithful in its viewing, and tends to have a little bit of dough so they are really an ideal target demographic. So that's the audience the private networks would like to capture and if the CBC is in some ways cooperating in that, it doesn't actually surprise me.
"It's obvious that many Crown corporations have been and still are targets for takeover by the private sector. What makes it different is in the media landscape we have today in Canada where media monopolies are getting bigger, something like the CBC which is a non-biased entity is under fierce attack.
"And unfortunately it seems that whatever regime is in power federally the CBC is then brought to heel to some degree, and I think that's what we are seeing now with the Conservatives who really can't completely dump the CBC because it is the national broadcaster and appeals to a lot of their constituency. But they do also see it as a critical entity which exposes their government. It did that with the Liberals as well, and the Liberals didn't hold it in high esteem either."
On needing the original CBC more than ever:
"The CBC was born out of similar circumstances many years ago when there was a media monopoly and a feeling amongst people that it was necessary to have an alternate source of information and intelligence for the Canadian people. And now in exactly the same times I think it is really essential. The CBC is a threat because it's able to warn us of things that are going on in Canada that some of the other private corporate interests in Canada wouldn't want to warn us of because they may benefit from them.
"So I think we are really on that train. But I do think that there are a lot of people out there who are passionate about the CBC and curious about what's going on too because there have been so many changes, a lot of them not for the better. And we frankly need to figure out some way to get more funding back into the corporation while at the same time looking who in the CBC is making the big decisions."
On ordinary people saving the CBC:
"Everyone might have a different strategy. I think it includes voicing it in CBC radio call-ins, the writing of letters both to the CBC board and to the CBC public relations department, e-mailing, speaking to local political representatives. Because so many things get affected as the CBC gets hurt. We have encouraged a whole generation behind us and given them hope to think that there are careers in film, television, and radio and of course the Internet and if we do not have infrastructure within the country they will be lost.
"It is just a strong industrial strategy to have a strong public broadcaster that can continue to educate all these people as it educated me. It's where intellectual creations are tested, talked about, held up to review. Television and radio are where the public has conversations with itself these days. It's essential that we maintain the CBC as an independent place to do this otherwise you don't know what those conversations are."
Related Tyee stories:
- The Plan to Disappear Canada
'Deep integration' comes out of shadows. - 'For Our Own Good, Give Canada Away'
The 'deep integrationists' plan one happy continent, but we must teach the little ones. - CBC Smartens Up
Heck, one new show is even called 'Intelligence.'
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
BC Mary
03-12-2007
Fight the alien takeover!
Quote:
One of the many story lines in Intelligence focuses on efforts by powerful interests to bring about "deep integration" of the U.S and Canadian political and economic systems. Part of that plotline is the infiltration of Canadian institutions by U.S. intelligence agents.
Lately, whenever I hear of another Canadian institution making destructive, anti-Canadian decisions, I have to believe the evidence it provides ... namely, that Deep Integration has already taken place and that "powerful interests" are already comfortably working the levers in Canada to send anything they chose, off the rails and into the canyon.
Yesterday I read about a Canadian-built 3-wheel bicycle that looks like a car, performs well, non-polluting, and is being sold offshore and in U.S., but isn't allowed to be sold in Canada. How could this kind of policy be anything but anti-Canadian?
It keeps happening. The infiltration of the B.C. forest industry and the inexplicable sell-off of Tree Farm Licences. The crippling of B.C. Hydro and the bargain sell-off of our rivers. BC Rail. You know the list and it's long and tragic for this country.
"Intelligence" is a clear case in point. No genuine Canadian would allow such a good TV drama to be killed. No genuine Canadian would even think of killing it.
So I think we should fight the SPP war, the TILMA war, the Deep Integration wars, when we find their proponents sitting right out in plain view, like this.
siamdave
03-12-2007
out of the box
- Chris is failing to consider the box perspective when he wonders whether the CBC is angling to cancel the show. Of course it is - shows like this get dangerously close to exposing the walls of the box that is being constructed around Canadians, and since it is the job of the CBC (along with others of course) to create the walls and not expose them, the show must go. Along with anything else that might endanger the box, such as intelligent hosts or reporters encouraging intelligent thinking in its listeners - the level of local reporting has become pathetic the last few years, and even the national reporters and hosts are becoming more juvenile, with a juvenile, very limited 'perspective' of what is really happening. It's all explained in somewhat more detail at They're Building a Box - and You're In It - http://www.rudemacedon.ca/dlp/box/box-intro.html
James Burns
03-12-2007
Excellent TV
Intelligence is simply superb TV. I've been watching it the past month starting from the first season. It simply blows away pretty much everything else made in Canada. It is on par with the best of British Drama, and that' s saying something. The only thing American as good is HBO's The Wire.
If there is a way or somewhere to complain to the CBC about the rumors of not renewing the series, someone please post it.
apollyon
03-12-2007
Don't Cancel Intelligence!!!
I almost lost it when DaVinci City Hall was cancelled. I'd never seen such a complex, intruiging, realistic political thriller on regular television before (only HBO's The Wire might get a nod). The show was excellent (even better than Intelligence IMHO) but was cancelled after a single season - can a show even take flight with that small of a run(way)?
Intelligence is getting better and better as it veers more into the political. I hope CBC decides to back off...
ME2
04-12-2007
re CBC
In my opinion, CBC's brain trust in Toronto has decided that in view of today's declining viewership/listenership of all Canadian TV and Radio, the answer is to attract the younger demoraphic, who are not interested in anything that gets too serious.
Thus the dumbing down of programming. This is, of course, the response to those in power who think the only real value is in ratings, and who sneer at CBC's attempts to cater to the thinkng person.
If they succeed, they know it will be no great loss to see the corporation privatised.
Bobby Peru
04-12-2007
Too Good for Canada
Intelligence is too dangerous for the mandarin bureaucrats of the CBC who are afflicted with modern day Canada's most debilitating disease: the politics of political correctness.
In today's Canadian cultural dialogue, you can't say anything bad about any race, person, profession lest your deemed as a racist, ageist, etc. As such, the CBC cannot programme anything that is remotely edgy, entertaining, racy or most of all incisive about the human condition. So forget about doing Canadian versions of The Shield, Wire or Sopranos. You can't make fun of First Nations, whites, Chinese, Hindus, Sikhs without hypocritical, shrill protestations.
One advantage of commercial broadcasting is the imperative to make money via entertainment. The CBC is far too biased towards social engineering. I'm not saying that public television is bad. The BBC has created some of the best shows in history. Creativity exists there because the producers and bureaucrats are brave. Unlike in Canada where the CBC doesn't want to expose Canada's massive drug trade.
I'm shocked a show hadn't been made earlier about weed, grow ops. Some Canadian writers told me the CBC had a policy in 2004 of 'no more grow op story submisssions'. Strange, as there is a almost a grow op on every block in Vancouver; everyone knows someone in the weed trade; and Vancouver is embroiled in the money culture of drugs as much as Miami was in the 80s. Chris Haddock is far too smart to just write about weed growers like the 'Trailer Park Boys'; instead, he has weaved compelling plots and subplots in 'Intelligence' to discuss greater moral and political issues. That's great television.
And what did you expect from the CBC? Would they ever do a show like The Shield displaying in full glory racist, crooked cops? Of course not, the CBC believes its role is to perpetuate the myth of a kinder, gentler Canada where everyone is harmonious. They are so deluded and distant from what is going on in Canadian streets. Perish the thought we show RCMP officers engaged in corruption or brutality. Marijuana's a $7 billion illegal industry and it's not worth a single drama?
I hope Haddock's show gets renewed. All of us need his unsparing view beyond Hockey Night in Canada. At least in England, they don't have a CRTC that keeps out foreign competition. It's foreign content that keeps the BBC sharp. Remove the CRTC and let the CBC face full on programming competition. Then you will see true Canadian talent shine.
Jeffrey J.
04-12-2007
Losing the CBC Devestating
If Harper succeeds in destroying the CBC, it will be one if his" finest" moments. And for democracy, plurality and freedom, a dark day. It is VERY disturbing to see the vehemence with which the neo-cons hates this organ of diversity. Are they that fragile in their power and certainty? I guess so. Canada will change in a tragic way if this trend continues. Great story Tyee (as always).
Working Memory
04-12-2007
Heh Einstein - KISS
The show is too smart for a television audience and the CBC knows it.
Dumb it down so the average Vancouverite can understand it and you might keep the CBC interested. There's too much talking and not enough action for the masses.
Drama television audiences, like people who still read newspapers, are not the sharpest pencils in the box.
Haddock is starting to believe his own hype, and he made a show for "him" instead of for his audience, which is a noble artistic goal, but it's still wishful thinking Chris, and thoroughly misplaced business acumen.
In all my days with the CBC I've never known anyone there not to speak their mind. In fact that's the biggest problem.
If they don't like something they come right out and say it, and they tell you why.
Haddock is manufacturing this controversy to promote his show. Everyone in entertainment does it.
Maybe he should spend some money and improve that pathetic website. http://www.intelligencetv.com/ That's where the leverage is for this type of production, because it's certainly won't happen through TV Guide.
TV is about making money, not educating the public.
If we want to know what's going on in our world we can read The Vancouver Sun. Just kidding - they're only about making money too. lol
Keep it simple stupid and park your ego, or move to LA.
Frank
04-12-2007
Intelligence
I thought it was a great show when it first came out but I found I couldn't get to it every week and was soon lost trying to figure out what I missed.
So I'm not longer watching it but will buy the DVDs if they come out.
GJW
04-12-2007
Dumb comment
Working Memory said:
Sure. Whatever you say.
Your insulting, sneering attitude aside, you do make a good point about the dumbing-down of TV, but I don't think it's because audiences are dumber, I think it's because people are sick of labyrinthine, conspiracy-theory-ridden drama with no resolution, e.g. X-Files, Lost, Da Vinci Code, Alias.
People are realizing the world is a big, scary, complicated place where sometimes happy endings are impossible. That, I think, is why people are turning to programs that are less like reality, or are a controlled form of reality. And where there are happy endings.
AJVanguy
04-12-2007
Intelligent
Intelligence is one of the few reasons I still watch some CBC programming. Getting rid of it will get rid of me as a viewer.
alda
04-12-2007
Don't be fooled
Political correctness, the desire to make money, and the need to attract bigger demographics are mere distractions to the real issue here, which is the fact that CBC is merely a branch of the mainstream, right wing media.
CBC is, as all corporations are, run by the top brass, and their aim on T.V. at least, is to give the "appearance" that it is a sophisticated and intellectual public left-learning medium, when in reality, it's a trendy, pseudo-intellectual facade (ie. The Hour)--glibness standing in for truth and serious academic investigation meant to support the common good.
The top news producers in power at the Mothercorp (ie. Mark Starowitz) are as right wing as they come, vis-a-vis Peter Mansbridge's nightly consultations with his boringly predictable neo-con panel, his orgiastic ecstasies over our troops presence in Afghanistan, defence of the corporate status quo, and a veneer of coverage of the global warming problem that NEVER attacks the real issues by addressing the corporate source and political solutions to the problem - but, instead, only gives us horrifying and juicy details about this issue (tsk tsk). It's a little like a medical expert who gives an excellent blow-by-blow daily report on the visual symptoms of a near-fatal disease, but never bothers to inquire about its cause or bothers to push the doctors who know how to halt it to actually do their job.
For the most part, CBC TV is a sham -- a farce designed to look as though it represents the intellectual point of view in this country when it is nothing of the kind. What it is, is CTV propaganda dressed up with fancier language and a snooty attitude. Occasionally, something real sneaks its way onto the air, thanks to the Passionate Eye, or the younger generations of journalists such as Avi Lewis and Evan Solomon, but it's rare, and I'll bet they don't dare push the envelope too far. In general though, the lower-rung journalists don't have clue what's happening because, with few exceptions, they're as uninformed about what's taking place in the echelons of power in this country as the blind public they serve.
Thinking citizens aren't fooled by this facade, and that's why the CBC has been losing its loyal audience. Does it care? No. It's only important to give the average Joe the impression that he has a "democratic" source of news, so he can continue to believe in the fairy story called "Canada, the True North, Strong and FREE."
Skip Tracer
04-12-2007
Furthering mediocrity
I could not believe Little Mosque when I first saw it. Tepid, obvious and unsophisticated, it fairly blared out: "Hello! This is your worst nightmare vision of CBC TV!" to the nth degree. I was sure it would be cancelled.
But no, it got bigger. It got more promotion.
Then I saw a UK film dealing with race relations in England's north called "Mischief Night". It was funny, sharp, alive and unafraid. It received govt support. I knew its kind would never have been made in Canada.
So Dear CBC: If you're going to pick our pockets for your very existence, do the country a goddamn favour and judge Intelligence neither by numbers nor nefarious cowardly agendas but give us this day our daily tax dollars worth of excellence...even if its only for another season of Intelligence!
Name
04-12-2007
We need more Intelligence!!
What a terrible prospect!! I'm totally addicted - I plan my life around it - there is so little else worth watching these days on TV. Are Harper & co really that petty & paranoid & insecure?! It's just entertainment, for Pete's sake!
Maybe that's the problem right there - the fact that it's the best thing we've seen from CBC in years. Imagine the repercussions of demonstrating that public TV can be better? Suits gathering in high-powered corporate boardrooms to discuss ramifications for the integrated north american infotainment sector... shadowy security mandarins plotting how to cut the legs off this thing before it takes off running. Life imitates art. The plot thickens...
...all more reasons why we need more Intelligence, not less. Every paranoid fantasy will be confirmed unequivocally if this is indeed cancelled.
Chris H - if you're reading this, please incorporate it into the plot line to alert everyone else who doesn't read The Tyee before it's too late!
macsasquatch
04-12-2007
Canuck TV dramas
I watched D-V's Inquest regularly, and found a lot of it interesting. I thought the picture it presented reflected some of my experience accurately. That show presented some pictures of some of our institutions that countered a lot of the spin we get from and about our elites.
I found D-V's City Hall even more absorbing. Above, one commentator mentioned that it was ended after one season. The way the last programme ended, and then the series, I had the impression that it was cut off in mid stream. What I liked about it was its grappling with situations that I have seen, and still see in my own city. I thought that the depiction of the feud between the two unions, and the feud between the mayor and police chief must have been making a few powerful people uncomfortable.
I caught the pilot of Intelligence (by then I was getting to be an aficianado of anything that Haddock was writing), and have followed the series religiously. When a pal needed catching up on the series, I discovered in trying to explain all the threads the complexity of the development of the stories.
I can also see why our elites would not like a series which depicts a down to earth reality, sometimes grittier side to us, rather than the squeaky clean Canadian image they prefer.
(I imagine the same elites are wincing at the popularity of the Mulroney-Schreiber show that we are currently being treated to.)
Out of Regina is a show for kids called renegadepress.com. I've caught two or three of those, and they have dealt with issues that seem to me to be important to young teens that I have known.
Also out of Regina is Mocassin Flats, a series depicting people caught by poverty and racism, and the ways that those blights affect their lives.
The two Regina programmes were on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.
So Haddock's work, and the other two series I mention, make me feel pretty good about tv drama in our country. Their story lines are current, and the situations they take on reflect things that I have gone through, am going through, or see others in my community going through.
Haddock touches on a difficulty I think is in writing. It is difficult to dramatize what institutions are doing; there is a tendency to reduce everything to individual behaviour. To depict in drama the forces for 'deep integration,' for example,is very complex, and the risk is always there to reduce it to just one character's actions,... and thereby cause the viewer to miss the point.
But when the actions of powerful institutions are depicted clearly, those institutions take notice, and tend to shut down whoever is depicting them in terms outside of of their preferred corporate image.
Chris Haddock
04-12-2007
stuff
Intelligence supports an industry in Vancouver and across the country, it offers a place for all the craftspeople, drivers, p.a.'s. actors, directors, producers, writers, carpenters, caterers, gaffers, grips, electrics, camera ops, dops, accountants, art department, wardrobe, hair and makeup, craftservices, etc. Over the last years of Da Vinci and Intel, we've brought over a hundred and fifty million dollars worth of production to this city. Many of the above have been able to bring their best work to these shows, and had an opportunity to play at the top of their games. We have been building infrastructure in an industry that holds a lot of promises out to the younger generation of workers and students, so the cancellation of a show doesn't simply affect the community by removing a storyteller, but directly affects an industry's livlihood and the prospects for the younger generation to join what can be a fantastic work life. I continue to support the CBC and many of it's great programs, and reluctantly engage in this debate publicly. I would prefer to let the show speak for itself and to quietly negotiate for renewal as I have in the past
but my appeals for such things as promotion have fallen on deaf ears: to be up to date and specific, we've repeatedly asked the CBC to announce that our last two shows will be appearing on next monday, December 10the, back to back, starting at eight p.m. They have not announced this, and did not annoucne it at any time during last night's program, despite the assurances of the exec in charge that there would be "loads of promo" about the finale. Have you seen it anywhere except on the posters we ourselves put up? Why not. Episode 25 is perhaps the best thing we've ever done here at Haddock and it would be a crime to miss it.
, so thanks for all of you out there chiming in and making noise. More than the survival of Intelligence, I want this industry to not only survive, but thrive. I've got kids, I want them to have an industry to work in.
G West
04-12-2007
Thanks to you Chris
Something truly sad is happening at the CBC.
They spend more time and money promoting dreck about a handful of so-called business dragons handing out contumely to starry-eyed entrepreneurs with naïve dreams of glory and pumping up a British costume drama about who Henry VIII is bedding this week while arguably one of the best crime dramas ever filmed in Canada goes looking for publicity via word of mouth.
What the hell is wrong with this picture?
I hope this won't be the last we see of INTELLIGENCE - but the lack of that same quality in the corporate suite and in Ottawa makes me fear it will be.
Tip o' the hat to all the Haddocks. I'll be watching next Monday.
CBC has run out of intelligence.
alda
04-12-2007
Why not?
Chris: You asked why no promotion for your program?
The fact that you've challenged the corporate status quo by dramatizing issues such as deep integration, US intelligence, and the drug trade (purportedly how the CIA gets its money), etc. That's why. A loss of 150 million in industry employment is peanuts to TPTB if they can bury your political ideas under the carpet.
Understand that the stonewalling of your program and promotion more than likely has NOTHING at all to do with your creative genius or the fact that your series is a better written, better produced, better acted product than the pablum it competes against. It has to do with social and political CONTENT and the "dangerous" and clear message you're sending to society. It's simple, obvious and final.
Write a colorful Canadian historical murder mystery, a multi-cultural comedy, or an beautifully costumed period epic based on some historical event--anything that is non-relevant to modern issues and that has the "appearance" of sophistication and intelligence--and you'll find success beyond your wildest imagination at the good old corpse.
Theophilus
05-12-2007
CBC "brains trust"
CBC "brains trust" , now there's an oxymoron.
I remember in the 80's after SCTV had become such a huge hit, someone showed the SCTV pilot that CBC had rejected in favor of a Peter Kastner vehicle that stunk to start and got worse.
The genius of Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin etc, was clear in the pilot, clear to everyone except the CBC "brains trust".
So the likely cancellation of Intelligence, enraging to me as it will be, is completely in character for CBC.
Skip Tracer
05-12-2007
Whoa Chris!
Chris Haddock wrote: "we've repeatedly asked the CBC to announce that our last two shows will be appearing on next monday, December 10the, back to back, starting at eight p.m. They have not announced this, and did not annoucne it at any time during last night's program, despite the assurances of the exec in charge that there would be "loads of promo" about the finale. Have you seen it anywhere except on the posters we ourselves put up? Why not."
Uh, I hardly watch CBC and I've caught at least two ads promoting the 2 hour finale. In fact, those ads were very effective in making me keep the date/time in mind. Are you smoking some of Reardon's product? Did Dante make you an offer you couldn't refuse to say you were being victimized? Will your paranoid fantasies be revealed in the last episode? Oh, and that IS you as the American assassin, non?
All that aside, I hope you go long with this one!
Working Memory
05-12-2007
GJW
You're right. I was rude, but there is critical information missing that Chris isn't sharing, and that's why I wrote in the tone I did above.
I like the show and watch it, but his show is subsidized by taxpayers.
In fact almost everything produced in Canada is subsidized. If it can't make money for the CBC because it's "too smart" then license it to bigger markets, but please quit asking me for more tax dollars to perpetuate something that will never return the investment here.
How would you feel if successful stars like Anne Murray or Bryan Adams continued to use Canadian taxes to further their careers after they have enough success to support themselves?
OK, that's a bad example, but you get my drift.
I know Intelligence is good, and it seems everyone here knows it too, so license it south of the border to HBO or Showtime, but please don't whine that the CBC is not supporting it, because for them, based on their current mandate and the numbers (the show only draws 250K), it is an economic impossibility.
I'm sure Chris would like to get Intelligence off CRTC welfare, but he probably can't due to legal obligations he signed away.
If he wants to continue to work in Canada then he should have thought more carefully when he applied for government funding.
It's likely he signed an agreement that gave CBC rights to block licensing south of the border for a year or two, and if so who would blame CBC for protecting our investment?
If the CBC takes the risk and we (Canadians) pay to develop the show, and then Haddock Productions turns around and licenses it to NBC, and then Canadians watch it on an American station selling American ads, Canadian taxpayers get stiffed.
Maybe he should renegotiate and buy the rights back with a bonus for the CBC so he can license it down south for a big score.
I don't want to pay for his U.S. expansion plans. Maybe it's time to take the plunge into the big pond and cut Canadian purse strings the next time he needs funding. Boasting of licensing it to 143 foreign markets means nothing unless one of the markets is a U.S. network.
When Chris throws up a red flag that a "mysterious" someone at the CBC wants the show nixed it makes it sound like the CBC is full of bumbling conspiratorial fools.
OK, maybe that's another bad example, but considering that the show is about intelligence it shouldn't be too hard for Chris to figure out who the mysterious opposition is at the CBC.
Who exactly is complaining?
It's probably someone in the financial department. Someone who makes decisions based on intelligence, not emotion.
My solution ... if he didn't sign away the internet rights, then develop a R Rated partner website and run with it. It would be interesting to see what happens when CRTC censors are out of the picture. Plus ... a website would extend the brand into a medium that is growing, not dieing.
TV & newspapers? It's almost 2008. Get with the program.
G West
05-12-2007
Maurice
I don't disagree with the generality of what you've written but I don't think you've really addressed the central evidence in Chris's case relative to INTELLIGENCE.
That is, there seems to be lots of ads for crap like the DRAGONS and transplanted Brit Costume drama on the Main network and Newsworld and little or nothing for Chris's show which is, in my opinion, a hell of a lot more worthy.
We all know that this is the entertainment biz and if INTELLIGENCE had half the promo time that the network has alloted to the simperingly politically correct Little Mosque in Saskatchewan I can't believe it wouldn't have a bigger audience and be a better draw for more ad dollars next season.
There's a disconnect here, in my view and I can't figure out why.
I post from time to time on one of the CBC newsblogs - the staff takes from 12 to 24 hours to post everything and they edit out the time of posting notation I include with every post to try and illustrate how slow and creaky they actually are.
Is this because there's no staff - or is someone vetting every submission?
The CBC, and I'm as big a supporter - long term - as they've ever had, is a mess.
It's not as bad as Global, CTV or A-channel but that's merely damning with faint praise.
Newsworld is better - but not much.
By the way, bpither, if you're out there, send me an email: .
Wu Tang
05-12-2007
Intelligence Rulz!
I can't think of a better Canadian television show than Intelligence.
I'm not sure I can imagine a better Canadian show than Intelligence.!
I have only just discovered this forum and I would love to go off on everything I love about this show but I think and fear that I need time to gather my thoughts. But in the meantime I just want to say to Chris Haddock (if he reads this) that I adore your Glorious Show! And watching it I experience a welling feeling that can only be described as pride! Yes - Pride! Pride that this is even on the CBC and I get to watch it. I know this is gushing, but I can't help it. Some executive some where gets credit for greenlighting this show in the first place, but whatever pinhead or collection of pinheads is conspiring to have it squelched deserve whatever opprobrium we can heap upon them.
Its just too good I guess. And thus, it has to be killed.
I found out about the Season 2 Premiere on the Internet and I have only now just found out about the last two episodes going back to back on Monday, December 10th on the Internet. The Internet! Via a 'post' by the guy who acutally created the show. And this is the best show - dramatic, or otherwise - they have ever created. And I'm totally serious. Name a better show that they have ever created? What does that tell you?
So now, if Intelligence is cancelled, the CBC can go back to getting Gemini awards for its 'universal humuanity' or whatever in creating the lame ass Little Mosque. And though I hate to condemn it without actually seeing it - I fear 'The Border' will give us pretty, likeable cops so dedicated to their jobs, and so like 24 and CSI, and so down with The official versions of the War on Terror and The War on Drugs.
But there will never be another Intelligence.
And so thank you Chris Haddock for daring to bring the dark side. How you ever brought the Vancouver street into the center of international money laundering and the CIA I am still not sure, but it has left me dizzy with exhilaration. And keeps me watching on the edge of my street week after gripping, suspenseful week.
Chris Haddock
05-12-2007
big pictures
I hope to write about all the intrigue involved in bringing a show to air, here or in the u.s., as my experience spans both sides of the border, and one day I will, in the hope of enlightening some people who may want to enter the trade. There is obviously a great deal of compromise involved when working in a mass medium. (They call it a medium because it's so rarely well done.) Many of the statements made above I'd like to respond to in depth and will do so when I have the time and opportunity. I'd like to remain in Canada and continue making Intelligence more than anything. It's the most challenging and entertaining work I've been involved in. I also know that I am not alone in believing that rather than simply accepting the present conditions for artists in Canada, I am interested in facilitating or provoking change, for to accept things as they are is not going to help or entertain anyone. The attitude of take it or leave it, or more pointedly take it or leave the country, is one that denigrates ingenuity and the human spirit, and leads only to the mediocre television we all seem to sick to death of. This attitude extends to many other industries and social conditions and is simply not something I choose to embrace. Nothing is inevitable, except maybe the appearance of some jaded folks to repeat the refrain "take it or leave" on cue. Television is more than a place for broadcasters to make money and shape public policy, it's where society converses with itself and reflects it's values, hopes, dreams and tragedies. I'm not out to slag the CBC, I'm refuting their recent practise (or maybe not so recent) of the employing the Big Lie. No matter how often the spokespeople may repeat "we promoted the show heavily" it ain't the truth. No, I'm not smoking any of Reardon's product, I'm relaying my experience. If it seems trippy, welcome to my world. Thanks to all the posters, the feedback is widely enjoyed by those of us who make this show and are to a person extremely proud of the product, and they to a person put their heart and souls into the work. So when a crew member approaches me and says, Chris, we're not getting any promotion, they're promoting everything but our show, can't you do something, I take it to heart and do what I can. So I appeal to the audience, for whom we make the show, to spread the word, so that others can know when it's on, and enjoy the one hundred percent Canadian effort. As my good friend Jimmy Reardon says: it ain't over yet.
Name
05-12-2007
Name
I do watch CBC and I had to find out about the 2-hour finale from a buddy who lives at Main & Terminal, who watched the filming of the last episode out in front of his condo (I won't give any secrets away), and who found out about the 2-hour segment (it starts at 8 pm, BTW) from the film crew.
So Chris's local grips & gaffers seem to be doing a better job of promoting the show than all the flacks at CBC - pretty sad, huh!
Bobby Peru
05-12-2007
It's the Medium
Because the CBC is not commercially driven it tends to spend more money making content rather than promoting it. Much different for the commercial American channels.
Intelligence could be suffering the same problem that afflict top quality shows with loyal, but just slightly too small and below the profitable threshold. Like HBO's 'Carnival' or 'Rome'. At least in the US there is a subscription based channel like HBO. You don't have that opportunity in Canada.
Unfortunately, I don't think Intelligence would be popular in the US because Americans don't want to watch Canadian themed shows. Or certainly shows about American integration about Canada.
Like Haddock said above, it's that Canadian-CBC attitude that has driven our top Canadian talent in many areas into the US. From Wayne Gretzky to Neil Young to many unnamed businesspeople, anyone who has any world class talent cannot prosper in Canada.
G West
05-12-2007
Bobby Peru
You picked poor examples...no one drove Gretzky to the States - he started his career there in the WHA remember? He was on a personal service contract to Nelson Skalbania and Pocklington picked him up when Nelson ran into some hard times; then Peter pucks own poor business practices forced a sale that sent him to LA. Nothing to do with lack of appreciation among Canadian hockey fans and the game is still a dead letter in most of America.
Neil was nobody (in either Canada or the US) when he packed up the hearse and left for California...I'm glad the business people left anyway and Paul Anka - well who really cares..now who did you have in mind.
Celine Dion?
As for the CBC, lots of theme-based shows have been very successful when the corp was willing to spend some money on promos. Right now management is terrified of anything controversial because they know what Pee Wee has in mind if he ever gets a majority.
Devote half as much cash as the CBC does promoting Don Cherry on HNIC and Intelligence would be very successful.
kootowl
05-12-2007
Learn from HBO
Having a well-written dramatic series like Intelligence keeps minimal viewers like me tuning in...for now. If Intelligence is dropped by the Ceeb, it's back to renting HBO stuff for me.
HBO has some well-written shows, but TPTB there have an irritating habit of getting a great series up and running only to drop it after a season or two. Entire websites spring up devoted to saving a particular condemned series. The actors send reassuring words and videos thanking the loyal viewers for their support. Treacly musical montages flood YouTube as the series fades into the west. So, the strategy hasn't worked...but the tenacity of the fans has me impressed.
Maybe with a little humour and creativity, we could get a similar ball rolling? We need a Mercer-esque rant posted on this one, folks.
Working Memory
06-12-2007
Follow the money . . .
You write that "it's a hell of a lot more worthy," GWest, and I agree, but it all comes down to numbers, and unfortunately they are not there.
All the broadcasters I've worked with are in the business of endeavoring to operate profitably, and yes, even the CBC, despite their mandate to provide CanCon, which is a no win in the finance department.
Intelligence is smart, which literally means less smart viewers are not “capable” of following it. Smart is the kiss of death in Springfield. Doh!
Intelligences has too much talking and not enough action for most television executives selling prime time drama ads.
To make matters worse, the Canadian pool is shallow. It was only a matter of time before you bottomed out Chris. Granted, there are people (like us obviously) interested in the show, but not enough of us to sustain it without a "deeper/denser" market to draw from, which in the traditional world only exists in the U.S.
Television is middle of the road. Intelligence is too smart for MOR. It's in the title. What did you expect?
CBC is not looking for big brain viewers in the "drama" department, neither is CBS or NBC, because the big thinking group does not represent a large enough audience. Instead, they market "factual documentaries” to big brains. Not fiction based on reality.
Broadcasting literally means casting a wide net, as opposed to the internet that more efficiently serves niche markets. Intelligence is a niche product. If it wasn't, it wouldn't interest me for the same reason I don't watch Shark. Use a thousand single poles, not a net.
It was implied that someone might be putting pressure on a CBC exec from the underworld. Based on a purely hypothetical premise that gangsters want to stop Intelligence from revealing crime secrets, it’s moronic to think that an entire country was so corrupt that Canadian gangsters could actually affect whether Intelligence gets to run for another season.
If gangsters had so much influence The Sopranos would have disappeared long ago. Criminals love this show because it romanticizes and glorifies them. Haddock Productions leverages the drama to attract the criminal element, and also so 9 to 5’s can live vicariously through it. In the POP world of entertainment, perception is nine tenths of the law whether tv, film, live performance, etc.
On the other side of the coin, Reardon, a vicious criminal who feels bad when he screws around on his wife, or has to whack a competitor, is portrayed as a hero. I agree that someone at the CBC might think that romanticizing crime is improper for a government funded broadcaster, but if that's the case, they would not hesitate to let Chris know exactly who they are.
continued . . .
Working Memory
06-12-2007
Continued from ... Follow the money
I've never met a CBC exec hesitant to voice his or her ethical opinion, in fact it's the exact opposite. If someone at the CBC wants Intelligence off the air for ethical reasons they would let us know and lobby for followers to support their cause. No one does it in a void.
I can only ask again. Who is this mystery person at the CBC?
It seems many people here at The Tyee enjoy your show Chris - myself included, but we are a unique lot. CBC doesn’t market crime drama to people who spend inordinate amounts of time on the internet discussing politics.
That's why you should really be developing an online method of cultivating an audience.
If there ever was a style of television show to support it, this is it. I also thought the same about City Hall.
How about extending the brand to an online game? Players could be drug dealers, politicians, cops, spies, or hookers.
I love your mind Chris, but it sounds like you're receiving outdated advice from someone in PR world. It’s more than feasible that the CBC wants to drop Intelligence because it’s too smart, "if in fact that is what they want to do." It's also quite possible you’re plying child psychology to raise the show’s visibility - take candy away and the kid squeals louder.
You're way too smart to think that you can change the psychology of how people intrinsically respond to entertainment. You can change the container, but not human behavior, at least not so quickly.
At this stage in your career why would you want to waste time fighting it when instead you could be channeling your energy to a strategy that cherry picks and more clearly defines your audience? You're on a roll. Think big and go global like all the other successful Canadians in entertainment.
I love Canada too Chris, but the pool is too shallow for big talent.
You fractured the market, and that's a good thing, but now you have to build a community around it. Go to the people.
Unfortunately, you can't do it using old tools.
Try the internet. It’s where the smart people are.
You wrote above Chris: “Television is more than a place for broadcasters to make money and shape public policy, it's where society converses with itself and reflects it's values, hopes, dreams and tragedies.”
It’s not telelvision that supports that dream. It’s the internet. Go to it.
rebel
06-12-2007
Intelligence and the CBC
This is a great show, I never miss it. There is a smutty campaign going on against the CBC, you see it in Conservative blogs and talk show remarks about paying for the CBC. I support "Friends of the CBC" and the truth is the cost to cover the CBC is only something like $35.00 per year per person to cover the gov money to support it. A lot of great value for very little in my opinion. The cutbacks have been terrible.
With the media concentration in this country the loss of the CBC would be unthinkable.
On radio CBC overnight programs play the public broadcasting stn of many countries, such as Sweden, Germany, Africa etc. Who and why those who are against OUR own Public Broadcaster should be EXPOSED loud and clear to the public, many of whom don't seem to realize what they would be losing.
mijnheer
06-12-2007
Two cents more
Intelligence is the best thing on television these days, as far as I'm concerned. I watched the first episode of Little Mosque and it was so predictably wholesome that I haven't been back since. Intelligence is complex, gritty, involving, and smart. The characters are real people to me. I'm irritated that the CBC doesn't seem to know what a good thing it has. Ratings should not be what the CBC is about. I have no problem with the CBC spending lots of taxpayer dollars on producing programs, so long as the quality is there. If audiences insist on watching junk, they should still pay for the quality stuff. Call me elitist and proud of it.
margot
07-12-2007
CBC needs Intelligence
Before I finally subscribed to cable, I used to get a friend to tape Intelligence episodes for me. (Somehow the da Vinci ones were perfect in snowy, tweedy BW with rabbit ears, and oh the original trumpet intro.)
I don't know when the promos for the 2 hour episode were played but I sure didn't see them. And I yell at the National almost every night. So compromised, so often. We are almost clear now that the "crisis" over Mo99/Tc99 cows is really about AECL using the media to pressure its nuclear regulators to get Maple 1 and 2 OK'd. And that they broke serious safety rules with the current reactor producing SOME not ALL of the world supply of Mo/Tc99. Hey another episode, Chris. Fly Mary or someone to Chalk River. Another set of crooks, much less appealing than Dante.
Da Vinci and now Intelligence have made the CBC respectable in spite of much evidence.
I keep hoping so much.
Terry Engler
07-12-2007
promotion
I am a regular watcher of CBC and the lack of promotion for Intelligence is shocking. My whole family enjoys the show and my daughter who is 24 loves the program. If CBC is really trying to attract younger viewers they should keep Intelligence on the CBC for as long as there are new scripts coming in and propmote it. As a trade unionist I support Chris Haddocks work and his efforts to support the local film industry, in the marine industry we are working hard to protect good jobs for our children and grandchildren and we must support each other. Thanks for the excellant article Murray and keep up the good work.