‘The challenge tomorrow is the same as it was a day ago: to tap the vast pool of talent stretching before us, to find those among us with a passion to tell a new and another story.’

Jim Burt accepting the Academy Achievement Award for exceptional contribution to the Canadian television industry at the 13th Gemini Awards, Oct. 1998.

jim Burt waged a ten-year battle to bring the story of The Last Temptation of Big Bear to the screen.

With the persistence and tenacity that marked his decade tenure as cbc’s creative head of movies and mini-series, Burt fulfilled a dream with the broadcast of the Big Bear mini-series on Sunday, Jan. 3rd. He didn’t live to see the telecast. A day earlier, at the age of 51, Burt lost his fight against brain cancer.

‘Jim was one of the best friends Big Bear had,’ says Gil Cardinal of Kanata Productions in Edmonton, one of the producers behind the project. ‘He wouldn’t let it die even when it was difficult for us as producers to keep the project alive.’

The passion and commitment to drive projects forward against all odds is evident in the body of work that is Burt’s legacy. Despite the daunting obstacles weighed against the development and financing of long-form drama in Canada, Burt guided over 75 cbc tv dramas to the screen.

‘He never gave up on a good story, often driving colleagues and filmmakers to distraction with his assurance that it would come out all right if we plugged away at it,’ says Brian Freeman, executive in charge of development for movies and mini-series, who has overseen the department since Burt’s illness.

Burt championed uniquely Canadian stories that touched a cord with a wide range of audiences and garnered international acclaim: Conspiracy of Silence, The Diviners, The Boys of St. Vincent, Life With Billy, Little Criminals, Dangerous Offender, Million Dollar Babies, Peacekeepers, The Arrow, My American Cousin, John and the Missus, Glory Enough For All, Bye Bye Blues and Bethune, to name a few.

‘Jim pushed the boundaries as to the kinds of stories we did on the network,’ says Slawko Klymkiw, executive director of network programming at cbc. ‘He fought with all of us day and night to get as many projects as possible on the air. He saw the cbc as a place to tell the stories other broadcasters would not have the courage to air.’

Industry ‘privileged’

In receiving the Academy Achievement Award for exceptional contribution to the television industry at the Gemini’s last October, Burt, through a speech read by his sister Nancy Taylor, said he had been ‘privileged to observe and participate in an exploding Canadian film and television industry.’ It is rather that the industry was privileged, says ctv president Ivan Fecan, who is a former director of tv programming at the cbc. He points out that, ironically, it was a u.s. expatriate who held this strong vision of dramas that would reflect and speak to Canadians.

‘He is the American who taught Canadian’s how to tell their own stories,’ says Fecan.

Born in Providence, RI, May 17, 1947, Burt began his career in television at the cbc in 1976 as a story editor under John Hirsh, then went on to become a freelance story editor. He returned to the cbc in 1984 as supervisor of script development and in 1989 succeeded John Kennedy as creative head.

A writer himself, Burt penned the historical drama Sam Hughes’s War, starring Gordon Pinsent and Douglas Rain, which aired on cbc in 1984. Throughout his career he continued to foster close ties with Canada’s screenwriters, nurturing and fostering the talent pool.

Great writing was the key to Burt’s approach, says Freeman. ‘He believed that if you found the writer, the writer would find the story and he had a way of helping the writer achieve their own intentions without imposing a line of thought or approach on them.’

One of the writers he shepherded was David Adams Richard. In 1976, Richard wrote his second book Blood Ties, which he says attracted little interest outside his native Maritime provinces. And yet Burt read the book and sent a letter to Richard immediately, inviting him to Toronto because he felt the book should be adapted for television.

Although the project never got off the ground, Burt pushed to ensure Richard had the opportunity to make the transition from author to screenwriter at the cbc, and Richard went on to pen the scripts for Small Gifts, For Those Who Hunt The Wounded Down, and Nights Below Station Street.

b.c. writer Pete White, who scripted Striker’s Mountain and Peacekeepers remembers his first meeting with Burt. ‘I didn’t know what to think of him. He was such a character – he talked a mile a minute with this incredible enthusiasm that he just couldn’t contain. He was constantly telling stories, recounting all the scripts in development and reciting scenes line by line. He respected the writer and the importance of the script.’

Writer Linda Svendson, who worked with Burt on The Diviners and The Sue Rodriguez Story, says ‘Story conferences with Jim were like Olympic trials.

‘He was like a speed skater when it came to story ideas – he went 100 kilometers per hour. It was exhausting and exhilarating. Then after 48 hours of this, you would meet him for dinner and be slumped over the table while Jim would be pitching more stories.’

In recognition of Burt’s desire to foster Canada’s screenwriting talent, his family has set up a trust fund for the development of new Canadian writers: The Jim Burt Writers’ Development Fund, under the care of the Writer’s Guild of Canada.

Demanding and excited

Burt’s unending energy, excitement for his work and fastidious attention to detail are recalled by many.

Laszlo Barna of Barna-Alper Productions says Burt gave him his first shot at drama production.

‘Once you presented Jim with an idea that set him on fire, he gave you the benefit of the doubt. I was a documentary producer trying to sell the unlikely story about a union and a female teamster, but he said it’s a good idea, go ahead.’

Even after his illness and already on sick leave, Burt insisted on taking part in cutting Barna-Alper Productions’ The Sue Rodriguez Story.

He was a ‘tinkerer who drove you crazy sometimes, but it made you really rethink what you were doing,’ says Barna.

‘I spent four hours in the edit suite with him – it was exhausting. He was a prickly son of a bitch right to the end.’

Director Anne Wheeler says many people were intimidated when Jim came into the editing room. ‘But that is where he amazed me most,’ she says. ‘His photographic memory was uncanny. He seemed to have memorized all my rushes.’

Like Wheeler, both Freeman and director Bernie Zuckerman say Burt’s sharp memory was a source of amazement.

‘He could quote whole passages of a screenplay from several years back and compare it with a current draft years later.’ says Freeman. Zuckerman adds that many times he would call up Burt to tap his extensive knowledge of Canadian history and encyclopedic knowledge of the talent base in the country.

‘He knew every writer from Newfoundland to British Columbia and all the acting community.’

Multitalented

In addition to his writing skills, Burt was an accomplished stand-up comedian and theatre performer. After graduating from Harvard University in 1969 he studied stage directing at the Yale School of Drama. In 1973, along with school buddy John McAndrew, Burt headed to Toronto where he became the artistic director of the New School of Theatre and the Pears Cabaret.

Wheeler says just for fun she would sometimes collaborate with Burt on musical comedies and singing performances. He knew the words to all the musicals.

These wide-ranging talents made Burt so valuable as a broadcaster, says McAndrew, now a Toronto-based script editor.

‘He talked to writers as a writer and actors as an actor and then could put on another hat and be an executive.’

Credo Films vp Michael Scott says he never thought of Burt as a broadcaster.

‘I saw Jim as someone who shared in the destiny of a project, as a coproducer not a broadcaster we had to appease. We may not always have agreed with him but it was never an adversarial relationship.’

Burt also managed the delicate balance of fostering talent throughout the various regions of Canada, Scott adds.

‘Jim’s death is a big loss for the regions of the country. He had a real love for regional cultures and understood that it was important to bring them to the fore.’

ctv’s Carol Hayes, a longtime friend who worked with Burt at the cbc as an executive story editor, says they shared a passion for baseball as well as storytelling and would often call each other at night and talk for hours about the scripts they were working on while watching the baseball games.

‘Jim was an extraordinary combination of storytelling talent and passion and that’s a combination that doesn’t come along very often.’

Burt’s love for the television industry moved beyond the cbc to the Banff Television Festival and the National Screen Institute, both of which he served as a board member. His contributions to the industry as a whole were recognized at the most recent Gemini Awards. Earlier in 1998 he received cbc’s English Television Award, recognizing excellence in achievement, dedication and contribution by cbc employees.

Former staff also remember Burt as a friend. Pat Scoffield, who was part of his story editing team, says Burt supported his staff both professionally and personally.

‘He went through marriages and divorces with us, the trials of teenage sons, house fires,’ Scoffield says. ‘We could call him up no matter what and he was there for us. That’s the kind of relationship we all had with Jim.’

Funeral services for Burt were held last week. On Jan. 10, the cbc held a packed memorial at the Glenn Gould Studio.