Like many fellow Gemini nominees before her, Linda Cullen is quick to point to the fact that receiving a nod after your show has been canceled is ‘the height of irony.’ She does it with a fair bit of grace, though, the kind typical of the comedian’s eye for satire and the optimist’s eye for tomorrow.

Cullen, of course, is cowriter and coproducer, with partner Bob Robertson, of the sketch comedy program Double Exposure, which ctv canceled after a three-year run.

The pair created a long-running, national hit with the same title and similar premise on CBC Radio before making the jump to television. The radio version was heavily focused on current affairs, political and pop culture caricatures and the like.

‘It was a big transition,’ Cullen says. ‘When you write for radio, you have no budgets to consider. You can put Ronald Reagan in a spaceship if you want. You’re completely free. In tv, the sketch stuff is the most expensive, so when you’re writing for tv – the spaceship, for example, you’re pretty much guaranteed not to be able to do that.’

Also like many others, this tv show had its share of funding crises. The producers neglected to get a student to stand in line for them a few years back when Canadian Television Fund monies were going on a first-come, first-served basis, so they had to scramble for alternate financing.

Which might explain why sketch comedy is more popular and, despite Double Exposure’s experience, more doable in Canada than sitcoms. ‘Sitcoms are expensive,’ Cullen says. ‘People should remember that a lot of sitcoms don’t succeed [in the u.s.]. It’s unfair for people to constantly say, ‘We can’t do sitcoms in Canada.’ ‘

Meantime, Cullen and Robertson have shot a pilot for Comedy Network, have received a 40% licence fee from Comedy, and are hoping to get a u.s. broadcaster to license it. It’s called Point Blank and it’s a parody of Dateline. If no American buyer is forthcoming, they’ll have to wait ’til next spring’s ctf funding round to see if the money will come together.

Another pilot is on the shelf, a ‘guerrilla style, out on the street’ type program heading in the direction of Monty Python. She did not mention any broadcast sales, but took herself off to a boat cruise to consider the ebb and flow of the comedy biz. *