Two TV executives could not have looked more like friends than Ian Greenberg and Charles Schreger as they recently stood side by side in a Toronto nightclub to herald the launch of HBO Canada.

Greenberg, president and CEO of Astral Media, and Schreger, HBO president of worldwide programming sales, were joined in their launch celebration by Corus Entertainment president and CEO John Cassaday and Corus Television head Paul Robertson.

The deal is not for a live feed of the U.S. HBO channel, but rather a repackaging of HBO series already airing on The Movie Network and Movie Central, as well as some new programs.

Schreger took the microphone to declare that the deal may never have come off but for a pair of pants.

He smiled and recalled crunch negotiations between himself and Greenberg earlier this year in rural Quebec.

In the hands of the lawyers, the deal for HBO Canada was going nowhere.

So Greenberg invited Schreger up to the Eastern Townships to dine with him at his golf club, alone.

The two men had known each other for two decades, so you’d think they’d easily know how to read each other’s body language, establish trust, make offers and counteroffers, and to shake hands on a deal.

You’d guess wrong.

Schreger said he’d long felt painted as the ugly American – mercenary and driving hard for a deal, while Greenberg, the consummate Canadian, would wag his finger and insist he takes negotiations personally on behalf of his family-controlled business.

You almost feel for Schreger. He represents a plum cable TV property. With HBO, you don’t waver, or utter ‘just looking’ when eyeing its wares.

Schreger knows HBO is the belle of the ball. He expects Astral and Corus to follow its lead.

Then again, you feel for Greenberg. The thought of inviting HBO into Canada must stick in his throat. TMN, backed by its HBO output deal, is already a very profitable business, as is Movie Central for Corus in Western Canada.

So Greenberg was looking in his negotiations with Schreger for that magic combination of programming and price that would continue to make a buck for Astral and Corus in pay-TV.

Now to the pair of pants.

Schreger arrived at Greenberg’s golf club and both men were ushered into a dining room that was empty except for staff who said ‘Hello, Mr. Greenberg’ and awaited his direction.

But not long after they were seated, a club manager discreetly came over and motioned Greenberg into the next room. Schreger thought he had a phone call.

There was no phone call.

Instead, the manager reminded Greenberg that the exclusive golf club – which has only 50 members, each having paid $200,000 as an entry fee – has a rule that disallows members and guests from wearing jeans. And Schreger, having packed for the Quebec countryside, was wearing jeans.

On Greenberg’s return, the HBO exec recalled, Schreger was hustled off to the pro shop to try on loud and pricey golf slacks.

And only with that purchase did the two men return to the dining room, Greenberg’s face by now as crimson as Schreger’s pants, to continue lunch and attempt to hammer out terms for HBO Canada.

To paraphrase an old saying, no good negotiations go unpunished.

Of course, when Greenberg – who’d been smiling and laughing during Schreger’s ribbing – stepped to the microphone, he told a slightly different story – and took his own jabs.

Yes, Charles was his dear friend, having last winter invited him to his Pacific Palisades wedding to Shebnem Askin, president of distributor 2929 International.

And yes, he’d been happy to have Schreger up to his golf club. Greenberg even had the dining room cleared for the occasion – not that he has that much pull in the joint.

‘There’s 50 members in the club and I’m the only Jew, so I walk on eggshells there,’ Greenberg deadpanned.

And he did recall the dreaded moment when the manager who had taken him aside for a supposed phone call held up a pink pad with no phone number on it.

‘He wanted to know, ‘Shall I save you the embarrassment and tell your friend myself, or will you?” Greenberg recollected.

The Astral boss handled it himself, sending both men to the pro shop to fuss over the pant rack.

‘Some cost $69, some $400. He went for the expensive pair,’ Greenberg zinged, causing Schreger to erupt yet again with laughter, and his newlywed wife to knowingly nod.

In their parrying over a pair of pants, and whatever the irony or cleverness Greenberg and Schreger aimed at with Catskills timing, they offered the launch party audience much meaning and delight.

For here was an illustration of a truth about Canadian broadcasting – namely that deals often get done not because of business ties, but social relationships.

And sometimes they get done over a pair of pants.