The person who first suggested that CBC should hire Fred Fuchs was Fred Fuchs.

The noted Hollywood producer took over earlier this month as the Ceeb’s exec director of arts and entertainment programming, replacing longtime vet Deborah Bernstein. He got the job after calling network EVP Richard Stursberg.

‘I called Richard and said, ‘Have you thought about me?’ He was very surprised I would even consider the job,’ Fuchs says.

Fuchs started a TV division at Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope Studios before relocating to Canada in 2001, and produced shows including the NBC miniseries The Odyssey, a four-hour version of Moby Dick for USA Network and the CBS mini The Titanic. He also has a lengthy movie resume, including producer credits on Coppola’s Dracula, Frankenstein and The Godfather: Part III, to name just a few.

One of his first projects north of the border – the stop-motion animated series What’s It Like Being Alone by animator Brad Peyton – will air later this year on CBC.

‘I can understand why people would say, ‘Why does he want to do this?’ The important thing is I chose to do this because I really feel there is an opportunity to give something back,’ he says.

‘I’d like to believe I will look back and say I was part of contributing to making the CBC an exciting place to work at. That’s a very doable thing, because people really love the CBC, and want the CBC, and deep down they understand how important it is,’ he adds.

Fuchs is now responsible for developing and producing dramas, comedies and varieties for the third-placed network, and comes aboard shortly after another outsider, former Alliance Atlantis executive Kirstine Layfield, took over as programming czar. Both report to Stursberg and will work on the future direction of CBC’s schedule.

Fuchs did not put forth any hard details about his plan to revive CBC drama, except that the net needs two or three hits to get back in the game.

‘It’s not rocket science. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. I don’t think you will see a giant new strategy transformation. It just comes down to making good-quality programming,’ he says.

Stursberg has said that, going forward, CBC dramas should look to draw one million viewers per episode. Fuchs would not be drawn into the numbers game.

‘I don’t know if it’s about getting the numbers up. Yes, I want to make programs Canadians want to watch. But that’s not to say everything will be designed for a huge audience,’ he says. ‘But in general, there’s a sense that if we make the programming at the CBC more relevant, more people will watch.’

His schedule will include What It’s Like Being Alone. A 6 x 30 run was scheduled to run in 2004/05, but Fuchs convinced then-programming boss Slawko Klymkiw to order a full 13.

‘I told Slawko, ‘Six episodes isn’t enough. Canadians will just be getting excited about it and it’s off the air.’ God love him, Slawko ordered seven more episodes,’ says Fuchs, smiling.

Klymkiw, now running the Canadian Film Center, salutes Fuchs’ creative gumption, saying he ‘has a real passion to incite and create conditions for emerging and new talent to be successful.’

Veteran producer Bernie Zukerman (This Is Wonderland) once shared office space in Toronto with Fuchs and praises the CBC for putting a tried-and-true producer in a top creative post.

Zukerman adds that the Canadian production system was foreign to Fuchs when he first arrived here, but not for long. ‘He caught on fast,’ Zukerman says.

Stephen Waddell, ACTRA’s national executive director and a longtime cultural nationalist, has no qualms with Fuchs’ American roots, commenting that he ‘looks to be well qualified.’

Before joining CBC, Fuchs had an EVP post at Toronto prodco Peace Arch Entertainment. He has severed all his previous production ties.

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