With few surprises or emerging trends, the 2002 fall TV lineups, announced in early June, reflect, for the most part, a safe and balanced approach to programming.

As per usual, Global’s and CTV’s big new comedy and drama series come from south of the border, but all three major Canadian broadcasters are presenting a healthy slew of homegrown MOWs, documentaries and specialty programming.

Susanne Boyce, president of CTV programming and chair of the media group, says Canadian programming in the network’s 2002 fall sked equals or surpasses last year’s, singling out the season’s documentary lineup as a good showcase of homegrown production. CTV’s documentary slate includes 13 Canadian docs and its original Canadian movie package includes 10 films.

‘We feel that MOWs are working very well for us,’ says Bill Mustos, senior VP, dramatic programming. ‘We’re getting great audiences with them.’

CTV’s MOW 100 Days in the Jungle tells the true story of eight pipeline workers, seven Canadian, who were abducted by Colombian guerillas. Produced by ImagiNation Film and Television in Edmonton and Vancouver’s Sextant Entertainment, the film is directed by Toronto’s Sturla Gunnarsson (Rare Birds).

Agent of Influence, coproduced by Calgary’s Alberta Filmworks and Montreal’s Galafilm Productions, speculates on the mysterious death of Canadian ambassador John Watkins in 1964 and is based on the book of the same name written by Ian Adams.

CTV’s 13 Canadian documentaries examine everything from the legal and ethical issues surrounding human genetic property (Confidential Tracks, Ruby Line Productions) to Canadian minor league hockey players (Tough Guys, Trailer Park Productions/Topsail Entertainment). Depression: Fighting the Dragon, examines medical breakthroughs in mental illness (Dreamfilm Productions) and The Ocean Ranger Disaster, filmed in Newfoundland, chronicles the worst offshore drilling accident in North American history (Cine Nova).

On the comedy front, CTV is banking on The Holmes Show, a 22-episode, half-hour sketch comedy series to be aired Thursdays at 8 p.m. It stars Jessica Holmes, Roman Danylo and Kurt Smeaton and is produced by Year End Productions. Alliance Atlantis’ The Eleventh Hour, showrun by Semi Chellas and directed by David Wellington, replaces The Associates as the network’s big one-hour Canadian drama series. The 13-part series, which goes into production in Toronto in August, is about a television newsmagazine and the crew that investigates and produces the show.

‘People in Canada have a fascination with news and news magazine shows,’ says Mustos. ‘The thing that sets Eleventh Hour apart is the quality of writing.’ Chellas makes her foray into television with the series.

Canadian miniseries, MOWs

and docs on CBC

CBC’s 50th anniversary celebration kicks off the network’s fall season with more than 26 hours of special programs to commemorate the broadcaster’s last five decades in the business. The month-long celebration includes the one-hour comedy This Special Has 50 Years, starring members of the Royal Canadian Air Farce, and This Hour Has 22 Minutes; Dominion of the Air, a doc from Mark Starowicz about the creation of Canada’s broadcasting system; and Tuning In: Fifty Years On The CBC, the signature archival series, which has host Rick Mercer talking to Canadians.

The fall launch also includes the introduction of six new shows for its comedy night on Friday, including: Sean Cullens’ new six-part series The Sean Cullen Show; the six-part Rideau Hall, featuring Bette McDonald as a disco diva turned Governor-General; Mary Walsh: Open Book, a half-hour book club; S&S Productions’ dramedy An American in Canada; and Jonathan Cross’s Canada, featuring Jonathan Torrens conquering small-town Canada.

‘To continue to have a dominant position in Canadian comedy, you can’t simply rest on your historic successes,’ says Slawko Klymkiw, executive director, network programming. ‘The whole issue for us is to make sure we have this remarkable combination of great traditional tent posts in the schedule and new comedies that are going to drive maybe slightly younger audiences and really allow us to stay dominant in that area.’

The public broadcaster did not, however, add a third dramatic series on top of Da Vinci’s Inquest and Tom Stone.

‘We will always have two or three dramatic series on CBC, but we’re spending a lot of time looking. That’s why we haven’t gone to a third one this year,’ says Klymkiw. ‘We have a lot of stuff in development and it’s going to be ruthlessly Darwinian. The best dramatic series ideas are going to flourish to the top.’

CBC’s new lineup will include drama in the form of 11 new Canadian MOWs and miniseries, including Hemingway and Callaghan: Fighting Words, produced by Christina Jennings of Shaftesbury Films and directed by Trudeau’s Jerry Ciccoritti, and Ken Finkleman’s feature-length adaptation of The Newsroom, coproduced with Jan Peter Meyboom.

‘There are more MOWs and more miniseries all together,’ says Klymkiw. ‘Limited series and miniseries make sense for us because you can really build a promotional campaign like we did with Trudeau. I think you’re going to see us moving more and more into the limited series, miniseries world.’

CBC’s documentary specials include David Suzuki’s four-part, one-hour series The Sacred Balance, which examines the impact of technology on human perceptions of nature; and two new docs from Mark Starowicz, Asteroid! and Go Ask Alice: Women, Men and Menopause.

Although Global’s 2002 fall lineup announces a total of 16 new U.S. series and only two new Canadian series, the broadcaster announced that it will produce more than 30 one-hour documentaries from Canadian producers throughout the country, for which it will create an umbrella branding.

Doug Hoover, VP programming for Global, says documentaries are a better vehicle for giving exposure to producers from Canada’s various regions than more expensive dramatic series or MOWs, which he says tend to result in broadcasters using the same production companies over and over again.

‘In terms of new domestic product, documentaries are quite important to us because they incorporate producers from various regions including outside of Ontario,’ says Hoover. Global also announced two new Canadian series: Cirque du Soleil from Galafilm and Creations Musca and the latest version of Popstars seeking a solo artist.

-www.ctv.ca

-www.cbc.ca

-www.globaltv.com