Vancouver: There will be many production executives in Canada – and maybe even a few in the U.S. – who envy Kevin Beggs, executive VP of series TV for Lions Gate Television. The boyish charmer gets the best of ‘television land’ and ‘television hinterland’ – production power and production subsidy, respectively.

While working for a technically Canadian company, the San Francisco native can keep an L.A. office, lunch with the U.S. network bwanas, cultivate his reputation in the TV power matrix, bask in the greenback-oriented ethos, and fly to the sets of his Vancouver-made, government-supported shows in time for dinner call.

In his hands, program concepts that would otherwise languish in the Finance Department as undercapitalized American shows see the full light of day when he brings them north as six-out-of-10 Cancon shows. And, by using the lucrative tax rebates, he is not burdened by the yoke of Canadiana.

The ‘you-give-me-Canadian-heritage-and-I’ll-fund-your-production’ political tradeoff may indeed feed a sustainable television industry in Canada, but not a growth industry, asserts the one-time public school teacher. And the requirements to meet the heritage standards set by Telefilm – a situation Lions Gate has so far sidestepped – have effectively squelched international sales.

Worse, entrepreneurial Canadian producers who, in other circumstances, might have market-minded visions are forced to conform to a social protocol that diverts their attention.

‘There may be a political agenda that is part of a larger business picture to do shows that have more heritage value than financial value,’ says the man who earned his production chops with eight seasons of Baywatch, arguably the most-watched television series on the planet. ‘But that’s disingenuous and a lot of time wasted doing something that isn’t what your honest business objective [as a Canadian producer] is.’

And it’s no way to make an explosive international hit.

‘It really boils down to doing a passion project or doing a business,’ says Beggs, who adds that he, too, has to navigate the confining waters of CAVCO. ‘The funding requirements that make a [domestic] production Canadian-specific are the very things that undercut its ability to really travel. I get the heritage-preservation argument, but you end up creating a show that is less interesting internationally. People have to get focused on the show itself rather than its country of origin.’

At Lions Gate Television, the small-screen division of Vancouver-based Lions Gate Entertainment started in 1997 by Frank Giustra, the primary business is creating production with the widest possible audience, no matter their taste for beer and maple syrup.

‘TV is a hit business and you are always hoping for the next Baywatch, or Ally McBeal, or Weakest Link. So I am never going to do something that will only hit Croatia,’ he explains. ‘I can’t imagine working for the year and a half or two years it sometimes takes to get a show on the air and limiting yourself to 15 million or 20 million viewers.’

But Beggs, the pragmatic capitalist, sees a more global future for Canadian TV despite the cultural politics because international financing is now the standard in deal-making and the domestic industry is looking to spread its wings.

‘We have Mysterious Ways on the air right now,’ he says, citing Lions Gate’s paranormal series as an example to follow. ‘It’s Canadian content, it’s shooting in Vancouver, it’s a terrific show, it works for CTV, it has two domestic broadcasters in the U.S. in PAX and NBC. It has great commercial and creative success. It’s the only Canadian hour on a U.S. network in primetime since [Due South].’

He confirms there is a bias against Canadian television in the U.S., but that is something to overcome, perhaps by tackling program niches that are more accepting.

‘If you are making a show like The City or Cold Squad or Blue Murder,’ he asks, ‘and it’s contemporary, modern-day, urban and gritty, what are you doing? You are competing with NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Ally McBeal, The Practice…shows that have more money, 10 writers instead of two, actors that cost as much as some of the budgets of shows made in Canada. It’s not a level playing field.

‘The shows we have been involved with probably couldn’t be made without going to a more affordable production environment,’ Beggs adds. ‘It’s fairly miraculous that some of these shows are made period.’

The Canadian breakout show might emerge from the concept-driven reality genre – like Emergency Vets, a show he enjoys in the too few hours he’s at home with his wife and toddler daughter.

‘You have shows written on napkins that can be on primetime the next day,’ says Beggs. And, like Popstars, cloned in international markets, too. ‘It’s exciting and opens a lot of doors for creators who otherwise don’t have the pedigree or credentials to get in a room to pitch [people like] David Kelley.’

And despite his warnings against drama, the Canadian series with the most potential for a U.S. hit is Da Vinci’s Inquest, he says. ‘That is a superior show…at the level of David Kelley and Dick Wolf and those kinds of shows that are so popular at the 10 o’clock hour. I’m a fan of Chris [Haddock]. His show is underrated and under the radar, and he hasn’t gotten enough attention for what he has done on that show, certainly in the U.S. But his agents should be able to correct that.’

Lexx is another Canadian show that piques Beggs’ interest. ‘It’s in the sci-fi genre, not tied to a place and time. It has a cult following in the U.S., and is doing okay internationally as well. It’s succeeding on its own terms. There is no one sitting around watching it wondering whether it is made in Canada. I’m sure it is the beneficiary of every possible tax benefit in the world, and probably something quite lucrative since it’s made on the edge of the universe in Halifax.’

And what about The Associates, the Global series by Alliance Atlantis that actually started with Lions Gate and would have put Beggs face-to-face with the Telefilm dilemma? With some regret – perhaps because the series is going into a second season – he says it’s the one that got away.

‘At the time we were between chief executives,’ he explains. ‘I didn’t have the mandate to sign on to take the international deficit. It was the wrong timing for us. The direction of the show would have been slightly different…but if you don’t put up the cheque you don’t get to participate. We reluctantly had to let that show go and it has become a hit. I never like to lose a show that is ordered.’

Perhaps the series was too Canadian-specific anyway.

‘The Telefilm model is not a model we are focused on. But the normal six-out-of-10 Canadian-content shows we are heavily involved in. That’s been a very positive process. We’ve had a chance to do a lot of really great shows and develop some interesting writers and talent. That’s a terrific business for us.’

Should we abandon Canadiana programming?

‘No,’ says Beggs. ‘It has its place. But other programming can coexist that is more commercial and more international. There is room in the broadcasting and cable spectrum for all kinds of programming.’

Given the appetite to provide production subsidy in Canada, Beggs suggests the money go toward incentives for companies that prove they have an internationally viable product by selling 10 or, perhaps, 50 territories outside Canada.

This summer, Lions Gate will have a healthy slate of productions exploiting the tax-rebate system. Mysterious Ways is in its second season. Tracker, a new sci-fi series with Adrian Paul, is in production in Toronto, which is doubling for Chicago. Beggs also believes he can save money on labor in Toronto over the course of a long-running series, because there are no Teamsters.

The company’s first foray into reality programming is called No Boundaries. And at press time, Lions Gate was awaiting the green light for the UPN series The Dead Zone, based on the Stephen King story. *

-www.lionsgatefilms.com