If Ed Robinson was a stand-up comic, he could be billed as a ‘one-man riot’.

But he’d have to rewrite the short novel that serves as his title: EVP, programming, CTV, and president and GM, The Comedy Network and Space.

Robinson’s lofty labels are apt for a man who has literally laughed all the way to the top of the nation’s most-watched network as well as the country’s leader in comedy.

According to Canadian Media Research, TCN has had higher ‘best of’ scores for its comedy/variety shows than other broadcasters – including the Canadian and U.S. networks – in each of the past five years (see diagram).

‘That’s because you laugh twice as hard when you watch The Comedy Network,’ Robinson says with a characteristic chuckle.

Back in 1996, CTVglobemedia CEO Ivan Fecan was head of Baton Broadcasting, and he personally appeared before the CRTC, beating two other comedy channel contestants with his TCN application.

Fecan convinced Canada’s airwave traffic controller to give him the official licence to laugh, then scooped Robinson away from the CBC and appointed him chief cook and bottle-washer for TCN, which launched a year later on Oct. 17, 1997.

In a Q&A with Playback, Robinson yaks about TCN’s relationship with CTV – ‘like a dirt road to the 401’ – and more.

How did TCN really get going?
I was employee number two. When I arrived, I was given a desk and a room full of boxes. They were full of proposals. People were just firing in their proposals right away, and I’d seen 75% of them before at CBC.

How would you describe the TCN relationship with CTV?
Like we’re drivin’ on the dirt roads [at TCN], and if we’re lucky, we make it to the highway. We can have some dust and rocks firing out from under us, and then we hit the 401 with good shows.

It’s definitely one of the things I’m most proud of. We can find talent and work with them on The Comedy Network first.

Was using TCN as a training ground part of the original corporate strategy, or did it just evolve that way?
It’s evolved that way. There were very few comedians who were ready to make the leap to conventional TV, which is high-risk. TCN can be much more of a risk-taker, so we can be much more adventurous in the things that we do – more subversive and certainly more outrageous, and more targeted towards a younger demo. That’s TCN’s mandate.

What were the initial stages of this evolution?
When I started, it was totally dedicated to the startup and running of TCN for three years. Once it was up and running, the CTV programming group, headed by Susanne Boyce, wanted to take advantage of the kinds of programming we were doing. So we used to have joint programming meetings.

At those meetings there was also Outdoor Life Network and eventually The Sports Network [TSN], and there was a roundtable, so to speak, with an eye to programming – to share what was happening with each service. It became a really interesting way of cross-pollinating and helping each other to be aware of who was out there for projects. It was a team effort from a programming point of view.

When did you feel certain that TCN was really working?
As we got into year three, we were surprised at how quickly advertisers supported the channel…We had more money, so we spent it.

When you have more money to play with, the quality goes up and you can spend more time on a project and care for it.

What year did the TCN and CTV relationship solidify?
In 1999, I became half and half – 50/50 – 50% programming Comedy and 50% on the CTV schedule. In 2000, there was a restructuring and I became a title for CTV as well.

What stage is the CTV-TCN relationship at now?
Where we’ve come to now is TCN is the place to consider all the comedy programs. So the comedy stream of CTV comes through TCN and the decision is made whether it’s better for traditional TV or specialty.

How do you decide what gets made and what goes to the 401?
There are three streams. The first stream is stand-up comedy, and we have had strength in stand-up in this country for years and years and years.

Comedy Now [in its 11th season] is a half-hour series where each episode is a different stand-up comic in front of a different audience. For the comic, it’s sort of their audition tape. I call them ‘specials’ – it’s their kind of comedy. It’s a showcase for upcoming comics. It’s not just established comics. Brent Butt did one in season one.

What is the second stream all about?
Stream two is improv or sketch comedy. Comedy Inc. is a number of improv and sketch performers, and it’s now in its fifth season, but we’ve supported improv and sketch players from the beginning.

Sketch comedy really is character acting, so it’s comedic actors who know how to bring a character to life.

And stream three?
Stream three is scripted. It’s the most expensive, because it’s drama, but it’s comedic. All the elements – writers, producers, showrunners and performers – are all part of what’s required for a half-hour comedy like Corner Gas or Robson Arms. It’s hard. And there’s a giant that producers are measured against: you have to be as good as the States. Their’s was Two and a Half Men, and in Canada it’s Corner Gas, and I cannot tell you how proud I am.

So what’s next?
We’d love to see the number two comedy in this country be Canadian as well. I believe the success of a Corner Gas allows you the next one. It allows you to dream that big, and it allows you to go for it. If you find the right connection with the audience, that’s totally the key.