Or so the rumblings from my striking friends would have me believe...

Much like Regenesis in that respect.

Like a sciencey X-Files. And the science scares the shit out of you.

Recently there was a story about geobacters being considered as an energy source. Last season, or the one before, Regenesis did a Geobacter story. Much darker though.

Shameless is far better than any american equivalent could be. But I'm sure we would find a way to fuck it up.

Almost half of what I watch is British or Canadian anyway, so this is fine with me. For that matter, why doesn't Showtime just sell Weeds to the BBC and let them relocate Nancy Botwin and her clan to some quaint English suburb? It would fit-- She's gotta move away from Majestic now that the town's burning down-- so why not go to the U.K. and see how selling pot would work over there? The culture shock, the difference in organized crime. . . The way Shane and Andy would react to all the lovely British ladies. . . It would be more fun than waiting around for new episodes. The could move her to Canada, too. Why not? The drug laws in Canada are a bit more tolerant than in the States, so she might find it to be an attractive notion.

They could do this with a lot of shows. Move Heroes to Canada-- It can't hurt at this point! Drop the old CSI shows and make CSI London or CSI Toronto. SciFi shows like Battlestar Galactica could just as easily be made by Canadians or Britons. Comedies are also easy to work out as Canadian or British creations. Hell, dump our version of The Office and just start airing the original-- It's better anyway. Sell the rights to American shows on a limited basis, or work out a share agreement with the CBC/BBC.

There's more than one way to get scripted shows back on the air, and step around this mess. Perhaps a lesson in humility will be learned here, WGA members. You're not special. There are a billion people who could do what you do. You only have leverage because you have the union. If you didn't have the guild, you'd be fired for striking and there would be thousands of people competing for your job (and some of them doing it better).

Yeah, everybody deserves a decent wage for their work. Everybody deserves credit for what they do. However, writers, directors and actors are all treated like they are the only creative contributors to screen projects, and that's simply not true. A Lot of people use their CREATIVE talents to make a movie or show come to life, and to say that the writers are any better or more deserving of residuals than the rest of the creative team is just arrogance at its height.

Personally, I'd love to see the foley artists, costume designers, make up artists, set designers, and other creative contributors to TV/film projects just walk off and tell the writers to "build it themselves" or tell actors, "Let the writers do your makeup." -- But then, they don't have the same sort of Guild power behind them, do they? If the makeup artists walk off and strike, the studios would just hire new makeup artists. If the musicians and foleys go on strike, they would be replaced by others without hesitation.

I don't have a problem with the writers wanting more money-- Greed is the great American passtime, after all. My problem is that their power in this struggle is very disproportionate to what others in the industry could muster, and they're abusing it for their own gain while not giving a shit about the people who are out of work because of them. My problem is that the WGA would NEVER go to bat for residuals for costume designers or makeup artists or any other creative group on a film set. They'd stand up for directors or actors, sure. Others would get snubbed, and HAVE gotten snubbed through this current action.

So bring on the BBC's best! Bring on the Canadian creations! I'll support them because I know that those shows in those countries are where a lot of the disenfranchised creative workers have to go to make a living now that the writers have closed down American productions.

Hey, may the WGA get they want. More power to them! They'd just better not expect that they'll get the same level of respect and civility from other creative workers as they did before they threw their hissy fit over residuals. I can't imagine any scenario where they go back to work with MORE pay, and can look the costume designers in the eye knowing that not only did these people not get any pay bonuses out of their strike (and possibly have suffered a pay cut to afford the residuals for writers), but that they suffered and were unemployed for months because of it.

If I were writing for a TV show, I would not want to face my coworkers after this. I would feel guilty that I'd put them out of work so that I could get a little extra money. I'd feel like a selfish prat.

But then, I don't have a guild boosting my ego, ensuring me of the justice in my cause.

I'm a member of ASCAP, by the way. I don't believe that membership in such a group is an inherently bad thing; I do think that using it to make other people suffer for your profit is just plain selfish, though.

Good luck writers. `Hope you get all that you want and more. It will be fun seeing how the prima donna act flies once you're back to work with people who would never see Internet residuals for *their* creative work even if they stand in the cold for five years.

Seriously, the last thing we need is empty headed Canadian check-the-boxes multi-culturalism TV. Where plot means F' all as long as you said the PC thing.

"There is after all no more heartwarming tradition in Canadian popular culture -- well, okay, unpopular culture: it's the CBC, after all -- than the pleasant frisson induced by the routine portrayal of rural Canadians as halfwit rednecks. One would characterize it as Canadophobic were it not for the fact that the CBC's enthusiasm for portraying us as a nation of knuckle-dragging sister-shaggers reinforces our smug conviction that we're the most progressive people on the planet: we celebrate diversity through the ruthless homogeneity of CBC programming; we're so boundlessly tolerant we tolerate an endless parade of dreary sitcoms and dramas about how intolerant we are. In that sense, the relentlessly cardboard stereotypes are a way of flattering the audience."

When the strike occurred I wondered why the studios just didn't move most of the work overseas. Canada is already a haven for TV shows. Every SciFi show looks like BC in the same way every Western in the 50s/60s looked like SoCal.

Production costs are lower. It starves the WGA out. It means you have a better chance of selling your show internationally.

Really a no brainer for the studios.

The main glitch is SAG and the eventual bifurcation of TV & film (which was decreasing but will now increase).

I need to see Don Cherry's suits in HiDef.

because if a woman can't find you handsome, she should at least find you handy.... at preventing crime.

Now if you'll excuse me, I hear the possum call, so its time for the lodge meeting. Take care, eh?

ba dum dum!!