Do they cuss on Canadian TV? In fact, tell me about Canadian TV in general.

I can’t believe jackdavinci didn’t mention DaVinci’s Inquest

Canadian TV is pretty much like TV anywhere, in that it has its ups and downs. Even the worst shows can occasionally have an outstanding episode, and even the best series can drop a clanger.

It may help your enjoyment of Slings and Arrows to know that Oliver Welles, Stephen Ouimette’s character throughout the series, is a devastatingly bang-on impersonation of Richard Monette, who was the Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival for 14 seasons (from 1994 until 2007.) Monette was controversial for his ‘commercialization’ of the Shakespeare festival throughout his tenure. During the filming of the first series (much of which was shot on location in Stratford, Ontario.), Monette was quite jolly and supportive of the series. After he saw the first episode, he was not at all amused. The arrow had hit the mark.

Ouimette and Monette continued to get along well, but many of the inside jokes in the series were forbidden humour around the festival.

Other Canadian series to recommend to you - Made in Canada. Similar to Slings and Arrows - it ran from 1998 - 2003 and followed the fortunes of the semi-fictitious ‘Pyramid Productions’. Rick Mercer’s character is particularly delicious in his Machiavellian evil.

Having mentioned Rick Mercer, the Rick Mercer Report is his current series. While some aspects of it might be too closely based on current Canadian politics, some of it is timeless. Canadian icon Pierre Berton rolling a joint on the CBC was a great coup. And I don’t think it’s something you’d see at 8 PM on NBC…

A somewhat edited version of The Sopranos ran on CTV (regular broadcast) at night a few years ago. I haven’t actually watched either version, so I don’t know how much editing went on, but I’m guessing they would just edit out ‘fuck’.

Also, what a lot of people don’t know is that Canada has a hand in a lot of foreign co-productions. The Tudors, The Borgias, The Pillars of the Earth, the new Torchwood and the upcoming Camelot all have major Canadian involvement.

I don’t remember the CTV version of “The Sopranos” being censored, and a little random Googling suggests it wasn’t. Note that it would have been shown at 10:00 p.m. with a warning about nudity, extremely coarse language, etc.

EDIT: Here’s an article on Season 2 on CTV.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Entertainment/20021001/sopranos_watchdog021001/

EDIT 2: Oops, double post.

Ooooh, okay. Thinking about it now, I remember the ads said something about censorship, maybe it was actually ‘uncensored!’. I’m too young for these things to get muddled in my mind. :o

Trailer Park Boys - lots of fucking swearing.

NSFW
Hash Hockey

Now that I’ve lived in the UK and watched the BBC for several years, I now “get” what the CBC is supposed to be. I’ve always known on some level that Canada needs the CBC to keep producing programming that may not be mainstream but reflects what is so great about Canada and the different regions that make up such an amazing country. Programming like Corner Gas, Slings and Arrows, Being Erica, Black Harbour, DaVinci’s Inquest, Street Legal, Degrassi (what was the one about the TV station?), etc is just quirky and eccentric enough to remind me how much I enjoy being Canadian. There is something quite different about these shows and it’s a shame there isn’t enough finding to produce more.

And well, honestly, I’d pay twice the licence fee to watch Paul Gross read the phone book.

They showed “The Tudors” on the public broadcaster at 9:00PM local time uncensored (but edited to fit in commercials) so that should give you an idea of what rules are on Canadian broadcasters.

Canada’s standards are more about context than about rigid rules. If it’s a family show airing at 7pm, it’s not going to have swearing and nudity. If it’s an ‘important’ movie, it will be run unedited. If it’s an educational program about sex, it will be as explicit as necessary, with suitable warnings. If it airs after midnight and is intended for an adult audience, almost anything goes.

I can still remember the controversy when “The Deer Hunter” was run unedited on prime-time broadcast TV in Canada. The regulator’s position was that because it was an acclaimed artistic movie about a serious topic, it deserved to be given more leeway. Nudity and swearing that would be allowed for a movie like that would not be allowed for a prime-time run of ‘Porkys’.

Canadian TV is sometimes strange in that our small population size and potential audience often means poor production values, so some of the shows look cheap. But the content is often quite good. And then once in a while you get a production funded with government money that has very high production values. Or, if a production is designed to be sold out of the country to a potentially bigger audience, the production values may be very good.

And no one has listed one of our greatest Canadian shows: SCTV!

I never watched the show after reading the description of it and deciding it had nothing at all to do with Leonardo.

I almost want to call HIMYM an honorary Canadian show for all of it’s Canuck content.

Do you mean Ken Finkleman’s ‘The Newsroom’?

You might also like the Canada TV forums at Radio-Info.Com

I loved “Corner Gas.” I’ve actually been to Dog River (aka Rouleau, SK). Twice. And I have the photos, DRPD bunnyhug, and Corner Gas top to prove it! My favourite “dirty” scene in the series was in a episode where Brent is sitting in a chair at the gas station while Officer Pelly is giving him a haircut and Brent’s mom comes in and asks what’s going on. Brent replies, “Karen is giving me a little trim.” Brent immediately looks mortified by what he has said and blurts out, “I mean, she’s cutting my hair!” :smiley: Generally speaking, it was an outstandingly funny show, presenting a truly western Canadian sense of humour and perspective that is rarely (if ever) seen on shows produced by the CBC.

Rick Mercer is great! “The Rick Mercer Report,” and “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” before it are basically Canada’s version of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” with a lot of topical, political humour and a particular focus on Canadian goings-on. The number of bits those two programs have managed to pull off featuring our political leaders either getting insulted to their faces or willingly participating in the hijinks really shows the difference between American politicians and Canadian politicians in terms of how seriously they take themselves. I recall, for example, an episode of “22 Minutes” featuring Preston Manning when he was the leader of the official opposition where basically the entire “interview” was a mockery of Manning himself and the platform he had used in the recent election – he had, during the election, promised to turn Stornoway, the official opposition’s large and expensive residence, into a Bingo hall as a cost cutting measure, rather than live there; when his party became the opposition, he backed down on that one and moved in anyway. The “interview” takes place in the living room of Stornoway, with Manning in a smoking jacket, acting very snooty and above it all, but periodically stopping the interview to grab a microphone and call a Bingo number to the game apparently being played in the next room. Awesome! :slight_smile:

Or perhaps “An American In Canada?”

I’d totally forgotten about Newsroom. As it turns out, I had meant E.N.G. With Art Hindle and Sara Botsford, but Newsroom was terrific.

I forget sometimes how much great programming there has been over the years. I rely almost exclusively on Rick Mercer for my Canadian news content. SCTV was amazing in its time. Even Red Green is good for a laugh now and then.

Canadian politicians definitely get made fun of on TV, but most of the time they’re willing participants. :smiley: I was just a kid when Preston Manning was the leader of the opposition, but I loved his guest spots on Royal Canadian Air Farce.

Mary Walsh from This Hour had a persona named Marg, Warrior Princess who would basically accost politicians with loud-mouthed criticism in government buildings. While Googling for that pic, I found an article where she tried to meet Sarah Palin at a book signing but security escorted her away. I’ve read that the sequences are scripted, but they are still hilarious and there’s always onlookers who have no idea what’s going on. It’s a very casual sort of thing.

Check out this Kids in the Hall skit for an excellent explanation of how the federal government funds television programming :wink: You have to get about a minute in and suffer through a racist Chinese joke first, however.

“Screw You Taxpayer”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWEnqC1uPu0

When I lived in Buffalo in the mid 1970s, the Canadian TV stations had the big “Movie of the week” on several days before before the America stations. In “The Godfather” the Canadians showed the breasts of Michael’s first wife on their wedding night. On “Day of the Jackal” they showed more bullets hitting deGaulle’s call in the opening scene and the butt of the aristocratic woman the Jackal sleeps with and kills.

Wouldn’t and didn’t (of course we were all watching it on cable :slight_smile: ). Wince, maybe.

I loved that. Just loved it.

“Corner Gas” was on CTV, not CBC - I don’t think CBC is capable of 1. Making a funny show and B. Shooting a show anywhere except Toronto or Vancouver.

Agreed about Paul Gross - we recently watched his western movie, and it was adorable.

Jim and I have many times speculated on how many of its writers are Canadian to get so many Canadian details right (and make fun of them, of course).

I’ve never heard CBC explained more succinctly. :smiley: (The racist Chinese joke is part of the satire of the skit, eh?)

Two of my current favourite Canadian tv shows - Lost Girl, a drama about a succubus, a werewolf, and a human who tends to steal things that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, a comedy about high school students searching for a Book of Pure Evil that has some drama in it (and people getting splattered with gross things every episode). Both have exactly the proper amount of appropriate swearing and nudity.

I distinctly remember watching Degrassi Jr. High and Degrassi High as a teenager. My sister and I used to make fun of the “swearing” on the show - it never got worse than a character calling another character a “broomhead” (especially on “Jr. High”). Then, I think both mine and my sister’s jaws dropped open when the last episode of Degrassi High was released (as a TV movie), drugs, teenage sex, and a line that I remember in vivid detail: “You fucked Tessa Campanelli???” This wasn’t the Degrassi High we grew up with! (Not like we were shocked to hear the language per se, but going from <s>zero to sixty</s> “broomhead” to “fucked” so quickly was a bit of a jar.) Even while sticking to nothing worse than “broomhead” though, Degrassi (Junior) High was ahead of its time with topics dealing with abortion, rape, teenage drinking, and teenage sex, though the movie still dealt with it more shockingly.

We stayed overnight in the Roleau Hotel (aka the Dog River Hotel). Beat that!

Actually, the piece with Manning calling the bingo game I’m pretty sure was an episode of Royal Canadian Air Farce - which was very similar to Rick Mercer (especially the description you gave), but tamer.

When thinking of the edginess of Canadian TV - aside from the aforementioned “Tessa Campanelli” line, I’m thinking of nudity on a wonderful show that ran called “Twitch City” (where the main character started making out with his roommate’s GF after he got his roommate accidentally jailed - I believe he actually has her top off and starts nuzzling her breasts when the roommate is suddenly home. (The actress playing the GF I believe was actually romanically involved with the actor who played the main character (who was also the series producer))). I also distinctly remember a movie that I ran across on CBC late at night when I was a kid that, at the time I tuned in, had a scene of a young boy (15 or so) having sex with his mother. Both were obviously nude (and you could see parts on both of them). I think the movie was called “Murmurs of the Heart” or something like that.