I’m really enjoying Corner Gas every night at midnight on WGN and when I had cable I used to stay up all night watching Degrassi The Next Generation on The N even though I was in my mid 20s. I’ve also seen other Canadian shows show up in syndication like Cold Squad and Da Vinci’s Inquest, but it’s always at strange times.
A Canadian show based on Douglas Coupland’s JPod (about an EA-like video game company) will probably never be shown on US TV since it was canceled after one season.
So why doesn’t more Canadian stuff show up? The production values seem pretty good (although they all have a very Canadian “feel” to them that I can’t really describe). The shows are routinely great, so what’s the reason?
The average American probably won’t watch a show simply because it’s Canadian. Though I suppose if it was made there but set somplace in the US they might be ok, since they’d probably never know. But by and large, people like seeing shows about places they know. The average American knows roughly what Montreal and Toronto are like, but that’s about it. If there’s some joke in Corner Gas or Degrassi about life in British Columbia vs life in Saskatchewan, everyone in America will go “huh?” Even though I’ve never been to L.A. or San Fransisco (and only a couple of times New York, D.C., and Miami,) I still know, roughly, what they are like, and so does the rest of the world, which is why US shows are the ones exported most.
There’s plenty of great British shows that are rarely seen in America, too. Sure, there’s the newest incarnation of Dr.Who on Sci-Fi, and some stuff is on BBC America, but that’s not even on a lot of cable packages.
ETA: Although lots of border states in the US get Canadian channels. All my life I’ve been able to get CTV, CBC, and even the Francophone CBC.
Hell, I wish we got more Canadian TV here in Canada.
There was once a lot more home-grown TV in Canada, but it’s gettting thinner on the ground all the time. People don’t watch it when they can watch Sex and the City and other quality programs.
( I never actually watched a whole episode of Sex and the City. I mostly don’t watch TV. I don’t belong in this thread.)
Just jumping in here to plug my favorite Canadian show, Due South, which ran for four seasons in the US (four seasons in Canada, but seasons 3 and 4 got combined in the US).
If I had to guess, I’d say the main culprit is just that there is so much more American TV shows than Canadian ones, including some American TV shows produced in Canada itself (BattleStar Galactica and X-Files, IIRC). You get the occasional Canadian gem imported into the US, but for the most part, there’s not much of a compelling reason to.
And then, there is also the occasional mindset which leads to total cockups like taking a great British show like Coupling, and trying to shot-for-shot remake it as an American show, and just totally screwing it up.
I LOOOOOOOVVVVE Corner Gas. I can’t get enough. (“I get 110 shots on goal, but that’s mostly because our defensemen can’t skate backwards” HA HA HA!)
I searched for Corner Gas so often at Netflix that they finally added it to their menu.
Now, can I ask everyone for a favor? If you have Netflix, can you go and add Corner Gas to your queue? Netflix has Corner Gas on the menu, but they don’t seem to actually OWN any copies of the DVD. If more people sign up for them, maybe Netflix will purchase them. (I will inform you when they purchase the DVDs so you can remove Corner Gas from your queue if desired.)
Mmmmm, Corner Gas. Better than Bacon Salt. Or should that be Back Bacon Salt?
A lot of kid’s shows are Canadian - Little Bear, Caillou, Fraggle Rock, Franklin, You Can’t Do That on Television, The Big Comfy Couch…plus there are some shows filmed in Canada but made for the U.S.
How It’s Made is Canadian, as well.
So yes, those supposedly nice, polite people up north are inundating us with their weirdo TV shows, and it’s aboot time we put a stop to it!
psst. About half the time you see scenes of New York, it’s probably actually Toronto.
Indeed… Toronto is (or at least, was some time back when there was still a difference in the exchange rate) the #3 choice for Hollywood movie production, behind L.A. and New York. On any given day, you can see two or three sets on location around town, and there is a huge studio and warehouse district.
And, as noted, several “American” TV shows are shot in Canada, particularly the Vancouver area (which is why so many planets in the SG1 universe look like southern British Columbia).
As for actual Canadian shows shown on US networks, CTV has Flashpoint on CBS*, and CBC has 18 to Life on ABC.
I thought there was a second CTV show upcoming on ABC as well, but I can’t find the link I saw before at the moment.
They wouldn’t be alone in that. Fortunately, there’s Lacey to serve as the proxy of Eastern urbanized Canada.
The Corner Gas humour that’ll escape Americans is most likely the various cameos, including a hilarious one by Adrienne Clarkson. Does one American in 5,000 have any clue who Clarkson is? The rest of the show is pretty graspable, I think, as a cross between the rural surreality of Northern Exposure and the smash-cut sarcasm of Scrubs.
If I had to guess, I’d guess it involves a lot of fussing with down clothing, and a lot of well-lit interior scenes of two people rehashing obvious plot points with flat dialogue and very little camera movement. Then one person puts on down clothing and goes to the mall.
I really wish we got Little Mosque on the Prairie here. I’d really like to discuss it amongst my friends and family. It’s a great show!
I convinced my folks to watch Corner Gas and they’re addicted. They re-watch episodes, whatever is on WGN. I like it because it’s funny for me and them both. Like Sesame Street for adult children of adults
