Over at Google+, I’ve given CBC-related items some attention.  CBC has a (quite boring) 75th anniversary site.  The problem with official CBC functions like this is the sanitized history – here’s Mr. Dressup, here’s Wojeck, hello Peter Gzowski, and so on.

I hope to counteract this state of boredom.  Through the magic of flash video sites and recorded media, CBC’s true history is revealed.  It’s a history full of failed shows, forgotten culture, ignored culture (CBC has a lot of the third option), and great shows CBC did nothing with.  It’s the history CBC would rather people forget.  CBC wants people to forget.

Here are the first thirteen entries in my ongoing effort to provide a better overview of CBC’s 75th anniversary than an episode of Hangin’ In followed by an episode of The Beachcombers.  Newer Google+ compilations will be posted on URBMN every so often.  Check the URBMN Google+ page daily for new entries, as URBMN ‘Celebrates’ 75 Years of CBC!

By the way, I am not paid to endorse the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation like this.  If I was, I’d mention something about Jian Ghomeshi, then take note of a “hilarious” Ha!ifax Comedy Festival compilation.  HFC has a Gemini nomination for Best Comedy Series or Program this year, don’t you know?  It won’t win over Living in Your Car or Call Me Fitz, but I’m sure the nomination doesn’t have anything to do with CBC wresting the Gemini telecast from Shaw Media’s clammy hands.  I’m not cynical.

August 30, 2011: CBC Late Night opening
August 29, 2011: 1978 CBC promos
August 28, 2011: The CFL on CBC, 1977
August 27, 2011: 1979 CBC promos
August 26, 2011: Flappers
August 25, 2011: What It’s Like Being Alone
August 24, 2011: 1987 CBC promos
August 23, 2011: The Odyssey
August 22, 2011: Town Beat!
August 21, 2011: Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie
August 20, 2011: The S and M Comic Book
August 19, 2011: The Tea Party on Friday Night! with Ralph Benmergui
August 18, 2011: Double Up

According to Jayme Pfahl of Vancouver production company Gang of 2, CBC Television has passed on Fancy as a possible series.  Pfahl gives a March 2011 prospective airdate for the pilot itself.  The exact airdate is subject to change by CBC.

Fancy is about children’s show host Maureen Fancy (Kate Hewlett.)  Fancy is cheery on-set, and miserable away from the camera.  Playback and Hollywood Reporter scribe Etan Vlessing also mentions Patrick McKenna and Jana Peck as part of the cast.

Pfahl co-founded Gang of 2 with Angus Fraser.  Pfahl and Fraser recently produced The Cult, a pilot which aired on CBC earlier in 2010.

While Fancy‘s premise isn’t original, I think the idea could sustain a series.  CBC Television has shied away from dark comedies as of late, given CBC’s shift to lighter dramas and reality shows.

100 Things Every Man Should Know and Floorwalker are still in development with CBC.  A third CBC/Gang of 2 project, After, is no longer being developed.

I’d like to see at least one Gang of 2 product get past CBC Television’s pilot stage.  I’m not one to complain about CBC’s existence, but why does CBC keep rejecting shows I might be interested in?  There’s something scary about HBO Canada, APTN and Showcase being the vanguards of edgier comedy in this country.

Mike MacDonald: A Comic Stripped will be released by VSC on October 5, 2010.  The single-disc compendium of his CBC/Showtime specials will MSRP for $19.98 CDN.  The listed running time is 130 minutes.

Mike MacDonald: A Comic Stripped covers MacDonald’s three CBC/Showtime standup comedy specials, On Target, My House! My Rules!, and Happy As I Can Be.  Extras include a commentary track and Mike MacDonald performing air guitar.

Mike MacDonald is the star of the 1989-91 CBC series Mosquito Lake, though he can hardly be blamed for that show being an epic comedy abortion.  More importantly, he’s the voice of Rip Friend in the Teletoon/Fox Kids cartoon Ripping Friends (2001-02.)

MacDonald is one of Canada’s great standup comics, and it’s too bad he hasn’t become bigger than he is.  How CBC goes from Mike MacDonald and The Kids in the Hall to Ron James and The Ron James Show, I’ll never know.  At least one of Mike MacDonald’s old films is out on DVD, even if it is Loose Screws.

Here’s Mike MacDonald from the 1987 Just For Laughs Festival.  You may remember 1987 as the year Eddie Windsor spent a few minutes desperately trying to wring laughs from a dog and a hoop.

Ten years later, Eddie Windsor was featured on The Worst of Just For Laughs.  WoJFL aired just after The Just For Laughs 15th Anniversary Special.  Guess who hosted The Just For Laughs 15th Anniversary Special?

Yeah, Kevin Bacon!  You sons of bitches.

When I published an article about Tangled (CBC: CBC/Shaftesbury Films/Colossal Entertainment/Salient Point Productions Ltd., 2010) last week, I figured it would get a slightly above-average number of readers for a day, then flatline.  Pilot news and reviews generally don’t do well on URBMN, with the exception of B Team.

Tangled is by far the most-searched-for program this month on URBMN.  The article promoting Tangled has 13 comments (not including mine) so far.  Think about it – thirteen comments for a pilot aired in the dead of summer.  I’m usually lucky if one person gives a tinker’s piss about an unsold pilot on CBC, never mind thirteen.

Tangled is the sort of show that fits with CBC’s desired female demographic, yet can also attract a decent male audience.  Aside from the budgetary restrictions that can hobble a show like Tangled, I have no idea why CBC would reject this.  Foreign references are copious, but The Tudors gets away with worse.

Sarah Wayne Callies is Sally or Chloe – it depends on which part of her life one follows.  A sham marriage is planned around Sally/Chloe and Nick Hobbes (Bill Ward.)  Hobbes is seen as a rogue freelancer/former CIA golden boy stealing intel from Sally/Chloe’s employer, the North Atlantic Intelligence Agency (NAIA.)  NAIA is also trying to nail down main antagonist Oleg Gasparian.

Needless to say, there are the twists and turns common to an espionage show.  It’s all familiar stuff, but Tangled at least couches the espionage in proper human drama.  As a pilot, Tangled gives viewers a reason to care about Sally/Chloe’s life, convoluted as it is.

Callies is a bit stiff and monotonous as Sally/Chloe, but serviceable enough as a lead.  Ward plays Hobbes almost effortlessly.  Leslie Hope plays Sally/Chloe’s sister Marlene rather well, understandably miffed that Sally/Chloe has been playing dead for twelve years.  Hope doesn’t have a big part in the pilot, but she makes the most of her role.

I’m not exactly fond of the acting in Tangled.  The acting is a bit underplayed in general, aside from Ward’s character and a few minor characters I can’t name.  At the same time, the balance of action and drama sells Tangled.  Had Tangled made series, I’m sure it would have found its own level.

This isn’t the best pilot I’ve seen on CBC in 2010.  The Cult ranks highest on my list, for its excellent acting and choice of subject matter.  Tangled is still very good, better than the bet-hedging of the concept would suggest.  I sincerely hope Shaftesbury Films sells the series to another network or cable channel.

I don’t usually post obituary notices on URBMN, but this obituary is appropriate enough for here.  John Callahan, the quadriplegic cartoonist/musician/satirist, died July 24, 2010 from complications resulting from a 2009 surgery.  He was 59.

John Callahan has had two shows based on his works, both from Nelvana.  Pelswick aired from 2000-02.  Nickelodeon broadcast the show in the United States, while CBC handled the Canadian airings.

John Callahan’s Quads! is Callahan’s adult show, which first aired on Teletoon and Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service from 2001-02.  Quads! is notable as one of the first Flash-animated series to air on television.

I’m admittedly most familiar with Callahan through Pelswick and Quads!  He’s infamous for his one-panel cartoons.  Callahan was not afraid of offending anyone.  This was balanced with blunt honesty about his struggles with alcoholism, even after the 1972 car accident which severed his spinal cord.

Here’s a link to a Cartoon Brew post about Callahan.  Said link contains I Think I Was an Alcoholic, a short animated film of Callahan’s from 1993.

Frankly, I Think I Was an Alcoholic captures Callahan’s essence much better than either Pelswick or Quads!  Pelswick and Quads! are serviceable shows, yet hardly essential.  I also dog Teletoon for reairing Quads! way too much, since the show does not hold up in reruns.

Callahan’s life is too varied for me to properly eulogize.  Portland, Oregon citizens do this far better than I ever could.

Tangled, the Shaftesbury Films pilot starring Sarah Wayne Callies and Leslie Hope, will air on CBC July 21, 2010 at 9:00 PM ET/PT.  As mentioned earlier on this site, CBC has passed on the pilot.

CBC’s website summarizes the show’s concept as a spy attempting to “remake herself and rediscover her own humanity, even as the bullets fly.”  It’s a female-oriented series, but CBC rarely mounts action shows.  It will be interesting to see how Tangled works on television.

Sarah Wayne Callies will soon appear on AMC’s The Walking Dead, a television adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s long-running zombie comic.  Callies will play Lori Grimes, wife of lead character Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln.)

As for Hope, she guest-stars as Kristina Frye on The Mentalist every so often.  She also appears on Lifetime Movie Network’s Seven Deadly Sins.  Both actors have their fans, so I see at least a torrent for Tangled.

Aside: if Tangled had made series, it would have had to change its name.  Disney will soon debut a film with a similar title.  Maybe Tangled should have changed its name to Being Alias.

Let’s keep this short and sweet.  Michael Seater/Stacey Farber sitcom 18 to Life will air on American networklet The CW.  A two-episode block will air from 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT every Tuesday for six weeks, starting August 3, 2010.

18 to Life was originally set for both ABC and CBC.  ABC bowed out after the pilot, leaving CBC to go it alone.  An average of 553,000 viewers watched 18 to Life in first run on CBC earlier this year.

I’m a bit surprised The CW will air 18 to Life, even if it is filler for a relatively minor program service.  18 to Life hasn’t drawn great ratings for CBC Television.  Then again, The CW’s normal summer ratings suck, and The CW needs a low-cost summer strategy beyond reruns of The Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl.

I like how American sites and magazines note how four Canadian shows will grace American network prime-time schedules this summer.  It’s cheaper for an American network to buy a Canadian program than to launch an American one.  American cable’s learned to live with this reality for years, and it still puts out series like White Collar and True Blood.  What’s the big deal?

This Is That (CBC Radio One: premiered Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 7:30 PM ET/PT; also Saturdays at 10:30 AM ET/PT) is CBC Radio’s attempt to build comedy from made-up news stories.  It’s already the most honest news show on CBC Radio One right now, in that TIT admits that it makes shit up.  You won’t find that candidness on Q or The Current.

Pat Kelly and Peter Oldring are This Is That‘s creators.  Their previous attempt at media humour, Good Morning World, aired in 2007 on The Comedy Network.  GMW was a web series given a berth on TCN in one of the channel’s “is this CanCon enough?” periods.  Like most shows on TCN, it hasn’t fared well.

This Is That has its share of problems.  Kelly and Oldring too often fumble for words, which isn’t surprising for an improv show.  I don’t find This Is That that funny after one episode, though the podcasts prior to TIT‘s debut are worse.  I wonder if TIT will be able to sustain itself for two months without growing stale, since TIT is the very definition of “skeleton crew.”

At the same time, TIT is a fairly accurate parody of the typical CBC human-interest news show.  It has the vacuous host chatter, documentary segment and interview banter down cold.  Oldring in particular could host a serious CBC Radio show, and not sound out of place.

Sadly, I grade shows like This Is That on a curve.  CBC Radio has let loose some real dogs over the years.  I remember the skein of attempts to rip off Double Exposure – The Muckraker, What a Week, National Pastime.  Al Rae/Content Factory’s comedy bits on The House are consistently piss-poor.

At the same time, CBC Radio has mounted The Great Eastern and given a radio sitcom to John Wing, Jr.  The Debaters isn’t too bad, pitting standup comics against each other.  Even Laugh Out Loud has given birth to Cynically Tested’s Truth From Here, which really needs to be a series.

TIT lies somewhere in the middle of CBC Radio’s comedy output.  It’s better than it should be, given Kelly and Oldring’s previous contribution to the Canadian cultural chum mill.  It’s managed to fool the National Post, which already makes TIT more notable than Good Morning World.

I hope This Is That improves in the coming weeks.  Even if the show isn’t that funny, it should at least confuse listeners.  That was a quality The Great Eastern had, enough that I hated the show years before I finally “got it.”  This Is That won’t be CBC Radio’s equivalent of The Onion or Weekly World News, but it should be.  This Is That doesn’t obsess over fake tan jokes, so that’s half the battle won right there.