I've mentioned before that I don't get TV at home. It's been a personal decision, based mostly on the idea that I hated being addicted to useless, mind-numbing TV shows; thinking that these programs added some relevant meaning to my life. So, I bowed out. It's been almost a year since I had access at home, and the only shows I really miss are That 70's Show, and old episodes of Drew Carey. I don't miss getting the news on a day to day basis; I've found that newspapers and internet provide the news so much better than TV. I'm just as well off that I'm not watching GH anymore; I've heard I haven't missed much at all.

But, I have to admit something: I am not totally TV free at home.
I get one channel, but for all the good it is, I may as well have an aquarium program running onscreen 24/7. That might be more interesting. But no, the only channel I get is CBC. And CBC sucks. A brief listing of what is regularly played is as follows: DaVinci's Inquest, Coronation Street, Sesame Street, and just for kicks, more DaVinci's Inquest. (Actually, the channel is really my hometown's feed, with CBC filling the primetime slots.)

I have yet to see a great Canadian television program on primetime. I think I know the reason why.

Canadian television tries to knock off American programming. For instance, ala West Wing, we have Snakes and Ladders, a new program depicting life in Parliment. C'est What?

There are many more programs that have come and gone, that have tried to follow American precedence. The worst thing is, and I am speaking for my fellow Canadians is this, we know what these programmers are trying to do! If you're going to rip off American programming, at least do it right. A 'fer instance' here might go something like this.
We (Canadian programmers) want something 'Friends' like. So, since we don't want to blantantly rip off NBC, we will cast different types, other than just white.
We'll throw in a Native. We've done good programming with Native characters before, like in The Rez. Or North of 60. We can't have this native too traditional, though. In fact, aside from the odd decoration in their apartment, maybe for the first season anyway, we'll just leave the cultural stuff aside. Friends-like, right? It will have an Indian, though. Maybe we can access some alternate funding for this! Someone find out how we go about accessing grant money.
Hey, we'll throw in a Frenchie! We're bilingual! Quebec will love it. (Although the only french words or phrases will will have in our scripts will be: Salut!(Hi) Tres Bein (Very Good) and AuRevior (Goodbye), because we don't want to confuse the English speaking audience too much. In the second season, we might have the character branch out more.
We can't really situate it in NewYork, but we want that NewYork feel. Vancouver, here we come!
Later... our tv show is actually doing well. Let's pull it.

I would support Canadian television if they could come up with anything decent. That wasn't a rip-off. That wasn't history oriented. That wasn't set in P.E.I.
I'm not saying we don't have some great performers, and really, the writing (at least what gets shown is adequate) but there is never going to be a show that can cross borders the same way that American television does here, if something innovative doesn't get done. And if it does look like it's catching on, for godsakes don't yank it!
(Incidentally, Canadian mainstream movies might be in the same boat. I was all set to see the movie 'FoolProof'; it looked great! It wasn't in the theatres for 2 weeks before it was gone again!)

Anyway, I'm off. I won't say that I won't check to see what is on my TV, because I'm optimistic by nature. Maybe one day, I'll find a show that I'll want to see. But, only if Canadian programmers wise-up and see that what they release really doesn't work.

At least, not for me.