Reviews
Opening Soon (2001)
Great Show - Different Narrator
Opening Soon was a great show. The narrator for the program was Mitch Cutler who did an outstanding job. Doug Hatters did narration for a few episodes and that was all. Mitch Cutler did the narration for all seasons except the last as he had other voice over and narration gigs that made it impossible to continue with the series.
The series was edited and voiced in Toronto. There were a lot of things not revealed in the series such as arguments and even fist fights that broke out during some of the openings.
Overall it was an excellent series and it would be great to see it's return with the original narrator Mitch Cutler.
The Jane Show (2004)
Once again another stupid Canadian sitcom
Here's why the Jane Show won't work. Once again Canadian bonehead producers and writers can't create a sitcom without putting some kind of different spin on it. I guess these people don't watch a lot of T.V. from the U.S. which has the sitcom model down pat. No, here we have to do something different, we have to make the A story absolutely absurd and then have a meaningful B story to try to make up for it. The characters are two dimensional and the story lines are way over the top: Forklift races??? give me freaking break. Here's a little advice for the writers of the show, Don't write funny situations, find the funny in situations. And remember, you have to be born with a sense of humor to write truly funny stuff, not just be an improv monkey.
The Seán Cullen Show (2003)
Didn't work
The Sean Cullen Show was pretty much an abomination. Here is supposed to be some of Toronto's best comedic talent and it fell flat on its face. I'm not sure why Canadian TV producers just can't produce a situation comedy like everyone else in the world. CTV seems to have it with Corner Gas, so where's everyone else?
If you look at every other sitcom based on a comic's standup (Ray Romano, Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen DeGeneres) they have the comic play a character either themselves or someone close to themselves. Why couldn't' Sean Cullen be some blue collar dude, and here are his neighbors and his family and friends. A sitcom is about the writing and the characters, the backdrop doesn't really matter.
So the Sean Cullen Show decides it's going to be different. The CBC who is using tax payer's money, isn't going to go with a business model that works, instead they want to re-invent the wheel. Here's what you get. A show that is confusing, the whole 50's as deviant lifestyle is so played and unoriginal. Bring down the fourth wall didn't work either; it brought the momentum of the show down every time they had to cut to the audience. Giving away prizes was also pretty cheesy. Are you a comedy show or a game show? Make up your mind.
It's too bad that so many talented Canadian writers wind up in L.A. If you ask them, many will tell you the opportunities were better in the U.S. But many of them will also say that there weren't a lot of opportunities in Canada. Perhaps if Canadian networks like the CBC would create a sitcom and create a writing room with 20 talented available writers, then maybe one day they'll actually have a hit on their hands.