Paramount Skydance Takeover of Warner Held Up Till Next Year

Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros Studio has hit roadblocks as it increasingly looks like the type of media concentration that the world has been trying to avoid. The Ellison family lays at the heart of much of the controversy with the promise of David Ellison to change CNN to satisfy ally Donald Trump. However, there is so much more going on.

Paramount Pictures as a studio goes all the way back to 1912 and was one of the global big five. In the U.S. it was second oldest studios after Universal Studios and right from the beginning was pursued by the U.S. government for antitrust. In a nutshell, the U.S. government tried to make sure there was a balance between copyright, patents and trademarks as well as ownership and business relations to ensure competition. This has made the U.S. an economic powerhouse.

The movie industry itself would not have grown were it not for breaking up the Edison Trust based upon Thomas Edison's movie making patents. The U.S. government broke up the trust that had operated from 1908 to 1915. Till that time it was foreign films that dominated American screens and enriched overseas owners and Thomas Edison. Independent filmmakers fought back and U.S. courts agreed that the level of control and profiteering was hurting an industry that was set to take off.

The federal government in the U.S. has always regulated the TV industry and pursued antitrust. TV and film companies have been snapped up in various megamergers with invariably comes with massive layoffs and usually less content coming out. Fewer of the studios produce content and there are less buyers of independently produced work. Post Covid, the studios are still struggling with getting things done as well as where things are produced.

The most recent Spider-Man was not produced in the U.S. but in Scotland. California and Georgia even with tax credits are too expensive. Manitoba has perhaps the top tax credit in the world and subsequently has attracted Little House on the Prairie to film here. While Winnipeg does have a number of creatives who produce TV and film, a huge chunk comes from U.S. studios. Little House is a Netflix program. As such, the merger of studios can and will have a large impact on Canada to the tune of hundreds of millions a year or more.

Warner Bros shoots so many shows in Canada and has so many broadcast deals in Canada that is hard to imagine what would have happen if business was interrupted or brought in house such as HBO, a Warner station. HBO is part of CTV's Crave streaming. That would be Game of Thrones franchise suddenly off the network.

Europe and Britain have just approved the merger but Canada has still not weighed in. And in the U.S, many states have gone to court to stop it. If Crave collapses because HBO moves to Paramount+, it could harm Canadian productions such as Letterkenny and Heated Rivalry. Many American unions are against and might only be mollified with four series and two movies a year in California a year.

Truth be told, Warner and Paramount together probably shoot far more in Canada with various movies, TV series and games than they do in California. For example, Star Trek franchises shoot in Toronto for Paramount. For The Arrow and it's universe, they shoot in Vancouver for Warner. In terms of gaming, Warner works out of Montreal. In short, the entertainment industry has big operations in Canada to the term of hundreds of millions. And while this doesn't necessarily help with the creation of Canadian content, it can contribute to buyers of Canadian content.

The worry in Canada's broadcast and cable industry is that if the the combined studio brings everything in house that it mean Discovery programming from Warner will no longer be available on those two platforms. Likewise, Paramount programming like Star Trek will be brought in house to streaming and it could kill cable channels Like CTV Sci-Fi.

In terms of news, CNN is respected in Canada and if the merger hurts them, at least Canada has CBC and CTV news outlets. It hurts the Americans more than it hurts Canadians if the station is degraded. In the U.S., there is huge concern CNN will be pillaged and turned into a FOX-like network. This is more a U.S. problem than a Canadian one. It should be mentioned that CNN is generally looked upon well in Canada.

Canada should be concerned about American studio mergers and concentration but ultimately, they will likely go along with the British and Europe in approving the takeover. Despite concerns of media concentration, suspect overseas ownership and political bias, it is up to Americans to decide if this is what they want. Many don't. And California is particularly affronted by a merger they are convinced it is bad for the state. 

Even with tax incentives, Los Angeles likely won't be happy with this merger as it is so highly indebted and foreign funded, that it can only be paid for by big cuts and likely price increases that hurt the industry. As for Canada, the industry still offers the best price, locations and skill to attract film and TV crews. And more frequently, shows it can create Canadian content the world wants to see. The trick will to make sure we still have venues, streaming sites and studios wanting to buy.

The Fight for Warner Brothers and What it Means for Canada

Warner Bros has gone through so many mergers, acquisition and ups and downs that it is difficult to even keep up with nowadays. It is important to note that the legacy Hollywood studio did start off with four brothers. The name Warner Brothers is the anglicized version of their name from the old country. The youngest of the brothers Jack was born in London, Ontario but was raised in the States. The first film production began in New York in 1910 but by 1917 they began to do work out of Los Angeles.

The patents of Thomas Edison were ended in 1915 by the U.S. courts in an anti-trust case that took the handcuffs off the movie industry. Warner Brothers was the most junior of these new film companies and only took off with the story of a Canadian dog called Rin Tin Tin. But this isn't the history of one of the leading companies in film and television. It is about the future.

Warner Brothers has been constantly been bought and sold by big players. Most recently AT&T sold the company off and it merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery. And now this massive company is in play as Paramount and Netflix fight over it. This has caused widespread panic in Hollywood because Netflix is not a company that produces movies for exhibition as part of its business model. The other suitor Paramount looks like it is very close to the Trump administration and his family and might take the company in a conservative direction. All of the TV and film industry is worried by fewer buyers and distributors of content in the world market. Every one of the mergers is marked by cutbacks.

Warner Bros. Discovery is massive but lately top execs have been treating all non-digital assets as trash and splitting them off from the company. They call the split off part Shitco. That would be the cable assets and the legacy TV channels. Streaming is where the growth is. The big money people hate those assets and yet those assets continue to generate huge cash.

Warner has shot a lot of movies over the years in Canada. It and Deadpool among many have filmed in Canada. Winnipeg has not seen too many. Universal, Netflix and Hallmark are more frequent American studios who film in the city. If Warner gets bought up, do they simply become an inhouse library for either Paramount or Netflix. Do we see massive cuts, shifts in production? Do they simply go all AI?

Warner has gone from one crappy deal to another from AOL to AT&T. It is so bad they call it the "'Warner Bros Curse." Corporate civil war at all times, terrible debt and mismanagement. Buying any studio seems a recipe for debt and heartache. It can work if your corporate structure is set up to support your other businesses. In the case of Sony, was hardware and software coming together where it made sense for it. 

Too often studio purchases are ego trips with terrible debt. And if accountants get too involved, the creativity part that makes the business work gets drowned in a numbers game. While it is nice to have franchises, it can turn on a studio and lose a massive amount of money if the magic is gone.

If Warner does get swept up in Netflix or Paramount, it may hurt supply chains across the world. For example, Warner Bros. produces content for other television networks and partnerships. Netflix tends to keep things in-house and vertically integrated. A Warner merger with Netflix might make a company so powerful that that United States and Europe might order it broken up or not approved at all.

In Canada, it could mean a sold Warner Bros. might equal fewer buyers and distributors of Canadian content. It may hurt Crave TV which uses HBO content. It could hurt cable which uses Discovery content. It just doesn't seem to pass anti-trust laws in any country. Even Donald Trump seems to get that although he couldn't care less about Canada and the world. However, he does know that Netflix would be so powerful that it could be a threat to him. At least Trump's family member has stepped aside from the bid. It might be he saw the potential legal problems or the price was just going to be too high.

The loss of Warner Bros is not the same as Amazon buying MGM. While concerning, MGM was just not the huge player Warner is. Nor did it have news and sports divisions like Warner does. The Paramount deal might have Saudi Arabia and interests owning CNN as part of Warner. The Netflix deal might have CNN stop broadcasting on cable and move to Netflix. All theatres might lose product. It is safe to say that the deal will not close as quickly as any of the parties want and that by 2026, electoral changes could mean a deal is rejected.

Not every deal goes through in business. In Canada, the big five banks wants to merge down to three. The Liberal government of the day said no. The banks survived. It would have not served any Canadian had we gone down to three. One wonders if the government had said no to the Sobeys takeover of Safeway in 2013. The Conservative government of the day let it happen and it did none of Canada good. The lack of competition of food prices is partly to blame for that decision.

Does Canada have a say in it? Possibly. But every time we try to regulate online, the more the U.S. complains. In this case though, it is American interests themselves that fear the Warner Bros. takeover by Paramount or Netflix. The market is also dubious with Netflix stock down. This should be of concern. Disney's takeover of 20th Century Fox is still a drag on their stock price. Because of the world implications on this deal, the Europeans could reject some or all of it. Canada is just thought to be part of the American market so no consideration will be made even if it hurts the theatres, cable industry and our streaming business.

It s unclear what politics might be in play. If Paramount gets the deal, does the company become ultra right wing? If Netflix gets the deal, do become political? It is an overall mess. And may go on long into 2026.

The Hour of Worship Fargo and Religious TV in Winnipeg

Winnipeg knows something about faith broadcasting. Initially, it was radio with Mennonite gospel on CKRC as early as 1947. The radio station CFAM started in 1956 and had a lot of Mennonite religious programs populated the airwaves, In 2020, Winnipeg got its first faith-based channel on FM radio.

One of the reasons the CRTC came in to being was the faith-based broadcasts out of Alberta from Ernest Manning were exploding across Canada where the premier/evangelist made requests for money. This raised concern in Ottawa and the CRTC was formed so that CBC was not the arbiter of broadcasting.

Mennonites were prime drivers of religious broadcasting in Manitoba and while their start came in radio, by the 1960s moves to TV broadcasting began. In Winnipeg, Calvary Temple started Faith to Live by on CJAY which later became CKY/CTV in 1962. It is now one of the longest running TV shows in Canada.

The first faith TV broadcast began in 1950 on ABC in New York during TV's infancy. TV arrived in Canada two years later and the first broadcast in Manitoba was CBC in Winnipeg in 1954, It consisted of three hours of programming. Consumers started buying black and white TV and the programming on CBC grew and it was 1960 when CJAY joined CBWT in Winnipeg as the first private station. The same year, CBWFT, French CBC began broadcasting. 

Across the border KCND in Pembina, North Dakota began to broadcast. With rabbit ear or antennae, it could be seen in parts of the city. This brought a total of four TV stations that could be seen in the city and the 1960s saw a huge increase in programming. Some of it was Canadian, lots of it American but with literally so many hours to fill, much of it was local. Some of that was by mandate but some was practicality of it being cheaper to fill than buying elsewhere.

CJAY at two years old welcomed Calvary Temple's Faith to Live By because production was handled by the church and it filled time on Sunday mornings that the station wasn't sure what to do with. Manitoba on Sundays was very quiet. Blue Bomber games were not allowed to be played on Sundays till 1965! The churches ruled the roost. No shopping, no games and even after 1965, mornings were pretty quiet. So Faith to Live by in 1962 kind of had the audience there for it.

Cable TV did not reach River Heights where I lived until 1968. And until 1970 my parents rented so it was not up to them to install the cable at $10 and pay $5 a month. We moved into our home in late summer of 1970 and by late 1971 had both colour and cable TV. The colour TV was a gift from my grandparents.

Colour TV did not come out till 1966 in Canada but so much of broadcasting was in black and white. Literally everyone I knew was getting colour TVs between 1968 and 1972. In our house, it was Saturday morning cartoons in colour that was a huge attraction. Jetsons and Flintstones were among the the first full colour series to be produced for TV. Older Warner Bros. material that originally has been in colour on the big screen was well suited for Saturday morning.

Sunday was not a day for cartoons in the morning. In Winnipeg there wasn't even a Sunday newspaper. Today, we have Vision TV and JOY-TV for faith-based programming. However, through the 1960s and 1970s Sundays and sometimes early mornings there was faith-based programming. As mentioned, Faith to Live By was one of the earliest on the air in 1962 and now one of the longest running faith programs in Canada. A few others were around for decades like It's a New Day. Church of the Rock has been on CityTV since 1996. Meanwhile, Mennonite broadcasting is done based here in Winnipeg in multi-languages for Russian and Spanish audiences.

Most people who watched TV in the 1960s through 1990s on cable would be aware of Jimmy Swaggert, Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson and whole lost of other televangelists in the U.S. However, there was some more traditionally services on the air too. In North Dakota, a Lutheran Church founded in 1950 began to broadcast in 1967 and because of cable, it was on the dial on WDAZ from the mother channel WDAY in Fargo. This year that church is 75 years old and the broadcast continues to be seen on cable in Winnipeg.

Elim Lutheran Church is a modest church in the Fargo-Moorhead area and because of the reach of cable has been part of the Winnipeg Sunday morning programming since 1968 when cable reached the city. North Dakota and Manitoba have shared a prairies experience living along the Red River. One can imagine the Swedish meatballs that will be eaten at their celebrations as the reach age 75.

It is a reminder that while times are more difficult now, we still share a heritage. The threats weekly from the U.S. ambassador in Canada notwithstanding, it is notable that our contact with our southern neighbour have lasted decades. 

The End of Late Night Talk?

The suspension of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show in the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk is another program that is likely to be fully cancelled. The debate at Disney/ABC rages on. It is uncertain what will happen but some of the big corporate groups are probably soon realizing that their merger hopes probably entail financial payouts to Trump. And there may be no end of it. Worse, they might have to make ever more content choices that are government approved. Even some Republicans are realizing this could be so wrong. Ted Cruz has warned that this could backfire on them a few years from now.

ABC/ESPN wants their purchase of NFL Network to be approved and Disney wants its purchase of FUBO approved. Nextstar, owner of ABC affiliates wants its purchase of TEGNA approved. It is unclear want Sinclair Broadcasting wants. They would probably would like to have conservative approved broadcasts based on their past record. 

The Federal Communications Commission has tried to ensure there is competition to ensure the are more than just a few media voices. However, social media like X, TikTok and others don't really have content or broadcast rules as such. It is whatever their owners want of it. Elon Musk want his platform to be a free for all unless it criticizes him and then he cancels people's account. Or at least, that has been practice in the past.

Conservatives used to call it cancel culture but now they have the power, they are saying people like Jimmy Kimmel have to go because of facts. And that ABC should lose their license because of facts. A variety of Republicans have indicated alarm though, especially changes to hate law which if enshrined in law could hit them as well. There has been talk of a woke right but some on the conservative side.

The purity tests of the left were mocked by the right but now the same thing threatens the right. Blind rage after September 11 led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not enough due diligence was done. Questions were crushed. Rages led the way. Steve Bannon says the goal is to win and have a conservative unitary state. One FOX to rule them all. One President...no elections required.

There have been some who knew Charlie Kirk well who say he'd not want the lack of debate. Hard to say now. But the attack is now on late night shows which have always had political aspects to their monologues going back to radio days such as Bob Hope. Those shows were more variety shows but the genesis of the talk show can be found in those radio shows.

There are certainly some seniors alive today who were born before TV and were quite familiar the radio variety shows and talk show. The monologue to introduce the show and interview format with skits and sketches is. Even as Bob Hope served the USO during the war, he could and did political jokes. Some of them resulted in protests as they satirized Democratic and Republican U.S. Presidents. Hope joked during live, radio and TV broadcasts. His audience expected political jokes. He didn't neuter his performances. Certainly military audiences didn't want him to hold back.

Somehow in nostalgia for a great forgotten period of 1950s, there is the misconception that satire and political humour were something that didn't happen. At times, protests over political humour boiled over. The Smothers Brothers show was cancelled over politics and the Vietnam War. Perhaps the only difference between then and now is that Nixon didn't try to end the network that broadcast the show although there are indications he thought about it.

The changes in broadcasting and streaming as broken the advertising model for the networks. Even during Hope's time, he paid writers out of his own pay. Up to 15 might be writing for him. In today's late night shows, the writers room could number a dozen people. The overall staff might number 200. In the heyday though, the late night talk show could be very profitable.

In early television, there were quite a few women who were on the air waves in the U.S. and there were still huge gaps in North America where no stations existed. Winnipeg only got its first TV station in 1954 with CBWT (CBC) and first private television station CJAY (CKY/CTV) in 1960. While there was a lot of local and Canadian broadcasting, U.S. programming was also available such as the Ed Sullivan Show which had been broadcast for years before Manitoba even had TV stations.

Tonight Starring Steve Allen started in 1954 and pretty much created the dynamic of what a late night talk show for TV would look like. Allen left in 1957 to focus on his other work and NBC tried a different format than Allen's without success. The brought back the Tonight show with Jack Paar keeping the same format from before and the rest is history. Paar had huge success. He also got censored and left the air/was suspended like Kimmel for a time. Just goes to show what goes around, comes around.

The cancellation of Steve Colbert's show in May of 2026 by CBS has been said to be about money. However, no attempt to trim the costs of the highest rated talk show was attempted. It all seems like it was a sop to Donald Trump to ensure approval of the sale of Paramount and CBS. The new owners seem intent to bring more conservative programming to the company. It is uncertain what that means.

To be sure, some late night talk shows have ended because of low ratings. The flurry of retirements between 2014 and 2015 with Leno, Letterman and Stewart from full time work has brought new people in. Some ultimately didn't last. It hasn't helped with Covid and the changes to the broadcast landscape.

Jimmy Kimmel's one week suspension didn't just affect his show but Disney itself in terms of every part of their business. Nothing is beyond Trumps's reach but this overreaching could harm the freedom of press and freedom of speech provisions of the Constitution. The Supreme Court might have had a hard time giving Trump the win on that but you never know with how compliant the court will be. You would think that they would note that whatever decision rendered that Trump can use can be used by any future Democratic president as well.

In terms of late night talk shows, they have since the 1940s been the water cooler of America. Canada has tried late night a few times with Mike Bullard and George Stroumboulopoulus more than ten years ago. Both ended for various reasons of network switching and job offers for the hosts. No cable or network channel has attempted since. There was just too much competition to compete against American shows. 

Canadian media preferred to grab U.S. late night programming than develop their own. Unlike Britain, where they have carved out times at least once a week for shows like the Graham Norton Show. Formatted differently than the U.S. desk and couch, it has become a favourite of Hollywood for its fun atmosphere. The show has spread worldwide on BBC. Canada has no equivalent of BBC, Acorn or BritBox to show Canadian programming.

With the major changes to television and people cutting cable, the consumption of media such as late night programming isn't confined to time of day. Only sports attracts audiences at specific times. Late night is not even live. It is recorded in front of an audience in the day and then broadcast at night. Moreover, clips are shown on Reels and TikTok shortly after broadcast. It is uncertain how the monetary value of late night talk is even evaluated.

While TV networks might eventually become streaming channels, perhaps talk shows will be around. Prime, YouTube still run live programming or once a week programming so why not a late night talk show? It might not be in the same grid schedule as a network but "must see" TV can still work and make money if formatted right and on the right platform.

As far as censorship goes in the U.S., the fasted way to end TV and film dominance in Hollywood would be to censor stuff. The day Disney moves production studios out of the U.S. is the day they admit defeat. Imagine the day that Disney moves exec and creative team to Vancouver. If Washington D.C. looks to get people fired and crush studios, they will move.

Americans will be consume content still. They will just receive it from elsewhere. And perhaps American authorities might block it, it is likely citizens would seek it out. Propaganda can get pretty boring. It is better to take the occasional controversy such as late night TV than to shut the whole thing down. The return of Kimmel may only be a temporary reprieve. American studios have moved much out of Hollywood and now Georgia. They are filming in places like Scotland and Manitoba because of cost, quality of locations and crew, casting and freedoms that once were taken for granted in the U.S.

What is the future of late night? Perhaps, it is a late night talk show based in Toronto for the North American market. Might be harder to cancel that in Washington. Bypass the affiliates and go straight to streaming.

The Sandbaggers on Tubi

A few years ago I mentioned the the BBC's Sandbaggers has been one of the best spy series ever to air on TV. It might come as a surprise to some that the series preceded the BBC/PBS series Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by a year. Like Tinker, it had a creator linked to MI-6 or SIS, the foreign intelligence service. From 1978 to 1980 the series was on British TV and did appear on CBC. However, while I remember Tinker and watching it with family on PBS, I don't recall seeing Sandbaggers. I was in junior high and it might have been on later that I would normally be up during the week. This was often true of the original Hawaii Five-O that was on later than I'd be up.

The 1970s were the days when the national news programs of CTV and CBC were at 11 PM. Networks liked to put in programming in the 10 PM slot in central time or later that might not fit in the prime time schedule. No one had 24 hour TV back then including the stations down in North Dakota. The CBC would often squeeze in shows like Fawlty Towers and Sandbaggers at end of day schedule. I know I missed both when they aired on CBC but by early 1980s Fawlty Towers was endless played on PBS. It would take years before I'd catch The Sandbaggers to watch in it's entirety. Prairie Public Television carried a lot of British TV but they were often comedies and dramas. That remains true today.

Tubi has got the Sandbaggers on now which is rather amazing since it will bring a whole new audience to the show.  Some find their way to show by following the work some of the actors did through the 1970s and 1980s. This is very much the case for Roy Marsden who gained fans on both sides of the Atlantic for the P.D. James series Dalgliesh. Many loved his cool performance as a detective. And if they liked that, they searched out and loved his acting in Sandbagger as director of operations for SIS.

The writing of Ian Mackintosh was exceptional and nuanced. His background as a naval officer had served him well as a writer on the BBC series Warship. However, it was rumoured he had experience with the Security Intelligence Service as well. This contributed to the sense of realism. Any variance from the actual SIS was probably to avoid running into the Official Secrets Act. In fact one episode was torpedoed because of the act.

The series was filmed in Leeds and some location work in London and Malta. The large population of Leeds made it possible to film many locations as eastern European. Casting was also done in such a matter that scenes felt authentic. The budget for The Sandbaggers was not huge. The studio work was shot on videotape and location on cheaper 16 mm film. A lot of stock footage was used to great effect. It is striking that filming took place inside McDonald's or featured Hilton Hotels. Such things seem less likely nowadays. It seems to provide a time capsule of what Britain was like in the late 1970s/80s.

In 1978,  the time of Britain's Winter of Discontent weighed heavy. Massive strikes were happening all over and the Labour government of James Callaghan struggled to keep the country going. Strikes even shut down Sandbaggers producer Yorkshire Television. Even the BBC was shut down by the end of the year. Shows about corrupt and violent police were more likely to be seen in the UK over an urbane and realistic spy series. James Bond series and The Saint were more likely to be seen than The Spy that Came Out of the Cold- type of series.

The Sandbaggers name was used for the Special Operations Section of the SIS consisting of three operatives who take on the most dangerous or politically sensitive assignments around the world. The term came from how thugs would fill socks with sand to beat someone for their goods. Neil Burnside was D-Ops and responsible for sending Sandbaggers 1 through 3 out on jobs. As former Sandbagger 1, Burnside knew what it took. Burnside reports to the Deputy Chief and Chief of SIS (known as C) and is often in conversation with the Permanent Undersecretary of the  Foreign Office Sir Geoffrey Wellingham, his former father-in-law.

For non British watching, they often miss the class visuals. Ties that indicate Oxford colleges or military background abound. Top administrators are often knights with the title Sir added to their name. The Deputy Chief Peele seems to aspire to that type of recognition. 

The Sandbaggers themselves such as Willie Caine and Laura Dickens seems to come from more common folk. Caine has a military background but not particularly fond of guns. Dickens wants to serve her country as an intelligence analyst but in her introduction shows her deliberately overturning a car to make a contact with the son of a foreign leader. Her relationship with Burnside ends tragically when under his orders she is shot in a prisoner exchange to prevent the French from interfering with the special relationship with the U.S. government.

It is the sad and singular life that Burnside lives. A dedicated intelligence service man, divorced and with no outside interests. His best friends are the CIA station Jeff Ross chief and his Sandbagger 1 Willie Caine. He resists pretty much any attempt to set him up with a date. And the one person he does form affection for he has to order to be shot. It is likely we have never seen this type of storyline before on TV and may never see again.

Some have called Sandbaggers the best spy show there ever has been. Since I enjoy many spy TV/movies like James Bond and Tinker Tailor, I wouldn't want to limit myself. I can say that many probably enjoy the show so much is because the characters are very well developed. The friendship between the intelligence officers, especially SIS and CIA, seems sincere and authentic.

The show ended suddenly with the death of the producer/writer Ian Mackintosh in a small plane crash in Alaska. The network didn't believe anyone else could write the show like he could. A lot of mystery surrounded the death of the show and some even wondered if it was related to espionage. 

Sadly, unlike other shows that the British have done, the Sandbaggers has never been set for a sequel, remake or anything of the like. This is a mystery since so many American shows or productions from other countries seem to be re-made. If Matlock can come back, why not Sandbaggers?

Watch while you can on Tubi.

Tubi Finds New Fans in Canada

It is hard to imagine that Tubi is more than a decade old launching in 2014. During that time, it has tried to ensure that it is part of what comes installed or connected to any digital device from phones to televisions to computers. Netflix had no real competition when it launched in 2007 and they certainly were not alarmed by Tubi. The major studios were content to distribute series and films to Netflix and most of them were only in the concept plan for their own streaming services. Tubi was given less desirable option to distribute and had no big budget to produce their own works of substance.

Most of the studios still regarded streaming as something like  saw with YouTube which started in 2005. They thought of it as poor quality home videos or pirate material from their own shows. Even Google acquiring YouTube didn't make TV networks and studios think they'd be supplanted by future cord cutters. Netflix was a form of distribution they had established with the company with DVD being mailed out so when streaming started to emerge, they were at least working with a group they knew.

Technology had to catch up. Smart phones were still not around, high definition television and high speed Internet were a few years away. If there was one industry that was going all in on digital, it was the adult industry and it was Canada that was a leader in that field. In 2007, many of the major studios cooperated and created Hulu so that people would have a place to go to watch recently aired TV episodes. In 2025, Hulu has been largely swallowed into Disney. Content deals still exist with many other studios though. This is probably because the federal government would intervene if competition suffered. Already Disney has absorbed a major studio.

Some of the major streamers have dropped series and movies even when they were the original producer. It always catches fans by surprise because the expectation is that shows will always be there. This is the catch when it comes to digital media. In the past, you could always count on a media such that you physically possessed. When it came to rentals in the VHS/Beta and DVD days, there were a lot of variation from store to store. Some like Blockbuster would have all the hits in quantities and then sell them off over the weeks. They would have some regular popular item that would fill out the store. Some rental places like Movie Village would have a wide variety of material from British movies to every Oscar winner they could get their hands on.

Today streaming services are like those days of video stores. Netflix has all the hits but creates content based on internal data that will tell them which star and which genre will generate interest in subscribers and keeping subscribers. And now with commercials revenue has climbed even as Netflix grows more popular. They have announced their fees are up again despite the profits. The best guess why fees are going up is that Netflix is going after more live sports and will need the money to beat competitors.

One of the reasons cable was so popular was because news, shows, sports and everything in between was on there. For Canadians, it was cable that gave us ever more insight and interest in the U.S. And if polls are any indication, bigger supporters of Canada being different. In Canada we don't really have homegrown streaming services save for CBC's Gem. It has very light offerings on Canadian and international fare and is free. Each network has a streaming version of their service. There is Crave which a premium subscription service that has HBO. 

Canadian material is on all services. However, there is nothing to compel U.S. services to place Canadian content on their platform. It certainly put TV and radio stations at a disadvantage in Canada. Laws are going into effect that would work to change that. However, the election in the U.S. has put pressure on change to laws in this regard. Also, a future election in Canada could see the end of the CBC and Gem. It could see the end of all Canadian TV, radio and newspapers. There just seems so little interest in keeping them going.

There are a lot of unknowns. All this brings us back to Tubi. It has been around a fairly long time. From time to time, many of us have checked in because it was free. Likely, the first feeling people might have had was that there wasn't anything current. It's true. If you are looking for the latest TV series or movie, you won't find it here. Famous series like Fast and Furious and Mission Impossible won't likely be found here. However, what will be found here is increasingly surprising. There is a lot of independent film and horrors. A ton of kids programming. 

Original material is being produced and has been since 2021, a year after the purchase by FOX in 2020 for $440 millions. Other FOX subsidiaries that produce animation and documentaries have found a home on Tubi. And now Tubi produces its own animation, documentaries, genre series and movies. It even has a regular talk show. The quality keeps rising. FOX doesn't use the channel for repeats of its popular series like Simpsons but they have sufficient product elsewhere that they can add.

Tubi has recently received offers of $2 billion to FOX to buy the company. Although they have sold 20th Century FOX studio to Disney, they seemed disinclined to sell their free streaming service. With the huge value increase, it should surprise no one. Tubi has also signed deals with major networks worldwide and other Hollywood studios. The only one not included it seems is Disney. Not that it matters, Tubi has now got a library easily the largest of any studio out there. At last count around 40,000 items to watch.

In Canada, Tubi is available everywhere and Shaw/Rogers distributed it to even further places. While Netflix continues to produce some of the better stuff out there and has some of the most popular series and movies that have recently come out, it is a pay service while Tubi remains free. 

Tubi, like a lot of streamers, is getting into sports. For big events, they often have the repeat of it about a half hour after it has aired. In some cases Fox Sports broadcasts the games they cover on Tubi. This isn't unlike Gem in Canada that often puts CBC sports events that can't be shown on main network such as Olympics on Gem. Canada is a separate market though so some games are blacked out in favour of the Canadian broadcaster.

The biggest coup for Tubi is that they have landed the Super Bowl and will be airing the FOX broadcast. They will be even having their own pre-game show. It is unclear whether the game on Tubi will be blacked out. CTV/TSN own the NFL rights. When this happens, Amazon and Netflix games appear on CTV. In any event, it is a huge new move for Tubi.

The amount of material available on Tubi today has likely taken it to a level where ads can sustain it as long as they don't seek to do what the big studios do which is spend hundreds of millions on original work or sports. Many producers in the world now have a platform to get their work seen if some of the majors drop them or don't even consider their productions.

The CBC, CTV and Global only seem interested in their apps and distributing a limited number of productions that are not their own. They are not terrible but they are so limited in what they license. And there are aspirations to go world-wide like BritBox, the BBC service has done. Crave TV is a premium streamer and HBO material often drives its subscriptions.

There is nothing Tubi in Canada. And Tubi distinguishes itself in the U.S. as well.  For those who long for the days of the video store with staff recommendations and discovery walking down an aisle, this is the streamer for you. In this case, the walking is with your clicker. And perhaps you hum the Toooo Beee...Tubi opening tune much more often. And what's best, unlike Netflix, you can watch free with ads.

Quebec's Mistake, Manitoba's Gain in Film Industry

 Watch about any movie in the world and you are likely to see the above logo. B.C. often shows up too, less so Ontario. Quebec and B.C. are visual effects superstars. It appears that Quebec has made a big move that will cost them thousands of jobs right away. The service production tax credit which brings several thousands jobs to Montreal is being capped at 65% of a production whereas before it had no limit. The credit itself will go from 20 to 25%. Those in the industry were out of work in the thousands right away. All attempts to amend or change the law with the provincial government have struck out. Workers who have been in the industry in Montreal for 20 years are looking to move.

Quebec's mistake might be Manitoba's gain. Manitoba already has one of the best tax credits for film and television in North America. A few tweaks and they could capture much of the loss of the 8000 jobs in Quebec. A few foreign-owned companies doing vfx in Montreal are looking to move. B.C. is already a crowded market, Ontario is an expensive one. Manitoba might be perfect. We benefitted from film and TV changes in Saskatchewan in the past and this could be another area where we stand to benefit.

In case anyone thinks Manitoba can't compete, looks at the numbers of newscomers to the province. As a percentage from the beginning of the year, Manitoba ranks third in 2024.

This year the film and TV industry is doing quite well in Manitoba. The repeat business is a testament to the locations, crew and tax credit. Both PCs and NDP have been part of this successful program so there is no reason to think it will not continue. The only reason Quebec has dropped the program is because they believe money going to foreign service production needs to go to Quebec French language production. The loss of 8000 jobs though doesn't suggest this is a good strategy.

Manitoba keeps adding to the things that make the region attractive to film and TV. Additional soundstages to complement the locations that production companies want. Direct flights to Los Angeles and now Atlanta, two big movie territories, are extremely attractive to foreign service productions. And Winnipeg has direct flights to all the other TV and film centers in Canada. Equipment and crews are locally sourced and experience grows every year on various tiers of production. Locally sources actors are increasingly recognized world-wide due to the amount of work then get.

There are many different components to TV and film, Drama, comedy, reality and documentary as well as animation are some of the main categories. Visual effects is a very large area as well and Canada has done well in it. It is the one area Manitoba is not big in. Frantic Films used to pre-visualization and effects but sold that part of the company. They are now mostly reality and variety shows like the Winnipeg Comedy Fest. Many of our home production companies have gotten good at reality and documentary TV. Others have become good at producing Canadian TV series both comedy and drama. 

Can Manitoba be the new home to VFX for people leaving Montreal? I don't see why not. The big question is: Is it on anyone's radar? Have people been approached? This probably requires work from the premier and mayor's office plus Manitoba Fil and Sound. But then how many times does 8000 jobs suddenly come up for a move?

The Best TV Canadian Series - Drama Edition

We are pretty hard on Canadian entertainment whether it is music, theatre, television or movies. Being next to an entertainment goliath like the U.S. which has ten times the population and churns out English production in every field of entertainment far beyond it's borders sometimes means Canadian material is lost in the avalanche. And even today Canada acts as a service provider creating material for the U.S. pretending to be American. This is very much true for Hallmark Christmas movies where everything might be Canadian from cast to crew to writer to director but the setting will be Colorado.

When CBC created The Beachcombers in 1972, it was for the home market with no real thought but entertainment for Canadians, particularly family viewers. Given the budget CBC had, it didn't have a piles of money so a lot was riding on it. Previous drama series like Wojek and Quentin Durgens m.p, in the 1960s were very much for an older audience so CBC was looking for something for the family to watch. The Beachcombers became a staple of the family audience along with the Wonderful World of Disney on Sundays. It showed there was a market for Canadian production in TV but the only way to grow it was to fund it and put rules in place to ensure it would get made and shown in Canada.

Private networks repeatedly said there was no market for anything Canadian whether it was news, sports, drama, music or comedy. Certainly there was nothing they wanted to pay for when broadcasting ready made material from the U.S. was so lucrative.

So was the Beachcombers one of the best shows in Canadian history? By the standards of the time, it ranked as one of the most watchable programs of the 1970s and 1980s. Bruno Gerussi became a star of Canadian TV and even had a celebrity cooking show that lasted years. Our family watched it regularly. I would have to categorize it as one of Canada's best and I still think fondly of it. Still, I see a list of Canadian drama production from the 1960s and 1970s and realize that so much of it was shown once and never repeated. And never syndicated. Why don't we have Wojek on any platform? I'd love to see older stuff somewhere. I know they tried for a few years on YouTube and then gave up. That is sad.

CBC learned from making family productions and building the teams of people to perform and make them. Danger Bay (1984-1990), a 30 minute drama series also filmed in Vancouver and partnered up with Disney followed that same format and lasted years in the process. I watched less of that series but then family shows have a time and place. CBC more or less perfected the family show with Heartland which is the longest running drama it has ever produced from 2007-2024. Heartland is also a show that has U.S. partners but there hasn't seemed to be a compromise on the Canadian aspect of the story.

CTV often tried to create programming that could be sold elsewhere after to recover their costs. It was that type thinking when Starlost was created in 1973. The show was sold in syndication to American markets. It was a fascinating experiment in sci-fi but ultimately, the budget and lack of drama, kept it to a one year outing. It was repeatedly for decades afterwards. In almost all cases of CTV created drama, the network has looked how it can leverage U.S. partnerships.

A year later, CTV created Swiss Family Robinson along with ABC which ran for one season with 26 episodes. It repeated for decades after that on Canadian television. It was okay entertainment but CTV often treated their shows like an obligation rather than an opportunity. It wasn't until the 1980s that CTV began to put some Canadian effort into production as well as storylines. Still, you ended up a lot of times with shows like Sue Thomas, FB Eye (2002-2005) which was about American law enforcement but otherwise a completely Canadian show,

English Canadian production even when unique culturally is a small percentage of what is generated in North America. It is easy to get overwhelmed and often the production in Canada is criticized as inferior or low budget. Quite a bit of what is made, even when high quality, can be generic to sell to American and world markets. As noted above, some are American shows but completely Canadian in cast and crew. In recent years, a few very Canadian productions have broken through in ratings both in the U.S. and Canada. In some cases, an American production becomes more Canadian in terms of the production team and actors while receiving funding that is largely American. Such a series might be Stargate SG-1 which saw Canadians take over more and more of the writing, directing and acting in the series. It can be confusing because a show about Americans largely is a Canadian show in every other way.

TV continues to evolve into streaming but the majority still watch broadcast and cable TV for now. In a world with so many choices, it is difficult to say where Canadian drama might end up. It seems odd that as a country the population continues to grow as does production but it is so hard to break through as singularly Canadian. In 2024, it sometimes means being part of a U.S. franchise like Law & Order as in the the case of Law & Order Toronto Criminal Intent. Drama is not the only area where we use imports. Variety and game show formats from around the world are adopted into Canadian programming such as Canadian Idol and Family Feud Canada. 

Drama series were a fairly rare thing ever since Canadian TV began in the 1950s. The CBC was generally one of the only sources of drama on English TV. In early the 1970s, a young Canadian could only really get two Canadian channels. Cable only really started to take off in the 1970s. Cities close to American markets could pick up border channels and the selection from the main U.S. networks of CBS, NBC and ABC were overwhelming. However, in Manitoba, only KCND from Pembina, North Dakota could be really be picked up and only with antennas. I remember watching fuzzy broadcasts as we didn't have a rooftop antenna. 

CBC tried to be everything to everyone with educational, variety, news, comedy and drama and in some areas they were outstanding. For a drama series, as mentioned, one of the breakthrough series was The Beachcombers. When it came out in 1972 there was nothing quite like it on TV anywhere. It is for this reason that it lasted as long as it did. It took till 1979 before Littlest Hobo would be debut on CTV. It too had lasting power probably because no one had done a dog series since Lassie.

The picture at the top was a series I thought hit all the marks and that was Due South and it was on CTV and CBS. However, CBS cancelled it after one season but the huge success in Canada and the UK kept the show on the air from 1994 to 1999.

Anyways, I will attempt to make a list of best of Canadian dramas that I've enjoyed. It isn't definitive. Some amazing series have been on the air and I might not have watched because I wasn't drawn to a supernatural story, or a family series or was just too busy. I will attempt to list chronologically.

The Beachcombers (1972-1990)

One of the shows our family watched together on Sunday when everything was truly closed and families were together on that evening. One hour episodes.

I can't list any others for the 1970s as many just came and went so fast and never got repeats as so often happens now on CBC. An honourable mention to The Littlest Hobo for CTV (the second version of it on CTV) from 1979 to 1985. I didn't watch it but CTV stuck with it as their family entertainment and to that end, it served their audience. 

The Kids of Degrassi Street (1980-1985)

I was just entering high school at the time so it wasn't really my age group and that was true for the entire Degrassi franchise. However, it was hard not to see Degrassi as it was CBC Canada's version of Sesame and remains a powerhouse today. Half hour episodes.

Seeing Things (1981-1987)

A fantasy twist to the crime drama story. At the time nothing quite like it on TV when CBC gave this a shot. Was popular in its time and and helped create momentum in later year for more series with a slight twist into supernatural. Louis Del Grande won acting awards for his performance.

The Hitchhiker (1983-1991)

Perhaps one of the better horror anthology shows of the 1980s but not seen by as many Canadians because it was on First Choice/HBO pay channels. Had a secondary life in syndication.

Night Heat (1985-1989)

A generic police show that ran on CTV and late night CBS that was better than average. It was a Canadian show but like Hill Street Blues, did not reference the city it was in. Just a large North American gritty metro. And it won awards for being authentic.

Streel Legal (1987-1994)

Perhaps one of the first guilty pleasure shows for Canadian drama and the longest running series until Heartland came along. A short six episode run in 2015 tried to kickstart the series but didn't work. Truly CBC's best and glossiest drama for many years.

Degrassi Junior High (1987-1989)

Hugely influential continuation of the CBC series and became part of the top rated nights on Canadian TV. Shown on PBS as well. Led to ever more Degrassi later on.

E.N.G (1989-1994)

One of CTV's honest attempts at doing something Canadian and having it be successful. A fictional TV newsroom. At the time, very different from police, medial and lawyer shows. The show did not fair well in the U.S. where in syndication it probably was too Toronto for Lifetime. However, in Canada, it was neck and neck with Street Legal for popularity.

Degrassi High (1989-1991)

More of the popular CBC show. It proved to hot for BBC but the Australians loved it and American audiences were captured by it as well.

Road to Avonlea (1990-1996)

Another CBC breakthrough hit on their family night of television. A sweet and strong Canadian story based on the famous work. Anne of Green Gables was a true hit for the network.

Due South (1994-1998)

A CTV guilty pleasure. A drama comedy with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Paul Gross was delightful and the series won fabs overseas but only lasted a season on CBS. It took an international coalition to finance the beloved series till the end. It is hard to believe we have not done more RCMP series in Canada.

The Newsroom (1996-1997...2003-2005)

CBC Newsroom was bang on although it was inspired by British and Australian series of the same vein. The Newsroom aired on PBS which was a turn from their usual British fare. Some said it might have been the greatest series produced in Canada.

Traders (1996-2000)

One of Global's best series that held its own against ER on Thursdays. Appeared on CBC for two years as well because the series was expensive to shoot. I thought it was some of the finest work, acting and direction for anything Global had ever done.

John Woo's Once A Thief (1997-1998)

I loved the show. It started off with high ratings but sank by the end. I found it funny, action packed and loved the episodes. Really thought the show would be super successful but I think some people were not sure what to make of it.

Lexx (1997-2002)

I am adding Lexx from Global because it was truly sci-fi, truly bizarre and right out of left field for Global. I don't think anyone really knows what was going on in this crazy series but they embraced the insanity and ran with it.

La Femme Nikita (1997-2001)

The show oozed cool in a way the movie could never match. This might have been a generic intelligence and action force but the strong Canadian writing, acting and settings made for the coolest thing on TV.

Da Vinci's Inquest (1998-2005)

CBC does another coroner show. If Wojek was a success, why not Da Vinci? And it was. Second mention for Nicolas Campbell who also appears on the list with The Hitchhiker. Vancouver never looked so good and so bad at the same time with activist Da Vinci on the case.

Los Girl (2005-2010)

A supernatural series that found an audience with the queer community and women. The first of a number of Canadian sci-fi series to actively write for an audience that had not been considered before.

Continuum (2012-2016)

An exceptional series on cable Showcase. Canadian sci-fi often focuses on how corporate future is a threat and this series was no exception. It looked good, the action was exciting and the storyline was clever.

 Vikings (2013-2020)

A Canada/Ireland co-production. A ratings blockbuster and although about Vikings, has Canadian writing, acting and locations along with the Irish work. Almost single handedly put some heft in historical storytelling and showing it could be popular.

Orphan Black (2013-2017)

Certainly has to be one of the better sci-fi series out there and acting triumph for Tatiana Maslany. Huge online fan base and a show begging for a comeback which it looks like is this year. This series got a lot of attention in the States and around the world for excellence.

Killjoys (2015-2019)

One of a series of space opera series that appeared on the Space Channel in Canada. This one had the bigger sense of humour. It also had the same anti-corporate message that permeates Canadian sci-fi. A wonderfully fun series.

Dark Matter (2015-2017)

Same year as Killjoys and a little more dramatic but an amazing series nonetheless. Canada was home to sci-fi this much was clear. So much action and fun.

Wynnona Earp (2016-2021)

A supernatural western horror that had a large queer audience. A co-production with the U.S. but with a large Canadian talent team. More indication of just how much sci-fi Canada now does for the world.

Honourbable mentions to Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe that had largely become Canadian over the course of the series in the 2000s. It is that skillset in sci-fi that has attracted so many sci-fi series to Canada. It isn't just about cheaper production but the quality of the acting, directing, production design and so many producers and writers to make a series look good.

Canada has come a long way but the advent of streaming has disrupted so much production that it is hard to tell where things are going. One thing is clear is that the free market doesn't have a clue either.

Babylon 5 TV Series Turns 30 Years Old

The pilot for the Babylon 5 series was aired in 1993 and the first season of 22 episodes aired January 26, 1993, thirty years ago. I remember in frustration that I could not see locally in Winnipeg. It was a syndicated series on channels that were not shown on cable as far I could tell. And I looked. I used to try and watch any time we headed to Grand Forks or Fargo for shopping trips. 

I could get all the Star Trek series but some of the syndicated shows that were emerging from the 1990s world of independent owned TV stations just didn't make it on to the Winnipeg dial. Wasn't the first time the struggle of having to find shows I had heard about and not being able to find them occurred.

Doctor Who was something I didn't get to see until PBS aired it and it was only one doctor! Not anything before and not anything after. I didn't get to see Blake's 7 from Britain until the 1990s until a friend who had recorded in Los Angeles sent them to me. She died this year along with her husband. Quite sad as she was such a fan of Servalan. 

The explosion of independent stations or small groupings of stations sharing content in the last 1980s and early 1990s made it possible for a syndicated Star Trek and for Babylon 5 to emerge on the sci-fi front. Baywatch was one of the other popular series of the syndicated drama period. Alas, today the advent of streaming has pretty much been eliminated original drama syndication.

Syndication was a good format for guaranteeing a full season order of 22 episodes. And with the story based at one location and with visual effects using CGI, it had a budget less that Star Trek Next Generation's which was tens of thousands higher. Next Generation was episodic with a general narrative whereas Babylon 5 was seeded with developing storylines that could take the entire series of five years to pay off.

The creator of the series J. Michael Straczynski had gotten his start on animated series that appeared on Saturday morning cartoons but by the 1980s was writing on Murder, She Wrote. As an experienced writer and producer, he was able to convince Warner Bros about the merit of a sci-fi series and the studio was looking to follow in the successful path of Paramount with their Star Trek revival in film and TV.

Straczynski had shopped the idea to Paramount before Warner and shockingly, Paramount created Deep Space 9 which they pushed quickly to get on air before Babylon 5. I personally liked both series but there was no doubt that they both followed long story arcs, had politics, religion and space battles galore. I was not much for the Internet sniping between the two series. There was even a bit of that among the performers on both series. I guess there is no such thing as bad publicity only no publicity.

The considerable changes in actors from first season to second season in Babylon 5 might have tripped up many series but the writing was adjusted and seemed seamless in the "novel" that was the intent of the show. In fact, the loss of some of those characters for a time allowed for an even more layered series.

In 2023, an animated re-visit to Babylon 5 was made and it was nice to see after all these years. Warner Brothers hasn't said whether they intend to make more. They were late to the streaming party with Max (formerly HBO Max) but original content that the company owns has been part of their objective. Babylon 5 is a property that could be Warner's Star Trek in terms of the future. Set aside the rumour that Paramount and Warner might merge because then the combined companies would own Star Trek and might not see a need for a Babylon 5.

The rumour has cooled recently. Warner is still adjusting to its merger with Discovery so Paramount might just not be on. In fact all the studios are trying to figure out the future of their assets. The thing about Star Trek is that they began a movie re-boot only a dozen years after the original TV series. And that TV series had been a consistent performer in syndication. Many (and I do mean many) of the original actors on Babylon 5 have passed away.

As for the 30 year old series, it still holds up well when you can find it. It never seems to last long on any TV station or on sale on DVD. It seems to sit in a library and doesn't even get put on a streamer anywhere. The talk of a renewed series on CW went no where. 

In terms of seeing where the future of mankind is going, the series seemed more point on with the politics of earth than Star Trek. The slide to authoritarianism, the continued role of religion, the military aspect of space exploration were more accurate than anyone might have guessed. However, the communications device attached to the hand is likely not going to supplant Star Trek's communicator. But I feel the pockets on the uniforms of Babylon 5 are more likely to be in the future than Star Treks's onesies.

Looking at 2024, there are very few series that would qualify as space opera. It seems to go in cycles. Star Trek continues to produce series. Foundation has a bit of that element. Dune would likely make a good series but will continue on the film route a while longer. Star Wars has done some really good stuff for TV series and there are more to come. I hope one day that Warner will dust off the series for one more round across the galaxy.

Best Espionage/Spy/Thriller TV and Movies

Spy and espionage TV and film arose from real and fictional stories and literature. Even in biblical times, the Book of Joshua tells the story of how General Joshua had spies assist him taking Jericho with the help of Rabat the Harlot. Wherever politics and warfare meet, there is the need for intelligence by the opposing parties.

Literature for centuries has has rousing spy and intelligence stories. Even Sherlock Holmes had a few cases that leaned from mystery to espionage. I can't remember the very first book I read that featured a spy story. Chances are it was probably a World War 2 book by Ken Follet or Len Deighton. But it might have been The Three Musketeers or Sherlock Holmes as well. Truth be told though, it could very well be a 1967 Hardy Boys book that featured a secret agent that might have been the first spy book I read. I was reading Hardy Boys by 1970 at around 5 and 6 years old. I remember in 1971 taking out a small book on the Battle of Britain from the tiny school library at Sir John Franklin and being struck by the hints of how intelligence was gathered by radar and spotters on the ground.

By 1971, when cable arrived at house how on Kingsway, I started to see all kinds of stuff, especially by 1974 when CKND came on the air with movies from all over the place including James Bond. There were even more when PBS arrived on the dial in 1975. PBS for a time aired Hollywood movies such  Where Eagles Dare with Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton which was an action/espionage movie that revealed its spy traitor in the very last scene.

Leave it to the British to have both the action superhero spy like James Bond and behind the scenes anti-hero spy like George Smiley. Tinker, Tailor , Soldier, Spy was PBS's highbrow answer to Bond and showed John Le Carre's complicated Smiley without gadgets or gimmickry.

The Americans in terms of television went with spy comedy and Get Smart, A Man from U.N.CL.E., Scarecrow and Mrs. King and Chuck.  Archer, the animated agent series has been running longer than most series have and still finding success. 

In terms of spy movie comedies, Mr. And Mrs. Smith still entertains. True Lies with Jamie Lee Curtis and Arnie is amazing. And while Austin Powers is about a British spy played by Canadian Michael Myers and produced by an American studio, it is a splendid send up James Bond done with the fondest of hearts.

Canada has had a few spy series such as Intelligence, The Romeo Section, The Border and X Company. Canadian spy series tend to be more dramatic and and cover fictional spy agencies. Pretty much nothing on the RCMP. It is surprisingly how little fiction or TV and film are done on the force. Due South was more than 30 years ago. When Calls the Heart featured a Mountie but it is an American series and the character was subsequently written off. It seems a lost opportunity for Canada with such a world famous force in terms of police or intelligence series.

One outrageously entertaining series of agents in Canada was Once A Thief created by John Woo. We do an enormous amount of sci-fi in Canada that have spy and agent-like storylines. Often corporate forces are a foe. Orphan Black is such a show. But it bends and blurs the spy genre. And that is a good thing. Fiction can try and pigeon-hole genre. Original storytelling has created horror comedy, bromance thriller and so on. Canada tends to make the geography and foes generic or more American/European to sell to international audiences. And Canada has done that very well over the years to the detriment of telling Canadian stories. It is a shame because often Canadian stories reach audiences and receive accolades if they are allowed to be told.

In the 1980s I enjoyed the Tom Clancy books for their mix of technical, action and espionage. Even now the hero of those books Jack Ryan is still fodder for movies and TV series. The most recent one starring John Krasinky just ending this year. There are several series that feature espionage in a military setting. Much of the Tom Clancy based stuff is about CIA but they are always working with the military. 

There is a distinct difference between U.S. network spy shows and cable spy shows. The series 24 starring Kiefer Sutherland was a frenzy of action in real time and 24 episodes of intensity. It was not a slow burn in the least. A cable show like Homeland is not devoid of action but it builds slower to its conclusion. What both series feature though are strong stars that can carry every episode. Claire Danes was a few Emmy Awards for her performance in the series. Kiefer Sutherland was nominated many times before winning the Emmy.

Some spy movies and TV series I was late to discover. They simply aired before I was old enough to watch in many cases. Plenty of times they never aired at all after their original airing. I never got to Special Branch or The Sandbaggers from the 1970s although, evidently, Sandbaggers did air on CBC at some point. It was probably some late show. People forget that pretty much all TV went off the air sometime around midnight or not much thereafter. A British series comedy or drama was well suited for after the 11:30 local news.

Special Branch came in two parts in Britain. The first black and white starting in 1969 and then with a whole new cast in colour running till 1974. It was about the branch of the police tasked with working with interior intelligence service MI5 in the arrest of spies, protection of citizens and diplomats and related police work related to national security. Not brimming with action but with intelligent stories, it shed light in an area largely not understood by British or anyone else in the world of espionage. 

Special Branch and The Sandbaggers were definitely not James Bond. Characters on Sandbaggers would often reference Bond and how they were not like him. And they weren't. Still, it was interesting to see this see saw view on spies from The Saint, The Avengers, Danger Man and The Prisoner contrasts with harder and more realistic spy/agent series.

Some of the most inventive spy series in the U.S. are a mix of humour, action and crazy story lines. Women had leading roles in some in the early 2000s in shows like Alias and the produced in Canada La Femme Nikita. Jennifer Garner and Peta Wilson had huge responsibilities in carrying their series and they were outstanding in carrying their roles out. Many incredible actors did fine work on La Femme Nikita. And on Alias, another Canadian actor Victor Garber had a strong role as the father and agent of Sydney Bristow played by Jennifer Garner.

The British have done some great MI5 series including the series named MI-5 (Spooks in Britain). Killing Eve and Slow Horses are some recent outstanding series covering the internal security service of Britain. The Game is also good as a series on MI-5 but is hard to find. 

A number of international countries have done spy and agent series. Poland, Norway and Israel have all done impressive work. I enjoyed the Norwegian series Occupied a lot. The 1983 series from Poland was solid. And Israel was the originator of the Homeland series. The French spy series The Bureau was brilliant. I've seen some good series from Korea as well.

On U.S. TV, Seal Team has the team working with the CIA and on intelligence missions and is a staple of action spy series. They are very expensive to shoot as you can imagine. Not all spy series need that type of money and action to be gripping.

As writers and actors strike wraps up, we will see a return to scripted programming in the new year. Network TV tends to have dramas that fall into police, medical and more rarely soap-like shows. Spy, science fiction and general mysteries generally are regulated to cable, PBS or streaming. 

I can't say what my favourites are in the spy genre. I love a good James Bond as much as a Mission Impossible as much a Tinker, Tailor. I have watched recently some of the old series such as Special Branch with enjoyment. Looks forward to new shows as they come in the the new year.