This time of year ratings numbers become all important to the TV industry. The Fall launch of new programming is closely scrutinized in every imaginable demographic category. American networks have invested millions in the new line-ups and they need to know who is watching. Their Spring was spent assessing the zeitgeist in order to separate the successful pilots from the also-rans. Summer was comprised of endless days convincing...

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Between "Worthy Causes", fond remembrances and political rants you've heard enough of me for one week. So here's a real treat. The following was created by Vancouver Film School student Patrick Biason. One of our many talented own. Crazed Noblemen. Giant Robots. Bodacious Ta-tas. Perhaps apt metaphors for the CRTC Commissioners, New Tech and Cancon coming next week. Enjoy your Sunday. ...

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The first politician I was ever aware of, ever met, was Tommy Douglas. My dad worked for the railroad and was on strike. It was an ugly one. The company hired scabs and roaming gangs of thugs. Union workers carried guns because they feared for the lives of the men on the line and their own families. Tommy came around and told them not to be afraid, to be strong, because they were in the right. He barely came up to my dad's...

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This final installment of "Worthy Causes Week" here at the Legion will require you to actually get up and do something -- or help out while still sitting at your computer. Because I'm a guy, my chances of getting Breast Cancer are infinitesimally small. But like most guys (maybe more than most) women's breasts are important to me. And the more healthy pairs of them we have bouncing, jiggling or just quietly walking around...

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I did my second movie sex scene with Jackie Burroughs in a movie called "Monkies in the Attic". I'd done my first movie sex scene about a week earlier on the same film with Jess Walton (later of "The Young & The Restless"). Actually, I think I did a sex scene with everybody in that picture except Victor Garber. Although, Jackie did a sex scene with him in that movie too, one from which the film's title was...

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As "Worthy Causes Week" continues at the Legion… The youngest of the four men is 82 years old. But they giggle like schoolboys because the cute blonde at the McDonald's register had warned them not to get rowdy like last time or she'd have to toss them out. She was kidding of course. But she'd used the same tone to chastise the skateboarders in front of them in the line, so it made them feel like outlaws on the loose once...

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Given we're in the midst of a very telling hearing on the future of Canadian television (Shaw v. CRTC et al) while a massive number of new (albeit primarily American) series are launching, I've decided to prorogue the Canadian industry portion of the blog until next week. And based on the wonderful response I got to yesterday's post. I've decided to make this "Good Causes Week" here at the Legion. A chance to introduce you...

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Today this blog accomplishes something. Something insignificant to most but of life-changing importance to a few. The phrase "Each One Teach One" originated during the era of slavery in the American South. In order to better control their slaves, plantation owners denied them access to education and even the right to read because ignorance reduced the captive's options, making them feel even more unworthy of a life beyond...

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It's said that if you want to know what a city used to look like simply "Look up". Most urban change comes at the street level and often the second floor and above do not alter for decades, sometimes even centuries. Oh there are cosmetic changes to be sure. But often just lifting your eyes a little will give you a glimpse of how the world looked in a bygone era. A couple of years ago, while shooting a series pilot in Paris,...

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One of the ways you know summer is over and it's time to get serious again is when the Main Stream Media kick off yet another campaign to blame everything evil on the Internet. Yesterday, Globe and Mail Columnist Bruce Dowbiggin, one of the country's best sports writers, had a major whinefest about bloggers wanting access to team locker rooms and the same journalistic privileges in the sports world that the big boys (like Bruce)...

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-----Original Message----- From:  [mailto:U_know_Who@mediabureaucracy.gov.ca] Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 10:04 To: Piers Handling Subject: Did We Run Out Of Kool-Aid? First, congrats on the successful launch of both the 35th Annual TIFF and the opening of your shining new jewel box theatre(s). Significant accomplishments both as well as stressful and time consuming...

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For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn? -- Jane Austen Stuck at my Grandma's house one summer, I pawed through her piles of Ladies Home Journal and "Nurse Jane Goes to Hawaii" novels for something to read and happened on a cover featuring a shirtless cowboy. To a nine year old smitten with Westerns, this at least had potential. An hour later...

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OR: An Analysis of the Canadian Cultural Dilemma   To mark the opening of the 35th Toronto International Film Festival, I am deferring to guest blogger Nick Mancuso. Nick and I have been friends since we both had to learn Kazak dancing for the original stage production of Carol Bolt's "Red Emma". We worked together several times on stage before he broke into films, won a Best Actor Genie Award in "Ticket To Heaven" and...

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