Glee! returns next Tuesday and I have to say I’m looking forward to it.  Oprah, among others, called it a phenomenon.  What makes it a phenomenon is that it’s so uplifting when most current one-hour shows are ‘downers’.   Our current viewing options are: cop show or serious dramas with a minor comedic element about vampire teens, back-stabbing teens, pregnant teens, [...]

I’m back from a weekend of R&R with family and friends in suburbia.  On Sunday, we gathered at my friend Tara’s for an afternoon barbeque in the sunshine.  One of the many and varied topics of conversation discussed was TV. As a new mom, Tara doesn’t have time to schedule her TV watching so she’s turned to renting [...]

The main topic of discussion at the TV Writers’ Conference was the concern that we’re ‘Writing in Dangerous Times’.  I think this was more dramatic than it needed to be, but hey, you’ve got to attract people, right?  Nothing attracts like a bit of controversy.  With this in mind, it’s no wonder there’s a whole [...]

As requested, here’s the low-down on how some of Canada’s screenwriters and showrunners got their big break. Karen Walton – The Eleventh Hour, Queer As Folk, Ginger Snaps, runs INK Canada. On first look, it would seem like Karen got in the biz by fluke.  She wrote a short story at the age of 30, which won a [...]

Yesterday I spoke with my agent about the current state of the television industry.  It’s not a pretty picture.  The best thing I could do right now, he said, was write.  Write specs for existing shows and keep creating my own shows. L.A. is still in a financial pit so Canadian-American writers are looking north  while [...]