It’s been a good week and a bad week for Canadians who make a living in Hollywood.
The annual U.S. TV network “upfronts” — the presentation of the next fall’s fare to the advertising community in New York — has meant cancellation for some U.S. shows featuring Canadians.
But it’s brought new beginnings for others.
Gone is one show starring one of the most iconic Canadians of them all — William Shatner. His CBS sitcom S! My Dad Says did much better on CTV in Canada behind the powerhouse hit The Big Bang Theory, but that didn’t matter at renewal time. Both Shatner and co-star Will Sasso, originally from Vancouver, are out of work.
Likewise, Matthew Perry had his mid-season comedy Mr. Sunshine dropped at ABC. Perry is reportedly taking a break from the business.
Two other Canucks, Rachelle Lefevre and Caroline Dhavernas, were left stranded when Off The Map was not picked up at ABC. Ditto Tyler Labine, snake bit again as his mid-season comedy Mad Love got no love from CBS.
The news was better for Elisha Cuthbert. Her new rom-com Happy Endings got renewed for next fall at NBC.
Cuthbert’s former 24 dad, Kiefer Sutherland, is among the Canadian stars with new U.S. series deals for the 2011-12 season. Sutherland is set to return to Fox mid-season in Touch, a new drama from executive producer Tim Kring (Heroes).
The series features Sutherland as father to a lad with special powers of perception. The pilot will be shot in June, right after Sutherland’s Broadway turn in That Championship Season ends.
As for that 24 feature film, Fox chairman Peter Rice told reporters on a conference call earlier this week that it is still a go, but a final script is the hold up.
“There is a great desire to see Jack Bauer on the big screen,” says Rice.
Another new U.S. series will be shot and co-produced in Toronto. The Firm is based on the John Grisham novel about an idealistic young lawyer.
The NBC/Global co-production is set for mid-season and while there’s no casting news yet, look for Canadians in feature roles. Canadian Alyson Feltes (The Associates, Shattered) is among the executive producers.
The drama is co-produced by Entertainment One, the same Toronto-based production house behind the ABC/Global drama Rookie Blue, returning June 23. It will be joined by another cross-border co-production, Combat Hospital, about a “MASH”-like medical unit set up in war-torn Afghanistan.
The Canada/U.S./U.K. co-production stars Elias Koteas and Michelle Borth and premieres June 21 on Global.
There was some talk Toronto-born Will Arnett would replace Steve Carell as the new manager on The Office (he turned up as a candidate for the job on this week’s season finale). Instead, Arnett, who flamed out last season with Running Wilde, will try again with Up All Night, a new NBC comedy pairing the former Arrested Development star with Christine Applegate.
They play new parents who miss their bad old party days.
Canadian-born model Natasha Henstridge is among the stars of The Secret Circle, a new drama coming next fall on The CW. The series, from the folks behind Vampire Diaries (which features Canadian Nina Dobrev), is about a coven of impossibly beautiful witches, kind of The O.C. with broomsticks.
Another high profile Canadian — Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek) — can be spotted in the pilot of The River, a mid-season drama coming to ABC next season. He plays a famous wildlife expert lost in the Amazon. And David James Elliott (JAG, Swingtown) returns in Good Christian Belles, a frothy mid-season drama from ABC.
A few Canadians are behind some of the new American network shows.
Hart Hanson, who is the creator and executive producer of Bones, will also be the writer and showrunner behind the new Fox spinoff The Finder.
Jon Cassar, who directed and produced much of 24, is among the executive producers on the new Steven Spielberg sci-fi drama Terra Nova, coming this fall to Fox.
As usual, most of these new American shows will wind up this fall on Canadian network schedules. Buyers from CTV, Global and City, as well as others, have been down in Hollywood this week for the annual international show market.
They’ve been screening shows in L.A. the same days they were being presented to advertisers in New York. By this weekend, Canadian networks will have concluded deals to bring a new crop of shows across the border.
Canadian schedules will once again look very red, white and blue — even if some of the fare will once again feature Canadians behind and in front of the cameras.
Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.