GET LOST, EH?: I suppose that as a Canadian I should be used to this feeling, but there’s something both triumphant and sad in the news that Bob and Doug McKenzie are heading to the small screen in cartoon form with Fox their likely home in the U.S., according to a Canadian Press story.
Talking to CP from Los Angeles, where he was working on scripts for the show, Dave Thomas said that the show was initially green-lit by Global here in Canada and that Fox asked to see the script and pilot when they saw how eager the Canadian network was to get the show in production.
“We submit the pilot in early August,” Thomas said, “and we’ll hear after that. But I think they’ll go for it – I think they like this show. Just to get them this close is good, and means we can probably get
someone else interested if they’re not.”
According to Thomas, the show takes the iconic characters created for SCTV with Rick Moranis and puts them in a new, apparently updated setting. “They are in a world that they weren’t in before, and they have some friends who are a little raunchier than they are,” he said.
While Thomas is clearly the instigator of the cartoon iteration of the McKenzies, Moranis is far less enthusiastic, as he “doesn’t enjoy doing any showbiz stuff anymore … I can’t even guarantee his involvement long term in this, but whatever … if I have to drag a sound-alike in for his voice, I’ll do that. I don’t think anyone would care because it’s a new product.”
I’m not sure I’d agree with that last bit, Dave, but we’ll see, won’t we? Thomas is abundantly aware of the irony that a skit created as a joke to placate the grumblings of Canada’s culture bureaucrats who were concerned about Canadian content on the show has turned into a nest egg of sorts, as well as an ongoing role for the comedians.
“I thought it was a bit of a nightmare back then, when I thought of myself as a young artist, but now that I think of myself as an old hack, I’m glad I have Bob and Doug,” Thomas said. I don’t know why, but my heart sags a little whenever I read that last line.
CH-CH-CH-CHANGES: The observant will probably have noticed the new name that this column ran under as of yesterday, accompanied by the “kindler, gentler” photo. I hope I can weather the change from idiot to intelligent with dignity. Metro has also launched a blog, where yours truly will try and fit in all the stuff that can’t possibly make it into a daily column. The web address is metronews.typepad.com/intellivision/ — at least for the moment, though I’m told that things might change. I’ll keep you posted in case they do – happy reading.
