Left Column...
Left Column...
For about 5,000 little reasons, I have always disliked CTV. It has always seemed to me to be the most "American" of the big three Canadian Networks, and the most commercial. By "American" I mean that it seems populated by editors and programmers who never forget for even one second that the bottom line is profitability.
Even the investigative journalism on CTV smacks of ABC's "20/20", one of the worst journalistic television programs in existence. What's it called? W5? Sensationalistic and specious.
The CBC, of course, is a prize. Non-commercial radio and semi-non-commercial television. The truth is, in the last few years, CBC television is starting to show too many commercials. But it is still the last hope in Canada for television that is not controlled by corporations and the imperatives of advertising.
Tonight I watched a movie called "Something About Mary" on CTV. "Something About Mary" is a vulgar but sometimes hysterically funny movie about a guy who decides to look up the girl of his dreams 12 years after an incredibly disastrous first and only date with her.
I've seen the movie before. It's not really very good, but a couple of scenes are actually pretty funny and sometimes I just want to veg out and go along for the ride.
There was no ride. First of all, there were more commercial interruptions than scenes in the movie, and the commercials went on and on and on. I guess I'm not as used to them as I used to be-- we do a lot of video in this house-- but it is also a fact that tv networks, desperate for new revenue as the internet begins to suck away their advertising dollars, are showing more commercials than ever before.
Did you know that "The Dick Van Dyke Show" presented 28 minutes of actual program for the half-hour slot. Two minutes of advertising! Today, your so-called 1/2 hour comedy presents about 22 minutes, if you're lucky.
Anyway, we have seen "Something About Mary" and were familiar enough with it to notice that, in addition to interrupting the movie about every six minutes to show another batch of ads, CTV had edited or removed scenes and language that, one supposes, it deemed to be offensive to viewers.
And it went one amazing step further. The one scene that "saved" the movie from mediocrity in my view was the ending, where the entire cast exuberantly sings "Build Me Up Buttercup". All right-- it's kind of hokey, but it's a pleasant, good-natured hokey and keeps the film in perspective: it's just fun.
I guess the CTV thought this sort of fun was dangerous or unprofitable-- it was deleted. The film ended on CTV with Stiller kissing Diaz in their final embrace, after she turns down the hunky football quarterback. Then-- the credits roll.
The obvious reason was so CTV could squeeze in some more commercials. The judgment of where the cuts should occur was obviously left up to a stock boy or janitor.
The decision to cut a portion of the film out is so unspeakably barbaric, stupid, and offensive, that I am almost speechless.
Copyright © 2001 Bill Van Dyk All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2001 Bill Van Dyk All rights reserved.
