Stargate SG1 / Atlantis - Definitive Canadian TV Show for Past Decade?

[morjana]

(Will Dixon has been a tv industry hyphenate for nearly twenty years - directing, writing, and producing a little bit of everything everywhere from Toronto to Los Angeles. Selected shows include 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?', 'Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal', 'The Outer Limits', 'Earth Final Conflict' and 'Guitarman'.)

From Will Dixon's 'uninflected images juxtaposed' blog update for August 10, 2008:

(Please follow the link for the complete blog update.)

Train In Vain...(or How Canadian TV Got Derailed By The Past Ten Years)

I have been following with interest the thread that began at Anthony Strand's Live Journal and then continued at Weinman's TV Guidance where they've been discussing...what is the definitive show of the past decade?

**snippage**

Anyway, go check out those posts --- what I wanted to put on the table is....

....what might be the definitive Canadian series/show of the decade?

But drama...not so easy.

In trying to determine a shortlist, I searched long and hard. Series like The Eleventh Hour or This Is Wonderland or Intelligence were quality but didn't quite attain the necessary 'popularity' factor. Cold Squad and Divinci's Inquest were popular and ran well into the 2000's, but both began airing in 1998 (and one of the criteria seems to be that the series began airing by or at least roundabouts 2000).

Stargate: SG1 or at least it's spinoff Stargate: Atlantis are certainly long-running and popular enough to warrant consideration. And as far as 'defining' us, service producing US programming is certainly high on the list of things we do as an industry (which is kind of an unfair rap against the Stargate's since the vast majority of cast, crew, writers, showrunners even are Canadian...but many up here still don't regard it as a 'Canadian' show since it's primary investors and broadcasters have been American - MGM and US's Showtime and then SciFi channel). But because most people don't perceive them as distinctly 'Canadian' shows, I moved on.

**snippage**

*******

What do you think is the definitive Canadian TV show for the past decade?

Or even the most definitive Canadian TV show ever?

Do Stargate SG-1 or Stargate Atlantis count as 'Canadian' in your view?

I loved Due South, which was Canadian made, but for the most part, took place in Chicago (supposedly).

And DaVinci's Inquest is excellent -- providing Canadian/British Columbia/Vancouver politics, history and drama.

But Stargate SG-1 really caught my interest of the quality Canadian production companies, crew and staff are capable of, and many cases, excel over what American TV usually provide.

[jerem]

As a Canadian, I would definetively count it, but my judgement might be clouded .

All I can say, is that over the years, the fact that it's a canadian TV Show has been know for more and more people... I believe it's only 4 years ago that I learned this fact, and now, because of all the talk from people making it, I've noticed that it's know much better now.... Someone having DVDs and looking at the bonus can hear now and there that it's made in Canada!

Had you asked the question a few years back, I might not have given you the same answer... But now, I really don't know... Maybe in a few more years this question will no longer have to be asked!

[andy tyler]

Stargate isn't canadian. For crying out loud, stargate is aired in the USA before it's even aired in canada.

[Dark lord me]

Stargate isn't canadian. For crying out loud, stargate is aired in the USA before it's even aired in canada.

The only thing about Stargate that is not Canadian is the people who pay for it. It is filmed in Canada the majority of the crew is from Canada do who cares where it airs first that doesn't mean it belongs to that country. Didnt the U.K get one fo the seasons before the U.S

[prion]

Stargate is funded by US dollars. It may be made in Canada, but it's a US product. It's very much like WArner Brothers' Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Made in Canada, but US-funded.