The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Page 133

I 1 1 0 SBSl A Mm Roberto Estorcs Age 5. TB. Hot7 improving. Mother vendor. Father 'ishermen.

Chronically ill 'as a result of overwork. Total family earnings about $17 per month. In-. come insufficient for 4 children, 2 adults. Children friendly, cheerful and undernourished.

Long lines of children and families as needy as this one anxiously wait outside our offices overseas seeking the help that Foster Parents Plan can give them with your support PLAN provides medical and dental care in our office clinics. Staff social workers (local employees) provide compassionate guidance and help with-individual problems, as well as referrals to other PLAN services, literacy classes, vocational training, instruction in hygiene, budgeting, nutrition. Material and financial aid help with physical needs. Through a regular exchange of letters, you provide the encouragement enthusiasm and affection that enriches economic development with warm, personal concern. PLAN may be able to cure Roberto's father and mother of their illnesses.

Teach them skills so they can have the satisfaction of supporting their children and make sure Roberto and his brothers and sisters go to school. We can send you a case history, photograph and annual progress reports. But we can't do this for Roberto and his family and the other Robertos who wait outside our offices, without your support Please join Foster Parents Plan. We eagerly offer our financial statement on request' oecause we are so proua or me nananng or our tunas. PLAN is a non-sectarian, non-political, non-profit social service organization, recognized and registered as a Canadian charitable organization by the Federal Government (Charitable Registration No.

0249896-09-13). Foster Ffen of Canada I want to be a Foster Parent ot boy girt age country Where the need is greatest 00MontftyO t5t OOOuanertya $102.00 Semi-Annualry $204 00 AnnuaHy I can't become a Foster Parent right now. but I enclose my contribution of Please tend ma more information Tel. Wo. Address City Prov.

Cod PLAN ooeratea in Bolivia. Brazil. Colombia. Ecuador. Peru, Indonesia.

Republic ol Korea, the Philippine, and Viet Nam. Foster Parents Plan ol Canada I off totally registered aa a Canadien Charitable Organization by the Federal Government. Contributions sre tax deductible. WM3N164 OVER 35 YEARS OF HELP WITH A HUMAN TOUCH 10 Weekend Mooile. Net.

14, 174 A'We couldn't play the French or English as clowns" was two-fold some of it "had to be internal as far as they were When he was asked to develop the new -comedy series by Champlain Productions, came back to Montreal from Hollywood and found that, "the pendulum had swung com--pletely the other way. They weren't priest-ridden anymore." The first thing Wayne had to find out when he came to Montreal was whether or not there was a conflict between the French and the English. "Humor is based on conflict," he said, "and what if I found out nobody cared about the English-French thing anymore? It couldn't be as acute as Ireland we couldn't make a comedy out of that but there had to be something brewing, or we'd just call the whole thing off." He found out a lot of things: "The English weren't all that different from the ones I had left in California they seemed to have borrowed their culture from the US. But the Quebe- cois was making a culture of his own and being the richer for it. The political situation had cooled down like a volcano.

It was simmering. Hot but not too hot. Our timing was perfect just the right climate for comedy." He says he had to walk a very narrow line when he was developing the characters. "We tried to stay away from stereotypes, and largely I think we have. The sets, the way they dress and talk nothing is really all that typical.

Above all, we couldn't play either the French or the English as clowns or fools or else it wouldn't be funny." Even the lines he makes up are pure invention and not really representative of the way French-Canadians talk. You will hardly ever hear anybody in Quebec say: "don't fool me around," or "don't be a smart pants," or "I just got a storm in my brain." "I don't know anybody who is going to think these characters are real people," says Blaik Kirby. "They are comedians playing broad comedy and everybody knows it." A lot of people have a lot ridingjjri of the idea and production of the pilot episode-cost Champlain $100,000 and each episode -costs $35,000 which is, according to Champlain president Don at least $15,000 more than any half-hour series has ever cost in Canada. "It may have started out as a Bridget Loves Bernie idea, but it is growing into something with much more social impact," says Martz, who adds; "you can say more with a sit-com than with any other form of television. You can do documentaries until you are blue in the face and not say as much -I A 1- I I douut uiftiHry ruuue duiikct lld.

But if the sfibW is such a great idea, why didn't somebody do it before? Why have we gone this long without a situation comedy of our own? -r- Paul Wayne says the idea of a sitcom based on the English-French' problem has been kicking around the CBC for years. "But -nobody could, decide whether it should be developed by the drama or variety department so of course it wasn't developed at all." Wayne said he finally packed his bags and moved tp Hollywood when he could no longer stand hearing CBC brass say how proud they were that so many Canadians were doing so well in the Hollywood big-time. Five of the seven regular cast members on the show are Quebecois. Paul Berval, who plays Gaston Sauve, father of the bride, says his biggest problem is his English it's too good. He finds it tricky when writers give him lines like: "I guess I'll just have to learn to fall with the "hold your phone, hold your phone!" "I just got lost in my temper," and "I have to catch up with my breath." Berval, who is a very big star in Quebec even though you may not know him in Toronto or Edmonton, welcomes the fact that the show will "air out" some of the concerns of French Canadians.

"But I'm really not very political and this isn't Greece yet I'm no Melina Mercouri." And he sends his children to English summer camps so they won't say things like "I guess I put my feet in my Still, Berval enjoy getting some licks in. Like when the ultra-English father of the groom Charles Philip Hutchins says to Caston Sauv6 "I have to admit you people sure know your beer." "You may own it," answers Gaston "but we make it." Or when Gaston's fiery separatist son Jean-Guy shocks his sister by saying he thinks vasectomy is bad for the lish. lean-Guy also has a habit of calling the English cochons pigs WEEKEND MAGAZINE Offices: 231 31. James Street. Montreal, P.O.

H2Y tM4 Editor: FRANK LOWE Managing Editor: SHEENA PATERSON Art Dlroetor: MAX NEWTON Printed In Canada by The Montreal-Standard (173) Limited. Weekend Magazine Is not lesponslble tor the loss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts or photooraphe..