Calgary Herald from Calgary, Alberta, Canada • 31

Calgary Herald Entertainment Editor: Michael Burn TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1984 Banff TV festiva rreverent Alberta western given warm reception By John Howse (Herald staff writer) BANFF An Alberta-made movie received a warm hand at its low-key premiere Sunday night during the opening of the Banff Television Festival. The film Draw, starring veteran Hollywood actors Kirk Douglas and James Coburn, was shot in Edmonton and Drumheller last year. Major backers of the 95-minute horse opera were Home Box Office, -the giant U.S. pay-TV outlet, Montreal-based Astral Films and the Al runaway stagecoach and sets up house under siege with his pretty hostage. Mercifully, his double for most of this action was real-life Alberta cowboy Tom Glass.

In fact, there are quite a few good old southern Alberta bit players on screen, including Reg Glass, Tom Ei-rikson and Tom Bews. Draw draws on just about every cliche in the western genre from runaway stagecoach to drunken sheriff, from High-Noon style gunfight to spaghetti-western farce. But, it comes off because it doesn't berta Motion Picture Development Corp. with its federal counterpart. It's an irreverent western with the cowpokes breaking those old taboos they swear often, and Douglas as handsome Harry Holland actually makes love to a young woman.

The fact that Draw doesn't take itself too seriously provides the movie's charm. It's more like Disney with some raunch and updated rangeland humor, even a dab of parody. Senior citizen Douglas seems at times to be laughing at himself as he hops on and off horses, reins in a take itself too seriously and because it was put together by movie pros, including producer Ronald Cohen (Ticket To Heaven), screenwriter Stanley Munn (The Collector) and executive producer Harold Greenburg, Canada's own movie mogul who made the box-office hit Porky's. In addition to Coburn's funny moments, look for a couple of excellent character roles. Toronto actor Derek McGrath is tops as Reggie, the big little man of Bell City (actually Fort Edmonton Park).

And Graham Jarvis (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman) turns in a fine performance as Wally Bludgett, the scared deputy sheriff. But don't look for the Canadian West this is the mythical West that existed only on film and here it owes a mighty big tip of the stetson to just about every western movie made. Draw won't draw rave reviews, but it gets the job done. It's funny, a goofy mix of Shakespeare (Alexandra Bastedo plays Lady Macbeth whilst hostage to Douglas) and western crude, and predictable. Taking it seriously would just ruin things.

Experts split on future David Lazarowvch, Calqarv Heraid Banff Television Festival director Carrie Hunter with festival's logo decorated to look like a cake Olympic broadcast deal timely BANFF The fifth annual Banff Television Festival began in earnest Monday when a blue-ribbon panel of experts gathered to figure out just where television is going. Had they succeeded, this column would be running on Page 1. As you can see, it is not. One thing does seem to be certain: satellites and video cassette recorders have already changed the world's viewing patterns and could have even greater effects in the future. According to the experts and the label is merited cable television, at least in the United States, is in danger of being slaughtered by the ubiquitous video cassette recorder.

Or it isn't. Cable, on the other hand, could cause a levelling off in VCR sales. Or not. Commercial television will always be the salvation of the industry; or viewers will find enough perceived value in pay television and go that way. Not surprisingly, many of the opinions reflect the business of the expert in question.

James Jimirro, president of the satellite-delivered Disney channel, is frankly worried about VCRs. "The clock may be ticking for cable because of the VCR," he said. "Cable is far from dead," suggested Gustave Hauser, former chief of Warner Communications and chairman of the U.S. National Cable Television Association. According to Hauser, the growing popularity of pay-per-view, in which subscribers pay for particular programs instead of a complete service, could hurt VCR sales.

Frankly, what did come across in this particular battle is that VCRs are very much a power in the telecommunications struggle. Stanley Moger, president of SFM Media pointed out that in Norway, the popular BILL MUSSELWHITE prime-time soap Dynasty has been sold not to a television network but to a VCR recording firm. Norwegians will be able to rent Dynasty, but they won't see it on the air. He also pointed out that VCRs are indeed turning up everywhere. A U.S.

rent-a-car company is now giving them away as a premium. Rent a car so many times and you will receive a first-run movie of your choice. One of the most fascinating suggestions came from panel chairman Les Brown, editor-in-chief of the respected trade journal Channels of Communications. Satellites, he pointed out, could make networks superfluous. Commercial networks depend on affiliate stations, and vice versa, but producers could offer a hit show directly to various stations.

Moger pointed out that all the new services are drawing from more or less the same talent pool. "There is not enough creative talent in the world to create material for 104 channels," he told the seminar. Moger also discounted ideas that people will buy more and more pay channels because they perceive the programming to have value. "People are now being asked to pay for something that was free. But the product is virtually the same." And there is another problem, he added.

Some within the U.S. government are beginning to worry about so much money flooding out of the country in TV-rights payments. The networks may not retain complete control of the Games, however. Peter Grimes of the American ESPN all-sports cable network said that bv the late 1980s or early 1990s, ESPN will be into 60 or 70 per cent of American homes. The main Olympic coverage could be seen there on a pay-per-view basis with the network supplying a prime-time wrap-up package.

Grime probably knows of what he speaks. ABC has in the past made it plain that it is the Olympic network and ABC recently purchased ESPN. billion in half. However, the Russian pull-out will not affect the Los Angeles Games that much, O'Hara said. "We will be financially solvent whether or not the Russians come." At the same time, ABC is changing its plans slightly because of the Moscow boycott.

ABC may have suspected such a boycott would happen because its contract with Los Angeles allowed it to make changes if some such event occurred. The boycott, however, is one of the things worrying the International Olympic Committee, which is considering such options as holding the Games in a permanent site or 21 different sites. The IOC, he said, is also worried about the impact television may have on the Games in terms of attracting terrorists. That, however, is not what the IOC should be worrying about, according to David Leighton, chairman of Nabisco Brands Ltd. and a former executive with the Calgary Olympics.

Two-thirds of Calgary's budget is being supplied by the sale of TV rights, he said, and 80 per cent of all TV-rights payments come from the United States. In effect, he said, that means the Olympics have become an audience draw for U.S. advertisers. Peter Tortorisi, vice-president in the CBS sports department, agreed with Leig-hton's concern. "If the sentiment is that the Olympics are too big and too commercial, the answer is yes," he said.

By Bill Musselwhite (Herald staff writer) BANFF Calgary was lucky to sign its $309-million deal with ABC before TV ratings from the Sarajevo Winter Olympics came in, an official of the Los Angeles Olympic Committee said here Monday. Michael O'Hara, the committee's vice-president for television, suggested that both the Sarajevo ratings and the Communist pullout from the upcoming Los Angeles Games could have affected the price ABC was willing to pay for Olympic broadcast rights in Calgary in 1988. His ideas were backed by figures supplied at a Banff Television Festival seminar on TV and the Games. Korea, which will hold the next Summer Games, held off making a broadcast deal and has cut its asking price of $1 Reynolds plagued by kidney stone Poll shows Canadians want access to signals "The pain was so severe he passed out," said Gershenson. "He said he'd never been in so much pain in his life." Reynolds, who arrived in Fort Lauderdale with his companion, actress Loni Anderson, was forced to miss the star-studded opening of the restaurant and instead returned to Los Angeles.

The actor had been suffering from a kidney infection for five days and was running a high fever by Saturday, Gershenson said. But. he said, the fever and pain had subsided by Monday, and the actor won't be in hospital for treatment. About 30 Hollywood celebrities flew in to attend the opening. Among them were Dom DeLuise.

Ernest Borgnine, Esther Williams, Robbie Benson. Jim LOS ANGELES (AP) Actor Burt Reynolds received medication on Monday to dissolve a kidney stone that caused him to pass out from pain, and he planned to resume work on his latest movie, an aide said. "The doctor gave him medication to dissolve the stone and feels it may pass today," said the actor's publicist. David Ger-shenson. "He is resting at his home, and plans on working tonight on City Heat," a movie starring Reynolds and Clint Eastwood, Gershenson said.

Reynolds, 48, collapsed Saturday afternoon in his Fort Lauderdale. hotel room, where he was staying to attend the opening of Burt and Jack's, a new restaurant he owns. opposed any control. Even when those surveyed were told such control protects Canadian broadcasters, 74 per cent maintained their opposition to restricted access. The federal government prohibits groups or commercial establishments from owning dishes which receive satellite signals, but it allows individual ownership of such equipment.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is gradually allowing more U.S. channels on cable television, but the poll found Canadians want to have access to the U.S. signals any way they wish. Although 60 per cent of those polled supported government financing of the CBC, 34 per cent believed the public television and radio network should "operate on a self-supporting basis." The government gives the CBC $890 million and the network raises only about $150 million on its own. Opposition to federal funds for the CBC was strongest in the West including 42 per cent in British Columbia and 40 per cent in the Prairie provinces.

OTTAWA (CP) Four of five Canadians think they should be allowed access to any American television signals they wish and one-third believe the CBC should be self-sustaining, says a poll on culture commissioned by the federal government. The poll of 1,600 people conducted in March 13 by Goldfarb Consultants of Toronto was obtained under the Access To Information Act. It found that many Canadians took issue with or were unaware of several government policies and activities in the communications field. For example, only 32 per cent said they had even heard of Telidon and only seven per cent said they were very familiar with the two-way television system developed by the government at a cost of about $80 million. Of those who had heard of Telidon, only one-third believed it was a very important technological development.

The poll found immense opposition to the government's control of which American television signals are allowed into Canada 81 per cent Burt Reynolds Brown. Ricardo Montalban, George Segal and Paul Williams, said Jack Jackson, Reynolds' business partner and manager of the restaurant. Never say die River Journey Preserving a legend Norman Rockwell's paintings will stay in Stockbridge, Mass. NBC tries again to challenge CBS's top-rated newsmagazine show 60 Minutes. C3 A National Film Board production is a hit at the Louisiana world's fair.

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