The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 20

ENTERTAINMENT B8 THE VANCOUVER SUN. MONDAY, OCTOBER 26. 1998 geries creator has message for kids Vancouver Television gets mixed reviews after one year on the air Station management say VTV has lived up to, and exceeded, the promises it made to the CRTC, but critics say it's only a shell of what it was supposed to VANCOUVER SUN I Da Vinci's Inquest creator, writer and executive producer Chris Haddock will address high-school students at Point Grey Secondary School at 10 a.m. today1 about the finer points of writing for television. Haddock said he decided to address the students because of his frustration with a system he believes discourages students from choosing a career in writing.

Despite the current surge in television and film production in the Lower Mainland, young Canadians are at a disadvantage when they try to write the scripts many of these productions rely on for material, Haddock Point Grey vice-principal Walter i t.i le- 1 1 Ml i. Showtlmes For IVlon krs. nm ut- ru 1 Mustapich first met Haddock when the two worked together on the 1985-92 ABC series MacGy ver. "Chris has always been a down-to-earth and generous person," Mustapich said. "When I left the film industry to return to education, he understood my motives and encouraged my decision.

He was the first to offer any help in reaching kids. Sharing his enthusiasm and encouraging kids is every bit as important to him as writing and producing." Point Grey principal Ken Annandale said most of his students pursue post-secondary education in fields like law, medicine, education and commerce. "Chris will introduce them to a whole new opportunity, a way to make a living in the arts." lijii TV i i rl 2 DRUG MART Oct. 26 Thu Oct 29 ANTZ 12:10 12:40 2:30 3:00 4:40 6:50 9:05 NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY 12:50 3:20 5:25 7:5510:15 WHAT DREAMS MAY COME 1:10 3:50 7:20 10:35 RONIN 1:20 7:15 9:50 PRACTICAL MAGIC 1 :00 4:00 7:00 9:40 SOLDIER 1:30 1:50 4:20 4:50 7:10 8:00 10:00 10:50 TUX PLEASANTVILLE 1 :1 0 4:00 7:1 5 9:55 PARENTAL GUIDANCE Coarse language; suggestive scenes BELOVED 1:054:40 8:30 ANTZ 1430 3:00 5:00 7:05 9:25 NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY 1 2:45 2:45 4:50 7:25 9:35 RONIN 9:45 PRACTICAL MAGIC 1:304:207:109:50 SOLDIER 12:501:20 3:454:157:007:309:40 'Coquitlam 464-6600 7:00 9:40 BELOVED 7:45 NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY 7209:30 WHAT DREAMS MAY COME 7:10 RONIN 9:45 PRACTICAL MAGIC SOLDIER 7:309:55 MHH.li.l;!. Surrey 681-1716 RUSH HOUR Mon.Wed.Thu 7:30 ITue 12:45 3:00 54)0 7:30 HOLY MAN 9:50 ANTZ Mon.Wed.Thu 7:10 9:15 PRACTICAL MAGIC Mon.Wed.Thu 7:20 9:45 Tue 1:153:457:209:45 SOLDIER Mon.Wed.Thu 7:00 9:30 Tue 1.003:307:009:30 Langley 533-4551 PLEASANTVILLE Mon.Wed.Thu 7:00 9:40 BELOVED Mon.Wed.Thu 8.00 Tue 1 2:40 4:20 8:00 APT PUPIL Mon.Wed.Thu 7:20 10:00 Tue 1:10 4:00 7:20 10:00 MA Violence; coarse language WHAT DREAMS MAY COME Mon.Wed.Thu 7:30 10:05 Tue 1:30 4:15730 10:05 PARENTAL GUIDANCE Coarse language PRACTICAL MAGIC Mon.Wed.Thu 7:25 9:50 Tue 1:204:107:259:50 SOLDIER Mon.Wed.Thu 7:10 9:30 ITue 12:503:407:109:30 njiiUAL-H Murray notes, for example, that VTVs highly rated American programs air in prime time, while many of the station's locally produced programs like First Story and Pacific Profiles air Jn "schedule ghettos" during the day, on weekends or late at night when hardly anybody is watching.

Ironically, Murray and Duke campaigned for the station at the CRTC application hearings in Vancouver in September 1996, and were cross-examined at the time by the commissioners about Baton's commitment lo local programming. Murray said she agreed to join the board because of its local accountability. That has changed, she said. "I'm not entirely clear what the so-called advisory council advises on, and whether anyone at Baton in Toronto is listening," Murray said. "Is there effective B.C.

control? Not in my book." Duke said he was excited by VTV's initial promise, but is now disillusioned. "I'm surprised, when I take the time to reflect on it, just what little impact the station has had on our city," Duke said. "It's as though everything they do locally is noisy pursuit of raucous trivia. Where we need substance and local knowledge, we get bub-blegum. "I would have a lot more regard for them if they didn't put so much of their much-vaunted local production into a three-hour breakfast program." Vancouver impresario David Y.H.

Lui, a founding board member who decided to stay, said he understands many of Murray and Duke's complaints, but he believes VTV is doing more than anybody has a right to expect, given the obstacles facing a one-year-old TV statioa "I'm the first to say it should be doing more. But these are all things that are developing." While Lui acknowledges that the council has no formal power, he says the station is responsive to its input. Festinger, a prominent attorney with BCTV before joining Baton early in 1997, said Murray and Duke's criticisms are unwarranted. VTV has provided an enormous contribution to the local broadcasting community, he said. He is particularly irked by Murray's assertion that VTV is exploiting its multilingual reporters by hiring them on the cheap.

"Where is the new talent going to come from?" Festinger said. "We want to be different. It was our intention to be different from the very beginning, and part of being different is developing talent." VTV has surpassed its commitment to the CRTC in terms of licence fees paid to local producers for TV programs, Festinger pointed out. The station spent $12.5 million on local program fees last year. Festinger, who is also a senior vice president of CTV-Baton, noted that programs produced specifically for VTV earned 12 Gemini nominations this year, more than some station groups combined.

And the station acquired local TV rights for Vancouver Canucks hockey telecasts after they had been on BCTV for 25 years, Festinger said. "Frankly, I don't feel as though we have to apologize for anything." RUSH HOUR 12:20 2:50 5:20 7:40 10:10 PLEASANTVILLE 1:40 4:45 7:45 10:40 HOLY MAN 5:00 7:50 10:45 BELOVED 12:00 4:10 8:201 URBAN LEGEND 4:30 11:00 14A Violence; suggestive scenes; coarse language wPT PUPIL 12:30 3:30 7:30 10:30 Granville Mall 669-6000 THE MIGHTY 1:504:107309:50 PARENTAL GUIDANCE ANTZ 1 :00 3:00 5:00 7:25 9:30 PARENTAL GUIDANCE MIGHT AT THE ROXBURY 1:20 3:15 5:15 7:40 9:55 PARENTAL GUIDANCE Suggestive scenes; coarse language RONIN 1:103:457:109:40 UA Violence; coarse language PRACTICAL MAGIC 1:40407:20 10:10 PARENTAL GUIDANCE Violence; coarse language SOLDIER 14A Violence throughout Granville 4 Georgia 669-4442 HOLY MAN 9:30 PARENTAL GUIDANCE Coarse language BELOVED 12:304:158:00 18A Sexual violence; violence; suggestive scenes CLAY PIGEONS 1 :00 4:30 7:00 184 Suggestive scenes; violence Esplanade Cneslertietd 983-2762 BELOVED 8:00 SAVING PRIVATE RYAN 8:10 ISA Gory violence NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY 7:159:20 RONIN 7:109:45 PRACTICAL MAGIC 7:05 930 SOLDIER 7:009:40 Ricnmond Centre 273-7173 Mo: 131-0018 (Chinese with English subtitles) A HERO NEVER DIES 1:304:107:309:40 144 RUSH HOUR 12:502:504:507:209:20 PARENTAL GUIDANCE Coarse language; violence PLEASANTVILLE 12:453:307:159:45 ANTZ PRACTICAL MAGIC 1:153:407:009:30 SOLDIER "Frankly, I don't feel as if we have to apologize for anything." VTV general manager Jon Festinger sisting of three half-hour programs built around community news, business and entertainment, has shrunk to an hour. An hour-long local arts program, Applause, was slated to air during prime time but now airs for half an hour at 11:30 p.m. Thursdays, as Dreamseekers, and Fridays, as The Jim Byrnes Show. VTV has also managed to exceed some of its promises.

The station has created 140 positions (108 were promised) and established six community newsrooms (five were promised). Baton promised that its reporters would be bilingual; 24 different languages are spoken in the VTV newsroom. However, 12 full-time and three part-time employees were laid offlast spring. The layoffs were part of cuts to the CTV network that resulted in the loss of 334 jobs across the country. No more than one or two people with the same job title lost their jobs, Festinger said.

May, VTV's Vancouver Live (5) 6 was voted best local newscast in by the Radio and Televi sion News Directors Association. Together with VTV-sponsored documentaries such as Robert Duncan's V6A 1N6, about HIV infection in the Downtown Eastside, VTVs news division has consistently shed light on the problems afflicting Canada's most depressed neighbourhood. Murray is unconvinced, however. She feels the station should be doing more to live up to its commitment to provide a local voice. "VTV's launch was a textbook case of the postmodern reality in a 500-channel universe," Murray said.

"Despite a steroid start splashy, hemorrhaging cash, over-hiring at the beginning their audience numbers are way under target for their own produced shows." ALEX STRACHAN SUN TELEVISION CRITIC sophomore-year TV stations Vancouver Television is eeling pretty good about it self. VTV broadcast its first local signal Sept. 22, 1997 the first new station to ply the city's airwaves in more than two decades and today the station's executives are patting themselves on the back for a job well done. The station critics who include two former high-profile board members who resigned in disgust two months after the station went on the air say it is a hollow shell of what was promised to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in Baton Broadcasting's licence application in 1996. The truth, as in most debates, lies somewhere in between.

After its application was approved by the CRTC in January 1997, Baton promised to spend $72 million on Canadian programming over the seven-year term of its licence, supported by an additional $36 million from Baton's network of stations. Of this spending, $53 million was earmarked for licence fees for independently produced Canadian dramas, variety, children's programming and documentaries. Baton also promised to air two hours of new Canadian drama in prime time. It was this commitment to prime-time drama that has prompted the lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting to single out VTV for praise in a recent submission to the CRTC. The Friends noted that Can West Global and Western International Communications did not schedule any Vancouver-produced drama or comedy series in prime time last year.

Both WIC and Global have come under scrutiny in the past for their relatively small contributions to Canadian programming. VTV general manager Jon Festinger says there have been bumps in the road, but over-all the journey has been smoother than could be expected for a brand-new TV station. "The ratings picture has completely changed in this city from what it was a year ago," Festinger said. "Our over-all ratings are up hugely." VTV has not lived up to its billing, however, according to Catherine Murray, a communications professor at Simon Fraser University who resigned her seat on VTV's four-member local board, along with film-maker and former broadcaster Daryl Duke. VTV is little more than a clone of Toronto's Citytv, Murray said.

"What they really offer in their newscasts, for example, is tabloid-style, Citytv-type news. They have no presence in the power circles who are setting the agenda in the province." Many of Baton's promises to the CRTC were kept a regional development office with decision-making autonomy, six nationally telecast local programs (including Gabereau Mason Lee: On the Edge and First Story), and a Vancouver-based prime-time drama series, Cold Squad. Others were not. An hour-long newscast weekdays at noon, for example, has been cancelled. A 90-minute newscast weeknights at 6 p.m., con- $19 HONDA kAli, UU Includes I I I LIKE HOME GENUINE 30 Applicable to Dealer for applicable Gill your Price excludes i GENUINE 1 Applicable on Dealer for excludes COOLING ALLIANCE CINEMAS ttl i 7SJlH IN II IMES VALID MONDAY ONLY HAPPINESS (Tffi BELOVED 7:15 8.9:30 plus Tuo 4:05 E3 700 WHAT DREAMS MAY COME ipra 7:05 9:25 plus Tue 4:10 KYil i-t1 a fcvi-jim SLAM tn CT Rkllf UT 7:20 9:35 Plus TuB 4:20 L7 i 1 MIGHTW, SOLDIERS DAUGHTER 7:00 9:00 7:10 13 9:20 plus Tue 4:00 OIL FILTER OIL CHANGE Minutes or Less, Guaranteed Service 95' Accelerated Service THERE'S NO PRICE LIKE HOME all Honda vehicles only.

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