Auction, Industry News

Don’t call it a cancellation

56 Comments

TVeh_icon_512x512

2006-2013

Thanks to all the winners, bidders, donors, and those who helped spread the word about the TV, eh? auction in support of Kids Help Phone. It was a much smaller auction than last time but we still raised $1770 for the charity.

But some of the reasons I took so long to mount the auction and why I wanted to keep it small are the same reasons I’ve decided to put TV, eh? on hiatus. There’s nothing wrong, just shifting priorities and wanting to move on from this commitment. I’ll continue to write about television and other topics on other sites as it moves me, and cheerlead Canadian TV from further on the sidelines. I won’t pull the site down — it will remain up as a resource and on the off-chance I or someone else decides to revive it in the future.

I’ll wrap things up by the end of the year, do a couple more podcasts with my fabulous co-host Anthony Marco, and then move on to other web adventures. It’s been a wonderful ride, these past seven years. I’m grateful to everyone for the support and will always feel like I was part of a great community of people — and hope to remain so to a lesser degree. But it’s time to retire at least for the foreseeable future from running the site.

Thanks again to everyone for the support.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

56 thoughts on “Don’t call it a cancellation”

  1. It’s been an honour to finally be called “fabulous” by you and I’m holding you to your above promise that it will be left on-line in perpetuity. Your commitment has proven an essential meshing of old and new media… I still want beverage updates.

  2. Thanks for all you’ve done, for helping to re-frame the discussion to what it should be about; for candidly showing the very real limits of professionalism in creatives, critics, PR people, mandarins, industry associations and various others. There are those who do things because it comes back to help them, and those who do them because they need doing.

    Canadian TV, and the need to make the industry better, and more professional, has been my brief for a long time — and if my efforts there have not been entirely self-serving, than they at least have always been partially so.

    But you came to TV as a fan, and wondered why there weren’t more Canadian shows you loved as much as Intelligence, and you threw yourself headlong into a sideline that didn’t help you professionally in any fashion. That’s the kind of effort that sparks change.

    My favorite times were when someone would try to intimidate you or accuse you of having an agenda, and the kind of anemic stunned reaction when they realized there was no way to “take you down a peg,” because you were entirely outside the TV ecosystem.

    Know that you have made a great impact, on a great many people. You have changed the framing of some more important conversations. I have zero doubt that the energy and smarts you focus on areas closer to your heart and professional path will generate the same incredible results from grateful, and admiring colleagues.

    Thank you from your needy, cosetted, closeted, abused, maligned, self-absorbed, frustrating, obtuse, parochial, neurotic, bombastic, sweet, difficult, and hopefully redeemable friends in Canadian TV.

    As Ed Grimley once said, you are “pretty great, I must say.”

    Denis

    PS and apparently I bought a Flashpoint box set. Signed. By two people I know. Awesome. Good Cause! Good Cause!

    1. Thank you for the support and sympathetic ear now and throughout, including part of the inspiration to start the site. And yeah, I bet Mark would have given you a signed copy but yay charity!

  3. Sad news for canadian tv fans :(
    Thanks for all your work Diane and good luck in your next projects !

  4. Diane – this endeavour has been a triumph. You’ve shown the few who get paid to report on TV in this nation how to do it well. You’ve startled those who make TV with a thoughtful media response to their work.

    Best of all, you’ve alerted the gov’t wonks with a mandate to promote Canadian TV, that their mandate ain’t cutting the mustard.

    Whatever it is that you’re moving on to do, rest assured, you staked your claim here and shook up the foundation enough to leave us all with a little gold.

    Thank you!

    Kellie

  6. I will miss your postings; they were a daily delight to read each day but I understand your need to take a break. You have been a fabulous supporter of Canadian TV. Cheers to you in all your future creative work!

  8. I’m sorry to hear this. I love the podcast and know more about Canadian television than I thought possible for someone without cable thanks to you. I look forward to seeing where you go next :-)

  9. Thanks for all your hard work Diane. Your efforts will be missed, but I certainly don’t begrudge you the wish to refocus your energies. Best of luck!

  10. Thanks for all you do to bring Canadian TV to our attention. I’ve followed your posts since I saw the media release for APTN’s By the Rapids, the last series production I was on. I may not have work to do in TV anymore, but it was fun still to learn about the industry through your site.

  11. HEARTBREAK! The saddest thing about all this (other than the lack of Diane) is that there really isn’t an alternative for getting my Canadian tv fix now. Oh what an industry we have….sigh. I really appreciate all the hard work and insightful dialogue you and Anthony brought to the conversation each week. You served us well. Thanks a billion and best wishes in your future endeavors!

    1. Thanks Andrew! Hopefully other sites will fill in the blanks and who knows, maybe the industry groups who keep talking about promotion will do some promotion :)

  12. thanks so much for keeping us informed. is there any alternate site you or anyone can recommend. getting info about Canadian tv is so hard outside Canada (some networks such as HBO Canada actually block their schedules if you are outside Canada)

  13. Wow Diane. I was so surprised to see this as for a number of years I have been coming to your site and I will really miss it. I would like to thank you for the years you have spent working on it and hope to see you around in the future. This does feel like a cancellation to me. I guess all good things must come to an end though and I wish you luck in any future endeavors. Merry Christmas Diane! Yours sincerely, Alicia Ottenbreit. P.S. Thanks again for TV Eh–I will miss it so much.

  14. I blame Iceland. But not really. Wish I knew how to say thanks for all the knowledge, promotion, and care you took putting yourself into this. It’s been a pleasure to read with you and work for you on occasion. Thank you for doing it, and well done.

    1. Ha – too easy to Blame Canada. Thank you for all your help and contributions along the way. And we’ll have an in-person beverage update when you’re back in Van.

  15. I am sad to read this because, even though you are outside of the daily grind of tv, in my heart you are really one of us. Your love and passion for Canadian tv is rare and so needed, and yours is a voice that will be missed in the days to come. That said, it has been a privilege to support your efforts in TV, eh? when I could. But more importantly, I’m so very glad you’re become a friend and that I can continue to follow your wonderful adventures to come. To think we actually met because of all those crazy conversations back on Dead Things on Sticks back in the day … I’ll always be grateful to you D, for bringing Diane into my circle of friends.

    1. Thanks Caroline! The great people I’ve met (virtually or in person) through this site are the main reason I’ve continued for as long as I did. And that won’t die with the site!

  16. Well then I won’t say goodbye – but I will say thank you. It was always great to read your stuff – grateful for the kind words – and smarter for the criticisms regardless of the show. You have done an incredible job on this site. Can’t believe it won’t still be ongoing…

  17. You’ve been my go to site for great Canadian TV from here in the States….I will miss you! It was thru Tv, Eh? that i discovered Blackstone and Arctic Air, two shows I love immensely!
    Best of luck in your new endeavours! I didn’t always leave comments but I was always reading!

  18. Seven years? Seven years is enough!!??!! You think a mere seven years beating your head against the brick wall of Canadian TV PR incompetence and indifference is long enough to earn you a break!!??!!

    Do you know how long some of us have been doing it? Of course, we get paid. And nominated for awards. And are regularly celebrated among our peers and publicly admired and appreciated.

    Frankly, I’m amazed you made it past week one.

    Not to mention humbled, impressed and eternally grateful for all you’ve fought for and achieved for Canadian TV during your tenure. If there were one person with a fraction of your drive and commitment at each of our networks, we’d have the most successful TV industry in the world, beloved at home and coveted abroad.

    Thank you so, so much for caring as deeply as you have, while pushing all of us to try and live up to the bar you set not only for making good television but helping our audiences realize that they are an essential part of the experience.

    My best wishes for whatever you do next. I hope it will be as rewarding for you as your work here has been for all of us.

  19. Thank you for all you’ve put into the site and for keeping us updated with the latest on Canadian television. Your site has been my “go to” for finding show premiere dates and information. I wish you all the best for your future endeavors. Thanks for all you’ve done again. Cheers and take care!

  20. Sorry to hear you are shutting things down for now Diane but totally understand. This blogging thing is time consuming,and pays peanuts. At the end of the day, it is just TV.
    Hats off to you, however, for championing Canadian television and giving cheer and promotion to folks in the industry. The auction is a tremendous idea and demonstrates viewers value the work of Canadian storytellers so much they’ll pay to own a piece of the works.
    Me, I’ll especially miss the bump in page views at my site from being linked at TV Eh. Best of luck in whatever you tackle next.

  21. So sad to hear that you are moving on. I have quietly enjoyed this site for many years and found your inside knowledge of the Canadian TV industry most interesting and helpful to me in my line of work. All the best to you in your new endeavors.

    1. Thanks! Check out some of the blogs in the sidebar, and if others expand to fill the gaps I’ll post about it even after I go dark.

  24. For the past seven years, you’ve been doing an incredible jobs. I hope that someone or others will accept the mantle regarding “TV, eh?”. It was a great pleasure to have a healthy competition between “TV, eh?” and “The Cultural Post”! I wish you all the best in your future adventures.

    Anh Khoi

  25. I came to this site for the simplest of things – I wanted to know what Canadian shows are airing. Through the years, that was the one thing that kept me around; although the other articles are certainly interesting. Nowhere else is this simple information found. The only failure of this blog is that it remained the only source. All the successes were not contagious.

    I hope to see this come back one day, and I wish you all the best Diane.

    1. Thanks Adam, that was always my main objective: to let people know the shows existed so they could decide to watch them or not. The rest was gravy :) I think this could be good for the industry – as in if a gap is felt then maybe the industry will see a value in simple online promotion and step in? What are the Eye On Canada people spending time on that is more of a priority, for example?

      Not that that was a reason for me ending it – I’m just tired :)

      1. Perhaps I’m a bit optimistic but I think it would be best if the guide button on my cable could highlight CanCon, just as it highlights childrens series and sports.

        I have a dream that eventually we won’t need to turn to guerilla bloggers.

  26. Just want to join everyone else in thanking Diane for providing the internet with such a fine blog for such a long period of time, for someone like myself who is not Canadian nor lives in Canada but enjoys watching Canadian tv this blog has been invaluable in keeping me informed about what shows are airing and what shows to look out for that are currently in production. Best of luck in whatever new ventures you undertake.

  28. Diane — I’m really late in reading this announcement, but good on you for spreading your wings, and thank you very much for being such a trove of information. As a Canadian TV fan in the lower 48, your site has been a huge resource for me when I’ve been looking for current info on the shows I sometimes have to chase down to see. Best of luck!

  29. I too am severely late in reading this news! Best of luck with whatever’s next, and a message to go with it:

    Anyone on Facebook who’s interested, we’ve got a small group going with similar purposes to this blog in mind and would like it to be a larger group…

    CanCon TV Fandom

    Hoping to see as many as want in!

  30. I am from the states. Love the show, love Canadian tv. This show will be missed!

    Where are the final few podcasts you promised? Do we still have time to submit an audio message? :o)

Comments are closed.