"The Newsroom" (1996) TV series

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Creator:

Ken Finkleman

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

21 October 1996 (Canada)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

In a Toronto TV station, the newsroom is headed by a ratings freak. There is nothing George won't do...

Plot Keywords:

Muffin | Black Comedy | Canadian Stereotype | Intern | Malcontent

Awards:

9 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Ken Finkleman	...	George Findlay (13 episodes, 1996-1997)
Mark Farrell	...	Mark (13 episodes, 1996-1997)
Tanya Allen	...	Audrey (13 episodes, 1996-1997)
Peter Keleghan	...	Jim Walcott (13 episodes, 1996-1997)
David Huband	...	Bruce (8 episodes, 1996-1997)
Jeremy Hotz	...	Jeremy (7 episodes, 1996-1997)
Karen Hines	...	Karen (6 episodes, 1997)
Pamela Sinha	...	Rani Sandu (6 episodes, 1996)

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

Quotes:

Audrey: You still want a muffin?
George Findlay: Yes, dark bran.
Audrey: What if he only has cranberry left?
George Findlay: Oh God, this muffin thing again... Why whenever I ask for a bran, you always come back with cranberry?
Audrey: Because... he's usually out of bran by now and cranberry happens to be all he has left.
George Findlay: Oh, and you know why? I'll tell you why. Because he can't make five more bran muffins. So by eleven o'clock in the morning, there's something like thousand cranberry muffins, and... you know why they're sitting there...? Because everyone hates them.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Followed by "More Tears" (1998)

Brilliant television series, much imitated.

The deadpan quasidocumentary feel of this series puts it solidly in an evolutionary chain from Canadian sketch comedy, perhaps most obvious among the SCTV and other Second City folk who've done so much that's been visible in the States, to such latter-day offerings as THE OFFICE, in its original UK form and US remake. The interplay of dialog is often as quick as anything I've seen in screwball or drawing room comedy in any medium, yet usually the build toward absurdity is held deftly in check till a rich payoff. The new season, offered to US television in 1995, may seem a bit familiar as a result of the first season's influence, and the first sequel project, MORE TEARS, was by intention somewhat more self-indulgent (parodically...and simultaneously not...Fellini-esquire), but all are well worth seeing, particularly this first season.