September 29, 1999

Round-Up - THE COMMENTARY

By Joseph Planta

Well my little hiatus has left a few issues on the table and, I’ll take this edition of The Commentary to sift through this eventful little while. Gordon Wilson’s departure from the finance ministry, to the education ministry, is nothing but the most helpful hand for his leadership aspirations. This mini-cabinet shuffle, shows the utter disregard of this party for the people they are supposedly representing. I cannot believe they would shuffle the bureaucracy of the people, only to help them get elected.

The Canadian Academy of Film and Television, released their nominations for this year’s Gemini awards. For the uninitiated, The Gemini is the prize used to award excellence in Canadian television. There’s such a thing as Canadian television?, you ask? Yup. Strange eh? Well among the nods for Tom Green, Mike Bullard and the utterly reprehensible Lisa LaFlamme, they also nominated DaVinci’s Inquest and Traders. Where’s Cold Squad? That’s a good show and one of the rare shows on Canadian television that can get me watching. How about Gabereau? Nope, not on the list, either. Shame on ACTRA.

Sunday’s triumphant celebration of Saturday Night Live’s 25th Anniversary, was wonderfully put together. There was a hell of a lot of music though, but I guess that’s what kept it on the air, all these years. Thought Chris Rock was funny, and I also thought that the opening by Bill Murray, was a riot. Billy Crystal as the mah-vellous, Fernando was an act not to pass up. The tributes flowed, and to that damned Mark Steines at ET, there is no SNL curse! A shame that Eddie Murphy wasn’t there, and that they didn’t use Chevy Chase and Steve Martin, as much as they could’ve. I really enjoyed the special, and SNL is a great bastion of sketch comedy. For those of us too young for Laugh-In, Saturday Night Live, is a landmark for the generations.

The passing of the great George C. Scott, was not only shocking, but sad. No one had, has or will have such a commanding presence, need it be film, TV or theatre. His amazing performance in Patton, and his body of work, will never be matched and never seen again. A legend, beyond belief.

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