It's the Economy, Buckaroosby Gary Phillips
The Roy Rogers cartoon series is currently being produced by a Canadian production company under an arrangement which excludes the participation of American talent. Angelenos in the animated programming field are deeply concerned that most of "their" work is going abroad. This happens because guilds representing American workers in the entertainment industry were unsuccessful in negotiating a favorable, or even an equal position for their members in the animation industry under NAFTA. Nobody in the industry wants to talk openly about this explosively sensitive situation so, to avoid professional reprisal, this documentation of a deal that went north and commentary on the position of affected workers is written under a pseudonym by a person currently working in the American animation industry. [Ed.]
When you call the Roy Rogers Museum out in Victorville, you get a personal recorded message from Roy's own son, Roy Jr., telling you that when you come on out to the Museum, you just might see Roy himself wandering the grounds. However, "He's 86 and does pretty much what he wants -- it depends on how his jets are fired in the morning," Roy Jr. says, "Please don't ask him for an autograph, `cause if you do, he's gone with the wind." American participation in American animated TV series is going with the wind as well, and a lot of local employment with it. At least 90% of animation and writing for children's television animation originates in the L.A. Area. According to John Storrier of All-American Television ("Baywatch"), the distributor of the Roy Rogers cartoon series, the entire Roy Rogers family, Roy, Dale and Roy, Jr., signed themselves right over to a Canadian production deal for 26 episodes to begin airing in Fall of 1999. Jeff Kramer, president of Kingsboro Productions in Calabasas, obtained the rights for a Roy Rogers cartoon from the Rogers family in 1990. He then hired Emmy and Peabody award winning writer/producer Nicholas Hollander ("Pinky & the Brain", "Animaniacs") to develop the show and brought on Academy Award winning producer Mike Young to produce a demo reel at his Mike Young Productions studios in L.A. They then pitched the show to Storrier and All American Television. Storrier loved it. The project was moving forward. But suddenly a new partner was added. Paragon Entertainment, a Canadian company. They partnered with All-American, providing the services of their newly-acquired animation company, Lacewood, in exchange for partnership in the series. Paragon partnered with French company Pixibox (under a co-production agreement Canada has with 32 countries including Bosnia-Herzegovina but excluding the U.S.) and together they turned the Roy Rogers animated series into what is known as a Canadian Content production. [Ed. On balance, Jeff Kramer, when called, maintained that they weren't able to find any domestic financing for this project.] A Canadian production deal in animation assures that no American writers or artists will be allowed to work on the show. Did the Roy Rogers family know about this? As a result, Nicholas Hollander's script was discarded, Mike Young's production house lost the production, and a trio of Canadian writers called The Membrains were hired to create a new development and pilot. What about The North American Free Trade Agreement? NAFTA is supposed to provide for labor equity across national borders. Unfortunately, NAFTA sanctions don't apply to the entertainment industry. Despite the presence of the three major guilds WGA, SAG, and DGA, Canada was given free reign over the American entertainment industry during the negotiations. If American producers partner with Canadian companies and they follow the guidelines set by the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO), they get a refundable tax credit "payable to production services corporations of 11% of salaries and wages paid to Canadian residents for services rendered in Canada." These tax credits are allowed by the accumulation of "points." According to CAVCO, credit points are allowed only if "the person who rendered the services is an individual who is a Canadian." The Department of Canadian Heritage, under which CAVCO operates, maintains that this is all in the name of "strengthening and celebrating Canada" and to "ensure the presence of Canadian culture in an era of globalization." Among the thousands of "strengthening and celebrating Canada" projects are "The Adventures Of Sinbad" (a syndicated series based on the legendary seaman), "Stargate SG-1" (a Showtime sci-fi series), "Poltergeist: The Legacy" (another Showtime series based on the horror movie), "Reboot" (an animated sci-fi series), and "Beast Wars" (another animated sci-fi series). Lots "presence of Canadian culture" in those, eh? Celebrating Canada apparently means celebrating their bank accounts. American animation writers and artists lose. And some of those losses mean more than money. "This was one project I really had a good feeling for," says Nicholas Hollander, who has known and admired the Roy Rogers saga his entire life. "He was a heartfelt hero who really believed in good. A guy who would rather stop a fight than pull a gun." Hollander reflected this in the pilot script he wrote. "It had to do with kids, kids of all races," he says, "I was seeing things through the eyes of Roy Rogers." The production partners tell Hollander he's still involved as a consultant, but, Hollander says, "I've never seen a piece of paper." "When you create a show you should be attached", Hollander contends. Hollander has no problem with working with Canadians, and has done so in the past as a producer-writer. But he believes writers and artists should "pay their dues" and be worthy of the job from a talent standpoint, not simply because of their nationality. Have the Membrains paid their dues? They've been together for approximately one year, have been in L.A. for less than that, and have signed 17 deals. Only one deal was not Canadian content. Meanwhile, Hollander has had three development deals, all of which went "North" and dropped him. "We're three crazy guys who are going to make this happen," says Membrain Kim Saltarski. He and his two fellow Membrains, Atul Rao and Greg van Riel, became professional animation writers after winning Second Place and Honorable Mention in a scriptwriting contest sponsored by the Klasky-Csupo animation studios. The Membrains received $3,000 for Second Place, and a year's option to Klasky-Csupo on both of their scripts. In contrast, the animation industry standard for an option on a series development is $10,000, and for the script-bible package involved, $20,000+ is the standard fee. When asked if there are going to be Canadian aspects in the Roy Rogers cartoon show, Membrain Saltarski said, "No." However, Membrain Saltarski considers himself and his two partners "culturally and psychically connected" to the U.S. When asked about replacing Nick Hollander, Saltarski said, "I don't know about that."
How does Calder feel about animation fleeing north to Canada and taking work away from Americans? "Can't make a series without them (Canadians) these days," says Calder. But later she admits, matter-of-factly, "Everyone knows the talent in Canada is slim." Ironically, Agent Calder also represents Nicholas Hollander. Unfortunately, this game with Canada is now the rule rather than the exception in Hollywood. While the U.S. was frantically building big fences between Mexico and the southern border, CBS sold out its entire Saturday Morning children's slate of programming to Nelvana, a Canadian animation company. No American writers or artists will be employed for next season's cartoons. All production will be done up north. How is Nelvana preserving Canadian culture by seizing and programming three hours of American Saturday morning television? Why did this happen? "I don't have to explain it to you," says Chris Ende, vice-president of Media Relations at CBS. "We are in something called show business. We have to provide something for the children, for the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) educational requirement, and finally, to the stockholders." Ende added nothing about the irony of an American TV network sending their shows to Canada to meet American FCC requirements. Nelvana was chosen, said Ende, because of the quality of the package it offered. Nelvana has never been known for a great American track record; very few of its shows have ever been picked up for a second season on American network television. When asked which other companies were competing with Nelvana to fill this three-hour block, Ende wouldn't name any, citing it as "proprietary information". Writers Guild of America appears not to care about their live-action writers losing work to Canada because of their nationality: a recent cover story of the WGA's official magazine Written By... talks about the "boom" in hour-long syndies but makes no mention of the Canadian content dilemma and the fact that there is no fair competition for these Canadian-produced shows. Canadians equal tax points, Americans equal zip. Repeated calls to the WGA on this issue were answered with a guarantee that "someone will get in touch." No one got in touch. Canada isn't "celebrating" its culture. It's appropriating ours, with the help of our own industry. An angry call from agent Kelly Calder brought a stunning revelation. Two days after her interview, Calder wanted this article killed and claimed all of my quotes from her were fabricated by me ("I never use the word `slim'!" she yelled). And to get it killed, she threatened me with a call from Ken Katsumoto, the V.P. of Family Entertainment for Paragon Entertainment. I asked what Ken could do -- he's a Canadian, right? "Hah!" scoffed Calder, "That shows how much you know! He's an American!" An American? An American runs family entertainment for a Canadian company -- a foreign company that's taking an American hero and creating a Canadian animated series, enjoying Canadian tax credits, and taking fair competition for jobs away from American artists and writers, therefore killing wages for some of the American families he's supposed to be "entertaining"? Hey, it's legal. It's the economy, buckaroos.
The Bottom Line
Here are the calculations for money lost to American artists and writers in ANIMATION ONLY because of Canadian Content laws.
The number of series is based on C.C. shows found in the TV TIMES section of the Sunday L.A. times.
Networks shows budget at approx. $320,000.00 per half hour. Network orders are for 13 shows per season. Percentage of budget that goes to salaries are 66 percent of the budget or approx. $211,200.00 per episode. Currently there are 10 C.C. shows on the network (this includes the 6 shows that Nelvana will supply CBS) this year.
TOTAL MONEY LOST TO CANADA: $27,456,000.00
Syndicated shows budget at approx. $275,000.00 per half hour episode. Syndie orders are for anywhere from 13 eps. to 52 eps, but average at 26 eps. per season (we're using the 26 ep. numbers). Currently there are 36 C.C. syndicated shows on in L.A. 66 percent of the budget goes to salary, or approx. $181,500.00 per episode.
TOTAL MONEY LOST TO CANADA: $169,884,000.00
TOTAL MONEY LOST TO AMERICAN WORKERS BY CANADIAN CONTENT ANIMATION SERIES, COMBINING NETWORK AND SYNDICATED SHOWS:
$197,340,000.00
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