Philanthropy has always been something of a sacred cow, most likely because people have a hard time understanding how charity can be seen as a selfish pursuit. The Foundation, a brand-new half-hour comedy series coming to Showcase on Sunday, September 13th at 10:40pm ET/PT, aims to change that perception, offering an absurdly funny take on the motives behind the money.
The central character of the series is Michael Valmont-Selkirk, an irresponsible, corrupt man who holds the reins of The R.J. Selkirk Foundation, a powerful not-for-profit organization. His foundation has a mandate of supporting various funds and important causes, but it's clear that Michael’s primary motivation for helping anybody with anything comes down to the potential for personal gain.
Here's the trailer (which I must say I had a really hard time locating...couldn't even find the show on imdb.com):
Kinda hard to get a read on who it's targeting audience-wise or its comedy style exactly, but if you go to the Showcase channel homepage HERE and watch a preview clip, it sure looks 'Curby' or 'Officey' (main character also named Michael). But the cbc.ca's Jason Anderson gives series a positive write-up, though it's hard to tell whether Anderson even screened the program as there's not a lot of 'reviewing' of the pilot in the article.
Anyway, check out The Foundation...I know I will (Co-Creator Michael Dowse was behind cult fav flick Fubar). But a polite note to the marketing departments at Showcase and Canwest Broadcasting. Considering how difficult it was to find out anything about this new show, much less see any ads for it (and I watched PGA golf simulcast on Global today and saw like, a hundred commercials for the Weeds Season 5 premiere tonight on Showcase), you really needs to ups your promotions game a bit.
6 comments:
I believe I'll be watching the Bears play the Packers instead.
Who makes a show they don't even try to let people know exists, let alone when it is on?
Would that be people who get so much government money to make their shows they frankly couldn't give a shit whether it succeeded or failed?
Cause that's the feeling you get.
Even though everybody who isn't living in a cave in Afghanistan knows this is week one of the NFL season, the league and its sponsors still spent MILLIONS this week pushing the product.
That's why the ratings for the game tonight will by a double-digit multiple of whatever Showcase gets.
Our industry is run by trolls.
Aaaand...when I try to Tivo it, there's no indication whether the 6 upcoming episodes are all the same one, or 6 different ones or 2 episodes at 3 times over 6 days...
I assume this has to do with a lack of specificity in the listings Showcase is providing to the tv guides?
But the trailer looks funny - I'm just going to have to babysit the Tivo to make sure I get it all.
PS: THANKS for the heads up!
Actually, MaryP, The Foundation's first season is five episodes long.
I guess Canwest's thinking is that The Foundation will receive some attention as Weeds, a show Canwest has advertised, is its lead-in. I don't know. The Foundation is a hold-over from 2008-09, so the show's been in the can a while.
Thanks for the heads up on The Foundation - which I found to be funnier than Weeds (a show which has crossed the line into Stupidland in my opinion:)
I was able to watch the first episode on the Showcase site last Monday. It looks like they will be posting them all.
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