Monday, June 9, 2008

no man is an island

in 2000, penguin books released a novel by nick hornby called "about a boy," which was made into a feature film starring hugh grant two years later. the story is about a callous thirty-something womanizer "who is taught how to act like a grown-up by a little boy" (imdb.com).

'what does this have to do about hockey', you ask ?
allow me to explain....

the story's protagonist, Will, doesn't have a job (haha kinda like me!). the REASON he doesn't have a job is because he's independently wealthy... from collecting royalty cheques from a jingle that his father wrote....

i presume that dolores claman, with her already-sixty years worth of royalties from penning the theme to hockey night in canada, was considering her grandchildren's trust funds when she essentially told the CBC where to shove it. someday, the grandbabies claman can enjoy breaking time into 30-minute "units,"** because they have the financial luxuries of not working. and kudos to dolores for setting'em up.

unfortunately, this means that (as of yesterday), the newly dubbed "Hockey Theme", has been officially divorced from the cbc's saturday night classic. To me that's the part of this saga that's the most heartbreaking. sure, the tune won't fade off into obscurity but, get this straight kids ---it must heretofore be referred to as "the former theme song to hockey night in canada."

ROUGH.

anyhow. congrats to TSN for making the brass at the mothercorp look like flailing idiots (again).

**seriously, if you haven't seen this movie, i highly recommend it. hugh grant is very.... well, hugh grant-ish, but the supporting cast (rachel weisz, toni collette and the kid that plays marcus) is kickass....

3 comments:

Kent W. said...

Sorry, I can't abide Hugh Grant. Or most touching, dramatic comedies for that matter.

Nice analogy though!

Unknown said...

But...but...the Mothercorp would have been irresponsible to pay the big bucks from taxpayer money when it finds itself already short of cash.

Glad CTV will keep the tune alive, though.

walkinvisible said...

W4I (aka: mum) :D

i think the CBC's mission statement should, in part, be to conserve the country's heritage.... which they utterly missed the boat on in this capacity.

if you think about it, they'll probably lose the 2.5 million dollar lawsuit anyways, and therefore could have held onto the jingle for a "very similar" cost to what they've been paying (which is what CTV got it for).

would we enjoy the theme from "chariots of fire" as much if it was re-dubbed the "runner's theme" ??