For
years, Ivan was known to the Canadian broadcasting industry as TV's
controversial "wunderkind." In 1985, when he was thirty-one years
old, the Toronto native was recruited by the U.S. television network
NBC as the new vice-president of programming under then-programming
chief Brandon Tartikoff. NBC and CBC had the Canadian comedy series
SCTV in common at that time and Fecan met with Tartikoff
to discuss new program ideas. Impressed with the young man, Tartikoff,
himself a young executive, offered Fecan the NBC job.
After
two years at NBC, the head of English-language CBC, Denis Harvey,
brought Fecan home as Director of Programming, where he began to
institute program development, especially in comedy. He moved the
award-winning young people's series, Degrassi Jr. High, to
Monday nights in prime time, where it flourished even more. He also
hired a Canadian script doctor at CBS, Carla Singer, to work with
the producer on Street Legal, the drama series about a group
of Toronto lawyers. Although it started out with weak scripts and
pedestrian directing, the series found its legs, became much more
professional--some would say more "American"--and lasted eight years.
Fecan's
rise to the highest levels of the industry can indeed be described
as meteoric. Fecan began as a producer of the popular and respected
three-hour radio magazine show, Sunday Morning. Moses Znaimer
recognized his talent and took him away to be news director of Citytv,
the hip new upstart local station. Two years later he became program
director at CBC's Toronto station, CBLT. He updated that flagship
station by bringing in electronic news gathering (ENG) equipment,
two-way radios, and more reporters. Leaving news for the entertainment
side of the business, Fecan spent sixteen months as head of CBC-TV's
Variety Department. He is said to have renewed variety programming
there by using more independent producing talent.
Fecan's
goals were to make CBC programming break even, to attain an all-Canadian
schedule, and to produce high-quality shows that audiences wanted
to see. There are two schools of thought on his tenure as CBC's
Director of Programming. One is that he brought polish and quality
to the national network while boosting Canadian-produced shows;
the second is that he turned the public broadcaster into a veritable
clone of the American networks. What is not in dispute is that he
shepherded some of the finest TV movies during his leadership, including
The Boys of St. Vincent, Conspiracy of Silence, Love and Hate,
Glory Enough for All, Where the Spirit Lives, Life with Billy, Princes
in Exile, Dieppe, and Liar, Liar. In fact, Love and Hate (about
the true story of a Saskatchewan politician who murdered his ex-wife)
was the first Canadian movie of the week to be aired on a major
U.S. network (NBC). The series The Kids in the Hall, The Road
to Avonlea, North of 60, Scales of Justice, 9B, Deqrassi High, The
Odyssey and Northwood came into existence because of
Fecan. The Kids in the Hall went on to become a hit on American
television and The Road to Avonlea won awards all over the world
and ran for seven years. In addition to The Kids in the Hall,
in the comedy arena, he launched The Royal Canadian AirFarce,
CODCO and This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
Fecan
made professional use of competitive scheduling and programming
tools he had learned from Tartikoff and Grant Tinker at NBC. Negotiating
that delicate balance between Canadian content and American revenues
which has so often been a problem, he programmed American series
in prime time to help bring in much -needed money--Kate and Allie,
Hooperman, The Golden Girls, and The Wonder Years. Some
argued that Street Legal had become too Americanized, like
L.A. Law, its counterpart, despite the obvious Toronto locations
and the Canadian legal traditions and local issues. (The shows were
developed and coincidentally went on air about the same time.) Street
Legal also, however, began to draw more than a million viewers
a week, a hit by Canadian standards, after two seasons of mediocrity.
A
much more risky and dubious decision was to create Prime Time
News at 9:00 P.M. to replace the Canadian tradition of The
National and The Journal at 10:00 P.M. It turned out
to be an unwise move and The National was soon returned.
Such
shows as Adrienne Clarkson Presents, Harry Rasky's world-famous
documentary specials, the documentary anthology Witness, and Patrick
Watson's The Struggle for Democracy illustrate Fecan's commitment
to Canadian production which is neither American-style nor draws
large audiences. Canadian content grew from 78% to 91% under Fecan's
direction and the amount of U.S. programming dropped. Although criticized
for concentrating too much on the national network instead of on
regional programming, Fecan strengthened the main network in a time
when local stations were about to be cut or closed altogether by
severe budget restraints not in his control. It has been claimed
that CBC's audience share declined over his tenure, but in boom
years for cable and pay, his work probably prevented much greater
declines in ratings which all networks, even the three U.S. majors,
suffered.
Fecan
left CBC and joined Baton Broadcasting in January 1994 as Senior
Group Vice President and became Executive Vice President and Chief
Operating Officer in January 1995. Baton operates the commercial
CTV, Canada's other national TV network.
-Janice
Kaye
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Ivan Fecan
Photo courtesy of Ivan Fecan
IVAN
FECAN. Born in 1954. Educated at York University, Toronto, Canada,
B.A. in Fine Arts. Producer, Sunday Morning radio show; news director,
Citytv; program dirctor, CBC Toronto; head of network Variety department;
moved to Hollywood as vice-president of creative development at
NBC, 1985; director of television programming, CBC, 1987; board
of directors, Baton Broadcasting, from 1987; vice president of Baton
Broadcasting, 1994; chief operating officer, 1995.
RADIO
Sunday Morning (producer)
FURTHER READING
"Passing the Baton: Douglas Bassett Spearheads an Overhaul of Baton
Broadcasting with Visionary Ivan Fecan." Financial Post (Toronto,
Canada), 29 April-1 May 1995.
"Baton Promotes Fecan to COO." Financial Post Daily (Toronto, Canada),
18 January 1995.
"Hefty Bonuses for Broadcasters." Financial Post (Toronto,
Canada), 26-28 November 1994.
See
also Canadian
Programming in English; City
TV; CODCO; Degrassi;
Kids in the
Hall; The
National; North
of 60; Road
to Avonlea; Royal
Canadian Airfarce; SCTV;
Street Legal
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