The CBC is pucked in the head.
Instead of terminating Cherry, they should terminate the puckheads who are considering giving him the boot (oh, wait - apparently these jerks are already scheduled to receive the heave, ho ... hmmm ... methinks the CBC needs to hear from some REAL Canadians ...)
"... Cherry fans can visit cbc.ca and click on ‘contact us‘ to voice their opinion, or phone the CBC at 416-205-3311.
"
(P.S. for the benefit of the Nintendo generation - once upon a time in typing class, a typing drill was: "now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party" - but, I digress ...)
Grapes wrath limited
By Chris Doucette, Toronto Sun
THE POSSIBLE demise of Coach‘s Corner should have hockey fans screaming louder than a Don Cherry suit, but the CBC says it has only received "a handful" of complaints so far. "I have been checking with our switchboard and certainly there have been people calling in, but there‘s been no major flood of opinion or comments," Ruth Ellen Soles, a CBC spokesman, said yesterday. After a tumultuous 23 years, Cherry‘s contract is about to expire and the CBC has yet to offer him a new deal.
Cherry fans can visit cbc.ca and click on contact us to voice their opinion, or phone the CBC at 416-205-3311.
CBC doesn‘t have a clue
LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM, CANADIANS TUNE IN TO WATCH DON CHERRY, AND BILL BRIOUX SAYS OUR NATIONAL NETWORK WOULD BE NUTS TO DROP HIM
By BILL BRIOUX
CBC ICING Don Cherry is like NBC telling Donald Trump, "You‘re fired!" A front-page newspaper report yesterday suggested that, after 23 years, CBC would not renew Cherry‘s contract after it expires at the end of this season.
CBC spokesman Ruth Ellen Soles side-stepped the issue yesterday by telling The Sun that the network has no plans to negotiate contracts with any CBC personalities until after the hockey playoffs are over.
Cherry is the star of the only hit CBC has: Hockey Night In Canada. Sure, people tune in to see the game, but would anyone watch The Apprentice if The Donald was dumped?
While ratings for hockey have slipped, HNIC still averages 1.286 million viewers per week, skyrocketing toward 4 million during the Leafs playoff run. Aside from Canadian Idol, it is the only Canadian-produced show among our nation‘s Top 20 and the only CBC show to average more than a million viewers.
RANTINGS RILED
There have been rumblings for weeks that Cherry‘s 70-year-old neck is about to be chopped clean off his crazy high collars. His politically incorrect rantings about Europeans apparently never sat well with the guys named Rabinovitch and Redekopp who run the public broadcaster.
They‘re both leaving at the end of the year, so why not get rid of the only right winger in the entire organization and let some other government-appointed boob clean up the mess?
A lot of Canadians -- and not just "new" Canadians -- wince at some of Cherry‘s more politically incorrect views. Others, like my dad, a WWII vet and the most tolerant man I‘ve ever met, never misses Coach‘s Corner and can‘t get enough of Grapes.
But love him or hate him, we watch him. He is one of the few TV icons we have left. And for CBC to not renew his contract because he might say something offensive is like American Idol telling Simon Cowell to quit picking on those kids.
People tune in to Cherry to hear him say something outrageous. The fact that CBC slapped a seven-second delay on Coach‘s Corner earlier this season -- after Grapes popped off about French Canadians, visors and valour -- revealed the network for what it is: A left-leaning laughingstock.
At his worst, Cherry is our Triumph The Insult Comedy Dog. He says out loud what a lot of people think. His Kingston-good, Russia-bad shtick gets old quick, but when he leans into the camera and tells the kids at home to keep their head up and fire it around the glass, a lot of couch-coaches nod.
If the CBC brass thought Canada went nuts when they tried to axe Cherry‘s straight man Ron MacLean last year, look out. A nation of true-Blue pitbulls are ready to rise up and bite the Corp. in the cojones.
Canning Grapes would be just another example of an aloof and arrogant organization out of touch with what viewers want or think.
Ask a CBC executive about nosediving ratings and he‘ll haul out binders of bull---- showing that Canadians are "satisfied" or "more than satisfied" with the performance of the network.
That‘s fine. Rationalize away market share, ignore the realities of broadcasting in the 21st century. But if CBC wants to run the network with no regard for ratings or fan favourites, it should forfeit its cushy $800-million annual tax haul.
If you‘re going to throw away the most popular asset you have, do it on your own dime.
Style suits dapper Don well
By CHRIS DOUCETTE, TORONTO SUN
A SATURDAY night without Grapes seems as wacky as one of Don Cherry‘s outfits. And while the CBC could try to fill the Coach‘s Corner star‘s shoes, they‘ll never replace Cherry‘s clothes.
"Who‘s going to wear a red velvet suit or a pink plaid suit?" Saul Korman, of Korry‘s Clothiers to Gentlemen on the Danforth, said yesterday. "Only Don Cherry could pull off those outfits."
Cherry‘s attire is not only unique, but it‘s also well made, quite likely from the finest materials available, Korman said.
"Everything is just done to perfection," Korman said. "He‘s a movie star in clothes."
Cherry‘s wardrobe, which has been a hit with his fans for years, has also been great for those who sell menswear.
"He‘s probably the best thing to ever hit the clothing industry because he never stops dressing," Korman said. "He‘s flamboyant and you either love him or hate him."
And it seems Cherry is as as knowledgeable about clothing as he is about hockey.
Anita D‘Abbondanza, owner of La Camicia, a shirt factory in Concord, says Cherry "knows exactly what he wants.
"I don‘t think anybody else would get away with it," she said of Cherry‘s fashion sense. "But for some reason, when it‘s on him, it just looks good."
Her father began making Cherry‘s trademark shirts with the high, stiff collar around 1980. She took over the business about four years ago.
Cherry‘s time at the Corner may be over
Grapes doesn‘t expect to hear from CBC about renewal
By BILL BRIOUX AND JOE WARMINGTON, TORONTO SUN
COULD IT be true that the coach with the collars and his dog Blue might just be through? Enjoy the next few weeks, folks, because it might very well be the last for Don Cherry and Coach‘s Corner on Hockey Night In Canada. "I have had a good ride," the outspoken coach told The Sun last night.
Cherry wasn‘t denying the possibility his 23-year run on Saturday nights might very well be winding down? "It doesn‘t look so good," Grapes said before heading to the Hershey Centre to watch his beloved IceDogs OHL playoff game. "If it happens, it happens. I am not going to worry about it."
‘A TOUGH YEAR‘
Cherry confirmed for The Sun that the CBC has not offered him a contract to return next season. "They haven‘t talked to me," he said. "I haven‘t heard from them and I don‘t expect to hear from them."
The CBC has not commented on his status.
The 2003/2004 hockey season has been extremely difficult for Cherry: "It‘s been a tough year."
His popular post-first period segment was slapped with a seven-second delay after his comments about French Canadian hockey players landed him in hot water. A stern rebuke from CBC executive vice-president Harold Redekopp, and an investigation by Canada‘s language police clearly stung the 70-year-old TV icon.
While Cherry acknowledged there is a very real chance his long association with the network‘s best-watched show could be nearing an end, he insisted he is focused on the playoffs. "I‘m having fun with [HNIC host Ron] MacLean and I can hardly wait to get down there. I just show up and do Coach‘s Corner."
NEGATIVITY
Told that his departure from CBC would be like NBC telling Donald Trump, "You‘re fired," Cherry shot back, "Yeah, I wish I had his hair."
But on a more serious note, he said he‘s a little tired of reading so much negativity by "political reporters" about himself in the press. "It seems every time there is anything bad in the world, it‘s me," he said. "But I guess if you are going to give it out, you have to take it."
Cherry said he hadn‘t heard that 74% of respondents in a TV poll wanted him to stay but said he appreciates the support.
And, he said, there is still a possibility things will get done between he and the CBC.
"I remember one time it didn‘t get settled until one week into the season."
Cherry leaving? Say it isn‘t so ...
By JOE WARMINGTON
NO WONDER I saw Charlie Moon out there on Yonge St. singing the blues. Don Cherry and the CBC may be parting ways? Say it ain‘t so! What the heck will people do at about 8 p.m. on Saturday nights?
This might be the boldest thing the CBC has done since they put Don Cherry on the air in the first place. And it might be the stupidest since they played hardball with his sidekick Ron MacLean a couple of years back. Whoever is behind this latest beauty certainly doesn‘t remember the outcome of that battle. Fans from coast-to-coast spoke up and MacLean got his well-deserved raise.
Canadians just may have to do it again. Stay tuned. The question has to be asked, are they really serious about not having the TV and hockey legend next year? Cherry clearly thinks so. In talking with him last night he seemed blue -- and I don‘t mean any pun about his dog. "It has been tough all along," he said of his time with the CBC.
It‘s not easy being one of the few people left in Canada today with clearance to call it as he sees it. As time goes on, that clearance has been downgraded from a live segment to one with a seven-second delay.
In a way Cherry is kind of the last man standing from the pre-politically correct era where people said what they think.
If it‘s true that Coach‘s Corner is done it will be a day of national mourning for millions of supporters who get what he does. And what he does is far more than talk about hockey. He‘s for the troops, the cops and those having a tough time with illness. He‘s Canada‘s biggest cheerleader and the country‘s biggest patriot.
When I was out in the Persian Gulf last year on board HMCS Iroquois and HMCS Regina, the men and women piled in front of the TV to watch that little piece of Canada from so many thousands of miles away.
They worship him. Just two nights ago I saw that same kind of scene in the Foster Hewitt Gondola, where dozens of hockey people and hockey journalists pile together to see what the coach is saying. They are too cool to admit they like him, but they never miss what he has to say. It‘s amazing really. The man has accomplished something that‘s very hard to accomplish. He‘s been a star on a national stage for 23 years. He‘s never kissed one butt and yet is still Canada‘s most famous Canadian. Whether he‘s selling subs or videos, Cherry is in hot demand, long after other stars have faded.
Who knows where this all leads and I‘ll bet CBC will have Don Cherry on our airwaves for years to come. Whether they like him is irrelevant really. It‘s the audience that decides what shows stay and what shows go.
All you need to know about Don Cherry is if there is a charity in need, he‘s there and when Conan O‘Brien‘s show on NBC called he chose to do Mike Bullard‘s floundering show on Global instead. The Scrawler‘s backing you, Don. And so will a lot of other Canadians.
