It's a beauty way to go

So I'm back from four days in Montreal and trying to figure out what was the most quintessentially Canadian moment of the trip: 1)Getting into an argument with a native about the merits of the Montreal bagel, which ended with me saying I'd never been a fan and the native saying, "Well, it was nice talking to you"; 2)Attending a family gathering where the word "Cheesebagel" was uttered at least 41 times in 10 minutes (my wife lost interest in counting after that); 3)Going to a Canadian mall, where I spent half the visit scouting potential locations for a Robin Sparkles concert; or 4)Idly channel-surfing and coming across a CBC documentary about Bob and Doug McKenzie, of "Great White North" (via "SCTV") fame.

So, while I resist the urge to put on a toque and call everybody a hosehead, here's some of what I missed while I was away:

• The Screen Actors Guild contract elapsed at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday without a SAG strike, or even a strike authorization vote. The public version of the SAG/AMPTP negotiations in some ways sounds just as ugly and childish as the WGA/AMPTP negotiations (mainly from the studio side, both times), but another strike would have been devastating for the TV business (as it is, I don't think it'll ever totally recover from the effects of the WGA/AMPTP impasse), so I'm somewhat relieved.
  
• The lack of a strike also means that the Television Critics Association press tour is definitely on, so I'll be heading out to LA on Monday and will be blogging round the clock for a couple of weeks.
  
• Tom O'Neil remains on top of all things Emmy, and for the most part, the news out of the nomination screenings has dashed whatever optimism I had when the comedy and drama series semi-finalists were announced. Two spies on the drama series nominating panels said that the panelists (most over 50, as per usual) hated "The Wire" and "Dexter" and ate up "Boston Legal" and "Damages." Nobody from "The Wire" made any acting semi-finalist list, and most of the "Lost" cast was shut out, with the exception of Naveen Andrews and Michael Emerson (but not Henry Ian Cusick or Jorge Garcia) in drama supporting actor. No Connie Britton, even though she submitted herself as a drama supporting actress this time; no January Jones, either (though Christina Hendricks and John Slattery both made the first cut). The news is a little better elsewhere, as Elisabeth Moss and Mary McDonnell (who chose a relatively skiffy-low episode in "Faith") allegedly made the lead drama actress top 10 list, along with another favorite of mine, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and I'd be happy with almost any combination of the lead drama actor semi-finalists (with the exceptions of Denis Leary, Patrick Dempsey and, just because I know he'll win if nominated, James Spader). I still figure the actual nominations will largely consist of the usual suspects.
• With AMC doing relatively well (so far) in the Emmy process (Bryan Cranston even made the top 10), the channel is expanding its original drama series output with a remake of "The Prisoner." At the risk of having my TCA membership revoked, I have to admit that "The Prisoner" is one of the few shows from the cult classic canon (say that five times fast) I've never seen even a second of, so I don't have much to offer on the casting of Jim Caviezel in the Patrick McGoohan role, or Ian McKellen as Number Two. Instead, I'll just point to my friend Phil's column suggesting other shows that might be appropriate to remake, given our shaky times.

I have a whole lot of advance TV to watch between now and when I head out for press tour -- most of it pilots for shows that will be paneled at the tour but won't be premiering for a while (like HBO's "True Blood") -- so I don't know if/when I'll be able to catch up on the handful of shows I missed while I was in the mother country. I'll do what I can.