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Canadian locations, however, have always been more welcome than Canadian shows in the U.S. Even a popular, critically acclaimed program like E.N.G. -- a gritty drama series set in a TV newsroom -- was deemed too foreign by the networks. The grainier, more subtle style of Canadian TV movies, moreover, has never been much to American taste. "American producers want to see something dramatic. Things need to be a lot more black and white," says Toronto-based director Don McBrearty. "((In Canada)) there seems to be a lot more patience for subtlety and ambiguity." That may be changing as producers try to make their product more palatable to Americans. Million Dollar Babies, for example, is just as heavy-handed as any American TV movie in its portrayal of how the Ontario-born quints were exploited by everyone from American journalists to Canadian political leaders.
As productions grow slicker and more Americanized, all that is left to distinguish Canadian fare is the telltale northern accent -- "aboot" for about, "sore-y" for sorry. And even that may be in danger. Robert Lantos, head of Alliance Communications, says that while shooting the Due South pilot, the actors initially tried to tone down their accents for the American audience. After former CBS Entertainment president Jeff Sagansky saw the footage he called Lantos with one suggestion: "Get those actors to start speaking Canadian."