The unabashed genius of Flashpoint was in proving that Canadians could outdo the Americans in making purely pyrotechnic television.
There were enough explosions and quick edits combined with a hardcore soundtrack to seem " perhaps disconcertingly for some " a little more Michael Bay than any Canadian show had a right to be. The Littlest Hobo it was not.
To boot, many episodes actually had a plot. The show's creators managed to add nuance to a formulaic cop drama, where the bad guys weren't always so bad and the cops were more conflicted than most.
It was also the first Canadian series since Due South to premiere on network prime time in both Canada and the U.S. in 2008, pioneering the way for a wave of scripted cop dramas such as Rookie Blue that re-energized the television industry in Ontario.
After five seasons, 75 episodes and countless fireworks, CTV's Flashpoint ends Dec. 6 in a two-part finale. With a proverbial bang, of course.
"I don't think you could overstate the impact the show had," says Karen Thorne-Stone, CEO and president of the Ontario Media Development Corp. "It was absolutely the first in a new generation of TV productions."
It showed Americans that Canadians could play on their terms: producing slick and sometimes thoughtful cop dramas for mass consumption. And it was unabashedly set in Toronto.
From the Ontario Science Centre to the Art Gallery of Ontario to the strip club Filmores: no part of the city was left unexplored.
Executive producers Bill Mustos and Anne Marie La Traverse, and creators Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern set out to make what they thought was good TV, but along the way they created one of Canada's most enduring cultural exports with an impact that has been both economic and cultural.
When Flashpoint premiered, it had 1.13 million viewers on CTV in Canada and 8.72 million viewers on CBS. The show is licensed in more than 100 territories globally.
"The first thing you hear when you go outside the country is people comment on how beautiful Toronto is," says Mustos. "It has been an incredible platform to showcase our city, our culture and our talent."
After five seasons, producers spent $150 million, mostly in Toronto, using a cast of Canadian stars. But that's just the immediate impact. The bottom line will be padded when foreign markets are added. And, of course, there is the nebulous cultural impact. Will Korean fans want to visit Toronto because of the series?
When Flashpoint debuted it came at an opportune time for Toronto's beleaguered film industry, which had been suffering from a high Canadian dollar and a bruising recession in the United States.
While much media attention was invariably focused on which Hollywood movie was filming here, it was TV production that helped the industry through the toughest times.
In 2011, domestic TV production was almost four times movie production: $626 million to $165 million.
That includes series such as Flashpoint , Degrassi: The Next Generation and The Listener .
Moreover, Flashpoint was one of the reasons why measly Canadian TV budgets became supercharged.
At about $2 million per episode, it was double the budget of many Canadian series, although still below the $3 million for a comparable American show.
The immediate economic impact on the Toronto landscape from car rentals to salaries to hotel rooms and visits to Starbucks has been far and wide ranging.
But it is in the cultural export market that Flashpoint will make its most important contribution.
Every market that Flashpoint is licensed to means more money back in the hands of Canadians, who in turn will pay taxes. The markup on that type of intellectual property is significant on several levels.
As playwright Michael Healey said about the competing CBC series Republic of Doyle : "Every time Jake Doyle stands in a St. John's street and he makes a joke that somebody in Victoria laughs at, that is value-added citizenship. That's a tiny bit of our culture getting built. It happens slowly, and it happens over time. . . . In reality, it's a Trojan horse for the building of our culture."
Perhaps the take-away for some viewers of Flashpoint in Germany or France or the Netherlands is that Canadians can be as violent as the Americans. Or maybe it will make them want to visit the Science Centre.
But it will make them think about Canada.
Flashpoint and Toronto
It seems inconceivable today that Flashpoint could be filmed anywhere but Toronto.
But when executive producers Anne Marie La Traverse and Bill Mustos met with CBS executives in 2007, their suggestion that the show be set in Toronto rather than a generic North American city was met with a 30-second pause that seemed like forever, says Mustos. But CBS agreed.
"Toronto is very much a character in the show," says La Traverse. "Policemen are depicted in the show as heroes saving lives, and I think similarly Toronto is depicted as a heroic place."
The producers made sure the majority of the cast and crew were Canadian, resisting attempts by the U.S. network to include more recognizable faces.
Flashpoint follows the moves of the fictional Strategic Response Unit, based on Toronto's Emergency Task Force.
Toronto will also be featured prominently in the two-part series finale, "Keep the Peace," that will be watched by fans at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, joined by cast members, including stars Hugh Dillon and Enrico Colantoni.
CTV is holding its first live video After Show after Thursday's broadcast. Viewers can submit questions starting at 10 p.m. at CTV.ca/LiveChat . At 11 p.m., stars Amy Jo Johnson, David Paetkau and Sergio Di Zio, and creators Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern, will answer questions and talk about the show behind the scenes.
Flashpoint by the numbers
5 seasons
75 episodes
1.6 million average CTV audience
500+ Toronto location shoots
925 guest stars/characters
1,416 people employed per season
25 writers
11 Gemini wins
12 HK MP5 submachine guns, M16/M4 assault rifles and Glock 17 9-millimetre pistols in the good guys' arsenal
4 Remington 700 police sniper rifles used
100 pistols, rifles and shotguns for the bad guys
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