Genre Sitcom | ||
Walter s lament by walter ego at the gasworks
Walter Ego was a Canadian television sitcom pilot, which aired on CBC Television on January 3, 2005.
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The show starred Peter Keleghan as cartoonist Walter Davis, whose friends and family often provide fodder for his successful comic strip. The cast also included Diane Flacks, Jackie Burroughs, and Charmion King.
It was one of three sitcom pilots aired by the CBC, along with Getting Along Famously and Hatching, Matching and Dispatching, as a viewer response poll. Pilots that poll favourably will be developed into full series. The CBC previously employed this strategy with the shows Rideau Hall and An American in Canada.
In the third episode, Keleghan's character is coaxed into an arm wrestling match with American tourist, Brad Plothow. Plothow was an actual tourist who had won a CBC "I'm Famous For A Day " contest, earning him the privilege to appear on the show as himself.
As the scene unfolds, Plothow and Keleghan lock arms across a table with a midget referee controlling the action from a step stool. During an early take, Plothow's hand slips and knocks a spectator's chilidog onto Keleghan's shirt, angering Keleghan and prompting him to call Plothow a "momo". While several other takes were shot, Director Raz Shamaldahide decided to keep the chilidog take and rewrite the remainder of the episode because of the scene's spontaneity and humor.
Only after airing the episode did the CBC learn that the term "Momo" was a derogatory term used in Plothow's home state of Utah to describe the minuscule percentage of the state's original pioneer settlers who were of Mongolian descent. The CBC offered an official apology on January 6, and the show was cancelled shortly thereafter.