Ed The Sock turfed from Citytv

By BILL HARRIS, Sun Media
The Toronto Sun
June 25
                                                            
Everyone's favourite perverted puppet is fixing up his resume.  

Ed The Sock has been sacked.

But he is not dead.

He will be worn again.

Steve Kerzner, the creator of Ed The Sock, confirmed to Sun Media yesterday that the long-running late-night show featuring a gravelly voiced sock puppet has been cancelled by Citytv. As of Aug. 31, the 14-year partnership between Ed The Sock and Citytv will be over.

"It appears Citytv is heading towards something more of a women's channel, I don't know," Kerzner said. "This was not a surprise to us, though. There had been discussions.

"In order to fit with where they're taking the channel, the show (most recently titled Ed and Red's Night Party) would have to change, and it would have seemed to be selling out. Better to make a new show than alter the one everybody seemed to love."    

The five Citytv stations across Canada were to have been part of CTV's $1.7-billion purchase of the CHUM empire. Last year, however, the CRTC ruled the Citytv stations could not remain with CTV. They subsequently were sold to Rogers for $375 million.

Thus far, Rogers has been inclined to distance the network from many of the Citytv staples.

"We inherited a program schedule that had a couple of these shows that were almost old marquees," said Jamie Haggarty, the vice-president and general manager of Citytv Toronto, as well as the executive V-P of television operations for the Citytv chain.

"We have a lot of programming that skews both male and female. I think we've broadened the appeal with our U.S.-acquired schedule. But things like Ed and Red's Night Party, that's more of a Canadian made-at-home production, and we're looking for the next version of that. Same thing with Speakers' Corner, both tough decisions."

Haggarty summed up Citytv's relationship with Ed The Sock as, "Proud history, great partner, just time to look for something different. It was a good run."

Kerzner said he is leaving Citytv on "good terms" and is not against working with Citytv again in the future. For now, though, Kerzner has different projects in mind for Ed The Sock, and there are strong rumours of a feature film, too.

"We're not at the stage where we can discuss exactly what we're doing, because it's a little too critical at this point," Kerzner said. "But there is some interesting stuff, possibly for the fall, possibly not till a few months after that, depending on how much development we need."

The success of Ed The Sock through the years pretty much confirms the axiom that the simplest ideas often are the best ones. Many observers maintain Ed was the obvious inspiration for Triumph The Insult Comic Dog, who became a regular on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

"People say to me, 'Ed is genius,' and I'm like, 'What, are you kidding?' " Kerzner said. "But we deliberately never talk about Ed being a puppet. We always say, that's his ethnicity, but he's not defined by it. By avoiding that, we avoided schtick, so Ed became a personality rather than a gimmick."

However, Kerzner admitted he had started to feel constrained by the late-night format.

"We probably would have kept doing the show until we died, but Liana (co-host Liana K) and I both last season just felt there's more we can do," Kerzner said. "With all the MuchMusic specials we did, there was more ability to comment and more ability to use that licence to do good work.

"The late-night show was fun, we had a great time doing it, we love the fans, and obviously they loved us, because we're leaving with the numbers in very good shape. We're not heading off because people are bored. In fact, our audience grew this year."

Kerzner said he is confident longtime fans of Ed The Sock will follow the puppet wherever he goes.

"I'm still not sure how to deal with this, but when we go places, even after all these years, I still get embarrassed because people fawn over Ed like he was the biggest Hollywood celebrity they've ever seen," Kerzner said. "And when we go to Hollywood and we go on sets for movies and TV shows, the celebrities all want pictures with Ed, they all love Ed.

"For somebody like me who doesn't tend to get carried away with himself, it's very hard to know how to deal with that. Thank God for it, though."  

Too darn bad for Rogers. (It was there. I used it. I feel shame.)

I guess the ugly chick will have to go back to cleaning trailers.

Must be something to do with anti-smoking stalwarts and old gym socks ... can't be the sex.

As long as Rogers doesn't cut CityTV's Baby Blue Movies all is well.

I always thought Ed...or the dude with his hand up his butt was a genius. Fromage`on Much Music was alwyas a favorite of mine.

Ed the Sock...the movie????  OMIGAWD...