In the late fall of 1990, I had the good misfortune of being part of the writing cell behind the worst Gemini Awards telecast in the (mercifully) unwritten history of the show, sharing the discredit with Roger Abbott of the then radio-only Royal Canadian Air Farce. Our interaction was no less stilted than the jokes we force fed host Joe Flaherty, but Roger was a gentleman through and through, going down with a ship he could have jumped long before the show "DiCaprio-ed" into the frozen maw of failure.
Four years later, I was back in Toronto from an itinerant writing sojourn in Los Angeles, with little to show for it but a small home entertainment concern. A business associate mentioned that the hottest show on Canadian television was Air Farce, and that it might be a good idea to preserve it and perhaps sell videocassettes to the public. Yes. VHS. Looking to steer my company away from its history as a leader in the "Women In Prison" genre, I got ahold of Roger. Years of liquid therapy had healed the scars of that Gemini experience, but he remembered me and warmed enough to the concept that he brought his partner Don Ferguson into the discussion, and together we birthed the RCAF "Video Yearbook."
For the next five years, The Farce was with me, and Roger often took breaks from putting together Canada's top-rated show to sign autographs at various Late Fee Freddy's Video Shacks and their ilk, forever embodying the singular Canadian trait of being surprised, humbled and grateful for his celebrity.
Looking back, my little company would never have survived without his generosity. Alas, those old Video Yearbooks are no longer available. And now, neither is Roger.
