# American Whiskey Bar > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/American_Whiskey_Bar > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/American_Whiskey_Bar.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Whiskey_Bar > Source revision: 1339157960 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 1998 Canadian TV series or program American Whiskey Bar Genre Drama Written by Michael Turner Noel S. Baker Directed by Bruce McDonald Starring James Allodi Kelly Harms Leila Johnson Daniel Kash Chris Leavins Stephen McHattie Joe Pingue Theme music composer Bob Wiseman Country of origin Canada Original language English Production Producer Carolynne Bell Running time 90 minutes Production companies Shadow Shows Bellwood Stories Original release Network Citytv Release September 19, 1998 (1998-09-19) ***American Whiskey Bar*** is a Canadian television film, which was broadcast by [Citytv](/source/Citytv) in 1998.[1] The film was directed by [Bruce McDonald](/source/Bruce_McDonald_(director)) as an adaptation of the novel by [Michael Turner](/source/Michael_Turner_(musician)). The novel is an experimental [metafiction](/source/Metafiction) which mixes the screenplay for an imaginary film with the commentary of a film director, a film critic and a fictionalized version of Turner himself around the difficulties of getting it produced as a film; the screenplay portions depict the random interactions and conversations of various patrons in a bar, including a group of garbagemen who want to produce a film, a group of secretaries discussing their sex lives, and a gay couple.[2] For the film, McDonald presented it as a "pirate" production of the screenplay in support of the fictional Turner's campaign to publicize it.[3] The cast included [James Allodi](/source/James_Allodi), Kelly Harms, Leila Johnson, [Daniel Kash](/source/Daniel_Kash), [Chris Leavins](/source/Chris_Leavins), [Stephen McHattie](/source/Stephen_McHattie) and [Joe Pingue](/source/Joe_Pingue). The film was broadcast live from the street-level "storefont" studio in the [CHUM-City Building](/source/299_Queen_Street_West), so that passers-by on the street could watch the production unfold through the windows,[3] and was intentionally scheduled to take place during the [1998 Toronto International Film Festival](/source/1998_Toronto_International_Film_Festival).[3] It aired in a late-night time slot due to the sensitive and adult nature of some of its dialogue, which was not censored despite being a television broadcast.[4] It was also later rebroadcast on [Bravo](/source/Bravo_(Canadian_TV_channel)). ## Critical response [Kate Taylor](/source/Kate_Taylor_(Canadian_writer)) of *[The Globe and Mail](/source/The_Globe_and_Mail)* placed the broadcast in the context of both the long-abandoned practice of staging television drama live in the early days of television, and CHUM-City's established history of "casual, relatively unmediated television". She also contrasted it with [David Wellington](/source/David_Wellington_(director))'s 1996 film adaptation of *[Long Day's Journey into Night](/source/Long_Day's_Journey_into_Night_(1996_film))*, which was essentially a filmed version of a stage production.[5] ## Awards McHattie received a [Gemini Award](/source/Gemini_Award) nomination for Best Lead Actor in a Television Film or Miniseries at the [14th Gemini Awards](/source/14th_Gemini_Awards) in 1999.[6] ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Mitch Potter, "Tightrope TV". *[Toronto Star](/source/Toronto_Star)*, September 19, 1998. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Chris Dafoe, "Novelist finds inspiration in filmmaking". *[The Globe and Mail](/source/The_Globe_and_Mail)*, October 24, 1997. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-atherton_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-atherton_3-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-atherton_3-2) Tony Atherton, "Live teleplay prompts plenty of directorial jitters". *[Ottawa Citizen](/source/Ottawa_Citizen)*, September 17, 1998. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** John Goddard, "Teledrama goes live at Citytv studio". *[Montreal Gazette](/source/Montreal_Gazette)*, September 19, 1998. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** [Kate Taylor](/source/Kate_Taylor_(Canadian_writer)), "Live theatre in a TV tube - a hazardous mixture? Bruce McDonald's live-drama experiment on CITY-TV tonight is a blend of stage and small screen that many have tried and most have failed". *[The Globe and Mail](/source/The_Globe_and_Mail)*, September 19, 1998. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** John McKay, "Canada's TV awards have special clout, Gordon Pinsent says". *[Waterloo Region Record](/source/Waterloo_Region_Record)*, November 6, 1999. ## External links - [*American Whiskey Bar*](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0225062/) at [IMDb](/source/IMDb_(identifier)) v t e Films directed by Bruce McDonald Roadkill (1989) Highway 61 (1991) Dance Me Outside (1994) Hard Core Logo (1996) American Whiskey Bar (1998) Elimination Dance (1998) Picture Claire (2001) The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess (2004) The Tracey Fragments (2007) Killer Wave (2007) Pontypool (2008) This Movie Is Broken (2010) Trigger (2010) My Babysitter's a Vampire (2010) Hard Core Logo 2 (2010) The Husband (2013) Hellions (2015) Weirdos (2016) Dreamland (2019) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [American Whiskey Bar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Whiskey_Bar) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Whiskey_Bar?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.