Robson Arms may not be a real place, in the empirical sense of the word, but it surely feels real to the people who work on the show of the same name, to its pleasantly addicted fans—waiting far too long through an extended hiatus that ends this week—and for the passersby who wander into the ground-floor “convenience store” that anchors the East Side site that is masquerading as a downtown apartment building.

Douglas Coupland’s 2006 novel jPod concerns the lives of a group of Vancouver twentysomethings working at a video-game developer called Neotronic Arts. It’s a thinly veiled reference to Electronic Arts (EA), in the same way that Microsoft was the model for the monolithic corporation in Microserfs.

While the Writers Guild of America strike rages on south of the border, new and returning Canadian television productions keep rolling out, covering everything from cross-border issues to techno geeks and puck bunnies. Check out these highlights.

Best of Colbert, Devil Came on Horseback, No End in Sight, Complete Seinfeld, Sicko

Our nation’s filmmakers are up for “everything possible”, contends Canadian Images programmer Terry McEvoy.

Toss the sunscreen aside and pick up the remote. It's time to say goodbye to another balmy Vancouver summer. But don't worry your fading farmer's tan won't be the only red-and-white thing this fall. Homegrown Canadian productions will keep you in your seat till Christmas with must-see documentaries, miniseries, and dramas.

NEW YORK—If you only watched the British TV shows and films that make it to North American television networks and theatres, you might assume that it would be impossible for a British filmmaker to have a lengthy career and avoid making costume dramas. Julian Jarrold says you would probably be right, despite the fact that his resume includes a popular modern British TV show, Cracker, and a popular modern film, Kinky Boots.

Eighteen months after Microsoft released the Xbox 360, its next-gen gaming console, the company will drop a new version onto the market. The latest machine, tagged the Xbox 360 Elite, will be in stores on May 4, and is priced at $550.

Around Christmastime last year, viewers of The Colbert Report were witness to the guitar summit to end all guitar summits. Classic rocker Peter Frampton went fret to fret with indie-rock champ Chris Funk of the Decemberists, while Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen showed up to lend one of his double-necked guitars to the host. Dropping by to sing a tribute to Colbert—called, appropriately, "Stephen Stephen" (sample lyric: "Who's the television host/That matters most")—was Apples in Stereo's Robert Schneider.

LOS ANGELES—Timothy Hutton was just 19 when filming started on Ordinary People, for which he won an Academy Award for best supporting actor. He went from there to starring roles in several films, including Taps, Iceman, and The Falcon and the Snowman. Twenty-six years after picking up his Oscar, he has come to terms with being a working actor and not a movie star.

If the Academy Awards follow tradition this weekend, most winners will be podium regulars—and then there are the exceptions

Sending broadcast team down from booth to bench marks new low in hype, and leaves analysts and audience to drift in space.

Best in the West

Gemini glitterati in Richmond The term movie star doesn’t really fit well with English Canadian culture. (Quebeckers support their films, but the rest of us spend our dollars on American movies.) Though there are many outstanding Canadian movies, there is no real star system, which doesn’t help in a medium that relies on headliners for most of its ticket sales.

Daxter is the side-splitting sidekick from Sony's Jak and Daxter franchise, but in this game, he gets what every sidekick dreams of: a chance to star in his own spinoff. The story integrates nicely into the mythology that's already established in the Haven universe, and the game play is straight?forward and simple, which is all I want when playing on the PSP.